Rebel Forrest: The Nathan Bedford Forrest Story

farce is sort of like George Armstrong Custer review to lovingly a baby and I'm not true fanfare you looking at a black river one other thing is mentioned in the book but I'm deeply concerned you got a very famous man Shelby Foote Foote claims if we was to have a model that's the type of person who should try to emulate many people but decide to say those who feel that way members of the plan he will outlast everything I think that they would like to do away with anything that has to do with the Confederacy many times people when it's controversial there are a lot of people who just sort of decide to just stay back and leave it alone everybody is great grande road with Bedford Forrest and everybody that I've ever met ray granted your convictions an apology probably the command doesn't normally have a half a million men he was not a military academy graduate but he introduced the whole world to guerrilla warfare he was afraid of just about anyone except two people in the world mother in his wife he is enormous tree attractive person once you really get to kind of find out what he did and what he was if you want to understand this country of tones you have to understand something about civil war it was a very different country after the war from what it was before war either to geniuses it came out of the war one of them Abraham Lincoln his the genius in every regard Forrest is a sort of tactical genius shelby foote the famed author of the epic trilogy the Civil War a narrative and perhaps best known for his appearance in Ken Burns the Civil War is an ardent supporter of fellow Memphian Nathan Bedford Forrest Foote his long admired general Forrest placing a cutout photo behind his famed writing desk independent researcher David delay has uncovered the dark and mysterious site of Forrest in his book extinguished the flames of racial prejudice perhaps no man on either side of the Civil War inflicted as much damage all the while surviving for seemingly fatal wounds Forrest killed 30 Union soldiers firsthand during the war and at 29 horses shot out from under him during the bloody conflict Bedford forests warrior persona may help explain his alleged involvement in the early days of the KKK University of Mississippi professor Chester Quarles is the author of a history of the Ku Klux Klan I've been interviewing Klansmen since I was a young police officer and so my first contact with the Ku Klux occurred during the civil rights movement in the 1960s and while I was playing clothes I always identified myself they always knew who I was and these people shared with me and I don't agree with their perspective to go by Parker Hills I'm a brigadier general retired established battle focused when I retired and not a focus provides the corporate leadership and teamwork training and also do military staff rights and historical tours I've been studying Forrest for a long time I've studied many many military leaders I as an army officer people say well your civil war now it just so happens I live in an area that has Civil War battlefields I lived up in the Northeast I would probably Olivia Revolutionary War not my grandfather louis-napoleon Nelson went to war at age 14 he saw accident initially at Shiloh yes he did he did he did bear arms seven camp Tennessee any-any served as chaplain - which was under the generalship of Nero Nathan Bedford Forrest Nathan Bedford Forrest was born in Chapel Hill Tennessee in 1821 they moved at age 13 with his family to North Mississippi where he would live in this house in 1845 when he married Mary and Montgomery preservationist bill Fitch now owns the historic first home of the forests we hope in the entire plantation we're preserving something for future generations the historic Alabama city of Selma is best known for its civil war in civil rights battles the Battle of Selma and 1865 was forced as last he and his command were handily defeated State Senator Hank Sanders has represented Selma for over two decades senator Sanders heeded the call to fight in the latest clash in that city relocating a monument dedicated to the general on the other side of the firing line was a group ready to stand with forests Cecil Williamson and the president of Friends of forest pasture the Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church in Selma Alabama just who wins general Florez what kind of person what forest was born to be a soldier the way John Keats was born to be a poet general forces daddy was a blacksmith a poor trader in slaves and in trading mules that's the environment the general force he dropped out of school at a very early age to support hip supportive more than family Forrest's father will die when he is a relatively young man as Forrest raises his younger brothers and sisters that then forced to eventually we'll move to Hernando Mississippi it seems when he came back he landed in Hernando because his uncle who had a livery stable there and horse took it over and later moved into this house and bought it in 1845 to $300 from mr. Evans in Shelby County Tennessee he lived here approximately 12 years he was married in the house his two daughters were born in it and the oldest one died in it and after 12 years he moved to Memphis to both president Island and through a cotton trading slave trading real estate cotton brokering he will become a millionaire and he will become involved in the city government as an alderman of Memphis Tennessee he had slave pens and Mississippi both in Vicksburg and in Jackson anyone in Memphis up there on Adams Street they were also auction houses he