Was Nathan Bedford Forrest the Best Confederate Cavalry Leader in the West?

Military History Online ^ | 12/09/2007 | Laurence Freiheit

[af_vet_rr]

Did they ‘hijack’ it or did they pick it up out of the dirt? You ‘proud Confederates’ didn’t seem to be doing much with it anyway.

You've confused me with somebody else - I wouldn't say I was a "proud Confederate" - I don't identify myself as a "Confederate" in any way - it's a war that was fought several generations before my time - and as I said, the overwhelming majority of my family (including my direct ancestors) that lived in Texas during that time left Texas to fight for the Union. I am proud (as proud as one can be of one's ancestors that were in a war that was over long ago) that they did so, but that doesn't mean that I identify a certain way - I personally would identify myself as just another Texan long before I used a label like "Confederate" or "Union".

Hopefully it doesn't shatter your image of the South that many went and fought for the Union.

I also find it hilarious that you blame the ‘idjits’ for the current PC atmosphere. Yeah, if they just wouldn’t rock the boat...then the media/left/gov/et al wouldn’t attack Southerners and their history, and then you could slink around with the Battle Flag without too many people caring. It must be the ‘idjits’ that control Hollywood/The media.

Maybe it would be better to say that the idjit white supremacist types that wanted to make the Confederate Battle Flag their symbol were helped by the idjits in Hollywood who love visual symbols that play well in the newspapers and evening news and who love to say "see, because of these people, this symbol should be banned"?

As far as implying that I "slink around" with any kind of Confederate flags, the only Confederate-related flag that has graced any house I lived in was one that was captured by a relative who was dead for forty years before I was born. I was a child when it was donated to some little museum or society in Georgia, and unfortunately I was too young to recognize or care about the history behind it and the relatives who knew the history behind it are long dead. I couldn't even tell you where it was donated, that's how little of an impact it had on me (that and how young I was).

[Badeye]

‘I’m not a military man and so cannot judge myself. But my Grandfather always said the Lord took Stonewall Jackson because other wise the South would have won and the Lord new it was not right that we should win.’

Many believe the war would have ended sooner had Jackson lived. His tactics worked well against politicians and officers with political connections to gain them a combat command, but would have been disasterous later in the war, specifically two months after his untimely death, at Gettysburg.

He’d have charged Culp’s and Cemetary on July 1st, 1863.

And gotten his ass handed to him.

[stand watie]

i agree. i, too, am prone to "put on" ROUGH RIDERS to watch, from time to time.

that whole movie was FUN, imVho. (one wonders if the reason that the movie was NOT "pushed" by the studios/distributors/media was because the southland/southerners were HONESTLY portrayed???)

btw, GEN Wheeler DID take his son (a USMA 3d classman at the time. and yes, he DID wear "cadet gray" in Cuba.) to Cuba with him, as a "cadet aide".

GEN Wheeler also took a "manservant" with him, "who was 'an old family retainer', to care for my needs. i would not care to be a burden to anyone while there, due to the infirmities of advancing age".

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

pardon me, but to constantly repost the LIES told by the DAMNyankee/LEFTISTS makes you look both IGNORANT & "not bright". inasmuch as you are not well-known on FR for your "intellectual ability" & "general knowledge", i'd think you'd remain silent, so as not to expose yourself to further RIDICULE.

free dixie,sw

[rustbucket]

There was no calvary commander on the confederate side fit to hold Forrest’s shorts.

In an 1865 message to his own troops, Forrest described their accomplishments of the past year as follows (from an old post of mine that bears repeating):

Soldiers: The old campaign is ended, and your Commanding General deems this an appropriate occasion to speak of the steadiness, self-denial and patriotism with which you have borne the hardships of the past year. The marches and labors you have performed during that period will find no parallel in the history of this war.

On the 24th day of December, there were three thousand of you, unorganized and undisciplined, at Jackson, Tennessee, only four hundred of whom were armed. You were surrounded by fifteen thousand of the enemy, who were congratulating themselves on your certain capture. You started out with your artillery, wagon trains, and a large number of cattle, which you succeeded in bringing through, since which time you have fought and won the following battles -- battles which will enshrine your names in the hearts of your countrymen, and live in history, an imperishable monument to your prowess:

Jack's Creek, Estinaula, Summerville, Okalona, Union City, Paducah, Fort Pillow, Bolivar, Tishomingo Creek, Harrisburg, Hurricane Creek, Memphis, Athens, Sulphur Creek, Pulaski, Carter's Creek, Columbia, and Jacksonville are the fields on which you won fadeless immortality.

For twenty-six days from the time you left Florence, on the twenty-first of November, to the twenty-sixth of December, you were constantly engaged with the enemy, and endured the hunger, cold and labor incident to that arduous campaign without a murmur.

