Forrest Forrest overcame much

[Barrycdog]

http://www.dnj.com/story/news/2015/05/02/harbers-history-lesson-forrest-overcame-much/26807865/

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

That's a very good Cliff Notes version of Forrest's life.

 

[diane]

That's a very good summary of Forrest's life - accurate, too! One thing the author left out - and he certainly didn't have room for a lot - was that Forrest was well liked. Despite his hard edges and ferocious temper, he had many friends. He was elected alderman of Memphis four times, was elected coroner and constable of DeSoto County twice - and that was after his fight with the Matlocks. Often it's said most of his men didn't like him, but they were the ones who elected him to be colonel, and even enemies rode with him. One old veteran of Forrest's commented that he had 'music', which meant he had a sense of humor and of fun. Contrarily, most of his men did like him! He didn't neglect some play time, sports and so on - just drew the line at horse racing. Too hard on valuable animals. Once they went ahead and raced, without asking as they knew he'd say no, and he didn't stop it. However, after they'd had their fun he said, "Now is the time for paying, boys." They were all walking around with rails on their shoulders for several hours! (One of them was Willie, too.)