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88-661: Former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest was inducted into the Ku Klux Klan in this hotel in 1866. The first national meeting of the KKK took place at the hotel in April 1867. It later became the namesake of Maxwell House coffee . It was demolished in 1961. As Nashville developed, local businessmen believed it was time for a major hotel. Colonel John Overton Jr. decided to build one and named it for his wife, Harriet (Maxwell) Overton. He hired architect Isaiah Rogers to design

176-598: A Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia and secretary of the national organization. A great-grandson, Nathan Bedford Forrest III (1905–1943), graduated from West Point and rose to the rank of brigadier general in the U.S. Army Air Corps ; he was killed during a bombing raid over Nazi Germany in 1943, becoming the first American general to die in combat in the European theater during World War II. Nathan Bedford Forrest—disparaged by Parson Brownlow in 1864 as

264-514: A private and be promoted to general without previous 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". While scholars generally acknowledge Forrest's skills and acumen as

352-431: A regiment of Tennessee volunteer soldiers. His superior officers and Governor of Tennessee Isham G. Harris were surprised that someone of Forrest's wealth and prominence had enlisted as a soldier, especially since significant planters were exempted from service. They commissioned him as a lieutenant colonel and authorized him to recruit and train a battalion of Confederate mounted rangers. In October 1861, Forrest

440-631: A "sin-hardened negro trader, and livery stable man of Memphis"—was a notable slave trader of the United States from 1851 to 1860. Forrest was considered one of the "big four" "phenomenally large" traders of Memphis, which was the "first-class market" for slave trading in Tennessee. He is believed to have sold thousands of slaves during his career and had profits of hundreds of thousands of dollars in 1850s currency. Primarily based in Memphis, he

528-572: A U.S. barracks with wounded U.S. Army soldiers inside. In defense of their actions, Forrest's men insisted that the U.S. soldiers, although fleeing, kept their weapons and frequently turned to shoot, forcing the Confederates to keep firing in self-defense . The rebels said the U.S. flag was still flying over the fort, which indicated that the force had not formally surrendered. A contemporary newspaper account from Jackson, Tennessee stated that "General Forrest begged them to surrender", but "not

616-403: A battery of guns while a flag of truce was still up. As soon as they received the U.S. reply, they moved forward at the command of a junior officer, and the U.S. forces opened fire. The Confederates tried to storm the fort but were repulsed; they rallied and made two more attempts, both of which failed. Fort Pillow, located 40 miles (64 km) upriver from Memphis (near Henning, Tennessee ),

704-648: A cavalry leader and tactician, he is a controversial figure in U.S. history for prewar slave trading, his role in the massacre of several hundred U.S. Army soldiers at Fort Pillow , a majority of them black, and his postwar leadership of the Klan. In April 1864, in what has been called "one of the bleakest, saddest events of American military history", troops under Forrest's command at the Battle of Fort Pillow massacred hundreds of surrendered troops, composed of black soldiers and white Tennessean Southern Unionists fighting for

792-474: A cup of coffee he drank was "good to the last drop" was used as the advertising slogan for Maxwell House coffee , which was served at and named after the hotel. General Foods , former owner of the Maxwell House brand, acknowledged that Roosevelt in fact had nothing to do with the slogan's origin. It was penned by the company's onetime president Clifford Spiller. The coffee brand is still in operation, and

880-841: A grand staircase to the large ball or dining room. George R. Calhoun, the brother of silversmith William Henry Calhoun , managed a jewelry store in the hotel. The hotel was at its height from the 1890s to the early 20th century. Its Christmas dinner featuring calf's head, black bear, and opossum, and other unusual delicacies became famous. Hotel guests included Jane Addams , Sarah Bernhardt , William Jennings Bryan , Enrico Caruso , "Buffalo Bill" Cody , Thomas Edison , Henry Ford , Annie Oakley , William Sydney Porter (O. Henry), General Tom Thumb , Cornelius Vanderbilt , George Westinghouse , and Presidents Andrew Johnson , Rutherford B. Hayes , Grover Cleveland , Theodore Roosevelt , William McKinley , William Howard Taft , and Woodrow Wilson . A reported comment by President Theodore Roosevelt that

