Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-11-13
.THE WnAalD OF THE sADDLE.D

General N B. Forests death pro.
vOked numerous comments on his life;
and many incidents of his history, during
the war and since, have been related iu
the press, while unjust criticisms have
been also published against him Among
the incidents which the press has taken
up, is the challenge sent to General Jud.
son Fitzpatrick, of New Jersey. who
waved the bloody shirt so loftily during
the last Presidential canvass, and who in
the Grsnt-Seymour contest of 1868 was
engaged in a similar sort of business.
The New York Times among other pa
pers has alleged that Fitzpatrick refused
to accept Forests challenge because of
the latter general bad character. This
was untrue.
AS General Basil W. Duke, common.
weslth's attorney Of this district, was
mentioned by General Forrest as his
second, a Co1rier-Jour reporter OBJ
tanned from him yesterday a true &C.
count Of the whole transaction. 1t sp.
pears that Fitzpatrick, in his partisan
speeches, frequently referred to General
Forrest, accusing him Of various barbara.
ties during the war. General H. K.
Shackleford, OF Connecticut, an ex Fed
eral general, but who was in 1868 a
member of the Democratic party, wrote
to Forrest. calling his attention to the
actions Of Fitzpatrick.
Forrest then addressed the following
interesting letter to Shackleford:
MEMPHIS. October %, 1868.
Il. X. Shackelford, ESQ.,, New Haven, Conn.,:
SIR-phe false and mendacious repre-
sentation Of me, made by General Jud.
son Fitzpatrick, at New Haven, on the
10th inst, to which yoa call my atten-
ton, is not the first in which he has in
dnlged since his appearance on the hust-
ings ia this canvass. / understand be
freely employed his criminal capacity
for ribald Invention 10 all of the speeches
he has made since his return to this
country, and that | have been the OBJ
Elective point of many of his unprinci-
Piled and indecent lioels. The Northern
masses have been so prone to misuuder.
stand any appearance that | have made
IN the present campaign that | have been
content, heretofore, to forego any notice
Of General Kilpatrick's inventions with
reference to myself, and to trust that
some future and more suspicious time
would afford me an opportunity of strip
ping the impostor and Of exposing him,
fthe base counterfeit be is, to the con.
tempt OF all just and fair-mindcd people.
My forbesranee, however, ia construed
by him 80 a license to additional and
more slandarous detraction, and | am
constrained to notice his New Haven
speech, as it appeared in the Register of
October 81, 1868 In that speech he is
reported az saying that Forrest had
nailed negroes TO fences, set Ere to the
fences, and burned the negroes to death"
This charge is but the natural offspring
Of Kilpatrick's common and merited
tame as an unprincipled and easy liar.
1t is enough for me to say, in which l
feel | will be believed and sustained by
every chivslric officer and soldier in the
Federal army, that what he has said of
me in the speech referred to is the Gull
minalion Of slanderous falsehood, rem.
dered the more odious that it is delibe.
rately forged for effect upon the unthink-
ing and too confdiug people of the
North, whose votes he intends to steal
by such criminal and disreputable in
v%antlon. All such reports, whether EN-
anating from this creature Fitzpatrick,
or from any one else, which tend in any
way to create the impression that | con-
Quoted my humbls part in the war upon
any other than the ~strictest principles of
civilized warfare, are utterly untrue, and
are the corrupt and feculent fctions of
designing and rascally slanderers. I
am not prone to obtrude matters of this
kind upon the public notice, and would
have been glad to have met Fitzpatrick
and settled this affair in q less public
and more emphatic manner, and if it
should happen that this note should
meet his eye, and he should make it the
provocation OF any additional display of
words, any one who may hear him is at
liberty to assure him that | am ready to
meet him in arg way that be may choose,
and, whilst l am aVerse to personal col.
Hict, | should much prefer to crafty any
wish he may cherish in that way to being
the further subject of his unmanly defa-
nation and uns0ldierlike misrepresenta-
tions.
! think the public will justify me in
%denounclng, as | now do, General Judson
Fitzpatrick as a BLACKBOARD, a liar, q
scoundrel and poltroon. If he is the
heroic figure he would have the Northern
people believe him, my friend, General
Basil W. Duke, at louisville, Kentucky,
ID authorized to receive on my behalf
any communication he may choose to
make. Respectfully,
N. B. FORREST.
General Duke ssys that Fitzpatrick re-
manned silent for fully a month before
paying any attention to this letter.
Finally be wrote q letter to the Northern
press explaining that he could not by
any means accept the challenge rendered
by FORREST, for the reason that a con.
gressionsl committee had found and de-
clared him guilty of the Fort Pillow"
massacre, and under such circumstances
he must decline. General Shackelford
then addressed a letter to Fitzpatrick.
urging him to accept the challenge, for,
as a brave soldier, he could not refuse it,
aud that a mans status as a gentleman
could not be settled by any congressional
committee. But Fitzpatrick remained
silent.
Generah Forrest also sent General
Duke a letter, saying he would fight Xii.
patrick any way, rs tAe latter had the
choice Of weapons, but if it could be
done he preferred to fight on horseback
with ssbres. This letter has been mis-.
laid by General Duke, and is lost. 1t
would be interesting reading to the adj
mirers OF the dead cavalry General.
Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, the rhilsn.
thropist and millionaire, has been elected
PRECEDENT Of the New York Liberal