[246] In a nearly unanimous vote on July 7, the Memphis City Council passed a resolution in favor of removing the statue and securing the couple's remains for transfer. 100. After his cavalry captured a U.S. artillery battery, he broke out of a siege headed by Major General Ulysses S. Grant, rallying nearly 4,000 troops and leading them to escape across the Cumberland River. [6], Forrest's most decisive victory came on June 10, 1864, when his 3,500-man force clashed with 8,500 men commanded by U.S. Army Brig. The Horrors and Cruelties of the Scene Intensified. Legislative Branch-Dixon, Nathan Fellows II - U.S. On June 13, 1863, Gould confronted Forrest about his transfer, which escalated into a violent exchange. [43] In October 1861, Forrest was given command of a regiment, the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry. When he expressed his opinion to one of General Forrest's granddaughters, she replied after a pause, "You know, we never thought much of Mr. Lincoln in my family". In June 2021, the remains of Forrest and his wife were exhumed from Health Sciences Park, where they had been buried for over 100 years, and a monument of him once stood. "Every moment lost is worth the life of a thousand men". Nathan Bedford Forrest died in Memphis, Tennessee on October 29, 1877. The Republicans had nominated one of Forrest's battle adversaries, U.S. war hero Ulysses S. Grant, for the Presidency at their convention held in October. Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest was a skilled Confederate cavalry leader during the Civil War who served in the west and was a master of mobile warfare. [171] Grant defeated Horatio Seymour, the Democratic presidential candidate, by a comfortable electoral margin, 214 to 80. There, with the labor of over a hundred prison convicts, he grew corn, potatoes, vegetables, and cotton profitably, but his health steadily declined. A surgeon removed the musket ball a week later without anesthesia, which was unavailable. Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the U.S. Confederate States presidential election of 1861, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nathan_Bedford_Forrest&oldid=1138674019, Confederate States Army lieutenant generals, People of Tennessee in the American Civil War, Articles with dead external links from August 2018, Articles with permanently dead external links, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2007, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Pages using Sister project links with wikidata namespace mismatch, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Raids in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi, early December 1862 early January 1863, Farewell address to his troops, May 9, 1865, This page was last edited on 10 February 2023, at 23:40. He was not as successful in railroad promotion as in war, and, under his direction, the company went bankrupt. Nathan Bedford Forrest Civil War Print, Gallery Of Gettysburg Brand New $6.40 endzonecards23 (2,459) 100% Was: $8.00 20% off or Best Offer +$5.00 shipping Sponsored General Nathan Bedford Forrest Framed Limited Edition Print "That Devil Forrest" Pre-Owned $350.00 lefor-4928 (0) 0% or Best Offer +$12.45 shipping Sponsored 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. The Confederates destroyed much of the U.S. Army's supplies and railroad tracks in the area. All of the sidewalks in the park were named after officers who served under himexcept for one, which was named for his war horse King Philip. The members are sworn to recognize the government of the United States Its objects originally were protection against Loyal Leagues and the Grand Army of the Republic". [19][13][20] In 1858, Forrest was elected a Memphis city alderman as a Democrat and served two consecutive terms. 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". [168] The SeymourBlair Democratic ticket's campaign slogan was: "Our Ticket, Our Motto, This Is a White Man's Country; Let White Men Rule". Under these laws enforced by Grant and the newly formed Department of Justice, there were over 5,000 indictments and 1,000 convictions of Klan members across the Southern United States. Gen. James H. Wilson, defeated Forrest at the Battle of Selma on April 2, 1865. [100], At the time of the massacre, General Grant was no longer in Tennessee but had transferred to the east to command all U.S. troops. [18], Forrest had success as a businessman, planter, and enslaver. [126], He later found employment at the Selma-based Marion & Memphis Railroad and eventually became the company president. He wanted nothing more to do with the Klan, but felt honor bound to protect former associates. All available carts and wagons were pressed into service to haul six hundred boxes of army clothing, 250,000 pounds of bacon, and forty wagon-loads of ammunition to the railroad depots, to be sent off to Chattanooga and Decatur. The ball went through Forrest's pelvis and lodged near his spine. [93] The rebels said the U.S. flag was still flying over the fort, which indicated that the force had not formally surrendered. Similar accounts were reported in many Confederate newspapers at the time. [99] President Abraham Lincoln asked his cabinet for opinions as to how the United States should respond to the massacre. 