Posted on 09/23/2004 11:55:07 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
My apologies to the General for besmirching his character.
Over and done with as per post #80.
Military Career
of
Nathan Bedford Forrest
CSA
Lieutenant-General Nathan Bedford Forrest in 1865, private of Cavalry in 1861. As Senator Daniel has said, "what genius was in that wonderful man ! He felt the field as Blind Tom touches the keys of the piano. 'War means killing,' he said, 'and the way to kill is to get there first with the most men.' He was not taught at West Point, but he gave lessons to West Point." His career was quite as brilliant and devoted in its allegiance to duty in peace as it was in the conflict of arms.
His father's family had moved from Virginia, before the Revolution, to North Carolina, where every member able to bear arms at that time fought in the cause of independence. His parents moved thence to Bedford county, Tennessee, where he was born July 13, 1821. In 1834 he moved with his father to Marshall county, Mississippi, where the latter soon died, leaving young Forrest to support the widow and family with no resources other than a small hill farm. He undertook this work with such devotion and energy, that while neglecting his own education he provided liberally for that of his brothers and sisters, and going into business at Memphis became able to purchase a large plantation, and at the outbreak of the war was one of the wealthiest planters in Tennessee.
Soon after entering the Confederate service June 14, 1861, as a private in White's mounted rifles, he obtained authority to raise a regiment of cavalry, the equipment of which he purchased at his private expense at Louisville. With great ingenuity and daring he brought these supplies to Memphis after eluding the Federal authorities and defeating a body of troops with a force of seventy five Kentucky Confederates he had called to his aid. With his regiment he joined the forces at Fort Donelson, and after distinguishing himself in the conflict with the Federals, led his men through the enemy's lines when surrender was determined upon.
Joining Albert Sidney Johnston, he was in the heat of the fight at Shiloh, and though wounded refused to leave the field until the safety of the army was assured. Subsequently, the Federals having occupied middle Tennessee, Colonel Forrest made a series of brilliant cavalry movements into that territory that made his name famous throughout America.
Promoted brigadier-general July 21, 1862, he hung upon Buell's flank during the movement into Kentucky, protected Bragg's retreat, and while the army was in winter quarters actively covered the Federal front at Nashville, continually doing damage to the enemy. In 1863, in an effort to break Rosecrans' communications, he entered Tennessee with less than one thousand men, captured McMinnville, and surprised the garrison of 2,000 at Murfreesboro, capturing all the survivors of the fight, including General Crittenden.
General Streight, having started on a cavalry raid to Rome, Ga., was pursued and caught up with, and so impressed by Forrest's demand for surrender, that he turned over his entire command, which was in such disproportion to their captors that Forrest had to press into service all the citizens in reach to assist in forming an adequate guard.
In the great battle of Chickamauga he commanded the cavalry of the right wing, and was distinguished in the fight, but he was so dissatisfied with the incompleteness of this Confederate victory that he tendered his resignation. Instead of its acceptance he was promoted major-general and assigned to the command of all cavalry in north Mississippi and west Tennessee, and the guardianship of the granary of the Confederacy. With a small force he entered west Tennessee and recruited several thousand hardy volunteers, which, with some veteran troops, he welded into the invincible body known as "Forrest's Cavalry."
In February, 1864, General Smith with seven thousand mounted men was sent against him in co-operation with Sherman, but was utterly routed at Okolona and Prairie Mound. In return Forrest rode through Tennessee to the Ohio river, and captured Fort Pillow, Union City and other posts with their garrisons. In June 8,300 Federals under General Sturgis entered Mississippi. Forrest had only 3,200 men, but at Brice's Cross Roads he struck the straggling Federal column at its head, crushed that, and then in detail routed successive brigades until Sturgis had suffered one of the most humiliating defeats of the war, losing all his trains and a third of his men.
Gen. A. J. Smith renewed the invasion with 14,000 men, but retreated after a desperate battle at Harrisburg, near Tupelo. Reorganizing his beaten forces Smith again advanced with reinforcements from Memphis, and Forrest was compelled to foil the enemy by taking half his force and making a sixty-hour ride to Memphis, the daring entry of which compelled Smith's rapid retreat.
Then for a time General Forrest made havoc with the Federal transportation, garrisons and depots in Tennessee, exploits crowned by the capture and destruction of six million dollars' worth of the enemy's supplies and a gunboat fleet, at Johnsonville, "a feat of arms," wrote Sherman, "which I must confess excited my admiration."
After the fall of Atlanta he joined Hood at Florence, and fought at Franklin and Nashville. As commander of the rear guard of the retreating Confederate army, Forrest displayed his most heroic qualities, with hardly a parallel but the famous deeds of Marshal Ney while covering Napoleon's retreat from Moscow.
