Nathan Bedford Forrest Nathan Bedford Forrest ( July 13 , 1821 – October 29 , 1877 ) was a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War . He is remembered both as a self - educated , innovative cavalry leader during the war and as a leading southern advocate in the postwar years . He served as the first Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan , but later distanced himself from the organization . A cavalry and military commander in the war , Forrest is one of the war ' s most unusual figures . Less educated than many of his fellow officers , Forrest had already amassed a fortune as a planter , real estate investor , and slave trader before the war . He was one of the few officers in either army to enlist as a private and be promoted to general officer and division commander by the end of the war . Although Forrest lacked formal military education , he had a gift for strategy and tactics . He created and established new doctrines for mobile forces , earning the nickname " The Wizard of the Saddle " . Forrest was accused of war crime s at the Battle of Fort Pillow for allowing forces under his command to conduct a massacre upon hundreds of black Union Army and white Southern Unionist prisoners . Union Major General William T . Sherman investigated the allegations and did not charge Forrest with any improprieties . In their postwar writings , Confederate President Jefferson Davis and General Robert E . Lee both expressed their belief that the Confederate high command had failed to fully utilize Forrest ' s talents . Early life . Nathan Bedford Forrest was born to a poor family in Bedford County , Tennessee . He and his twin sister , Fanny , were the two eldest of blacksmith William Forrest ' s twelve children with wife Miriam Beck . The Forrest family had migrated to Tennessee from Virginia , via North Carolina , during the second half of the 18th Century , while the Beck family had moved from South Carolina to Tennessee around the same time . After his father ' s death , Forrest became head of the family at age 17 . In 1841 Forrest went into business with his uncle Jonathan Forrest in Hernando , Mississippi . His uncle was killed there in 1845 during an argument with the Matlock brothers . In retaliation , Forrest shot and killed two of them with his two - shot pistol and wounded two others with a knife which had been thrown to him . One of the wounded Matlock men survived and served under Forrest during the Civil War . Forrest became a businessman , a planter who owned several cotton plantations in the Delta region of West Tennessee , and a slave owner . He was also a slave trader , with a business based on Adams Street in Memphis . In 1858 , Forrest ( a ) , was elected as a Memphis city alderman . Forrest supported his mother and put his younger brothers through college . By the time the American Civil War started in 1861 , he was a millionaire and one of the richest men in the South , having amassed a " personal fortune that he claimed was worth $ 1 . 5 million " . Before the Civil War , " Forrest was well known as a Memphis speculator and Mississippi gambler . He was for some time captain of a boat which ran between Memphis , Tennessee and Vicksburg , Mississippi . As his fortune increased he engaged in plantation speculation , and became the nominal owner of two plantations not far from Goodrich ' s Landing , above Vicksburg where he worked some hundred or more slaves , " according to his obituary . " He was known to his acquaintances as a man of obscure origin and low associations , a shrewd speculator , negro trader , and duel ist , but a man of great energy and brute courage . " Family . Nathan married Mary Ann Montgomery ( 1826 – 1893 ) , the daughter of a Presbyterian minister , in 1845 and had two children : William Montgomery Bedford Forrest ( 1846 – 1908 ) , who enlisted at the age of 15 and served alongside his father in the war , and a daughter , Fanny ( 1849 – 1854 ) , who died in childhood . A grandson , Nathan Bedford Forrest II ( 1872 - 1931 ) , was president of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan . His son , Nathan Bedford Forrest III ( 1905 - 1943 ) , graduated from West Point and rose to the rank of brigadier general in the U . S . Army Air Corps ; he was killed during a bombing raid over Germany in 1943 . Military career . Forrest returned to Tennessee after the war broke out , enlisted in the Confederate States Army ( CSA ) and trained at Fort Wright in Randolph , Tennessee . On July 14 , 1861 , he joined Captain Josiah White ' s Company " E " , Tennessee Mounted Rifles as a private along with his youngest brother and fifteen - year - old son . Upon seeing how badly equipped the