Aaron H. Forrest
Aaron H. Forrest | |
---|---|
Born | c. 1830 Mississippi, U.S. |
Died | April 1864 |
Other names | A. H. Forrest |
Occupation | Slave trader |
Aaron H. Forrest (c. 1830 – April 1864) was one of the six Forrest brothers who engaged in the interregional slave trade in the United States prior to the American Civil War. He may have also owned or managed cotton plantations in Mississippi. He led a Confederate cavalry unit composed of volunteers from the Yazoo River region of Mississippi during the American Civil War. He died in 1864, apparently from illness.
Slave trading
Nathan Bedford Forrest's five younger brothers were "ideal junior partners" who contributed to a "building a formidable slave-trading operation."[1] Aaron Forrest was described in a highly critical anti-Forrest article of 1864 as "general agent and soul driver" for the business.[2]
Aaron Forrest started working for his brother Nathan Bedford Forrest's slave-trading business in or before 1855. That year he was listed as a clerk in the Memphis city directory,[1] and was recorded as a visitor to Shreveport, Louisiana.[3] In 1856, an newspaper ad placed by the jailor of Dickson County, Tennessee stated that, according to a "quite intelligent" enslaved man named Frank, Aaron Forrest lived in Memphis, bought people in (among other places) Nicholas County, Kentucky, and had been near Coffeeville, Mississippi, on or around April 30, 1856.[4][1] For the fiscal year 1857, as a "transient vender" A. H. Forrest paid extra taxes to Warren County, Mississippi (county seat, Vicksburg) on sales of US$5,870 (equivalent to $191,949 in 2023).[5] In March 1858, there were letters waiting for A. H. Forrest and William H. Forrest at the Vicksburg post office.[6]
In
N. B. & A. H. Forrest, appellees, vs. W. S. Miller, appellant. No. 6072. Appeal from the Tenth Judicial District Court, parish of Tensas. This is a redhibitory suit to recover the price of a negro said to be affected with the vice of running away. It was clear to the court that the negro was sold to the plaintiff, at Memphis, on account of his habit of running away. He ran away from the purchaser, and when discovered by the overseer of his new master, ran directly into the Mississippi river and was drowned. Judgment of the lower court therefore avoided and reverted."[9]
A. H. Forrest & Co.
In around 1858, A. H. Forrest & Co. began operating in Vicksburg, Mississippi. According to Forrest biographer Hurst, "For eighteen months or more, that firm—often using the aid of other Forrest brothers—imported sizable 'gangs' of slaves, significant numbers of them from Missouri and evidently bought there by
The conspicuous advertisement of 1860 that promised "African slave trade reopened" may be a winking reference to Nathan Bedford Forrest's involvement in the criminal trafficking of slaves from Africa on the Wanderer.[15][16] The official U.S. government investigator wrote James Buchanan: "At Vicksburg I learned from good authority that 30 of the Wanderer's cargo had been brought to that place last Spring and Sold by Forest & Co., Slave-dealers...At Memphis, I was informed at the negro depot of Byrd Hill that 7 Africans had been sold there last Spring by one Forest, (Hill's predecessor). These were of the Wanderer's cargo, and were all that were sold in Memphis and all in fact which have been there. These statements were corroborated by reliable gentlemen, residents of Memphis, and personal friends of mine. I have no hesitancy in affirming their truth."[17]
There are no records for A. H. Forrest & Co. slave sales in Warren County, Mississippi after 1860.[18]
Plantations?
