Failure in the Saddle Review

A new book that I would consider to be MUST reading for any Army of Tennessee aficionado is Dave Powell's newest, Failure in the Saddle: Nathan Bedford Forrest, Joseph Wheeler, and the Confederate Cavalry in the Chickamauga Campaign. I have chided Dave for several years that with this book he would never be able to come south again, due to daring to offer a critique of N.B. Forrest in this campaign, but after reading the complete book I have to say that any open minded student of Forrest and the western cavalry will learn a lot from this book and even if you don't agree with the analysis offered by Dave, I still think it gives you a lot to think about. With that though I do agree with the author on these subjects.
Forrest does not perform that well in this campaign, not all of this is his fault however, having to deal with several less than stellar subordinates, General John Pegram and Col. John S. Scott, as well as having to command a Corps for the first time. One thing that is often lost on Forrest is his rapid rise to commanding a corps, going from commanding a brigade in April to corps by September, with several intervals due to other factors. Forrest has a learning curve and its one that he benefits from, the Forrest of 1864 had to be made and the Chickamauga campaign was part of that. Dave is fair with Forrest and so although he fails at things, he does ultimately learn from his mistakes.
Forrest, however, is only part of this story. The other half belongs to "Fighting Joe" Wheeler, who really comes out of this looking bad. Wheeler never learned, and was a problem for the mounted arm of the Army of Tennessee. Wheeler should be held up with Leonidas Polk as one of the most incompetent high level leaders in the Confederate service.
I have often said that if the cavalry is the eyes and ears of an army, then the Army of Tennessee was blind and deaf during this campaign and Dave's book definitely cements that view. I high recommend it to anyone interested in the Chickamauga Campaign or the Army of Tennessee in general.

Forrest....Again

Bedford Forrest still makes it into a lot of newspapers. Here is a story from last week about the Wizard.

Memphis' Forrest Park on National Register of Historic Places

Designation puts efforts to change name on hold
By Linda Moore, Memphis Commercial Appeal Thursday, March 19, 2009

Forrest Park has quietly been added to the National Register of Historic Places, and efforts to rename the park or disinter the bodies buried there have, for now, been laid to rest.
The park at Union and Manassas where Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife are buried received the honorary designation this month from the National Park Service.
The park has long been a point of racial controversy in Memphis, with local officials and other groups periodically rallying to rename the park and remove the statue of Forrest, a revered cavalry leader in the Civil War who also was a slave trader and a leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

The nomination was submitted by the Forrest Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

"It's just a great honor to have the park and the statue recognized as a historic place," said Lee Millar, the camp's public affairs officer. "We're very happy for fellow historians and the city and county to have another site listed on the national register."

Although not involved in seeking the designation, the Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy also was excited by the news. "I'm very happy, basically because it's just a part of Memphis' history that needs to be preserved for future generations," said president Audrey Rainey.

Attorney and former Shelby County commissioner Walter Bailey tried to quash the nomination but says continued protests will be put on hold.

"I think we're at a point where until such time as we see some concern by our city leaders, we have to continue to pause," Bailey said.

And he doesn't blame the Forrest supporters for their success.

"It seems to me the responsibility and the blame rest with our city leaders for being so passive about it," Bailey said.

Last fall, the nomination went before the Tennessee Historical Commission. Initially approved, the vote was rescinded after about a dozen Memphians, including Bailey and state Rep. G.A. Hardaway, protested, arguing that the park had been created to pay homage to a slave trader. The Sons of Confederate Veterans withdrew the nomination, regrouped and successfully appealed the state commission's decision to the park service, which administers the register.
Despite the successful bid, the designation is an honor, not a shield.

Because Forrest Park is owned by the city of Memphis, the city has the authority to rename it or have the graves moved unless the project involves federal dollars, said Bill Reynolds, spokesman with the National Park Service in Atlanta.

"If the city makes changes to the site in some way, shape or form that would or could cause a potential review of the status of the site, it could cause it to lose its designation if the historical integrity of the site is compromised in any way," he said.

The 8-acre park was established in the early 1900s and was designed by famed park and landscape designer George Kessler. The sculpture of Forrest was done by Charles H. Niehaus, whose work can be seen at the Library of Congress.

St. Patrick Cleburne Day

Sorry for the little play on words there. Today is Patrick R. Cleburne's 181st birthday and since it is so often listed as being tomorrow, St. Patrick's Day, I thought I would reflect a little about Memory and Patrick Cleburne. It is curious to see how his popularity has increased over the last couple of decades, without a movie or major novel to propel him into popularity. This October there will be a statue of him errected in Ringgold, GA, site of his defense of Ringgold Gap. Cleburne now rivals N.B. Forrest for popularity among Western Theater Civil War buffs and may eclipse Forrest eventually. So why? I think it has a lot to do with him being clean of the taint of slavery and white supremacy that Forrest is linked to, Cleburne never owned slaves and is even on the record saying that he "cared nothing for them", and now Cleburne's proposal to arm slaves is being blown to bigger proportions, even though it directly contradicts the notion of Black Confederates. Now, I admit I am a great admirer of Cleburne, I bought Cleburne and his Command and Pat Cleburne" Confederate General when I was a teenager and literally wore both copies out, but that actually predates the modern surge of popularity, so back to the original premise of this post, is it now that Cleburne is more appealing due to being clean? or is it a great general finally getting his due? I think a study of Cleburne and Memory may be a new project for me.

