A few miles near Tuscumbia, Alabama, the Confederate Army marched
along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. Private Phillip D. Stephenson,
loader of piece No. 4, 5th Washington Artillery, Army of Tennessee, had
fallen behind. It was as if the hunger in his belly had moved down to his
legs and feet, hollowing out the muscles and sapping his strength. His
attention was suddenly diverted by a group of soldiers gathered around
a wrecked train which lay in a culvert. His hunger momentarily forgotten,
he stopped to watch, as did others, at the animated movements of the horse
soldiers moving about the wreckage. Stephenson had to smile in amusement.
These troopers, with their huge boots, sabers, spurs and short jackets
seemed almost comical to the infantrymen who stood looking on. Someone
whispered the name "Forrest" and all eyes turned, craning their necks to
glimpse at the celebrated "Wizard of the Saddle," Confederate Lt. Gen.
Nathan Bedford Forrest. Stephenson recalled his first encounter with Forrest
well.
"A tall, lithe, straight figure with the look and tread of an Indian
passed swiftly by me, his right arm extended and gesticulating energetically
to his men, and his tongue "keeping time to it," in a loud, high, harsh
voice, every accent full of a commanding will that made his men jump to
obedience....Forrest was in full uniform, faded but complete, except the
head gear. He wore a home made bell-crowned, low, black, beaver hat, wide
brimmed. Not very pretty. No man had more right to care for appearances
than he, noted Stephenson. Forrest was a handsome man with a face, figure,
movement, and bearing that no one, once seeing, was apt to forget. You
felt that he was a combination of enormous activity, endurance, and strength.
That's what he was! Grace too! Forrest was no country gawk nor awkward
man, as rough -hewn self made men are apt to be." (1)
Private Stephenson had four encounters with Forrest, during and after
the war, which caused him to sum up the general, in his memoirs, thusly;
"In camp or off duty he was one of the mildest of men in manners and appearance.
His voice was soft, his expression gentle, his eyes impassive. When angered,
he was terrible, his face was awful to look upon. In battle his rage and
excitement was like the frenzy of a madman. Yet the testimony is indisputable
that never did he lose his head. His appalling excitement seemed to make
his brain work clearer."(2)
In the American Civil War, the last war of great cavalry leaders, names
like Stuart, Sheridan, Wheeler, Morgan, Hampton and Buford might come to
mind. But the name Forrest seems to stand in a league all to his own. Labeled
by some as the untutored genius of the war, Forrest had an unsurpassed
record with 30 personal kills in combat. This record, combined with having
29 horses shot from under him during battle, indicates Forrest was never
complacent to lead his men from the rear. With no formal military training,
Forrest, like Lincoln and Andrew Jackson, earned his reputation with sheer
audacity, instinct and ability.
Not only did he lack formal military training, but very little formal
education in his youth. Forrest was the eldest and head of seven brothers
and three sisters, two of the girls dying in childhood. His father, a blacksmith,
died while Forrest was still a young man, neccesitating he forego a formal
education and help to raise the family. As a young business man, Forrest
overcame his lack of schooling, entering the war as a private with an estimated
wealth of a million and a half. During the war, he was an avid reader,
scanning the newspapers daily to keep abreast of military information.
His lack of education became most noticeable in his poor spelling and punctuation
of personally written dispatches and reports, as he had a tendency to spell
words as they sounded, such as "git" and "thar." It was probably for this
reason that Forrest dictated almost all of his war correspondence through
Major J. P. Strange. But Forrest could deliver as eloquent a speech as
anyone and was said to be a natural born orator. Described as urbane and
polished in his mannerism's, most of his grammatical distortions in his
speech were products of his staff officers and their leg-pulling tales
of Forrest. However, in anger or excitement his no nonsense approach to
the English language would become evident. Once, having received a soldier's
repeated request for leave, Forrest responded in writing; "I have told
you twict goddamit No!" Forrest was a devout Christian and only heard to
curse when on the battlefield or in moments of great excitement.
On the march to Franklin, on November 30th 1864, Rev. James McNeilly,
Chaplain of Quarles' Brigade, overheard Forrest expressing his disgust
over the Federals escape at Spring Hill to General Walthall. "I saw General
Forrest sitting alone on his horse, and I went near him. He seemed to be
deeply moved, his face expressive of sorrow, anger, and disgust. Directly
General Walthall rode up and saluted him, and then he gave expression to
his words: 'O General, if I had just one of your brigades, just one, to
fling across the road, I could have taken the whole damn shebang.'(3)
It was not only this Southern general's victories on the battlefield
that made him one of the most colorful and written about officers of the
Civil War, but his eccentric and often controversial behavior ranked him
alongside others of a similar nature, such as "Stonewall" Jackson, Bragg
and Sherman. His Jekyll-and-Hyde personality made him an interesting study
in postwar, and was commented often on by those who fought with him. No
doubt his appearance and demeanor were intimidating to many of them. One
of his troopers, Captain Dinkins, describes Forrest as being "..a magnetic
man...a face that said to all the world: 'Out of my way; I'm coming!'...He
was the handsomest man I ever knew." (4) Colonel D.C. Kelley observed Forrest
in battle and commented; " The color of his face, which is normally olive
or sallow, became flushed and red, not unlike that of a painted Indian
Warrior; the eyes flashed with a look that suggested no mercy for any one
who showed a disinclination to do promptly what he bid." Indeed, it has
been said that Forrest was just as soon kill one of his own men for shirking
from duty as an enemy. Forrest abhorred any display of cowardice. An example
of this is recounted in John Wyeth's, "Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest."
