Nathan Bedford Forrest

Nathan Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821 – October 29, 1877) was a Confederate Army general during the American Civil War and was later the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan from 1867 to 1869.

Before the war, Forrest amassed substantial wealth as a cotton plantation owner, horse and cattle trader,

In April 1864, in what has been called "one of the bleakest, saddest events of American military history",[6] troops under Forrest's command at the Battle of Fort Pillow massacred hundreds of surrendered troops, composed of black soldiers and white Tennessean Southern Unionists fighting for the United States. Forrest was blamed for the slaughter in the U.S. press, and this news may have strengthened the United States's resolve to win the war. Forrest's level of responsibility for the massacre is still debated by historians.^[7]

Forrest, who was a

In June 2021, the remains of Forrest and his wife were exhumed from Health Sciences Park, where they had been buried for over 100 years, and where a monument of him once stood. They were later reburied in Columbia, Tennessee. In July 2021, Tennessee officials voted to move Forrest's bust from the State Capitol to the Tennessee State Museum.^[13]

Early life and career

Nathan Bedford Forrest was born on July 13, 1821, to a poor settler family in a secluded frontier cabin near Chapel Hill hamlet, then part of Bedford County, Tennessee, but now in Marshall County.^[14][15] Forrest was the first son of Mariam (Beck) and William Forrest.^[15] His blacksmith father was of English descent, and most of his biographers state that his mother was of Scotch-Irish descent, but the Memphis Genealogical Society says that she was of English descent.^[16] He and his twin sister, Fanny, were the two eldest of 12 children. Their great-grandfather, Shadrach Forrest, moved between 1730 and 1740 from Virginia to North Carolina, where his son and grandson were born; they moved to Tennessee in 1806.^[15] Forrest's family lived in a log house (now preserved as the Nathan Bedford Forrest Boyhood Home) from 1830 to 1833.^[17] John Allan Wyeth, who served in an Alabama regiment under Forrest, described it as a one-room building with a loft and no windows.^[18] William Forrest worked as a blacksmith in Tennessee until 1834, when he moved with his family to Salem, Mississippi.^[15][19] William died in 1837 and Forrest became the primary caretaker of the family at age 16.^[15]

In 1841 Forrest went into business with his uncle Jonathan Forrest in Hernando, Mississippi. His uncle was killed there in 1845 during an argument with the Matlock brothers. In retaliation, Forrest shot and killed two of them with his two-shot pistol and wounded two others with a knife thrown to him. One of the wounded Matlock men survived and served under Forrest during the Civil War.^[20] Forrest's early business ventures included a livery stable, a stagecoach line, and a brickyard.^[21]

Forrest was well known as a Memphis speculator and Mississippi gambler.^[22] In 1858, Forrest was elected a Memphis city alderman as a Southern Democrat and served two consecutive terms.^[23][24] In 1859, he bought two large cotton plantations in Coahoma County, Mississippi and a half-interest in another plantation in Arkansas;^[25] by October 1860, he owned at least 3,345 acres in Mississippi.^[26] He acquired several cotton plantations in the Delta region of West Tennessee.^{[15][27][15][28]} By the time the American Civil War started in 1861, he had become one of the wealthiest men in the Southern United States, having amassed a "personal fortune that he claimed was worth $1.5 million".^[29]

Forrest stood 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) in height and weighed about 180 pounds (82 kg).^{[30][31][32][33]} He was noted as having a "striking and commanding presence" by U.S. Army Captain Lewis Hosea, an aide to Gen. James H. Wilson. Forrest rarely drank and abstained from tobacco use; he was often described as generally mild-mannered, but according to Hosea and other contemporaries who knew him, his demeanor changed drastically when provoked or angered.^[34] He was known as a tireless rider in the saddle and a skilled swordsman.^[35] Although he was not formally educated, according to Spaulding, Forrest was able to read and write clear and grammatical English, although he was a poor speller.^[36]

Marriage and family

Forrest had twelve brothers and sisters; two of his eight brothers and three of his four sisters died of typhoid fever at an early age, all at about the same time.^[37][38] He also contracted the disease, but survived; his father recovered but died from residual effects of the disease five years later when Bedford was 16. His mother, Miriam, then married James Horatio Luxton, of Marshall, Texas, in 1843 and gave birth to four more children.^[39] In 1845, Forrest married Mary Ann Montgomery (1826–1893), the niece of a Presbyterian minister who was her legal guardian.^[40] They had two children, William Montgomery Bedford Forrest llll (1846–1908), who enlisted at the age of 15 and served alongside his father in the war, and a daughter, Fanny (1849–1854), who died in childhood. There are also reports dating to 1864 that Forrest had two children with a young enslaved woman named Catharine.^[41]