Two Civil War-era advertisements related to three lost and found enslaved men (Jim, Jeff, and Toney) who had been legally owned by Aaron Forrest hint that he owned or managed plantations near in Coahoma County, Mississippi,[19][a] and/or near McNutt, Mississippi, in what was then Sunflower County and is now LaFlore County, Mississippi.[21]
American Civil War
During the American Civil War, Aaron Forrest led an independent company of volunteers known as the Sunflower Rangers,[22] which was reportedly organized August 1862.[23] A database of Confederate officers records Aaron H. Forrest as the captain of an unidentified company of the 6th Mississippi Cavalry.[24] In February 1863, Forrest's command was called the Cavalry Company of the 6th Battalion, Mississippi State Troops.[25] Forrest was reportedly commanding a battalion in April 1863.[24] Dunbar Rowland's Military History of Mississippi (1908) has two relevant entries:
- "FORREST'S BATTALION. 'Sixth Battalion Mississippi State troops, Capt. A. H. Forrest, near
- Under the heading "VARIOUS COMPANIES, STATE TROOPS" describes "Sunflower Rangers, of Sunflower County, organized as independent cavalry 9 August 1862. Captain: A. H. Farrar. Lieutenants: S. H. Rogers, F. W. Goff, D. C. Portwood."[27]
In 1908, a
Years after the war was over a veteran told a story of Forrest's company lying wait in to engage the Yazoo Pass expedition but being startled into retreat by a troop of feral hogs that they thought were U.S. troops approaching from their rear.[25] During an encounter with the 5th Illinois Cavalry during the same expedition, the Sunflower Rangers were apparently startled to discover that Yankees would set foot in their swamp; a skirmish resulted in six Confederate deaths, three injuries, 15 taken prisoner, and some number of captured horses.[23]
On February 9, 1864, Nathan Bedford Forrest reported to his commanders that Aaron Forrest "is on the Yazoo River with one regiment fighting gunboats and transports."[29]
According to a compensation request filed with the U.S. government, Aaron Forrest and company burned cotton and gin-houses belonging to Greenwood LeFlore on February 15, 1864:[30]
It is further stated in the petition as a basis for a claim against the Government that said Greenwood Leflore had on his plantation on the 15th day of February, 1864, 830 bales of cotton of the then-value of $186,750, a gin-house, and two stands, of the value of $6,000; and that on that day the rebels, under Col. Aaron Forrest, burned up the said cotton, gin-house, and stands; and that this was the only property burned in the neighborhood except the property of his son, J. D. Leflore, and that of his daughter, Rebecca C. Harris; and it is averred that the sole reason why this property was so destroyed was the active Unionism of said Leflore and his family.[30]
In March 1864, troops led by Capt. A. Forrest were involved in defending Greenwood, Mississippi from a U.S. Army incursion now known as the Battle of Yazoo City.[31]
Death
Sources generally agree that Aaron Forrest died in April 1864, but conflict on specific location and cause of death.
- The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion contain a letter dated April 15, 1864 that reported "Colonel Aaron Forrest, brother of the general, died at Jackson on Thursday night last."[32]
- In late April 1864, newspapers of Memphis, Tennessee and Macon, Georgia reported that Aaron Forrest died near and was buried at Aberdeen, Mississippi.[33][34]
- In May 1864 a long newspaper account written by one "G. W. A." (who was seemingly attached to N. B. Forrest's command) reported "Col. Aaron Forrest died, while at Trenton, of typhoid fever."[35]
- An 1899 biography of Nathan Bedford Forrest written by John Allan Wyeth stated, "Aaron Forrest, the fourth son, became a lieutenant-colonel of a Mississippi regiment of cavalry, and in the expedition to Paducah, Kentucky, in 1864, was taken ill with pneumonia, and died near Dresden, in west Tennessee."[36]
- Hurst's biography published 1993 states that on April 13, 1864, "Forrest was arriving at Jackson to find his brother Aaron, lieutenant colonel of a Mississippi cavalry regiment, dead of pneumonia contracted three weeks earlier during the first Paducah operation."[37]
See also
- History of slavery in Mississippi
- List of American slave traders
- R. H. Elam – 19th-century American slave trader
- Movement to reopen the transatlantic slave trade
- Mississippi in the American Civil War
- List of Mississippi Civil War Confederate units
Notes
- ^ According to the 1860 census slave schedules, Nathan Bedford Forrest had a plantation in Coahoma County worked by 36 enslaved people who shared 12 houses.[20]
References
Citations
- ^ a b c Huebner (2023), p. 58.
- Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Arrivals at the Commercial Hotel". The South-Western. Shreveport, Louisiana. March 28, 1855. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
- ^ "Jailor's Notice". Nashville Union and American. May 22, 1856. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
- ^ "Exhibit C". Vicksburg Daily Whig. May 15, 1858. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
- ^ "List of letters remaining at the postoffice of the City of Vicksburg, March 15, 1858". Vicksburg Whig. March 17, 1858. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
- ^ "City Hotel". New Orleans Times-Picayune. January 5, 1858. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
- ^ "Arrivals at Principal Hotels, Yesterday". New Orleans Times-Picayune. April 29, 1858. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
- ^ a b "The Courts: Supreme Court Decisions". New Orleans Times-Picayune. March 9, 1859. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
- ^ Hurst (1993), p. 57–58.
- ^ "African slave trade opened! Negroes for sale". Vicksburg Whig. September 28, 1859. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
- ^ Bancroft (2023), p. 310.
- ^ "Negroes for Sale". Semi-Weekly Mississippian. Jackson, Miss. November 19, 1859. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
- ^ "Forty Likely Young Negroes". Vicksburg Whig. March 21, 1860. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
- ^ Wall (2018).
- ^ "Negroes for Sale". Vicksburg Whig. March 21, 1860. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
- ^ Davis (1971), p. 277.
- ^ Hurst (1993), p. 63.
- ^ "Runaway Notice". Southern Shield. Helena, Arkansas. February 8, 1862. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-12-08.
- ^ Hurst (1993), pp. 64–65.
- ^ "$200 Reward". Memphis Daily Appeal. May 4, 1861. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-12-08.
- . Retrieved 2023-12-08 – via HathiTrust.
- ^ a b Kohl (2013), pp. 97–98.
- ^ a b "Aaron H Forrest", United States Confederate Officers Card Index, 1861–1865 – via FamilySearch.org
- ^ a b McCluney (2017), p. 64.
- ^ Rowland (1908), p. 918.
- ^ Rowland (1908), p. 941.
- ^ Hamilton, W. F. (December 13, 1908). "Memories of the War". Memphis Commercial Appeal. Vol. LXXXI, no. 166. p. 27. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
- ^ Hurst (1993), p. 148.
- ^ a b S. Rep. No. 314, 43d Cong., 1st Sess. (1874), p. 3.
- ^ "The Raid on the Yazoo". Advertiser and Register. March 8, 1864. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
- ^ "War of the Rebellion: Serial 059 Page 0374 KY., SW. VA., TENN., MISS., ALA., AND N. GA. Chapter XLIV". OSU eHistory. Retrieved 2023-12-08.
- ^ "Col. A. H. Forrest". The Macon Telegraph. Macon, Georgia. April 27, 1864. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
- ^ "Colonel A. H. Forrest". Memphis Daily Appeal. April 26, 1864. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-12-08.
- ^ "From Gen. Forrest's Command by G. W. A." Memphis Daily Appeal. May 13, 1864. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-12-08.
- ^ Wyeth (1899), p. 7.
- ^ Hurst (1993), p. 177.
Sources
- OCLC 1153619151.
- Davis, Robert Ralph (1971). "Buchanian Espionage: A Report on Illegal Slave Trading in the South in 1859". The Journal of Southern History. 37 (2): 271–278. JSTOR 2205824.
- .
- Hurst, Jack (1993). Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. OCLC 26314678.
- Kohl, Rhonda M. (2013). The Prairie Boys Go to War: The Fifth Illinois Cavalry, 1861–1865. SIU Press. ISBN 978-0-8093-3204-5.
- McCluney, Larry Allen Jr. (2017). The Yazoo Pass Expedition: A Union Thrust into the Delta. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-62585-839-9.
- Rowland, Dunbar (1908). Part V: Military History of Mississippi (1803–1898). The Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi. Nashville, Tenn.: Press of the Brandon Printing Company. pp. 382–948 – via HathiTrust.
- Wall, Austin (Spring 2018). "Direct from Congo: Nathan Bedford Forrest's Involvement in the Illegal African Slave Trade" (PDF). Rhodes Historical Review. Memphis, Tenn.: Rhodes College.
- U.S. Congress (April 29, 1874), "Report: Petition of J. Leflore and J. Harris", American Indian and Alaskan Native Documents in the Congressional Serial Set: (1817–1899) S. Rep. No. 314, 43d Cong., 1st Sess. (1874) – via University of Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons
- OL 529441M.
External links
- Media related to Aaron H. Forrest at Wikimedia Commons