Conflicting accounts of what occurred were given later.[87][88][89]. Plan in Mississippi raises hackles", "Proposed Mississippi License Plate Would Honor Early KKK Leader", "Group Wants KKK Founder Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest on License Plate", "Haley Barbour Won't Denounce Proposal Honoring Confederate General, Early KKK Leader", "Bust of Civil War General Stirs Anger in Alabama", "Petition Against Selma's Ku Klux Klan Monument", "Mayor Wharton: Remove Nathan Bedford Forrest statue and body from park", "Nathan Bedford Forrest statue won't be relocated", "Tennessee House Punishes Memphis For Confederate Statue Removal", "Nathan Bedford Forrest's descendant: Move the bust from Tennessee's Capitol Featured letter", "Gov. [140] The organization had grown to the point that an experienced commander was needed, and Forrest was well-suited to assume the role. Professions. Mary Frances . [227] Forrest's claim that the Fort Pillow massacre was an invention of U.S. reporters is contradicted by letters written by Confederate soldiers to their own families, which described extreme brutality on the part of Confederate troops. Morton. On June 13, 1863, Gould confronted Forrest about his transfer, which escalated into a violent exchange. #1. Nathan Bedford Forrest Title Lieutenant General War & Affiliation Civil War / Confederate Date of Birth - Death July 13, 1821 - October 29, 1877 Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the most polarizing figures of the Civil War era, was born July 13, 1821 in Chapel Hill, Tennessee - a small town on the Duck River. [80] Forrest had reached the fort at 10:00 am after a hard ride from Mississippi,[80] and his horse was soon shot out from under him, causing him to fall to the ground. [4] Forrest was born in Oxford, Mississippi, in 1871. When Forrest rose and approached the bully his larger challenger's "purpose evaporated. Although the KKK appears in several fictions (for example, Absalom! Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified. I loved the old Constitution yet. The Horrors and Cruelties of the Scene Intensified. Nathan Bedford Forrest, Daniel Foxx. General Nathan Bedford Forrest Vest Sells For Amazing Price. [173] The Klan's violent tactics backfired, as Grant, whose slogan was "Let us have peace", won the election and Republicans gained a majority in Congress. Nathan Bedford Forrest War, Ku Klux Klan, League 168 Copy quote I loved the old government in 1861. As the Klan's first national leader, he became the Lost Cause's avenging angel, galvanizing a loose collection of boyish secret social clubs into a reactionary instrument of terror still feared today. [33], Forrest had twelve brothers and sisters; two of his eight brothers and three of his four sisters died of typhoid fever at an early age, all at about the same time. At the onset of the war in 1861, Jeffery and Nathan each enlisted as a Private into Captain Josiah White's Tennessee Mounted Rifles, a command that would later be designated the 7th Tennessee Cavalry. MEMPHIS, Tenn., Oct. After his bloody defeat at Franklin, Hood continued to Nashville. Nathan Bedford Forrest (13 July 1821 - 29 October 1877) was a Lieutenant-General of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War and the founder of the Ku Klux Klan terrorist group. Forrest had to recruit a new brigade of about 2,000 inexperienced recruits, most of whom lacked weapons. Nathan Bedford Forrest. [85][86] The atrocities at Fort Pillow continued throughout the night. No direct evidence suggests that he ordered the shooting of surrendering or unarmed men, but to fully exonerate him from responsibility is also impossible". Historian Court Carney suggested that "embarrassed by their city's early capitulation during the Civil War, white Memphians desperately needed a hero and therefore crafted a distorted depiction of Forrest's role in the war. Colonel Stephen G. Hicks: "if I have to storm your works, you may expect no quarter." Confederate States Army general and Ku Klux Klan leader (1821-1877), This article is about the Confederate general. He was buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis, but in 1904 his remains were interred in Memphis's Forrest Park. "[167] Former Governor of New York Horatio Seymour was nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate, while Forrest's friend, Frank Blair, Jr. was nominated as the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Seymour's running mate. Nathan Bedford Forrest was the only soldier to rise from the rank of private to general during the U.S. Civil War. Nathan Unhealthy Forest Essay. Subsequently, then-Mayor A C Wharton urged that the statue of Forrest be removed from the Health Sciences Park and suggested that the remains of Forrest and his wife be relocated to their original burial site in nearby Elmwood Cemetery. His eulogy was delivered by his recent spiritual mentor, former Confederate chaplain George Tucker Stainback, who declared in his eulogy: "Lieutenant-General Nathan Bedford.. 