All of Forrest's younger brothers—in order, John N. Forrest, William H. Forrest, Aaron H. Forrest, Jesse A. Forrest, and Jeffrey E. Forrest—worked as slave traders with Bedford before the war.^[42] All but John, who was a disabled veteran of the Mexican–American War, served as Confederate military officers in Tennessee and Mississippi during the American Civil War.^[43] Forrest's son William M. Forrest served as his aide-de-camp,^[44] and his half-brother Mat Luxton was a sergeant and scout in his cavalry.^[45]

Forrest's grandson,

Nathan Bedford Forrest—disparaged by Parson Brownlow in 1864 as a "a sin-hardened negro trader, and livery stable man of Memphis"—was a notable slave trader of the United States from 1851 to 1860. Forrest was considered one of the "big four"^[50] "phenomenally large" traders of Memphis, which was the "first-class market" for slave trading in Tennessee.^[51] He is believed to have sold thousands of slaves during his career and had profits of hundreds of thousands of dollars in 1850s currency.^[42] Primarily based in Memphis, he was able to open a second storefront in Vicksburg in 1858.^[42] During the American Civil War, Forrest cited his business experience in a written request for an independent command: "I have resided on the Mississippi for over twenty years, was for many years engaged in buying and selling negroes, and know the country perfectly well between Memphis and Vicksburg, and also am well acquainted with all the prominent planters in that region, as well as above Memphis."^[42]

After initially working as an independent slave trader, he was first in partnership with

FRED DOUGLASS' DAUGHTER FOR SALE Among the servants offered for sale by a Mr. Forrest of Memphis, Tenn., is a girl who is known to be the daughter of the notorious Fred Douglass, the "free-nigger" Abolitionist.—She is said to be of the class known among the dealers as a "likely girl," and is a native of North Carolina.—She remembers her "parient" very vividly, having seen him during his last visit to the

Old North State. The Memphis Avalanche suggests that as Fred is ample able to make the outlay he should either purchase his own flesh and blood from servitude, or cease his shrieks over an institution which possesses such untold horrors.

— Winchester (Tenn.) Home Journal, 1859^[53]

In 1859, a federal investigation found that Forrest also sold 37 individuals illegally imported to the United States from Africa on the slave ship Wanderer.^[42] Forrest, who advocated for the reopening of the transatlantic slave trade, later told an interviewer that he had been an initial investor in the Wanderer shipment.^[42] In January 1860, the New York Times reported that the Forrest, Jones & Co. negro mart building in Memphis had both collapsed and then caught fire; two people died.^[57] The firm's bills of sale for people, "amounting in the aggregate to US$400,000 (equivalent to about $13,564,440 in 2023)" were salvaged.^[57] Forrest had recently moved from 87 Adams to 89 Adams, which allowed him to increase his holding capacity from a maximum of 300 slaves to a maximum of 500.^[42] Forrest subsequently sold his interest in the business after the building catastrophe and reinvested the profit into plantations.^[42] A marker was erected at the former site of Forrest's slave mart in downtown Memphis, on land currently owned by Calvary Episcopal Church, and was dedicated on April 4, 2018.^[42]

American Civil War

Early cavalry command

After the Civil War broke out, Forrest returned to Tennessee from his Mississippi ventures and enlisted in the

Public debate surrounded Tennessee's decision to join the Confederacy, and both the Confederate and United States armies recruited soldiers from the state. Over 100,000 men from Tennessee served with the Confederacy, and over 31,000 served with the U.S. Army.^[62] Forrest posted advertisements to join his regiment, with the slogan, "Let's have some fun and kill some Yankees!".^[63] Forrest's command included his Escort Company (his "Special Forces"), for which he selected the best soldiers available. This unit, which varied in size from 40 to 90 men, constituted the elite of his cavalry.^[64]

Sacramento and Fort Donelson

Forrest won praise for his performance under fire during an early victory in the

A few days after the Confederate surrender of Fort Donelson, with the fall of Nashville to U.S. forces imminent, Forrest took command of the city. All available carts and wagons were pressed into service to haul 600 boxes of army clothing, 250,000 pounds of bacon, and 40 wagon-loads of ammunition to the railroad depots, to be sent off to Chattanooga and Decatur.^[67][68] Forrest arranged for heavy ordnance machinery, including a new cannon rifling machine and 14 cannons, as well as parts from the Nashville Armory, to be sent to Atlanta for use by the Confederate Army.^[69]

Shiloh and Murfreesboro

A month later, Forrest was back in action at the

By early summer, Forrest commanded a new brigade of inexperienced cavalry regiments. He led them into Middle Tennessee in July under orders to launch a cavalry raid. On July 13, 1862, led them into the First Battle of Murfreesboro, as a result of which all of the U.S. units surrendered to Forrest. The Confederates destroyed much of the U.S. Army's supplies and railroad tracks in the area.^[71]

West Tennessee raids

Promoted on July 21, 1862, to

Forrest returned to his base in Mississippi with more men than he had started with. By then, all were fully armed with captured U.S. Army weapons. As a result, Grant was forced to revise and delay his Vicksburg campaign strategy. Newspaper correspondent Sylvanus Cadwallader, who traveled with Grant for three years during his campaigns, wrote that Forrest "was the only Confederate cavalryman of whom Grant stood in much dread".^[76][77]