In February, 1865, he was promoted lieutenant-general, and given the duty of guarding the frontier from Decatur, Ala., to the Mississippi. With a few hundred hastily gathered men he made his last fight at Selma, and on May 9 he laid down his arms. It is stated that he was 179 times under fire in the four years, and he said, "My provost marshal's books will show that I have taken 31,000 prisoners."
After the war he was president of the Selma, Marion and Memphis railroad until 1874. He died at Memphis, October 29, 1877.
By European authority he is pronounced the most magnificent cavalry officer that America has produced.
*chuckle*
A certain Fort wa scaptured by the American forces and occupied for a bit until the mountaintop looming overhead started losing trees.
The British were prepearing an artillery position on the mountaintop overhead since it offered a view down into the fort.
The cannon the Brits had could be disassembled and the carraige used similar to a crane to bring the rest of the equipment up.
Read that at a museum in New Windsor NY, not far from the New Windsor cantonment, the last encampment of the Continental Army prior to the surrender of British forces.
Going to have to wander back out that way and grab some of the stuff they had there about it.
I think I saw one commentator on the film "Gods and Generals" call it the American Iliad.
Fair enough.
To be perfectly fair, post 104 is rather hagiographical.
Doesn't mention that he made his fortune trading slaves, an occupation considered shameful even in the South. The prejudice against slave traders was probably a major reason he wasn't used more effectively by the South in the early days of the war.
The post also does not mention the (still controversial) massacre of black troops at Fort Pillow by troops under his command, nor his founding of the KKK.
Forrest was a magnificent fighting man, but the post does not mention any of the at best dubious aspects of his life.
I see that now. I had not seen it before I posted. Very good.
OK kiddies, let's all play nice from here on, after all we're now all just plain Americans I believe.
That's a common misconception. Buford's Division was armed with a single-shot, breachloader made by Sharps. Repeaters were not standard issue.
A single Regiment of Michigan Cavalry was armed with the Spencer at their colonel's expense. These troopers were not part of Buford's Division, nor were they involved in the meeting engagement of July 1st, 1863.
Don't forget the Brits made some significant use of Congreves Rockets, and these were considered to be artillery. I don't see a traditional field piece, with limber, being as mobile as a light infantryman.
Gladly, the fight between Old Sarge and I is over and we've come to an understanding, but just by way of explaining why I read that "Got Slaves?" the way I did as opposed to your reading of it --- to read it as you did would require that I accept the notion slavery would not have ended within a generation without war, and that slavery was more than a tertiary cause of the war.
I don't accept those propositions - though I certainly understand others do in good faith.
:)
Glad everything worked out. I like old sarge, even if he can be a grumpy old coot.
Information rot. When will it ever end?
I can agree to some extent, the Union survived the supreme test and came away much stronger for one thing and slavery was ended for another.
But I sometimes wonder if race relations in the United States could have been more friendly had Reconstruction not been so punitive.
Forrest killed my GGG-grandfather. He was his first victim at the Battle of Sacramento, Ky. Had my GGG-Grandfather been successful, Buford may have been the corret answer. He was not, sadly, and Forrest is the answer.
Reconstruction, like most large-scale government programs, caused far more problems than it solved. In fact, it didn't solve any problems at all.
The best thing to come out of the Civil War, after abolition, was the camaraderie of soldiers on both sides afterwards and the demonstration to the rest of the world that Americans were brave, resourceful, determined and creative warriors.
Some dittos...
I'd go so far as to say that Stuart was flamboyant. He was fought to a draw by (I think it was) Custer? Huge cavalry engagement, one of the biggest which ever took place, lasted the day. He did excel at hit and run tactics, "hit 'em where they ain't", and wasn't shy about riding into fire. His efforts were better when not tied down to someone else's battle plan.
I agree -- Forrest was tactically brilliant. In addition, he put his unit together using his own money. He also excelled at "hit 'em where they ain't" (I think his phrase was, "whoever gets there fustest with the mostest men."). His massacre of a Union garrison made him notorious. Co-founding the KKK doesn't help his historical reputation.
One autumn day, when I was about five or six, Harry and I were rummaging about the attic of our house. We were looking for a place to store the nuts which, like squirrels, we gathered every fall. We came across a horsehide-covered trunk which looked promising. Opening it, we found Father’s Confederate uniform. Digging deeper into the trunk, we pulled out a white hood and long robe with a crimson cross on its breast–the regalia of a Knight of the Ku Klux Klan
Today, of course, the KKK is an odious symbol of bigotry and hate, reflecting it activities during the 1920's when it acquired considerable power, particularly outside the South. I have good reason to know the character of the modern Klan since I was a target for its hatred.
