THE CIVIL WAR: THE TRUE STORY BOOK 1

Who was General Nathan Bedford Forrest

Who was General Nathan Bedford Forrest?

" Let us all, then, join their comrades who live, in spreading flowers over the graves of these dead Federal soldiers, before the whole American people, as a peace offering to the nation, as a testimonial of our respect for their devotion to duty, and as a tribute from patriots, as we have ever been, to the great Republic, and in honor of the flag against which we fought, and under which they fell, nobly maintaining the honor of that flag. It is our duty to honor the government for which they died, and if called upon, to fight for the flag we could not conquer."- Nathan Bedford Forrest

"Abolish the Loyal League and the Ku Klux Klan; let us come together and stand together."- Nathan Bedford Forrest

" This fight is against slavery; if we lose it, you will be made free. If we win, I will set you free."-  Nathan Bedford Forrest

" Oppress none. Uplift all."- Nathan Bedford Forrest

"We are born on the same soil, breathe the same air, live on the same land, and why should we not be brothers and sisters?"- Nathan Bedford Forrest

"I am your friend, for my interests are your interests, and your interests are my interests."- Nathan Bedford Forrest

"We have but one flag, one country; let us stand together. We may differ in color, but not in sentiment. Many things have been said about me which are wrong, and which white and black persons here, who stood by me through the war, can contradict."- Nathan Bedford Forrest

Lt. General Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Wizard of the Saddle was born on July 13th 1821 and he was a renowned Southern military leader and strategist during the War Between the States. During the Civil War, Forrest's Confederate cavalry wrecked havoc among Union forces throughout the mid-South. He gained worldwide fame from his many battlefield successes, but the wartime heroics have overshadowed his post-war work as a community leader and civil rights advocate. He fought fiercely on the battlefield, yet was a compassionate man off the field.

After the war, Forrest worked tirelessly to build the New South and to promote employment for black Southerners. Forrest was known near and far as a great general, and was a well-respected citizen by both blacks and whites alike.

In fact, this "Southern racist" called for greater civil rights than most Northern abolitionists would have been comfortable with. Forrest had once owned and sold slaves for his business. His business was to see that they were treated fairly. It reminds me of another slave-trader turned Christian by the name of John Newton, who wrote a hymn that everyone knows: Amazing Grace.

The Independent Order of Pole-Bearers Association, which was the predecessor to the NAACP, was organized by Southern blacks after the war to promote black voting rights, etc. One of their early conventions was held in Memphis and Mr. Forrest was invited to be the guest speaker, the first white man ever to be invited to speak to the Association.

After the Civil War, General Forrest made a speech to the Memphis City Council, then called the Board of Aldermen. In this speech he said that there was no reason that the black man could not be doctors, store clerks, bankers, or any other job equal to whites. They were part of our community and should be involved and employed as such just like anyone else. In another speech to Federal authorities, Forrest said that many of the ex-slaves were skilled artisans and needed to be employed and that those skills needed to be taught to the younger workers. If not, then the next generation of blacks would have no skills and could not succeed and would become dependent on the welfare of society.

Forrest's words went unheeded. The Memphis & Selma Railroad was organized by Forrest after the war to help rebuild the South's transportation and to build the 'new South'. Forrest took it upon himself to hire blacks as architects, construction engineers and foremen, train engineers and conductors, and other high level jobs. In the North, blacks were prohibited from holding such jobs.

Forrest was, as he himself put it, "a friend of the colored race," one who treated his slaves with respect and humanity, freed them long before Lincoln's fake and illegal Emancipation Proclamation. During the civil war, he enlisted 45 of them in his cavalry, and hand-picked seven to be his personal armed guards. Of his loyal and brave African-American soldiers Forrest publicly said: "These boys stayed with me for the entire war. Better Confederates did not live." Since Forrest was kind to blacks, there was no "racist massacre" at the Battle of Fort Pillow.

Nathan Bedford Forrest was neither the founder or the Grand Wizard of the KKK, that the Civil War Klan was not a racist organization but an anti-carpetbag group with no connection to the modern KKK, and that thousands of African-Americans not only supported and even assisted the Civil War KKK, there was also an all-black Ku Klux Klan in Nashville, Tennessee.

Nathan Bedford Forrest was a brilliant cavalryman and courageous soldier. As author Jack Hurst writes: a man possessed of physical valor perhaps unprecedented among his countrymen, as well as, ironically, a man whose social attitudes may well have changed farther in the direction of racial enlightenment over the span of his lifetime than those of most American historical figures. 

On October 29th 1877 at age 56, General Forrest died. His funeral  procession was 2 days later and was over two miles long and the throng of mourners included over three thousand blacks citizens in the city of Memphis.