Customer Reviews

The Confederacy's Greatest Cavalryman: Nathan Bedford Forrest (Modern War Studies)

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I have read several biographies on Lee, Jackson, and Grant, but this is the first that I have read on N.B. Forrest. I thought the battle details were about right so as to instruct on what went on and to give insight to Forrest's great ability, but not so much as to bog down a reader who has not read much about warfare. I thought Wills was fair concerning the incident at Ft Pillow--he did not place the blame at Forrest's feet, but was sure that Forrest was not in total control of his men. I, personally, would liked to have had more detail about Forrest's deeds after the War Between the States. Some of Wills' comments seem to be a little vague, and at times he seemed to be jumping sides as to Forrest's involvement with the KKK. Overall, I did learn about this interesting man and am glad that I read this book. It was a good starting place for continued reading on General N.B. Forrest.

The Confederacy's Greatest Cavalryman : Nathan Bedford Forrest (Modern War Studies) by Brian Steel Wills is a fine biography of perhaps the most complicated and interesting leader of the Civil War. In describing Forrest it is difficult, if not impossible, to remain neutral. For those that love or hate him there is plenty of ammunition. However, Wills does a better than anticipated job taking the neutral course.

For those that view Forrest as the reincarnation of the Devil, there is plenty of evidence, and Wills covers most of it. Forrest was a crude, ruffian slave trader who would not think twice of killing a man who he believed showed him disrespect. As Willis writes, he was responsible for the massacre of Union troops at Fort Pillow. As a General he was brilliant when in independent command, but did not do well when working under someone elses command or part of a larger team. This failure limited his ability to have a greater impact on the course of the War. His failure to work with other Generals who he believed were inferior was part of the reason that the Union Army was able to escape destruction at Spring Hill.

On the other hand, Forrest was a brilliant tactician and a real leader of men. From leading his troops out of the encirclement at Fort Donaldson to his brilliant victory at Bryce Creek, Forrest was a fighter and a leader. Furthermore, if Hood had listened to Forrest after Spring Hill, and allowed Forrest to out flank the Union troops at Franklin, the battle of Franklin may have been a Confederate victory rather than a disaster.

Willis deftly moves between the several General Forrests. He seems not to have an agenda, giving the good with the bad. At least until the Civil War ends. While Wills does describe Forrest's contribution to the founding and growth of the Ku Klux Klan, he seems to hold his punches. However, that is a slight criticism. Al in all, this is a good book about one of the most interesting personalities in the Civil War.

What I like about Wills book, besides the bio, is that it addresses why Forrest was often not in the main theater of operations during the crucial times of 1864. Forrest is well defined as a frontier planter whose strong belief in honor combined with an explosive action oriented temperament made him a ferocious opponent yet he was difficult as a subordinate except under the right conditions. In the case of the latter, Forrest literally offers to slap Braxton Bragg for his lack of action after Chickamauga and only fails to do so because in his estimation, Bragg was not a man thus not worthy of the challenge. Wills does an excellent compact bio of Forrest capturing the early life and his rise to success as a slave trader and planter to a private in the Confederate service to the immediate promotion of Colonel and on. All the daring raids are captured, aided by maps but aside from Shiloh and Chickamauga, the only truly large operation Forrest was involved with was Hood's march to Nashville where the inexplicable Spring Hill disaster is laid at Forrest's feet unfairly when Hood had responsibility of creating a sufficient force to stop Schofield's escape. The tremendous work ethic combined with his fearlessness and temper is described throughout the book including Forrest's post war life and business. Forrest does amazingly well defending his Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama sector with a relative small force culminating in his great victory at Brices Crossroads. Wills includes Forrest's post war career with an example of Forrest's feared temper by describing a railroad meeting where one of Forrest's engineers starts the discussion with a loaded pistol on the table in case the company President, Forrest, intended a violent interruption. Although not captured in gross detail, Forrest's role at the infamous Fort Pillow is described in sufficient detail along with Forrest's post war role in the Ku Klux Klan. The role of the Klan is described as an attempt to maintain a retaliatory police force against over stepping radicals and to force former slaves into roles as cheap labor and as a channeled political force obviously through violence if deemed necessary. The association with Forrest seems quite clear but murky before congress. One thing is very clear in this bio, if Forrest was involved, he had to lead the action, or he otherwise was not interested. A most feared adversary, inventive, unpredictable and incredibly daring leading his men wherever he wanted them to go. As Wills points out, how unfortunate he rarely had a suitable commander to follow in larger campaigns and he was not used effectively during Sherman's initial march to Atlanta. If he was, Sherman would not have got there until at last 1865. The book is approximately 381 pages, maps and pictures and another 100 pages of notes and index. The book is endorsed by the late Emory M. Thomas (The Last cavalier), Dr. James I. Robertson, Jr. (Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend) and William C. Davis (The Lost Cause).

