nt ———————————— en. NB. Forrest.CS Pletwres from “Bedford Forrest and His Critter Company.” Courtesy Minton, Balch & Company. By ELMO SCOTT WATSON 0 MOST Americans the name of Gen. Nathan Bedford Confederate cavalry leader, Forrest, means the synonym for the author of a famous epigram on win battles, His method was to “git thar fust with the mostest - But what they do not realize is that Forrest more than just the maker of a historic phrase a icturesque character personally how to men. was and an successful cavalry leader If he recent biographer Is his place among the fcan military leaders, =a as well as a master tactician and the man who, had it not been for the jealousy of a superior officer, might easil The biographer viewpoint is presented in the Forrest and His Critter published recently by Minton, Balch and company Mr. Lytle has ample mate of Forrest Ger great cavalry dash- ing “Jeb” Stuart. But at when somebody asked Lee who was the greatest sol- dier In his command, he “A man I have never seen, sir. His name is Forrest.” A similar tribute was paid to Forrest by Jefferson Davis later. The former president of, the Confederacy and Gov- ernor Porter of were riding in the funeral was carrying “Olid ledford” to his grave. Turning to Davis Por- ter said, “History has accorded to General For- rest the first place as a cavalry leader in the war between the states and has named him as one of the half dozen soldiers of the country.” To which graduate of West Point and a professional soldier before he was called to head a new American republic, replied, “The trouble was that the generals commanding in the southwest never appreciated Forrest until it was too late. Their judgment was that he was a bold and enterprising partisan raider and rider, I was misled by them, and I never knew how to measure him until I read his re. ports of his campaign across the river In 1864. This induced a study of his earlier reports, and after that I was prepared to adopt what you are pleased to name as the Judgment of history.” But to realize to the full the greatness of Forrest one should turn to the words, not of his friends, but of his enemies. Gen William Tecumseh Sherman who campaigned against him in the Western campaigns never made the mistake of underestimating Lis ability and Sher. man once exclaimed, “I am going to get Forrest if it costs 10,000 lives and breaks the treasury! There will never be peace in Tennessee until Forrest Is dead!” But he never did get him, and the “Wizard of the Saddie,” as the adoring Southerners called him, went through four years of spectacular leadership In war without a defeat, a record almost unparelieled in history. As for “critter company” it is the Tennes- seean's name for Forrest's eavalry., Early in the war, while Union troops were occupying Tennessee Forrest “became overnight their par. ticular ideal of what a soldier could be, They could not understand strategic gains but they ecou¥! understand his particular kind of fighting, It was as plain and as heartening as sow-belly and corn bread, The women now felt that they had a defender. They began to threaten tyran« nical Unlon officers with ‘Forrest will get you for this’ and *I'll tell or Forrest on you! They goon learned that he was a bogey man they all believed In” The same adoration given him by the people was given by the men who followed him, They referred to him as “the old man” just as Jacke son's “foot cavalry” did to that leader, They slso ealled him “Old Bedford” in the same sense that Jackson's men referred to “Old Jack” In return he looked after them as a father looks after his children, Nothing made Forrest more furious than a useless waste of lives in a unusually estimation of a Forrest takes greatest of all Amer strategist correct, master ved the “Lost Cause ™ Nelson Lytle and his “Bedford Andrew Company,” fication for his estl- Appomattox, iswered instantly, twelve years Tennessee procession which great Davis, Tennessen z 2 a PE battle, especially If the lis boys," He Judgment of horseflesh and of C8 were wis the ideal cavalry of the mounts in his command, Nathan Bedford Forrest wa county, Tennessee, in 1821 Litt} his life as a boy but what af record of conflict, is known of fizhizs w with bullies of the neighborhood dences to prove th Nathan born fighter. In his to Texas to help fig independend but arrived there only to there was no nes} for his services Pen . young Forrest split fifty Tennessee enough rails cents a hundred to Then he be Meme became a broker In real estate and finally pay his way back a horse trader and later, moving to slave pros He next became an after he trader. in all of which occupations he tinguished 1} a private citizen, to save the derers when a mob thr and when no one else be Isynchers, Forrest Iding a six to the mob in & clear or by tens, or by hundreds, I'll kill any h The result of was that the n They said by ones man who this firm thousand quickly melted aways Forrest meant exactly what he tries to get in this ail’ statement alderman rest resigned in 15580 and became a cotton pls er. He was thus engaged when the Civil war broke out and in June, 1861 influence to get a commission he enlisted as a private in White's Mounted Rifles jut his friends did what he would not do for himself, They decided that the ranks were no place for Forrest. So they prevalled upon the Confederate authorities to give him a commis. gion as lieutenant colonel and the authority to raise a battalion of mounted rangers. Going up into Kentucky (both because he could secure excellent horses there and because every man which he brought out of that state, which was neutral but was a recruiting ground for both governments, would weaken the enemy's armies Just that much) he returned to Memphis some eight weeks later, having raised eight ecom- panies, 650 strong. Then began his amazing career as a cavalryman par excellence, as a natural military genine whose exploits far out. shown those of many trained soldiers and as a thorn in the side of one Union general after another, Forrest knew After