Jagdaddy;1874025; said:
As far as losers not getting to write the history goes, there are reams of romanticized historical bull[Mark May] about the Antebellum South, the not short enough-lived Confederate States of America, and their supposedly honorable "face" culture.
Absolutely correct Daddy. My draft post was much longer, but it got lost in the server down event when I first tried to post it, and I did not have the heart to re-do it. For example, the official United Daughters of the Confederacy line (they have a "catechism" for the little kiddie UDC converts) states that "
The Woah betwin tha States was not abow-ut slav-a-ry, but taxes n States Raights!!!!" Bull[Mark May]. Despite the "Lost Cause" propaganda they they sold for a century, it was 90% about the loss of their "property" if the abolitionists had their way.
That said, Forrest had some fine qualities. He was an amazing man. And the reasons that drove the formation of the first Ku Klux Klan was so far removed from what motivates the skinheads now (granted, not entirely separate) that it is a shame that the subject of Reconstruction is not studied more than a day in hight school. Its impact on the South, its entire culture, its self-identification as an "us versus the world" (see the SEC chant) is fascinating. It amazes me that some do not appreciate how traumatizing it was to have the south's infrastructure and many of its largest cities ruined or destroyed, how traumatizing it was to have the entire banking system and currency made worthless, not to mention the loss of life and the effect on the farmer soldiers' families, and that effect on many farms of the largely agrarian south which were ruined.
The North forced entirely new replacement governments on the Southern states, at the point of a bayonet, which invalidated almost the entire state and local political structures and that contributed to the general sense of lawlessness, and the creation of hundreds of thousands of what we now know to be post-traumatic stress suffering veterans. * I was amazed at this statistic: In 1866, one-fifth of the Alabama state budget went for the purchase of artificial limbs...
I just think that picking bits and pieces out of a person's life without context - while ignoring the inspiring ones - makes for poor history and a less rich understanding of a fascinating period in US history. For example, I bet few here knew that Forrest, upon learning of Lee's surrender, gave a farewell address to his soldiers that encouraged them to reconcile with the victorious Yankees.
Civil war, such as you have just passed through naturally engenders feelings of animosity, hatred, and revenge. It is our duty to divest ourselves of all such feelings; and as far as it is in our power to do so, to cultivate friendly feelings toward those with whom we have so long contended, and heretofore so widely, but honestly, differed. Neighborhood feuds, personal animosities, and private differences should be blotted out; and, when you return home, a manly, straightforward course of conduct will secure the respect of your enemies. Whatever your responsibilities may be to Government, to society, or to individuals meet them like men. The attempt made to establish a separate and independent Confederation has failed; but the consciousness of having done your duty faithfully, and to the end, will, in some measure, repay for the hardships you have undergone. In bidding you farewell, rest assured that you carry with you my best wishes for your future welfare and happiness. Without, in any way, referring to the merits of the Cause in which we have been engaged, your courage and determination, as exhibited on many hard-fought fields, has elicited the respect and admiration of friend and foe. And I now cheerfully and gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to the officers and men of my command whose zeal, fidelity and unflinching bravery have been the great source of my past success in arms. I have never, on the field of battle, sent you where I was unwilling to go myself; nor would I now advise you to a course which I felt myself unwilling to pursue. You have been good soldiers, you can be good citizens. Obey the laws, preserve your honor, and the Government to which you have surrendered can afford to be, and will be, magnanimous. N.B. Forrest, Lieut.-General
Headquarters, Forrest's Cavalry Corps
Gainesville, Alabama
May 9, 1865
Yes he was a leader in the first years of the KKK, but he disavowed it when it took the different path, and he asked for his followers to disband.
I find it interesting that the former slave trader and early KKK leader's very last public speech, made in the midst of the dangerously partisan Reconstruction era, was made by Forrest to a black organization whose stated purpose was obtaining better relations between the races, and in seeking racial reconciliation. (They for some reason were called the "Independent Order of Pole-Bearers)
That fact is very interesting to me. People are often not simplistic cardboard cut outs, and we can learn as much from folks with character flaws and who rise above their past as we can from the Ghandis of the world. I did not intend to offer some kind of "romanticized historical bull[Mark May]" Quite the contrary. I'd like to think that the mere mention of a name can evoke something more than absolute dismissal without first taking a look at what the matter can teach. The winners comment was meant for what it was. Francis Marion is the Swamp Fox because he won. He was not that different from Forrest in some ways, and to me, not as worthy a man. Anyway......
* (Not to say that the poor, poor south was innocent. The Southern fanatsy historians like to forget that Reconstruction was made bitter because the south resisted it so fiercely, and tried every way imaginable to avoid giving rights to blacks. For every legitimate story of underhanded scalawags and carpet baggers stealing from the defeated southerners, there were equally legitimate stories of democrats who organized into armed gangs/military type units to forcefully retake the ballot box back to only white males by threats of force, and by actual beatings and shootings. In Louisiana history they were called "bulldozers" )
