The book tells the story of the dramatic life of the famous Confederate cavalryman, Lt General Nathan Bedford Forrest of Tennessee.
At age fifteen, Forrest lost his father to an early death leaving him responsible for his mother and nine younger siblings. He had to grow up fast.
His family called him by his middle name, Bedford. He developed a mass fortune in various business dealings, gambling and as a slave trader. General Lee
said he was the greatest military genius of the war. He was a giant of man for his time, six foot two, two hundred ten pounds. He killed
at least thirty men in hand to hand combat. Forrest was gallant, tough, chivalrous, an inspiring leader, and a classic Confederate cavalryman
who lacked the polish or formal education of a South Carolina aristocrat like Wade Hampton. Forrest came up hard and had the genius of
common sense.
Forrest is and was a controversial figure who was blamed for the Fort Pillow massacre (but was later not held liable by General Sherman) and
served as the first elected leader of the Ku Klux Klan (a group he later helped to disband and disavow). He was elected as the “Imperial Wizard”
of the KKK since his nickname during the war was “ the wizard of the saddle.” Forrest and many former Confederate officers became very concerned
about the safety of white rural Southerners in Tennessee who during reconstruction era (1865-1877)
were being attacked and abused by Union forces, local authorities, and common criminals as law and order hardly existed. Accordingly,
the KKK was formed to protect the white population, to resist the occupation, and to return the state to white majority government. One scalawag governor of Tennessee, William G. “Parson” Brownlow, actually threatened to exterminate all former Confederates. The title of this book is taken from the siege of Fort Donaldson where Forrest said that he would “bust hell wide open” rather than surrender to the Federals.
There are some parallels between Forrest and Wade Hampton in that both formed their own cavalry units using their own private funds. Both were
very successful combat leaders and rose to the rank of Lt General, CSA. Also, neither had any formal military training or prior combat experience. Both
opposed secession but once their states voted to leave the Union, they both enlisted initially in the Confederate Army. Due to their status as prominent,
influential and wealthy men, both were promoted to colonel and were authorized to form their own combat units. Both men advocated late in life for racial
conciliation.
Forrest recruited about twenty slaves who joined his unit as combatants. He promised them their freedom if the Confederacy won.
If they lost, they would be free in any case. Some of these men voluntarily joined Forrest as workers or renters on his farm/plantation in Mississippi after the war.
Such was the effect Forrest had on the men who he led. Late in life, Forrest became a devout Christian under the patient and persistent influence of his wife.
This book traces Forrest early life and life after the war, but mostly it provides the details his many campaigns and battles and his conflicts with other Confederate generals who were not his peers in terms of tactics, audacity and success. Forrest was an unappreciated military genius in the Confederacy but who was feared by the Union Army.
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Dr. Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr.
is the author of more than forty books, mostly about World War II. He has been a
visiting professor at West Point and served as a U.S. Army helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. In recent years, he has
devoted his time to writing books about the U.S. Civil War.
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