For this, he would later be promoted to the rank of lieutenant general on March 2, 1865. Forest of Confederate fame was at our head, and was known as the Grand Wizard. He was in favor of promoting good feeling between the two sections, and by the terms of his address to his old comrades in arms, asking them to join in decorating the graves of the dead Union soldiers. Forrest sent a full charge after the retreating army and captured 16 artillery pieces, 176 wagons and 1,500 stands of small arms. [173] The popular vote was much closer: Grant received 3,013,365 (52.7%) votes, while Seymour received 2,708,744 (47.3%) votes. During this time, Nathan had barely survived a typhoid epidemic that ravaged the region and took the lives of three of his siblings, including his twin sister. No animated GIFs, photos with additional graphics (borders, embellishments. High schools named for Forrest were built in Chapel Hill, Tennessee and Jacksonville, Florida. Weve updated the security on the site. The next month, he captured the Union garrison with its stores at Murfreesboro, and on July 21, 1862, he was promoted to brigadier general, and began a long and illustrious association with the Confederate Army of Tennessee. [235] Foote also made Forrest a major character in his novel Shiloh, which used numerous first-person stories to illustrate a detailed timeline and account of the battle.[236][237]. [12][13] Forrest was the first son of Mariam (Beck) and William Forrest. In all, the maneuver cost Forrest 96 men killed and 396 wounded. [198] The Tennessee legislature established July 13 as "Nathan Bedford Forrest Day". [118] When Hood's battle-hardened Army of Tennessee, consisting of 40,000 men deployed in three infantry corps plus 10,000 to 15,000 cavalry, was all but destroyed on December 1516, at the Battle of Nashville,[119] Forrest distinguished himself by commanding the Confederate rear guard in a series of actions that allowed what was left of the army to escape. cemeteries found within kilometers of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. He has published scholarly papers and popular articles for both children and adults. By November, Forrests Tennessee Cavalry Battalion included roughly 790 men from Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, and Texas. He sidestepped some questions and pleaded failure of memory on others. He was paroled at Gainesville, Alabama May 11, 1865. [81] What happened next became known as the Fort Pillow Massacre. The sponsor of a memorial may add an additional. General Nathan Bedford Forrest died October 29, 1877, at his brothers home in Memphis at the age of 57. This account has been disabled. He then mounted a second horse, which was shot out from under him as well, forcing him to mount a third horse. [230], Whether the massacre was premeditated or spontaneous does not address the more fundamental question of whether a massacre took place it certainly did, in every dictionary sense of the word. Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. [168] The Democratic Party platform denounced the Reconstruction Acts as unconstitutional, void, and revolutionary. Are you sure that you want to remove this flower? Captain William Montgomery "Willy" Forrest Born 28 Sep 1846 in Hernando, Desoto, Mississippi Ancestors Son of Nathan Bedford Forrest and Mary Ann (Montgomery) Forrest Brother of Frances Forrest and William Bedford Forrest [half] Husband of Jane Taylor Cook married [date unknown] [location unknown] Father of Nathan Bedford Forrest A Tennessee town's absurd and tacky monument to General Nathan Bedford Forrest. In July 2021, Tennessee officials voted to move Forrest's bust from the State Capitol to the Tennessee State Museum. Forrest was elevated in Memphis in particularwhere he lived and diedto the status of folk hero. Richard L. Fuchs, author of An Unerring Fire, concluded: The affair at Fort Pillow was simply an orgy of death, a mass lynching to satisfy the basest of conductintentional murderfor the vilest of reasonsracism and personal enmity. Several of Forrests battles were minor classics of cavalry tactics. Colonel Stephen G. Hicks: "if I have to storm your works, you may expect no quarter." [112] Concerned about Union supply lines, Maj. Gen. Sherman sent a force under the command of Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Smith to deal with Forrest. Some kept going, right into the river, where a number drowned, and the swimmers became targets for marksmen on the bluff. [108] Forrest set up a position for an attack to repulse a pursuing force commanded by Sturgis, who had been sent to impede Forrest from destroying Union supply lines and fortifications. Father of Mary E Bradley; Nathan Bedford Forrest II; James Cook Forrest and William Montgomery Forrest, Jr She was Miss Mary Ann Montgomery, and was. Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. His tactic was the charge, and he frequently overcame Union forces that vastly outnumbered his own as he personally led his troops. Try again. Achilles Clark, a soldier with the 20th Tennessee cavalry, wrote to his sisters immediately after the battle: The slaughter was awful. DEO VINDICE". [80] Forrest had reached the fort at 10:00 am after a hard ride from Mississippi,[80] and his horse was soon shot out from under him, causing him to fall to the ground. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. CSA General Joseph E. Johnston, the Confederate general whose greatness lay above all in calm and critical judgment, said that Forrest; had he had the advantage of a thorough military training, would have been the great central figure of the war.. [233], Grant himself described Forrest as "a brave and intrepid cavalry general" while noting that Forrest sent a dispatch on the Fort Pillow Massacre "in which he left out the part which shocks humanity to read". based on information from your browser. 3rd (Forrests) Tennessee Cavalry Regiment [199] A Tennessee-based organization, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, posthumously awarded Forrest their Confederate Medal of Honor, created in 1977. [100], At the time of the massacre, General Grant was no longer in Tennessee but had transferred to the east to command all Union troops. Gen. James Chalmers, attacked and recaptured Fort Pillow. With no formal military training, Nathan Bedford Forrest became one of the leading cavalry figures of the Civil War. You need a Find a Grave account to continue. Their fort turned out to be a great slaughter pen. In June 1862, he assumed command of a cavalry brigade. If you notice a problem with the translation, please send a message to [emailprotected] and include a link to the page and details about the problem. In retaliation, Forrest shot and killed two of them with his two-shot pistol and wounded two others with a knife which had been thrown to him. On April 18, 2018, the Tennessee House of Representatives punished Memphis by cutting $250,000 in appropriations for the city's bicentennial celebration. "election whether saloons shall be closed on Sunday. In August 2000, a road on Fort Bliss named for Forrest decades earlier was renamed for former post commander Richard T. He was the first born of two children. He liked horses because he liked fast movement, and his mounted men could get from here to there much faster than any infantry could; but when they reached the field they usually tied their horses to trees and fought on foot, and they were as good as the very best infantry.[222]. All Previous Reports Fully Confirmed. You can always change this later in your Account settings. The Confederate army dispatched him with a small force into the backcountry of northern Alabama and western Georgia to defend against an attack of 3,000 Union cavalrymen commanded by Colonel Abel Streight. The bronze casting of more than heroic size (one and one-half life size), weighs 9,500 pounds. This unit, which varied in size from 40 to 90 men, constituted the elite of his cavalry. [191] Consequently, Memphis sold the park land to Memphis Greenspace, a non-profit entity not subject to the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act, which immediately removed the monument as explained below. Fort Pillow Massacre Historians still argue over Forrests responsibility for the Fort Pillow Massacre, in which many Union African American troops were killed. The height of the monument is 21 feet 6 inches, including the equestrian of 12 feet. Please enter your email and password to sign in. William was born in 1846 in Desoto County, Mississippi. His raids were uniformly bold and skillful, and are his chief right to fame in the history of the cavalry. Forrest's grandson, Nathan Bedford Forrest II (18721931), became commander-in-chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans[38] and a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia and secretary of the national organization. [160][161] He said he sympathized with them, but denied any formal connection, although he claimed he could muster thousands of men himself. On April 21, Capt. [127][128], During the Virginius Affair of 1873, some of Forrest's old Southern friends were filibusters aboard the vessel; consequently, he wrote a letter to the then General-in-Chief of the United States Army William T. Sherman and offered his services in case a war were to break out between the United States and Spain. Forrest's postwar business career was not as lucrative as his antebellum ventures. This is a cenotaph. After a brief courtship, the couple wed on September 25, 1845. . Mary Ann Montgomery was born October 2, 1826, daughter of Elizabeth Cowan Montgomery and William Montgomery, a Presbyterian minister. At the head of a mounted brigade, he took a brilliant part in General Braxton Braggs autumn 1862 campaign. [4] While scholars generally acknowledge Forrest's skills and acumen as a cavalry leader and military strategist, he has remained a controversial figure in Southern racial history for his main role in the massacre of several hundred Union soldiers at Fort Pillow, a majority of them black, coupled with his role following the war as a leader of the Klan. [6] He served as Secretary and Business Manager at Lanier University, a college that was sold to the Klan in 1921. Forrest protested that to send such untrained men behind enemy lines was suicidal, but Bragg insisted, and Forrest obeyed his orders. While most Forrest biographies discuss his military career in great detail, what they do not provide is the General's own perspective of the conflict. He is noted mainly as a highly successful raider behind Union lines, but also distinguished himself in several traditional type battles. He married Jane Taylor Cook in 1868 in Hernando, Mississippi and they had four children. [116] Facing a disastrous defeat, Forrest argued bitterly with Hood (his superior officer) demanding permission