Dover, Brentwood, and Chattanooga

The U.S. Army gained military control of Tennessee in 1862 and occupied it for the duration of the war, having taken control of strategic cities and railroads. Forrest continued to lead his men in small-scale operations, including the Battle of Dover and the Battle of Brentwood until April 1863. The Confederate army dispatched him with a small force into the backcountry of northern Alabama and western Georgia to defend against an attack of 3,000 U.S. Army cavalrymen commanded by Colonel Abel Streight. Streight had orders to cut the Confederate railroad south of Chattanooga, Tennessee to seal off Bragg's supply line and force him to retreat into Georgia.^[78] Forrest chased Streight's men for 16 days, harassing them all the way. Streight's goal changed from dismantling the railroad to escaping the pursuit. On May 3, Forrest caught up with Streight's unit east of Cedar Bluff, Alabama. Forrest had fewer men than the U.S. side but feigned having a larger force by repeatedly parading some around a hilltop until Streight was convinced to surrender his 1,500 or so exhausted troops (historians Kevin Dougherty and Keith S. Hebert say he had about 1,700 men).^[79][80][81]

Day's Gap, Chickamauga, and Paducah

Not all of Forrest's exploits of individual combat involved enemy troops. Lieutenant Andrew Wills Gould, an artillery officer in Forrest's command, was being transferred, presumably because cannons under his command^[82] were spiked (disabled) by the enemy^[83] during the Battle of Day's Gap. On June 13, 1863, Gould confronted Forrest about his transfer, which escalated into a violent exchange. Gould shot Forrest in the left side,^[84] and Forrest mortally stabbed Gould. Forrest was thought to have been fatally wounded by Gould, but he recovered and was ready to fight in the Chickamauga Campaign.^[15]

Forrest served with the main army at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 18–20, 1863, in which he pursued the retreating U.S. Army and took hundreds of prisoners.^[85] Like several others under Bragg's command, he urged an immediate follow-up attack to recapture Chattanooga, which had fallen a few weeks before. Bragg failed to do so, upon which Forrest was quoted as saying, "What does he fight battles for?"^[86][87] The story that Forrest confronted and threatened the life of Bragg in the fall of 1863, following the battle of Chickamauga, and that Bragg transferred Forrest to command in Mississippi as a direct result, is now considered to be apocryphal.^[88][89][90]

On December 4, 1863, Forrest was promoted to the rank of

Fort Pillow, located 40 miles (64 km) upriver from Memphis (near Henning, Tennessee), was initially constructed by Confederate general Gideon Johnson Pillow on the bluffs of the Mississippi River, and taken over by U.S. forces in 1862 after the Confederates had abandoned the fort.^[95] The fort was defended by 557 U.S. Army troops, 295 white and 262 black, under U.S. Army Maj. L.F. Booth.^[95]

On April 12, 1864, Forrest's men, under Brig. Gen. James Chalmers, attacked and recaptured Fort Pillow.

Forrest's Confederate forces were accused of subjecting captured U.S. Army soldiers to extreme brutality, with allegations of back-shooting soldiers who fled into the river, shooting wounded soldiers, burning men alive, nailing men to barrels and igniting them, crucifixion, and hacking men to death with sabers.^[105] Forrest's men were alleged to have set fire to a U.S. barracks with wounded U.S. Army soldiers inside^[106][107] In defense of their actions, Forrest's men insisted that the U.S. soldiers, although fleeing, kept their weapons and frequently turned to shoot, forcing the Confederates to keep firing in self-defense.^[108] The rebels said the U.S. flag was still flying over the fort, which indicated that the force had not formally surrendered. A contemporary newspaper account from Jackson, Tennessee stated that "General Forrest begged them to surrender", but "not the first sign of surrender was ever given". Similar accounts were reported in many Confederate newspapers at the time.^[109] These statements were contradicted by U.S. Army survivors and by the letter of Achilles Clark, a Confederate soldier with the 20th Tennessee Cavalry who graphically recounted a massacre. Clark wrote to his sisters immediately after the battle:

The slaughter was awful. Words cannot describe the scene. The poor deluded negroes would run up to our men fall upon their knees and with uplifted hands scream for mercy but they were ordered to their feet and then shot down. The white men fared but little better. Their fort turned out to be a great slaughter pen. Blood, human blood stood about in pools and brains could have been gathered up in any quantity.^{[110][111][112]}