968-534: A historian studying in the Cumberland River valley during the Civil War, "Fully aware of the significance of the large-scale recruitment of black troops, the Confederates did what they could to disrupt it...Forrest himself, operating in west Tennessee, chose to interpret his stunning victory over a racially mixed garrison at Fort Pillow in April as, in part, a warning about using black troops. He described

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1056-503: A log house (now preserved as the Nathan Bedford Forrest Boyhood Home ) from 1830 to 1833. John Allan Wyeth , who served in an Alabama regiment under Forrest, described it as a one-room building with a loft and no windows. William Forrest worked as a blacksmith in Tennessee until 1834, when he moved with his family to Salem, Mississippi . William died in 1837 and Forrest became the primary caretaker of

1144-464: A maximum of 300 slaves to a maximum of 500. Forrest subsequently sold his interest in the business after the building catastrophe and reinvested the profit into plantations . A marker was erected at the former site of Forrest's slave mart in downtown Memphis, on land currently owned by Calvary Episcopal Church , and was dedicated on April 4, 2018. After the Civil War broke out, Forrest returned to Tennessee from his Mississippi ventures and enlisted in

1232-514: A month or so later. This supposedly led to a meeting where Forrest confronted and threatened Bragg's life, calling him a coward and saying "you might as well not give me any orders, for I will not obey them", one of several instances in his career where Forrest was openly insubordinate to his superior officers. It is now considered to be apocryphal , although it was repeated in biographies published with Forrest's approval, suggesting it reflected his assessment of Bragg. On December 4, 1863, Forrest

1320-673: A monument of him once stood. They were later reburied in Columbia, Tennessee . In July 2021, Tennessee officials voted to move Forrest's bust from the State Capitol to the Tennessee State Museum . Nathan Bedford Forrest was born on July 13, 1821, to a poor settler family in a secluded frontier cabin near Chapel Hill hamlet, then part of Bedford County , Tennessee , but now in Marshall County . Forrest

1408-534: A new brigade of inexperienced cavalry regiments. He led them into Middle Tennessee in July under orders to launch a cavalry raid. On July 13, 1862, he led them into the First Battle of Murfreesboro , as a result of which all of the U.S. units surrendered to Forrest. The Confederates destroyed much of the U.S. Army's supplies and railroad tracks in the area. Promoted on July 21, 1862, to brigadier general , Forrest

1496-506: A small force into the backcountry of northern Alabama and western Georgia to defend against an attack of 3,000 U.S. Army cavalrymen commanded by Colonel Abel Streight . Streight had orders to cut the Confederate railroad south of Chattanooga, Tennessee to seal off Bragg's supply line and force him to retreat into Georgia. Forrest chased Streight's men for 16 days, harassing them all the way. Streight's goal changed from dismantling

1584-401: A staircase collapsed. The hotel was said to be haunted by a Southern belle and two brothers, who had been assigned as guards during the war. One killed the other and the girl in a jealous rage and died when the staircase collapsed while he was moving the bodies. Some of the spaces in the hotel were used. In the fall of 1866, former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest was inducted into

1672-522: A third of the whites were killed. The atrocities at Fort Pillow continued throughout the night. Conflicting accounts of what occurred were given later. Forrest's Confederate forces were accused of subjecting captured U.S. Army soldiers to extreme brutality, with allegations of back-shooting soldiers who fled into the river, shooting wounded soldiers, burning men alive, nailing men to barrels and igniting them, crucifixion , and hacking men to death with sabers. Forrest's men were alleged to have set fire to

1760-452: Is also impossible". Forrest's most decisive victory came on June 10, 1864, when his 3,500-man force clashed with 8,500 men commanded by U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis at the Battle of Brices Crossroads in northeastern Mississippi . Here, the mobility of the troops under his command and his superior tactics led to victory, allowing him to continue harassing U.S. forces in southwestern Tennessee and northern Mississippi throughout

1848-512: Is now owned by Kraft Heinz . After being used for some years as a residential hotel, the Maxwell House Hotel was destroyed by fire on Christmas Night 1961. The ServiceSource Tower was later built on this site at 201 4th Avenue North. The Millennium Maxwell House Hotel, opened in 1979, was named for the old Maxwell House. Nathan Bedford Forrest Nathan Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821 – October 29, 1877)

