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Nathan Bedford Forrest | HearLore
— Ch. 1 · Frontier Origins And Early Commerce —
Nathan Bedford Forrest.
~9 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
Nathan Bedford Forrest entered the world on the 13th of July 1821, inside a one-room log cabin near Chapel Hill, Tennessee. His family lived in poverty, with no windows and only a single fireplace to warm their home. The cabin measured just eighteen by twenty feet of earth floor space. Light and air entered through doorways and cracks rather than glass panes. A pane of glass was considered a luxury unknown to this primitive life.
Forrest's father died in 1837 when Nathan was sixteen years old. He became the primary caretaker for his twelve siblings at that young age. Two of his eight brothers and three of his four sisters had already died from typhoid fever before he took charge. He contracted the disease himself but survived while his father eventually succumbed to its residual effects five years later.
In 1841, Forrest ventured into business partnerships in Hernando, Mississippi. He operated a livery stable, ran a stagecoach line, and managed a brickyard. By 1851, he had become a notable slave trader in the United States. He is believed to have sold thousands of slaves during his career and earned profits of hundreds of thousands of dollars in 1850s currency.
His business headquarters sat at 87 Adams Street in Memphis, where several other slave traders operated nearby. In 1862, a federal investigation found that Forrest also sold thirty-seven individuals illegally imported to the United States from Africa on the slave ship Wanderer. He advocated for reopening the transatlantic slave trade as an initial investor in that shipment.
By October 1860, Forrest owned at least 3,345 acres in Mississippi. He purchased two large cotton plantations in Coahoma County and bought a one-half property interest in an Arkansas plantation. His personal fortune was claimed to be worth $1.5 million by the time the American Civil War started in 1861.
Cavalry Tactics And Military Rise
Forrest enlisted in the Confederate States Army on the 14th of June 1861, reporting for training at Fort Wright near Randolph, Tennessee. He joined Captain Josiah White's cavalry Company E, nicknamed "the Tennessee Mounted Rifles," as a private. He brought his youngest brother Jesse A. Forrest and his fifteen-year-old son William Montgomery Forrest with him.
Upon seeing how badly equipped the Confederate forces were, Forrest offered to buy horses and equipment with his own money for a regiment of Tennessee volunteer soldiers. His superior officers and Tennessee Governor Isham G. Harris commissioned him as a lieutenant colonel despite his lack of formal military training. They authorized him to recruit and train a battalion of Confederate mounted rangers.
In October 1861, Forrest received command of the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry. He exhibited leadership and soon proved he could successfully employ military tactics without prior experience. He gained a reputation for maintaining discipline through physical force. When information from a scout proved erroneous, Forrest struck the man's head against a tree.
His first field victory came during the Battle of Sacramento in Kentucky. He routed a Union Army force by personally leading a cavalry charge that Brigadier General Charles Clark later commended. At the Battle of Fort Donelson in February 1862, his cavalry captured a Union artillery battery. He broke out of the siege headed by Major General Ulysses S. Grant, rallying nearly 4,000 troops and leading them to escape across the Cumberland River.
Forrest was promoted to brigadier general on the 21st of July 1862. He established new doctrines for mobile forces, earning him the nickname "The Wizard of the Saddle." He used his cavalry troops as mounted infantry and often deployed artillery as the lead in battle. This approach helped revolutionize cavalry tactics throughout the war.
The Fort Pillow Controversy
Fort Pillow sat upriver from Memphis near Henning, Tennessee, defended by 557 Union Army troops including 295 white soldiers and 262 black soldiers under Maj. L.F. Booth. On the 12th of April 1864, Forrest's men attacked and recaptured the fort after a hard ride from Mississippi where two horses were shot out from under him.
By 3:30 p.m., Forrest concluded the Union troops could not hold the fort. He ordered a flag of truce raised and demanded surrender while warning Bradford he could not be held responsible for what his men might do in the heat of battle. Bradford refused to surrender, believing his troops could escape to the Union Navy gunboat USS New Era on the Mississippi River.
As Union Army troops surrendered, Forrest's men opened fire, slaughtering both black and white Union soldiers. According to historians John Cimprich and Bruce Tap, although their numbers were roughly equal, two-thirds of the black Union Army soldiers were killed while only a third of the whites died. The atrocities continued throughout the night with allegations of back-shooting fleeing soldiers and burning men alive.
Conflicting accounts emerged later about what occurred at Fort Pillow. A contemporary newspaper account from Jackson, Tennessee stated that "General Forrest begged them to surrender" but "not the first sign of surrender was ever given." These statements contradicted Union survivors and letters from Confederate soldier Achilles Clark who graphically recounted a massacre.
President Abraham Lincoln asked his cabinet how the United States should respond to the massacre. Contemporary Northern newspapers and congressional investigations held Forrest responsible for the killings. Later historians have differed over whether the deaths resulted from explicit orders, loss of control during the assault, or racialized battlefield practices within the Confederate army.
Grand Wizard Of The Klan
Forrest became involved with the Ku Klux Klan in late 1866 when the organization formed by six veterans expanded throughout Tennessee and beyond. He arrived in Nashville while the Klan met at the Maxwell House Hotel in April 1867, probably encouraged by former fellow CSA general George Gordon. In Room 10 of the Maxwell, Forrest was sworn in as a member by John W. Morton.
