Nathan Bedford Forrest was a 19th-century American slave trader active in the lower Mississippi River valley, a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War, and the first Grand Wizard of the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan, serving from 1867 to 1869.
The Battle of Brice's Cross Roads, also known as the Battle of Tishomingo Creek or the Battle of Guntown, was fought on Friday, June 10, 1864, near Baldwyn, Mississippi, then part of the Confederate States of America. A Federal expedition from Memphis, Tennessee, of 4,800 infantry and 3,300 cavalry, under the command of Brigadier-General Samuel D. Sturgis, was defeated by a Confederate force of 3,500 cavalry under the command of Major-General Nathan B. Forrest. The battle was a victory for the Confederates. Forrest inflicted heavy casualties on the Federal force and captured more than 1,600 prisoners of war, 18 artillery pieces, and wagons loaded with supplies. Once Sturgis reached Memphis, he asked to be relieved of his command.
Isham Green Harris was an American and Confederate politician who served as the 16th governor of Tennessee from 1857 to 1862, and as a U.S. senator from 1877 until his death. He was the state's first governor from West Tennessee. A pivotal figure in the state's history, Harris was considered by his contemporaries the person most responsible for leading Tennessee out of the Union and aligning it with the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Fort Pillow State Historic Park is a state park in western Tennessee that preserves the American Civil War site of the Battle of Fort Pillow. The 1,642 acre (6.6 km²) Fort Pillow, located in Lauderdale County on the Chickasaw Bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River, is rich in both historic and archaeological significance. In 1861, the Confederate army built extensive fortifications and named the site for General Gideon Johnson Pillow of Maury County. It was attacked and held by the Union Army for most of the American Civil War period except immediately after the Battle of Fort Pillow, when it was retaken by the Confederate Army. The battle ended with a massacre of African-American Union troops and their white officers attempting to surrender, by soldiers under the command of Confederate Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Shelby Dade Foote Jr. was an American writer, historian and journalist. Although he primarily viewed himself as a novelist, he is now best known for his authorship of The Civil War: A Narrative, a three-volume history of the American Civil War.
The Battle of Fort Pillow, also known as the Fort Pillow Massacre, was fought on April 12, 1864, at Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River in Henning, Tennessee, during the American Civil War. The battle ended with Confederate soldiers commanded by Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest massacring Union soldiers attempting to surrender. Military historian David J. Eicher concluded: "Fort Pillow marked one of the bleakest, saddest events of American military history."
Thomas Battle Turley was a Tennessee attorney who served as a Democratic United States Senator from 1897 to 1901.
Earl Van Dorn was an American Major General who started his military career as a United States Army officer and became famous for successfully leading a defense of a Native American settlement from the Comanche. He joined Confederate forces in 1861 after the Civil War broke out and was a Major General when he was killed in a private conflict.
The Second Battle of Memphis was a battle of the American Civil War occurring on August 21, 1864, in Shelby County, Tennessee.
George Washington Gordon was a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. After the war, he practiced law in Pulaski, Tennessee, where the Ku Klux Klan was formed. He became one of the Klan's first members. In 1867, Gordon became the Klan's first Grand Dragon for the Realm of Tennessee, and wrote its "Precept," a book describing its organization, purpose, and principles. He was also a member of the United States House of Representatives for the 10th congressional district of Tennessee.
James Patton Anderson was an American slave owner, physician, lawyer, and politician, most notably serving as a United States Congressman from the Washington Territory, a Mississippi state legislator, and a delegate at the Florida state secession convention to withdraw from the United States. He also served in the American Civil War as a general in the Confederate States Army, serving in the Army of Tennessee.
Robert Vinkler Richardson was a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
Randolph is an unincorporated rural community in Tipton County, Tennessee, United States, located on the banks of the Mississippi River. The lands of the Mississippi River Basin were inhabited by Paleo-Indians and later Native American tribes of the Mississippian culture for thousands of years. The Tipton phase people and the Chickasaw Indian tribe populated the Mississippi River valley near Randolph during the Mississippian period. In 1541, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto crossed the Mississippi River at or near Randolph. French explorer Cavelier de La Salle built the first French fortification at or near Randolph on his 1682 canoe expedition of the Mississippi River.
Fort Wright was constructed in 1861 and located on the second Chickasaw Bluff at Randolph, Tipton County, Tennessee. Fort Wright was a Civil War fortification and the first military training facility of the Confederate Army in Tennessee.
John Donelson Martin (1830–1862) was a Confederate States Army officer during the American Civil War.
Alfred Jefferson Vaughan Jr. was an American civil engineer, planter, soldier, and writer. He served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War, in which he was wounded twice, and fought mainly in the Western Theater of the conflict.
Confederate monuments and memorials in the United States include public displays and symbols of the Confederate States of America (CSA), Confederate leaders, or Confederate soldiers of the American Civil War. Many monuments and memorials have been or will be removed under great controversy. Part of the commemoration of the American Civil War, these symbols include monuments and statues, flags, holidays and other observances, and the names of schools, roads, parks, bridges, buildings, counties, cities, lakes, dams, military bases, and other public structures. In a December 2018 special report, Smithsonian Magazine stated, "over the past ten years, taxpayers have directed at least $40 million to Confederate monuments—statues, homes, parks, museums, libraries, and cemeteries—and to Confederate heritage organizations."
Robert F. Looney was an American soldier, lawyer, and businessman. Elected colonel of the 38th Tennessee Regiment, Looney served in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, fighting in the battle of Shiloh. After the war, Looney worked on the preservation commission for the Shiloh National Military Park, which had been established by Congress in December 1894.
The Nathan Bedford Forrest Monument is a bronze sculpture by Charles Henry Niehaus, Niehaus, one of the most preeminent sculptors in U.S. history was paid $25,000 in 1901 to create it, the equivalent of $676,000 in today’s money and all of it raised from private donations, depicts Confederate States of America Lt. General and first-era Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest mounted atop a horse, wearing a uniform of the Confederate States Army. It was formerly installed in Forrest Park in Memphis, Tennessee. The statue was cast in Paris. Forrest and his wife are buried in front of the monument, after being moved there from Elmwood Cemetery in a ceremony on November 11, 1904. The cornerstone for the monument was laid on May 30, 1901 and the monument was dedicated on May 16, 1905. It was removed on December 20, 2017 and is currently in the possession of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Plans are for the statue to be re-erected on the grounds of the SCV National Headquarters in Columbia, Tennessee.
The Holly Springs Raid saw Earl Van Dorn lead Confederate cavalry against a Union supply depot at Holly Springs, Mississippi during the American Civil War. The mounted raiders achieved complete surprise, capturing the Federal garrison and destroying $1.5 million of supplies intended for Ulysses S. Grant's army. In the following days, Van Dorn's troopers moved north along the Mississippi Central Railroad almost to Bolivar, Tennessee, destroying track and bridges, before escaping into northern Mississippi. The damage inflicted by the Holly Springs Raid together with the harm caused by Nathan Bedford Forrest's West Tennessee Raids forced Grant's Union army to withdraw to Memphis. Additionally, both Van Dorn and Forrest's raids obstructed the full implementation of Grant's controversial General Order No. 11 for weeks, preventing many Jewish people from being expelled from Grant's military district.
