Reviews for Nathan Bedford Forrest
Review - Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography
Forrest was an interesting guy. Born and raised in poverty, he became wealthy by means of several business ventures, chief among them being the primary slave trader in Memphis. He was a local politician and owned a lot of property.
When the Civil War broke out, Forrest joined as a private but was soon appointed a Colonel of Tennessee cavalry. He is the only man on either side to rise from private to lieutenant general, but this sounds less amazing when you realize he went from private to colonel within weeks of joining. He was never defeated in a battle in which he was in charge, and participated in many larger battles, including Shiloh and Chickamauga. His tactics are considered brilliant — attack always, even when greatly outnumbered. He was know for dividing a smaller force in the face of a larger enemy and attacking on the flanks, for sending artillery forward in attack unsupported and in relentless pursuit that wore down armies twice the size of his. He practiced all sorts of tricks to fool his opponents into thinking he had more men than he did.
His negative reputation is based on two events — after storming Fort Pillow in Tennessee, his men slaughtered hundreds of Black Union soldiers and their White officers who were surrendering. This event wasn’t unprecedented in the war, but was investigated by Congress and so has gained notoriety. And, Forrest was the Grand Wizzard of the fledgling Ku Klux Klan after the war.
The Klan was started as a lark and grew to be a means of intimidating Blacks and Republican Radicals who were uniting to keep the South suppressed for their own political gain. But when the ex-Confederates had gained their political rights again, and many of the Klan gangs turned to violence, Forrest had it disbanded in Tennessee and renounced its continued existence in other states.
He lost his fortune in the war and tried many ways to regain it afterwards, including railroads, without success. Toward the end of his life, he started to regain his money with a farm on an island in the Mississippi using convict labor. But the effort and the environment killed him.
The most interesting fact, however, is that about two years before he died, he became a Christian lived the rest of his life in such a way that many who knew him before marked the difference. The author, while obviously not terribly interested, does include a few of Forrest’s statements of faith that seem to indicate his conversion was genuine. He died in 1877 at the age of 56.
Forrest was a fascinating subject, but the book was mediocre. It rambled in the beginning, was almost impossible to follow during the war campaigns and got bogged down in financial details toward the end. There were very few maps, and these were so inadequate as to be pointless.
When the Civil War broke out, Forrest joined as a private but was soon appointed a Colonel of Tennessee cavalry. He is the only man on either side to rise from private to lieutenant general, but this sounds less amazing when you realize he went from private to colonel within weeks of joining. He was never defeated in a battle in which he was in charge, and participated in many larger battles, including Shiloh and Chickamauga. His tactics are considered brilliant — attack always, even when greatly outnumbered. He was know for dividing a smaller force in the face of a larger enemy and attacking on the flanks, for sending artillery forward in attack unsupported and in relentless pursuit that wore down armies twice the size of his. He practiced all sorts of tricks to fool his opponents into thinking he had more men than he did.
His negative reputation is based on two events — after storming Fort Pillow in Tennessee, his men slaughtered hundreds of Black Union soldiers and their White officers who were surrendering. This event wasn’t unprecedented in the war, but was investigated by Congress and so has gained notoriety. And, Forrest was the Grand Wizzard of the fledgling Ku Klux Klan after the war.
The Klan was started as a lark and grew to be a means of intimidating Blacks and Republican Radicals who were uniting to keep the South suppressed for their own political gain. But when the ex-Confederates had gained their political rights again, and many of the Klan gangs turned to violence, Forrest had it disbanded in Tennessee and renounced its continued existence in other states.
He lost his fortune in the war and tried many ways to regain it afterwards, including railroads, without success. Toward the end of his life, he started to regain his money with a farm on an island in the Mississippi using convict labor. But the effort and the environment killed him.
The most interesting fact, however, is that about two years before he died, he became a Christian lived the rest of his life in such a way that many who knew him before marked the difference. The author, while obviously not terribly interested, does include a few of Forrest’s statements of faith that seem to indicate his conversion was genuine. He died in 1877 at the age of 56.
Forrest was a fascinating subject, but the book was mediocre. It rambled in the beginning, was almost impossible to follow during the war campaigns and got bogged down in financial details toward the end. There were very few maps, and these were so inadequate as to be pointless.
Reviewed by Roger on 2006-08-12 21:03:18