tried to make himself like a gentleman he enjoyed dressing like a gentleman he wanted to run a plantation everything that I've heard about for I said he was a very caring sort of slave day long he as they say didn't separate families took good care of their health so they're well clad things like that forests have been given some criticism that I feel is unjust and one being that yet he was a slave Freight was trading slaves but illegal at the time he was doing it he had a certain thing he had to deal with being a slave trader it made him a rich man plantation owned one time there was a social price to pay people who were most fervent for slavery didn't want anything to do with slave traders they were socially unacceptable another thing about first I didn't told he would never sell in such a way they would split a man from his woman when the war came out he had about 47 slaves to go along with him to war Nate and and and they all serve Him loyally and near the end of the war he said to them Allah you're free to go you've done everything I've asked you to do him to a man the whole state the ones in the slave been said that Forrest was with deep and very cruel thanks robust what my granddaddy told me about he was highly respectful of him during the war and after war he he said Jennifer I always did what he could to see that the people living on his plantations in Mississippi in Tennessee were treated fairly he was he referred to him as being a gentleman so he had a channel nature to him that most of us don't understand he loved children love to children he he would not tolerate a man to abusing a woman so we only read about forests in the killing mode but there was a different side to forest forest was almost you curious she could boss him anytime he he once said a woman's the only thing I'm scared of it I know won't hurt me and he felt that way about his wife she could keep him in line forest I had made a name form before shower forest I excelled at Fort Donelson when he went master manatee the escape from the trap so to speak but it's shallow us were I guess his legend almost superhuman legend again at the end of the Battle of Shiloh first he executed a very daring charge on April the 6th 1862 and far as I was supposed to god the creek because he crossed it except for that scouting operation at night seeing Buell's man come ashore I'd gone from head quality headquarters trying to get somebody do something about it he said we either have to attack them tonight or give it hell out of here and he was writing but he couldn't get to anybody who had any authority then on April the 8th 1862 who's involved at Fallen Timbers Sherman is is executing a very half hearted pursuit of the Confederate Army forests with around 250 Cal vermin were charged around 2,000 Union troopers and forest were charged directly into the Union lines his men knowing that they're going into a little bit more than they can handle pulled off on the reins and Forrest looks around and finds himself in the midst of Union lines alone he'll hack his way out he'll shoot his way out he will pick up a Union soldier and use him as a shield he'll have a bullet fired into a side and lodged against his spine and yet he will escape Sherman will later write that he's convinced that if forest and that emptied his pistols Sherman would not live to write his memoirs his legend gets a good boost at a shallow at fallen timbers Shiloh who was was the battles of nearly equal forces on the first day the fact that the northern was fought as well as they did even if they were ten thousand and I'm hundred black they fought bravely and well anybody who's been traveling you there to final one of the tragedies to me is what followed shiloh when you had twenty four thousand casualties in two days of fighting really a day and a half that was when they knew this thing was gonna be the runners both sides should have said if we keep this up they're not gonna be any young American country and they should at that point have said that we've got to find some other way to say go son what they did each side was more than coming and ever to go ahead Shiloh in addition to that was a south real chance to get over or dog that had done to them shadow was that one chance to turn it back and there's a definitely discredit Brian I've been told what incident he was vastly outnumbered more paul colonel able straight made a miscalculation that to use mules rather than horses thinking it would be better in the high grounds of alabama and forest pursues with a much smaller number of men and he called his men together boys here's the way we're gonna do it now we've got him only God he's put him in spot back and forth back and forth whatever wagon we got they give a regiment you've got back and forth back and forth don't let him see you turn him around keep him moving I won't put the scare on him real bad this time he's got to give in he's tired he'll give he'll give let's go and he formed them up back to back with him ran in opposite directions general you do realize that I have an attachment ready to strike Rome at any time Jeff get your boys and go to the rendezvous point now good god man how many artery pieces you have I've already counted 15 15 I reckon that salt was able to keep up and cause the enemy to Suren and then bamboozle is able straight or Bluffs straight into surrendering traders very upset when he finds out that forest has far fewer men than he and makes the comment this isn't favorable Marcus it what is fair and what's it to you you fell for it and so you eat your prison has another example what I'm talking about a genius way