Forrest Colonel Jeffrey Edward Forrest

Barrycdog

Major
Joined
Jan 6, 2013
Location
Buford, Georgia
A lot is written about Nathan Bedford Forrest but I have not heard a lot about his brother.

Southern Recorder, Nov. 24, 1863 -- page 1

Col. Jeff. Forrest, the brother of General Forrest, whose death has been so universally deplored, still lives. He was shot through his hips. He is now at the house of Captain Steele, a mile and a half from Tuscumbia, and is doing well. On the first day of his series of fights, he had with him five men, and Forrest pursued by large number, took refuge in an accessible mountain cove. He and his comrades killed twenty eight of the enemy, among them a Colonel, a Major and two Captains. - Knoxville Register.

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Birth: Jun. 10, 1838
Death: Feb. 22, 1864
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Civil War Confederate Officer. Tippah County, Mississippi native Jeffery Edward Forrest was a younger and purportedly favorite brother of Nathan Bedford Forrest. At the onset of the war in 1861, Jeffery and Nathan each enlisted as a Private into Captain Josiah White's Tennessee Mounted Rifles, a command that would later be designated the 7th Tennessee Cavalry. He subsequently had the additional assignment as a captain in Forrest's Tennessee Cavalry. In February of 1862, he was among the cavalcade, led by his older brother, which eluded capture at Fort Donelson. He tendered his resignation in June 0f 1862; however he rejoined as a major of the 13th Tennessee Cavalry (8th Cavalry) sometime prior to 1863. This service was followed with a commission as colonel of Forrest's Alabama Cavalry. During action at a place called Bear's Creek, Alabama, he was captured after he fell with severe wounds in October 1863. As a brigade commander under the command of his brother, he received a fatal wound to his throat during action near Okolona, Mississippi on February 22, 1864. Witnessing his fall, Nathan Bedford Forrest rushed to his dying brother's side and ‘dropped to his knees and held [his] head in his arms' before he died. He was buried in Aberdeen's Odd Fellows Cemetery after his death with a 1868 re-interment in Elmwood Cemetery, Memphis, Tennessee.

Consequently, the marker erected in the Odd Fellows Cemetery is a cenotaph.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=38389911
 
Colonel Jeffery E. Forrest, a native of Tippah County, Mississippi, was a younger brother of Nathan Bedford Forrest. Like Nathan, Jeffery enlisted at the beginning of the war as a private. By 1864, however, he was commanding a brigade of cavalry under his brother. At the battle of Okolona, fought 148 years ago today (February 22, 1864) Jeffrey was shot in the throat while leading a charge against a Union position on the Pontotoc Road near Prairie Mount. Seeing him fall, Nathan Bedford Forrest rushed to his brother's side and ‘dropped to his knees and held [his] head in his arms' before he died. Overcome with emotion, Lt. Gen. Forrest helped led the attack, breaking the roadblock. Toward sunset, Forrest's command assaulted the final Union position at Ivey's Hill. During the night, the battered Federal troops retreated toward Memphis, sealing a dramatic victory for Forrest's Confederate cavalry at Okolona. Jeffrey was buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Aberdeen, but was reinterred in 1868 to Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis.http://andspeakingofwhich.blogspot.com/2012/03/jeffrey-forrest.html
 
Family resemblance is definately there..A little softer around the eyes,but that may just come from not being as old as his brother,yet.
 
I am just learning about the Forrest brothers as well. Thanks for bumping this thread. I believe there was quite a close connection between Nathan Bedford Forrest and this younger brother. Hopefully @diane will be along to tell us more.

Oh, yes, Jeffrey was more like a son than a brother! He was born after the death of his father, when Forrest was 16. Here is a thread with some excellent information from DixieRifles and some good pictures:

https://civilwartalk.com/threads/general-forrest-loses-his-younger-brother….95871/
 
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