Sons of Confederate Veterans Tribute to Nathan Bedford Forrest at 1909 UCV Convention

The 1909 Convention of the United Confederate Veterans was held in Memphis, Tenn. between June 8 and June 10. The annual conventions of the premier Confederate veterans organization brought together men from around the country who had fought on behalf of the “Lost Cause” during the Civil War. A whole variety of related-groups also attended and sometimes spoke at the meetings. These included the Daughters of the Confederacy, various Confederate memorial and monument associations, and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. As the old veterans died off, the Sons took on a more important role and often addressed the conventions.

At the 1909 UCV Convention, 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. 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.

Here is the unedited version of the speech by Sisson, which deploys many racist assumptions, as it appears in the official Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Meeting and Reunion of the United Confederate Veterans Held at Memphis:

 

Google Books has a link to the Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Meeting and Reunion of the United Confederate Veterans Held at Memphis here:

https://archive.org/details/proceedingsseria05unit/page/n83/mode/2up?view=theater

You can find the quote at pages 74-75.

It can be a little confusing to read because the Google Books digitalization combines several years worth of Convention minutes. You have to scroll to the 1909 Convention. Sisson’s speech begins at page 65 of the 1909 proceedings. He discusses Forrest at pages 73-74.

Photographs: The feature photo and the photo of the convention hall come from the Proceedings of the 1909 Convention.

[Note: Text version of the edited speech is found in Clint Smith’s How the Word Is Passed. Kindle Location 2386 to 2397. I first saw the quote when I read Smith’s book earlier this week.]

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