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Originally Posted by koland
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Thanks for keeping us apprised of these free Charles River Editor titles.
The Fort Pillow Massacre: The History and Legacy of the Civil War's Most Notorious Battle is especially interesting to me. I had never heard the Battle described before as "the Civil War's most notorious," however, and might have to wonder about that characterization of it.
The Union's Fort Pillow (for the purpose of orienting you geographically, it was located on the Mississippi River just north of Memphis, Tennesee) had about an even number of white and black soldiers (which was an unusually high percentage of black soldiers even for a Union garrison). But, many more blacks were killed in the Battle than whites.
In the aftermath of the Battle, Confederates were accused of massacring black soldiers after they had surrendered. During the Civil War some Confederate soldiers would be particularly enraged whenever they encountered black Union soldiers, viewing them "as former slaves in the field" (from the Book Description).
"Primary sources tell conflicting accounts of what happened at Battle of Fort Pillow, leaving scholars to piece together the battle and determine whether Confederate soldiers purposely shot Union soldiers after they had surrendered" (from the Book Description). I'm interested in reading the book to see what, if any, answers that the scholars have come up with.