he uses troops and a way to keep them fresh West Point graduate Braxton Bragg had many differences with the fiery forest after the Battle of Chickamauga emotions erupted for a lot of people thing you have to understand about the Civil War battles that the winning side was as exhausted as forests storms in then all you rob me of every command I ever raised you left me poor equipped and out in God's no swear father and I've done that very well I fold and brought everything back and I've tried to keep it if he was any photo man I'd slap your jaws and I'd make you like it now if you ever give me any more orders I want to bathe a brother if you ever interfere with me ever again or cross my path it'll be a pair of your life after that confrontation with Brad he had a secret meeting private meeting which I heard some David's down in Montgomery and for stop it I think Brad did great service to the Confederacy god I prefer charges against the part which he certainly should have done he had a witness everything else good court-martial easily good mark although the South won the date Chickamauga Bragg and others in the Confederacy continued to blunder in the months afterward on April 12 1861 as Calvary fought in what is known as the most controversial episode of forces war years Fort Pillow a great battle or a massacre extensive investigation research was able to prove to carry out this attack against Fort Pillow and the anniversary day for the firing or something set an example teach these people if you dare take up arms against this use southerners born and raised among us whether you be a slave when you white man you dare lift a hand against us well we'll show you what's gonna happen to you so there was a purpose behind what they did well for pillows like any any vicious fight there's always two sides to the story and the truth usually lies somewhere between those two sides the northern they call it a massacre the massacre at Fort Pillow he were made for great propaganda it makes for great propaganda to this day on the southern side of the house there's a different viewpoint that the fort was full of Tennessee traitors those who sided with the Union or thugs renegades it hit man the fort so there's two sides to the story first place they shouldn't have had to attack Portobello anybody in pillow should have surrender they have a chance a large number of the United States Colored Troops were there these were people who were slaves that have been freed from our area and they were wearing a uniform there are the stories on the sow that these people were really wreaking vengeance throughout the countryside against their former masters and thugs that were going out to white thugs that were going out or trending for trophies in any case forest was called indigo Philip to capture the fort people in Fort Pillow the northerners influent were black and would call them homemade Yankees where's Tennesseans who will Pro you pro-union at the Battle of Fort Pillow these motley brutes were blacks and whites that mingled together that's how first called demotic odious people they were defeating forests because the ones behind their artillery pieces were people that had been in his slave pens and then you force well and they were targeting you they'd never faced black troops before until boys surrounded the fort and as she always did he demanded surrender and he had a tactic to use many times even against tables straight that if you don't surrender I can't be responsible for what will happen to the Fort refused to surrender Forrest was a tease man happy today you can't see this because there's so many trees rent you can't see the fields of fire but in those days forest men had the high ground they could shoot down into the fort so there was a lot of a lot of fighting going on it's atrocities that went on there's all kinds of accusations at the North the Union soldiers did not honor the truce there was a flag of truce and there's some ships on the river Union ships that continue to move forward and when forest saw this he continued to fight at Fort Pillow Flores lost three horses shot out from under he was badly wounded fact the ones in doing the fighting of those are turret pieces thought they had killed him under the guise of white flag there was an attempt made to trick general Forrest to come out into the open at Fort Pillow but general fires out [ __ ] Tony he sent somebody else and the Yankees were supposed to be using the gunboats to bombard whoever he was supposed to come out they reacted badly they killed a lot of men trying to surrender Forrest himself did everything to stop it that he could undo thanks for that Sherman did you investigate Fort Pillow and didn't make any recommendations about proceeding against Forrest or anyone else after the war definitely lot of investigations and the federal generals said they could find nothing wrong with Forrest is conduct at Fort Pillow feel free is basically cleared but it still makes for an extremely emotional story and it's a story that many today who want to be forced to tractors will load their ammunition into the gun and fire that's you and anyone are not willing to listen to a rational argument that that there are excesses on both sides here and then it's one of those things when you are when you find each other again in the fog of war and there's a lot of emotion going on there was another lieutenant a wills Allen he finally deserted force after the battle and tipple oh now this Allen was at Fort Pillow and he gives information you can't find in textbooks he knew personally firsthand that forest killed two of his own