THE CIVIL WAR: THE TRUE STORY BOOK 1

Who is the most misunderstood historical figure?

General, Nathan Bedford Forrest. the only man who joined the confederate ranks as an enlisted man, and rose to the rank of General. He is  most notorious for being the First Grand Wizard, of the first Ku Klux Klan, ya know? those jerks?

The Domestic terrorist Organization, which has become symbolic of racial hatred, race-based violence, voter suppression, and worst of all, their vigilante "Justice" which often resulted in the lynchings, and murders of men without trial. Their primary targets were blacks, but their hatred extended to Jews, Catholics, Italians, Irishmen, fusionist and republicans, a nasty bunch of guys, so surely their founder would have been another, nasty, rabid racist right? Well, not exactly.

You see, when NBF was in  the Ku Klux Klan, it was actually an anti Carpetbagger Bloc, more than anything else, did engage in vigilante justice, mostly against freed slaves who were now living as vagrants, but was at this point, a Vigilante group more than a hate group. It even had black members at this point in time, most notably "Prince Johnson" who had been a well-to-do Freeman in the South before the Civil war.

Now at this point, dear reader, you might be saying; "wait a minute! are you seriously defending the KKK!?" and the answer is; no, because the KKK  was racist from the beginning, and they showed their true colors in 1868, when they went beyond vigilantism, and began intimidating black voters, and pushed for more restrictions against them, which is why Nathan Bedford Forrest, who had been the Klan's first Grand Wizard, left the Klan that year, and wrote an open letter condemning their actions, and ordering their members to disband and destroy their uniforms.

You see, Nathan Bedford Forrest, who would be called a racist ( even though he tried to exterminate racists) by today's standards, was actually quite progressive for his time. He would spend the remaining decade of his life, fighting for acceptance and equality of the newly freed blacks in the South. Hell! even anti-racist whites who were on his side at the time, called him "too radical" on one occasion when he kissed a Black woman on the check-in public. Apparently, a female Black well-wisher of NBF had come to him, thanked him for his efforts, and gave him a bouquet of Flowers. Forrest accepted this bouquet, and kissed her cheek, for that action, Nathan Bedford Forrest was seen as a radical even by the anti-racist factions, North and South.

In short, Today's cancel Culture remembers many Great historical figures, for the sins that they had committed, even if they were just men of their Times. George Washington leads the American Colonial armies to victory against the British and Established the freest and most well-balanced government in the world, but SJWs now demand we tear down statues of him, because he was a slave-owner, Abe Lincoln is also on the chopping block, because even though He issued the emancipation proclamation, his views were rabidly racist by today's standards.

Nathan Bedford Forrest was a great man, progressive for his times, but is not only being condemned for what he was, but condemned for what he was not. This man was not some ignorant, hateful redneck. Nathan Bedford Forrest was a man who did more good for Blacks, than any of the hateful ignorant and bad-civil-rights-reenactors, who destroy historical monuments (a step away from book-burning) will ever accomplish in their hateful, ignorant lives. 

RIP my man, your legacy may be tarnished, but real historians will remember you for the heroic soldier, and courageous advocate of civil rights that you were.

Edit: since I see a lot of people Mentioning the Fort Pillow Massacre (even though It was mentioned in the link) so I thought I might Elaborate on that as well. The Battle of Fort Pillow was a Confederate victory during the Civil War, however, what was a battle, turned into a Massacre, as Southern soldiers began to fire upon Union soldiers, who were surrendering, or Had surrendered. At least half of the Union soldiers killed in this massacre were Black, and many of these Soldiers soldiers of the Confederate army were under the command of General Nathan Bedford Forrest.

However, Forrest was not at the scene when the massacre took place, his only crime being that he believed the testimonies of his men.