Nathan Bedford Forrest was a Confederate General, a slave trader, and a leader of the Ku Klux Klan. Buried under an equestrian statue of himself in Memphis, the statue and the remains of Forrest and his wife were removed recently. The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) are reburying the Forrests in Columbia, Tenn. this weekend at their headquarters.
Forrest continues to maintain significant popularity in “Confederate Heritage” circles and among Neo-Confederate hate groups. The photos below were posted on social media by the Sons of Confederate Veterans. I repost them here because outsiders rarely get to see the uncritical reverence of Lost Cause advocates for their avatars.
The SCV is well-known for its motor cycle clubs, which it calls the “Confederate Mechanized Cavalry.”
In spite of his record of violence against African Americans, Forrest apparently remains popular among ZZ Top impersonators.
The SCV headquarters is actually a complex which includes a recently completed six million dollar “museum” dedicated to the defense of the Confederacy. Forrest and his wife will be reburied on the grounds this weekend and his statue will be reassembled at the headquarters in the future.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans have lionized Nathan Bedford Forrest since their founding. While the modern SCV disputes denunciations of Forrest as a leader of the Klan, in its early days Sons lauded that leadership of the armed resistance to Black civil rights.
At the 1909 United Confederate Veterans Convention, for example, the address to the veterans from the Sons of Confederate Veterans was delivered by Thomas H. Sisson. Sisson was a son of a veteran of Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry force. He told the audience that he had erected a monument at Forrest’s grave where Forrest was buried prior to his Memphis interment. While his speech focused on the justness of the Confederate cause, Sisson did give a two page long laudation of Forrest as the man behind the Ku Klux Klan. According to Sisson:
Great and trying times always produce great leaders, and one was at hand—Nathan Bedford Forrest. His plan, the only course left open. The organization of a secret government. A terrible government; a government that would govern in spite of black majorities and Federal bayonets. This secret government was organized in every community in the South, and this government is known in history as the Klu Klux Clan [sic]… Here in all ages to come the Southern romancer and poet can find the inspiration for fiction and song. No nobler or grander spirits ever assembled on this earth than gathered in these clans. No human hearts were ever moved with nobler impulses or higher aims and purposes…Order was restored, property safe; because the negro feared the Klu Klux Clan more than he feared the devil. Even the Federal bayonets could not give him confidence in the black government which had been established for him, and the negro voluntarily surrendered to the Klu Klux Clan, and the very moment he did, the “Invisible Army” vanished in a night. Its purpose had been fulfilled. Bedford Forrest should always be held in reverence by every son and daughter of the South as long as memory holds dear the noble deeds and service of men for the good of others on this earth. What mind is base enough to think of what might have happened but for Bedford Forrest and his “Invisible” but victorious army.
You can read the longer unedited version here.
Forrest was lionized by groups like the SCV and the United Daughters of the Confederacy in the early 1900s precisely because he carried on the Confederate armed struggle for white hegemony in Southern society long after the last Rebel armies had surrendered through secret terrorist groups like the Klan.
Forrest became a hero to many outside the limited circles dedicated to Klan and Confederate memory three decades ago when Ken Burns’s The Civil War was a national phenomenon. Novelist Shelby Foote spun stories during the series of Forrest that identified him more with self-reliant cowboy architype than with the actual man who made money by chaining Black people in cells and selling them at auction.
Modern defenders of Forrest point out that in the last two years of his life Forrest made statements that were more conciliatory towards African Americans in Tennessee. By the time Forrest made these end-of-life statements, whites supremacists were safely back in control of the government of Tennessee and deadly violence was no longer seen as necessary by leaders like Forrest. Jim Crow laws could do the same job as the Klan without the embarrassing bloodshed.
Like the smart fish, I savored the worm (great pics) while ignoring the hook (drivel prose).
General Forrest did not start the KKK, he was not even a member, this has been proven time and again, the Klan did use his image, without his permission, to bring in members! The information that he was buried in Mississippi after his death is incorrect, he was buried in the family plot At Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis! He was the first Civil Rights advocate in Memphis, and was invited to speak at a picnic held by the forerunner of the NAACP! These people try to besmirch a man that was trying to bring the country back together after the War, he was a hero to the South, as he should be, just as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is!
