“Our accounts from Nashville present the sad picture of a city under the rule of a mob, and that, too, of the most despicable character. Had the Unionists been able to reach that city a week sooner, much wanton destruction of private and public property would have been prevented. As it is, however, all the bridges, both railroad, turnpike and highway, including the magnificent iron suspension bridge, have been either burnt or otherwise destroyed. The stores and shops of citizens have been entered and pillaged - no distinction having been made by the rebel outlaws between advocates of secession and the lovers of Union. All suffered alike at the hands of this band of marauders, who carried away everything they could possibly use, and destroyed what they could not take away”“The leaders of this gang of thieves were cavalry men of Col. Forrest’s Texas Rangers, who claim to have cut their way through our army at Fort Donaldson, but who really ran away in the night with Pillow and Floyd, and quartered themselves in this fashion upon the inhabitants of what they chose to make their city of refuge. . . .”
I thought I would check to see what my books on Forrest had to say about this incident.
”Bedford Forrest and His Critter Company” by Andrew Nelson Lytle, says that when the news of Fort Donaldson’s fall and the coming of the federal army reached the city,
“… people fled into the streets. In a few minutes … the city was shaken by panic. … The civil government vanished. The Jews barred their shops. The president of a railroad, also a quartermaster of the army, loaded his property on a train and steamed away south, leaving the supplies to their fate. Mobs collected and began breaking down the doors of the government warehouses and plundering what might mean the life of the remaining part of the army. Floyd was out in charge of the city and ordered to bring off these supplies. He failed utterly to cope with the situation and marched away to Murfreesboro on the rumor of Grant’s approach.””The command over Nashville then devolved upon Colonel Forrest. In a few hours he had restored the capital to order. He rode into the mob, beat his pistol over the leader’s head, brought out the fire engine and turned ice cold water – it was February – on the rest, put guards over the warehouses, telegraphed for rolling stock, restored the mayor and council to authority, commandeered every vehicle in the city and began at once removing the supplies out of danger. After working steadily for three days and nights, he had emptied most of the warehouses and withdrew twenty-four hours after Buell’s advance had occupied Edgefield on the other side of the river, and then only at the mayor’s request.”
A similar report about Forrest at Nashville is given in the book, "That Devil Forrest" by John Allen Wyeth.
Would that we had commanders like Forrest these days. By the way, the Texas Rangers who were part of Forrest’s command were Terry’s Texas Rangers.