The title "Grand Wizard" was chosen because Forrest had been known as "The Wizard of the Saddle" during the war. Nominations were solicited and a voice from the back called out "The Wizard of the Saddle, General Nathan Bedford Forrest." The nominee was elected quickly and designated grand wizard of the Invisible Empire.
In August 1867 state elections, the Klan remained relatively restrained in its actions. 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. After these efforts failed, Klan violence and intimidation escalated and became widespread.
An 1868 interview by a Cincinnati newspaper claimed the Ku Klux Klan had 40,000 members in Tennessee and 550,000 total members throughout the Southern United States. Forrest said he sympathized with them but denied any formal connection. He described the Klan as "a protective political military organization" whose original objects were protection against Loyal Leagues and the Grand Army of the Republic.
After only a year as Grand Wizard, Forrest dissolved the Klan in January 1869. He ordered costumes destroyed and withdrew from participation. His declaration had little effect since few Klansmen actually destroyed their robes and hoods. In 1871, a U.S. Congressional Committee Report stated that the natural tendency of such organizations is to violence and crime.
Postwar Business And Convict Labor
Forrest experienced the abolition of slavery at the war's end as a major financial setback. During the war, he became interested in the area around Crowley's Ridge and took up civilian life in 1865 in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1866, he contracted to finish the Memphis & Little Rock Railroad including a right-of-way passing over the ridge.
The ridgetop commissary he built as a provisioning store for 1,000 Irish laborers laid rails became the nucleus of a town called Forrest City, Arkansas, incorporated in 1870. Historian Court Carney writes that Forrest was not universally popular in white Memphis community. He alienated many city business people through questionable commercial dealings causing him to default on debts.
He later found employment at the Selma-based Marion & Memphis Railroad eventually becoming company president. Under his direction, the company went bankrupt nearly ruining him financially. Forrest spent his final days running an eight-hundred-acre farm on land leased on President's Island in the Mississippi River where he lived with his wife in a log cabin.
There, with labor from over one hundred prison convicts, he grew corn, potatoes, vegetables, and cotton profitably while his health steadily declined. In May 1877, Forrest's use of convict labor was described as indistinguishable from slavery due to bloodhounds, shotgun-wielding guards, and corporal punishment. Critics argued it was unjust and exploitative since the convict farmer had financial interest in conviction of persons needed.
Legacy And Modern Reckoning
Forrest died from acute complications of diabetes at his brother Jesse's Memphis home on the 29th of October 1877. His funeral procession stretched over two miles long with an estimated crowd of 20,000 mourners including many black citizens among them. He was buried on the 30th of October 1877 at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis with military honors as a member of the Oddfellows.
In 1904, the remains of Forrest and his wife Mary were disinterred from Elmwood and moved to a Memphis city park originally named Forrest Park in his honor but later renamed Health Sciences Park. On the 7th of July 2015, the Memphis City Council unanimously voted to remove the statue of Forrest from Health Sciences Park and return their remains to Elmwood Cemetery.
The Tennessee Historical Commission invoked the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act of 2013 on the 13th of October 2017 to overrule the city decision. Consequently, Memphis sold the park land to Memphis Greenspace, a non-profit entity not subject to the act which immediately removed the monument. The Sons of Confederate Veterans threatened a lawsuit against the city.
On the 18th of April 2018, the Tennessee House of Representatives punished Memphis by cutting $250,000 in appropriations for the city's bicentennial celebration. On the 3rd of June 2021, the remains of Forrest and his wife were exhumed from their burial place in the park where they had been for over a century to be reburied in Columbia, Tennessee.
Tennessee legislature established July 13 as "Nathan Bedford Forrest Day" which was still observed in 2019 though some Democrats attempted changing the law requiring governor Bill Lee to sign a proclamation honoring the holiday. As of that time, Governor Bill Lee's administration continued observing the day despite ongoing debates regarding Confederate iconography in public spaces.
Nathan Bedford Forrest entered the world on the 13th of July 1821 inside a one-room log cabin near Chapel Hill Tennessee. His family lived in poverty with no windows and only a single fireplace to warm their home.
What role did Nathan Bedford Forrest play during the American Civil War?
Forrest enlisted in the Confederate States Army on the 14th of June 1861 and rose to become a brigadier general by the 21st of July 1862. He established new doctrines for mobile forces earning him the nickname The Wizard of the Saddle while using cavalry troops as mounted infantry.
How many slaves did Nathan Bedford Forrest sell during his career?
By 1851 Nathan Bedford Forrest had become a notable slave trader in the United States who is believed to have sold thousands of slaves during his career. He earned profits of hundreds of thousands of dollars in 1850s currency from these transactions.
Why is Nathan Bedford Forrest associated with the Ku Klux Klan?
Nathan Bedford Forrest became involved with the Ku Klux Klan in late 1866 when the organization formed by six veterans expanded throughout Tennessee and beyond. He was elected grand wizard of the Invisible Empire after being nominated by a voice calling out The Wizard of the Saddle General Nathan Bedford Forrest.
When and how did Nathan Bedford Forrest die?
Forrest died from acute complications of diabetes at his brother Jesse's Memphis home on the 29th of October 1877. His funeral procession stretched over two miles long with an estimated crowd of 20,000 mourners including many black citizens among them.