This is the definative biography of Nathan Bedford Forrest. Although it is clear that the author admires his subject, he provides a fair and balanced account of Forrest's life. The book is well written and thoroughly researched. If you are going to read one book on Forrest, this should be it.

Any time a writer fails to use all available sources the end result is always worthless.

The 1871 Congressional hearings of Forrest chaired by William Tecumseh Sherman regarding both Ft. Pillow and the KKK failed to support the author's tired repetition of the 1864 "investigation." Why stick with the wartime 1864 propaganda hearing when the later hearing disputed virtually everything previously assumed?

At Ft. Pillow Forrest took 39 USCT prisoner and turned them over to his commanders. He turned over 14 of the most grievously wounded surviving USCT to the Acting Master of the U.S. Steamer Silver Cloud (Federal Official Records).

Hardly the acts of a "massacre."

Same old tiring retelling of second-hand propaganda when first-hand contemporaneous sources are actually available.

Your Obedient Servant,

Colonel Michael Kelley, (...)
"I came here as a friend...let us stand together. Although we differ in color, we should not differ in sentiment." - LT Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, CSA, Memphis, Tennessee - July, 1875

Mrs. Hollingsworth's Men, Forrest, August 29, 2009


This review was changed by sources unknown. Here is his parody of my review: "Omitted by sources unknown"

Poor woman who daydreams impossible dreams. Maybe all Southern women are like that? Expecting a good report of the Confederacy, this first novel was a disappointment. The cover of a vision of Nathan Bedford Forrest, the great General, who periodically "visits" her as she sits at the kitchen table making out her grocery list. Even a man sees the general: "Forrest appears unmounted, natty in shirt garters and whipcord trousers, wearing silver spurs." Sally knew that the Confederate mint is in Columbia. The Confederacy is lost in its complexity in her day dreams. The ambience The author tells a strange story of Mrs. Hollingsworthof her kitchen does not put Forrest off; growing up in Chapel Hill. Tennessee, in a grand house with a separate kitchen where slaves prepare the family's meals. It means nothing to him in Sally's opinion. He carefully embellishes this most unusual story where nothing is as it seems. Mrs. Hollingsworth, age 50, had many illusions and delusions about men and other useless objects, but the general is the only one to be seen by others. The cover drawing is awfully good in its detail all in his regalia. Too bad you can't see it. The book is on the market and expensive on Amazon. Guess that's why they are denying they even have the title (at least six). Get the book for the cover, read the crazy things a lazy woman wants in her life and write your own review. That will be justice for all who write reviews for this Seattle company which has no mailing address or email to report their own harrassment. In a circutous route, the story written quite simply jumped from, the daydream to provocative nonsense. It could have been written by Zach, also a Floridian teacher who could write about gods and classical personages as a child. Alas, he did not have to manufacture a fantasy world; he created his at the age of four or five. History is made out of accidents and coincidences.

There is ambience but that's about all in this false history like the local historian bases his on 'Suttree', a fictional novel. Because of that, I quit reading Metro Pulse several months ago. In the movie, Eragon, this quote describes this book: "I'm not a legend. People believe just about anything" especially in print. Never give up on hope, faith and charity. Mrs. Hollingsworth needs all the help she can get, even from that vision of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a real Southern gentleman. Sally would simply adore something like that. On the whole, it is an interesting concept.