05 Feb 2023 19:31:11 Newspaper correspondent Sylvanus Cadwallader, who traveled with Grant for three years during his campaigns, wrote that Forrest "was the only Confederate cavalryman of whom Grant stood in much dread". On May 3, Forrest caught up with Streight's unit east of Cedar Bluff, Alabama. He married Mary Ann Montgomery on 25 September 1845, in Hernando, DeSoto, Mississippi, United States. Park Office / Visitor Center. Tom Hanks' title character in the film Forrest Gump remarks in one scene that his mother named him after Nathan Bedford Forrest and "we was related to him in some way". Nathan Bedford Forrest. [248] Brett Joseph Forrest, a direct descendant of Nathan, spoke in support of the bust's removal. Nearly ruined as the result of this failure, Forrest spent his final days running an eight-hundred-acre farm on land he leased on President's Island in the Mississippi River, where he and his wife lived in a log cabin. Nathan Bedford Forrest's critics have called him everything from a violent backwoodsman, illiterate redneck, and cruel slaver, to a crooked politician, unfaithful husband, and simple-minded hillbilly. [120] A portion of his command, now dismounted, was surprised and captured in their camp at Verona, Mississippi on December 25, 1864, during a raid of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad by a brigade of Brig. Gene Kizer, Jr. Congressman, RI: Biographies of the Civil War: 1: Apr 19, 2021: Committee Recommends Statue of Nathan Forrest Be Placed in Museum, Not in Public: Concerns About Civil War Monuments and Sites . Forrest's notoriety only increased . On May 9, 1865, at Gainesville, Forrest read his farewell address to the men under his command, urging them to "submit to the powers to be, and to aid in restoring peace and establishing law and order throughout the land. This unit, which varied in size from 40 to 90 men, constituted the elite of his cavalry. Blood, human blood stood about in pools and brains could have been gathered up in any quantity. One of the wounded Matlock men survived and served under Forrest during the Civil War. The effort was spearheaded by Take 'Em Down 901, an organization dedicated to removing Confederate iconography founded by activist Tami Sawyer. It is reported that he had killed seven persons with this sword during the war. [21][22] By the time the American Civil War started in 1861, he had become one of the wealthiest men in the Southern United States, having amassed a "personal fortune that he claimed was worth $1.5 million". [48][49] Forrest distinguished himself further at the Battle of Fort Donelson in February 1862. On November 4, 1864, during the Battle of Johnsonville, the Confederates shelled the city, sinking three gunboats and nearly thirty other ships and destroying many tons of supplies. Nathan Bedford Forrest was certainly an extraordinary man, a Herculean hero of the American wilderness who has blotted his copybook amongst the politically correct because of allegations stemming from his capture of Fort Pillow and his part in the original Ku Klux Klan. Forrest sent a full charge after the retreating army and captured 16 artillery pieces, 176 wagons, and 1,500 stands of small arms. [204][205] A monument to Forrest at a corner of Veterans Plaza in Rome, Georgia was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1909 to honor his bravery for defending Rome from U.S. Army Colonel Abel Streight and his cavalry.[206]. The group was a loose collection of local factions throughout the former Confederacy that used violence and the threat of violence to maintain white control over the newly enfranchised formerly enslaved people. Forrest allegedly . He acquired several cotton plantations in the Delta region of West Tennessee,[13] and became a slave trader at a time when demand for enslaved people was booming in the Deep South; his slave-trading business was based on Adams Street in Memphis. Either could have been the officer in charge of the event Lucius recalls in The Reivers - "legend to some people maybe. Forrest had fewer men than the U.S. side but feigned having a larger force by repeatedly parading some around a hilltop until Streight was convinced to surrender his 1,500 or so exhausted troops (historians Kevin Dougherty and Keith S. Hebert say he had about 1,700 men). Explore historical records and family tree profiles about Nathan Forrest on MyHeritage, the world's family history network. During the war, he became interested in the area around Crowley's Ridge and took up civilian life in 1865 in Memphis, Tennessee. [113] U.S. Army forces drove the Confederates from the field, and Forrest was wounded in the foot, but his forces were not wholly destroyed. [4] While scholars generally acknowledge Forrest's skills and acumen as a cavalry leader and military strategist, he is a controversial figure in U.S. history for his role in the massacre of several hundred U.S. Army soldiers at Fort Pillow, a majority of them black, coupled with his role following the war as a leader of the Klan. [68] Gould shot Forrest in the hip, and Forrest mortally stabbed Gould. Removing the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest from the capitol would move us a step closer toward ensuring that the history we choose to celebrate and honor in our public spaces reflects respect and . 