But to children in the Reconstruction South, the original Klan, led by General Nathan Bedford Forrest, seemed a heroic band fighting to free the South from the debaucheries of carpetbag rule. To my brother and me the thought that Father was a member of that band exalted him in our youthful eyes.
So intent were we in our examination of those garments that we did not hear Mother’s footstep on the garret stairs. She gave us a mighty scolding and swore us to secrecy. It was really an important secret. The Klan had been outlawed by the Federal government. Large rewards were offered for the conviction of its members, and spies were scattered through the South in an effort to discover who those members were. We came down from the attic feeling we had grown a foot taller.
Harsh as were the economic effects of the war, the political effects of eight years of carpetbag rule proved more galling and lasting. Even today, when the South is prospering, the carpetbag legacy of political and racial bitterness hangs on.
The carpetbaggers maintained power largely through the control that they and their scalawag allies exerted over the vote of the Negro. This use of the ignorant Negro as a tool of oppression aggravated all the racial wounds and sores of slavery and the war. In the end it hurt the Negro most and probably set back progress in racial relations by a quarter of a century.
Through much of my childhood no white man who had served in the Confederate Army was allowed to vote–while all Negroes could vote, even through few could write their names. Our state senator was a Negro, as was the county auditor and school commissioner–although at the county level never more than a third of the officials were Negroes. Still, the declared intention of the Black Republicans in Washington was to make the state of affairs perpetual.
So oppressive was this state of affairs that even a man like my father could write a fellow veteran of the Confederate Army that death was preferable to living under such conditions. “There is one recourse when all is lost. I mean the sword,” Father wrote in a letter which was quoted by Claude Bowers in The Tragic Era. “What boots it to live under such tyranny, such moral and physical oppression when we can be much happier in the consciousness of dying for such a cause?”
The issue was to be decided by the contest for the governorship in 1876 between General Wade Hampton and the carpetbag incumbent, Daniel H. Chamberlain. I remember distinctly one Hampton mass meeting in Camden when barrels of resin were lighted at the street corners. There was a campaign chat in which we boys joined:
Hampton eat the egg
Chamberlain eat the shell
Hampton go to Heaven
Chamberlain go to Hell.
The song was all the more appealing because that was the first time I was permitted to use the word “Hell” with impunity.
In later years Father told us many stories of how Hampton carried the election in the face of a preponderant black majority. One device was to distribute tickets to a circus that was playing out-of-town on election day. Another method was to beat the carpetbaggers at their own game by capitalizing on the Negroes’ simplicity.
In those days a separate ballot box was assigned to each candidate. Most Negroes could not read the labels on the boxes but were coached to recognize the Republican boxes by their position in the line. With a crowd of Negroes around the polls, some Hampton man would fire a shot into the air. In the ensuing commotion, the Hampton and Chamberlain boxes would be switched. The Negroes would then be rushed up to vote as quickly as possible. As a result many dropped their ballots into Hampton’s box.
On another election day, when I was about ten years old, Father was absent from home, either on professional or political business–probably both, for in those times there was work for a doctor after a political rally. We heard a great din about the house. Mother became alarmed. She told Harry and me to get our guns.
We got them–one a single-barreled and one a double-barreled muzzle-loader. Mother told us to load them and to take a position on the second-floor porch.
”But do not shoot,” she cautioned “unless I tell you to shoot.”
We stood there, our hearts pounding, each with a gun almost as tall as himself, watching the crowd of colored people milling about the street. Drunk on cheap whiskey, they were on their way to the polls or to a rally.
I have a blurred memory of what happened next. I recall seeing a Negro fall from behind a tree. Suddenly everyone fled. We ran down to where the man lay to see what had happened. His head had been split as with an ax. Mother brought a basin of water and dressed the wound. I do not know what became of him, but he could not have lived long with his head as it was. Casualties of this nature were not uncommon, and it was the Negro who suffered most.
It was against the background of such happenings that we saw Father’s membership in the Klan. That membership did not reflect any love of violence or any bitterness in his natur.e Once Father was called to the deathbed of a scalawag Southerner. When Father came home he remarked that no friends or loving relatives had come to visit the dying man and how sad it was “to see men made completely callous to the call of humanity by political differences.”
Nor did Father have any prejudice against the Negro or any grudge against the North. He blamed the Civil War on the extremists of both sides who would not use reason to settle their differences. He considered Abraham Lincoln a great man who might have reunited the country had he lived.
Still, the Reconstruction rule was oppression to Father and he fought to free the South of it. It is tragic that the Negro got trapped into this struggle, which embittered race relations to this day.
Bernard Baruch – “Baruch My Own Story,” Holt & Co., New York, 1957, pp. 31-35.
Thanks
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.