BEDFORD FORREST AND His CRITTER COMPANY—Andrew Nelson Lytle—Minton, Balch ($5).†
Robert E. Lee's cavalry general was James Ewell Brown ("Jeb") Stuart, killed at Yellow Tavern in the last days of the war, but when somebody asked Lee at Appomattox who was the greatest soldier under his command, Lee answered, "A man I have never seen, sir. His name is Forrest."
Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821-77) was no flower of Southern chivalry but a tough offshoot of Tennessee pioneers. He talked like a poor white; it is doubtful if he ever read a book on tactics; but he fought like the devil. Biographer Lytle, strong Forrest partisan, implies that if Forrest's abilities had been recognized in time the western campaign might have had a different outcome. But Forrest's commander was General Braxton Bragg, whom Forrest soon distrusted, finally despised. One day he stamped into Bragg's tent, spoke thus: "You may as well not issue any more orders to me, for I will not obey them. And I will hold you personally responsible for any further indignities you try to inflict on me. You have threatened to arrest me for not obeying your orders promptly. I dare you to do it, and I say to you that if you ever again try to interfere with me or cross my path, it will be at the peril of your life." Bragg did not take the dare.
Forrest was a born fighter; what he had to learn about soldiering he learned at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Hog Mountain, Chickamauga, Brice's Cross-Roads. He had a great contempt for West Pointers. After a disastrous action whose plans he had not approved, his commander, General Stephen D. Lee, called a council of war, asked Forrest if he had any ideas. "Yes, sir," said Forrest. "I've always got ideas, and I'll tell you one thing, General Lee. If I knew as much about West Point tactics as you, the Yankees would whip hell out of me every day."
Forrest's name became a byword in the West. When with 500 men he captured 1,700 Federals, ecstatic Southerners dubbed him the Wizard of the Saddle. Sherman vowed he would get him "if it costs 10,000 lives and breaks the Treasury. There will never be peace in Tennessee until Forrest is dead!" But when his was the last organized Confederate force in the West, when news came of Lee's and Johnston's surrenders, Forrest knew the game was up. His men crowded round him, begged him to lead them to Mexico to avoid surrendering. He was tempted, but realized it was a fool idea, surrendered.
After the war Forrest, a delegate to the first post-war Democratic convention, went to Manhattan, "attracted so much attention that he could not move about the streets without drawing a crowd." One day he got tired of the press, "swept his mighty shoulders around and shouted," cleared the street. As soon as he heard about the Ku Klux Klan he joined it, was elected "Grand Wizard of the Invisible Empire." (Robert E. Lee had written re fusing the command, approving the idea but saying that his approval must remain "invisible.") In 1877 Forrest died, full of years, scars, memories of battles.