Confederate Heritage Month - April 1, 2016

Fort Pillow Massacre

I wish this was an April Fools' Day joke.  The Governor of Mississippi, Phil Bryant, has declared that April is Confederate Heritage Month.

“Whereas it is important for all Americans to reflect upon our nation’s past, to gain insight from our mistakes and our successes, and to come to a full understanding that the lessons learned yesterday and today will carry us through tomorrow if we carefully and earnestly strive to understand and appreciate our heritage …”  Notice that the proclamation does not mention slaves or slavery.

To help celebrate Confederate Heritage in Mississippi, here is one of the high points of the Confederacy in that state, the Fort Pillow Massacre.  General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who later founded the Ku Klux Klan, captured the fort on 12-April-1864.  After the garrison of US Colored Troops surrendered and gave up their arms, Forrest and his cavalrymen slaughtered almost every one of them.  Many were castrated and lynched.  

I was happy to learn that the Mississippi NAACP has proposed that May should be Union Army Appreciation Month, to remember honorable men from Mississippi, black and white, who fought against treason:
http://naacpms.org/union-troops-appreciation-month/#1458570559639-14a3a768-bec6