General Forrest and the Confederate flag

Canada Free Press ^ | July 11, 2009 | Calvin E. Johnson, Jr.

[BigReb555]

Monday, July 13th, in the year of our Lord 2009, is the 188th birthday of American legend and Southern Hero--Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest.

[SpaceBar]

ping

[Monterrosa-24]

Forrest was a great man and a great general but I disagree with this depiction...

“..Some people have claimed that Forrest was associated with the Ku Klux Klan but he officially denied participation...”

There is not a shadow of a doubting Thomas that Forrest was an early participant in Klan organizing and leadership. Of course it was a time when White men in the South were without political franchise. It is also true that he advocated closing out the secret societies as the excesses of reconstruction receded.

[GOP_Raider]

Ping!

[TNdandelion]

Just a few weeks ago, some "artists" staged a protest in front of his statue here in Memphis.

Maybe if they had been more interested in reading history than playing with crayons and dress-up, they would know how inaccurate their production was.

[stainlessbanner]

Dixie Ping!

- hat tip to GOP_Raider

[max americana]

What was the production about?

[BigCinBigD]

People not comfortable with seeing the Confederate Battle flag. Might want to tear their eyes out. Because there are going to be more and more sightings the longer this catastrophe continues.

[Ammo Republic 15]

His framed portrait hangs just above my computer.

[vaudine]

In the 1960s my husband was stationed at Ft. Hood, TX, and our teenage son was good friends with the son of Col (later promoted to gen)Nathan Bedford ForrestIII or IV--great grandson of the Confed. Forrest I said great grand--could have been two greats. I believe his father was also an army gen., so it was a family tradition.

As for the KKK participation, it is entirely possible he helped to organize one or more of the first units, as it was a local orgn. devoted to protecting citizens from the offenses of looting, assaults, burning, etc. of the carpetbaggers. The Union army, after Lincoln's assassination and Johnson's impeachment was not much interested in protecting southerners in many parts of the south--sort of thought they got what they deserved. When the orgn. turned to violent intimidation and murder/mayhem, many of the original members got out of it.

vaudine

[wardaddy]

One of my heroes...an incredible historical figure

[razorback-bert]

My Great Grandfather and his brother rode with Forrest.

My G-G uncle was killed at Brice’s Crossroads, just a day’s ride from his home, with one silver dollar in his pocket.

[manc]

well they fly here down in st augustine north east FL and if the left liberals do not like it because of their ignorance to history then so be it.

[manc]

at least obama did not break this tradition though I expect that the media will not cover this.

Sadly many Americans do not know their history and that goes for these so called teachers who try and twist history to suit their needs

[Texas Mulerider]

Shelby Foote, one of NBF’s biggest admirers, is buried next to the Forrest family plot at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis.

[manc]

lest we forget

[manc]

agreed and thanks for the ping

[parsifal]

I think some of my family fought for the South also. They did the killing instead of getting killed however. Least that was the way my daddy told it.

BTW, did you know that George Patton used to ride around on horses with John Singleton Mosby who i seem to recall did a little teaching to him.I have to look that back up.

parsy, who is kinda un-reconstructed

[stainlessbanner]

I met a NBF researcher and one told me the family has letters that show him in a different light, although they will not release them.

Forrest was probably the first WBTS cavalryman to seek and destroy opponents.

bert, any stories handed down from your granddady and his brothers?

[razorback-bert]

Get there first with the most.

[razorback-bert]

Never stand and take a charge... charge them too.

[razorback-bert]

No damn man kills me and lives.

[razorback-bert]

I ended the war a horse ahead.

[razorback-bert]

I’ve got no respect for any young man who won’t join the colors.

All quotes from the General.

[razorback-bert]

All my Grandmother, her sisters and brothers would talk about was Reconstruction and bad it was.

[Rabble]

Forrest's contemporaries showed much respect for the Confederate General.

Reportedly, someone asked Robert E. Lee to name the greatest soldier produced on either side during the war and he replied, "A man I have never seen, sir. His name is Forrest."

[usmcobra]

Some people have claimed that Forrest was associated with the Ku Klux Klan but he officially denied participation.

It is claimed wrongly that Forrest started the Klan when in truth he actually disbanded it.

His general order disbanding the Klan was a Public record in many newspapers of the time.

[Walvoord]

Not many people know this, but Forest became a devoted Christian before his death. A preacher in Memphis tried for many years to convert Forest. Forest always refused. Finally one day on a Memphis street, the preacher said, “General, are you ready to meet the Lord?” Forest stopped, swung round, and said, “Yes preacher. I'm ready.” The preacher took him aside and talked to Forest. He was soon baptized. After that, Forest was a changed man. He wrote letters to every person he had ever affronted and apologized. He used his money to open a school for Black children. He would leave anonymous gifts of shoes, food, and blankets on the doorsteps of black peoples shacks. When he died, many Black people attended his wake and funeral. An amazing turn around for a man who once bought and sold slaves, the Fort Pillow tragedy, and the formation of the Klan.

