Nathan Bedford Forrest

Nathan Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821 – October 29, 1877), was a Confederate general and perhaps the American Civil War's most highly regarded cavalry and partisan ranger (guerrilla leader). He was one of the war's most innovative and successful generals; his tactics of mobile warfare are still studied by modern soldiers. After the war, Forrest became the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.http://www.iupui.edu/~aao/kkk.html

Posthumous legacy

History will remember Nathan Bedford Forrest for the debacle and massacre at Fort Pillow, however true it may be that had been following already established Confederate precedents when he ordered the killing of "all captured blacks wearing a Union Army uniform." Forrest will also be remembered (and by many, reviled) for his controversial associations with the Ku Klux Klan. But equally and very evidently, N.B. Forrest will always be regarded as a military leader of great native ability, and one who advanced the principles of wartime cavalry deployment and mobile strike capabilty that has remained down to the present philosophy and tactics of modern mobile warfare.

Related Topics:
Fort Pillow - Union Army - Ku Klux Klan - Mobile warfare

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In retrospect Nathan Bedford Forrest remains a hero to many Tennesseeans. There is a bust of Forrest at the state capitol building in Memphis and a statue of the General stands in Nathan Bedford Forrest Park also in the capital city. Obelisks have been placed at his birthplace in Chapel Hill and at Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park near Camden, and there are thirty-two other N.B. Forrest state historical markers. The state of Tennessee has supplied three Presidents of the United States of America, namely; Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, and Andrew Johnson, but Forrest has had more markers and monuments placed than all three of these presidents combined.

Related Topics:
Nathan Bedford Forrest Park - Chapel Hill - Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park - Camden - Presidents of the United States of America - Andrew Jackson - James K. Polk - Andrew Johnson

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Forrest's great-grandson, Nathan Bedford Forrest III, also pursued a military career, eventually attaining the rank of brigadier general in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. N.B. Forrest III was killed in action in 1943 while participating in an airborne bombing raid over Germany.

Related Topics:
Nathan Bedford Forrest III - Brigadier general - United States Army Air Forces - World War II - 1943 - Germany

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In the 1994 motion picture Forrest Gump, the eponymous Tom Hanks character states that he was named after an ancestor "General Forrest" and there is a photo montage that shows N.B. Forrest in military uniform.

Related Topics:
1994 - Forrest Gump

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