A boy of the frontier grows up to become a slave trader, a brilliant Confederate general, a KKK leader, and then a civil rights activist. Now That Should Be A Movie.
Hello, I’m C. W. Johnson, Jr., and today’s book I would like to pitch as a movie is Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Redemption by Shane Kastler, from Pelican Press.
While I never placed Forrest in my pantheon of Southern heroes -which includes George Washington, Booker T. Washington, Andrew Jackson, Rosa Parks, Robert E. Lee, and Martin Luther King, Jr., I have always been fascinated with him. With every biography I read about him, I always learn something new about him or see him from some new angle or perspective. There are two to three different versions of just about everything that happened in his life.[i] Like my man-crush, Stonewall Jackson, his life is the classic rag-to-riches, pull-oneself-up-by-their-own-bootstraps American story. Unlike Jackson, there’s not a lot about him worth emulating until later in his life. A polarizing character, there are people who regard him as a saint about whom anything negative is “a Yankee lie”[ii]. I even feel like Kastler’s book polished the Wizard of the Saddle up instead of painting him with warts and all that make his conversion even more incredible. On the opposite end, there are groups of people out there who believe everything he said was a lie or spoken with a forked tongue[iii]. Besides Forrest’s statue being removed from Memphis using funds that could have been put to better use in the education system or fixing the roads, there are even those who wish to have the general and his wife’s grave sites removed from the city. Oh, well, I guess when a movie like The Best of Enemies, which features the remarkable idea of actually getting to know those on the other side receives negative reviews for that very reason, we shouldn’t be surprised.
To truly understand Forrest, one must remember that he was born on what was then the western frontier. He endured hardships as a young man, including the death of his father and sisters. He witnessed and survived violence, including a panther attack upon his mother, a gunfight that killed his uncle, and a riverboat explosion. He experienced deprivations, including limited schooling. Yet despite his impoverished beginnings and lack of education, he rose in economic status and became an alderman in Memphis. Unfortunately, part of his economic success was due to his participation in the slave trade. Again, there are those who claim he showed progressively liberal kindness to the slaves while others claim he was sadistically cruel. The truth lies somewhere in between. Forrest was mostly likely careful with the slaves in his care, but more out of good business sense than progressive humanitarianism. No one would want to buy an injured slave. He left the slave trading business right before the War Between the States started.
His wartime exploits never fail to excite. From his daring escape through a frigid creek from Fort Donaldson in February 1862 to his final stand at Selma, Alabama, in April 1865, his career displayed qualities that make for successful military leadership and fantastic reading. Cleverness, as during his 1861 raid into Kentucky, he asked the family members of his recruits to march behind his column so Union sympathizers on a passing train would report his numbers as greater than they were. A bravery that led from the front, often charging at the head of his men right into Union battle lines. Quick thinking, such as at the Battle of Parker’s Crossroads in December 1862, when surrounded by the enemy, he reportedly shouted, “Charge them both ways.” Brutality, like at Fallen Timbers following The Battle of Shiloh, when, surrounded by Union soldiers and suffering a point-blank shot to his spine, he grabbed one of the blue-clad soldiers and used him as a body shield to escape. Romantic scenes that feel like something out of a medieval tale, like the story of Emma Samson riding on the back of Forrest’s horse as she guided him to a creek ford so he could catch up with and stop General Abel D. Streight’s raid through Alabama in April and May 1863. Creativity, like when he caught up with Streight’s mule column and then had his own cannons and men march back in forth in sight of the Union commander while parlaying with him. “My God, man,” said an astonished Streight. “How many cannons do you have? I’ve counted fifteen already.” “Fifteen,” replied Forrest. “I reckon that is just about all that was able to keep up.” With this news, Streight surrendered. Of course, he was very upset when he learned that he had surrendered to a much smaller force than his own. Audacious tactics, such as the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads, Mississippi in 1864 where Forrest split his force of 3,500 in five in the face of a Union force of 8,500, and won the fight, suffering only a fifth of the casualties he inflicted on the routed enemy. Ingenuity, such as the Battle of Johnsonville, Tennessee in late 1864 where he captured Union steamboats and a gunboat, and then used them as a flotilla to aid in his attack. Then finally, at the end of the war, he accepted that it was over and told his men to be loyal to the national government and “to aid in restoring peace and establishing law and order throughout the land.”
