Posted on 09/30/2014 6:22:22 PM PDT by NKP_Vet
Though Nathan Bedford Forrest was not a writer, had little formal education, never authored a book, and was not a professional speaker, he did leave us with a number of witty comments, profound words, and sublime statements. Award-winning author, Southern historian, and Forrest scholar Lochlainn Seabrook has gathered together some of the more memorable and impressive of these and forged them into a small but fascinating work: "The Quotable Nathan Bedford Forrest." Among the nearly 140 footnoted quotes included here are Forrest's thoughts on warfare, military rules, West Point graduates, education, friendship, and even drinking, gambling, cussing, and morality. Seabrook, the author of the popular bestseller, "A Rebel Born: A Defense of Nathan Bedford Forrest," has also included excerpts from newspaper interviews, Forrest's postwar appearance before the U.S. Joint Select Committee, and numerous examples of the General's personal notes and letters and, of course, his military dispatches and reports. Much of what Forrest said was never written down but was recorded from the memory of those who associated with him. Particularly poignant is the inclusion of Forrest's black equal rights speech to the Independent Order of Pole Bearers, the forerunner of the modern NAACP, chronicled by a local reporter. From the General's own words we learn that he was not an "illiterate inbred hillbilly," a "monstrous racist," or a "cruel and violent slave owner," as the North and New South disingenuously continue to preach. Quite the opposite. He was not only, as Confederate General Richard Taylor said of him, a "tender-hearted, kindly man," he was also a true Southern gentleman, a fair and compassionate Rebel officer, a successful businessman, and a faithful husband who loved children, protected women, and gave charitably to war veterans, orphans, and widows. A conservative Southerner and a staunch supporter of states' rights who freed his slaves years before Abraham Lincoln issued his fraudulent Emancipation Proclamation, unlike the North, Forrest stood firmly behind our country's most sacred document, the Constitution-before, during, and after Lincoln's War. "The Quotable Nathan Bedford Forrest" is a brief but important work that, like Seabrook's other three books on the General, will introduce him to new readers, help destroy the numerous absurd and slanderous Northern myths surrounding him, and bring him out of the shadows and into the mainstream of American history where he justly belongs. Obscured for the past 150 years, now discover the real man for yourself-in his own words. An attractive, unique, affordable, and popular tourist-friendly work that will appeal to both casual Civil War buffs and hardcore Civil War scholars alike, "The Quotable Nathan Bedford Forrest" is the perfect addition to any retail outlet, including not only bookstores, but Civil War sites, historic houses, museum gift stores, antique shops, B&Bs, tack shops, motorcycle shops, and gun stores. Tennessee author Lochlainn Seabrook, a cousin of General Forrest's, is the winner of the prestigious Jefferson Davis Historical Gold Medal. Known as the "American Robert Graves" after his celebrated English cousin, Seabrook is the author of over thirty popular adult and children's books, including: "A Rebel Born: A Defense of Nathan Bedford Forrest"; "Nathan Bedford Forrest: Southern Hero, American Patriot"; "Give 'Em Hell Boys! The Complete Military Correspondence of Nathan Bedford Forrest"; "The Quotable Robert E. Lee"; "The Old Rebel: Robert E. Lee As He Was Seen By His Contemporaries"; "Everything You Were Taught About the Civil War is Wrong, Ask a Southerner!"; "The Quotable Jefferson Davis"; and "The Unquotable Abraham Lincoln: The President's Quotes They Don't Want You to Know!"
I’m not sure where you got your information but the Ku Klux Klan was formed in Pulaski Tennessee in 1866 and, although not a founder, Forrest served as it’s first Grand Wizard starting sometime in 1867 and continuing until 1969 when he resigned and ordered the association dissolved.
Doh!
A point of fact, He died at age 57 - way too soon.
Exactly
Nathan Bedford Forrest. First Grand Wizard of The Ku Klux Klan.
And they hated not only blacks but Catholics(which I am) and Jews. The Boy Scouts they weren’t.
Thank you for this thread. Lee considered Forrest to be his best General.
Not soon enough.
If I had been a soldier in the moment I would have done my damnedest to kill him. But it’s been 150 years and I dislike holding grudges.
The thing about NBF is that he never had the opportunity to study warfare but was a natural. He rose from private to general - and became one of Lee’s most respected go-to guys. The Fort Pillow Massacre will always be troubling to me but I think that, in general, he served honorably.
There are printed stories about Rommel hiring somebody, in the late 1930s, to drive him to all the major battlefields that Bedford commanded in, so Rommel could see why NBF deployed his troops the way he did.
There was a book called “ driving Rommel” I thumbed through in BAM a few years ago about this. Don’t know if it was a fictional tale or not.
Heinrich Himmler was never a soldier either rockrr but he rose to the occasion.
Paragraphs are our friends.....what unreadable tripe.
General Forrest never served under General R.E. Lee during the war. He did serve under Lt.General Stephen D. Lee in 1864.
All of General Forrest’s Confederate service was in the Western theater of the war.
PERMANENT CONSTITUTION
Of The
CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA
Adopted By The
CONFEDERATE CONGRESS
March 11, 1861
“We, the people of the Confederate States, each state acting in its sovereign and independent character, in order to form a permanent federal government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity - invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God - do ordain and establish this constitution for the Confederate States of America.”
Richmond:
Printed by James E. Goode
Forrest would have known what to do with a keyboard warrior-punk like yourself, jmacusa. LOL! :)
After the US Civil War was over, General Robert E. Lee was asked by a reporter who his favorite General was.
General Lee replied: “The man I never met, Lt. General Nathan Bedford Forrest.”
According to historians, Forrest was the only man, on either side, to rise from Private to General.
A natural Warrior, Forrest had many successes on the battlefields often against Union forces much larger than his. The best example occurred near Rome, Georgia.
One quote attributed to Forrest is as true today as it was back then:
“The winnah of the battle is the one thet gits thar the fustest with the mostest!”
HOWDY Y'ALL!
Thanks, for the ping.
Weather, Warm,light breeze*;
Lunch: Hot Roast Beef / coke.
Not if he reads any of Seabrook's other works.
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