Show I 1 mal A afla TT ve ja az q 8 V t ZI W dismounted confederate cavalry ak 4 ta gen Q 4 1 ip aa 1 i 1 I I 1 R W N rg K fo E rr estand n N 3 forr es t Z e fore t h e wall ae n cluxton from rora bedford forret forrest and ilia hi critter company Cour courtesy tosy minton balch company by ELMO SCOTT WATSON 0 MOST americans the name ot of ya gen nathan bedford forrest lorr cst confederate cavalry loader leader moans means f the synonym for the author of a H famous epigram on how to win battles ills method was to alt fust with the montest men but what they do not realize li Is that forrest was more than just tile tho matter maker of a historic phrase a picturesque character personally 4 and an unusually successful cavalry leader it if the estimation of a recent biographer la Is correct forrest takes h hla Is place among the greatest ot of alt all amerlean american military leaders a master strategist as aa well as a master tactician and the man who had it not been for the jealousy of a superior officer might easily have saved the lost cause the blo biographer grapher la Is andrew nelson lytle and his viewpoint Is presented in the book bedford forrest and ills critter company published recently by minton balch and company mr lytle lias has ample justification for its his estimate of forrest gen robert E D lee had a great cavalry leader with ills his forces the dashing job jeb stuart but at appomattox when somebody Bome body asked lee who was tho the greatest soldier in ills hla command lie answered instantly A man I 1 have never seen sir ills name Is forret rest 1 A similar tribute was paid to forrest by jefferson davis dails twelve yeats scars later the former president of the confederacy and governor porter of tennessee wore were riding in the funeral procession which was carrying old bedford to his grave turning to davis por ter said history has accorded to general for rest the first place as a cavalry leader in the war between the states and has named him as one of the halt half dozen doyen great soldiers of the country to which davis graduate of west point and a professional soldier before lie ho was waa called to hend head a new american republic replied tile tho trouble was nas that the geng generals rals commending commanding in the southwest never appreciated appi related r farrest orrest until it was too late their judgment was that lie ha was a hold bold and enterprising partisan raider and rider I 1 was misled by them anti and I 1 never knew how bow to measure him until I 1 read his re 1 ports of ills his campaign across the tennessee river in this induced a study of his earlier reports porta re and after that I 1 was prepared to adopt what you are pleased to name as the judgment of history but to realize to the full the greatness of forrest one should turn to the words not of his friends friend but of ills his enemies gen william tecum tecumseh sell seh sherman bherman who campaigned against him in the western campaigns never made the tha mistake of underestimating ills his ability and slier sher man once exclaimed 1 I am going to get forrest For resit if it costs lives and breaks the treasury 1 there will never bo be peace in tennessee until forrest Is deabill dead I 1 but bat lie he never did get him and the wizard of the saddle as the adoring southerners called him went through four years of spectacular leadership in war without a defeat a record almost unparalleled in history As for critter company ft t Is the tennes name for forresta For rests cavalry early in the war while union troops were occupying tennessee forrest became overnight their particular ideal of what a soldier could be they could not understand strategic gains but they could understand ills his particular kind of fighting it was na as plain and as heartening as sow sowbelly belly and corn coin broad bread tho the women now felt that they had bad a defender they began to threaten tyrannical union officers with forrest will get you for this and ill tell or forrest on you they soon learned that lie he was vaa a bogey man they all believed bellev ed in the same adoration given him by the people was given by the men who followed him they referred to him as the old man just as jack sons foot cavalry did to that leader they also called har alra old bedford in the same i sense ense that jacksons men referred to old jack in I 1 in n return he looked after them as a father colw after his children nothing made forrest isaore furious than a useless waste of lives in a battle especially if the lives were those of hla his boys lie he was the ideal cavalryman in hla his judgment of horseflesh and of how to take care of the mounts in his command nathan bedford forrest was born in bedford county tennessee in 1821 little Is known of his life as a boy but what Is known Is mainly a record of conflict of fights with wild animals with bullies of the neighborhood and other evidences to prove that nathan bedford was a born lighter in ills his early manhood hi he started to texas teas to help light fight for texan independence but arrived there only to find that there was no need for his services penniless young forrest split enough rails at fifty cents a hundred to pay ills his way back to Tennes tennessee sree then he become became a horse trader and later moving to memphis became a broker in real estate and finally a slave trader in all of which occupations he be prospered ile he next became an alderman in memphis after he had distinguished himself by daring as a n private citizen to save the lives of two murderers when a mob threatened to storm the jail and when no one else ired dired d to face the would be lyn chers liers forrest planted himself in front of the jail holding a six shooter and calling out to the mob in a clear firm voice if you sou como come by ones or by tens or by hundreds ill kill hill any man who tries to get in this jail the result of this firm statement was that the mob of three thon thousand sand quickly melted away they knew that forrest meant exactly what he said after serving one year as an alderman forrest resigned in 1869 and became a cotton planter lie ile was thus engaged when the civil war broke out and in june 1801 1861 instead of using his influence to get a commission lie he enlisted as a private in whites tennessee mounted rifles but his friends did wint he would not do for himself they decided that the ranks were no place for forrest so they prevailed upon the confederate authorities to give him a commission as lieutenant colonel and the authority to raise a battalion of mounted rangers going up into kentucky both because he could