Forrest High Follow Up

Here is a follow up to my previous post about the controversy over Forrest High School in Jacksonville, FL. As a side note, the local middle school is named afer JEB Stuart.

Forrest High will keep its name after two years of controversy, school board votes 5-2 to leave the name.

By TOPHER SANDERS

The Times-Union Nathan Bedford Forrest High School's name will remain unchanged. The Duval County School Board voted 5-2 Monday to leave the name of Forrest High School, which honors the Confederate general, slave trader and early leader of the Ku Klux Klan. The decision ends two years of controversy over a possible name change. The vote to change the name of the majority black school split down racial lines, with board members Betty Burney and Brenda Priestly Jackson, the board's only black members, casting the two votes to change the name.Priestly Jackson and Burney said the school was named after Forrest in 1958 as a slap in the face to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown vs. Board of Education to integrate schools. "It was done to slap in the face integration and now the school itself is almost all African-American," Burney said. Board members voting to keep the name said energy surrounding the issue and the resources it would take the change the name are better suited to helping the school improve its academics. Forrest received an F on the most recent Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.Board member Kris Barnes, who wrote the agenda item recommending the rejection of the name change, said she had a problem that the issue was raised by the community instead of the students going to the school. Barnes said she wouldn't be able to understand the pain the name may cause blacks, but said she was frustrated so much time was being spent on a name of a school. "I would like the see it go through a process started by the student body," Barnes said. Board member Vicki Drake said she was displeased by the number of people who showed up at Forrest's School Advisory Council meetings to voice their concerns about the name change, but wouldn't come to the meetings to help the children at the school succeed. "The children didn't ask anybody to change the name of their school, the children asked for help to read and write," Drake said.Board member Tommy Hazouri agreed with Drake and Barnes. "For me in my heart, I think the great concern today is moving that school off the F chart," he said. "I believe that we should leave the name where it is. "The board voted after listening to more than two hours of public comment. About 100 people concerned about the name change attending the board meeting. The public's statements featured dueling histories and opinions of Forrest and his life. Opponents said removing Forrest's name was a step toward erasing Southern heritage and called Forrest a civil rights advocate and a good man

Forrest Still Making The Headlines

Although covered recently by Kevin over at Civil War Memory, here is another story about the Forrest High courtesy of the AP.

Confederate general’s name may come off Florida school

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Nathan Bedford Forrest was a millionaire slave trader, a ruthless Confederate general, an early Ku Klux Klan leader — and the namesake of what is now a majority African-American high school.
After almost a two-year delay, the Duval County School Board next week will consider whether to change the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest High School to Firestone High, after the street it sits on. The board joins other Southern districts that have hotly debated whether to strip Confederate leaders’ names from schools and other buildings.

The squabble is part of the modern South’s never-ending soul searching over the Civil War and its legacy, a discussion that often finds Forrest at the center.
“This guy was a brutal monster,” said Steven Stoll, an adjunct sociology instructor at Florida Community College who is white and supports changing the name of the high school. “Why would you want to keep honoring a person like this? It is an insult to black people.”
Forrest is hardly the lone Confederate hero whose name adorns streets, buildings and other public projects, or used to.
But efforts to strip Confederates’ names and take down memorials to them have mostly been thwarted throughout the South, often after being denounced as part of an effort to remove all references to the Confederacy. In Hampton, Va., for example, attempts to rename Robert E. Lee Elementary School and Jefferson Davis Middle School failed.
Some say Forrest’s deeds have been exaggerated and have to be considered in the context of the Civil War.
“Forrest was revered all over the world and his tactics are still studied today,” said Lee Millar, president of the General N.B. Forrest Historical Society in Memphis, Tenn. “He became a hero to all.”

Born poor in Chapel Hill, Tenn., in 1821, Forrest amassed a fortune as a plantation owner and slave trader, importing Africans long after the practice had been made illegal. At 40, he enlisted as a private in the Confederate army at the outset of the Civil War, rising to a cavalry general in a year.
Some accounts accuse Forrest of ordering black prisoners to be massacred after a victory at Tennessee’s Fort Pillow in 1864, though historians question the validity of the claims.
“He did not order a massacre. He did order wholesale killing, but I do believe he lost control of the battle and there were people killed who should not have been killed,” said Brian Steel Wills, a professor at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise, who wrote a biography of Forrest.
In 1867, the newly formed Klan elected Forrest its honorary Grand Wizard or national leader, but publicly denied being involved. In 1869, he ordered the Klan to disband because of the members’ increasing violence. Two years later, a congressional investigation concluded his involvement had been limited to his attempt to disband it.
After his death in 1877, memorials to him sprung up throughout the South, particularly in Tennessee.
Forrest High School in Jacksonville opened as an all-white school in the 1950s, getting its name at the suggestion of the Daughters of the Confederacy. They saw it as a protest of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that eventually integrated the nation’s public schools.
Now, blacks make up more than half of the student body.
Two 17-year-old seniors at the school say the consensus among students is to leave the name alone.
“As students, (the name is) not a big deal to us,” said Jamal Freeman, a black student who noted it would cost a lot to change uniforms for the band and sports teams, nicknamed the Rebels.
Sabrina Lampp, a white student, said a change “takes all the memories away.”
Jacksonville has three other schools named after Confederate generals, none as sensitive as Forrest.
“He got a bad rap,” said L.A. Hardee, a member of the board at Jacksonville’s Museum of Southern History. “He was an honorable man. People don’t take into consideration the times. It’s a Southern thing. They ought to keep the name.”