Following the cessation of hostilities, Forrest transferred the 14 most seriously wounded United States Colored Troops (USCT) to the U.S. steamer Silver Cloud.^[113] The 226 U.S. Army troops taken prisoner at Fort Pillow were marched under guard to Holly Springs, Mississippi and then convoyed to Demopolis, Alabama. On April 21, Capt. John Goodwin, of Forrest's cavalry command, forwarded a dispatch listing the prisoners captured. The list included the names of 7 officers and 219 white enlisted soldiers. According to Richard L. Fuchs, "records concerning the fate of the black prisoners are either nonexistent or unreliable".^[114] President Abraham Lincoln asked his cabinet for opinions as to how the United States should respond to the massacre.^[115]

Because of the events at Fort Pillow, the U.S. public and press viewed Forrest as a war criminal. A Knoxville correspondent for the New York Tribune wrote that Forrest and his brothers were "slave drivers and woman whippers", while Forrest himself was described as "mean, vindictive, cruel, and unscrupulous".[118] The Confederate press steadfastly defended Forrest's reputation.^[119][120]

According to a historian studying in the Cumberland River valley during the Civil War, "Fully aware of the significance of the large-scale recruitment of black troops, the Confederates did what they could to disrupt it...Forrest himself, operating in west Tennessee, chose to interpret his stunning victory over a racially mixed garrison at Fort Pillow in April as, in part, a warning about using black troops. He described the battle graphically, recounted exaggerated Union casualty figures, and noted, 'It is hoped that these facts will demonstrate to the Northern people that negro soldiers cannot cope with the Southerners.'"^[121]

S.C. Gwynne writes, "Forrest's responsibility for the massacre has been actively debated for a century and a half. ... No direct evidence suggests that he ordered the shooting of surrendering or unarmed men, but to fully exonerate him from responsibility is also impossible".^[7]

Brices Cross Roads and Tupelo

Forrest's most decisive victory came on June 10, 1864, when his 3,500-man force clashed with 8,500 men commanded by U.S. Army Brig. Gen.

Forrest led other raids that summer and fall, including a famous one into U.S. Army-held downtown Memphis in August 1864 (the

After his bloody defeat at Franklin, Hood continued to Nashville. Hood ordered Forrest to conduct an independent raid against the

Postwar years and later life

Business ventures

As a former enslaver and slave trader, Forrest experienced the

The historian Court Carney writes that Forrest was not universally popular in the white Memphis community: he alienated many of the city's business people in his commercial dealings and was criticized for questionable business practices that caused him to default on debts.[142]

He later found employment at the

Offers his services to Sherman

During the Virginius Affair of 1873, some of Forrest's old Confederate friends were filibusters aboard the vessel; consequently, he wrote a letter to the then General-in-Chief of the United States Army William T. Sherman and offered his services in case a war were to break out between the United States and Spain. Sherman, who had recognized how formidable an opponent Forrest was in battle during the Civil War, replied after the crisis settled down. He thanked Forrest for the offer and stated that had war broken out, he would have considered it an honor to have served side by side with him.^{[146][147][148][149][150][151][152]}

Ku Klux Klan leadership

Forrest was an early member of the

Following the war, the United States Congress began passing the Reconstruction Acts to specify conditions for the readmission of former Confederate States to the United States,^{[170][171][172]} including ratification of the Fourteenth (1868), and Fifteenth (1870) Amendments to the United States Constitution. The Fourteenth addressed citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws for formerly enslaved people, while the Fifteenth specifically secured the voting rights of black men.^[173] According to Wills, in the August 1867 state elections the Klan was relatively restrained in its actions. White Americans who made up the KKK hoped to persuade black voters that returning to their pre-war state of bondage was in their best interest. Forrest assisted in maintaining order. After these efforts failed, Klan violence and intimidation escalated and became widespread.^[174] Author Andrew Ward, however, writes, "In the spring of 1867, Forrest and his dragoons launched a campaign of midnight parades; 'ghost' masquerades; and 'whipping' and even 'killing Negro voters and white Republicans, to scare blacks off voting and running for office'".^[175] In 1868, "Klan organizers circulated printed rituals. General Forrest and his business partners were then promoting an insurance venture, and their travels facilitated the movement ."^[176]

In an 1868 interview by a Cincinnati newspaper, Forrest claimed that the Klan had 40,000 members in Tennessee and 550,000 total members throughout the Southern United States.^[177][178] He said he sympathized with them, but denied any formal connection, although he claimed he could muster thousands of men himself. He described the Klan as "a protective political military organization ... The members are sworn to recognize the government of the United States ... Its objects originally were protection against Loyal Leagues and the Grand Army of the Republic ...".^[179][180] After only a year as Grand Wizard, in January 1869, faced with an ungovernable membership employing methods that seemed increasingly counterproductive, Forrest dissolved the Klan, ordered their costumes destroyed,^[181] and withdrew from participation. His declaration had little effect, and few Klansmen destroyed their robes and hoods.^[182]

In 1871, the U.S. Congressional Committee Report stated that "The natural tendency of all such organizations is to violence and crime, hence it was that Gen. Forrest and other men of influence by the exercise of their moral power, induced them to disband".