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1936-525: The Battle of Fort Donelson in February 1862. After his cavalry captured a U.S. artillery battery , he broke out of a siege headed by Major General Ulysses S. Grant , rallying nearly 4,000 troops and leading them to escape across the Cumberland River . A few days after the Confederate surrender of Fort Donelson, with the fall of Nashville to U.S. forces imminent, Forrest took command of

2024-597: The Battle of Johnsonville , the Confederates shelled the city, sinking three gunboats and nearly thirty other ships and destroying many tons of supplies. During Hood's Tennessee Campaign , he fought alongside General John Bell Hood , the newest commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee , in the Second Battle of Franklin on November 30. Facing a disastrous defeat, Forrest argued bitterly with Hood (his superior officer ) demanding permission to cross

2112-672: The Confederate States Army (CSA) on June 14, 1861. He reported for training at Fort Wright near Randolph, Tennessee , joining Captain Josiah White's cavalry company, the Tennessee Mounted Rifles (Seventh Tennessee Cavalry), as a private along with his youngest brother and 15-year-old son. Upon seeing how badly equipped the CSA was, Forrest offered to buy horses and equipment with his own money for

2200-581: The Harpeth River and cut off the escape route of U.S. Army Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield 's army. He eventually attempted, but it was too late. After his bloody defeat at Franklin, Hood continued to Nashville. Hood ordered Forrest to conduct an independent raid against the Murfreesboro garrison . After success in achieving the objectives specified by Hood, Forrest engaged U.S. forces near Murfreesboro on December 5, 1864. In what would be known as

2288-718: The Ku Klux Klan , a newly formed secret vigilante group. Politician John W. Morton performed the honors in Room 10 of the Maxwell House Hotel. Forrest was made the Grand Wizard of the Invisible Empire. Chapters of the new association sprang up across the South, and the first national meeting of the KKK took place at the hotel in April 1867. What local citizens called "Overton's Folly" was finally completed and opened in fall 1869; total costs were $ 500,000. The Maxwell House

2376-493: The Memphis & Little Rock Railroad , including a right-of-way that passed over the ridge. The ridgetop commissary he built as a provisioning store for the 1,000 Irish laborers hired to lay the rails became the nucleus of a town, which most residents called "Forrest's Town" and which was incorporated as Forrest City, Arkansas in 1870. ServiceSource Tower (Nashville) ServiceSource Tower , also previously known as

2464-501: The Old North State . The Memphis Avalanche suggests that as Fred is ample able to make the outlay he should either purchase his own flesh and blood from servitude, or cease his shrieks over an institution which possesses such untold horrors. In 1859, a federal investigation found that Forrest also sold 37 individuals illegally imported to the United States from Africa on the slave ship Wanderer . Forrest, who advocated for

2552-462: The Third Battle of Murfreesboro , a portion of Forrest's command broke and ran. When Hood's battle-hardened Army of Tennessee, consisting of 40,000 men deployed in three infantry corps plus 10,000 to 15,000 cavalry, was all but destroyed on December 15–16, at the Battle of Nashville , Forrest distinguished himself by commanding the Confederate rear guard in a series of actions that allowed what

2640-741: The reopening of the transatlantic slave trade , later told an interviewer that he had been an initial investor in the Wanderer shipment. In January 1860, the New York Times reported that the Forrest, Jones & Co. negro mart building in Memphis had both collapsed and then caught fire; two people died. The firm's bills of sale for people, "amounting in the aggregate to US$ 400,000 (equivalent to about $ 13,564,440 in 2023)" were salvaged. Forrest had recently moved from 87 Adams to 89 Adams, which allowed him to increase his holding capacity from

2728-501: The 14 most seriously wounded United States Colored Troops (USCT) to the U.S. steamer Silver Cloud . The 226 U.S. Army troops taken prisoner at Fort Pillow were marched under guard to Holly Springs, Mississippi and then convoyed to Demopolis, Alabama . On April 21, Capt. John Goodwin, of Forrest's cavalry command, forwarded a dispatch listing the prisoners captured. The list included the names of 7 officers and 219 white enlisted soldiers. According to Richard L. Fuchs, "records concerning

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2816-733: The Civil War. Forrest's early business ventures included a livery stable , a stagecoach line, and a brickyard . Forrest was well known as a Memphis speculator and Mississippi gambler. In 1858, Forrest was elected a Memphis city alderman as a Southern Democrat and served two consecutive terms. In 1859, he bought two large cotton plantations in Coahoma County, Mississippi and a half-interest in another plantation in Arkansas; by October 1860, he owned at least 3,345 acres in Mississippi. He acquired several cotton plantations in

