Dr. Jones mentions on page 33 “General Forrest is famous for getting there first with the most men.”
This seems to be an Northern old saw attributed to CSA General Nathan Bedford Forrest as to why he often won against the better armed Union forces along the western border of the Civil War. The General was born in Chapel Hill, Tennessee on July 13, 1921, the eldest son and a twin. His father died in 1837 and he supported his family thereafter. While formal education was scarce, he was a good mathematician that allowed him to become a successful cotton merchant prior to the Civil War. With that same tenacity, he rose from private to lieutenant general — one of the few who had no military training as most CSA generals were ex-West Point men like Stuart and Sheridan with whom he is often compared. The General served as a cavalry officer at numerous engagements including the Battles of Shiloh, Chickamauga, Brice’s Crossroads and Second Franklin.
The quote was attributed to him during General U.S. Grant’s brutal siege of Vicksburg in 1862 and 1863. The General also conducted successful raiding operations on federal supplies and communication lines throughout the war but the rumours that he killed all the black troops and spared the white at Fort Pillow are untrue and were substantiated by Federal survivors.
After the Civil War, Forrest worked as a cotton planter and then president of Selma (Alabama — where he met his greatest defeat during the War), Marion (Ohio) and Memphis (Tennessee). He created and served as the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan in his attempt to beat back Reconstruction and carry on the legacy of the Confederation. When that failed, he disbanded it in 1872. He died five years later in october 29 1877 at 56 in Memphis. It was decades thereafter that the Klan was revived as an anti-immigration nativist group.
The hero in the eponymously named novel, Forrest Gump, by Alabamian Winston Groom was named for him. His chart was highlighted on SabianEarth here.
A modern review of his military career is here.
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