CSA was , Forrest offered to buy horses and equipment with his own money for a regiment of Tennessee volunteer soldiers . His superior officers and the state Governor Isham G . Harris were surprised that someone of Forrest ' s wealth and prominence had enlisted as a soldier , especially since major planters were exempted from service . They commissioned him as a Lieutenant Colonel and authorized him to recruit and train a battalion of Confederate Mounted Rangers . In October 1861 he was given command of a regiment , " Forrest ' s Cavalry Corps " . Though Forrest had no prior formal military training or experience , he had exhibited leadership qualities and soon exhibited a gift for successful tactics . Public debate surrounded Tennessee ' s decision to join the Confederacy . Both the CSA and the Union armies recruited soldiers from the state . More than 100 , 000 men from Tennessee served with the Confederacy ( more per capita than any other state ) , and 50 , 000 served with the Union . Forrest posted ads to join his regiment for " men with good horse and good gun " adding " if you wanna have some fun and to kill some Yankees " . At six feet , two inches ( 1 . 88 m ) tall and 210 pounds ( 95 kg ; 15 stone ) , Forrest was physically imposing and intimidating , especially compared to the average height of men at the time . He used his skills as a hard rider and fierce swordsman to great effect . ( He was known to sharpen both the top and bottom edges of his heavy saber . ) Historians have evaluated contemporary records to conclude that Forrest may have killed more than thirty enemy soldiers with saber , pistol and shotgun . Not all of Forrest ’ s feats of individual combat involved enemy troops . Lt . A . Wills Gould , an artillery officer in Forrest ’ s command , was being transferred presumably because cannons under his command were spiked by the enemy during the Battle of Day ' s Gap . On June 14 , 1863 , Gould confronted Forrest about his transfer , which escalated into a violent exchange . Forrest was shot in the hip while Gould was mortally stabbed . Forrest ' s command included his Escort Company ( his " Special Forces " ) , for which he selected the best soldiers available . This unit , which varied in size from 40 - 90 men , was the elite of the cavalry . Cavalry command . Forrest distinguished himself first at the Battle of Fort Donelson in February 1862 . His cavalry captured a Union artillery battery and then he broke out of a Union Army siege headed by Major General Ulysses S . Grant . Forrest rallied nearly 4 , 000 troops and led them across the river . A few days after Fort Donelson , with the fall of Nashville imminent , Forrest took command of the city . Local industries had several millions of dollars worth of heavy ordnance machinery . Forrest arranged for transport of the machinery and several important government officials to safe locations . A month later , Forrest was back in action at the Battle of Shiloh ( April 6 to April 7 , 1862 ) . He commanded a Confederate rear guard after the Union victory . In the battle of Fallen Timbers , he drove through the Union skirmish line . Not realizing that the rest of his men had halted their charge when reaching the full Union brigade , Forrest charged the brigade single - handedly , and soon found himself surrounded . He emptied his Colt Army revolvers into the swirling mass of Union soldiers and pulled out his saber , hacking and slashing . A Union infantryman fired a musket ball into Forrest ' s spine with a point - blank musket shot , nearly knocking him out of the saddle . Forrest grabbed an unsuspecting Union soldier , hauled him onto his horse to use as a shield , dumped the man once he had broken clear and was out of range , then galloped back to his incredulous troopers . A surgeon removed the musket ball a week later , without anesthesia , which was unavailable . Forrest would likely have been given a generous dose of alcohol to muffle the pain of the surgery . By early summer , Forrest commanded a new brigade of " green " cavalry regiments . In July , he led them into Middle Tennessee under orders to launch a cavalry raid . On July 13 , 1862 , he led them into the First Battle of Murfreesboro , which Forrest is said to have won . According to a report by a Union commander : Promoted in July 1862 to brigadier general , Forrest was given command of a Confederate cavalry brigade . In December 1862 , Forrest ' s veteran troopers were reassigned by Gen . Braxton Bragg to another officer , against his protest . Forrest had to recruit a new brigade , composed of about 2 , 000 inexperienced recruits , most of whom lacked weapons . Again , Bragg ordered a raid , this one into west