Help Dixie Defeat Big-Tech Censorship! Spread the Word! Like, Share, Re-Post, and Subscribe! There’s a lot more to see at our main page, Dixie Drudge!
Nathan Bedford Forrest Redeemed? Part I
(Emerging Civil War) – A savior and a murderer. A genius and a racist. An angel and a devil. These are but a few names attributed to Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Despite his controversial reputation, one peculiar incident in Forrest’s post-war life stands out as anomalous to his lifelong devotion to the Southern cause. On July 5, 1875, the former Confederate general delivered an address to an audience of African Americans. In the speech, Forrest professed his sympathy for the African American cause and his desire for reconciliation. “I believe I can exert some influence,” he said, “and shall do all in my power to elevate every man, to depress none.”[1] Did Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former Confederate and an early member of the Ku Klux Klan, have a radical change of heart? Like most questions in history, the answer to this one is … complicated.
Forrest’s staunch support of slavery before the war is no secret. He entered the lucrative slave trade as a young man and became one of the richest men in the South because of it.[2] In 1861, he enlisted in the Confederate army as a private and quickly rose to the rank of general.[3] Forrest achieved infamy in April 1864 for his role in the Fort Pillow Massacre, in which Confederate troops under his command murdered 200 Union soldiers in cold blood—many of whom were United States Colored Troops.[4] Though Forrest’s role in the massacre remains disputed, he wrote that Fort Pillow “will demonstrate to the Northern people that negro soldiers cannot cope with the Southerners.” [5]
After the war, Forrest became one of the first ex-Confederates to join the fledgling Ku Klux Klan. Despite publicly claiming he had no affiliation with the group, Forrest rose to lead the Klan as its Grand Wizard.[6] Biographer Jack Hurst writes that Forrest “became the Lost Cause’s avenging angel, galvanizing a loose collection of boyish secret social clubs into a reactionary instrument of…
#FreeDixie #NoMoreReconciliation #DeoVindice #TheSouthWasRight