Democratic convention 1868

The Klan's activity infiltrated the Democratic Party's campaign for the presidential election of 1868. Prominent ex-Confederates, including Forrest, the Grand Wizard of the Klan, and South Carolina's Wade Hampton, attended as delegates at the 1868 Democratic Convention, held at Tammany Hall headquarters at 141 East 14th Street in New York City.^[183] Forrest rode to the convention on a train that was stopped just outside of a small town along the way, when he was confronted by a well-known fighter shouting "d[amne]d butcher" and wanting to "thrash" him. When Forrest rose and approached the bully, his larger challenger's "purpose evaporated."^[184] Former Governor of New York Horatio Seymour was nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate, while Forrest's friend, Francis Preston Blair Jr., was nominated as the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Seymour's running mate.^[185] The Seymour–Blair Democratic ticket's campaign slogan was: "Our Ticket, Our Motto, This Is a White Man's Country; Let White Men Rule".^[186] The Democratic Party platform denounced the Reconstruction Acts as unconstitutional, void, and revolutionary.^[187] The party advocated the termination of the Freedman's Bureau and any government policy designed to aid blacks in the Southern United States.^[187] These developments worked to the advantage of the Republicans, who focused on the Democratic Party's alleged disloyalty during and after the Civil War.^[187]

Election of 1868 and Grant

During the presidential election of 1868, the Ku Klux Klan, under the leadership of Forrest, and other terrorist groups, used brutal violence and intimidation against blacks and Republican voters.^[188][189] Forrest played a prominent role in the spread of the Klan in the Southern United States, meeting with racist whites in Atlanta several times between February and March 1868. Forrest probably organized a statewide Klan network in Georgia during these visits.^[190] On March 31, the Klan struck, killing prominent Republican organizer George Ashburn in Columbus.^[190]

The Republicans had nominated one of Forrest's battle adversaries, U.S. war hero Ulysses S. Grant, for the Presidency at their convention held in October. Klansmen took their orders from their former Confederate officers.^[189] In Louisiana, 1,000 blacks were killed to suppress Republican voting. In Georgia, blacks and Republicans also faced a lot of violence. The Klan's violence was primarily designed to intimidate voters, targeting black and white supporters of the Republican Party.^[190] The Klan's violent tactics backfired, as Grant, whose slogan was "Let us have peace", won the election and Republicans gained a majority in Congress.^[188] Grant defeated Horatio Seymour, the Democratic presidential candidate, by a comfortable electoral margin, 214 to 80.^[191] The popular vote was much closer: Grant received 3,013,365 (52.7%) votes, while Seymour received 2,708,744 (47.3%) votes.^[191] Grant lost Georgia and Louisiana, where the violence and intimidation against blacks were most prominent.

Klan prosecution and Congressional testimony (1871)

Many in the United States, including President Grant, backed the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave voting rights to American men regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". Congress and Grant passed the Enforcement Acts from 1870 to 1871 to protect the "registration, voting, officeholding, or jury service" of African Americans. Under these laws enforced by Grant and the newly formed Department of Justice, there were over 5,000 indictments and 1,000 convictions of Klan members across the Southern United States.^[188]

Forrest testified before the Congressional investigation of Klan activities on June 27, 1871. He denied membership, but his role in the KKK was beyond the scope of the investigating committee, which wrote: "Our design is not to connect General Forrest with this order (the reader may form his own conclusion upon this question)".^[192] The committee also noted, "The natural tendency of all such organizations is to violence and crime; hence it was that General Forrest and other men of influence in the state, by the exercise of their moral power, induced them to disband".^[193] George Cantor, a biographer of Confederate generals, wrote, "Forrest ducked and weaved, denying all knowledge, but admitted he knew some of the people involved. He sidestepped some questions and pleaded failure of memory on others. Afterwards, he admitted to 'gentlemanly lies'. He wanted nothing more to do with the Klan, but felt honor bound to protect former associates."^[194]

Race and politics (1870s)

After the lynch mob murder of four black people who had been arrested for defending themselves in a brawl at a barbecue, Forrest wrote to Tennessee Governor John C. Brown in August 1874 volunteering to personally lead a posse to punish the "white marauders" responsible. Brown politely declined the offer.^[146]

In January 1875, Forrest came to Nashville to work against the re-election of Andrew Johnson for Senate; four of the six other candidates being considered by the Tennessee Assembly were fellow former high officers in the Confederate Army, namely generals John C. Brown, William B. Bate, W. A. Quarles, and colonel John H. Savage. According to historian Fay W. Brabson, when Forrest arrived Johnson cunningly told him, "When the gods arrive, the half-gods depart; if the people really wanted to bestow honor where honor was due, they should support Forrest for the Senate instead of any one-horse general." Forrest was duly flattered and left town for Memphis that night, leaving the "lesser military contenders" to fight amongst themselves amidst a losing battle with Johnson.^[195]

