"Nathan Bedford Forrest....It was he who came up with the saying, "Get there firstest, with the mostest."
Aha! I have always sort of wondered about that. Now to know its martial origin, that gives it more meaning.
Except, of course, Forrest never said it. Although uneducated and not given to writing, Forrest was not the ignorant hillbilly he has been portrayed as and he has been misquoted throughout history. What he said was, his Civil War campaigns were successful because he "Got there first with the most men."