If you want to read an interesting history of a Confederate cavalry regiment, try The Cracker Cavaliers by John Randolph Poole. It is really top notch.
Posted on 12/09/2007 8:55:00 PM PST by indcons
Forrest must have had a presence about him that was terrifying. I’m paraphrasing something I read years ago.
It was after the war was over and Forrest was traveling by train in a northern border state. Some local yokels heard that he was on the train and, when the train stopped at their town, went aboard the train looking for him - to call him out for some fisticuffs. When Forrest got word of it he went looking for them. “You looking for me,” he said. Forrest didn’t even fight them, they took one look at him, sized him up, and fled.
As do long quotations that don't begin to prove one's point. :)
The park was named for General Nathan Bedford Forrest, the intrepid Confederate cavalry leader, who on November 4, 1864, attacked and destroyed the federal supply and munitions depot at (Old) Johnsonville at the mouth of Trace Creek. His operations were concentrated along the river in the vicinity of the park and the town of Eva.
In 1929 the park was dedicated to Nathan Bedford Forrest on land acquired in part from Benton County. Forrest was one of the greatest military tacticians and leaders of the American Civil War
http://www.tennessee.gov/environment/parks/NBForrest/
He was the only Civil War general that was widely studied in Europe and was recognized as the only original genius produced by the war. The Russians also extensively studied the campaigns of the Union cavalry into the deep South.
If you want to read an interesting history of a Confederate cavalry regiment, try The Cracker Cavaliers by John Randolph Poole. It is really top notch.
“Get there first-est with the most-est”
Probably, but JO Shelby didn’t suck.
“The Burial of Shelby’s Flag”
A July sun, in torrid clime, gleamed on exile band, who in suits of gray
Stood in mute array on the banks of the Rio Grande
They were dusty and faint with their long, drear ride, and they paused when they
came to the river side;
For its wavelets divide
With their glowing tide
Their own dear land of youth, hope, pride And comrades graves, who in vain had
died, from the stranger’s home, in a land untried.
Above them waved the Confederate Flag, with its fatal cross of stars,
That had always been
In the battle’s din
Like a pennon of potent Mars.
And there curved from the crest of their leader a plume
That the brave had followed in joy and gloom that was ever in sight
In the hottest fight
A flaunting dare for a soldier’s tomb, for the marksman’s aim and the cannons boom,
But it bore a charm from the band of doom.
Forth stepped that leader then and said to the faithful few around:
“This tattered rag
Is the only flag
That floats on Dixie ground;
And this plume that I tear from the hat I wear
Of all my spoils is my only share; and brave men! I swear
That no foe shall dare
To lay his hand on our standard there. It’s folds were braided by fingers fair, “Tis
The emblem now of their deep despair.
Its cause is lost. And the men it led on many a glorious field in disputing tread
Of invaders dread, Have been forced at last to yield
But this banner and plume have not been to blame, No exulting eye shall behold
Their shame;
And-——these relics so dear
In the waters here,
Before we cross, shall burial claim;
And while you mountains may bear name
They shall stand as monuments of our fame.
Tears stood in eyes that looked on death in every awful form Without dismay;
But the scene that day was sublimer than mountain storm!
“Tis easy to touch the veteran’s heart
With finger of nature, but not of art, While the noble of soul
Lose self control, When called on with flag, home and country to part, Base bosoms are ever to callous to start
With feelings that generous natures can smart.
They buried then that flag and plume in the
river’s rushing tide, Ere that fallen few
Of the tried and true had been scattered far and wide.
And that group of Missouri’s valiant throng, who had fought for the weak against the strong- Who had charged and bled where Shelby led- Were the last who held above the wave.
The glorious flag of the vanquished brave, No more to rise from its watery grave!”
By Brevet Colonel Alonzo W. Slayback, Missouri State Militia, on the Rio Grande, July 4, 1865
Thanks for a great article. Forrest has always been my favorite Confederate. I also have found it interesting that he is credited with founding the Ku Klux Klan.
Cheers.
Later read
“Agree... and this is coming from the descendant of a Confederate Cavalry Private.”
Who was he with? I had two Great-Grandfathers with the 10th Tennessee Cavalry which I believe was formed from the remains of Napier’s Regiment and another. They were under Forrest.
That's interesting. I never knew that. I'd like to read more about that, do you have any links or book sources I could look at? Thanks.
...thanks guys...this was a good article....sadly, I think Forrest’s legacy will slowly be destroyed....it will be done by Southern politicians/leaders who pander to the black vote...they are slowly undermining our Confederate heritage.... I’ll give you an example:
.....one of my g.grandfathers spent 4 years in the saddle as 1st Sgt of G company, 6th Texas Cavalry....Sullivan Ross commanded 6th Texas...Ross was an excellent commander and a fine man....after the war he went on to be Governor of Texas and after that president of Texas A&M....it was under Ross’ leadership that the university grew into the modern institution it is now....today it is a campus rule there that any student displaying a Condederate flag or Nazi flag will be expelled....they hold the Confederate South equal to the Nazis!...what an insult.
LOL My wife had an uncle a general under Bragg who also had a strong dislike for Bragg too. He was court martialed by him. Forrest was a much greater planner than Bragg as were other Confederate generals and it showed.
bump for later
Yes.
Wheeler would later help lead forces into Cuba during the Spanish-American War
He was also helped a lot by incompetent Union leaders who thought cavalry was for conveying messages and protecting supply lines. Until Sheridan, there was no 'real' Union cavalry, and any that Forrest ran into was easy pickings.
His brilliance was the ability to improvise mobile warfare from his saddle. Had he the resources of the North, there is no telling what he could have accomplished.
If you look at his actions in a number of encounters, you will see the same type of tactics used in engagements from Chateau-Thierry to the Gulf conflicts.
Forrest was the innovator, the rest, imitators.
If you had a time machine and were to go back in the hopes of advancing the cause of the South as much as possible, it's a good tossup as to whether the better recipient of a well-placed pistol ball would be Bragg, or John Bell Hood.
Either choice would have at least temporarily saved the lives of hundreds, prpbably thousands of lives, on both sides.
"The life of a Calvary officer is always intense."
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