Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American military man Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Last updated on November 21, 2024.
Nathan Bedford Forrest was a prominent Confederate Army general during the American Civil War and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan from 1867 to 1869. Before the war, Forrest amassed substantial wealth as a cotton plantation owner, horse and cattle trader, real estate broker, and slave trader. In June 1861, he enlisted in the Confederate Army and became one of the few soldiers during the war to enlist as a private and be promoted to general without any prior military training. An expert cavalry leader, Forrest was given command of a corps and established new doctrines for mobile forces, earning the nickname "The Wizard of the Saddle". He used his cavalry troops as mounted infantry and often deployed artillery as the lead in battle, thus helping to "revolutionize cavalry tactics", although the Confederate high command is seen by some commentators to have underappreciated his talents. While scholars generally acknowledge Forrest's skills and acumen as a cavalry leader and military strategist, he has remained a controversial figure in Southern racial history for his main role in the massacre of several hundred Union soldiers at Fort Pillow, a majority of them black, coupled with his role following the war as a leader of the Klan.
I've got no respect for any young man who won't join the colors.
I am not an enemy of the Negro. We want him here among us; he is the only laboring class we have.
Get there first with the most.
War means fighting, and fighting means killing.
We have but one flag, one country; let us stand together. We may differ in color, but not in sentiment. Many things have been said about me which are wrong, and which white and black persons here, who stood by me through the war, can contradict.
I ended the war a horse ahead.
Never stand and take a charge... charge them too.
Men, do as I say and I will always lead you to victory.
I loved the old government in 1861. I loved the old Constitution yet. I think it is the best government in the world, if administered as it was before the war. I do not hate it; I am opposing now only the radical revolutionists who are trying to destroy it. I believe that party to be composed, as I know it is in Tennessee, of the worst men on Gods earth - men who would not hesitate at no crime, and who have only one object in view - to enrich themselves.
Forward, men, and mix with them.
We are born on the same soil, breathe the same air, live on the same land, and why should we not be brothers and sisters?
I am not here to pass civilities or compliments with you, but on other business. I have stood your meanness as long as I intend to. You have played the part of a damned scoundrel, and are a coward, and if you were any part of a man I would slap your jaws and force you to resent it. You may as well not issue any more orders to me, for I will not obey them... and as I say to you that if you ever again try to interfere with me or cross my path it will be at the peril of your life.
I done told you twice already goddammit no!
Abolish the Loyal League and the Ku Klux Klan; let us come together and stand together.
What I desire most of you, my son, is never to gamble or swear. These are baneful vices.
I have never on the field of battle sent you where I was unwilling to go myself, nor would I now advise you to a course which I felt myself unwilling to pursue. You have been good soldiers. You can be good citizens. Obey the laws, preserve your honor, and the government to which you have surrendered can afford to be and will be magnanimous.
I will be in my coffin before I will fight again under your command.
I have stood your meanness as long as I intend to. You have played the part of a damn scoundrel, and if you were any part of a man I would slap your jaws and force you to resent it.
Get there first with the most men.
If one road led to hell and the other to Mexico, I would be indifferent which to take.
Nobody kills me and lives to tell about it.
If you surrender you shall be treated as prisoners of war, but if I haveto storm your works you may expect no quarter.
I did not come here for the purpose of surrendering my command.
We have but one flag, one country; let us stand together. We may differ in color, but not in sentiment.
I went into the army worth a million and a half dollars, and came out a beggar.