2904-476: The Confederacy, and both the Confederate and United States armies recruited soldiers from the state. Over 100,000 men from Tennessee served with the Confederacy, and over 31,000 served with the U.S. Army. Forrest posted advertisements to join his regiment, with the slogan, "Let's have some fun and kill some Yankees!". Forrest's command included his Escort Company (his "Special Forces"), for which he selected

2992-546: The Confederate Army. A month later, Forrest was back in action at the Battle of Shiloh , fought April 6–7, 1862. After the U.S. victory, Forrest commanded a Confederate rear guard . In the battle of Fallen Timbers , he drove through the U.S. skirmish line . Not realizing that the rest of his men had halted their charge when they reached the full U.S. brigade, Forrest charged the brigade alone and soon found himself surrounded. He emptied his Colt Army revolvers into

3080-559: The Confederates from the field, and Forrest was wounded in the foot, but his forces were not wholly destroyed. He continued to oppose U.S. Army efforts in the West for the remainder of the war. Forrest led other raids that summer and fall, including a famous one into U.S. Army-held downtown Memphis in August 1864 (the Second Battle of Memphis ) and another on a major U.S. Army supply depot at Johnsonville, Tennessee . On November 4, 1864, during

3168-597: The Delta region of West Tennessee . By the time the American Civil War started in 1861, he had become one of the wealthiest men in the Southern United States, having amassed a "personal fortune that he claimed was worth $ 1.5 million". Forrest stood 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) in height, weighed about 180 pounds (82 kg), rarely drank and abstained from tobacco use. He

3256-542: The South, and issued a letter ordering the dissolution of the Ku Klux Klan as well as the destruction of its costumes; he then withdrew from the organization. In the last years of his life, Forrest denied being a Klan member and, disturbed by anti-black violence, made statements in support of racial harmony and black dignity. In June 2021, the remains of Forrest and his wife were exhumed from Health Sciences Park, where they had been buried for over 100 years, and where

3344-536: The SunTrust Building and the 4th and Church Building, is a high-rise office building in downtown Nashville, Tennessee . ServiceSource Tower is the 20th tallest building in Nashville, with 20 stories and a height of 292 ft (89 m). This building was built as the headquarters for Third National Corporation in 1968, and was designed by Brush, Hutchison, & Gwinn. It was previously known as

3432-594: The Third National Bank Building, prior to the SunTrust acquisition of Third National Corporation , and eventual name change in 1995. When it opened in 1967, ServiceSource Tower was the city’s second tallest building, trailing only the 409-foot, 30-story L&C Tower. The site at 4th & Church was also home to the historic Maxwell House Hotel from 1859 until it burned and was destroyed by fire on Christmas Day in 1961. The building

3520-415: The United States. Forrest was blamed for the slaughter in the U.S. press, and this news may have strengthened the United States's resolve to win the war. Forrest's level of responsibility for the massacre is still debated by historians. Forrest joined the Ku Klux Klan in 1867 (two years after its founding) and was elected its first Grand Wizard. The group was a loose collection of local factions throughout

3608-455: The area an efficient business cluster . Forrest was traditionally said to have been trained by the principals of Bolton, Dickens & Co. , a multimillion-dollar operation that traded in a dozen Southern cities, but recent research suggests this may be apocryphal. In 1859, media coverage of Forrest's business spotlighted a particular product, an enslaved girl said to be the daughter of Frederick Douglass . Historian Tim Huebner asserts this

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3696-494: The area. That night, Forrest again declined to screen the army's right flank; if he had he would have found a wide gap in the Union lines, a misstep that has been called "the most significant intelligence oversight of the entire battle" as it left Bragg utterly uninformed about Union dispositions even as he planned a counterattack. The next morning a poorly-planned attack Forrest initiated in that area led to heavy casualties and delayed

3784-505: The banks of the Ohio River in southwest Kentucky and into north Mississippi. Forrest returned to his base in Mississippi with more men than he had started with. By then, all were fully armed with captured U.S. Army weapons. As a result, Grant was forced to revise and delay his Vicksburg campaign strategy. Newspaper correspondent Sylvanus Cadwallader, who traveled with Grant for three years during his campaigns, wrote that Forrest "was

