Editing Nathan Bedford Forrest (section)

===Day's Gap, Chickamauga, and Paducah===
Not all of Forrest's exploits of individual combat involved enemy troops. Lieutenant Andrew Wills Gould, an artillery officer in Forrest's command, was being transferred, presumably because cannons under his command{{sfn|Hurst|2011|p=119}} were [[touch hole|spiked]] (disabled) by the enemy{{sfn|Hurst|2011|p=120}} 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,{{sfn|Hurst|2011|pp=127–128}} and Forrest mortally stabbed Gould. Forrest was thought to have been fatally wounded by Gould, but he recovered and was ready to fight in the Chickamauga Campaign.{{sfn|Spaulding|1931|p=532}}

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.{{sfn|Axelrod|2011|p=87}} 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 was quoted as saying, "What does he fight battles for?"{{sfn|Ashdown|Caudill|2006|p=24}}<ref name="Powell2016">{{cite book|author=David Powell|title=The Chickamauga Campaign, Barren Victory: The Retreat into Chattanooga, the Confederate Pursuit, and the Aftermath of the Battle, September 21 to October 20, 1863 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=214qDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA34 |year=2016|publisher=Savas Beatie|isbn=978-1-61121-329-4|page=34 |access-date=March 19, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509172121/https://books.google.com/books?id=214qDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA34#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

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 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 General [[William Rosecrans]] to shore up his Union defenses in 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 the counterattack.{{sfn|Rein|2022|pp=56—57}}

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, Tennessee|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, 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.{{sfn|Rein|2022|p=58}} It is now considered to be [[apocrypha#Metaphorical usage|apocryphal]],<ref name="Powell2010">{{cite book|author=David Powell|title=Failure in the Saddle: Nathan Bedford Forrest, Joe Wheeler, and the Confederate Cavalry in the Chickamauga Campaign|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tg0bYP_xRcAC&pg=PA320|year=2010|publisher=Savas Beatie|isbn=978-1-61121-056-9|pages=320–321|access-date=March 21, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509172150/https://books.google.com/books?id=tg0bYP_xRcAC&pg=PA320#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author1=Lawrence Lee Hewitt |title=Civil War Myths, Mistakes and Fabrications|journal=Haversacks and Saddlebags|volume=27 |issue=3|pages=50–57|date=March 2014|url= http://www.civilwarroundtablepalmbeach.org/newsletters/v27n3.htm |quote=Neither Bragg nor Forrest ever mentioned the incident, nor does it appear in Jordan and Pryor's The Campaigns of Lieut. Gen. N. B. Forrest (1868)&nbsp;... The story originated with Dr. James Cowan, Forrest's chief surgeon, in Wyeth's Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest (1899). Cowan claimed to have followed Forrest into Bragg's tent, making him the only eyewitness, and the only one of the three still alive when his tale was printed.|access-date=March 21, 2018|archive-date=March 22, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322020354/http://www.civilwarroundtablepalmbeach.org/newsletters/v27n3.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|contributor-last1=Castel|contributor-first1=Albert|last=Wyeth|first=John Allan|title=That Devil Forrest: Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest |year=1989|publisher=Louisiana State University Press|location=Baton Rouge|isbn=978-0-8071-1578-7|contribution=Foreword}}</ref> although it was repeated in biographies published with Forrest's approval, suggesting it reflected his assessment of Bragg.{{sfn|Rein|2022|p=58}}

On December 4, 1863, Forrest was promoted to the rank of [[Major General (CSA)|major general]].{{sfn|Eicher|Eicher|2001|p=809}} 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 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.<ref name="WarDept1891">{{cite book|author=United States War Dept.|title=The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xcVZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA547 |year=1891|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|page=547 |access-date=December 11, 2015|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509172106/https://books.google.com/books?id=xcVZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA547#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Tap|2013|p=45}}{{sfn|Davison|Foxx|2007|p=219}}