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. The following scene satirically depicts Hanks as Forrest in a Ku Klux Klan outfit, donning a hood and being superimposed into Klan footage from The Birth of a Nation. Forrest assisted in maintaining order. [248] Brett Joseph Forrest, a direct descendant of Nathan, spoke in support of the bust's removal. [202] As an armory for the Confederacy, Selma provided a substantial part of the Confederacy's ammunition during the American Civil War. The historical record does not support his repeated denials that he knew a massacre was taking place or that he even knew a massacre had occurred at all. Forrest rarely drank and abstained from tobacco use; he was often described as generally mild-mannered, but according to Hosea and other contemporaries who knew him, his demeanor changed drastically when provoked or angered. [109] When Sturgis's Federal army came upon the crossroads, they collided with Forrest's cavalry. You have been good soldiers. [228] According to this analysis, Forrest's troops were carrying out Confederate policy. A U.S. infantryman on the ground beside Forrest fired a musket ball at him with a point-blank shot, nearly knocking him out of the saddle. [114] He continued to oppose U.S. Army efforts in the West for the remainder of the war. [243] On March 10, 2012, it was vandalized, and the bronze bust of the general disappeared. The Klan's activity infiltrated the Democratic Party's campaign for the presidential election of 1868. White Americans who made up the KKK hoped to persuade black voters that returning to their pre-war state of bondage was in their best interest. August 12, 2021. [233], The site is now a Tennessee State Historic Park. "Get there first with the most men". He was particularly famous for his determination to be "first with the most men." He was born in Chapel Hill, Tennessee, on July 13, 1821. Forrest protested that sending such untrained men behind enemy lines was suicidal, but Bragg insisted, and Forrest obeyed his orders. Nathan Bedford Forrest. 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. [147][148][149][150][151][152][153], Following the war, the United States Congress began passing the Reconstruction Acts to specify conditions for the readmission of former Confederate States to the United States,[154][155][156] including ratification of the Fourteenth (1868), and Fifteenth (1870) Amendments to the United States Constitution. In August, a historical society called Friends of Forrest moved forward with plans for a new, larger monument to be 12 feet high, illuminated by LED lights, surrounded by a wrought-iron fence, and protected by 24-hour security cameras. In 1871, the U.S. Congressional Committee Report stated that "The natural tendency of all such organizations is to violence and crime, hence it was that Gen. Forrest and other men of influence by the exercise of their moral power, induced them to disband". In retaliation, Forrest shot and killed two of them with his two-shot pistol and wounded two others with a knife thrown to him. Forrest's responsibility for the massacre continues to be actively debated by historians.[6]. Colonel Stephen G. Hicks: "if I have to storm your works, you may expect no quarter." [116] Facing a disastrous defeat, Forrest argued bitterly with Hood (his superior officer) demanding permission to cross the Harpeth River and cut off the escape route of U.S. Army Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield's army. Nathan Bedford Forrest (grandfather) Nathan Bedford Forrest II (August 1871 - March 11, 1931) was an American businessman who served as the 19th Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans from 1919 to 1921, [1] [2] [3] and as the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan for Georgia. [13] Forrest's family lived in a log house (now preserved as the Nathan Bedford Forrest Boyhood Home) from 1830 to 1833. Nathan Bedford Forrest passed away in the Memphis home of his brother Jesse on October 29, 1877. [95][96][97], Following the cessation of hostilities, Forrest transferred the 14 most seriously wounded United States Colored Troops (USCT) to the U.S. steamer Silver Cloud. . Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified. As a result, Grant was forced to revise and delay his Vicksburg campaign strategy. 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". [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]. Report of the Committee on the Conduct of the War. [80], On April 12, 1864, Forrest's men, under Brig. [143] The title "Grand Wizard" was chosen because General Forrest had been known as "The Wizard of the Saddle" during the war. [132] According to Forrest biographer Jack Hurst, writers present at the public viewing of Forrest's body and the funeral procession noted many black citizens among them. On May 3, Forrest caught up with Streight's unit east of Cedar Bluff, Alabama. [132], Forrest reportedly died from acute complications of diabetes at the Memphis home of his brother Jesse on October 29, 1877. As a slave trader how many slaves did Nathan Bedford Forrest sell? [171], Forrest testified before the Congressional investigation of Klan activities on June 27, 1871. Needing to make money to support his mother and siblings, Forrest went into business with his uncle, Jonathan Forrest, in . [241] Barbour refused to denounce the honor. [20][42], His superior officers and Governor of Tennessee Isham G. Harris were surprised that someone of Forrest's wealth and prominence had enlisted as a soldier, especially since significant planters were exempted from service. The poor deluded negroes would run up to our men fall upon their knees and with uplifted hands scream for mercy but they were ordered to their feet and then shot down. He married Mary Ann Montgomery on 25 September 1845, in Hernando, DeSoto, Mississippi, United States. The infantry, tired, weary, and suffering under the heat, were quickly broken and sent into mass retreat. [203] The bust of Forrest was stolen from the cemetery monument in March 2012 and replaced in May 2015. 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. 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