On July 5, 1875, Forrest gave a speech before the Independent Order of Pole-Bearers Association, a post-war organization of black Southerners advocating to improve black people's economic condition and gain equal rights for all citizens. At this, his last public appearance, he made what The New York Times described as a "friendly speech"^[196][197] during which, when offered a bouquet by a young black woman, he accepted them,^[198] thanked her and kissed her on the cheek. Forrest spoke in the encouragement of black advancement and endeavored to be a proponent for espousing peace and harmony between black and white Americans.^[12]

In response to the Pole-Bearers speech, the

Just a few months before his death, Forrest attended an African-American barbecue in Memphis.^[149] Aiming to right his past wrongs, Forrest encouraged African Americans to "work, be industrious, live honestly and act truly", as well as declaring that "when you are oppressed, I'll come to your relief".^[149]

Death

Forrest reportedly died from acute complications of diabetes at the Memphis home of his brother Jesse on October 29, 1877.^[200] His eulogy was delivered by his recent spiritual mentor, former Confederate chaplain George Tucker Stainback, who declared in his eulogy: "Lieutenant-General Nathan Bedford Forrest, though dead, yet speaketh. His acts have photographed themselves upon the hearts of thousands, and will speak there forever."^[201]

Forrest's funeral procession was over two miles long. The crowd of mourners was estimated to include 20,000 people.^[149] According to Forrest biographer Jack Hurst, writers present at the public viewing of Forrest's body and the funeral procession noted many black citizens among them.^[202]

Forrest was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis.^[203] In 1904, the remains of Forrest and his wife Mary were disinterred from Elmwood and moved to a Memphis city park that was originally named Forrest Park in his honor but has since been renamed Health Sciences Park.^[204]

On July 7, 2015, the Memphis City Council unanimously voted to remove the statue of Forrest from Health Sciences Park, and to return the remains of Forrest and his wife to Elmwood Cemetery.^[205] However, on October 13, 2017, the Tennessee Historical Commission invoked the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act of 2013 and U.S. Public Law 85-425: Sec. 410 to overrule the city.^[206] Consequently, Memphis sold the park land to Memphis Greenspace, a non-profit entity not subject to the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act, which immediately removed the monument as explained below.^[207][208]

Historical reputation and legacy

Specific monuments

Many memorials have been erected to Forrest, especially in Tennessee and adjacent southern states. Forrest was elevated in Memphis—where he lived and died—to the status of folk hero. Historian Court Carney suggested that "embarrassed by their city's early capitulation during the Civil War, white Memphians desperately needed a hero and therefore crafted a distorted depiction of Forrest's role in the war."

Middle Tennessee State University: In 1978, Middle Tennessee State University abandoned imagery it had formerly used (in 1951, the school's yearbook, The Midlander, featured the first appearance of Forrest's likeness as MTSU's official mascot) and MTSU president M. G. Scarlett removed the General's image from the university's official seal. The Blue Raiders' athletic mascot was changed to an ambiguous swash-buckler character called the "Blue Raider" to avoid association with Forrest or the Confederacy. The school unveiled its latest mascot, a winged horse named "Lightning" inspired by the mythological Pegasus, during halftime of a basketball game against rival Tennessee State University on January 17, 1998.^[217] The ROTC building at MTSU had been named Forrest Hall to honor him in 1958, but the frieze depicting General Forrest on horseback that had adorned the side of the building was removed amid protests in 2006.^[218] A significant push to change its name failed on February 16, 2018, when the governor-controlled Tennessee Historical Commission denied Middle Tennessee State University's petition to rename Forrest Hall.^[219]

Mississippi license plate plan: A 2011 proposal by the

Nathan Bedford Forrest Day: The Tennessee legislature established July 13 as "Nathan Bedford Forrest Day".[233] As of 2019, Nathan Bedford Forrest Day was still observed in Tennessee, though some Democrats in the state had attempted to change the law, which required Tennessee's governor to sign a proclamation honoring the holiday.^[234][235] However, since that time, Governor Bill Lee's administration introduced a bill—passed by the Tennessee legislature on June 10, 2020—which released the governor from the former requirement that he proclaim that observance each year and a spokesperson for Governor Lee confirmed that he would not be signing a Forrest Day proclamation in July 2020.^[236] In June 2020, after black members of the Tennessee House of Representatives unsuccessfully asked it to eliminate a state celebration of Forrest, Representative Cameron Sexton opined: "I don't think anybody here is truly racist. I think people may make insensitive comments."^[237]

Nathan Bedford Forrest bust: A bust sculpted by Jane Baxendale is on display at the Tennessee State Capitol building in Nashville.^[238] Brett Joseph Forrest, a direct descendant of Nathan, spoke in support of the bust's removal.^[239][240] In 2021 Sexton voted against the removal of the bust of Forrest from the Tennessee State Capitol and into the Tennessee State Museum, but only one other legislator agreed with him, and the bust was removed.^[241] Sexton said that he believed the removal of the bust "aligns ... with the teaching of communism."^[241]

Other monuments and memorials:

• Forrest County, Mississippi is named after him, as is Forrest City, Arkansas.
• Obelisks in his memory were placed at his birthplace in Chapel Hill, Tennessee and at Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park near Camden.^[242]
• A monument to Forrest at a corner of Veterans Plaza in Rome, Georgia was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1909 to honor his bravery for defending Rome from U.S. Army Colonel Abel Streight and his cavalry.^[243]
• The
  Arnold Engineering Development Center.^[245]
• The Nathan Bedford Forrest Statue in Nashville was particularly notable for its idiosyncratic depiction of Forrest on horseback.

