Forrest’s Operations in Mississippi and Tennessee 16 March 16–4 November 1864

Nathan Bedford Forrest was a wealthy slave trader before the Civil War and became the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan in 1867 (the title derived from his wartime sobriquet “the Wizard of the Saddle”, bestowed because of his mastery of cavalry warfare). Despite lacking any previous military training, he enlisted as a private in 1861 and his wartime exploits earned his promotion to general in barely a year. He proved an innovative tactician, deploying cavalry as mounted infantry, in massed guerrilla raids, outmanoeuvring his less mobile Union adversaries. In set battles, he was equally iconoclastic, deploying artillery to the fore of his forces, striking his enemy from all sides in combat to overwhelm their defences. Forrest’s protracted campaign through Mississippi and Tennessee during 1864 both showcased his virtuosity as a cavalry commander and demonstrated the brutality for which he would become infamous.  He destroyed Union gunboats and supply ships at Johnsonville, raided into the centre of Union-held  Memphis and won a pitched battle at Brice’s Crossroads, but his reputation would be sullied by the massacre of surrendering Union troops (many of whom were black) at Fort Pillow.