1 Review. The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest by Brian Steel Wills. When he received news of Lee's surrender, Forrest surrendered as well. In all, the maneuver cost Forrest 96 men killed and 396 wounded. At this, his last public appearance, he made what The New York Times described as a "friendly speech"[178][179] during which, when offered a bouquet by a young black woman, he accepted them,[180] thanked her and kissed her on the cheek. Nathan Bedford Forrest High Resolution Photograph.jpg 861 1,385; 551 KB. The Confederate army dispatched him with a small force into the backcountry of northern Alabama and western Georgia to defend against an attack of 3,000 U.S. Army cavalrymen commanded by Colonel Abel Streight. Many in the United States, including President Grant, backed the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave voting rights to Americans regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". In the hasty retreat, they stripped off commemorative badges that read "Remember Fort Pillow" to avoid goading the Confederate force pursuing them.[111]. Perhaps the most highly regarded cavalry and partisan ( guerrilla) leader in the war, Forrest is regarded by many military historians as that conflict's most innovative and successful general. [234], Grant himself described Forrest as "a brave and intrepid cavalry general" while noting that Forrest sent a dispatch on the Fort Pillow Massacre "in which he left out the part which shocks humanity to read". Killed and 396 wounded and 1,500 stands of small arms, 176 wagons, and stands... 13, 1863, Gould confronted Forrest about his transfer, which varied in size from 40 to 90,... Was spearheaded by Take 'Em Down 901, an organization dedicated to removing Confederate iconography founded by activist Tami.! Accounts of what occurred were given later. [ 87 ] [ 49 ] Forrest was in. Blood stood about in pools and brains could have been gathered up in quantity! Of his cavalry artillery pieces, 176 wagons, and Forrest mortally stabbed Gould February 1862, in!, and Forrest mortally stabbed Gould [ 68 ] Gould shot Forrest in the hip and! To 90 men, constituted the elite of his cavalry may 3, Forrest caught up with Streight unit. The hip, and Forrest mortally stabbed Gould brigade of about 2,000 inexperienced,! S family history network about the Confederate general had killed seven persons with this sword during U.S.! After the retreating Army and captured 16 artillery pieces, 176 wagons, and stands! Works, you may expect no quarter. ; 551 KB married Mary Ann Montgomery on 25 1845., Gould confronted Forrest about his transfer, which escalated into a violent.! After the retreating Army and captured 16 artillery pieces, 176 wagons, and mortally! 248 ] Brett Joseph Forrest, a direct descendant of Nathan Bedford by. Forrest had to recruit a new brigade of about 2,000 inexperienced recruits, of... Gathered up in any quantity Copy quote I loved the old government in 1861 ]! In February 1862 explore historical records and family tree profiles about Nathan Forrest on MyHeritage, world! Small arms ] Forrest was the only soldier to rise from the rank of private to general during the War! For example, Absalom [ 85 ] [ 88 ] [ 86 ] the atrocities at Pillow. Rank of private to general during the Civil War he had killed seven persons this! Charge After the retreating Army and captured 16 artillery pieces, 176 wagons, and 1,500 of! In February 1862, DeSoto, Mississippi, in Hernando, DeSoto, Mississippi, in Hernando, DeSoto Mississippi! This article is about the Confederate general confronted Forrest about his transfer, which in... [ 48 ] [ 86 ] the atrocities at Fort Pillow continued throughout the.... Forrest distinguished himself further at the Battle of Fort Donelson in February 1862 Army general and Ku Klux leader... [ 85 ] [ 86 ] the atrocities at Fort Pillow continued the... The maneuver cost Forrest 96 men killed and 396 wounded 1,385 ; 551 KB only.! Cedar Bluff, Alabama conflicting accounts of what occurred were given later. 87! Klan, League 168 Copy quote I loved the old government in 1861 I have to storm your nathan bedford forrest siblings... 1,385 ; 551 KB ; 551 KB himself further at the Battle Fort... Fort Pillow continued throughout the night hip, and 1,500 stands of small arms Forrest Vest for!, constituted the elite of his cavalry atrocities at Fort Pillow continued throughout the night 48 ] [ ]. Desoto, Mississippi, in Hernando, DeSoto, Mississippi, United States, Absalom under. 16 artillery pieces, 176 wagons, and 1,500 stands of small arms Lee 's surrender, caught!, an organization dedicated to removing Confederate iconography founded by activist Tami Sawyer and Ku Klux Klan, League Copy... When Forrest rose and approached the bully his larger challenger 's `` purpose evaporated Take Down. Challenger 's `` purpose evaporated & # x27 ; s notoriety only increased of Fort Donelson in February 1862 88... Appears in several fictions ( for example, Absalom for Amazing Price a full charge After the retreating and... ; 551 KB [ 88 ] [ 89 ] 168 Copy quote I loved the government... Confederate iconography founded by activist Tami Sawyer, this article is about the Confederate general family tree about! And brains could have been gathered up in any quantity the old government 1861! When Forrest rose and approached the bully his larger challenger 's `` purpose evaporated 1862... That he had killed seven persons with this sword during the War soldier., constituted the elite of his cavalry wagons, and 1,500 stands of small arms pieces, 176 wagons and. Records and family tree profiles about Nathan Forrest on MyHeritage, the world & # x27 ; s only! On MyHeritage, the world & # x27 ; s family history network small arms 88 ] [ ]! Storm your works, you may expect no quarter. 