• In August 2000, a road on Fort Bliss named for Forrest decades earlier was renamed for former post commander Richard T. Cassidy.^{[246][247][248]}
• In 2023, Forrest Street in Alexandria, Virginia, named after Forrest has been proposed by local legislators for renaming.^[249]

Military doctrines

Forrest is considered one of the Civil War's most brilliant tacticians by the historian Spencer C. Tucker.^[250] Forrest fought by simple rules; he maintained that "war means fighting and fighting means killing" and the way to win was "to get there first with the most men".^[251] U.S. Army General William Tecumseh Sherman called him "that devil Forrest" in wartime communications with Ulysses S. Grant and considered him "the most remarkable man our civil war produced on either side".^{[252][253][4]}

Forrest became well known for his early use of maneuver tactics as applied to a mobile horse cavalry deployment.^[254] He grasped the doctrines of mobile warfare^[255] that would eventually become prevalent in the 20th century. Paramount in his strategy was fast movement, even if it meant pushing his horses at a killing pace, to constantly harass the enemy during raids by disrupting their supply trains and communications with the destruction of railroad tracks and the cutting of telegraph lines, as he wheeled around his opponent's flank. The Civil War scholar Bruce Catton writes:

Forrest ... used his horsemen as a modern general would use motorized infantry. He liked horses because he liked fast movement, and his mounted men could get from here to there much faster than any infantry could; but when they reached the field they usually tied their horses to trees and fought on foot, and they were as good as the very best infantry.^[256]

Forrest is often erroneously quoted as saying his strategy was "to git thar fustest with the mostest". Now often recast as "Getting there firstest with the mostest",

Do not, under any circumstances whatever, quote Forrest as saying "fustest" and "mostest". He did not say it that way, and nobody who knows anything about him imagines that he did.[259]

Fort Pillow

Modern historians generally believe that Forrest's attack on Fort Pillow was a massacre, noting high casualty rates and the rebels targeting black soldiers.^[261] Forrest's claim that the Fort Pillow massacre was an invention of U.S. reporters is contradicted by letters written by Confederate soldiers to their own families, which described extreme brutality on the part of Confederate troops.^[112] It was the Confederacy's publicly stated position that formerly enslaved people firing on whites would be killed on the spot, along with Southern whites that fought for the Union, whom the Confederacy considered traitors. According to this analysis, Forrest's troops were carrying out Confederate policy. The historical record does not support his repeated denials that he knew a massacre was taking place or that he even knew a massacre had occurred at all. Consequently, his role at Fort Pillow was a stigmatizing one for him the rest of his life, both professionally and personally,^[262][263] and contributed to his business problems after the war.

Historians have differed in their interpretations of the events at Fort Pillow. Richard L. Fuchs, author of An Unerring Fire, concluded:

The affair at Fort Pillow was simply an orgy of death, a mass lynching to satisfy the basest of conduct—intentional murder—for the vilest of reasons—racism and personal enmity.^[264]

Andrew Ward downplays the controversy:

Whether the massacre was premeditated or spontaneous does not address the more fundamental question of whether a massacre took place ... it certainly did, in every dictionary sense of the word.^[265]

John Cimprich states:

The new paradigm in social attitudes and the fuller use of available evidence has favored a massacre interpretation ... Debate over the memory of this incident formed a part of sectional and racial conflicts for many years after the war, but the reinterpretation of the event during the last thirty years offers some hope that society can move beyond past intolerance.^[266]

The site is now a

Tom Hanks's title character in the film Forrest Gump remarks in one scene that his mother named him after Nathan Bedford Forrest and "we was related to him in some way". The following scene satirically depicts Hanks as Forrest in a Ku Klux Klan outfit, donning a hood and being superimposed into scenes of the Klan from The Birth of a Nation.

