From the memoirs of Frank Montgomery: Reminiscences of a Mississippian in Peace and War.
In the last weeks of the war he [Forrest] was much with me and told me the story of his life. His father, a poor trader in negroes and mules died when he was fifteen years old, leaving a widow and several children dependent on him for support. To add to his burden, a posthumous infant was born a few weeks after his father's death.
Continuing the paternal occupation in a small way, he continued to maintain the family and give some education to the younger children. His character for truth, honesty and energy was recognized, and he gradually achieved independence and aided his brethren to start in life. Such was his short story before the war. . . . The accusations of his enemies that he murdered prisoners at Fort Pillow and elsewhere are absolutely false. The prisoners captured on the expedition into Tennessee of which I have just written were mostly negroes, and he carefully looked after their wants himself, though in rapid movement and fighting much of the time. These negroes told me of Mas' Forrest's kindness to them.
This is consistent with the following honor bestowed on Forrest by Alabama Negroes in 1864. From the Sept. 7, 1864 Daily Picayune of New Orleans:
General Forrest and the Negroes. It is known that the negroes of the Methodist congregation at Uniontown, Ala., recently contributed $1000 to the Association for the Relief of Maimed Soldiers, and being informed that this contribution was sufficient to constitute a life director, they selected General Forrest for that honor. The Selma Reporter publishes the General's letter to Dr. Neely acknowledging the compliment, in which he says:
I am not indifferent to the compliment paid me by the "Methodist Congregation of Negroes at Uniontown." I prize this manifestation on the part of the negro more than the thousand calumnies with which a defeated and vanished foe are endeavoring to blacken my name. It has been my fortune to have much dealing with the negro since I arrived at manhood, and I have uniformly treated them with kindness and humanity. Those that have been forcibly taken from me I know are sighing for the happy home from which they have been seduced. Those who headed not the ridiculous proposals of the Federals, and who still remain with me, fly from his approaching footsteps with the same instincts of fear and danger that they would fly from a leprosy. I predict that, after peace shall have been restored, most of the negroes who have been decoyed from their homes, will gladly and joyfully return, infinitely preferring slavery among the Southern people to freedom at the North. Instead of being guilty of the atrocities charged upon me, I have uniformly expressed my sympathies for the negro. He has been deluded by false promises, and I had much rather make war upon the white man who has deceived him.
I suspect Forrest's staff wrote his response for him. According to my Frank Montgomery link in this post, Forrest read with difficulty.
Forrest's demands for the unconditional surrender of his enemies when there was little doubt that Forrest's troops would be victorious saved lives on both sides of the battle.
He was truly an amazing General
They sure hated Gen. Forrest didn't they? </sarcasm>
Kudos to you sir, what a find! Bookmarked for reading.
Interesting that Forrest predicted the American Big City Plantations of the 20th and 21st centuries...