Remembering Nathan Bedford Forrest - The Duty of the Hour
"The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history." - George Orwell
THE FIRST THING I LEARNED about Lieutenant-General Nathan Bedford Forrest was that he had twenty-nine horses shot out from under him in battle; in my fifth-grade social studies class, I remember thinking to myself that the most dangerous thing one could be was one of Forrest’s horses. The unconquerable Tennessean was bold, severe, and uncompromising in the discharge of his duties for our Cause. He was born in direst poverty on the Duck River settlement, the son of a blacksmith, heir to, in John Wyeth’s words, “that restless race of pioneers who in search of home and fortune had followed close upon the heels of the savages, as these were driven farther and farther towards the setting sun.” From this obscurity on the frontier, Forrest attained a position of prominence in Memphis through his own determined struggle. He was animated by a rigid code of honor and was known for his fierce, yet judicious, temperament. He was seen to drink only after sustaining serious wounds; when invited to take a drink, he often declined, saying, “My staff does all my drinking.” His friends said that without any affectations of piety, “Forrest was by nature deeply reverent and religious.”
On one occasion, a lynch mob threatened the jail to kill an imprisoned murderer; Forrest interposed himself between the prisoner and the inflamed crowd, brandishing a knife and promising to kill any man who dared lay a hand on the man. He spontaneously broke into an oration, appealing to the better angels of their nature, and successfully persuaded the mob to…