"First with the Most" ForrestNathan Bedford Forrest did not invent mobilized guerilla warfare, but he did modernize and polish it to an extent that has left few theoretical areas for improvement. Tanks and jeeps, it could even be said, do not possess the mobility relative to the main force which they attach that Forrest's dedicated band of horsemen enjoyed. Following in the footsteps of Francis Marion and Lighthorse Harry Lee, American practitioners of the devastating hit-and-run cavalry attach of the Revolutionary War, Forrest raised their effective but geographically limited campaigns to an art-form spread over the widest possible tactical theatre. He accomplished this with superior knowledge of terrain and of horses coupled and with an iron will, a complete disregard for physical exhaustion (his own and that of his men) and, this book will demonstrate, by the most admirable sort of sheer country orneriness. Forrest, a man of simple upbringing, is the perfect symbol for the odd mľange that was the Confederate Army; patrician West Pointers like Lee side by side by unregenerate racists like Forrest. These well-bred students of battles and from the classical era were not prevented by an almost unimaginable difference in class from being able to recognize the tactical genius of a farmer from the low country... That any scholar of this history of warfare would have to judge Forrest rather more harshly for his conduct after the war than this conduct during it is just another tragic aspect of the larger tragedy that generated The War Between the States. Heroes rose from unlikely places and returned, when the time for heroism had past, to their more unheroic pursuits. Whether than return negates the valor shown during the conflict is only for you to determine, after you have learned of Forrest's life in all its aspects, heroic, and less so. |
Contents
CHAPTER | 13 |
1861December 28 1861 | 47 |
1861February 16 1862 | 63 |
Copyright | |
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advance afternoon Alabama ammunition arms Army of Tennessee arrived artillery attack battery battle Bragg bridge brigade Buford camp campaign Captain captured cavalry Chalmers charge Chattanooga Collierville Colonel column command Confederate Corinth corps Creek crossing Cumberland dismounted dispatch division Donelson east enemy escort expedition fall back Federal fight fire flank Forrest reported Fort Donelson Fort Pillow forward Franklin front garrison Georgia gunboats guns headquarters Hood horses infantry Jackson Johnsonville Johnston Kentucky killed Lieutenant Major McMinnville Memphis Middle Tennessee miles military Mississippi morning mounted moved movement Murfreesborough Nashville nessee night o'clock officers Okolona orders organization pike Pillow Polk position prisoners raid railroad rear guard regiment retreat road Rosecrans scouts Selma sent Serial Sherman Smith soldiers Spring Hill started Streight Sturgis supplies surrender Tennessee River tion town train troops Tupelo turned Union army Union forces wagons Washburn West Tennessee William Sooy Smith wounded wrote