His success as a battlefield commander had to do with his bulldog personality. Like George S. Patton, he could be harsh with subordinates and commanders alike. He once threw an aristocratic lieutenant into a cold river for refusing to help his men row across. On another occasion, he spanked a trooper with his sword for running away from battle. He openly argued with and defied Confederate generals Braxton Bragg, Joe Wheeler, and Earl Van Dorn. It is even said that he threatened Bragg’s life after the catastrophic Chattanooga Campaign. By the end of the war, he had sustained four bullet wounds and had personally killed 30 Union soldiers while having 29 horses shot from beneath him. “I finished the war one horse ahead,” he quipped.
What is even more remarkable about Forrest’s wartime accomplishments is that he had no formal military training. He enlisted as a private with his son and youngest brother at the war’s beginning in Captain Josiah White’s Tennessee Mounted Rifles and ended it as a lieutenant general in command of his own corps. Because of his wealth, which he offered to use in equipping a regiment, and status as an alderman in Memphis, Tennessee Governor Isham G. Harris commissioned him a lieutenant colonel, authorizing him to raise his own battalion. His tactics have been summed up as “get there first with the most” and “war means fighting, and fighting means killing.” Union General William T. Sherman, who called Forrest that Devil, also said of him “… I think Forrest was the most remarkable man our Civil War produced on either side.” Of course, during the war, Sherman had said, “Follow Forrest to the death if it costs 10,000 lives and breaks the Treasury. There will never be peace in Tennessee till Forrest is dead.” At Forrest’s funeral, Jefferson Davis said of him,
The trouble was that the generals commanding in the Southwest never appreciated him until it was too late. Their judgment was that he was a bold and enterprising raider and rider- I was misled by them, and never knew how to measure him until I read the reports of his campaign across the Tennessee River in 1864. This induced a study of his earlier reports, and after that I was prepared to adopt what you are pleased to name as the judgment of history…I saw it all after it was too late.
It is even said that his tactics were studied by none other than The Desert Fox, Erwin Rommel, during World War II.
One incident that blemishes Forrest’s record, and would have to be a major plot point in a biopic, is the Fort Pillow Massacre. While not the systematic ethnic cleansing depicted by Union propagandists, like the 1885 print “The Fort Pillow Massacre” by Chicago publisher Kurz and Allison, the slaughter of the 11th United States Colored Infantry Regiment and Memphis Battery Light Artillery (African Descent) at Fort Pillow remains a black spot on Forrest’s reputation not because of what he did there, but because of what he did not do. In discussing Fort Pillow, one needs to look at the greater picture of the campaign. While riding through western Tennessee, Forrest and his men witnessed the aftermath or heard reports, of atrocities committed by the Union’s occupation force as it dealt with southern insurgents. While the validity of these atrocities is debatable[iv], what is not is that three weeks earlier at Paducah, Kentucky, when Forrest gave his standard “surrender or die” ultimatum, the Union commander, Stephen Hicks, called his bluff. After his attack upon the Union position at Fort Anderson was repulsed, Forrest realized that his ultimatum was being challenged and he had to show that he was a man of his word at the next battle, which would occur at Fort Pillow.
One thing that is often neglected in the discussion of the tragedy at Fort Pillow is the presence of the white Union soldiers in Bradford’s Battalion, 13th Regiment, Tennessee Cavalry (Union). This body was made up of Tennessee men who were captured in battle, deserted the Confederate army, or joined up to collect a payroll. Since deserters and traitors were not shown the same kind of clemency as they are today, the anger that was unleashed by Forrest’s men included both elements of racial hatred, stoked by decades of fear of servile insurrection such as Nat Turner’s Revolt, toward the black soldiers and the incense at being betrayed by fellow Tennesseans. Forrest sent a message to the commander of Fort Pillow, Major William F. Bradford
The conduct of the officers and men garrisoning Fort Pillow has been such as to entitle them to be treated as prisoners of war. I demand the unconditional surrender of the entire garrison, promising that you shall be treated as prisoners of war. My men have just received a fresh supply of ammunition, and from their present position can easily assault and capture the fort. Should my demand be refused, I cannot be responsible for the fate of your command.