soldiers at Fort Polk because they would not participate in the carnage he would say gunpoint forcing people to do things that they just couldn't even bring themself to do and he killed two of his old men because they wouldn't do it so these these are these are these are things that were persist we'll probably never know exactly what happened at Fort Pillow but the fact of the matter is it was a very very vicious fight both sides have their story and again the truth leaks or at least somewhere in the middle remember this though that a commander is always responsible for the actions of his troops there undoubtedly were some some men they were killed trying to surrender and the forest had left the scene by this time he's still responsible for that he is not without guilt but and this this this incident no one I can say that that neither side was without guilt he was one of those unfortunate incidences of war where emotion overcomes logic on both sides and it persists even to this day Forrest and his troopers journey back to Mississippi where the United States Army's greatest loss would transpire courtesy of India Brice's crossroads is the place to go to study the use of these nine principles to perfection by Bedford Forrest and the complete ignorance of the use of these principles by Samuel Davis Sturgis it is his best fought in battle but you won't L overlook the fact that it was Sherman's strategic wisdom that that Brice's crossroads was ever fought he'd kept Forrest off off of Sherman's lifeline he was on the way there when he got recalled to do the straight grade for instance his strategic mission was to go sever Sherman's line of communications during the Atlanta Campaign he was called away from that to achieve a tactical victory here in Mississippi which was of course a strategic defeated Sturgis his forces achieved the objective but that was to draw for us away from Sherman's line of communications and it worked even though it cost an entire Union Army to do so forceful was unable to sever Sherman's line of communication he was also fixed to do it when when Brice's crossroads came along he was at the same time the unusual thing and I don't know of anything that's like it is that first called the turn on the eve of battle he told exactly what's gonna happen all by our the did the same thing he'd Gettysburg only he was wrong he and forest was true almost to the letter it was a close thing from time to time but he always had control again the reason that I look so strongly to forests and said Brice's crossroads is such a masterful study of the nine principles of war that's maneuver objective unity of command security economy of force mass offensive surprise and simplicity forest intrinsically understood these nine principles how you can use them and if you can how you can overcome great odds and again I use the Vicksburg campaign for the strategy in the operational art I've been training soldiers at Brice's crossroads since 1987 and and they all leave better soldiers because they have seen the lessons that are to be learned at Brice's crossroads [Applause] a Sherman marched through Georgia in late 1864 the fading southern army under the command of Texan John Bell hood made a mad dash in the Middle Tennessee to interfere with the northern push to victory hood was put in now to do what he did and what he did was miserable he was trying to fight Lee Jackson style when even Lee and Jackson even been able to fight that style and more he was attacking Sherman three separate battles right there around Atlanta he got beaten all of them he spent six months or however long it was backing up with Joe Johnson they had yet somebody who would stand still Davis's and many other people knew that with Atlanta fell lesson would be reelected which of course he was and they wanted somebody who would stand their ground and they got somebody who did a good deal more than stand his ground he attacked attack attack and wrecked his army and lost his land arriving at Forrest different with him of course in the attack at Franklin but so did everybody else hood was trying to discipline his army he couldn't get him to do what he warned me doing said by God and I'll show them we'll make a frontal attack they did and completely wrecking army of Tennessee at Nashville it was so so badly whooped that they just ran for their lives he had relays the wagons working to bring those men through all those frozen roads and everything else I felt bad for Matt Selman him the forest was badly cut up he said that young fellow give me the pint of that thing I wouldn't be in he was slashing that far Coris Manchu he has a vision a clarity of vision he can see what needs to be done but he cannot convince others of this and it's it's unfortunate he sees this it's shallow and he sees it at Franklin he he sees it at Chickamauga room and and he can't influence the outcome because he can cannot convince those his superiors that his vision is the correct vision it must have been a frustrating thing for man for particularly man who is the beginning stages of the war raised racist troops at his own expense they won't be raised as troops of Union expense by capturing so many supplies and equipment but to see these is this being frittered away and wasted as it was at Franklin and must have been very frustrating winning and losing is not as simple as who's there after it's over it's how much damage is done as a fighter he will fight to the end but he when he realizes that that the end is there he spotted enough some don't quit how do you boy [Music] men by an agreement between general Taylor and general can be the