Agios Bedford?

I was going to leave a comment on Lee's post on the Forrest cult at Chickamauga, but it was growing too lengthy for that venue. Besides, I know there are a number of blog-scanners (myself, admittedly, included) who rarely look into the comments section, so here we go.

Lee, you know good and well the "whys" to Bedford's cult following. He (and I say "he" with regard to the Lost Cause school/ neo-Confederate/ etc. constructed Forrest character) is a man with whom many Civil War buffs can identify. He has a "history" (again an intentionally loose term) that they "get." The poor man made good, the hard-charging fighter, the untrained yet successful commander, the sly fox who countered Federal manpower and material advantages.

Each of these qualities was, to some debatable extent, present in the historical Forrest. But there is a greater complexity to all of those elements that is often brushed under the rug, intentionally and not. The "Forrest" icon of popular Civil War memory is as 2-dimensional as anything you'll find in an Orthodox Church. But indeed, just as those icons are not the saints themselves, but only representations left to remind the faithful of their good deeds, the "Forrest" of Civil War myth is not the real article either. The very elements of the 2-dimensional "Forrest" legend that so many revere, expose the fascinating complexity of the 3-d historical figure.

For example, that poor man made himself good through the detestable occupation of slave trading. And "detestable" is not simply a retrospective modern judgment, either. Southern "society," the Chivalry to borrow one term, shunned such new, profit-motivated men as well, a fact that deserves its own lengthy analysis of the relationship between the consciously money-driven New South of the 1880s and 1890s and the Lost Cause mythology that it produced. It brings up a number of new questions about the historical Forrest versus the "Forrest" of legend. When did Forrest become an icon? Was it during the initial wave of memory-making, led by the veterans themselves? Was it later, and if so, why? My hunch says that among the veterans (perhaps excepting those in Tennessee), Forrest was not the important player in Confederate memory that he is today. I would bet that Forrest becomes big in the 20th c., and his rise in popularity is likely linkable to some social and/or economic crisis in the South or the nation. If anyone has some thoughts on that (or better yet some scholarship), I would love to see it.

The military points have their counterpoints as well: the visitor's comment about Forrest's Federal opposition, the fact that he often raided against isolated garrisons, or that his lauded combativeness and aggression produced, as Lee noted, a terrible battlefield performance at Chickamauga. As a (future) academic, I find the claim that the untrained civilian gave the what's for to West Point's best particularly revealing. I can't help but wonder if this is some sub-conscious (or indeed conscious) jab at the "liberal" (whatever that means, and we shan't debate it here), "northern-influenced," straw-man-academic that the modern consumer of Lost Cause mythology loves to rail against for "vilifying" Johnny Reb. Forrest proves that the amateur can occasionally put the bottom rail on top, and thus gives hope to those who cannot (or indeed chose not to) see their heroes examined under the properly configured historical lens. Forrest -- or rather "Forrest" -- is fundamental to the anti-academic, pro-Confederate interpretation of Civil War history.

This explains, I would guess, some of his cult following at what we NPS interpreters (and I myself am more than guilty of this) refer to as the "common soldiers' fight" of Chickamauga, regardless whether the historical Bedford performed well there or not. The icon need not fit the historical reality when the 2-d symbolism is in sync.

Can't see the Forrest for the trees...

I have heard that every NPS historic site has one, the one subject that has a cult following, and one that you can't do a tour or program without hearing the name. At Fredericksburg its the Irish Brigade, at Gettysburg its Joshua Chamberlain, and here at Chickamauga its Nathan Bedford Forrest. I've never been a Forrest fan, even in the days of my neo confederate youth, I never could develop a like for him, It was Robert E. Lee as a child, and then Patrick Cleburne during my teenage years, now Ive evolved or devolved as the case may be to a fascination with Braxton Bragg. Now with Bragg its not a real like, but more of a curiosity. Anyway, back to Bedford. Forrest is an icon here, and why is beyond me, Forrest probably had his worst performance here of the war. He failed Bragg in his role as the eyes and ears of the army, worst of all he provided Bragg with erronious information right after the battle that made Bragg think the Army of the Cumberland was abandoning Chattanooga. Combat wise, he did very little other than stir up the fight on the morning of September 19th, after that he is on the sidelines. Oh well. I did have an interesting conversation the other day with one visitor who offered this, Can you name any good Federal commander that Forrest ever beat in one of his stand alone fights?