However, her uncle and guardian, a
Presbyterian minister, knew the young
man by reputation, and when Forrest
asked his consent, the uncle protested,
“Why, Bedford, I couldn’t consent. You
cuss and gamble, and Mary Ann is a
Christian girl.” Forrest replied, “I know
it, and that’s just why I want her.” Weeks
later, the uncle himself married them.
The marriage was lasting and devoted.
Tactical genius
When the Civil War broke out, the
tough 40-year-old Memphis slave-
trader and planter had no military
experience. Of all the war’s famous
generals, he was the only one who
was neither a professional soldier nor
a graduate of West Point. Yet his
tactical victories, especially at Brice’s
Crossroads in June 1864, were so
brilliantly executed that they are still
studied. His cavalry fought as mounted
infantry, the horses being used for speed
of movement. When battle loomed, his
men tethered their horses, then
advanced in loose formation as infantry
skirmishers. Never having read an
artillery manual, Forrest ran his guns
up to the very front of his line, often
with devastating effect.
Even military superiors quailed before
his hair-trigger temper. “If you ever
again try to interfere with me,” he
threatened General Braxton Bragg,
“or cross my path it will be at
the peril of your life.” In
battle such fury might be
targeted at the enemy.
However, his
temper does not seem to have been the
issue when his forces attacked the Union
position at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, in
April 1864. An indiscriminate butchery
that began in the furor of combat
ultimately took the lives of nearly two-
thirds of the Union garrison, including
nearly 200 black troops, many slain
while surrendering. The question
remains open whether Forrest did or
did not order, or condone, a deliberate
massacre. At the very least, he bears the
responsibility for his men’s actions.
At the war’s end, Lieutenant General
Forrest surrendered his command and
urged his men to become good citizens.
In 1866, however, ex-Confederate
veterans, who feared that Radical
Reconstruction would eradicate
cherished Southern traditions, founded
a secret paramilitary organization, the
Ku Klux Klan. They recruited Forrest,
who is thought to have become the
organization’s first grand wizard.
Not explicitly racist, the original Klan
was nevertheless defending a way of
life whose bedrock had been slavery
and white supremacy. Its vigilante
bands began terrorizing freedmen
across the South, and this brought a
crackdown by the Federal government.
In 1869, Forrest issued a disbanding
order; by 1872, the Ku Klux Klan
had largely disappeared, only to be
revived in later years.
Hero or villain?
Forrest has remained one of the Civil
War’s most polarizing figures. In
the South, he became a storybook
hero—the rough-hewn frontier
counterpoint to the chivalric Lee.
In the North, “Fort Pillow” Forrest
was seen as a violent guerrilla and
racist. The man, as opposed to the
myth, had indeed been an imposing
figure, broad shouldered and 6ft 2in
(1.88m) tall. Shortly before he died,
Forrest’s former troopers found him
a haggard, white-haired shadow of
his former self. Though he had always
been abstemious, neither drinking nor
smoking, under Mary Ann’s influence
he had also become devout. “I am not
the man you were with so long and
knew so well,” he told one old comrade
in his inimitable Tennessee drawl. “I
hope I am a better man.”
NATHAN BEDFORD FORREST
■ July 13, 1821 Born in Chapel Hill, Tennessee,
eldest son of William and Miriam Forrest. Grows
up in Tennessee and Mississippi.
■ September 25, 1845 Marries Mary Ann
Montgomery in Hernando, Mississippi.
■ June 1858 Having become a wealthy slave
trader in Memphis, is elected a city alderman.
■ June 1861 Enlists as a private in Company E,
Tennessee Mounted Rifles. Soon after, he is
approached about raising his own battalion of
cavalry. In October, he is appointed lieutenant
colonel of Forrest’s Tennessee Cavalry Battalion.
■ February 1862 With his command, Forrest cuts
his way out of besieged Fort Donelson just
before its garrison surrenders.
■ April 6–8, 1862 Commands the Confederate
rearguard at the Battle of Shiloh; wounded in the
spine at Fallen Timbers.
■ July 13, 1862 Promoted to brigadier general
after capturing Stones River (Murfreesboro),
Tennessee, and its vast depots of supplies.
■ April–May 1863 Wins the running series of
engagements in Mississippi and Alabama known
as “Streight’s Raid,” ultimately surrounding and
capturing the remaining Union cavalrymen.
■ September 20, 1863 Captures hundreds of
fleeing Union troops after Battle of Chickamauga.
■ December 4, 1863 Promoted to major general.
■ February 22, 1864 Wins the Battle of Okolona,
Mississippi, defeating General William Sooy
Smith, driving the Union forces over 11 miles
(18km) until stopped by lack of ammunition.
■ April 12, 1864 Attacks and demands surrender
of Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River; two-thirds
of the garrison are killed, many of the black
troops after surrendering.
■ June 10, 1864 Routs General Samuel Sturgis’s
8,100 soldiers at the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads.
■ August 21, 1864 Raids downtown Memphis,
despite its being garrisoned by 6,000 troops.
■ October 3, 1864 Raids the Union supply depot
at Johnsonville, Tennessee.
■ December 18, 1864 Begins covering the
retreat of Hood’s shattered Army of Tennessee
after its defeat in the Battle of Nashville.
■ April 2, 1865 Defeated at Selma, Alabama,
by Union cavalryman General James Wilson.
■ May 9, 1865 Surrenders his command
at Gainesville, Alabama.
■ Fall 1866 Perhaps his earliest
involvement with the Ku Klux
Klan; believed to have been
elected its first grand wizard.
■ January 25, 1869 As
grand wizard, issues
the order disbanding
the Klan.
■ October 1877 His
health shattered
by the war, and
prone to digestive
disorders, Forrest
dies in Memphis at
the age of only 56.
TIMELINE
FORREST MONUMENT, SELMA
The Fort Pillow massacre
This grim depiction of the massacre at Fort Pillow was
published in the April 30, 1864, edition of Harper’s
Weekly, two weeks after the events took place.
Klansmen in disguise
Two Alabama members of the original Ku Klux Klan pose
for a photograph in 1868, two years after the organization
was founded and a year before Forrest disbanded it. The
Klan was re-founded in the wake of World War I.
“Get there first with the
most men.”
FORREST’S MOTTO FOR WINNING MILITARY VICTORIES