The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1909-02-26
FORREST WAS
DEMON IN WAR
GREAT CONFEDERATE CAVALRY
MAN KNEW NOT THE MEAN
ING OF cRlNGINe FEAR.
Brief Biographical Sketch Of Leader
Who at Wars Close Formed The
Ku klux Khan.

July 13, 1921, in what was then tn
wilderness of Middle Tennessee.
In the little log cabin in which n
first saw light of earth there were ne
tokens of wealth or culture. His
father was an uneducated blacksmith
and his mother was a typical frontiers
woman, true as steel, but rough as
the bark on the hickory trees about
her hut.
There were no schools near the For
rest home, and Nathan grew up illit-
crate. He never knew much about
books, and was all his life a stranger
to grammar, but nature gave him a
powerful intellect, and, beginning with
nothing, he had, by 1861, business
that gave him an annual income OF
$4,000.
When the war tocsin sounded For
rest sprang to arms. Entering as a
private, he surrendered four years
later as a lieutenant general, having
worked his way up from the bottom to
the top, by sheer force of brain, valor
and efficiency
He knew nothing of what had been
written on the art of war had never
read a book on Tactics" or "Strat.
egy," was blissfully ignorant of the
way in which the great captains had
conducted their campaigns; yet he
proved himself to be one of the most
battle winners OF whom |
we have any knowledge.
By a strange coincidence, General |
Joseph E. Johnston, General William
T. Sherman and General Wolseley, of |
the British Army, about the same time
declared that Forrest was the greatest
genius developed on either
side during the entire war.
In War He Was Like Demon.
In person General Forrest was of
Inc appearance, over six feet in
height, broad-shouldered and muscu-
ar, with dark hair, steel-gray eyes and
ull beard.
In battle he was a phenomenon.
lis complexion, which. was naturally
allow, changed completely in color,
he face and neck turned to scarlet ,
he blood vessels of the eye took on
he same congestion, giving him an
of savageness which for
he time being likened him to a
emon.
His voice, naturally soft, became
arsh, with a terrific metallic ring .
lat could be heard above the roar or :
annon and the rattle Of musketry,
nd in the thick of the fight he seemed !,
veritable angel of death" ;.
Forrest had twenty-five horses killed
nder him in battle, was wounded ;,
1zens of times and killed more men
war with his own hand than any :,
her man ever did, except Richard =
e Lion-hearted. 1t is estimated that ;.
priest killed, or MORALLY wounded,
single combat during the war, some
rty of his opponents, mostly officers. =
Here Is Sample OF The Man. :"
As a sample, at one and the same -
ne, of Forests grammar and battle ~
ders, we have his own written state
emit regarding one of his fights: Il W
ought could kill man by striking w
N over the head with my sabre, but lu
'ound that while l could knock him DC
his horse he would jump up and
n away. l then tried the pint on ov
e, and when he fell he lay thar. be
1 looked up and down the line, and co
W that the boys were mixing with
a, and | tried to think of>the COM ba
nd Right thrust to give them, but lii
aid not, and / yelled Punch EN-, of
VS.; damn 'em, punch 'em! And his
" obeyed my command" He
Forrest died at his home in Mem ho
Is, Tenn, October 20, 1877, in the me
y-seventh year of his remarkable SUI
}. wo
lie was as honorable as he was ga
We, as generous as he was fear ter
5; and among the tens of thou 1St
DIS who conscientiously fought UNI
inst the old Flag, no one possessed the
nightlier soul than Nathan Bedford the
rest, the unlettered son of the pre-
kwoods, who, by his Unborn genius eve
ne, succeeded in writing his name bar
b among the immortals.
Iiriam Beck the blacksmith's wife por
the mother of the great cavalry ella
|, was of Scotch descent, with the tiol
ID of the old Covenanters thick in Sat
veins. She stood nearly six feet mel
and was, like her son, OF powerful life
sique and unconquerable will pow old
md courage. For
e Was His Mother over Again. anna
iding one day through the wilder rep
with a sack of live chickens upo