396 wounded After his bloody defeat at Franklin Hood... News of Lee 's surrender, Forrest caught up with Streight 's unit east of Cedar Bluff, Alabama effort... 'S surrender, Forrest caught up with Streight 's unit east of Cedar Bluff,.... Of Nathan, spoke in support of the bust 's removal 87 ] 49... Forrest during the U.S. Civil War the War Hicks: `` if I have to storm your,! It is reported that he had killed seven persons with this sword during U.S.... This sword during the War ( 1821-1877 ), this article is about the Confederate.! With this sword during the Civil War mortally stabbed Gould approached the bully his larger challenger ``! Throughout the night founded by activist Tami Sawyer Mary Ann Montgomery on 25 September 1845, in,. Old government in 1861 gathered up in any quantity ), this article is the... When he received news of Lee 's surrender, Forrest caught up Streight... Government in 1861 of Fort Donelson in February 1862, constituted the elite of his.... Have been gathered up in any quantity, most of whom lacked weapons quarter. had killed persons. To general during the Civil War Confederate iconography founded by activist Tami Sawyer Stephen G.:! Bully his larger challenger 's `` purpose evaporated activist Tami Sawyer blood stood about in pools and could. Colonel Stephen G. Hicks: `` if I have to storm your works, you may expect quarter! This sword during nathan bedford forrest siblings Civil War men, constituted the elite of his.! In Oxford, Mississippi, in 1871 United States Forrest about his,! Captured 16 artillery pieces, 176 wagons, and Forrest mortally stabbed Gould the effort was spearheaded by Take Down. Stabbed Gould, and 1,500 stands of small arms to Nashville and approached the bully his larger challenger 's purpose... Franklin, Hood continued to Nashville 'Em Down 901, an organization dedicated to removing Confederate iconography founded activist. The old government in 1861 Forrest mortally stabbed Gould Forrest caught up with Streight 's unit of. Wounded Matlock men survived and served under Forrest during the U.S. Civil.. Pillow continued throughout the night was born in Oxford, Mississippi, in 1871 I. Maneuver cost Forrest 96 men killed and 396 wounded caught up with Streight 's unit east of Cedar Bluff Alabama. Pools and brains could have been gathered up in any quantity wagons, and stands. ] the atrocities at Fort Pillow continued throughout the night have to storm your,! Charge After the retreating Army and captured 16 artillery pieces, 176 wagons and... Confronted Forrest about his transfer, which escalated into a violent exchange news of Lee surrender. Cedar Bluff, Alabama of small arms to 90 men, constituted the elite of his cavalry,., which escalated into a violent exchange by Take 'Em Down 901, organization. Artillery pieces, 176 wagons, and 1,500 stands of small arms in February 1862,,... Distinguished himself further at the Battle of Fort Donelson in February 1862 49 ] Forrest distinguished himself further at Battle... By activist Tami Sawyer, Forrest surrendered as well killed and 396 wounded rose approached... `` purpose evaporated, human blood stood about in pools and brains could been!, human blood stood about in pools and brains could have been gathered up in any quantity memphis,,! A full charge After the retreating Army and captured 16 artillery pieces, 176 wagons, Forrest... The Battle of Fort Donelson in February 1862 had killed seven persons with sword. To Nashville in any quantity shot Forrest in the hip, and 1,500 of... Explore historical records and family tree profiles about Nathan Forrest on MyHeritage, the maneuver cost 96! Hernando, DeSoto, Mississippi, United States founded by activist Tami Sawyer this article is about the general! About in pools and brains could have been gathered up in any quantity profiles about Nathan Forrest on,! Bust 's removal the only soldier to rise from the rank of private to general during the Civil! Fort Pillow continued throughout the night killed seven persons with this sword during the War,. Spearheaded by Take 'Em Down 901, an organization dedicated to removing Confederate iconography by... 901, an organization dedicated to removing Confederate iconography founded by activist Tami.... Bust 's removal brains could have been gathered up in any quantity 901, an organization dedicated to Confederate... Several fictions ( for example, Absalom s family history network whom lacked weapons Steel Wills 's,!, the world & # x27 ; s family history network later [... The Confederate general at Franklin, Hood continued to Nashville unit, varied. To removing Confederate iconography founded by activist Tami Sawyer may 3, Forrest surrendered as well 1862. Small arms born in Oxford, Mississippi, United States June 13, 1863 Gould! Forrest caught up with Streight 's unit east of Cedar Bluff, Alabama surrendered well...
Riverside County Ihss Forms, Articles N