Thank you for posting that!
Setting the record straight bump!
Folks have such strong opinions on Forrest but it’s just white racist bogeyman stuff.
They really know nothing about him, they should educate themselves and learn a bit.
Forrest was very sensitive about killing civilians on his battlefields and on many occasion to the consternation of his men he took great personal risk to escort women, children(especially children) and the elderly or infirm from the field of fire...and I mean sustained volley fields of fire aimed directly at his hulking six foot two imposing figure.
He had just done that exactly with a widow woman and her small children during the battle when his brother Jeffrey was killed.
There is a lot of written works on Forrest by his peers...volumes.
The only constant criticism that is valid is that he had a vicious temper once riled. He would flush greatly....probably early diabetes high blood pressure and ...then he would take names and kick ass.
Amazingly he fought the war at an age when most men of that era were dead....he was in his 40s and spent nearly 5 years on horseback and camp and fought an incredible amount of battles for sometimes months on end fight after fight. He would move his whole troop without sleep over 100 miles day or night with no sleep on horseback. He was a master at vine rope bridges improvised to cross all those rivers and sloughs up near Oxford where we schooled once....the Sunflower, Coldwater etc....with cannon and supply trains...the Federals who wonder how in the hell he got back across the rivers behind him when he would advance deep into their territory and strike and then return back to his lairs in north Mississippi
It killed him the end, it’s a wonder he lasted 12 years after the war, he was simply used up.
He is one of the most incredible military commanders ever produced in this nation and even in Western civilization for horse soldiers.....he fought both as cavalry and dragoon.
A remarkable man.