According to the UDC history of the Ku Klux Klan, Forrest was chosen as the leader of the KKK at the Maxwell House Convention. Here is the Source: https://archive.org/details/cu31924083530117/page/18/mode/2up
Patrick, his time with KKK was short. He thought it was going to be a different organization than what it became and he left it for that reason. Take the time to read a recent, non-biased biography on him. Hurst did a pretty good job, and he has good sources for his information. The source you quoted wasn’t written by a historian, but rather by a political operative with political motives. He had virtually no influence on the Klan, but the Klan used him after his death to gain prestige.
I’d imagine that the source (book) you quoted above, is filled with a significant number of things you’d refute at length, but when the same source gives you info that suits your purpose, you embrace it as if it should be a primary source. The book is political propaganda and should be treated as such.
You can despise someone and still be accurate. Do better.
Ray, both the speech by the representative of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the history of the Klan disseminated by the United Daughters of the Confederacy identified Nathan Bedford Forrest as the leading light in the Ku Klux Klan. The speech I quoted was delivered in front of the national convention of the United Confederate Veterans which was held in Memphis. Some of Forrest’s men were in the audience, as were others who knew him.
My quotes from the speech were entirely accurate as was my description of the context.
By the war, Jack Hurst’s bio of Forrest was published in 1994.
Perhaps we’re missing each other’s point. Your point is that after Forrest’s death, pro-Klan communications highlighted Forrest’s involvement in the Klan. I don’t disagree with that. My disagreement is that their characterization of his involvement is problematic and embellished. There is plenty of primary sources that show that he would have never agreed to such communications were he alive when they were made. Hurst’s work, which examines primary sources, is a much better source to use to determine Forrest’s relationship with the Klan rather than pro-Klan propaganda.
To Ray: The blog post was about Forrest’s interment by the Sons of Confederate Veterans with the UDC in attendance. I offered a section of a speech by the SCV representative during the UCV convention. I understand that the speech is not by a historian. This month’s reburial ceremony and the words surrounding it also come from non-historians. At some point I will post thoughts on Forrest and the Klan, but for now I am posting what those who honored Forrest said about him after his first reburial.
Thanks for the amazing pictures! Thank Providence that there are still White people who revere and honor the great men and women of Our Race even as rabid Bolsheviks are erasing Our History and exterminating Our People. Thanks again for the pictures, Mr. Young! May you reap the hate and chaos you are helping to sow ye Communist goon.
Dr. Reid, what kind of Doctor are you?
Certainly, not a man of God. I was raised in
Pulaski , Tn and understand the seed of your kind ignorance , but you Sir , are a lost soul!
Dr. Oliver ,what kind of Doctor are you?
Certainly, not a man of God. I was raised in
Pulaski , Tn and understand the seed of your kind ignorance , but you Sir , are a lost soul!
The truth is more organic and evident thus the poison pen and black information of the revisionist Washingtonians, the revengeful Crown of England and the Chinese Communist Party are hard at work to quash the flame of creativity and truth in America. The capability of what one person can do to change the world is targeted by these naysayers. To erase the unique fingerprint of American history is under attack.
Organically, one needs to put themselves on the battlefield in that time period. At any time do you think that the Union Army screamed “we here to free the slaves!”… or… the Confederates, did they scream “we’re here to keep our slaves!”… certainly not.
What the root of the aggression is MONEY. The same thing that was of concern then is of great concern today.
Imagine during that time period, without instant news, just how localized people’s lives were. Then the aggressions of the Washingtonians marched on, destroying homes, stealing grain and provisions, shooting the young sons, raping and kidnapping women, slaughtering livestock.
When you lose everything, you have nothing left except to resist the aggression.
To dishonor the truth and those who fell to their death is an abomination.
The S. C. V. is a reverential group of male descendants who served in the Confederacy.
Many are certified in the proper method of gravestone refurbishment. The cemeteries and graveyards are the focal point of the S. C. V. Most S. C. V. members are skilled in primitive living as described in The Fox Fire Series. These men have a high degree of resolution and improvision,together as brothers, there are no better men to count on during when the chips are down.
Reverence and Order, promotion of Americanisim, respect to the Constitution and exercise of biblical principle is the tenets of the S. C. V.
If one uses hyperlinks of revisionists simply means that they haven’t applied organic truth to the time period and besmirchment of any of the fallen or S. C. V. is a huge indicator of fallacy.
I remain,
Doc Savage
Sir,
I’m going to attempt to summarise your view that you put a pro-South arguing the war forth and you honour the SCV’s re-burial of Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Righto. Now, if you want to put a historical argument of the war forth, that’s one thing.
But the Monarchy of Great Britain/Commonwealth of Nations and the government of China are entirely uninvolved in anything towards NBF’s re-burial in any way/shape/form.