Colonel Paul’s Corner – Nathan Bedford Forrest - Hero or Villain

At the beginning of the movie, Forrest Gump, Forrest’s Mom tells him that he is named after the great Civil War General, Nathan Bedford Forrest. The General who, after the war, founded a club called the Ku Klux Klan. The General rode around with his friends, covered with robes and bed sheets, scaring people. His Mom told him that his name was to remind him that “sometimes we all do things that, well, just don’t make no sense”.

Nathan Bedford Forrest was born in Tennessee in 1821, one of 12 children of a blacksmith. In his early years, he became known as a speculator and gambler. His early ventures included a stagecoach line and a brickyard. He used his early profits to become one of the top slave traders in the South. He bought and sold hundreds of slaves in various locations. He narrowly avoided prison when it was discovered in 1859 that he had imported and sold 37 slaves. The importation of slaves had been banned in 1808. Along with his success as a slave trader, he bought a number of cotton plantations in Mississippi and Arkansas. His plantations made him wealthy.

When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Forrest immediately enlisted in the Confederate Army. He was an arrogant and pompous man. He typified the upper class of the old pre-Civil War South. Much like European royalty, without the titles but still having the same disdain for the lower classes. He stated that one Southerner could whip ten Yankees. He used his personal funds to equip a regiment of Tennessee Volunteers. It was quickly noted that he had a talent for rapidly moving his men and striking with particular brutality. He went from a private in 1861 to a General in 1862, commanding a cavalry brigade. When asked after the war about his early successes, he replied, “I got there first with the most men”.

Forrest’s use of his cavalry was unique and successful. After his cavalry arrived at the battle, he frequently had them dismount and fight as infantry. Often, he would disperse his cavalry troops within an artillery unit. He developed a reputation for brutality. On a number of occasions, he ordered the slaughter of captured Union soldiers. He ordered that any Negro captured with Northern troops be immediately executed. He was prone to quick bouts of furious temper. Forrest was 6 ft two inches tall and weighed almost two hundred pounds. A large man for those days. He had a reputation for physically attacking his own soldiers when he thought they were not fighting hard enough. Soon, many enlisted men as well as junior officers refused to serve under him.

The Union General, William Tecumseh Sherman, called Forrest “mean, vindictive, and cruel”, the most hated of the enemy. He was quoted as saying, “That devil Forrest must be hunted down and killed if it costs ten thousand lives and bankrupts the federal treasury”.

Nathan Bedford Forrest died of diabetes in Memphis, Tennessee, on 29 October 1877. More than 20,000 people attended his various funeral activities. Strong feelings still existed in the defeated Southern States. Today, Forrest and his wife rest in the cemetery at the National Confederate Museum in Columbia, Tennessee.

His great-grandson, Nathan Bedford Forrest, III (West Point class of 1928), a Brigadier General in the U.S. Army Air Corps, was killed during our bombing of Germany in 1943. In addition to his historic heritage, he had the distinction of being our first General Officer killed in Europe in WWII.

By Paul Warrick: December 4, 2025 - Great Falls, Mt