See also

• Cavalry in the American Civil War
• Leaders of the Ku Klux Klan
• List of American Civil War generals (Confederate)
• Nathan Bedford Forrest bust in the Tennessee General Assembly building
• Emma Sansom
• Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials
• List of American slave traders
• History of Memphis, Tennessee

References

Notes

Bibliography

Main article: Bibliography of Nathan Bedford Forrest

Books

• Bailey, Ronald H. (1985), Battles for Atlanta: Sherman Moves East, Time Life Books,
  ISBN 978-0-8094-4773-2
• ISBN 978-1-64336-427-8
  .
• Boatner III, Mark M. (1988) [1959], The Civil War Dictionary, New York: McKay,
  ISBN 978-0-8129-1726-0
• Bryant, Jonathan M. (October 3, 2002). "Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstruction Era". georgiaencyclopedia.org. Georgia Southern University.
• Buhk, Tobin T. (2012), True Crime in the Civil War: Cases of Murder, Treason, Counterfeiting, Massacre, Plunder & Abuse, Mechanicsville, PA: Stackpole Books,
  ISBN 978-0-8117-1019-0
• ISBN 978-0700624843
  .
• LCCN 77-119671
• Cimprich, John; Mainfort, Robert C. Jr., eds. (Winter 1982), "Fort Pillow Revisited: New Evidence About An Old Controversy", Civil War History, 4
• ISBN 978-1-5942-0487-6
  .
• Clark, Achilles V. (June 1985), Pomeroy, Dan E. (ed.), "A Letter of Account", Civil War Times Illustrated, 24 (4): 24–25
• ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1
  .
• ISBN 978-0-394-74621-0
• Foote, Shelby (1974),
  ISBN 978-0-394-74622-7
• Hurst, Jack (1993), Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography, New York: Knopf,
  ISBN 978-0394551890
• Newton, Michael (2014). White Robes and Burning Crosses: A History of the Ku Klux Klan from 1866. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
  ISBN 978-0-7864-7774-6
  .
• ISBN 978-0940450653
• Silkenat, David. Raising the White Flag: How Surrender Defined the American Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019.
  ISBN 978-1-4696-4972-6
  .
• Spaulding, Thomas M. (1931), "Forrest, Nathan Bedford", in Allen Johnson; Dumas Malone (eds.), Dictionary of American Biography, vol. 6, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 532–533
• Ward, Andrew (2005), River Run Red: The Fort Pillow Massacre in the American Civil War, Viking Penguin
• Wills, Brian Steel (1992), A Battle from the Start: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest, New York: HarperCollins,
  ISBN 978-0-06-092445-4
• Wyeth, John Allan (1989) [1899], That Devil Forrest, Louisiana State University Press

Online

• "Grant, Reconstruction and the KKK". pbs.org. American Experience. 2018. Retrieved April 15, 2018.

Further reading

• Bearss, Edwin C. (1979), Forrest at Brice's Cross Roads and in North Mississippi in 1864, Dayton, OH: Press of Morningside Bookshop
• Bearss, Ed, ed. (July 1, 2005), Unpublished remarks to Gettysburg College, Civil War Institute
• Bradshaw, Wayne (2009), The Civil War Diary of William R. Dyer: A Member of Forrest's Escort, BookSurge Publishing,
  ISBN 978-1-4392-3772-4
• Carney, Court (2001), "The Contested Image of Nathan Bedford Forrest", Journal of Southern History, 67 (3): 601–630,
  JSTOR 3070019
• Dupuy, Trevor N.; Johnson, Curt; Bongard, David L. (1992), Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography (1st ed.), Castle Books,
  ISBN 978-0-7858-0437-6
• Foner, Eric (1988), Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution 1863–1877, HarperCollins,
  ISBN 978-0-06-015851-4
• Harcourt, Edward John (2005), "Who Were the Pale Faces? New Perspectives on the Tennessee Ku Klux", Civil War History, 51 (1): 23–66,
  S2CID 143866721
• Henry, Robert Selph (1944), First with the Most
• Horn, Stanley F. (1939), Invisible Empire: The Story of the Ku Klux Klan, 1866–1871, Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith Publishing Corporation
• Lytle, Andrew Nelson (2002) [1931], Bedford Forrest and His Critter Company (Reprint ed.), Ivan R. Dee,
  ISBN 978-1-879941-09-0
• Scales, John R. (2017). The Battles and Campaigns of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, 1861–1865. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie.
  ISBN 978-1-61121-284-6
  .
• Silkenat, David. Raising the White Flag: How Surrender Defined the American Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019.
  ISBN 978-1-4696-4972-6
  .
• Tap, Bruce (June 1996), "'These Devils Are Not Fit to Live on God's Earth': War Crimes and the Committee on the Conduct of the War, 1864–1865", Civil War History, XLII (2): 116–32,
  S2CID 144484122
  – on Ft Pillow.
• ISBN 978-0-8071-0823-9
• Williams, Edward F. (1969), Fustest with the mostest; the military career of Tennessee's greatest Confederate, Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest Memphis, Distributed by Southern Books
• Wills, Brian Steel (1992). The Confederacy's Greatest Cavalryman: Nathan Bedford Forrest. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
  ISBN 0-7006-0885-0
  .

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Interview with Nathan Bedford Forrest

• Animated History of The Campaigns of Nathan Bedford Forrest Archived August 25, 2012, at the Wayback Machine at civilwaranimated.com
• General Nathan Bedford Forrest Historical Society