Nathan Forrest: Still confounding, controversial

Knoxville News Sentinel ^ | 2/19/6 | SCOTT BARKER

[SmithL]

A bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest greets those who enter
the House of Representatives chamber of the state Capitol
building. The bust has been the object of protests.

[GarySpFc]

I have read 9 Forrest biographies, and will comment on them tomorrow when I have time.

[sporkgoddess]

Interesting... I knew about the 20th century revival (hurray for obscure Frank vs. Magnum knowledge finally paying off) but I didn't know that the original KKK wasn't really for racist purposes.

[Travis McGee]

I have one, by Wyeth. How does it rate compared to your others?

[SunkenCiv]

Fort Pillow, site of the massacre that stained Forrest's reputation forever.

That, and, he was a Democrat.

[jocon307]

Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton sounds like a very sensible man.

[vetvetdoug]

Most historians are unaware of what transpired in West Tennessee toward the end of the Civil War and through reconstruction. During the war Confederate soldiers were tortured and murdered by local Union Cavalry. One could read references to these atrocities in the OR. At Pocahontas, Tn, a captured Confederate soldier was skinned alive and one gutshot at every mile marker from there to Purdy, Tn. After the war's end, Confederate sympathizers and former Confederate soldiers were not protected from Carpetbaggers, scalawags, and criminals by the appointed law enforcement (read Union sympathizers. The Klan was formed to protect the former Confederates against this lawlessness. The first Klan was ordered disbanded when the former Confederates were allowed to vote and hold office, such as sheriff and LE positions.

[wardaddy]

I have always enjoyed the Hurst one.


however, the left and those here who collaborate with them will not rest till Forrest and those like him are demonized like Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot.

[wardaddy]

(original Klan)It was in response to Union occupation, white disenfranchisement and what both those meant to whites. Not to say they were darlings....they were not.

Blacks were esentially freed, exploited momentarily to usher in shoddy Radical Republican administrations in the Deep South and then rejected and abandoned by those who "freed" them and who really understood them less and were even more bigoted than us. Sorta like I think you ought be free but now since you are would you mind staying down South away from us and maybe if you're good we'll give you some little postage stamp of land we appropriated from the ruins of plantocracy. Sorta like how the Dems treat any minority today.

That is the north's legacy they'd prefer you forget.

Not to say they're weren't some decent folk here and there who meant well.

Forrest quit the Klan after a few years when the Yankees left ...as did Wheeler I believe.

[stainlessbanner]

Forrest ping

[stainlessbanner]

Had no idea there were 9 bios of NBF. Hurst is a good one? which others? I'm almost finished with Guns of the South - can you imagine Forrest with an AK-47!

[stainlessbanner]

"Any way you cut it, he was responsible," Caudill said. "He was the commander."

By that logic Lincoln has 600,000 dead at his feet. He was the commander.

I don't think they would like that one.

[stainlessbanner]

623,026 according to Shelby Foote

[TexConfederate1861]

Amen, Brother....you are preaching to the choir! :)

[kalee]

ping

[Colt .45]

Not to mention the fact that the US Army wanted Nathan Bedford Forrest to command troops during the Spanish American War, owing to the fact that he (Forrest) was a excellent tactical leader. He declined the offer.

So you see the South wasn't fighting to be racist, there was far more at stake there.

"Get there first with the most!" - General Nathan Bedford Forrest, CSA.

[billbears]

Have you read his other ones on the subject? No sci-fi and more alternate history instead. Interesting that the 16th president lives and becomes the founder of the American Socialist Party. What's even more interesting is that for the first few books in the series at least, he tries to use actual statements from the historical figure. Although he's taken it too far IMHO. His has a northern bias that is revealed by WWI in the alternate history

[GarySpFc]

I have one, by Wyeth. How does it rate compared to your others?

I would rate First with the Most, by Robert Selph Henry second, and Hurst's Nathan Bedford Forrest third.

Wyeth's is the best, and he gained much of his knowledge after having served in one of Forrest's former units. Bragg had a nasty habit of taking away Forrest's units and giving them to Wheeler after they had been battle hardened. Quite frankly Forrest should have carried out his threat against Bragg, and the South would have done far better in the war. Quite frankly I never could understand why they named a fort after Bragg.

[stainlessbanner]

This is my first turtledove book - a bit of change from other historical books I normally read. Thanks for the info billbears.

[billbears]

Well Guns of the South is separate from the series I mentioned so I shouldn't spoil anything for you on this one (which is good by itself). He has another series, back in the sci-fi realm, where lizard aliens show up in the middle of WWII to take over the world. That series is up to the middle of the 21st century.