On Sunday, August 13th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present historian and author Dr. Brian Steel Wills, who will speak on “Forrest at Fort Pillow.”

On April 12, 1864, an attack by Confederate forces commanded by General Nathan Bedford Forrest left many of the Tennessee Federal troops and black soldiers garrisoned there dead. Wills will speak on this controversial battle, where Forrest was widely accused of allowing a massacre of surrendering federal soldiers, both white and black. His defenders deny Forrest’s guilt.

Dr. Wills is director of the Center for the Study of the Civil War Era at Kennesaw State University. He has written extensively on the Civil War, including “The River was Dyed with Blood: Nathan Bedford Forrest and Fort Pillow,” "Confederate General William Dorsey Pender: The Hope of Glory” and “George Henry Thomas: As True as Steel,” which was the recipient of the 2013 Richard Barksdale Harwell Award, presented by the Atlanta Civil War Round Table. His biography of Forrest, “A Battle From the Start: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest,” was a History Book Club selection and a Book of the Month Club Selection. In 2000, Dr. Wills received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the Commonwealth of Virginia. He has also contributed to numerous other publications and research on the Civil War.

The event is free to the public. The Franklin Civil War Round Table is an educational program of Franklin’s Charge, and meets each month at Carnton Plantation's Fleming Center, 1345 Eastern Flank Circle. For more information, email fcwrt@yahoo.com, or visit http://www.franklinscharge.org/the-round-table.