3872-582: The battle graphically, recounted exaggerated Union casualty figures, and noted, 'It is hoped that these facts will demonstrate to the Northern people that negro soldiers cannot cope with the Southerners.'" S.C. Gwynne writes, "Forrest's responsibility for the massacre has been actively debated for a century and a half. ... No direct evidence suggests that he ordered the shooting of surrendering or unarmed men, but to fully exonerate him from responsibility

3960-405: The battle, leaving Fort Pillow under the command of Major William Bradford. Forrest had reached the fort at 10 a.m. after a hard ride from Mississippi, during which two horses were shot out from under him. By 3:30 p.m., Forrest had concluded that the U.S. troops could not hold the fort; thus, he ordered a flag of truce raised and demanded that the fort be surrendered. As he often did to avoid

4048-518: The best soldiers available. This unit, which varied in size from 40 to 90 men, constituted the elite of his cavalry. Forrest won praise for his performance under fire during an early victory in the Battle of Sacramento in Kentucky , the first in which he commanded troops in the field, where he routed a U.S. Army force by personally leading a cavalry charge that Brigadier General Charles Clark later commended. Forrest distinguished himself further at

4136-450: The city of Vicksburg, Mississippi . Forrest protested that sending such untrained men behind enemy lines was suicidal, but Bragg insisted, and Forrest obeyed his orders. In the ensuing raids, he was pursued by thousands of U.S. soldiers trying to locate his fast-moving forces. Avoiding attack by never staying in one place long, Forrest eventually led his troops during the spring and summer of 1864 on raids into west Tennessee, as far north as

4224-477: The city. All available carts and wagons were pressed into service to haul 600 boxes of army clothing, 250,000 pounds of bacon, and 40 wagon-loads of ammunition to the railroad depots, to be sent off to Chattanooga and Decatur. Forrest arranged for heavy ordnance machinery, including a new cannon rifling machine and 14 cannons, as well as parts from the Nashville Armory, to be sent to Atlanta for use by

4312-462: The counterattack. In an attempt to build a foothold to retake Chattanooga, Bragg ordered Forrest and Wheeler north after the battle in order that they might disrupt Rosecrans's fragile supply line from Nashville. But Forrest diverted to Knoxville , allowing Rosecrans to consolidate his hold on the city, leading Bragg to describe Forrest as "nothing more than a good raider" as he signed orders to transfer Forrest out of his command, to western Tennessee,

4400-438: The disease five years later when Bedford was 16. His mother, Miriam, then married James Horatio Luxton, of Marshall, Texas , in 1843 and gave birth to four more children. In 1845, Forrest married Mary Ann Montgomery (1826–1893), the niece of a Presbyterian minister who was her legal guardian. They had two children, William Montgomery Bedford Forrest llll (1846–1908), who enlisted at the age of 15 and served alongside his father in

4488-512: The family at age 16. In 1841 Forrest went into business with his uncle Jonathan Forrest in Hernando , Mississippi . His uncle was killed there in 1845 during an argument with the Matlock brothers. In retaliation, Forrest shot and killed two of them with his two-shot pistol and wounded two others with a knife thrown to him. One of the wounded Matlock men survived and served under Forrest during

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4576-409: The fate of the black prisoners are either nonexistent or unreliable". President Abraham Lincoln asked his cabinet for opinions as to how the United States should respond to the massacre. At the time of the massacre, General Grant was no longer in Tennessee but had transferred to the east to command all U.S. troops. Grant wrote in his memoirs that Forrest, in his report of the battle, had "left out

4664-413: The first sign of surrender was ever given". Similar accounts were reported in many Confederate newspapers at the time. These statements were contradicted by U.S. Army survivors and by the letter of Achilles Clark, a Confederate soldier with the 20th Tennessee Cavalry who graphically recounted a massacre. Clark wrote to his sisters immediately after the battle: The slaughter was awful. Words cannot describe

4752-513: The former Confederacy that used violence or threats of violence to maintain white control over the newly enfranchised, formerly enslaved people. The Klan, with Forrest at the lead, suppressed the voting rights of blacks in the Southern United States through violence and intimidation during the elections of 1868 . In 1869, Forrest expressed disillusionment with the lack of discipline in the white supremacist terrorist group across

