Civil War History - Secession and PoliticsWas it Slavery, or was it States Rights? Perhaps it was the election of Lincoln? What were the real reasons for Southern Secession and what were the political issues in this time of war? Find your answers here in the Secession and Politics Disussion.
"On May 4, [1865] he addressed his men directly... "We have made our last fight," he told them. They had been "good" soldiers," and any man "who has been a good soldier can be a good citizen. I shall go back to my home upon the Mississippi River, there to begin life anew, and to you good old Confederates, I want to say that the latchstring of Bedford Forrest will always be outside the door."
"Many of his men could not believe the old warhorse was actually sheathing his sword. Hadn't he bluffed and bamboozled his way all through the war? Surely he still had something left in his bag of tricks. But his final farewell message to his troops was even more conciliatory than Robert E. Lee's. "Neighborhood feuds, personal animosities, and private differences should be blotted out," he advised his men; "and, when you return home, a manly, straightforward course of conduct will secure the respect even of your enemies. Whatever your responsibilities may be to the government, to society, or to individuals, meet them like men."
p358 River Run Red. The Fort Pillow Massacre in the American Civil War. Andrew Ward. 2005.
Larry is 100% correct, it is one of my favorite things about the man. THere was an honesty and a genuine factor to the man that was missing in so many other people of the day. A man had no doubt where he stood w/ Forrest; he meant what he said and he told people what he meant.
__________________ Shane Christen
American Legion Post 352
SUVCW Camp Abernethy# 48
Lifetime NRA member
3rd MN VI
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Eccl 1:18
It is true that he was a man of his word except when it came to captured colored troops. Example: the 111 US Colored that were captured at Sulphur Trestle were sent to Moble to work on the fort there instead of to prison camp as agreed to in the surrander terms. I guess he felt that labor was more needed.
__________________ Located near Indianapolis, home of Col. Eli Lilly and the Eli Lilly Civil War Museum
Richard:
Would be interested in the surrender terms. Did they specify colored soldiers or just say soldiers? If Forrest agreed to "colored soldiers" being sent to prison camp, then it would appear that he did break the terms. However, the Confederacy had ways to weasel out of such specifics. "Colored Soldier" is an oxymoron; coloreds were not subject to the rules of war; colored pows would be sent to work from the camp anyway, so why bother with the interim step? And others.
Ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Richard:
Would be interested in the surrender terms. Did they specify colored soldiers or just say soldiers? If Forrest agreed to "colored soldiers" being sent to prison camp, then it would appear that he did break the terms. However, the Confederacy had ways to weasel out of such specifics. "Colored Soldier" is an oxymoron; coloreds were not subject to the rules of war; colored pows would be sent to work from the camp anyway, so why bother with the interim step? And others.
Ole
I doubt very much that Forrest had much input into the decision of where prisoners were sent, though I don't know that for a fact. He was very mobile and didn't stand around very long after a battle. There were constantly new orders being sent down from above, though he had considerable ability to chart his own course.
I doubt very much that Forrest had much input into the decision of where prisoners were sent, though I don't know that for a fact.
I am very much interested in chasing down the roots of this allegation. It is quite well known that Forrest routinely sent colored prisoners back to their owners or to locations where they would be put to work.
Hanny's welcome link didn't quite specify whether Forrest agreed to treat colored soldiers as prisoners of war. If he did, he broke his word. If he did not, he was just being, well, Forrest. As I can't imagine Forrest breaking his word to another officer and gentleman, I'll have to assume he found a way to weasel around the understanding.
Ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
I am very much interested in chasing down the roots of this allegation. It is quite well known that Forrest routinely sent colored prisoners back to their owners or to locations where they would be put to work.
Hanny's welcome link didn't quite specify whether Forrest agreed to treat colored soldiers as prisoners of war. If he did, he broke his word. If he did not, he was just being, well, Forrest. As I can't imagine Forrest breaking his word to another officer and gentleman, I'll have to assume he found a way to weasel around the understanding.
Ole
Its not an incident i knew off before reading it here.
Like you im looking for an acount of the event with primary text, i can see within days of the event in question his surrender demands contain the Negros will be returned to their masters, and cant see why he would have changed them for this occaision, certainly no circamstances demand he should have done, and that was the CSA policy at the time in any event, and Union forces were more concerned about the i impied threat if they did not surrender.
Pows being used for work was not unusual in any event regardless of colour.
__________________ "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote."
Benjamin Franklin, 1759
I am very much interested in chasing down the roots of this allegation. It is quite well known that Forrest routinely sent colored prisoners back to their owners or to locations where they would be put to work.
Hanny's welcome link didn't quite specify whether Forrest agreed to treat colored soldiers as prisoners of war. If he did, he broke his word. If he did not, he was just being, well, Forrest. As I can't imagine Forrest breaking his word to another officer and gentleman, I'll have to assume he found a way to weasel around the understanding.
Ole
Forrest got back across from this raid about October 7, 1864. The last 1,000 or so of his men crossed the swollen Tennessee on the night of the 6-7th, Forrest coming off with the last of them, bringing off some 2,360 POWs, 800 horses, 50 wagons & ambulances, 2000 or so small arms, and 7 captured guns. Forrest's force for the raid seems to have been about 4500 men.
There was a Federal attempt to cross the river with gunboat support at Eastport on the 10th, objective Forrest's rail line at Iuka. Kelley (with Rucker's brigade and a 2-gun artillery section) smashed them. Two Union transports were set afire, the gunboats battered, the troops that landed scrambling downstream to be picked up by one of the transports and Kelly capturing some 75 more Yankees.
Forrest was worn down at this time, asking Taylor for a leave of 3 or 4 weeks, trying to get Chalmers ordered to join him from over by Memphis. He moved to Jackson TN and trying to recruit/rest his command. But by October 24th he was already moving out of Jackson for Ft. Heiman, the start of the raid that would lead to Forrest capturing the Union gunboats on the Tennessee and the destruction of Johnsonville, a major supply base for Sherman.
I can't vouch for the details of what may or may not have happened with the USCT POWs, but Forrest was known for treating them well. He normally sent them back to the rear areas and followed Confederate policy on such. My guess would be that whatever happened took place in the period of Forrest's raid or during Hood's invasion of Tennessee and the disasters at Franklin and Nashville, followed by the retreat to Alabama. Forrest was constantly occupied with that in late October-November-December-early January.
His superior would have been Richard Taylor, who also commanded the officer at Mobile (which was not part of Forrest's command). Taylor was not such a bad officer for USCT POWs to fall under, either. When Taylor reported he had black POWs after Milliken's Bend in 1863 and asked what to do with them, Kirby Smith asked him why he had any to report.
CivilWarTalk.com -
A free and friendly Civil War community. 
Nathan Bedford Forrest and Secession 
Linear Mode
