Good post. I think Forrest has a much deeper meaning to many Southerners, particularly Tennesseans and Mississippians. It's something, maybe, people in the rest of the country don't quite understand. He was a man of honor, in the old fashioned Southern style - what Shelby Foote called quaintly "antique values". Forrest isn't highly regarded because he was a slave trader and a klansman, he is highly regarded because he defended his family and what was his country. Most of what he did, including the infamous Ft Pillow, and especially at the end of the war, was to protect. There was no law, no cops, no courts, no nothing and outlaws ran rampant. He knew the war was lost right after Gettysburg - most everything he did thereafter was in some form or another to protect Mississippi and Tennessee. He was a true warrior. And, the fact that he is a tarnished hero with a lot of dents and chips makes him human enough that anyone can relate to him. Lee set too high a standard but ol' Bedford sure didn't!