Person

Nathan Bedford Forrest (Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, planter and soldier.)

b. 1821-07-13 d. 1877-10-29

Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, planter and soldier. Marshall County, Tennessee, native. Son of William Forrest and Mary Beck Forrest. Married to Mary Ann Montgomery Forrest in DeSoto County, Mississippi, on September 25, 1845. Father of William Montgomery Forrest and Frances A. Forrest. Livestock and slave trader in DeSoto County, Mississippi, in 1850. Owned three enslaved persons in DeSoto County in 1850. Planter in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, in 1860. Owned seven enslaved persons in Memphis, Shelby County, in 1860. Served in White's Tennessee Mounted Rifles (C.S.A) as a private in June 1861. Served in Forrest's Cavalry Battalion (C.S.A.) as lieutenant colonel and colonel from June 1861 to July 21, 1862. Promoted to brigadier general on July 21, 1862. Promoted to major general on December 13, 1863. Promoted to lieutenant general on February 28, 1865. Commanded a Cavalry Corps in the Confederate Army. Surrendered on May 9, 1865.

Details

Sex
Male
Race
White

Bibliography

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Population Schedules, Mississippi, DeSoto County, Northern Division, p. 368A.

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Slave Schedules, Mississippi, DeSoto County, Northern Division.

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Population Schedules, Tennessee, Shelby County, Memphis Ward 3, p. 91.

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Tennessee, Shelby County, Memphis Ward 3, p. 149A..

Ninth Manuscript Census of the United States (1870), Population Schedules, Tennessee, Shelby County, Memphis Ward 5, p. 155A.

Brian Steel Wills, The Confederacy's Greatest Cavalryman: Nathan Bedford Forrest(Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1992), 7-8, 26-27, 300, 378.

John Allan Wyeth, That Devil Forrest: Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959), 69, 84, 256

Citation

Forrest, Nathan Bedford. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/S32209062 (November 12, 2026).

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