Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and Fort Pillow:
Revised 22 December 2017
December 21, 2017 – Lt. Gen. Nathan B. Forrest’s statue was removed by the city of Memphis, Tennessee to an undisclosed location. They city bi-passed the state law on removing historical monuments from public land – so they sold it.
What will they do with his General and Mrs. Forrest buried beneath it?
February 2017:
It was with some trepidation, that I set off for Memphis to shoot Nathan Bedford Forrest. The former Nathan Bedford Forrest Park has been renamed the Health Sciences Park on Union Street. Arriving at 7 AM, I had the place to myself. Metered parking was available on South Dunlap street (no weekend fee). To my relief, there had been no desecration of the monument.
Recent efforts my the Memphis City Council to remove the statue to another city was rejected by the Tennessee Historical Commission… read more
I proceeded north towards Henning, Tennessee to shoot Fort Pillow State Historic Park. It was about and hour and a half drive. Bass boats periodically droned up and down Cold Creek below the fort. It’s not easy to find and not very well marked. I am going to submit an update to Google Maps.
Parking at the trail and head on Crutcher Lake Road, it was about a mile hike to the restored earthworks. In the hour and a half I spent there, on a clear warm Saturday morning, I encountered no visitors.
Suggested reading on the larger historical perspective of this controversial figure of American history:
“Having once been a racist, Nathan Bedford Forrest became an outspoken advocate of black civil rights in Memphis, culminating in his beautiful yet largely forgotten speech before the black civil rights Pole-Bearers Association in 1875. Encouraging the black people in attendance to take an active part in their country’s government, he told them he was with them ‘heart and hand’ to help their cause in any way he could.” – Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Redemption
Check this 3D like 360º virtual tour of Fort Pillow and Nathan Bedford Forrest park. Historical markers are embedded in the tour.
Forrest Park: Madison Ave & S Dunlap Street, Memphis, TN 38103
Fort Pillow: 3122 Park Road Henning, TN 38041
Recommended Reading:
#fortpillow #nathanbedforforrest
From what I have read, Forrest gave the garrison at Fort Pillow a chance to surrender and they refused.
For years historians have boasted the fact the General Forrest and his men went to Fort Pillow just to kill the Black Troops Garrisoned inside. The real fact is the fort held a group of people the Forrest and his command hated more than anything. The Homespun’s. (Tennesseans who joined the Union Army) Homespun Yanks. Tennessee fell so fast in Central and Eastern parts of the state early in the war for this reason. Tennessee may have seceeded from the Union but the eastern part of the state was a very large majority of Homespun Yanks. The Western half was pro Southern and life in Fort Pillow and its command was not a comfortable one. Forrest gave the Command at Fort Pillow a Day or Two under a Black Flag to leave under the fact they would be eliminated. Right or Wrong the Command of Fort Pillow knew what was coming. I salute them for their bravery.
Those at Ft. Pillow were pillaging the countryside and smuggling out cotton for profit-Gen. Forrest and his other generals asked for surrender repeatedly-those in the fort were cut down until they surrendered-sixty-six percent of them-hardly a massacre-Gen. Forrest was cleared of war crimes by Gen. U.S. Grant and Gen. Wm. T. Sherman as well…after an investigation.