troops of this department have been surrendered boys you've seen in the last couple months we've done everything you can I'm proud of it it's not your fault General Lee general Johnson they've already surrendered and you're the last the Confederate States Army the government and Confederacy we sought to establish is that an end common sense dictates and humanity I don't want to shed any more blood especially out of my friends realizing that case it's your duty in mind lay down arms terms to which you were surrendered our favorable and should be satisfactory and acceptable to all you boys as your commander I sincerely hope that every officer and soldier of my command will carefully obey these orders gift I am now cheerfully and gratefully knowledge mind deadness to the officers until the end of my command fellas I think Confederate state sanction fellas in bidding you farewell [Music] dismissed me with the cause for Southern independence lost forest in his men returned to their shattered homes to rebuild the entire South was a wreck and it would never again return to its Antebellum lifestyle and occupy in federal army kept the southerners on edge for the period known as reconstruction well far suffer greatly in both war years trying to rebuild misfortune his wife are converted to Christianity after Radical Republicans took over in the reconstruction Act was passed there was a great deal of indeed goodness against for us he he died a broken man in 77 he wasted away we don't know exactly why he died probably from chronic dysentery some other disease that he was called room he was cut up beat up shot up through he gave so much of his energy to because he didn't do anything in a half matter and it cost him forest is like in a much deeper man than those who have only seen the movie Forrest Gump and heard the famous quote a named you ever a very stupid man that that was one of the great lines of the movie that sold a lot of tickets but it's not true and those who only just forced by that one line in the movie have had a lot of investigating to do Nathan Bedford Forrest although a millionaire before the war in post-war years Forrest filed for bankruptcy and led several attempts to start a fledgling railroad what could for us do to make a difference when the war was over Confederate officers were forbidden to talk with each other and if they would carpetbagger would report him and they would be be punished so this force former Confederate officers to meet in secret the Klan was started just within a few months after the war run a teams in the 1865 probably Christmas Eve 1865 in the circuit courts office there in Pulaski Tennessee people try to claim that force really was not the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan all right though the Klan was nothing new before you had the Klan you had a organization known as the Knights of the Golden Circle that well predated the Civil War and it wasn't just a southern thing the Knights of the Golden Circle has its origins in Europe north-south people involve very prominent in government south and in the north and there's a to be unraveled about that secret society nevertheless when it came time to create a clan empire they chose the major hotel of that time in Nashville Tennessee and this is where the first climb cave spelled with a k met it is my understanding almost every historical document that refers to this clearly indicates that general Forrest was not there nor was he associated any way shape or form with the organization in any way for another six months after this initial meeting Morton and his memoirs mentions what he thought the Klan was how it got started all this stuff and he was going to recommend force have become a member Lloris been a member long before all well he was prominent General Gordon's wife that lived there in Tennessee I said that her husband was the first Grand Wizard we used the word in imperial wizard today people think that he started to cake cake cake he didn't but he didn't mobilize it into a national force and he would go from place to place and whenever he went they had a visit and get a chapter the KKK going and mmediately when he would leave town valance would break out against black folk they wants to hold him off as the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and and our adamant about it you never get any evidences those men all sworn to secrecy and preserved it as paint prove that he was ever the Imperial wizard the supposition is that it was turning ugly ugly things were starting to happen by various elements within the who will get in control of it for vindictive purposes rather than try to try to just offset the occupation but you know in terms of subjectively proving beyond any doubt his disassociation that's not gonna be possible either once you get past the rhetoric and into the scholarly material it's not so obvious as a flippant rhetorical claim that he was the one that founded this and he started it he did not find it he didn't start it he wasn't under the original membership and under any circumstances he couldn't have been associated with it until the 15th to 18th month of his existence and if he was associated with it in any way it was for a very short period of time my first came close to saying even in who was the one who was on the stand in that case that Colonel Henry writes about they said I did this all Congress investigated the Ku Klux Klan in the early part of what I believed was 1867 it could have been as late as 1868 but they actually had an investigation on the Klan they brought general Forrest to Washington DC where and it wasn't