That Devil Forrest: Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest

A new edition of a long out-of-print Civil War classic first published in 1899, this book by a New York surgeon who fought for the Confederacy (1845-1922) is the story, based on contemporary and first-hand records, of General Nathan Bedford Forrest, "first with the most", whom his exasperated antagonist Sherman called "that devil" and the most remarkable man to come out of the war on either side. Born in Tennessee in 1821, eldest son of a backwoods blacksmith, Forrest grew up in poverty and with little education. Endowed with a brilliant mind, true military genius and a ferocious temper, he was before the war a successful business man and slave-trader; enlisting for the Confederacy in June, 1861, he found his true calling and became the scourge of Northern troops in Tennessee and the western theatre of the war. A master of psychological warfare and the surprise attack, victorious both by bluff and superb military tactics and often hampered by his own violence, Forrest was accused of responsibility for the Fort Pillow massacre, a charge which this book refutes; supposedly one of the leaders of the Ku Klux Klan, he swore allegiance to the Union after the war and until his death in 1877 devoted himself to helping those ruined by the conflict. Leaving no gun unfired, no bridge uncrossed, in Forrest's many campaigns, this book, a must for all American military and historical libraries not already owning it, will appeal to students of military tactics and Civil War buffs north and south; non-warlike readers will collapse under the weight of its endless detail. (Kirkus Reviews)