General Forrest and the Confederate flag

Canada Free Press ^ | July 11, 2009 | Calvin E. Johnson, Jr.

[BigReb555]

Monday, July 13th, in the year of our Lord 2009, is the 188th birthday of American legend and Southern Hero--Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest.

[razorback-bert]

Never stand and take a charge... charge them too.

[razorback-bert]

No damn man kills me and lives.

[razorback-bert]

I ended the war a horse ahead.

[razorback-bert]

I’ve got no respect for any young man who won’t join the colors.

All quotes from the General.

[razorback-bert]

All my Grandmother, her sisters and brothers would talk about was Reconstruction and bad it was.

[Rabble]

Forrest's contemporaries showed much respect for the Confederate General.

Reportedly, someone asked Robert E. Lee to name the greatest soldier produced on either side during the war and he replied, "A man I have never seen, sir. His name is Forrest."

[usmcobra]

Some people have claimed that Forrest was associated with the Ku Klux Klan but he officially denied participation.

It is claimed wrongly that Forrest started the Klan when in truth he actually disbanded it.

His general order disbanding the Klan was a Public record in many newspapers of the time.

[Walvoord]

Not many people know this, but Forest became a devoted Christian before his death. A preacher in Memphis tried for many years to convert Forest. Forest always refused. Finally one day on a Memphis street, the preacher said, “General, are you ready to meet the Lord?” Forest stopped, swung round, and said, “Yes preacher. I'm ready.” The preacher took him aside and talked to Forest. He was soon baptized. After that, Forest was a changed man. He wrote letters to every person he had ever affronted and apologized. He used his money to open a school for Black children. He would leave anonymous gifts of shoes, food, and blankets on the doorsteps of black peoples shacks. When he died, many Black people attended his wake and funeral. An amazing turn around for a man who once bought and sold slaves, the Fort Pillow tragedy, and the formation of the Klan.

[john in springfield]

"Now, when I was a baby, Momma named me after the great Civil War hero, General Nathan Bedford Forrest. She said we was related to him in some way.

And, what he did was, he started up this club called the Ku Klux Klan. They'd all dress up in their robes and their bedsheets and act like a bunch of ghosts or spooks or something. They'd even put bedsheets on their horses and ride around.

And anyway, that's how I got my name, Forrest Gump. Momma said that the Forrest part was to remind me that sometimes we all do things that, well, just don't make no sense."

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

How often people use history to meet their own agendas. Forrest did indeed disband the Klan. The Klan we know today reformed ten years after Forrest's death but morons still say he's somehow responsible for it's later actions.

[lentulusgracchus]

There is not a shadow of a doubting Thomas that Forrest was an early participant in Klan organizing and leadership.

My understanding, correct me on this, is that the organizers of the first Klan circles "adlected" Gen. Forrest as their leader, that he apparently accepted but resigned after about 18 months when night-riding and other suppressive activities began to be organized among the Klan, because he disagreed with such tactics.

[lentulusgracchus]

If only Pat Cleburne and A.P. Hill had survived those last few months of the war! How much better-led the South would have been, in defeat.

[dljordan]

“My Great Grandfather and his brother rode with Forrest.”

As did mine and his son. 1oth Tennessee Cav.

[vetvetdoug]

My ancestors rode with the 7th Tennessee Cavalry, the 7th Mississippi Cavalry, 1st Mississippi Partisans that were all units serving under Forrest at one time or another.

Don't forget that General Forrest's grandson, a General of the US Army, was killed leading a bombing group of B-17s over Wilhalshaven and was the first General killed in combat during WWII.

[TNdandelion]

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/jun/21/telling-stories-to-spark-dialogue/

Let me know if this link doesn't show up. I can private reply to you with text of the article-- I just don't remember what the rules are regarding posting articles.

[stand watie]

don't confuse "DUH,snake" with FACTS. it makes him weep/whine/carp & "run to tattle" to the mods.

fyi, he is a southern TURNCOAT & beneath the notice of gentlemen/ladies.

free dixie,sw

[stainlessbanner]

Yessir!

Also, John A. Wyeth, president of the American Medical Association, rode with Forrest. Not only were they fearless and tough....they were smart!

[stainlessbanner]

On 16 April 1864, George W. Cable (one of Forrest's clerks) wrote his mother:

"Genl. Forrest is a hard worker. Every body about him must be busy. I think he calls for "them clerks" a dozen times a day. He attends to everything himself, sits and talks to every one, knows every one by name, boasts of his personal prowess to his captains, tells everything he intends to do, and tells the same instructions over fifty times in half an hour.

"When he dictates a letter or telegram he labors for good language, & takes many words to say but little. His brain, however, is as clear as crystal & he seems to think of a dozen things at once, & can keep an office full of clerks writing at one time. He is a tall, plainlooking man. . . . He is dressed in jeans, has iron-grey hair & whiskers, & abominates whist1ing."

[manc]

that is a part of history which is never taught anymore in schools

My son who knows about the war and after it asked his teacher about this and she said that she is not allowed as they can only teach what they are told.

sad my oldest son is 11 and knows more than most adults

[manc]

WOW
you have a great history in your family if you do not mind me saying