The FReeper Foxhole Profiles General Nathan Bedford Forrest - May 24th, 2004

CivilWarHome ^

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

...................................................................................... ...........................................

.

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

Where Duty, Honor and Country
are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.

.

.

Our Mission:

The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.

In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support.

The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer.

If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions.

We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.

To read previous Foxhole threads or
to add the Foxhole to your sidebar,
click on the books below.

.

.

.

General Nathan Bedford Forrest
(1821-1877)

.

With no formal military training, Nathan Bedford Forrest became one of the leading cavalry figures of the Civil War. The native Tennesseean had amassed a fortune, which he estimated at $1,500,000, as a slave trader and plantation owner before enlisting in the Confederate army as a private in Josiah H. White's cavalry company on June 14, 1861. Tapped by the governor, he then raised a mounted battalion at his own expense.

General Nathan Bedford Forrest

His assignments included:

• Lieutenant Colonel, Forrest's Tennessee Cavalry Battalion (October 1861)
• Colonel, 3rd Tennessee Cavalry (March 1862)
• Brigadier General, CSA July 21, 1862)
  • commanding cavalry brigade, Army of the Mississippi (summer-November 20, 1862)
  • commanding cavalry brigade, Army of Tennessee (November 20, 1862 Summer 1863)
  • commanding cavalry division, Army of Tennessee (summer 1863)
  • commanding cavalry corps, Army of Tennessee (ca. August -September 29, 1863)
  • commanding West Tennessee, (probably in) Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana (November 14, 1863 - January 11, 1864);
• Major General, CSA (December 4, 1863)
  • commanding cavalry corps, Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana January 11 - 28, 1864)
  • commanding District of Mississippi and East Louisiana, Department of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana January 27 - May 4, 1865)
  • commanding cavalry corps, Department of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana January 28 - May 4, 1865)
• Lieutenant General, CSA (February 28, 1865)

Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest was not a soldier to give up. From the time he enlisted as a private in the Confederate Army until the war's end at which time he was a lieutenant general. Forrest demonstrated time and again that the way to win wars was to win battles. When confronted by his superiors with the decision to surrender at Fort Donelson, he refused to give up while he thought there was still a chance for escape. And escape he did - taking all his command and others who also refused to surrender - to freedom through the Federal lines. Too bad other Generals didn't follow his lead.

When the mass Confederate breakout attempt at Fort Donelson failed, Forrest led most of his own men, and some other troops, through the besieging lines and then directed the rear guard during the retreat from Nashville. At Shiloh there was little opportunity for the effective use of the mounted troops and his command again formed the rear guard on the retreat. The day after the close of the battle Forrest was wounded. After serving during the Corinth siege he was promoted to Brigadier General, and he raised a brigade with which he captured Murfreesboro, its garrison and supplies.



In December 1862 and January 1863 he led another raid, this time in west Tennessee, which contributed to the abandonment of Grant's campaign in central Mississippi; the other determining factor was Van Dorn's Holly Springs raid. Joining up with Joseph Wheeler, Forrest took part in the unsuccessful attack on Fort Donelson which resulted in Forrest swearing he would never serve under Wheeler again.



His next success came with the capture of the Union raiding column under Abel D. Streight in the spring of 1863. On June 14, 1863, he was shot by a disgruntled subordinate, Andrew W. Gould, whom Forrest then mortally wounded with his penknife. Recovering, he commanded a division that summer and then a corps at Chickamauga. Having had a number of disputes with army commander Braxton Bragg, Forrest was humiliated by being placed under Wheeler again. His request for transfer to west Tennessee was granted and he was dispatched there with a pitifully small force. Recruiting in that area, he soon had a force large enough to give Union commanders headaches. Sherman kept ordering his Memphis commanders to catch him.



When Forrest captured Fort Pillow a controversy developed over reports of a massacre of the largely black garrison. Apparently a massacre did occur there are numerous Confederate firsthand accounts of it. He defeated Samuel D. Sturgis at Brice's Crossroads and under Stephen D. Lee fought Andrew J. Smith at Tupelo. He again faced Smith during August 1864 and then provided the cavalry force for Hood's invasion of middle Tennessee that fall. Finally the force of numbers began to tell when he proved incapable of stopping Wilson's raid through Alabama and Georgia in the final months of the war. His diminished command was included in Richard Taylor's surrender.



