Forrest Ami's SOA The Brothers Forrest

No sleeping on the ground at Gainesville, in the Black Belt region and very flat terrain with a high water table. It's always wet (so they tell me) in March so a cot is in order. I would invite you to bunk in with me but my tent is barely big enough for me! There are a couple of larger towns within 20 miles or so with good accomodations.
 
No sleeping on the ground at Gainesville, in the Black Belt region and very flat terrain with a high water table. It's always wet (so they tell me) in March so a cot is in order. I would invite you to bunk in with me but my tent is barely big enough for me! There are a couple of larger towns within 20 miles or so with good accomodations.

I was just kidding somewhat before. I'd be able to take care with very little trouble. I've been to M eridian several times (2) but never to Demopolis or Selma. I would like to extend my trip to include those two places. Large portions of the AOT took that root on their sojourne toward North Carolina in 1865. Others, as you know were sent by rail to Mobile and ferried across the river. My long struggling book TWO ARMIES, SAME ROAD is a chronology of that army after the retreat from Nashville. I also track two ancestors CSA and US through that period, plus the last chapter which I may actually publish someday, are detailed notes on the family of Bedford Forrest, much of which is covered in this thread. There was a strong relationship between James Harrison Wilson, Edward Hatch and Forrest that culminated in the surrender at Gainsville and later at Citronelle. Both places interest me for that reason. [I do have a probably rotted by now small wall tent, but last time I slept in a cot, the cool air keep sneaking in through the flap in my long johns.] As a backup, there's the rear of my Jeep Cherokee.
 
This is the thread that got me to join up here - never saw so much information on Forrest's family before. (Don't think Forrest knew as much!) Sure going to miss poking around in Larry's head here. This and some of his other posts really ought to be gathered and published - a lot of one-of-a-kind knowledge. Bless him.
 
It would fitting if Dr. Mike Bradley would finish Larry's work.
I agree. I read Larry's manuscript because he wanted some input as to how to organize it. He had the right idea--follow the roads and historical markers. I think his publication plan was to have the SCV publish it in CD-ROM format.
 
I'm so sorry I didn't get to meet Larry, he was planning to come to Gainesville next month. As we fire our salute at the Forrest Surrender Monument I'll say a little prayer for him.
 
Eric Jacobson would also be a great one to finish his work. Larry knew both of these men very well and both knew of his work. There was one place that Larry wanted to find and that was the battlefield at Sugar Creek in Decamber 1864. He and I were within about 300 yards of the location but we needed to cross a fast moving creek to get to it. Maybe I can get there this summer and photographic it.
 
Please update me on Mr. Cockerham..?

Edward, it's difficult to try to extoll Larry's virtues in one post, so I'll just direct you to this:




larry_cockerham
You might click on "view forum posts" and just start reading somewhere. He was a member of this board for many years, and a very knowledgable person on the Civil War. Not only was he informed - especially about the great Confederate cavalry commander, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and also the Army of Tennessee and its travails in November of '64 during the battles of Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville, but his posts were always civil, polite, congenial, respectful, courteous. When I first joined the board in 2005 under another username I knew nothing about the Army of Tennessee, or Forrest. From reading his posts over the years I feel like I am at least informed on those subjects.

He passed away just a few days ago, at the still fairly young age of 63, very suddenly and unexpectedly, of a heart attack, and those of us who have been on this site for years, and even the new folks, who read his posts, mourn his passing, not just because he will no longer give us information on the aforementioned topics, but also because in debate, and in general discourse here, he was always, truly, a Southern gentleman, in every sense of the term.
 
Please update me on Mr. Cockerham..?
Larry invested a great deal of time in researching Nathan Bedford Forrest and his covering of Hood's retreat from Nashville.

He had a book started, but it was scattered and needed some editing to put it together.

It remains that he knew as much about NBF and that movement as anyone alive. When there was a question about NBF. Larry would have the answer.

And we had fun arguing about who was older and handsomer. I won both. (Or at least half of that.)

He was rarely sharp, and always injected levity and solid information into every thread.

Larry was everyone's good friend.
 
Having just joined I wasn't aware of Mr. Cockerham's death. It's sad to lose someone so interesting. I too am a student of the history of Ol' Bedford. I have read just about every book on him that I can find. I know he had his shortcomings as we all do but Nathan Bedford Forrest was a leader. Men follow leaders.
 
larry_cockerham,

Is Jesse's house on Union St still standing or has it gone the way of so much else? If it's gone, that would still be a nice place for a plaque! (I suppose it would raise a yowl from the the usual suspects, though...)

It is not diane... :frown: My aunt and I drove down a few years ago to see what was there based on the addresses from censes records. The spot on Union is now an abanded laundry building
 
It is not diane... :frown: My aunt and I drove down a few years ago to see what was there based on the addresses from censes records. The spot on Union is now an abanded laundry building

Oh, thank you! I was wondering if it had gone the way of most. It would be interesting if they put a sign there, though.
 
Oh, thank you! I was wondering if it had gone the way of most. It would be interesting if they put a sign there, though.


There was a marker here but it has been removed...here was the text:

Nathan Bedford Forrest
In a house here, home of Col. Jesse Forrest, his brother, the man who had risen from private to Lieutenant General in the Confederate Army, died Oct. 27, 1877. Because of his achievements as a cavalry commander, he was termed by a foreign military authority the greatest commander of light cavalry among English-speaking peoples.

Most of the Forrest related markers in Memphis have been removed. In addition to the one above there was one marking the Gayoso Hotel and the raid of Aug 1864, another marked the Williams mansion where Jesse Forrest attempted to capture Washburn, another marked a Forrest artillery positions near Mississippi and Trigg. Another was previously located at Adams at Third to mark his home before the war.
 
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