What can you tell me about Gen. Nathan Bedford Forest?

Answer 1

He is still quoted in the military. Under the category of how to win a battle, he simply stated that the one who wins is the one who gets to the battle, " the fuhstest with the mostest." That is legend. He actually said the "one who gets there first with the most men."

These are two of the nine principles of war: Mass and manuever.

Regards

Answer 2

Nathaniel Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821–October 29, 1877) was a Confederate Army general during the American Civil War. Perhaps the most highly regarded cavalry and partisan (guerrilla) leader in the war, Forrest is regarded by many military historians as that conflict's most innovative and successful general. His tactics of mobile warfare are still studied by modern soldiers. Forrest is also one of the war's most controversial figures. Although he was accused of war crimes at the Battle of Fort Pillow for having led Confederate soldiers in an alleged massacre of unarmed black Union troops, the accusation was later disproven by an 1871 Congressional investigation.

After the war he was alleged to have participated in the founding of the Ku Klux Klan. Despite rumors that he was the first Grand Wizard of the Klan, the Congressional investigation of the Klan in 1871, which included several former Confederate generals, undertaken by Radical Republicans concluded that Forrest did not found the Klan, was not its leader, did not participate in its activities and worked to have it disbanded.[1]

Answer 3

Forest was a Confederate cavalry leader during the Civil War. There's no question that as a military leader he was both a gifted strategist and extremely courageous; these traits made him a legend during the war and a hero to the South for years afterwards.

He's also known to have been, even for a Confederate leader, intensely racist. In one famous incident of the war, he massacred several hundred black soldiers at Fort Pillow after they had surrendered, in keeping with the official Confederate position that all black Union soldiers were runaway slaves. After the war, he was a leader in the KKK.

Answer 4

He was a confederate general, the first grand wizard of the
klu klux klan( allegedly) and ironically he became an advocate of civil rights for blacks near the end of his life as well as a benefactor for poor black ex-slaves.

He stood about 6 feet 2" which was an imposing height at
the time and was known to be very combative with other
officers. Legend has it that he killled 30+ men in battle
with the bayonet end of his rifle.

He was also thought to be far less eloquent than other
generals due to his lack of formal education.

Answer 5

He was a Confederate general during the Civil War. He became involved in the military early on, because he and his family lived off of and supported the right to owning slaves. When he entered the service, he was placed in Captain J.S. White's Company "Q", but when he saw how ill-equipped they were, he offered to buy them all adequate supplies and weapons, as he had come from an extremely wealthy family. Because of this, he was placed into the position of a colonel.
He's most well known for his involvement in the Battle of Shiloh, and the war crimes accused of him later on after the war had ended.

Answer 6

Important things that haven't been said:

He was NOT from a rich family, but rather a self-made millionaire by 1861. Much of his fortune did come from the slave trade and slavetraders were looked down on by Southern planter societies (hypocritical).

His main field of operations was in Tennessee (later Alabama after Tennessee fell).

He was the only man in the Confederate army to begin the war as a private and end it as a general. He probably would have been promoted higher and given more men, but Jeff Davis and R.E. Lee were both snobs about social class.

He was most definitely racist even by Southern Civil War standards and probably did massacre the troops at Ft. Pillow as mentioned, BUT his involvement with the KKK actually seems to have changed him for the better rather than for the more racist. He actually withdrew from it because he thought they were disgusting- he'd thought it was to protect Southerners from occupying northern troops and instead it was more for terrorizing black people. (I say this not to defend him but to explain: To Forrest, executing captured black soldiers was acceptable but terrorizing civilians was not.)

He was a diabetic.

He was considered one of the greatest military geniuses the US ever produced and he was revered as a near-god by German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. Patton actually recognized some of Forrest's tactics being employed by Rommel and used it in his battle plan.

He is famous for two quotes, one being "Get there first with the most men" (he's sometimes quoted as saying "Git thar fustest with the mostest", but like a lot of self-educated men he actually spoke very precisely) and, when finding himself surrounded during a raid, giving the order to "Split in half and charge both ways!" (which he did, and it worked).

A horrible man by our standards, a complex one by his own, but above all a military genius who managed to do more than anyone else could probably have done with the men and supplies he had (and the men and supplies he lacked).

Answer 7

Leading Cavalry figure during the Civil War and one of the original leaders of the Ku Klux Klan.

Answer 8

he started the KKK