I recently purchased "Black Flag Over Dixie" "Racial Atrocities and Reprisals in the Civil War", Edited by Gregory J.W. Irwin, who is a professor of history and associate director of the Center For the Study of Force and Diplomacy at Temple University.

This book is comprised of essays by "twelve rising and prominent historians".
The book is very pricey for 241 pages and unfortunately for me, revealed only a few atrocities and reprisals, that I had no prior knowledge of or documentation.

However, this book assembles a collection of very important essays that point out an often ignored aspect of the darker side of the Civil War, by examining some of the worst racially based atrocities which occurred, which were exacerbated by racial hatred.

They rightly conclude, that the massacre at the "Crater" was the "worst" massacre of Blacks during the Civil War. However they do cite enough evidence to conclude that more than 423, black troops, counting the missing were slain. I still believe the number is higher.

They also suggest that it is time to re-examine other battles to see whether massacres occured there; such as Millikens bend, La. , Mound Fort ,La., Saltville, Virginia, Olustee, Florida and New Market Heights, Virginia.
These were on my list before this book was published, except Olustee.