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From Captain John W. Morton, Chief of Artillery, Forrest's Cavalry 1902
Background: June, 1863. General Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee was withdrawing from Middle Tennessee towards Chattanooga. Forrest's cavalry was near Cowan, Tennessee, about twenty miles southeast of Tullohuma, Tennessee, covering the army's rear. They were pressed by the much greater numbers of the Federal cavalry.
"It was a few days later that General Forrest was hailed as a coward by a fiery dame of Cowan. The mountain passes were thick with the enemy, and in the daily skirmishes it frequently happened that "discretion was the better part of valor." General Forrest's reputation as a daring and hot-headed fighter, however, was so strongly impressed on the people of that section that when they saw his army in retreat they always mistook it for some other command. One day as he rode rapidly down the street, with a body of Federals in plain pursuit, a mountain woman ran to her door and shouted: "You great big coward, you, why don't you turn and fight, instead of running like a cur? If old Bedford Forrest was here, he'd make you fight." This incident was never related in General Forrest's presence without embarrassing him, and it is probable that the good woman never knew whom she addressed on that occasion."
Background: June, 1863. General Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee was withdrawing from Middle Tennessee towards Chattanooga. Forrest's cavalry was near Cowan, Tennessee, about twenty miles southeast of Tullohuma, Tennessee, covering the army's rear. They were pressed by the much greater numbers of the Federal cavalry.
"It was a few days later that General Forrest was hailed as a coward by a fiery dame of Cowan. The mountain passes were thick with the enemy, and in the daily skirmishes it frequently happened that "discretion was the better part of valor." General Forrest's reputation as a daring and hot-headed fighter, however, was so strongly impressed on the people of that section that when they saw his army in retreat they always mistook it for some other command. One day as he rode rapidly down the street, with a body of Federals in plain pursuit, a mountain woman ran to her door and shouted: "You great big coward, you, why don't you turn and fight, instead of running like a cur? If old Bedford Forrest was here, he'd make you fight." This incident was never related in General Forrest's presence without embarrassing him, and it is probable that the good woman never knew whom she addressed on that occasion."
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