Nathan Bedford Forrest
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Nathan Bedford Forrest, called Bedford Forrest in his lifetime, was a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. He is remembered as a self-educated, brutal, and innovative cavalry leader during the war and as a leading Southern advocate in the postwar years. He was a pledged delegate from Tennessee to the New York Democratic national convention of 4 July 1868. He served as the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, but later distanced himself...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth13 July 1821
CountryUnited States of America
Men, do as I say and I will always lead you to victory.
I did not come here for the purpose of surrendering my command.
Forward, men, and mix with them.
What I desire most of you, my son, is never to gamble or swear. These are baneful vices.
I will be in my coffin before I will fight again under your command.
If you surrender you shall be treated as prisoners of war, but if I haveto storm your works you may expect no quarter.
I done told you twice already goddammit no!
I have stood your meanness as long as I intend to. You have played the part of a damn scoundrel, and if you were any part of a man I would slap your jaws and force you to resent it...
I have never on the field of battle sent you where I was unwilling to go myself, nor would I now advise you to a course which I felt myself unwilling to pursue. You have been good soldiers. You can be good citizens. Obey the laws, preserve your honor, and the government to which you have surrendered can afford to be and will be magnanimous.
I loved the old government in 1861. I loved the old Constitution yet. I think it is the best government in the world, if administered as it was before the war. I do not hate it; I am opposing now only the radical revolutionists who are trying to destroy it. I believe that party to be composed, as I know it is in Tennessee, of the worst men on Gods earth - men who would not hesitate at no crime, and who have only one object in view - to enrich themselves.
War means fighting, and fighting means killing.
I am not here to pass civilities or compliments with you, but on other business. I have stood your meanness as long as I intend to. You have played the part of a damned scoundrel, and are a coward, and if you were any part of a man I would slap your jaws and force you to resent it. You may as well not issue any more orders to me, for I will not obey them... and as I say to you that if you ever again try to interfere with me or cross my path it will be at the peril of your life.
Abolish the Loyal League and the Ku Klux Klan; let us come together and stand together.
I am not an enemy of the Negro. We want him here among us; he is the only laboring class we have.