re: Historical Moments of Badassery

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Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest by his actions on April 8, 1862 was attributed with one of the greatest feats in Civil War history.
After two days of fighting at the battle of Shiloh with it’s all too foretelling deathtoll that shocked both the North and South; the Confederate Army was in retreat. Maj. General U.S. Grant ordered Brig. General William Tecumseh Sherman to ascertain if the Confederates were in fact in retreat back to Corinth or if they were falling back to reform their lines. For the retreating Confederates Brig. General John C. Breckinridge had ordered Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest to screen the army’s movements and to protect a large field hospital.

Sherman himself later described what happened next, “Forrest’s cavalry came down, with a yell, firing away with their pistols, over the skirmish line, over the supports right in among us.” All of this being witnessed directly by Sherman because he was with his staff at the skirmish line. He also added, “My Aide-de-Camp, McCoy, was knocked down, horse and rider, into the mud, but I, and the rest of my staff ingloriously fled, pell mell, through the mud, closely followed by Forrest with pistols already emptied.”

Forrest, at this point was stuck out alone and in front of the advancing Federals. Forrest took fire from almost every direction and was struck with a ball from an Austrian rifle just above the point of the hip and lodging next to his spine according to Jordan & Pryor, Forrest’s first biographers and the only written while he was alive and Forrest himself approved the manuscript. Next, Forrest is supposed to have picked up a Union private and slung him across the back of his horse to screen his back while he shot his way off the field.

According to Sherman as cited in his 1881 paper on the Battle of Shiloh, “I have seen Forrest since the war; have talked to him about this very matter, and he explained that he was left behind by Breckinridge to protect this hospital camp, and if possible to check the pursuit by our forces which was naturally expected after the close of the battle of Shiloh. I’m sure that had he not emptied his pistols as he passed the skirmish line, my career would have ended right there.”

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