to cross the Harpeth River and cut off the escape route of Union Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield's army. He was the first born of two children. Their great-grandfather, Shadrach Forrest, moved between 1730 and 1740 from Virginia to North Carolina, where his son and grandson were born; they moved to Tennessee in 1806. [34][54], By early summer, Forrest commanded a new brigade of inexperienced cavalry regiments. [125], The historian Court Carney writes that Forrest was not universally popular in the white Memphis community: he alienated many of the city's businessmen in his commercial dealings and he was criticized for questionable business practices that caused him to default on debts. Family Tree . Include gps location with grave photos where possible. William Montgomery and Jane had four children: Mary Elvira Forrest, Nathan Bedford Forrest, William Montgomery Forrest, and James Cook Forrest, who died in 1878 at age four. His only son, Nathan Bedford Forrest III, was a senior officer of the United States Army Air Forces killed in action in the European Theater of World War II. We chose General Forrest". William Forrest; His opponent, Brig. The day was worse for Union troops, who suffered 223 killed, 394 wounded and 1,623 missing. [77][78][79], Fort Pillow, located 40 miles (64km) upriver from Memphis (near Henning, Tennessee), was originally constructed by Confederate general Gideon Johnson Pillow on the bluffs of the Mississippi River, and taken over by Union forces in 1862 after the Confederates had abandoned the fort. [180], In response to the Pole-Bearers speech, the Cavalry Survivors Association of Augusta, the first Confederate organization formed after the war, called a meeting in which Captain F. Edgeworth Eve gave a speech expressing strong disapproval of Forrest's remarks promoting inter-ethnic harmony, ridiculing his faculties and judgment and berating the woman who gave Forrest flowers as "a mulatto wench". He and his twin sister, Fanny, were the oldest of William and Mariam Beck Forrest's twelve children. Save to an Ancestry Tree, a virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print. Bragg failed to do so, upon which Forrest was quoted as saying, "What does he fight battles for? Historians have differed in their interpretations of the events at Fort Pillow. Family He was married to Mary Montgomery in 1845 in Desoto County, Mississippi. Search above to list available cemeteries. Called "Willie," he was only 14 years old when the war began. Joint Resolution on the Subject of Retaliation", "KKK leader on specialty license plates? Try again later. Bio notes: Confederate General like his father. To add a flower, click the Leave a Flower button. [34][35] He also contracted the disease, but survived; his father recovered but died from residual effects of the disease five years later, when Bedford was 16. Forrest was the first son of Mariam (Beck) and William Forrest. Nathan Bedford Forrest II (August 1871 March 11, 1931) was an American businessman who served as the 19th Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans from 1919 to 1921,[1][2][3] and as the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan for Georgia. Unlettered, contemptuous of West Point formal training, and given to insubordination, Forrest nonetheless was a brilliant horseman and tactical thinker and the only soldier on either side to go from private to lieutenant generalduring the course of the war. 0:54. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. Hernando, DeSoto County, Mississippi, USA. [239][238] The Mississippi NAACP petitioned Governor Haley Barbour to denounce the plates and prevent their distribution. G GELongstreet 267 followers His declaration had little effect, and few Klansmen destroyed their robes and hoods.[165]. GREAT NEWS! [115] During Hood's Tennessee Campaign, he fought alongside General John Bell Hood, the newest commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee, in the Second Battle of Franklin on November 30. Our Arctic Series Cold Climate Heat Pumps are both the most advanced and cost effective air source heat pump on the market, with the ability to heat your home, office, shop, and pool/hot tub. Their marriage of thirty-two years produced one son and a daughter who died in infancy. In Georgia, blacks and Republicans also faced a lot of violence. [53], A month later, Forrest was back in action at the Battle of Shiloh, fought April 67, 1862. Enter a grandparent's name. William Montgomery Forrest (Son of Nathan Bedford Forrest) Buried in the Elmwood Cemetery, Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. They commissioned him as a lieutenant colonel and authorized him to recruit and train a battalion of Confederate mounted rangers. And Mariam Beck Forrest & # x27 ; s twelve children to in! Great slaughter pen ], by early summer, Forrest commanded a new brigade of inexperienced cavalry.... Formal military training, Nathan Bedford Forrest died October 29, 1877, at his brothers in. Life size ), weighs 9,500 pounds location will be saved to your photo list... And prevent their distribution [ 198 ] the Mississippi NAACP petitioned Governor Barbour... Brigade of inexperienced cavalry regiments Forrests battles were minor classics of cavalry tactics train a of... This later in your browser settings: the slaughter was awful Fort Pillow size ) weighs! 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