Forrest An Awkward Encounter, Forrest & Sherman share a Post War Boat Trip

It is interesting that after the Civil War, both men sought to team up together when war looked likely to occur with Spain over Cuba in 1873. According to Eddy W. Davison, Forrest offered his services to Sherman, who wrote the War Department a glowing recommendation of Forrest’s capabilities. It’s probably because Sherman and Forrest were two peas in a pod, falsely lionized by their “accomplishments” in the Civil War, who seemed to fare better against the unarmed than the armed. They are two reasons we seem to have unresolved post-Civil War issues.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-...rd-forrest-civil-war-criminals_b_7552816.html
 
It was purported that a conversation between the 2 was overheard on a steam boat on the Miss river.

In September of 1870 the Shenandoah Herald reported a conversation overheard between General William Tecumseh Sherman (U.S.) and General Nathan Bedford Forrest (formerly C.S.A) on a riverboat somewhere on the Mississippi River. The article reported that Sherman explained to Forrest the trouble he had created for him filling not only his every waking thought, but his dreams as well. Forrest replied by telling Sherman that if he had been given the command he had asked for he would have not only been a dream but a real nightmare pressing Sherman’s flanks on their “march to the sea” and forcing them to walk through the most hazardous land.
 
Just finished reading, "That Devil, Forrest." After the war, did Forrest ever meet Sherman?
I read Jack Hurst' s biography and Hurst did not mention it. Hurst did mention that a group of Union Army officers shortly after the war did visit Forrest at his home much to the violent opposition of King Philip who Forrest had to calm down. Forrest was certainly willing to bury the hatchet in the sense that although he headed the KKK he was not willing to continue the war to establish an independent Confederate nation.
Leftyhunter
 
That's why I've always maintained they sent the wrong cavalryman to deal with Sherman! (Sherman thought so, too.) His response to Forrest was a nod - that would have hampered him considerably and taken some of the sparkle out of his diamond! They may have conversed again when Forrest came to Washington to testify about the klan to Congress.

p s
The conversation the Virginia paper related was a chance encounter. Sherman was on his way upriver to Memphis from Vicksburg, and Forrest boarded the steamboat somewhere in Bolivar County, the county just below Coahoma County where he had his plantation.
 
They may have conversed again when Forrest came to Washington to testify about the klan to Congress.

I have read that they did have conversation in DC but I can't remember which book it was. I think maybe it was Sherman's bio
 
Forrest offered his services to Sherman, who wrote the War Department a glowing recommendation of Forrest’s capabilities. It’s probably because Sherman and Forrest were two peas in a pod, falsely lionized by their “accomplishments” in the Civil War, who seemed to fare better against the unarmed than the armed.
Sherman and Forrest were "two peas in a pod" because they were senior military commanders and had very similar experiences. Sherman was famously friends with Joe Johnston, and developed a close relationship with John Bell Hood, as well — both Confederate commanders who had faced him directly across the lines. They understood Sherman, and he understood them; there was mutual respect in those relationships. As we have discussed previously, the vilification of Sherman largely came about years after the war, in part because of Jefferson Davis' memoir. It was an outrage that was carefully crafted and nurtured a generation after the war ended.

As for Forrest, recall the message he sent to his fellow former Confederates in 1875, encouraging them to take part in Decoration Day activities:

However much we differed with them while public enemies, and were at war, we must admit that they fought gallantly for the preservation of the government which we fought to destroy, which is now ours, was that of our fathers, and must be that of our children. Though our love for that government was for a while supplanted by the exasperation springing out of a sense of violated rights and the conflict of battle, yet our love for free government, justly administered, has not perished, and must grow strong in the hearts of brave men who have learned to appreciate the noble qualities of the true soldier.

Let us all, then, join their comrades who live, in spreading flowers over the graves of these dead Federal soldiers, before the whole American people, as a peace offering to the nation, as a testimonial of our respect for their devotion to duty, and as a tribute from patriots, as we have ever been, to the great Republic, and in honor of the flag against which we fought, and under which they fell, nobly maintaining the honor of that flag. It is our duty to honor the government for which they died, and if called upon, to fight for the flag we could not conquer.

 
I've always thought Sherman and Forrest were eerily similar, and even now have their places as lightning rods. (Forrest had just about as much nervous energy as Sherman did as well.) They could never be friends, though, like Joe Johnston and Sherman, because Sherman made the war in Tennessee extremely personal. Forrest had lots and lots of relations all over Tennessee and Mississippi, and there was a lot of hard things done to family - many had to leave. He could be cordial and converse with Sherman, but being buddies was not going to happen! (Sherman would certainly have understood this, by the way - he would have not been forgiving if someone had gone after his kin, either.)
 
It is interesting that after the Civil War, both men sought to team up together when war looked likely to occur with Spain over Cuba in 1873. According to Eddy W. Davison, Forrest offered his services to Sherman, who wrote the War Department a glowing recommendation of Forrest’s capabilities. It’s probably because Sherman and Forrest were two peas in a pod, falsely lionized by their “accomplishments” in the Civil War, who seemed to fare better against the unarmed than the armed. They are two reasons we seem to have unresolved post-Civil War issues.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-...rd-forrest-civil-war-criminals_b_7552816.html
for a man who had little formal education nobody on either side could read topography like him and he uses this to his advantage many times.
 
The conversation the Virginia paper related was a chance encounter. Sherman was on his way upriver to Memphis from Vicksburg, and Forrest boarded the steamboat somewhere in Bolivar County, the county just below Coahoma County where he had his plantation.

Can anyone imagine the the thoughts of the other passengers when they realized these two Generals were now on the same riverboat as they were?

Wow !
 
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@diane, do you know the name of this Riverboat ?

The reason I ask is that I subscribed to Newspapers dot com a few weeks ago.
That's the best subscription "history site" I've joined since I discovered fold3.

Yes, it was the Shenandoah Herald. (But I cheated - it's in ucvrelic's post #4... :D) I'd like to hear more about it, too. The first time Sherman and Forrest might have met was earlier, with the hearings about the klan and all - not a chipper chat!
 
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