Bradford, who could be reinforced by the Union Navy on the Mississippi River, replied that he would not surrender.
There is no proof that Forrest ordered the slaughter that occurred. Some even say that he said the African American soldiers should be treated the same as the white soldiers, even though that was contrary to the official policy of the Confederate government. Instead, after being slightly wounded after his horse was shot out from under him for the second time that day, Forrest paid more attention to the Union gunboat on the Mississippi River than he did to the atrocities that were occurring inside the fort and along the river’s edge. When he did turn his attention to the slaughter, later claiming in life that he rode between the black troops and his men, he ordered a stop to the massacre out of the military necessity of using the black men for manual labor and the political factor of returning escaped slaves back to their masters. Some contemporary accounts say he begged the black soldiers to surrender.
April 12, 1864, would cast a shadow over Forrest for the rest of his life. Northern papers saw the massacre for the great propaganda piece it was. When African American troops, including the Memphis Battery Light Artillery (African Descent), met him in battle at Brice’s Crossroads two months late, they wore ribbons that said “Remember Fort Pillow.” These ribbons later lined their retreating route after their fierce stand at Tishomingo Creek. When Forrest surrendered the next year, one of the first things Union commanders wanted to know about was Fort Pillow. While traveling through the north to New York City for the Democratic National Convention in 1868, a man boarded his train, wanting to fight “That Butcher Forrest.” All Forrest had to do was stand up for the man to have second thoughts. Then while staying in New York, a woman came knocking at his door, asking him if it was “true that he had murdered those dear colored folks at Fort Pillow.” Forrest, just waking up, answered wryly, “Yes, madam. I killed the women and children for my soldier’s dinner and ate the babies myself for breakfast.” Later in life, in his speech to the African-American Pole-Bearers Association, he said, “I have been in the heat of battle when colored men, asked me to protect them. I have placed myself between them and the bullets of my men, and told them they should be kept unharmed.” No doubt he was referring to his actions at Fort Pillow which were a little too late.
Another stain on his story is his association with the Klu Klux Klan. One myth is that Forrest founded the KKK, which is false. On the other end of the spectrum, there are those who claim he was never part of the Klan. The truth is that Forrest was not its founder but was its first Grand Wizard and he did lead it in opposition to the Reconstruction governor of Tennessee William Gannaway “Parson” Brownlow. The truth is also that he disbanded the Klan in the Volunteer State in 1869 with General Order Number One: “It is therefore ordered and decreed, that the masks and costumes of this Order be entirely abolished and destroyed.” While disbanding the Klan might have had more to do with political expediency than repudiation of white supremacy, it is clear that Forrest’s views on race changed, through the influence of religion, later in life.
Again, there are the naysayers who point to the fact that Forrest never visited the same black barbershop twice lest an assassination attempt be made against him. However, in 1874, after a group of white supremacists attacked an African-American barbeque, Forrest offered the Tennessee government his services in gathering men and exterminating the racists. Others claim he cannot be redeemed since he used the labor of black prisoners on his post-war agricultural ventures. Yet, in his speech to the African-American Pole-Bearers Association, for which he faced criticism from some former Confederate officers who were still racists, and where he accepted flowers and even kissed one black lady on the cheek, said “I want to elevate you to take positions in law offices, in stores, on farms, and wherever you are capable of going,” as well as “we have but one flag, one country; let us stand together. We may differ in color, but not in sentiment.” You can read the full speech here. Other outward showings of faith he exhibited included the absence of profanity in his speech and the breaking of his gambling habit. One man described him in his final days as more of an old woman than the fierce fighter he had known during the war. Sadly, he died just two years later, denying us the full potential of his conversion
An addendum Regarding Forrest’s Use of Prison Labor
Besides the existence of European American chain gangs, one more thing the die-hard critics of Forrest should consider regarding his use of prison labor is a comparison with another former participant in the slave trade, John Newton.