[john in springfield]

"Now, when I was a baby, Momma named me after the great Civil War hero, General Nathan Bedford Forrest. She said we was related to him in some way.

And, what he did was, he started up this club called the Ku Klux Klan. They'd all dress up in their robes and their bedsheets and act like a bunch of ghosts or spooks or something. They'd even put bedsheets on their horses and ride around.

And anyway, that's how I got my name, Forrest Gump. Momma said that the Forrest part was to remind me that sometimes we all do things that, well, just don't make no sense."

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

How often people use history to meet their own agendas. Forrest did indeed disband the Klan. The Klan we know today reformed ten years after Forrest's death but morons still say he's somehow responsible for it's later actions.

[lentulusgracchus]

There is not a shadow of a doubting Thomas that Forrest was an early participant in Klan organizing and leadership.

My understanding, correct me on this, is that the organizers of the first Klan circles "adlected" Gen. Forrest as their leader, that he apparently accepted but resigned after about 18 months when night-riding and other suppressive activities began to be organized among the Klan, because he disagreed with such tactics.

[lentulusgracchus]

If only Pat Cleburne and A.P. Hill had survived those last few months of the war! How much better-led the South would have been, in defeat.

[dljordan]

“My Great Grandfather and his brother rode with Forrest.”

As did mine and his son. 1oth Tennessee Cav.

[vetvetdoug]

My ancestors rode with the 7th Tennessee Cavalry, the 7th Mississippi Cavalry, 1st Mississippi Partisans that were all units serving under Forrest at one time or another.

Don't forget that General Forrest's grandson, a General of the US Army, was killed leading a bombing group of B-17s over Wilhalshaven and was the first General killed in combat during WWII.

[TNdandelion]

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/jun/21/telling-stories-to-spark-dialogue/

Let me know if this link doesn't show up. I can private reply to you with text of the article-- I just don't remember what the rules are regarding posting articles.

[stand watie]

don't confuse "DUH,snake" with FACTS. it makes him weep/whine/carp & "run to tattle" to the mods.

fyi, he is a southern TURNCOAT & beneath the notice of gentlemen/ladies.

free dixie,sw

[stainlessbanner]

Yessir!

Also, John A. Wyeth, president of the American Medical Association, rode with Forrest. Not only were they fearless and tough....they were smart!

[stainlessbanner]

On 16 April 1864, George W. Cable (one of Forrest's clerks) wrote his mother:

"Genl. Forrest is a hard worker. Every body about him must be busy. I think he calls for "them clerks" a dozen times a day. He attends to everything himself, sits and talks to every one, knows every one by name, boasts of his personal prowess to his captains, tells everything he intends to do, and tells the same instructions over fifty times in half an hour.

"When he dictates a letter or telegram he labors for good language, & takes many words to say but little. His brain, however, is as clear as crystal & he seems to think of a dozen things at once, & can keep an office full of clerks writing at one time. He is a tall, plainlooking man. . . . He is dressed in jeans, has iron-grey hair & whiskers, & abominates whist1ing."

[manc]

that is a part of history which is never taught anymore in schools

My son who knows about the war and after it asked his teacher about this and she said that she is not allowed as they can only teach what they are told.

sad my oldest son is 11 and knows more than most adults

[manc]

WOW
you have a great history in your family if you do not mind me saying

[lentulusgracchus]

Did he use the word "jeans" in the same way we mean them, to mean blue denim? I wonder.

[stainlessbanner]

I found that interesting, too. Should be an original quote....here is the source

This letter is in the Cable Collection of the Tulane University Library. A portion of it appears in L. L. C. BiklB, George W. Cable: His Life and Letters ( N e w York, 1928), 22-23; and from that source an excerpt is included in Robert Selph Henry, "First with the Most": Forrest (Indianapolis, 1944), 437.

[dixiechick2000]

So said Tom Hanks...

Is there a point to your story?

[john in springfield]

My momma always told me life is like a box o’ choc’lates.

You never know what you’re gonna get.

[dixiechick2000]

Well, if you are going to quote screenplays, instead of quoting facts...

I guess there is nothing more to say.

[wardaddy]

typical yankee with no heritage and no homepage

but brimming with ignorant self righteousness

isn’t that why our kin killed nearly 400,000 of them last go around come to think of it

(sarc..sorta)

lol...oh the irony, now it’s white southerners like us that keep their sorry asses from the socialist abyss and even our grip is slipping sadly

would that they could mind their own house but then again that’s never been their strong suit...

[john in springfield]

That’s all I got to say about that.