Tennessee to disrupt the communications of the Union forces under Grant , threatening the city of Vicksburg , Mississippi . Forrest protested that to send such untrained men behind enemy lines was suicidal , but Bragg insisted , and Forrest obeyed his orders . On the ensuing raid , he showed his brilliance , leading thousands of Union soldiers in west Tennessee on a " wild goose chase " to try to locate his fast - moving forces . Never staying in one place long enough to be attacked , Forrest led his troops in raids as far north as the banks of the Ohio River in southwest Kentucky . He returned to his base in Mississippi with more men than he had started with . By then all were fully armed with captured Union weapons . As a result , Union general Ulysses S . Grant was forced to revise and delay the strategy of his Vicksburg Campaign . " He [ Forrest ] was the only Confederate cavalryman of whom Grant stood in much dread , " a friend of Grant ' s was quoted as saying . Forrest continued to lead his men in small - scale operations until April 1863 . The Confederate army dispatched him into the backcountry of northern Alabama and west Georgia to defend against an attack of 3 , 000 Union cavalrymen commanded by Colonel Abel Streight , with a force far smaller in number . Streight had orders to cut the Confederate railroad south of Chattanooga , Tennessee , to cut off Bragg ' s supply line and force him to retreat into Georgia . Forrest chased Streight ' s men for 16 days , harassing them all the way . Streight ' s goal changed to escape the pursuit . On May 3 , Forrest caught up with Streight ' s unit east of Cedar Bluff , Alabama . Forrest had fewer men than the Union side , but he repeatedly paraded some of them around a hilltop to appear a larger force , and convinced Streight to surrender his 1 , 500 exhausted troops . Forrest served with the main army at the Battle of Chickamauga ( September 18 to September 20 , 1863 ) . He pursued the retreating Union army and took hundreds of prisoners . Like several others under Bragg ' s command , he urged an immediate follow - up attack to recapture Chattanooga , which had fallen a few weeks before . Bragg failed to do so , upon which Forrest was quoted as saying , " What does he fight battles for ? " After Forrest made death threats against Bragg during a confrontation , Bragg reassigned him to an independent command in Mississippi . On December 4 , 1863 , Forrest was promoted to the rank of major general . On March 25 , 1864 , Forrest was at Paducah , Kentucky where he unsuccessfully demanded surrender of U . S . Col . Stephen G . Hicks : Fort Pillow . On April 12 , 1864 , General Forrest led his forces in the attack and capture of Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River in Henning , Tennessee . Many African - American Union soldiers were killed in the battle . A controversy arose about whether Forrest conducted or condoned a massacre of African Americans and white Tennessee Unionists and Confederate deserters who had surrendered there . The surrender never occurred according to reports filed by Federal Captain Goodman , stated that upon the surrender of the fort both white and " negroes " would be treated as prisoners of war . General Forrest sent additional communiques to Major Lionel F Booth demanding total surrender . Unbeknownst to General Forrest , Major Booth had been fatally shot in the battle and the command of Fort Pillow had already been assumed by Major William F Bradford . The delayed reply to Forrest ' s demands still bore the name of Major Booth asking for more time to decide about surrendering the fort and the gunboat Olive Branch . General Forrest replied that the gunboat wasn ' t expected to be surrendered but the fort alone . Hours later during the truce , after many communiques the federals sent their answer - - " a brief but positive refusal to capitulate " . Forrest ' s men insisted that the Federals , although fleeing , kept their weapons and frequently turned to shoot , forcing the Confederates to keep firing in self - defense . Confederates said the Union flag was still flying over the fort , which indicated that the force had not formally surrendered . A contemporary newspaper account from Jackson , Tennessee , stated that " General Forrest begged them to surrender , " but " not the first sign of surrender was ever given . " Similar accounts were reported in many Southern newspapers at the time . These statements , however , were contradicted by Union survivors , as well as the letter of a Confederate soldier who recounted a massacre . Achilles Clark , a soldier with the 20th Tennessee cavalry , wrote to his sister immediately after the battle : " The slaughter was