pendent command for Forrest in Mississippi
with the rank of major general.
Forrest’s career now assumed its most ac-
complished phase. With slender resources, he
cleared northern Mississippi of Union troops
and preserved an important granary for the
Confederacy. The only serious blot on his ster-
ling performance occurred during a raid against
Fort Pillow, Tennessee, on April 12, 1864. When
that post refused to surrender, Forrest’s men
stormed it, lost control, and murdered the
African American soldiers in the garrison. In
June his 2,900 troopers engaged 8,200 Union
cavalry and infantry under Gen. Samuel G. Stur-
gis and Col. Benjamin Grierson at Brice’s
Crossroads, Mississippi, routing them. The fol-
lowing month, Forrest defeated another supe-
rior force at Tupelo but was badly wounded in
the fighting. In October, he launched a brilliant
raid against Gen. William T. Sherman’s supply
base at Johnsonville, Tennessee. The damage
done to Union supplies and railroads was ex-
tensive, and thereafter Sherman referred to him
as “that Devil Forrest.” He next served as cav-
alry commander in the army of Gen. John Bell
Hoodand fought well at the disastrous Battle
of Nashville on November 10, 1864. During the
Confederate retreat, Forrest brilliantly con-
ducted the rear guard and preserved much of
the army from destruction.
Forrest was promoted to lieutenant-gen-
eral in February 1865. He was no stranger to
steep odds on the battlefield, but they had
now become insurmountable. On April 2,
1865, a large force under Gen. James H. Wil-
son drove Forrest’s men from Ebenezer
Church and captured Selma, Alabama. He fi-
nally surrendered on May 9 and returned to
his ruined plantation in Mississippi.
After the war, Forrest settled down in
Memphis, Tennessee, where he served as a
railroad president. He also helped found the
Ku Klux Klan and functioned as its first Grand
Wizard until 1867, then renounced his mem-
bership when the group turned to violence.
Forrest died in Memphis on October 29, 1877.
He was, in Sherman’s estimation, “the most
remarkable man our Civil War produced on
either side.”Bibliography
Brewer, James. The Raiders of 1862.Westport, CT:
Praeger, 1997; Brookshear, William R., and David K.
Snider. Glory at a Gallop: Tales of the Confederate
Cavalry.Washington, DC: Brassey’s, 1993; Dunna-
vant, Robert. The Rail Road War: Nathan Bedford
Forrest’s 1864 Raid Through Northern Alabama
and Middle Tennessee.Athens, AL: Pea Ridge Press,
1994; Fuchs, Richard L. An Unerring Fire: The Mas-
sacre at Fort Pillow.Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dick-
inson University, 1994; Hurst, Jack. Nathan Bedford
Forrest: A Biography.New York: A. A. Knopf, 1993;
Wills, Brian S.The Confederacy’s Greatest Cavalry-
man: Nathan Bedford Forrest.Lawrence: University
Press of Kansas, 1998.FRASER, SIMON
Fraser, Simon
(ca. 1729–October 6, 1777)
English General
T
he heroic Fraser was a capable light in-
fantry leader of the British invasion of
New York in 1777. His bravery at Bemis
Heights was conspicuous, and marksmen
were deliberately ordered to single him out.
Fraser’s untimely demise marked a turning
point in British fortunes at Saratoga.
Simon Fraser was born in Balnain (Inver-
ness), Scotland in 1729 and embarked upon a
military career at an early age by joining the