4840-452: The hasty retreat, they stripped off commemorative badges that read "Remember Fort Pillow" to avoid goading the Confederate force pursuing them. One month later, while serving under General Stephen D. Lee , Forrest experienced tactical defeat at the Battle of Tupelo in 1864. Concerned about U.S. Army supply lines, Maj. Gen. Sherman sent a force under the command of Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Smith to deal with Forrest. U.S. Army forces drove

4928-423: The heat, were quickly broken and sent into mass retreat. Forrest sent a full charge after the retreating army and captured 16 artillery pieces, 176 wagons, and 1,500 stands of small arms. In all, the maneuver cost Forrest 96 men killed and 396 wounded. The day was worse for U.S. troops, who suffered 223 killed, 394 wounded, and 1,623 missing. The losses were a deep blow to the black regiment under Sturgis's command. In

5016-472: The high casualties that came with having to storm fortifications, Forrest warned Bradford that he could not be held responsible for what his men might do in the heat of such a battle. Bradford refused to surrender, believing his troops could escape to the U.S. Navy gunboat, USS New Era , on the Mississippi River. Forrest's men immediately took over the fort, while U.S. Army soldiers retreated to

5104-492: The lower bluffs of the river, but the gunboat did not come to their rescue. What happened next became known as the Fort Pillow Massacre. As the U.S. Army troops surrendered, Forrest's men opened fire, slaughtering black and white U.S. Army soldiers. According to historians John Cimprich and Bruce Tap, although their numbers were roughly equal, two-thirds of the black U.S. Army soldiers were killed, while only

5192-606: The man's head against a tree. After a lieutenant refused to join his troops in a river where they were building a bridge, Forrest pushed him into the water. A soldier who refused to paddle across the Tennessee River was hit with an oar by his general. Two others who fled from a rout were beaten with a branch, and Forrest shot the one who had borne the colors. Along with brutal treatment of his prisoners, this led many soldiers and junior officers to refuse to serve under him. Public debate surrounded Tennessee 's decision to join

5280-413: The only Confederate cavalryman of whom Grant stood in much dread". The U.S. Army gained military control of Tennessee in 1862 and occupied it for the duration of the war, having taken control of strategic cities and railroads. Forrest continued to lead his men in small-scale operations, including the Battle of Dover and the Battle of Brentwood until April 1863. The Confederate army dispatched him with

5368-504: The part which shocks humanity to read". Because of the events at Fort Pillow, the U.S. public and press viewed Forrest as a war criminal. A Knoxville correspondent for the New York Tribune wrote that Forrest and his brothers were "slave drivers and woman whippers", while Forrest himself was described as "mean, vindictive, cruel, and unscrupulous". The Confederate press steadfastly defended Forrest's reputation. According to

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5456-427: The powers to be, and to aid in restoring peace and establishing law and order throughout the land." As a former slave owner and slave trader, Forrest experienced the abolition of slavery at the war's end as a major financial setback. During the war, he became interested in the area around Crowley's Ridge and took up civilian life in 1865 in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1866, Forrest and C.C. McCreanor contracted to finish

5544-600: The railroad to escaping the pursuit. On May 3, Forrest caught up with Streight's unit east of Cedar Bluff, Alabama . Forrest had fewer men than the U.S. side but feigned having a larger force by repeatedly parading some around a hilltop until Streight was convinced to surrender his 1,500 or so exhausted troops (historians Kevin Dougherty and Keith S. Hebert say he had about 1,700 men). Not all of Forrest's exploits of individual combat involved enemy troops. Lieutenant Andrew Wills Gould, an artillery officer in Forrest's command,

5632-428: The scene. The poor deluded negroes would run up to our men fall upon their knees and with uplifted hands scream for mercy but they were ordered to their feet and then shot down. The white men fared but little better. Their fort turned out to be a great slaughter pen. Blood, human blood stood about in pools and brains could have been gathered up in any quantity. Following the cessation of hostilities, Forrest transferred

5720-483: The state of Alabama against Wilson's Raid . His opponent, U.S. Army Brig. Gen. James H. Wilson , defeated Forrest at the Battle of Selma on April 2, 1865. A week later, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant in Virginia. When he received news of Lee's surrender, Forrest surrendered as well. On May 9, 1865, at Gainesville , Forrest read his farewell address to the men under his command, urging them to "submit to