anything like the hearings that say we solved the television of Congress against Oliver North or something like that it was a relatively benign and friendly meeting and Forrest swore that he was not the head of the Ku Klux Klan and he even swore that he was not a member of the Ku Klux Klan at that time and I really think general Forrest not only was he a brilliant tactician in the military but I really believe he was an honorable man I don't believe that he would have sworn an oath on the Bible saying he was not associated with Klan if he had been at the time he said he said he wasn't and I think we ought to take him at his word to satisfy a Congress Forrest did publish a letter in most of the southern newspapers where he asked all of the lawlessness that was under the banner of the Ku Klux Klan to cease and desist but it didn't because independent clans and they've always been just like Timothy McVeigh's leader leaderless resistance cell they didn't work on a hierarchy where the general tells and led him to do something and master sergeant tells somebody else to do something Oh lieutenant tell somebody else to do something that's not the way it was working and they were the dead the independent operations of individual plans and individual clans persons but the Klan early on in the 1860s and the Klan early on in the 19-teens in the 1920s known in the early 1930s were actually very very political and see the Klan as we know it to be really God is it's Springville from Mahmood meeting Hollywood about then about nineteen sixteen eighteen movie called The Birth of a Nation and that generated a lot of heat and stuff and then the late teens and early twenties which really had nothing to do with the war between the state and the violent aspect the terrorism aspects were just almost an aside factor I'm not saying that the Cooper clan wasn't incredibly violent in a lot of areas of the south they most certainly were there's no doubt about that but most of these acts occurred actually after the period of time in which general Forrest wrote the Congressional congressionally approved orders to disband the Ku Klux Klan now and forevermore if the clan say they're having a rather all the news media people are there and the Klan is flying the United States flag the Christian flag the st. Andrew's cross and either Confederate naval jack or the Confederate battle flag but they want a picture that's shown in a newspaper or magazine I want a vision is a confederate flag they don't show the other flags a group of freed blacks a forerunner of the n-double a-c-p known as the pole bearers ask for us to speak to them in the crowd was at least one black Confederate Forrest's was on a person that Negroes and Memphis Tennessee to Shelby County so too hip comes come help settle in near right in Memphis after the war and he obliged him by coming now if he had been a racist that some people want to claim that he was I don't think he would have been invited Forrest was no worse speak up the one we had was the pole bearers that's that's a good example of a forest peach first he says I didn't have a chance to prepare anything say to you not a housebreaker anyhow and he wasn't he didn't do that he went my grandfather was in attendance too he said my advice to you people would be to you go vote vote a mine of office and vote somebody else in admitting that my grandfather came back to Ripley that's the Lauderdale County Tennessee and made it known through the local newspaper that every time they said let's vote I'm going to vote and I don't care firming on that could Democrat in Lauderdale County I think that he may well it would be good if the two races got longer and that's why he went Nathan Bedford Forrest the warhorse of your fell ill in 1877 and died at age 56 20,000 people white and black lined the streets of Memphis to view the procession Forrest and his wife Marianne were eventually reinterred at the forest park statue this marker and others devoted to the general still remain in the public debate some 150 years after the Civil War in January of 1999 we sought permission of the then mayor and the Board of Directors to erect a monument general Nathan Bedford Forrest on the grounds of the Smitherman building we gained permission and raised more than $25,000 to have the monument sculptured it was dedicated on October the 7th 2000 on the ground the Smitherman building had been a hospital for the Confederacy during the war it contains the largest collection of Confederate memorabilia in Selma and it seemed the logical place to put a monument to the defend of Selma the placement of the monument caused controversy in our community Nathan Bedford Forrest while he apparently was a very brilliant general going in as a private and rising to the level of general the only person to be able to do that on either side and that I think that was extraordinary but what my particular concern was was not just that he was a Confederate General but rather it was on two different occasions that are documented engaged in the slaughtering of black folks are allowed his troops to do that are you're not to have this statute right over here in this community in fact where we are sitting you can almost you can look out and see virtually where that statute was because it's right back up to the Smitherman museum black folks is live all around that that that's not the kind of image that you want your children to be able to see as they grow up saying literally here's a person although it's a brilliant general that he killed black folk when you put a statute up that statute is an example for folks to follow so