awful . Words cannot describe the scene . The poor , deluded , negroes would run up to our men , fall upon their knees , and with uplifted hands scream for mercy but they were ordered to their feet and then shot down . I , with several others , tried to stop the butchery , and at one time had partially succeeded , but General Forrest ordered them shot down like dogs and the carnage continued . Finally our men became sick of blood and the firing ceased . " Ulysses S . Grant , in his Personal Memoirs , says of the incident : " These troops fought bravely , but were overpowered . I will leave Forrest in his dispatches to tell what he did with them . ' The river was dyed , ' he says , ' with the blood of the slaughtered for two hundred yards . The approximate loss was upward of five hundred killed , but few of the officers escaping . My loss was about twenty killed . It is hoped that these facts will demonstrate to the Northern people that negro soldiers cannot cope with Southerners . ' Subsequently Forrest made a report in which he left out the part which shocks humanity to read . " Historians have differed on interpretation of events . Richard Fuchs , author of " An Unerring Fire " , concludes , “ The affair at Fort Pillow was simply an orgy of death , a mass lynching to satisfy the basest of conduct – intentional murder – for the vilest of reasons – racism and personal enmity . ” Andrew Ward downplays the controversy , “ Whether the massacre was premeditated or spontaneous does not address the more fundamental question of whether a massacre took place . . . it certainly did , in every dictionary sense of the word . ” John Cimprich states , “ The new paradigm in social attitudes and the fuller use of available evidence has favored a massacre interpretation . . . Debate over the memory of this incident formed a part of sectional and racial conflicts for many years after the war , but the reinterpretation of the event during the last thirty years offers some hope that society can move beyond past intolerance . ” Brice ' s Crossroads . Forrest ' s greatest victory came on June 10 , 1864 , when his 3 , 500 - man force clashed with 8 , 500 men commanded by Union Brig . Gen . Samuel D . Sturgis at the Battle of Brice ' s Crossroads . Here , his mobility of force and superior tactics led to victory . He swept the Union forces from a large expanse of southwest Tennessee and northern Mississippi . Forrest set up a position for an attack to repulse a pursuing force commanded by Sturgis , who had been sent to impede Forrest from destroying Union supplies and fortifications . When Sturgis ' s Federal army came upon the crossroad , they collided with Forrest ' s cavalry . Sturgis ordered his infantry to advance to the front line to counteract the cavalry . The infantry , tired and weary and suffering under the heat , were quickly broken and sent into mass retreat . Forrest sent a full charge after the retreating army and captured 16 artillery pieces , 176 wagons and 1 , 500 stands of small arms . In all , the maneuver cost Forrest 96 men killed and 396 wounded . The day was worse for Union troops , which suffered 223 killed , 394 wounded and 1 , 623 men missing . The losses were a deep blow to the black regiment under Sturgis ' s command . In the hasty retreat , they stripped off commemorative badges that read " Remember Fort Pillow " , to avoid goading the Confederate force pursuing them . Conclusion of the war . One month later , while serving under General Stephen D . Lee , Forrest experienced tactical defeat at the Battle of Tupelo in 1864 . Concerned about Union supply lines , Maj . Gen . William T . Sherman sent a force under the command of Maj . Gen . Andrew J . Smith to deal with Forrest . The Union forces drove the Confederates from the field and Forrest was wounded in the foot , but his forces were not wholly destroyed . He continued to oppose Union efforts in the West for the remainder of the war . Forrest led other raids that summer and fall , including a famous one into Union - held downtown Memphis in August 1864 ( the Second Battle of Memphis ) , and another on a Union supply depot at Johnsonville , Tennessee , on October 3 , 1864 ( the Battle of Johnsonville ) , causing millions of dollars in damage . In December , during the disastrous Franklin - Nashville Campaign , he fought alongside General John Bell Hood , the newest ( and last ) commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee in the Second Battle of Franklin . Forrest argued bitterly with Hood ( his superior officer ) demanding permission to cross the river and cut off the escape route of Union Maj . Gen . John M . Schofield ' s army . He made the belated attempt but was defeated . After his bloody defeat at Franklin , Hood continued to Nashville . Hood ordered Forrest to conduct an independent raid against the Murfreesboro garrison . After success in achieving the objectives specified by Gen . Hood , Forrest engaged Union forces near Murfreesboro on December 5 , 1864 . In what would be known as the Third Battle of Murfreesboro , a portion of Forrest ' s command broke and ran . After Hood ' s Army of Tennessee was all but destroyed at the Battle of Nashville , Forrest distinguished himself by commanding the Confederate rear guard in a series of actions that allowed what was left of the army to escape . For this , he earned promotion to the rank of lieutenant general . A portion of his command , now dismounted , was surprised and captured in their camp at Verona , Mississippi , on December 25 , 1864 , during a raid of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad by a brigade of Brig . Gen . Benjamin Grierson ' s cavalry division . In 1865 , Forrest attempted , without success , to defend the state of Alabama against Wilson ' s Raid . His opponent , Brig . Gen . James H . Wilson , defeated Forrest in battle . When he received news of Lee ' s surrender , Forrest also chose to surrender . On May 9 , 1865 , at Gainesville , Forrest read his farewell address . Forrest ' s farewell address to his troops , May 9 , 1865 . The following text is excerpted from Forrest ' s farewell address to his troops : Impact of Forrest ' s doctrines . Forrest was one of the first men to grasp the doctrines of " mobile warfare " that became prevalent in the 20th century . Paramount in his strategy was fast movement , even if it meant pushing his horses at a killing pace , which he did more than once . Noted Civil War scholar Bruce Catton writes : " Forrest . . . used his horsemen as a modern general would use motorized infantry . He liked horses because he liked fast movement , and his mounted men could get from here to there much faster than any infantry could ; but when they reached the field they usually tied their horses to trees and fought on foot , and they were as good as the very best infantry . Forrest is often erroneously quoted as saying his strategy was to " git thar fustest with the mostest . " Now often recast as " Getting there " firstest " with the mostest , " this misquote first appeared in print in a " New York Tribune " article written to provide colorful comments in reaction to European interest in Civil War generals . The aphorism was addressed and corrected by a " New York Times " story in 1918 to be : " Ma ' am , I got there first with the most men . " Though a novel and succinct condensation of the military ' s Principles of mass and maneuver , Bruce Catton writes : " Do not , under any circumstances whatever , quote Forrest as saying ' fustest ' and ' mostest ' . He did not say it that way , and nobody who knows anything about him imagines that he did . " Forrest became well known for his early use of " maneuver " tactics as applied to a mobile horse cavalry deployment . He sought to constantly harass the enemy in fast - moving raids , and to disrupt supply trains and enemy communications by destroying railroad track and cutting telegraph lines , as he wheeled around the Union Army ' s flank . Postwar years . Business ventures . With slavery abolished after the war , Forrest suffered a major financial setback as a former slave trader . He became interested in the area around Crowley ' s Ridge during the war and settled in Memphis , Tennessee . In 1866 Forrest and C . C . McCreanor contracted to finish the Memphis & Little Rock Railroad . He built a commissary in a town forming along the rail route which most residents were calling " Forrest ' s Town , " incorporated as Forrest City , Arkansas in 1870 . He later found employment at the Selma - based Marion & Memphis Railroad and eventually became the company president . He was not as successful in railroad promoting as in war , and under his direction , the company went bankrupt . Nearly ruined as the result of the failure of the Selma , Marion and Memphis Railroad in the early 1870s , Forrest spent his final days running a prison work farm on President ' s Island in the Mississippi River . There were financial failures across the country in the Panic of 1873 . Forrest ' s health was in steady decline . He and his wife lived in a log cabin they had salvaged from his plantation . Offers services to Gen . Sherman . During the Virginius Affair of 1873 Forrest wrote a letter to the then General - in - Chief of the United States Army William Tecumseh Sherman . Forrest had known some of the southern filibuster s on the vessel as friends and offered his services to