5808-538: The structure. Construction began in 1859 using mostly enslaved labor. The outbreak of the American Civil War caused a suspension of construction on the hotel. Nashville fell to the Union Army in 1862 and was occupied afterward until the end of the war. The army took over the unfinished hotel, using it as a barracks, prison, and hospital. In September 1863, several Confederate prisoners were killed when

5896-424: The swirling mass of U.S. Army soldiers and pulled out his saber, hacking, and slashing. A U.S. infantryman on the ground beside Forrest fired a musket ball at him with a point-blank shot, nearly knocking him out of the saddle. The ball went through Forrest's pelvis and lodged near his spine. A surgeon removed the musket ball a week later without anesthesia, which was unavailable. By early summer, Forrest commanded

5984-440: The thick of battles where he could not gather this information. Forrest also failed tactically on the first day of battle, moving his troops north up the creek in response to a perceived threat instead of screening the Confederate advance as he had been ordered to. As a result, the time it took the infantry to fight for the crossings at Alexander's and Reed's bridges allowed Union general William Rosecrans to shore up his defenses in

6072-406: The war, and a daughter, Fanny (1849–1854), who died in childhood. There are also reports dating to 1864 that Forrest had two children with a young enslaved woman named Catharine . All of Forrest's younger brothers—in order, John N. Forrest , William H. Forrest , Aaron H. Forrest , Jesse A. Forrest , and Jeffrey E. Forrest —worked as slave traders with Bedford before the war. All but John, who

6160-421: The war. Forrest set up a position for an attack to repulse a pursuing force commanded by Sturgis, who had been sent to impede Forrest from destroying U.S. Army supply lines and fortifications. When Sturgis's Federal army came upon the crossroads, they collided with Forrest's cavalry. Sturgis ordered his infantry to advance to the front line to counteract the cavalry. The infantry, tired, weary, and suffering under

6248-583: Was Nashville's largest hotel, with five stories and 240 rooms. It advertised steam heat, gas lighting, and a bath on every floor. Rooms cost $ 4 a day, including meals. Located on the northwest corner of Fourth Avenue North and Church Street, the hotel had its front entrance, flanked by eight Corinthian columns, on Fourth Avenue in the "Men's Quarter". A separate entrance for women was on Church Street. The main lobby featured mahogany cabinetry, brass fixtures, gilded mirrors, and chandeliers. It had ladies' and men's parlors, billiard rooms, barrooms, shaving "saloons", and

6336-478: Was a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War and later 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

6424-540: Was a disabled veteran of the Mexican–American War , served as Confederate military officers in Tennessee and Mississippi during the American Civil War. Forrest's son William M. Forrest served as his aide-de-camp , and his half-brother Mat Luxton was a sergeant and scout in his cavalry. Forrest's grandson, Nathan Bedford Forrest II (1872–1931), became commander-in-chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and

6512-584: Was able to open a second storefront in Vicksburg in 1858. During the American Civil War, Forrest cited his business experience in a written request for an independent command: "I have resided on the Mississippi for over twenty years, was for many years engaged in buying and selling negroes, and know the country perfectly well between Memphis and Vicksburg, and also am well acquainted with all the prominent planters in that region, as well as above Memphis." After initially working as an independent slave trader, he

6600-524: Was able to read and write clear and grammatical English, although he was a poor speller. He was initiated into Freemasonry, but did not progress beyond the Entered Apprentice degree. Forrest had twelve brothers and sisters; two of his eight brothers and three of his four sisters died of typhoid fever at an early age, all at about the same time. He also contracted the disease, but survived; his father recovered but died from residual effects of

6688-399: Was being transferred, presumably because cannons under his command were spiked (disabled) by the enemy during the Battle of Day's Gap . On June 13, 1863, Gould confronted Forrest about his transfer, which escalated into a violent exchange. Gould shot Forrest in the left side, and Forrest mortally stabbed Gould. Forrest was thought to have been fatally wounded by Gould, but he recovered and

6776-440: Was first in partnership with Seaborne S. Jones , second in partnership with Byrd Hill (a more experienced manager of negro marts ), third in partnership with Josiah Maples , then again a sole proprietor, and finally reunited with Jones. Beginning in the Forrest & Maples era, his business was headquartered at 87 Adams Street in Memphis, where several other slave traders had their slave pens and auction yards, thus making