After crossing the thirty foot Sakatonchee bridge, under heavy enemy
fire, Forrest came upon a frightened Confederate soldier "who, dismounted
and hatless, had thrown away his gun and everything else that could impede
his rapid flight to the rear." Chalmers, the First Division commander under
Forrest, recalled that Forrest jumped down off of his horse, grabbed the
frightened trooper, threw him to the ground, and then dragged him to the
side of the road, where he began whipping him with a piece of brush. Then
turning towards the gunfire, he said" 'Now, God Damn you, you go back there
and fight. You might as well get killed there as here, for if you ever
run away again you'll not get off so easy.'
Another example is recalled by Private Stephenson, at the battle of
Murfreesboro in December of 1864. Forrest was temporarily commanding the
infantry of Bate's Division, when the infantry broke and ran from the field
in the face of a counterattack. "As we tore along, Forrest was striving
to stop the panic. A man came running by breathlessly, hat off, hair flying,
eyes bulging, the very picture of panic. His gun was already thrown away,
his hands were fingering his belt, to fling it and cartridge box off also.
'Halt,' yelled Forrest, levelling his revolver at him! 'Halt!' shouted
Forrest again, for the man paid not a particle of attention to him. The
half -crazed fellow looked up and kept on his way. Crack went Forrest's
pistol, and the fellow pitched forward on his face!" (5)
It was this combination of fearlessness, resourcefullness and his intimidating
personality that creating a bond of loyalty among the men who served under
him during the war. This fearlessness in Forrest wasn't a reckless disregard,
as Forrest displayed many times that he knew when to back away from a no-win
situation. But there were some close calls where it appeared he had tempted
fate once to often. After Shiloh, while covering the retreat of the wounded
Confederate Army, there was a running fight between Sherman's command and
Forrest's men. Forrest suddenly found himself and horse surrounded by blue
uniforms. Firing with both pistols, then trying to cut his way out with
slaber slashing, Forrest took a bullet that lodged itself against his spine.
Despite the mortal wounding of his mount and his own wound, he reached
down and pulled a Union soldier up on his saddle to shield him from the
enemy bullets as he sped away. Granted a 60 day leave to recover from the
wound, Forrest returned to duty by April 29th with the bullet still lodged
inside. Two weeks later, while jumping his horse over a log, the bullet
moved further into his hip causing him excrutiating pain. Forrest then
ordered his surgeon, J. B. Cowan, to remove it. After two attempts, the
bullet was removed, followed by a quick two week recovery from the surgery.
Indeed, his close calls are too numerous to mention and could warrant
an article in themselves. But Forrest's physical endurance, fortunately,
matched his stamina on the battlefield. Of all of his injuries, the one
that plagued him the most was the injury of his big toe at "Old Town Creek"
in July of 1863. At this time, Forrest also suffered from a severe case
of boils, owing to the hardships of war, that covered his body. The two
maladies combined forced him to ride in a buggy, from where he directed
his bold raid on Memphis in August of '63.
It was this circumstance that caused Union General Mower to report,
in the summer of 1863, that Forrest had been killed. General Mower was
hoping to collect on a promise made by Sherman in a telegram sent to President
Lincoln: "Sir: I have ordered Gen. A. J. Smith and General Mower from Memphis
to pursue and kill Forrest, promising the latter, in case of success, my
influence to promote him to a major general. Mower is one of the gamest
men in our service. Should accident befall me, I ask you to favor Mower
if he succeeds in disposing of Forrest." No doubt, word of Sherman's bounty
reached Forrest, who proved he was very much alive by raiding the Federal
garrisoned city of Memphis in August. Though he was unsuccessful in his
goal to capture three Union generals in that city, he did succeed in rerouting
A. J. Smith's forces back to Memphis. And despite Mower's failure to kill
Forrest he recieved promotion --Sherman writing to Stanton in April of
1864; "Please convey to the President my thanks for the commission for
General Mower, whose task was to kill Forrest. He only crippled him. He
is a young and game officer."
While Forrest's eruptions of temper were feared by his men, they served
under him with great pride, as did his 16 yr. old son "William," who rode
with him through out the war. Most of the regulars of his command learned
quickly of his quirks and made great effort to be the recipients of his
praise. They also learned when to stay out of his way. Such is the case
with one cavalry trooper, who learned that lesson painfully. As was a habit
of the Cavalry general, he would at times analyze his options by walking
in circles, his head bowed in concentration, his arms folded behind his
back. Those who served under him for any length of time knew better than
to interrupt this process. On this occasion in Middle Tennessee, the general
was circling an outbuilding when a green trooper wished an audience with
him. Each time Forrest made his circle around the building, the trooper
would vainly try to get his attention. Upon the third time around, Forrest
decided the trooper's persistence was a distraction to his thinking. Without
so much as lifting his head, he swung his arm out and clipped the trooper
on the jaw. Thereafter, Forrest would nonchalantly step over the prostrate
trooper, while he continued his rounds.
Rare were the times that the softer and gentler nature of Forrest was
witnessed. But they did indeed exist. It was said, the ferocious warrior
on the battlefield was transformed in the presence of children and ladies.
Like Robert E. Lee, Forrest delighted in a child's company and held a lifelong
affection for youngsters. On the battlefield, his men caught a glimpse
of the inner man when his youngest, and favorite brother, Jeffrey Forrest
was killed.
On February 22, in a running cavalry battle between Forrest and Union
Cavalry Gen. William Smith, around Okolona Mississippi, Colonel Jeffrey
Forrest was struck in the throat by a ball. "The general rushed to him,
raised his head off the ground, and spoke his name several times, "melt[ing]
with grief," artillerist Morton later recalled.