Sherman in case of war with Spain . Sherman , who in the Civil War had recognized what a deadly foe Forrest was , wrote back a reply after the crisis had settled down . He thanked Forrest for the offer and said that had war broken out he would have considered it an honor to have served side - by - side with him . Ku Klux Klan Membership . Forrest was an early member of the Ku Klux Klan ( KKK ) . Historian and Forrest biographer Brian Steel Wills writes , “ While there is no doubt that Forrest joined the Klan , there is some question as to whether he actually was the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan . ” The KKK ( the Klan ) was formed by veterans of the Confederate Army in Pulaski , Tennessee in 1866 and soon expanded throughout the state and beyond . Forrest became involved sometime in late 1866 or early 1867 . A common report is that Forrest arrived in Nashville in April 1867 while the Klan was meeting at the Maxwell House Hotel , probably at the encouragement of a state Klan leader , former Confederate general George Gordon . The organization had grown to the point where an experienced commander was needed , and Forrest fit the bill . In Room 10 of the Maxwell , Forrest was sworn in as a member . According to Wills , in the August 1867 state elections the Klan was relatively restrained in its actions . White Americans who made up the KKK hoped to persuade black voters that a return to their state of repression and near - slavery , as it existed before the war , was in their best interest . Forrest assisted in maintaining order . It was only after these efforts failed that Klan violence and intimidation escalated and became widespread . Author Andrew Ward , however , writes , “ In the spring of 1867 , Forrest and his dragoons launched a campaign of midnight parades ; ‘ ghost ’ masquerades ; and ‘ whipping ’ and even ‘ killing Negro voters and white Republicans , to scare blacks off voting and running for office . ’ ” In an 1868 interview by a Cincinnati newspaper , Forrest claimed that the Klan had 40 , 000 members in Tennessee and 550 , 000 total members throughout the Southern states . He said he sympathized with them , but denied any formal connection . He claimed he could muster thousands of men himself . He described the Klan as " a protective political military organization . . . The members are sworn to recognize the government of the United States . . . Its objects originally were protection against Loyal Leagues and the Grand Army of the Republic . . . " Forrest dissolved the first incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan in 1869 , although many local groups continued their activities for several years . Forrest testified before the Congressional investigation on Klan activities on June 27 , 1871 . Forrest denied membership , but his individual role in the KKK was beyond the scope of the investigating committee which wrote : The committee also noted , " The natural tendency of all such organizations is to violence and crime ; hence it was that General Forrest and other men of influence in the state , by the exercise of their moral power , induced them to disband . ” In 1875 , Forrest demonstrated that his personal sentiments on the issue of race now differed from that of the Klan , when he was invited to give a speech before an organization of black Southerners advocating racial reconciliation , called the Independent Order of Pole - Bearers Association . At this , his last public appearance , he made what the " New York Times " described as a " friendly speech " during which , when offered a bouquet of flowers by a black woman , he accepted them as a token of reconciliation between the races and espoused a radically progressive ( for the time ) agenda of equality and harmony between black and white Americans . His speech was as follows : Michael R . Bailey , writing in Confederate Veteran , a publication of the Sons of Confederate Veterans , critically examines Hurst ' s and Wills ' biographies of Forrest and argues that there is no credible hard evidence to substantiate the claims that he was either a founding member of the Klan or its first Grand Wizard . Death . Forrest died in Memphis in October 1877 , at the home of his brother Jesse , reportedly from acute complications of diabetes . He was buried at Elmwood Cemetery . In 1904 the remains of Forrest and his wife Mary were disinterred from Elmwood and moved to a Memphis city park originally named Forrest Park in his honor , that has since been renamed Health Sciences Park . Posthumous legacy . Many memorials were erected to Forrest in Tennessee . Obelisks in his memory were placed at his birthplace in Chapel Hill and at Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park near Camden . A statue of General Forrest was erected in Memphis ' s Forrest Park ( renamed Health Sciences Park on February 5 , 2013 ) . A bust sculpted by Jane Baxendale is on display at the Tennessee State Capitol building in Nashville . The World War II Army base Camp Forrest in Tullahoma , Tennessee was named after him . It is now the site of the Arnold Engineering Development Center . As of 2007 , Tennessee had 32 dedicated historical marker s linked to Nathan Bedford Forrest , more than are dedicated to the three former Presidents associated with the state : Andrew Jackson , James K . Polk , and Andrew Johnson ( none of whom were born in Tennessee ) . Finally , the Tennessee legislature established July 13 as " Nathan Bedford Forrest Day . " A monument to Forrest in the Confederate Circle section of Old Live Oak Cemetery in Selma , Alabama , reads " Defender of Selma , Wizard of the Saddle , Untutored Genius , The first with the most . This monument stands as testament of our perpetual devotion and respect for Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest . CSA 1821 – 1877 , one of the south ' s finest heroes . In honor of Gen . Forrest ' s unwavering defense of Selma , the great state of Alabama , and the Confederacy , this memorial is dedicated . DEO VINDICE . " As armory for the Confederacy , Selma provided most of the South ' s ammunition . The bust of Forrest was stolen from the cemetery monument in March 2012 and efforts are currently underway to restore the monument . A monument to Forrest in the Myrtle Hill Cemetery in Rome , Georgia , was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1909 to honor his bravery for saving Rome from Union Army Colonel Abel Streight and his cavalry . High schools are named for Forrest in Chapel Hill , Tennessee , and Jacksonville , Florida . On November 3 , 2008 the Duval County School Board voted 5 - 2 against changing the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest High School in Jacksonville . The two votes for changing the name were cast by the Board ' s only black members . The school was named for Forrest in 1959 at the urging of the Daughters of the Confederacy because they were upset about the 1954 Brown v . Board of Education decision . At the time the school was all white , but now more than half the student body is black . Leaders in other localities have tried to remove or eliminate Forrest monuments , with mixed success . In 2005 , Shelby County Commissioner Walter Bailey started an effort to move the statue over Forrest ' s grave and rename Forrest Park . Former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton , who is black , blocked the move . Others have tried to get a bust of Forrest removed from the Tennessee House of Representatives chamber . The ROTC building at Middle Tennessee State University was named Forrest Hall in his honor . In 2006 , the frieze depicting General Forrest on horseback that had adorned the side of this building was removed amid protests , but a major push to change its name failed . Also , the university ' s Blue Raiders ' athletic mascot was changed to a pegasus from a cavalier , in order to avoid its mistaken association with General Forrest . Forrest ' s great - grandson , Nathan Bedford Forrest III , pursued a military career , first in cavalry , then in aviation , and attained the rank of brigadier general in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II . On June 13 , 1943 , Forrest III was killed in action while participating in a bombing raid over Germany , the first U . S . General to be killed in action in World War II . His family was awarded his Distinguished Service Cross ( second only to the Medal of Honor ) for staying with the controls of his B - 17 bomber while his crew bailed out . The plane exploded before Forrest could bail out . By the time German air - sea rescue could arrive , only one of the crew was still alive in the freezing water . In popular culture . William Faulkner ' s 1943 short story " My Grandmother Millard and General Bedford Forrest and The Battle of Harrykin Creek " features Forrest as a character . Faulkner ' s 1938 novel " The Unvanquished " is set against the backdrop of Forrest ' s engagements with Union general Smith ( presumably Andrew J . Smith ) . " Bedford Forrest : Boy on Horseback " by Aileen Wells Parks in 1952 is part of the " Childhood of Famous Americans " series . This book is generally hagiographic . The 1987 novel " Fightin ' With Forrest " tells the story of two young men who ride with Forrest during the War . In the 1990 PBS documentary " The Civil War " by Ken Burns , historian Shelby Foote states in Episode 7 that the