People of the Civil War · Confederacy
Nathan Bedford Forrest
1821–1877
Background
Tennessee and Mississippi businessman, slave trader, plantation owner, and Confederate cavalry officer who rose from private to lieutenant general.
Before the war
Forrest built his prewar wealth through business, plantations, and the buying and selling of enslaved people in Tennessee and Mississippi. He entered Confederate service in 1861 without the professional military education shared by many senior officers.
Cavalry command
Forrest became known for rapid movements and aggressive cavalry operations, eventually reaching lieutenant general. His campaigns included Brice’s Cross Roads and the retreat from Nashville. In April 1864, troops under his command massacred United States soldiers, many of them Black, at Fort Pillow.
After the war
Forrest pursued business ventures after Confederate defeat and became the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, which used white-supremacist intimidation and violence during Reconstruction. He died in Memphis in 1877.