Nathan Bedford Forrest is a legendary and highly controversial figure in Southern history. Although lacking the formal training of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, he was a dashing, risk-taking leader of the Confederate Army and a major threat to Union armies throughout the war. Continuing the defiant spirit that had fueled those efforts, he resisted Northern efforts to control and reform the South during the period of Reconstruction, and he is often referred to as a founding father of the Ku Klux Klan.
Forrest was born on July 13, 1821, in Chapel Hill, Tennessee, to William and Miriam Beck. The oldest of eleven children—eight boys and three girls—Forrest had only limited formal education. Nevertheless, with the help of his younger brothers, he soon made the Mississippi homestead profitable after inheriting it on the death of his father just prior to turning sixteen. In 1842, with his mother planning to remarry, Forrest headed off on his own, becoming a junior partner in his uncle’s mercantile, livestock, and livery stable business. A couple years later, upon the sudden death of his uncle, Forrest inherited the business. Forrest once again demonstrated his enterprising talent by turning it into a profitable enterprise far better suited for providing for his new bride, Mary Ann Montgomery, whom he married in 1845. Within a few years he moved his family, which included a son and daughter, from Hernando, Mississippi, to the growing city of Memphis, Tennessee, to seek new opportunities. There he immersed himself in the slave trade, a central activity in Memphis with its location on the Mississippi River, and became very wealthy. In addition, Forrest began to invest in real estate, acquiring prime property in Memphis, on which he productively grew cotton, as well as obtaining holdings in Mississippi and Arkansas. Also, in 1858, he won election to the board of aldermen, having established a reputation for himself in commercial circles.
With the outbreak of the Civil War, Forrest volunteered as a private, but reflecting the independent spirit that would characterize his military career, he used money to raise and equip his own army. Although lacking any formal military training, Forrest quickly proved himself a creative and successful commander. Innovative and courageous, he developed tactics that could not be found in a textbook but which were ideally suited to the woods that served as the battlefields of western Tennessee and northern Mississippi. Nicknamed “the wizard of the saddle,” the fearless and powerful Forrest was said to have a killer instinct, with a particular focus on Northerners and free blacks. Perhaps no episode better illustrates his approach to warfare than an incident at Fort Donelson in February 1862. While under siege by Grant’s army, the Southern commander General Buckner discussed terms of surrender. Forrest, refusing to accept that fate, stealthily led his army of 700 troops across an icy stream to freedom. While Forrest and his men would later encounter Grant at the Battle of Shiloh, where Forrest was wounded, that summer he made his reputation as a military genius, sweeping in and engaging in lightening-quick raids that made him a feared cavalry commander and a constant source of anxiety to Union forces. Using guerrilla warfare tactics, Forrest and his troops would swoop in and wreak havoc on supply lines before disappearing back into the countryside only to engage in additional hit-and-run raids at times of their choosing. His efforts quickly earned him a promotion to brigadier general, and after successful service at Chickamauga and then Chattanooga, in December 1863 he was promoted to major general. His most notorious engagement, one that continues to haunt his reputation, was the Fort Pillow (Tennessee) Massacre on April 12, 1864. The battle was short lived as Forrest’s forces quickly overwhelmed the undermanned Union forces. However, in the aftermath of gaining control of the garrison, they massacred the Union’s African American forces, reportedly killing as many as 200 of the less than 300 soldiers. While reports vary, the episode remains a source of great debate but it has clouded Forrest’s reputation ever since.
A self-taught military strategist, Nathan Forrest (1821–1877) rose from private to lieutenant general in the Confederacy, sustaining multiple wounds in the process. Considered by many Southerners to be a hero, Forrest is also notorious for the Fort Pillow (Tennessee) Massacre, in which forces under his command slaughtered Northern African American soldiers attempting to surrender. Forrest is also closely associated with the Ku Klux Klan, of which he was a founder. (Library of Congress)
In the aftermath of the war, Forrest and his wife lived in Memphis, where he struggled to obtain financial security. He also spent considerable time seeking to rehabilitate his reputation, being particularly anxious to remove the stain that resulted from his involvement in the Fort Pillow Massacre. Indeed, Nathan Bedford Forrest’s postwar life, as well as his legacy, remains a source of continued debate. His military legacy as an innovative, courageous leader, one who had bedeviled the Union at every turn was secure, with the likes of Sherman and Grant acknowledging his talents. However, he added another layer to his controversial reputation with his involvement in the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.
There appears to be little question about Forrest’s early involvement with the KKK. This organization may well have started as a social club for former Confederate officers in 1866 in Pulaski, Tennessee, but turned increasingly violent as it spread throughout the region. While there is evidence that Forrest was the group’s first “Grand Wizard,” it also appears that he called for the group’s dissolution in 1869, although by that time the organization had become so radical that his moderating influence was likely of limited value. The apparent change in his perspective concerning the Klan seems to have reflected his new approach to the realities of the postwar power balance. At the same time that he was distancing himself from the Klan, Forrest became more involved in conventional politics. He attended the Democratic national convention in 1868 and spoke during the fall campaign on the need to foster peaceful relations between political parties.
Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
No name evokes racial strife, prejudice, and hatred in the collective American imagination quite as powerfully as the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK, or simply called “the Klan.” The history of this hate group is steeped in blood and bigotry. The membership of the original Klan was largely comprised of former Confederate officers; the iconic robes and pointed hoods they wore were designed to inspire terror in their victims and to mask their identities from federal authorities. The first reign of terror of the Klan resulted in U.S. government legislation specifically targeting the group. The second emergence of the Klan may be linked to the notoriously racist film Birth of a Nation. The KKK’s influence waned by midcentury, but it continues to represent the seamiest undercurrent of America’s racist nightmare, which stretches from slavery through Jim Crow to contemporary hate crimes.