6864-410: Was given command of a Confederate cavalry brigade. In December 1862, Forrest's veteran troopers were reassigned by General Braxton Bragg to another officer despite his protest. Forrest had to recruit a new brigade of about 2,000 inexperienced men, most of whom lacked weapons. Again, Bragg ordered a series of raids to disrupt the communications of the U.S. Army forces under Grant, which were threatening

6952-414: Was given command of a regiment, the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry. Though Forrest had no prior formal military training or experience, he had exhibited leadership and soon proved he could successfully employ military tactics . Forrest gained a reputation for his willingness to maintain discipline through the use of physical force. When the information a scout returned with proved to be erroneous, Forrest struck

7040-449: Was initially constructed by Confederate general Gideon Johnson Pillow on the bluffs of the Mississippi River, and taken over by U.S. forces in 1862 after the Confederates had abandoned the fort. The fort was defended by 557 U.S. Army troops, 295 white and 262 black, under U.S. Army Maj. L.F. Booth. On April 12, 1864, Forrest's men, under Brig. Gen. James Chalmers, attacked and recaptured Fort Pillow. Booth and his adjutant were killed in

7128-509: Was known as a tireless rider in the saddle and a skilled swordsman . Forrest was noted as having a "striking and commanding presence" by U.S. Army Captain Lewis Hosea, an aide to Gen. James H. Wilson . He was often described as generally mild-mannered, but according to Hosea and other contemporaries who knew him, his demeanor changed drastically when provoked or angered. Although he was not formally educated, according to Spaulding, Forrest

7216-541: Was left of the army to escape. For this, he would later be promoted to the rank of lieutenant general on March 2, 1865. A portion of his command, now dismounted, was surprised and captured in their camp at Verona, Mississippi on December 25, 1864, during a raid of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad by a brigade of Brig. Gen. Benjamin Grierson 's cavalry division. In the spring of 1865, Forrest led an unsuccessful defense of

7304-457: Was likely Anna Marie Bailey, a niece of Douglass. FRED DOUGLASS' DAUGHTER FOR SALE Among the servants offered for sale by a Mr. Forrest of Memphis, Tenn., is a girl who is known to be the daughter of the notorious Fred Douglass, the "free-nigger" Abolitionist.—She is said to be of the class known among the dealers as a "likely girl," and is a native of North Carolina.—She remembers her "parient" very vividly, having seen him during his last visit to

7392-417: Was promoted to the rank of major general . On March 25, 1864, Forrest's cavalry raided the town of Paducah, Kentucky in the Battle of Paducah , during which Forrest demanded the surrender of U.S. Colonel Stephen G. Hicks : "if I have to storm your works, you may expect no quarter." Hicks refused to comply with the ultimatum, and according to his subsequent report, Forrest's troops took a position and set up

7480-479: Was quoted as saying, "What does he fight battles for?" Forrest (along with other subordinates of Bragg) was not blameless for the disorganization that had led Bragg to decide against pursuit after the Chickamauga victory. He and Wheeler had regularly failed throughout the entire Chattanooga campaign to gather intelligence on the disposition of Union forces, in Forrest's case because he often involved himself in

7568-478: Was ready to fight in the Chickamauga Campaign. Forrest served with the main army at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 18–20, 1863, in which he pursued the retreating U.S. Army and took hundreds of prisoners. Like several others under Bragg's command, he urged an immediate follow-up attack to recapture Chattanooga, which had fallen a few weeks before. Bragg failed to do so, upon which Forrest

7656-615: Was the first son of Mariam (Beck) and William Forrest. His blacksmith father was of English descent, and most of his biographers state that his mother was of Scotch-Irish descent, but the Memphis Genealogical Society says that she was of English descent. He and his twin sister, Fanny, were the two eldest of 12 children. Their great-grandfather, Shadrach Forrest, moved between 1730 and 1740 from Virginia to North Carolina , where his son and grandson were born; they moved to Tennessee in 1806. Forrest's family lived in

7744-494: Was updated with ServiceSource signage in July 2012. The original tenant was Third National Corporation of Nashville, which became a subsidiary of SunTrust, who vacated the building to move to SunTrust Plaza . Another intriguing previous tenant was the Signature Tower sales center and Giarratana Development offices. J.P. Morgan Chase has also filed for a permit to open a branch here. A popular current tenant

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