Civil War produced two " authentic geniuses : " Abraham Lincoln and Nathan Bedford Forrest . Foote also used Forrest as a major character in his novel " Shiloh " . In Harry Turtledove ' s 1992 alternate history / science fiction novel " The Guns of the South " , Forrest runs for president of the Confederacy in 1867 , losing to Robert E . Lee . When the book ' s " Rivington men " turn traitor against the Confederacy , Forrest commands the force sent against them . Turtledove ' s subsequent " Timeline - 191 " series features Forrest ' s fictional grandson , Nathan Bedford Forrest III , leading the Confederate armed forces during World War II . In the 1994 film " Forrest Gump " , the titular character says that he was named after his ancestor General Nathan Bedford Forrest . The children ' s science fiction series " Animorphs " has flashback scenes of an ancestor of one of the main characters fighting a battle against Forrest ' s brigade . In the 2004 mockumentary " " a slave narrator cites Nathan Bedford Forrest as the leader of a Confederate army that massacred hundreds of freed slaves in the North shortly after the Civil War , possibly an alternate reference to the Fort Pillow Massacre . The 2006 song " The Decline and Fall of Country and Western Civilization " by Lambchop begins with the lines : " I hate Nathan Bedford Forrest / He ' s the featured artist in the Devil ' s chorus . " The Fort Pillow Massacre . There are conflicting reports about what occurred at Fort Pillow . Only 90 out of approximately 262 US Colored Troops survived the battle . Casualties were also high among white defenders of the fort , with 205 out of about 500 surviving . Forrest ' s Confederate forces were accused of subjecting captured soldiers to brutality , with allegations that some were burned to death . Forrest ' s men were alleged to have set fire to Union barracks with wounded Union soldiers inside , however the report of Union Lieutenant Daniel Van Horn said that act was due to orders carried out by Union Lieutenant John D . Hill . Van Horn also reported that , " There never was a surrender of the fort , both officers and men declaring they never would surrender or ask for quarter . " Following the cessation of hostilities , Forrest transferred the 14 most seriously wounded United States Colored Troops ( USCT ) to the U . S . Steamer Silver Cloud . He sent 39 USCT taken as prisoners to higher command . On October 30 , 1877 , " The New York Times " reported that " General Bedford Forrest , the great Confederate cavalry officer , died at 7 : 30 o ' clock this evening at the residence of his brother , Colonel Jesse Forrest . " But " The Times " also reported that it would not be for military victories that Forrest would pass into history : These claims were directly disputed in letters , written by Confederate soldiers to their own families , which described wanton brutality on the part of Southern troops . This northern newspaper obituary further stated : Continuing controversies . On February 10 , 2011 Fox News Channel reported that there is a proposal in Mississippi to issue specialty license plates , honoring Forrest , to mark the 150th anniversary of the " War Between the States " . Forrest ' s legacy still draws heated public debate , as he has been called " one of the most controversial – and popular – icons of the war . " . The Sons of Confederate Veterans helped sponsor a set of Mississippi license plates commemorating the Civil War , for which the 2014 version featuring Forrest drew controversy in 2011 . The Mississippi NAACP petitioned Governor Haley Barbour to denounce the plates and prevent their distribution . Barbour refused to denounce the honor , noting instead that the state legislature would not be likely to approve the plate anyway . In 2000 , a monument to Forrest in Selma , Alabama , was unveiled . On March 10 , 2012 , it was vandalized and the bronze bust of the general vanished . In August , a historical society called Friends of Forrest moved forward with plans for a new , larger monument , which was to be 12 feet high , illuminated by L . E . D . lights , surrounded by a wrought - iron fence and protected by 24 - hour security cameras . The plans triggered outrage and a group of around 20 protesters attempted to block construction of the new monument by lying in the path of a concrete truck . Local lawyer and radio host Rose Sanders said , “ Glorifying Nathan B . Forrest here is like glorifying a Nazi in Germany . For Selma , of all places , to have a big monument to a Klansman is totally unacceptable . ” An online petition at Change . org asking the City Council to ban the monument collected more than 285 , 000 signatures by mid - September .