serving one year as an instead of using his Tennessee nothing about military tactics and cared less, In that regard he was an ideal leader for the independent-spirited men under his command, Drills and guard mounts were obnoxious to them but their officers managed to get results from them even without the formality of giving commands in the prescribed manner, Such expression as “Men, tangle into fours! iy turn around! Git!” would shock an army- trained drilimaster speechless, but when such commands were given to Forrest's men they knew what was wanted and they obeyed, Forrest had a fine contempt for West trained officers who Point. fought according to rule of the thumb. On one occasion, after a battle which had been disastrous to the Southern forces and which had been fought according to a plan to which Forrest had been oppposed, Gen, Stephen D. Lee called a council of war. Lee asked Forrest if he had any Ideas. “Yes sir" said the cavalry leader, “i've always got ideas, and Tl tell you one thing, General Lee. If 1 knew as much about West Point tactics as you, the Yankees would whip hell out of me every day." As for the thesis that Forrest might have saved the Confederacy from defeat, it Is based upon the fact that, as Lytle says, “the govern. ment which first realized that the war would be decided ultimately on western battlefields would have a decided advantage,” and the premise that if Forrest's genius had been recognized soon enough by the Confederate government, if he had been given a sufficient force and had not been thwarted by a jealous superior he might have held the West indefinitely and turned the £ Gen. Braxton Bragg ren ton Bra have 850 generals and The story a volume for the at Fort Donelson through the He could has my had HOC ORs "ss tent and 1 any more orders to no And T will sible for any inflict upon foe You ha me for not dare you to do it, and 1 them, further obeying your you ever again try to interf my path, it will be at the peril And Bragg did not take the dare The closing days of the war found Forrest A recognition which had and placed in charge of all the cavalry in the West—<the In®t organized Con federate forces In that section But by this time his efforts were futile so far a= the out come of the war was concerned dered to Grant and Johnston to Sherman and there was no further need for Forrest to lead his “critter company™ on swift which had him the nightmare of than one commander in blue. Heutenant general come too late) Loe surrer those tlaghes more His men begged him to lead them to Mexico to avold surrender made ing But he knew the game was up and sur rendered to General Canby, After Phe war Forrest went to M saiskippl to become a planter again—taking as his partner a Federal officer! Later he sold his and moved to Memphis. He was a delegate to the first posi-war Democratic convention and when he went to New York he “attracted so much attention that he could not move about the streets without drawing a crowd™-—such was the fame of “the Wizard of the Saddle” in the North. When the dark dass of the tecon struction period came upon the South and the Ku Klux Kian was organized to save it from the Realawag-Carpetbagger regime, Forrest was offered the command of the new movement and accepted it, It had previously been offered to Robert E. Lee but although he refused, he ap- proved of the idea, saying that his approval must be “invisible,” So the Ku Klux Klan be came the “Invisible Empire” and when the name for a commander was bronght up suggested “Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Wizard of the Saddle™ So he became “the Grand Wizard of the Invisible Empire.” By 1870 the work of the Ku Klux Kian had plantation some one were only a few more years of life left for him. He died In Memphis October 20, 1877," and was buried In Elmwood cemetery, Later his body was removed to a park set aside to his memory in Memphis and an equestrian statoe raised over it, So Bedford Forrest sti: rides In the South-in material form in this statue and In spiritual form in the hearts of the people of Tennessee who still tell their tales of "Old Bedford, the Wizard of the Saddle” (@® by Western Newspaper Union.) Infatuation of Moment windows are usually frosted glass David, peeking at Bath-8helba, had trouble enough with Nathan, but his difficulties were largels nature and he bore up under them splendidly, Roderick, king of the Vigigoths, wig no his curiosity wreeked a kingdom, provided Roderick in the where his spied ny y pretty pool of took the air, prerog fhe “Warm” Corpse Too Much for Nerves of Ghouls BOILS Why suffer intense agony of boils or ris whe applies tion of CARBOIL stops pein, ripens and heals boll often overnight, Get Carbeil todsy trom druggist, west relief known, . Heal Co., Nashville, Tenn, It works quickly and surely All Druggists. Ge. York Civy by F. hie and Efrective, Wakes sontuirian wABLIONE pnncesnsry . Baooms | wf by Soctors Bent in plein wrapner 1 og ERs FEMALE PILLS, $2.06 5 Sox. PARKER'S HAIR BALSAM Bemoves Dundrol Stops [a'r ¥ alling lroparts Color an Beauty to Gray and Faded Hair fr and 11 00 st Druggiets 2774 Himes Chern. Wis Parker's Hair Baleam Makes the fly. b0 conte by mail or a. drop CY (OMB HONEY NEW YORK and The ROTEL (GVERNOR (LINTON SI” §T.= 77™ AVE. oppe site PENNA. RR.STATION 1200 Rooms each with Bath, Servidor end Circulat- ing lce Waoter with aiden, Mews Immortal “Will's” Father Feared Process Servers drarobnti Prosecution of on Sundas day Observance act of law of England church observance 1657. Bat thy about compulsory bundred years earlier, when Shake speare’s father was reported to the Stratford authorities “for not com minge monethlie to Church accord inge to hir Majesties lawes™ this It his § { 3 i from the parish ' record, there is note appended to his name and mes of eight other offenders i= gayde that these laste nine Church for feare of ess for debtte aw was on September 2 record was made-—-just a year described by Shakespeare i invention." London Morning
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