that's why I was concerned about it in February of 2001 the City Council by a vote of five to four voted to relocate the monument here in Live Oak Cemetery the mayor had the monument moved three days later they certainly did not consult us and we vigorously opposed the move of the monument and the City Council only voted five to four to move it so that is indicative of how much controversy their laws the vote was very interesting in that two African American Council members voted to leave the monument where it was and the deciding vote to move the monument was by a white female council member this move has precipitated a federal civil rights lawsuit in the district court in Mobile against the mayor and the City Council I haven't looked at the lawsuit very closely if it seems to be reaching way out to try to make something out of nothing of course ultimately it's all in the judges hand I think that the Friends of Forrest have been discriminated against we had the same permission to put our Monument on city property as others have had and it was on public property now I certainly believe where it was was the wrong place it's a basketball court there as people come by who live in that community they would see it Live Oak Cemetery it already had sort of a confederacy monument to it I think it's a better place for it I'm not sure any statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest ought to be anywhere in the public domain but certainly this is less objectionable the city has taken property that does not belong to them this monument they have placed it here on ground that does not belong to them and they have put it on the grave sites of 156 Confederate soldiers that are buried where we are standing I really have a difficult time understanding people who really want to force their heroes on own people who find that hero oppressive they are people who certainly want everyone to respect their heritage and they need to respect the heritage of those of us who are proud that we are southerners Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest remains a hot topic in the 21st century was he the brilliant battlefield tactician was he the first Grand Wizard of the KKK perhaps he was both this man no doubt led an extraordinary life that Marvel's even the most amateurish of historians like the South in which he held from four tennis legend good and bad continues to flourish like the white strands of cotton that thought the fields of Dixie it's very important is very vital to have somebody do a study about general forests so much controversy the truth should be known and it should be one that's open to both sides people on both sides fault and that's what they believed in and to sweep any of it all of it under the road though well you know to be politically correct we can't missing it to me is grossly wrong and I'm I'm really opposed to it so in 1993 I decided to start telling the other side about my grandfather and his experiences and that's what I'm still doing today educate yourselves read understand there are many people in history like I say you don't have to like but you're gonna learn from them i growing up in Mississippi learned to to hate ulysses s grant and William T Sherman based on what happened to my hometown burnt four times ax Mississippi but I have learned to study Ulysses Grant at William T Sherman particularly grant and admire grant greatly because of what he has taught me as a soldier they don't know the man they did not know him they don't take time to find out about him it's just like the Confederate battle flag they don't know the history of the flag so consequently they just they've been brainwashed in my belief that anything that they've been told the flag is a very simple a very good example in my opinion so out of necessity this flag was designed on a field of red which represents Christianity because southerners regard fearing people you have the st. Andrew's cross spreading and in in blue with the castara spread upon the cross and if you don't like them still look and see what what you can learn from them educate yourselves it's a stupid person who is not willing to learn drop your motion pull out the logic look and see what you can learn there are things we can learn from any true leader no one can deny that Bedford Forrest was a leader [Music] yeah the Battle of Shiloh rebels were falling back real slow no William Tecumseh Sherman 3 begins me thought it might attack the rebels walls appeared you know he wants to fight he's about to get one [Music] there's one man what's good insurance Wayne said Yankee this just ain't your day well Nathan better cost 300 by side and said boys is turnaround [Music] yes [Music] [Music] [Applause] how far is ste shouted from all the here [Music] cold steel and it gave us ready game then he led a charge that's when all Sherman I think it broke out in a cold sweat [Music] let devil down he's coming after we used to stand your ground what fear took control then the Yankees did run the devil's work on this days do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you I've told you twice God [Music] the companion audio CD shelby foote commentary on general nathan bedford forrest includes 35 minutes of additional bonus material not included in the rebel forest documentary this exclusive CD is the first to have the renowned writer comment on this american military genius to order log on to rebel force calm now stay tuned for a brief samples of the bonus audio CD he only wants to buy I think he was loyal to his friends I think he was I think he was congenial he had a certain shyness about him because