Generals in Gray: Forrest

Nathan Bedford Forrest

A tactical genius known for his "lightening strikes" and miraculous escapes, four times he was wounded in battle and 29 times he had horses shot out from under him (he also claimed to have personally killed 30 enemy soldiers). Using an innovative combination of mounted and dismounted tactics, he routinely defeated Union forces twice his size. One of the war's controversies was an attack led by Forrest on the Union garrison at Fort Pillow in April 1864, where over 200 black soldiers were massacred after they had surrendered. (For most of the war, the Confederate government insisted that black soldiers would be treated as fugitive slaves rather than prisoners of war.) After the war Forrest resumed the life of a planter and also served as a railroad president. In 1866 he helped organize the Ku Klux Klan and served as "Grand Wizard" [a fact not mentioned by Warner in Generals in Gray]. He died in Memphis in 1877.
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A wealthy planter and slave dealer from Tennessee, Forrest was perhaps the foremost Confederate cavalry officer of the war. A self-made millionaire, at the age of 40, Forrest raised and equipped a battalion of mounted troops (the 7th Tennessee Cavalry) and was elected lieutenant colonel in October 1861. Despite his lack of formal military training, he was audacious, fearless, and a born leader with a gift for military command. (Sherman considered "that Devil Forrest..the most remarkable man" produced by the war on either side. His cavalry harassed Sherman's supply and communication lines until the end of the war.) Forrest assumed command of a cavalry brigade of the Army of Tennessee in 1862 and played a key role in saving the battered Army of the Mississippi (commanded by A. S. Johnston) from destruction at Shiloh. Forrest captured a Union garrison at Murfreesboro and was promoted to major general in December 1863. In 1864 he commanded all cavalry in the Tennessee campaign under Hood, and in February 1865 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general.

© 2003 David C. Hanson, HIS 269 - Civil War and Reconstruction, Virginia W. Community College

Nathan Bedford Forrest
	A tactical genius known for his "lightening strikes" and miraculous escapes, four times he was wounded in battle and 29 times he had horses shot out from under him (he also claimed to have personally killed 30 enemy soldiers). Using an innovative combination of mounted and dismounted tactics, he routinely defeated Union forces twice his size. One of the war's controversies was an attack led by Forrest on the Union garrison at Fort Pillow in April 1864, where over 200 black soldiers were massacred after they had surrendered. (For most of the war, the Confederate government insisted that black soldiers would be treated as fugitive slaves rather than prisoners of war.) After the war Forrest resumed the life of a planter and also served as a railroad president. In 1866 he helped organize the Ku Klux Klan and served as "Grand Wizard" [a fact not mentioned by Warner in Generals in Gray]. He died in Memphis in 1877. Generals >
A wealthy planter and slave dealer from Tennessee, Forrest was perhaps the foremost Confederate cavalry officer of the war. A self-made millionaire, at the age of 40, Forrest raised and equipped a battalion of mounted troops (the 7th Tennessee Cavalry) and was elected lieutenant colonel in October 1861. Despite his lack of formal military training, he was audacious, fearless, and a born leader with a gift for military command. (Sherman considered "that Devil Forrest..the most remarkable man" produced by the war on either side. His cavalry harassed Sherman's supply and communication lines until the end of the war.) Forrest assumed command of a cavalry brigade of the Army of Tennessee in 1862 and played a key role in saving the battered Army of the Mississippi (commanded by A. S. Johnston) from destruction at Shiloh. Forrest captured a Union garrison at Murfreesboro and was promoted to major general in December 1863. In 1864 he commanded all cavalry in the Tennessee campaign under Hood, and in February 1865 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general.