Wiped out financially by the war, he resumed planting and became the president of the Selma, Marion & Memphis Railroad, which he helped to promote. Joining the Ku Klux Klan shortly after the war, he was apparently one of its early leaders. Forrest once summed up his military theory as "Get there first with the most men." He died, probably of diabetes, at Memphis on October 29, 1877, and is buried there.

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning, everyone.

[Professional Engineer]

Good morning ladies. Flag-o-gram.

John Trumbull
Oil on canvas, 12' x 18'
Commissioned 1817; purchased 1822; placed 1826
[Capitol]Rotunda
The surrender of British General Burgoyne at Saratoga, New York, on October 17, 1777, was a turning point in the Revolutionary War, for it prevented the British from dividing New England from the rest of the colonies. The central figure is the American General Horatio Gates, who refused to take the sword offered by General Burgoyne, and, treating his former foe as a gentleman, invited him into his tent. All of the figures in the scene are portraits of specific officers. Trumbull planned this outdoor scene to contrast with Declaration of Independence beside it.

Architect of the Capitol

[Professional Engineer]

hI pIPPIN!

[Professional Engineer]

Hiya Sam. I was busy all weekend. Oy.

I gave Spiderboy his first high and tight of the summer. He looks very spiffy.

[Lee Heggy]

"Like all the rebels, Forrest was a traitor."

If a person doesn't believe as you do then they are branded as a 'traitor' eh? Good thing we don't still burn folks for having differing opinions. One person's 'rebel' is another's 'patriot'.

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Pippin. You're up early.

[SAMWolf]

Morning E.G.C.

Another cloudy start today.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Aeronaut

[SAMWolf]

Morning Diva Betsy Ross.

Like the poem :-) Thanks for the Whitney Houston version of the National Anthem. Great way to start the morning.

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning GailA.

OFF DOESN'T WORK!

LOL! I bet there are a few people here who could have told you that. :-) Other than being eaten alive, how did the trip turn out?

[society-by-contract]

Nathan Bedford Forrest provides an inspiritation to self-taught people who choose to learn his story. My favorite Forrest biography is A Battle from the Start by Brian Steel Wills:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060168323/qid=1085408917/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-7316133-9521741?v=glance&s=books

Wills' treatment of Forrest doesn't lapse into hagiography like some earlier biographies do.

SAMWolf Thank you for this thread.




Brady

[SAMWolf]

Morning stainlessbanner.

I can't think of many men who started as a private and ended up an effective general in the length of one war.

[SAMWolf]

And his dust is our ashes of glory

Great line!

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for the link 2banana.

[SAMWolf]

Good morning Mayor. Monday morning and the first cup of coffee. MMMMMMM.

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning WhiskeyPapa.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Waterdragon.

I think I'd believe my parents. :-)

[Lee Heggy]

Forrest had a intuitive sense of tactics. He had the charisma to get the best out of his troops. West of the Mississippi there was a lesser known but equally effective calvary officer, General Joseph Orville 'Jo' Shelby. He too suffered from having to be the subordinate of incompetents. At Wilson's Creek, Lexington, Pea Ridge and during Price's retreat after the Battle of Westport and many other actions his 'Iron Brigade' performed magnificently. They never surrendered. At the end of the war he buried his war diaries and sunk his brigade's flags in the Rio Grande and led his men into Mexico where he offered his services in the war with Maximillian. They were refused and they then disbanded and slipped back into the US. Jo Shelby spent the rest of his life in politics and business. He is buried along with over one hundred of his men just two blocks away from where I live in Kansas City under the largest Confederate memorial west of the Mississippi.

[SAMWolf]

1941 Bismarck sinks British battle cruiser HMS Hood, 1,416 die 3 survive

HMS Hood, Britain's largest warship and pride of the Royal Navy steams majestically through the Swept Channel on May 22, 1941. Having fuelled at the Scapa Flow naval base in Scotland, she steers clear of floats suspending torpedo and submarine nets, as she heads for open water and the North Sea. The crew of a naval cutter wave farewell as the mighty battleship departs upon what will prove to be her final voyage.

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning, Feather.