Tuesday, July 15, 2014

The Wizard of the Saddle

Via SHNV

 forrest

One of the greatest men in American history was born on this date (July 13) in 1821 near the town of Chapel Hill, Tennessee, then known as Bledsoe’s Lick.

It is said that a few years after the great American war of 1861—1865 an Englishman asked General R.E. Lee who was the greatest soldier produced by the war. Lee answered readily: “A gentleman in Tennessee whom I have never met. His name is Forrest.”

8 comments:

  1. Forrest makes an appearance McKendree R. Long III's fine western novel, No Good Like It is. The protagonists actually take part in the attack on Ft. Pillow. Good book with a lot of fine gun content.

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    1. Thanks. Have you seen this report?

      http://freenorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-grand-fabrication-fort-pillow.html

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    2. *nods* I remember reading this when you first posted it. Arguing over the details is what historians do for a living. Far as I'm concerned the Federals had the opportunity to surrender the fort and chose not to, after that it was a matter of dealing with the consequences of that decision. Although the South won the battle, the North won the war, and thus got to write its version of history.

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    3. Yup. Forrest was a fascinating man.

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  2. I once my boss, when he complained about construction workers not showing up for work, that the south was winning the Civil War until deer season came in. His retort was "I'm not sure the Yankee's won the war... they didn't take their trophies home with them".

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  3. Forrest - The badest of the badasses. We need a few like him these days.

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    1. You got that! Had about 30 horses shot out from under him and killed about the same number of Yankees in hand to hand combat. Extraordinary.

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