Evening star., 1909-07-18

elson. Forrest did not consider it feast
BILE. and argued against it. Wheeler over
ruled him and an attack was made. II
failed, and FORESTS brigade suffered
under Wheeler. He quarreled, too, with
Gen. Van Dorm, and a duel between them
at one time seemed likely. Later on he
lost all patience with Gen. Bragg, and
when that general took his brigade from
him he went to Braggs headquarters, de-
nounced him as scoundrel and a COW
ard and threatened to hold hIm person.
ally responsible If ever he interfered with
him again.
Forrest was fury in those days. Prob
ably he resented the fact that his sue
cesses did not receive the official recogn
ton he considered they warranted. In
April. 1868, he had gone in pursuit of
Streigllt's raiders. Col. Streight, with
picked force of 1000 cavalry, had been
sent by Rosecrans and Garfield to dash
through northern Alabama and cut the
communications of Bragg. For $50 miles
Streight and Forrest had running fight.
Over plairE and mountains and through
forests they went Streight halting occa-
sionally where an ambuscade was favora-
BILE. but day after day and night after
night Forrest hung on. At last when near
Rome, Ga, Streight was forced to sur
render. His men were SO exhausted that
a large number of them We're asleep in
line OF battle when they were captured.
Forests men were almost as badly off,
For seventy-two hours they had been in
the saddle. with only a few hours of occa-
sional rest for the horses. The force that
surrendered was twice as large as that
which Forrest commanded.
A curious sidelight on Forests char
acter is afforded by an incident that oc-
Cured the day after Streight's surrender.
Forrest could not be induced to talk Of
his success, but he played for hours with
boy two years old, and when he rode
away he carried the child on his saddle
with him for several miles.
1t was within two weeks Of the capture
of Streight that Forrest came within an
ace of being murdered by one of his Off
GERS, whom he had treated harshly. The
man attacked Forrest and shot him in
the groin. Forrest caught his assailant
by the hand which held the pistol and
then, opening a penknife with his teeth.
he ripped the man open. Then he went
out, had surgeon examine his wound,
and when informed that he was fatally
wounded he seized pistol and raced out,
bleeding as he was, to make sure of the
death of the man who shot him. Forrest
did not die, but the other man did.
So soon as he was able to get about
again Forrest was in the saddle. He
opened and closed the fight at Chcka-
mauga, and later at West Point Miss,
with an inferior force, he signally de-
feated the army commanded by Gen. Will
liam Sooy Smith. Many of the men
serving under Forrest in this campaign
were raw levies, never having been under
fire before. To check desertion he con-
demned twenty deserters to death, had
their graves dug, gallows built and the
men standing alongside their coffins with
the ropes dangling above them. Then he
reprieved them on their pledge never to
desert again and never to flee in battle.
For what was known generally as the
Fort Pillow massacre Forrest got the rep
utation throughout the north of being a
fiend incarnate. The fort, which was gar