of his lack of education which he was always aware of and he was sort of uncomfortable around educated people because he emphasized his lack of an education so there's that side of forest which we don't get much chance to explore but I get a strong feeling that he didn't take part in the social activities of Memphis what you wouldn't read in the paper that he'd been to this party of that Barney or this dinner of that dinner on that dance of the other dance he simply wouldn't go to such things that because he would be uncomfortable what makes the straight rage so interesting to me there wasn't any way he could stand in his path because the straight was running right over and the water headed it was keeping nipping at him nipping at him cutting him down the scaring him depriving will sleep until the men were so exhausted he was chasing him and relays so that his man got some rest but stretch man didn't get this cast me any rest that's another example of what I'm talking about by geniusly he could use his troops in a way to keep them fresh every opponent the forest ever faced doubled and sometimes tripled his force and forest to bamboozle him into thinking and that many men what forest did and in the most unusual thing is fooling straight by having his men pass a gap back there over and over again he did that in various ways at various times he was also good at reducing fortifications because of Mortain skill is in our children this weapons was interesting too and he put in a commercial appeal called for the men beyond said shotguns and pistols preferable the pistol was semi-automatic and the shotgun was double-barrel so that he had a lot of advantages out of that rather than fooling with muzzleloading cobby one of the things that was going on through that time was the election was coming up in November and the South's big hope and continuing that fight up until November was that Lincoln would be defeated and they would get a candidate for president would be willing to make some kind of truce of some sort and when that didn't work they still kept on fighting from November right on and a-brewin May but that was just a doggedness they just wanted to just couldn't believe it she had the American Revolution where they lost every damn thing Valley Forge and everything else he lost where were they falling except at the end and the South kept believing it for held on long enough the other side would cave in the way the British is done and they like to refer to it as a second American Revolution which it was hood was put in there to do what he did and what he did was was miserable he was trying to fight Lee Jackson style when even Lee and Jackson even being able to fight that style in him all he was attacking Sherman three separate battles right there around Atlanta and he got beating all of them what did that was they spent six months or however long it was backing up with Joe Johnson they had yet somebody who would stand still Davis's and many other people knew that offensive line of fell lesson would be reelected which of course he was and they wanted somebody who would stand their ground and they got somebody who did a good deal more than stand his ground he attacked attack attack and wrecked his army and lost his land again and far as different with him of course in the attack at Franklin but so did everybody else the hood was trying to discipline his army he couldn't get him to do what he wanted to do it said by god I'll show him we'll make a frontal attack they did and completely wrecking on their Tennessee think they've at Nashville they was so so badly whooped that they just ran for their lives forest save them I'm in a good part he had relays the wagons working to bring those men through all those frozen roads and everything is FL barefoot and forest had a had a shuttle running men and wagons infantryman in wagons who wouldn't have been able to keep up in Bedford forest improvising that thing he did another thing that's good early in the war after Donaldson wouldn't ask Rafael Forrest took over Nashville and distributed the rations and saved an awful lot of stuff that would have been lost dead in high school if it hadn't been for Forrest he stayed there for two days after everybody else was gone there were two two men that I wrote about in that war that I had an increasing dislike for two did my best to keep it from showing I'm sure it did to some extent but I tried not to one was felt sharing whom I never liked to toll in half and the other was Joe Johnson most beloved of all Confederate generals and so was shared and beloved the northern organs but Joe Johnson even sacrificed anything saved men and his men appreciated that very highly but truth about is I said the book if you kept Johnson in command in Atlanta he'd wind up in Key West there was no ended Joe Johnson's back you know and it was a good England dissatisfaction with Johnson in the army by the time they got to Atlanta they never expected that Johnson would let him push him back at four you

Channel: Jon Rawl

Views: 166,267

Rating: 4.5821147 out of 5

Keywords: Chester Quarles, Shelby Foote, Parker Hills, David Ndilei, Bill Fitch, Fitch Farms, Jon Rawl, Hank Sanders, Cecil Williamson, Nelson Winbush, Sons Of Confederate Veterans, Parkers Crossroads, Brices Crossroads, Fort Pillow, Chickamauga, Emma Sansom, Rick Revel, Lee Millar, Forrest Park, NB Forrest, Nathan B. Forrest, CSA, Confederate State of America, Y'all Magazine, Y'all Films, Yall.com, Nathan Bedford Forrest, RebelForrest.com

Id: uxTAur9Mq1Q

Length: 57min 33sec (3453 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 18 2019