A failed African American Congressional candidate has led Chattanooga’s self-styled “Commission on Religion and Racism” in trying to dig up the grave of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. The Chattanooga City Council has already voted to remove the statue of Forrest who was a slave dealer and KKK founder as well as a fierce Civil War fighter who recruited troops with the challenge: “Come on boys, if you want a heap of fun and to kill some Yankees.” Union General William Tecumseh Sherman damned “that devil Forrest [who] must be hunted down and killed if it costs ten thousand lives and bankrupts the federal treasury.”
In my book, Forrest’s greatest sin was leading the Confederate troops who in April 1864 surrounded Fort Pillow, manned by Union troops including 262 soldiers of the U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery. He captured the Fort, and then his troops slaughtered most of the African American soldiers.
As the saying goes, it is generally better “to light a candle than curse the darkness.” In this spirit, I would rather build more monuments to the 180,000 African American Civil War soldiers than to disinter Forrest.
However, it is mordant fun to think about those whom we might disinter:
St. John Chrysostom?
Martin Luther?
Chmielnicki?
Richard Wagner?
The Grand Mufti?
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.