While many of the figures associated with the
Confederacy have become controversial in the years since the war, few
have been the subject of more controversy than Nathan Bedford Forrest.
A
man of contradictions himself, it's no wonder that Forrest stirs such
strong feelings - either of respect or disgust - in so many people. Nor
would this surprise Forrest, who was just as divisive in his lifetime
as he is now.
Get there first with the most. Nathan Bedford Forrest
A
truly self-made man if there ever was one, Nathan Bedford Forrest was
born in 1821 to a poor Tennessee family. When his father died, leaving
a wife and twelve children, Forrest, then 17, took over as head of the
family. By 1858, Forrest was a Memphis city alderman, owner of several
plantations, slave trader, and a millionaire.
At the outset of
Civil War in 1861, Forrest, who was exempted from service by his
planter status, instead chose to join the Confederate Army as a
private. He outfitted an entire regiment with horses, weapons, and
equipment out of his own pocket; his Army superiors and the governor of
Tennessee, surprised both by Forrest's voluntary service and largesse,
commissioned him a colonel.
Forrest had no military training, but
he was a quick learner, and soon had command of his own regiment. Of
his regiment, a number were African-American; it has been reported that
when war began, Forrest offered 44 of his slaves freedom in exchange
for serving in the Confederate Army, and that only one deserted, the
remainder staying with Forrest until the war's end.
I have
never, on the field of battle, sent you where I was unwilling to go
myself; nor would I advise to go a course which I myself was unwilling
to pursue. Nathan Bedford Forrest
In many of the major
battles of the Civil War, Forrest distinguished himself as fearless
soldier and a strong leader. He fought at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and
Murfreesboro, moving up quickly. It's a notable fact that Forrest was
one of few generals, Union or Confederate, who began the war as a
private and ended as a general.
Lack of military training
notwithstanding, Forrest nevertheless not only distinguished himself in
the service of the Confederacy, but also revolutionized warfare. Known
as "the wizard of the saddle," Forrest's mobile regimental tactics
would later be translated from horse to vehicle in modern warfare.
Another of Forrest's ideas that continued to find use was the concept
of special forces; interestingly, Forrest's Elite Company, as it was
known, included at least eight African-American soldiers.
However,
General Forrest's career was not without scandal; in April 1864,
General Forrest led his troops in the capture of Fort Pillow in
Tennessee. Many of the Union soldiers defending Fort Pillow were
African-American, and the subsequent battle, in which most of the
soldiers, both white and black, were killed, was the focus of a
congressional investigation as to whether the attack was actually a
massacre, spurred on by the Confederate resentment for the
African-American soldiers. Although Forrest was cleared of the charges
of war crimes associated with the battle, he was afterward known in the
North as "Fort Pillow Forrest."
When news of General Lee's
surrender at Appomattox reached Forrest in Florida, he too surrendered.
He'd been injured several times during the war, had 30 horses shot out
from under him, and his cavalry included 65 African-American soldiers
when he surrendered.
Financially devastated by the war, Forrest
went to work for the railroad. By the time of his death, his
circumstances were destitute.
We have but one flag, one
country; let us stand together. We may differ in color, but not in
sentiment. Many things have been said about me which are wrong, and
which white and black persons here, who stood by me through the war,
can contradict. Nathan Bedford Forrest
Reduced
circumstances did not humble Forrest, who was still a controversial
character even after the war. One of the most infamous activities
Forrest may or may not have pursed after the war was the formation of
the Ku Klux Klan. Although he denied any official participation in the
Ku Klux Klan, Forrest was named the honorary Grand Wizard of a KKK
convention in Nashville in 1867. Forrest apparently did not support the
activities of the KKK, and in 1869, disgusted with the violence and
harassment wrought by the Klan, ordered them to disband. increasingly
violent tactics, ordered the Klan to disband, claiming that the Klan
was "being perverted from its original honorable and patriotic
purposes, becoming injurious instead of subservient to the public
peace." When Congress investigated KKK activities in 1871, they
determined that there was no evidence that Forrest had either led or
founded the KKK, and that his involvement consisted of his efforts to
disband the organization.
Forrest's efforts to distance himself
from the Ku Klux Klan were apparently sincere; in 1875, he became the
first white man to speak to the Independent Order of Pole-Bearers
Association, a civil rights organization made up of freedmen. Forrest's
short speech included statements about the right of freedmen to vote
for their candidate of choice and his hope for an expanded role for
freedmen in the South. He shocked many, both black and white, by ending
his speech by kissing a daughter of one of the freedmen on the cheek.
Forrest's
reputation has continued to grow both as a revered leader and a
representative of racial hatred in the years since the war. Regardless,
he is a figure who continues to fascinate.