secure excellent horses there and because every man which he brought out of that state which was neutral but was a recruiting ground for both governments would weaken the arales just that much he returned to memphis some eight weeks later hiving having raised eight companies strong then began his amazing career as a cavalryman par excellence as a natural military genius whose exploits far out shown those of many trained soldiers and as a thorn in the side of one union general after another forrest knew nothing about military tactics and cared less in that regard he was an ideal leader for the independent spirited men under ills his command drills and guird guard mounts were obnoxious to them but their officers managed to get results from them even without the formality of giving commands in the prescribed manner such expression as men tangle into fours by turn around olt would shock nn an array army trained drillmaster speechless but when such commands were given to For forresta rests men they knew what wis was wanted and they obeyed forrest had a fine contempt for west point trained officers who fought according to rule of the thumb on one occasion after a bittle battle which had bad been to the tha southern forces and which had been fought according to a plan to which forrest had been opp posed gen stephen V D lee called a council of oc war lee asked forrest if he had any ideas yes sir said the cavalry leider leader ive got ideis and ill tell you yon one thing general me lee if I 1 knew as much about west point tactics as you the yankees would whip hell out of me every day As for the thesis that forrest might have saved caved the confederacy from defeat it Is based upon the fact that as lytle says tile the government which first realized that the war would be decided ultimately on western battlefields would have a decided advantage and the premise that if forresta For rests genius binti been recognized soon enough by the Conf confederate government if he had been given a sufficient force and had bad not been thwarted by n jealous superior he might have held abe th west indefinitely and turned the I 1 scale in favor of the confederacy but prest dent dm davis Is and his cabinet their attention con cent rated upon the eastern theater of war and upon holding richmond which was strategically relatively unimportant failed to see sea until it was too late that if they lost the west they lost the tha war and forrest even though he won victory after victory was forced to see his efforts repeatedly peat edly nullified fled by the inefficient gen brax ton bragg to whose weakness ess davis seems to have been strangely blind even though they were soon enough recognized by other confederate generals and by the people of the south the story of For forresta rests campaigns would take a volume for the telling ile he served brilliantly at port fort donelson and led his own forces safely through the encircling union lines to nashville ile he could have done as much for buckners buckness Buck ners entire army had that general listened to him but buckner listen and the result was what lytle calls a tragedy of errors the loss los snot not only of the fort but of buckners buckness Buck ners entire army forrest captured a large union force at mur free and made it possible for dragg bragg to take the initiative away from buell in the kentucky campaign ile he served gallantly at shiloh at hog mountain and at chickamauga and in innumerable other actions where he was ull unhampered by the tha orders of his superiors he proved repeatedly that here was one Con confederate confider feder te leader who knew how to win battles but buta always there was wag the hand of braxton bragg t to 0 minimize z e or nullify his success finally one day he stamped into braggs tent and declared you may as well not issue any more orders to me for I 1 will not obea obe them and I 1 will hold you personally responsible for any further indignities you try to inflict upon me you have threatened to arrest me for f or not obeying your orders promptly I 1 dire dare you to do it and I 1 say to you that it if you vou ever again try to interfere with me or cross ray my path it will be at the peril of your life and bragg did not take the dare the alie closing days of the war found forrest a lieutenant general a recognition which had bad come too late and placed in charge of all tile the cava cavalry iry in the west the last organized confederate forces in that section but by this time his efforts were mere futile so far as the outcome of the war was concerned lee surrendered to grant and johnston Joh niton to sherman and there was no further need for forrest to lead ills his critter company on those swift dashes clashes which had made him the nightmare of more than one commander in blue ills men egged him to lead them to mexico to avoid surre surrendering n der but he knew the gamo game was up and surrendered to general canby after the war forrest went to mississippi to become a planter again taking as his partner a federal officer 1 later he sold his plantation and moved to memphis lie ile was a delegate to the first postwar post war democratic convention and when he went to new york he attracted so BO much attention that he could not move about the streets without drawing a crowd such was the fame of the wizard of the saddle in iii the north when the dark days of the st ruction period came upon tile the south and tile the ku klux klan was organized to save it from the sea scalawag laang carpetbagger regime forrest forres was offered the command of the new movement and accepted it it had previously been offered to robert G E lee but although ho he refu seti lie he approved of the idea saying that his approval must be invisible so tho the ku ICU klux klan became the invisible empire and when the name imme for it i commander was brought up some ono one suggested gen nathan bedford forrest ills wizard of tile the saddle so he became the tha grand wizard or of the invisible empire by 1870 the work of the klux klan had save baal the south and forrest disbanded it thero there wore were only a few more years of life left for him lie ile died in memphis october 29 1877 and was burled buried in elmwood cemer cemetery ery later his body was removed to a park set aside to his memory in memphis and an equestrian statue raised over it so bedford forrest still rides la in the south in material form in this statue and in spiritual form in the hearts of the people leopla of tennessee who still tell their tales of ef old Dedro bedford Td the wizard of the saddle a 0 by western newspaper union 7 |