After his conversion, Newton would sail three more voyages bearing slaves across the Atlantic before a stroke forced him to stop. Even after that, he continued to invest in slave trading operations. It would be a couple of decades before he became openly involved in the abolitionist movement. Without getting too spiritual here, the slow transformation of Newton is an example of the doctrine of sanctification in which the Holy Spirit works in each believer’s life at a different pace than it does in another believer’s life. Perhaps if Forrest had lived for a few more years he would have come to believe that using prison labor was wrong. The tragedy of Forrest’s life is that he died the same year that Reconstruction had ended, 1877. If he had lived a few more years we could have seen the sincerity of his conversion as he challenged the growing power of the Jim Crow. However, the providential timing of his death leaves us dangling in ambiguity instead of with a nice and tidy ending.
“The reality is that over the length of his lifetime,” writes biographer Jack Hurst. “Nathan Bedford Forrest’s racial attitudes probably developed more, and more in the direction of liberal enlightenment than most other Americans in the nation’s history.”
I believe that a biographical picture of Forrest has enough ambiguity and nuance to create peace and understanding today. If Forrest can be redeemed, so can our fractured society. While some may argue that Hollywood should not attempt cradle-to-grave movies, I think that it would work for the character of Forrest since his life is emblematic of America’s transformation in the middle of the 19th century. During Forrest’s life, he saw the wild frontier of the Mississippi Valley transformed into the agrarian Antebellum South, devastated by the Civil War and then rebirthed into an industrialized society. He could be a Forrest Gump-like character, who, incidentally, was the inspiration for Tom Hank’s character’s name in that 1990s classic, through whose experience the audience witnesses the history of the American frontier, the age of the steamboats, the coming of the railroad, the slave trade, the War Between the States in the western theater, reconstruction and the beginning of the Gilded Age.
To accomplish this the filmmakers would have to focus on Forrest the Man, instead of Forrest the General, growing along with these changes. For example, there are incidents from Forrest’s youth on the wild frontier dealing with wild animals and gunfights that taught him to always take the initiative. For example, once while out riding, wild dogs attacked his horse. When the startled horse threw him, he landed in the middle of the pack with such force that they scattered. Many of his biographers believe these incidents were the inspiration for his first with the most warfare policy.
The segment about his war experience would not be about the war but the relationships he developed during that time. His relationship with his son, William, who served on his staff. Forrest requests Leonidas “The Fighting Bishop” Pope for well-mannered, clean-cut, devoted Christian boys to be on his staff to have a good influence on his son. William would be a ministerial assistant to Chaplin David C. Kelly. Kelly would be one of several ministers Forrest would encounter during the war. Forrest’s brothers, William, also known as Bill, Jeffery, and Jessie, served alongside him in battle or helped spy and collect materials for him in Memphis. At the Battle of Okolona, Jeffery’s death would cause Forrest to go into full Rambo mode, charging headlong into the Union line and turning the tide of the battle. Another brother, Aaron, died of pneumonia during the war. His relationship with artillery commander John W. Morton would develop from suspicion during the war to the point after the war that Morton influenced him into joining the Klan.
Then there are the 47 African-American men and the black female who served and rode with them during the war. Only two deserted and Forrest freed the remainder before he surrendered, just like he promised them at the beginning of the conflict. He said of them, “No finer Confederates ever fought.” All these relationships, on top of showing Forrest’s humanity, would guide him to his post-war decisions, both the Klan and his conversion.
To do this, the film would have to be a love story.
