Nathan Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821 – October 29, 1877)

Confederate soldier, General, Slave Owner, Slave Trader, Commander of Confederate troops who perpetrated a massacre on 300 surrendering Black soldiers and some of their White counterparts at Fort Pillow in Henning, Tennessee and Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, All of these labels apply to Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Regarding the Fort Pillow massacre, one of Forrest's own sergeants, Achilles V. Clark, wrote a letter to his sisters on April 14. An excerpt states,

 “The slaughter was awful. Words cannot describe the scene. The poor deluded negroes would run up to our men fall on 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. The 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. I with several others tried to stop the butchery and at one time had partially succeeded but Gen. Forrest ordered them shot down like dogs and the carnage continued. Finally our men became sick of blood and the firing ceased.”

After the Civil War, during his time as Grand Dragon for the Ku Klux Klan, he was leader of the effort to suppress the voting rights of blacks in the South through violence and intimidation during the elections of 1868. After his tenure leading the Klan, supporters say he openly criticized the organization but his true intentions are evident in his lifelong actions. His family carried on this dubious legacy and Forrest’s own grandson, Nathan Bedford Forrest II (1872–1931), became commander-in-chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia and secretary of the national organization.