C. Fee
Forrest’s death on October 29, 1877, at the age of 56 from illness related to diabetes did not quiet the controversy surrounding his name. Indeed, he remains a subject of intense debate to this day, with one’s views on Nathan Bedford Forrest serving as something of a litmus test of one’s views of the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction eras.
William H. Pruden III
See also Jackson, Thomas “Stonewall”; Legends
Further Reading
Davison, Eddy W., and Daniel Foxx. 2007. Nathan Bedford Forrest: In Search of the Enigma. Gretna, LA: Pelican.
Hurst, Jack. 1993. Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography. New York: Vintage.
McPherson, James M. 1988. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wills, Brian Steel. The Confederacy’s Greatest Cavalryman: Nathan Bedford Forrest. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
Wyeth, John Allen. 1959. That Devil Forrest: Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
Forrest, Nathan Bedford—Primary Document
Nathan Bedford Forrest on the KKK (1868)
Confederate major general Nathan Bedford Forrest gained fame, then notoriety, in the U.S. Civil War and in the period of postwar Reconstruction. Forrest proved a capable cavalry officer at the Battle of Shiloh, the Battle of Chickamauga, and elsewhere, but his reputation was stained by the capture of Fort Pillow in April 1864, when his troops massacred hundreds of black Union soldiers. Forrest was accused of committing war crimes, but not charged or prosecuted. After the war, Forrest joined, then offered leadership to, the Ku Klux Klan, which was the subject of this newspaper interview during the intense debates over Reconstruction.
“What are your feelings towards the Federal Government, general?” “I loved the old Government in 1861; I love the Constitution yet.”
“I think it is the best government in the world if administered as it was before the war. I do not hate it; I am opposing now only the radical revolutionists who are trying to destroy it. I believe that party to be composed, as I know it is in Tennessee, of the worst men on God’s earth—men who would hesitate at no crime, and who have only one object in view, to enrich themselves.”
“In the event of Governor Brownlow’s calling out the militia, do you think there will be any resistance offered to their acts?” I asked.
“That will depend upon circumstances. If the militia are simply called out, and do not interfere with or molest anyone, I do not think there will be any fight. If, on the contrary, they do what I believe they will do, commit outrages, or even one outrage, upon the people, they and Mr. Brownlow’s government will be swept out of existence; not a radical will be left alive. If the militia are called out, we can not but look upon it as a declaration of war, because Mr. Brownlow has already issued his proclamation directing them to shoot down the Ku Klux wherever they find them; and he calls all southern men Ku Klux.”
“Why, general, we people up north have regarded the Ku Klux as an organization which existed only in the frightened imaginations of a few politicians.”
“Well, sir, there is such an organization, not only in Tennessee but all over the South, and its numbers have not been exaggerated.”
“What are its numbers, general?” “In Tennessee there are over forty thousand; in all the Southern States about five hundred and fifty thousand men.”
“What is the character of the organization, may I inquire?” “Yes, sir. It is a protective, political, military organization. I am willing to show any man the constitution of the society. The members are sworn to recognize the Government of the United States. It does not say anything at all about the government of the State of Tennessee. Its objects originally were protection against Loyal Leagues and the Grand Army of the Republic; but after it became general it was found that political matters and interests could best be promoted within it, and it was then made a political organization, giving its support, of course, to the democratic party.”
“But is the organization connected throughout the State?”
“Yes, it is. In each voting precinct there is a captain, who, in addition to his other duties, is required to make out a list of names of men in his precinct, giving all the radicals and all the democrats who are positively known, and showing also the doubtful on both sides and of both colors. This list of names is forwarded to the grand commander of the State, who is thus enabled to know who are our friends and who are not.”
“Can you, or are you at liberty to, give me the name of the commanding officer of this state?”
“No; it would be impolitic.”
“Then I suppose there would be no doubt of a conflict if the militia interfere with the people; is that your view?”
“Yes, sir; if they attempt to carry out Governor Brownlow’s proclamation by shooting down Ku Klux—for he calls all southern men Ku Klux—if they go to hunting down and shooting these men, there will be war, and a bloodier one than we have ever witnessed. I have told these radicals here what they might expect in such an event. I have no powder to burn killing negroes. I intend to kill the radicals. I have told them this and more. There is not a radical leader in this town but is a marked man; and if a trouble should break out, not one of them would be left alive. I have told them that they were trying to create a disturbance and then slip out and leave the consequences to fall upon the negro; but they can’t do it. Their houses are picketed, and when the fight comes not one of them would ever get out of this town alive. We don’t intend they shall ever get out of the country. But I want it distinctly understood that I am opposed to any war, and will only fight in self-defense. If the militia attack us, we will resist to the last; and, if necessary, I think I could raise 40,000 men in five days, ready for the field.”
“Do you think, general, that the Ku Klux have been of any benefit to the State?”
“No doubt of it. Since its organization the leagues have quit killing and murdering our people. There were some foolish young men who put masks on their faces and rode over the country frightening negroes; but orders have been issued to stop that, and it has ceased. You may say further that three members of the Ku Klux have been court-martialed and shot for violations of the orders not to disturb or molest people.”
“Are you a member of the Ku Klux, general?”
“I am not; but am in sympathy and will cooperate with them. I know they are charged with many crimes they are not guilty of: A case in point is the killing of Bierfield at Franklin, a few days ago. I sent a man up there especially to investigate the case, and report to me, and I have his letter here now, in which he states that they had nothing to do with it as an organization.”
Source: Forrest, Nathan Bedford. Interview with Nathan Bedford Forrest. Cincinnati Commercial, August 28, 1868.