Hernando, Mississippi – August 1845 by John Paul Strain
While Forrest’s wartime exploits are enough to make an action-packed miniseries, and I’m still disappointed that 1950s Hollywood directors like John Ford didn’t turn his story into a four-hour epic spectacle, the central theme for a modern biopic would be his relationship with his wife Mary Ann Montgomery Forrest. Taking a page from the screenplays for American Sniper and Walk the Line, the inciting incident would be Nathan and Mary Ann meeting in what amounts to a classic Western trope. Forrest was outriding when he found Ann and her mother in their buggy stuck in a river. Nearby two young men were laughing at the situation. Forrest waded out into the river and carried Mary Ann and her mother to dry land. Then he lambasted the two young men who had been laughing. After this, he asked for and received permission to call on Mary Ann. When he first got there, the two young men from the river were in the parlor. After an awkward pause, he sent them packing. When Forrest proposed marriage to Mary Ann, her uncle objected. Forrest cursed and gambled, and she was a good Christian Girl. Forrest replied, “That’s why I want to marry her.” After they were married, he became a slave trader to support her but ended his participation in the practice at her urging. During the war, they often met. She was there in Columbus, Tennessee when Forrest and one of his officers, Lieutenant Andrew Gould, whom he had charged with cowardice during their pursuit of Strieght, were in a gunfight. Forrest was injured and the lieutenant fatally wounded. It is said that Forrest only calmed down and stopped swearing long enough for the doctors to operate on him when he saw his wife. After an 18-month separation, Mary Ann began staying with Forrest when the cavalry was encamped. She cared for the wounded soldiers and was affectionately called “Old Miss” by them. In 1864, his separation from her was used by Forrest in a letter to reiterate to the Confederate high command just how much he was sacrificing for the cause. In 1865, he wrote their son, William, to choose Mary Ann’s Christian ways over his cursing and gambling ways. Her faith had an influence on That Devil Forrest after the war, resulting in his conversation and change in racial views. And, In his final moments his last words, unlike those of other Civil War generals, were not related to warfare, but instead, “Call my wife.”
The plot could go like this. Act 1: The beginning would show Forrest as a man of the frontier. The Inciting Incident is Forrest meeting Mary Ann. Second Thoughts would be Forrest as a slave trader. Act 2 would be the war. In this act, Forrest would meet Morton. The Midpoint of the act would be The Fort Pillow Massacre. This would be followed by the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads. The Disaster and Crisis at the End of Act 2 would be Forrest being beaten and surrendering to Union forces. Act 3 begins with Forrest becoming the Grand Wizard of the Klan. The Climax would be his conversion. The Declining Action would include his speech to the Pole-Bearers Association. The Ending would be his death, with a slow zoom-in on his face as the actor whispers, “Call my wife.”
I could see Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, John Lee Hancock, or The Coen Brothers as the best directors able to tell Forrest’s story, as well as having the guts. So, Clint, Mel, John, Joel, and Ethan, if you’re interested, you know how to contact me.
Another Addendum: A Rebel Born
Since I started making this video, a movie about Forrest has come out on DVD. However, it is based on a hero-worshiping book, which casts doubt on whether it is told with the nuance and ambiguity with which Forrest’s story should be told. Plus, it is also low budget and the quality of filmmaking does not appear to have the refinement with which his story deserves to be told.
Because it is a nuance and ambiguous story that could create peace and understanding by showing that even the vilest among us can be redeemed is why I believe Bedford Forrest’s Redemption by Shane Kastler should be a movie.
[i] Here’s a list of other Forrest biographies I have consulted
Bradley, Michael. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Escort And Staff. Pelican, 2006
Browning, Robert M. Forrest: The Confederacy’s Relentless Warrior. Potomac Books Inc., 2004.
Davison, Eddy W., and Daniel Fox. Nathan Bedford Forrest: In Search of the Enigma. Pelican, 2007.
Henry, Robert Selph. First with the Most: Nathan Bedford Forrest. Alpine Fine Arts Collection, 1993.
Hurst, Jake. Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography. Vintage, 1994
Ward, Andrew. River Run Red: The Fort Pillow Massacre in the American Civil War. Viking Adult, 2005
Wills, Brian Steel. A Battle from the Start: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest. Harpercollins, 2002.
Wyeth, John A. That Devil Forrest: Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017.
[ii] See the works of Lochlainn Seabrook for examples.
[iii] See the blog of Kevin M. Levin for example.
[iv] See River Run Red: The Fort Pillow Massacre in the American Civil War by Andrew Ward. He believes since Forrest’s men did not mention the atrocities until later in life that they may have been made them up to save face.
