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
Abolish the Loyal League and the Ku Klux Klan; let us come together and stand together.
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.
War means fighting, and fighting means killing.
If one road led to hell and the other to Mexico, I would be indifferent which to take.
I went into the army worth a million and a half dollars, and came out a beggar.
Nobody kills me and lives to tell about 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.