Nathan Bedford Forrest

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Nathan Bedford Forrest LIEUTENANT GENERAL

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. When his father, a blacksmith, died when he was 16, Forrest moved to the Memphis Delta and eventually became a successful businessman – indeed a millionaire – dealing in cotton, land and slaves.

 

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Forrest volunteered as a private before deciding to raise and equip an entire unit at his own expense. He was commissioned lieutenant colonel, and issued this call to arms in June, 1861:

 

“I wish none but those who desire to be actively engaged. COME ON BOYS, IF YOU WANT A HEAP OF FUN AND TO KILL SOME YANKEES

https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/nathan-bedford-forrest.html&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwjntKeDzPDNAhXi6YMKHV9zCTEQFggEMAA&client=internal-uds-cse&usg=AFQjCNFl86D0JhXycfmVfvqsd-XTSv-83A

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Bust Hell Wide Open

By James Rutledge Roesch on Jul 11, 2017

A review of Bust Hell Wide Open: the Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest by Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr., Regnery History, 2016.

Writing a biography about Nathan Bedford Forrest – a man recognized by no less than General Robert E. Lee and General William T. Sherman as “the most remarkable man produced by the Civil War on either side” – is a daunting task. How does an author do justice to such an imposing historical figure? In Bust Hell Wide Open: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest (Regnery History, 2016), author Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr. proves that he is more than up to the challenge. Unlike many biographies, which can get so mired in minutiae that reading them feels like a forced march, Bust Hell Wide Open reads like a rollicking cavalry charge. Perhaps most importantly for a figure as controversial as Forrest, Mitcham massacres the untruths and misperceptions that have haunted him and unjustly darkened his legacy. Mitcham’s Bust Hell Wide Open can ride in the company of Forrest classics such as John Allan Wyeth’s That Devil Forrest, Andrew Nelson Lytle’s Bedford Forrest and his Critter Company, and Robert Selph Henry’s First With the Most.    https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/review/bust-hell-wide-open/ 

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A Rebel Born

By Clyde Wilson on Jul 13, 2017

Foreword for A Rebel Born: A Defense of Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate General, American Legend, by Lochlainn Seabrook, Sea Raven Press, 2010.

There is a story that a year or two after the great American war of 1861–1865, a visiting Englishman asked Gen. R.E. Lee, “Who is the greatest soldier produced by the war?” It is reported that Lee without hesitation replied: “A gentleman in Tennessee whom I have never met. His name is Forrest.”

There can be no doubt that Bedford Forrest was one of the great captains of history.

General J.E.B. Stuart is justly celebrated for his ride around the Union army in Virginia in 1862. More than once Forrest rode around Union armies into occupied Kentucky and Tennessee, eluding or thwarting every cavalry expedition sent against him and returning home with vast booty of horses, provisions and equipment, prisoners, and recruits. Beyond his accomplishments as a soldier, Forrest was and remains a hero to the people of the mid-South that he led in resistance to a vicious invasion.

Time and time again he defeated much larger forces in battle. Other enemy forces he regularly dispersed, captured, and deprived of their supplies. By bold and quick movement, accompanied by a genius for terrain and for surprising his opponents, he tied down or diverted large opposing armies. Time and again he raised new forces and equipped them from the enemy.  https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/a-rebel-born/

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Podcast Episode 80

By Brion McClanahan

The Week in Review at the Abbeville Institute, July 10-14 2017 Topics: Nathan Bedford Forrest, Richard B. Russell, the New South, Confederate symbols, Political Correctness    https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/podcast-episode-80/