To sum up, in brief, your triumphs during the past year, you have fought fifty battles, killed and captured sixteen thousand of the enemy, captured two thousand horses and mules, sixty-seven pieces of artillery, four gunboats, fourteen transports, twenty barges, three hundred wagons, fifty ambulances, ten thousand stand of small arms, forty blockhouses, destroyed thirty-six railroad bridges, two hundred miles of railroad, six engines, one hundred cars, and fifteen millions dollars worth of property.

In the accomplishment of this great work, you were occasionally sustained by other troops, who joined you in the fight, but your regular number never exceeded five thousand, two thousand of whom have been killed or wounded, while in prisoners you have lost about two hundred.

Source: The Galveston Daily News, March 15, 1865

[Badeye]

SW,

Your wildeye’d posts don’t serve you very well on this one topic, the only one you find of interest.

There was a massacre at Ft Pillow. There is no sane way to dispute it.

[KC Burke]

fyi

[af_vet_rr]

I’m not a military man and so cannot judge myself. But my Grandfather always said the Lord took Stonewall Jackson because other wise the South would have won and the Lord new it was not right that we should win.

People back in that time had some strong religious beliefs. My grandfather used to joke about some of our ancestors being Quakers with guns and attitudes. For them, it wasn't about states' rights or anything else politically related - they joined up with the Union because they were sure God was going to bring His wrath down on the South for having enslaved so many Christians (and I'm sure that those people living in Georgia and that area around there probably felt God was punishing them when Sherman passed through).

Our best guess is that somewhere in the 1840s or 1850s, they were all members of the same church and had one very intense preacher who convinced them that all of the slaveowners and their supporters were going to Hell for owning Christians. We have a few suspects and the few pre-Civil War letters we have show a definite change in attitude amongst some in the family in the 1850s.

If these people were alive now, I'm only half joking when I say they'd probably have their own compound. I shouldn't make light of their beliefs - enslaving Christians was a very evil and un-Christian thing to be doing, but they were out there. Had any of them come across any captured Confederates that actually owned slaves (there weren't that many in uniform that owned slaves), it would not surprise me if they had executed them. They were that far out there.

[razorback-bert]

My Great-great uncle fell at Brice’s Crossroads, which was only day’s ride from his home at Shiloh.

I am happy they finally made Brice’s Crossroads a National Park.

[Stonewall Jackson]

Both of General Wheeler's sons served with him in Cuba.

The eldest, Joe Jr., had graduated from West Point in 1895 and served as his father's Aide-de-Camp during the fighting in Cuba, eventually rising to the rank of Colonel before retiring.

The younger son, Tom, was a naval cadet who served on his father's staff in Cuba and then journeyed with the Army to Montauk Point, Long Island, where the soldiers were quarantined because of Yellow Fever and Malaria. While staying at Montauk Point, Tom attempted to save the life of a comrade who was drowning in the Atlantic and ended up losing his own life.

As an interesting aside, Annie, one of General Wheeler's daughters, served as a nurse in support of the Army in Cuba.

Click here for more info on Joe Jr., his military career, and his gallant family.

[Non-Sequitur]

Nobody outside of Richmond liked Bragg.

Nobody inside Richmond liked Bragg, either. Nobody but Jeff Davis. And that's all it took.

[Badeye]

I almost added that when I wrote the post.

[norton]

This has been one of the very best CW threads so far, not so full of the usual did so - did not crossfire.

PS: For the flip side of Confederate cavalry action, I had an ancestor commanding mounted Texas cavalry (1st?) under Sibley in New Mexico. I'm sure he served well before and/or after that fiasco but reading up on it was like a 'Bullmoose meets F Troop' satire.

[Brad from Tennessee]

I heard this bit of information on a battlefield tour of Shiloh several years ago. When I looked on the web this morning I found this is based on a novel someone wrote based on an actual trip several German army officers made to Mississippi in the 1930’s. It is now believed Rommel was not in that group:

http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/wells_lawrence/

[PzLdr]

Forrest was the best Confederate Cavalry leader ANYWHERE. Period.

[rustbucket]

For the flip side of Confederate cavalry action, I had an ancestor commanding mounted Texas cavalry (1st?) under Sibley in New Mexico. I'm sure he served well before and/or after that fiasco but reading up on it was like a 'Bullmoose meets F Troop' satire.

On both sides. On that campaign some Federal troops decided they would stamped a herd of cattle the Confederates had. They loaded up an old mule with percussion caps or something that would explode, lit a fuse, and beat the mule so it headed toward the cattle. However, the mule turned around and headed back toward the Federals. The Feds ran away like crazy before the mule blew up.

True story apparently.

[rustbucket]

Argh! Stamped = stampede

[rustbucket]

Argh! Stamped = stampede

[wardaddy]

Was Nathan Bedford Forrest the Best Confederate Cavalry Leader in the West?

I a pig's **** pork?

[wardaddy]

A banker friend of mine in Murfreesboro is married to a lady whose great grandfather rode with Forrest.

They have a museum or sorts behidn their home and have on display the buggy he had in Forrest’s detachment....very well preserved....with blood stains of course.