Forrest, Nathan Bedford
Forrest, Nathan Bedford (1821–1877), Civil War general, slave trader, planter.Born in Bedford Country, Tennessee, Forrest received little formal education but learned to hold his own—and then some—in a violent frontier society. By ruthless drive and intelligence he made himself a planter and slave trader.
At the outset of the Civil War, Forrest raised a cavalry battalion in the Confederate army. He led his men out of Fort Donelson just before its 16 February 1862 surrender, and at the 6–7 April Battle of Shiloh was conspicuously aggressive, being severely wounded covering the Confederate retreat. That summer he led a cavalry brigade in a spectacular raid through middle Tennessee. Promoted to brigadier general 21 July, he again raided behind Federal lines in December, helping to defeat Ulysses S. Grant's first drive on Vicksburg.
In Alabama, in April 1863, he...
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