Nathan Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821 – October 29, 1877) was a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. He is remembered both as a self-educated, innovative cavalry leader during the war and as a leading southern advocate in the postwar years. He served as the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, a secret vigilante organization which launched a reign of terrorism against African-Americans, Northerners who had moved to the postwar South, Southerners who supported the Union, and Republicans during the Reconstruction era in the Southern United States.
A cavalry and military commander in the war, Forrest is one of the war's most unusual figures. Less educated than many of his fellow officers, Forrest had amassed a fortune prior to the war as a planter, real estate investor, and slave trader. He was one of the few officers in either army to enlist as a private and be promoted to general officer and division commander by the end of the war. Although Forrest lacked formal military education, he had a gift for strategy and tactics. He created and established new doctrines for mobile forces, earning the nickname The Wizard of the Saddle.
He was accused of war crimes at the Battle of Fort Pillow for allowing forces under his command to conduct a massacre upon hundreds of black Union Army and white Southern Unionist prisoners. In their postwar writings, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and General Robert E. Lee both expressed their belief that the Confederate high command had failed to fully utilize Forrest's talents.
Read more about Nathan Bedford Forrest: Early Life, Military Career, War Record and Promotions, Posthumous Legacy
Famous quotes containing the words nathan, bedford and/or forrest:
“Well, Mary, only six more days to go and your old Nathan will be out of the army. Havent decided what Ill do yet. Somehow I just cant picture myself back there on the banks of the Wabash rocking on a front porch. No, Ive been thinkin I, maybe Ill push on west, new settlements, California.”
—Frank S. Nugent (19081965)
“The only thing that was dispensed free to the old New Bedford whalemen was a Bible. A well-known owner of one of that citys whaling fleets once described the Bible as the best cheap investment a shipowner could make.”
—For the State of Massachusetts, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Stupid is as stupid does.”
—Eric Roth, U.S. screenwriter. Directed by Robert Zemekis. Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks)