An Interview with Forrest in May 1864

 “The noise of battle is the only music that ravishes the senses of Forrest.”

It was May 1864. Back east, the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac were locked in the deadly dance of the Overland Campaign while in Georgia, General William Tecumseh Sherman's army squared off against General Joseph E. Johnston and the Army of the Tennessee in the campaign for Atlanta. 

    Based in relatively quiet northern Mississippi, General Nathan Bedford Forrest bided his time waiting for a Federal advance from Memphis. Earlier in the month, General Samuel Sturgis led a brief campaign into Mississippi but Forrest was sure Sturgis would venture out again. In the meantime, he tried to keep his reorganized command intact despite persistent demands from his superiors that he return the absentees and deserters who inflated his ranks (nearly 1,000 in number) to their original commands. 

    Around this same time, an old acquaintance from Memphis days named Louis Jared Dupree visited Forrest in camp and provided this remarkable account of the experience. "Ordinarily he is mild and placable, but when maddened, is a very fiend incarnate," our correspondent noted. "He is merciless to a man who he suspects of cowardice and the most exacting of all commanders. He is six feet in height, perfectly proportioned, and endued with wonderful strength. His eyes are blue and have a very mild expression; his complexion is sallow, his hair very black, his forehead very broad, and his manner nervous. He is very still and in social intercourse laughs much, though never boisterously. He delights in telling stories of the achievements of his men and say they are the truest soldiers that ever drew sabers."

    This account, extracts of a letter written to a woman in Georgia, first saw publication in the June 24, 1864, edition of the Alabama Beacon published in Greensboro, Alabama. Dupree was at this time working as a correspondent for the Memphis Commercial Appeal and later became owner and publisher of that newspaper. Special thanks to Maury Schuh for identifying this correspondent and providing background and images of him. 


Our correspondent noted that when General Nathan Bedford Forrest was in the presence of his wife Mary "he is always gentle and kind, but now and then even in the midst of the monotonous duties incident to idleness in camp, he yields the mastery to his ungovernable temper." 

Macon, Mississippi

May 28, 1864

          I have returned from Tupelo where I spent two days with Forrest. I have listened in his encampment to stories of personal adventure that transcend in exciting interest all that are narrated in books and that were told in song or story before knight-errantry lost in attractiveness in the absurd pages of Don Quixote. Let me tell you what I think of Forrest, and what I know of him.

          There has not been born of this revolution a more remarkable son. He is in truth the offspring of revolution. Had there been no war, Forrest would be distinguished solely for excellent good sense, his indomitable energy, and the success that distinguished him as a planter and tradesman. He began life in the utmost poverty. He was indebted to charity for bread and for nothing to books.

When I first knew him 15 years ago, he was very poor. He came to Memphis and was, for a time, the proprietor of a livery stable. In this business, he was not very successful. When a “fast” young gentleman overtaxed his horses, Forrest was strangely inclined to push the customer; he was not popular. He became a slave dealer. By his truthfulness and excellent judgment as to the value of Negroes, he became the agent and purchaser of slavers for the planners of the Mississippi valley. He grew rich apace.

Louis Jared Dupree

When the war began, he himself was one of the wealthiest planters whose home was in Memphis. His credit with merchants and bankers was more than half a million dollars. At the beginning of the war, he amused himself by running the blockade from Louisville to Memphis. He brought out from Louisville, when that city was occupied by a large Federal force, horses and equipment for a company of cavalry. He then undertook to raise a regiment of mounted men. This accomplished, he joined Albert Sidney Johnston at Bowling Green.

In every encounter with the enemy he was the victor. He killed the first man with a saber; his victim was a Kentucky renegade, a huge fellow who bestrode a powerful horse. Forrest pursued him a mile or two; the Kentuckian finding escape impossible, he turned to fight. Their sabers clashed; the skin from the back of the Kentuckian’s head was peeled off. Staggered by the blow, the Kentuckian could not parry the next stroke and Forrest’s saber passed through his body.

His next achievement was announced at Fort Donelson, whence he escaped when the place surrendered. He rode over the battlefield of Shiloh like another Mars, was wounded, but only maddened by pain which would have consigned other men to the hospital. In his conflicts with infantry and cavalry he was uniformly successful. He next captured Murfreesboro with a garrison stronger than his own force. Then came his famed pursuit of Streight. When Streight surrendered, he complained to Forrest that he had deceived him as to his strength. “Here,” said Forrest “are your arms, those of your men shall be returned to them; here is an open field. We can settle the question of valor- numbers are nothing!” Streight was silenced.


In the recent fierce encounter with Smith and Grierson at Okolona, Forrest himself killed eight men. Two of these fell beneath his heavy blade. His men watch his battle flag; they gather around it, and will follow it into the jaws of death. They know that Forrest himself ever fights beneath its folds. He loves a fight as other men do a game of cards and says he can’t keep out of one. He is constantly urged by officers, soldiers, and citizens to avoid needless exposure of his person, but all in vain. The noise of battle is the only music that ravishes the senses of Forrest.

Ordinarily he is mild and placable, but when maddened, is a very fiend incarnate. He is merciless to a man who he suspects of cowardice and the most exacting of all commanders. He is six feet in height, perfectly proportioned, and endued with wonderful strength. His eyes are blue and have a very mild expression; his complexion is sallow, his hair very black, his forehead very broad, and his manner nervous. He is very still and in social intercourse laughs much, though never boisterously. He delights in telling stories of the achievements of his men and say they are the truest soldiers that ever drew sabers.

I was amazed, as long as I had known Forrest, to hear him say at dinner yesterday in the presence of all his staff and several visitors that if ever he should return to Memphis, no deed of violence should be committed. He would gladly surrender his sword to the civil authorities, whom he would sustain against all mobs however they might originate or of whatever material they might be composed. He wished the war to close, and said he had no ambition, no wish, beyond the independence of the South.

Forrest married Mary Ann Montgomery, the niece of a Presbyterian minister who raised her, in 1845, her character marked by her deep faith. The couple had two children: a daughter Fanny who died in 1854 and a son William Montgomery Bedford Forrest who went to war with his father in 1861 at age 15 and is mentioned in this account. 

I have stated that I had known Forrest long before the war began, but I can assure you that I never respected him as I did when he gave expressions to these sentiments. Let me add again that it is impossible for Forrest to play the hypocrite. When you look in his face, you are always conscious that he gives utterance to plain, unvarnished truth. His wife and son are with him. The wife, an excellent woman, unaffected in her manners and of profound religious convictions, but her excellent good sense and many virtues has kept Forrest out of a many a row. In her presence, he is always gentle and kind, but now and then even in the midst of the monotonous duties incident to idleness in camp, he yields the mastery to his ungovernable temper.

Sources:

Extract from a private letter to a lady in Georgia from Louis Jared Dupree, Alabama Beacon (Alabama), June 24, 1864, pg. 1

Wills, Brian Steel. A Battle from the Start: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest. New York: HarperCollins, 1992, pgs. 201-203

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