General Nathan Bedford Forrest Commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee

That would be only once, and most of those guys who were removed were incompetent. Forrest could point to a highly productive record that had earned him promotion by even the first such instance.

So, it happened twice, and that Forrest didn't deserve it should be obvious to anyone familiar with the record.

To put this another way, can you imagine what might have happened if they took the Stonewall Brigade away from Jackson, told him "go raise another outfit," he did so, led that one successfully too, and then they told him "hand your command over to General Pantywaste here, and go raise a third outfit."

Yes. Pretty much every guy who raised a regiment, in fact.
 
All good stuff. Bottom line is that, while he was very good at what he did, he didn not function well within the constricts of a definition of cavalry.

Cavalry was Stuart, Hampton, Buford, Hatch, Wilson, et al. As someone said earlier, Forrest was Mosby writ large. He was dangerous to be near, but seldom did he ever perform the duties of Cavalry.

An awesome personality and wonderfully admirable, but really, he was a boil on everyone's butt. Both sides.

And now, I will duck and cover.

Well said, Ole. I agree completely.
 
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