Editing Nathan Bedford Forrest (section)

==Postwar years and later life==

===Business ventures===
[[File:Memphis and vicinity LOC 2006636341.jpg|thumb|"Memphis and vicinity" mapped during the American Civil War, including [[President's Island]] where Forrest's post-war farm was worked by [[convict labor]] ]]
As a former slave owner and slave trader, Forrest experienced the [[Abolition of slavery in the USA#The end of slavery|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 the [[Memphis & Little Rock Railroad]], including a [[Right of way (rail)|right-of-way]] that passed over the ridge.{{sfn|Mitcham|2016|p=193}} The ridgetop [[Commissary (store)|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.<ref name="EOA2017">{{cite web|author1=Mike Polston |title=Forrest City (St. Francis County)|publisher=The Central Arkansas Library System |url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=996 |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171105132923/http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=996|archive-date=November 5, 2017|date=2018}}</ref>

The historian Court Carney writes that Forrest was not universally popular in the white Memphis community: he alienated many of the city's business people in his commercial dealings and was criticized for questionable business practices that caused him to default on debts.<ref name="Carney2001">{{cite journal|author1=Carney, Court|title=The Contested Image of Nathan Bedford Forrest|jstor=3070019|journal=The Journal of Southern History|date=August 2001|volume=67|issue=3|pages=601–630|doi=10.2307/3070019}}</ref>

He later found employment at the [[Selma, Alabama|Selma]]-based Marion & Memphis Railroad and eventually became the company president. He was not as successful in railroad promotion as in war, and, under his direction, the company went [[bankrupt]]. Nearly ruined as the result of this failure, Forrest spent his final days running an eight-hundred-acre farm on land he leased on [[President's Island]] in the Mississippi River, where he and his wife lived in a [[log cabin]]. There, with the labor of over a hundred prison convicts, he grew corn, potatoes, vegetables, and cotton profitably, but his health steadily declined.{{sfn|Ashdown|Caudill|2006|p=163}}{{sfn|Hurst|2011|p=374}} In May 1877, Forrest's use of convict labor was described as indistinguishable from slavery, in its use of bloodhounds, shotgun-wielding guards, and corporal punishment.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |date=May 16, 1877 |title=Convict Labor in Georgia and Tennessee |pages=2 |work=The Daily Memphis Avalanche |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-memphis-avalanche-convict-labo/130036626/ |access-date=August 15, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=August 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230815032101/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-memphis-avalanche-convict-labo/130036626/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Critics also argued it was unjust and exploitative: "The convict farmer has a financial interest in the conviction of as many persons as he may need...and the obsequious and corrupt myrmidons and magistrates of the law can readily supply the demand at a short notice in a country where the unprotected negro is left to steal or starve."<ref name=":1" />
[[File:P15138coll6 2626 full - State of Alabama, Selma, Marion, Memphis Railroad Company bonds. Issued September 1, 1869.jpg|left|thumb|[[Selma, Marion & Memphis Railroad]] bonds, issued 1869 by the state of Alabama, signed by N. B. Forrest]]

===Offers his services to Sherman===
During the [[Virginius Affair|''Virginius'' Affair]] of 1873, some of Forrest's old Confederate friends were [[filibuster (military)|filibusters]] aboard the vessel; consequently, he wrote a letter to the then General-in-Chief of the United States Army William T. Sherman and offered his services in case a war were to break out between the United States and Spain. Sherman, who had recognized how formidable an opponent Forrest was in battle during the Civil War, replied after the crisis settled down. He thanked Forrest for the offer and stated that had war broken out, he would have considered it an honor to have served side by side with him.{{sfn|Davison|Foxx|2007|pp=474–475}}<ref name="Henry1991">{{cite book|author=Robert Selph Henry|title="First with the Most" Forrest|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AcBWAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Tennessee%20state%20law%22|year=1991|publisher=Mallard Press|isbn=978-0-7924-5605-6|page=456|access-date=May 14, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509175214/https://books.google.com/books?id=AcBWAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Tennessee%20state%20law%22|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="DavisPohanka1997">{{cite book|author1=William C. Davis|author2=Brian C. Pohanka|author3=Don Troiani|title=Civil War Journal: The leaders|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sT5LAAAAYAAJ&q=%22In%20the%20summer%20of%201868%20those%20rights%20were%20restored,%22|year=1997|publisher=Rutledge Hill Press|isbn=978-1-55853-437-7|page=391|quote=Because of his role in the Confederacy, Forrest was stripped of his rights as a U.S. citizen. In the summer of 1868 those rights were restored, and he was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson.|access-date=May 13, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509175224/https://books.google.com/books?id=sT5LAAAAYAAJ&q=%22In%20the%20summer%20of%201868%20those%20rights%20were%20restored,%22|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Jones2006">{{cite book |author=Wilmer L. Jones |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U-q3DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA175 |title=Generals in Blue and Gray: Davis's Generals |publisher=Stackpole Books |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-4617-5105-2 |pages=175–176 |access-date=May 12, 2018 |archive-date=May 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509175227/https://books.google.com/books?id=U-q3DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA175#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Johnson1990">{{cite book|author=Andrew Johnson|title=The Papers of Andrew Johnson: May–August 1865 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c95JSzYD3E0C&pg=PA331|year=1990|publisher=Univ. of Tennessee Press|isbn=978-0-87049-613-4|page=331|access-date=May 8, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509175447/https://books.google.com/books?id=c95JSzYD3E0C&pg=PA331#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Wills|1992|p=347}}: "On July 17, 1868, Forrest finally received a pardon from the president, 'for which,' he told an audience, 'I am truly thankful.'"</ref><ref name="Ward2006">{{cite book|author=Andrew Ward |title=River Run Red: The Fort Pillow Massacre in the American Civil War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LLZ3KboxDBwC&pg=PT412 |year=2006|publisher=Penguin Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-4406-4929-5|pages=412–413|access-date=March 9, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509175431/https://books.google.com/books?id=LLZ3KboxDBwC&pg=PT412#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Ku Klux Klan leadership===
[[File:1938 WPA history of DeSoto County Mississippi.jpg|thumb|According to a 1938 [[Works Progress Administration|WPA]]-produced history of [[DeSoto County, Mississippi]], "Forrest, who lived in Memphis in 1875, was the chief organizer of the Ku Klux Klan in the South, and in DeSoto County. Pad S. Myers, [[Ku Klux Klan titles and vocabulary|Grand Gould]]{{sic}} and organizer, received instructions from Forrest."<ref>{{Cite web |title=WPA County Files |url=https://www.mlc.lib.ms.us/mlc-services/online-resources/wpa-county-files/ |access-date=2024-07-21 |website=www.mlc.lib.ms.us}}</ref>]]
Forrest was an early member of the [[Ku Klux Klan]] (KKK), which was formed by six veterans of the Confederate Army in [[Pulaski, Tennessee]], during the spring of 1866<ref name="Wade1998">{{cite book|author=Wyn Craig Wade|title=The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6O_XYBMhNYAC&pg=PA32|year=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-512357-9|page=32|access-date=March 8, 2018 |archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509175451/https://books.google.com/books?id=6O_XYBMhNYAC&pg=PA32#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Newton|2014|p=5}}<ref name="Parsons2015">{{cite book|author=Elaine Frantz Parsons|title=Ku-Klux: The Birth of the Klan during Reconstruction |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gl60CAAAQBAJ&pg=PA30 |year=2015|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-1-4696-2543-0|page=30|access-date=March 8, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509175457/https://books.google.com/books?id=Gl60CAAAQBAJ&pg=PA30#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> and soon expanded throughout the state and beyond. Forrest became involved sometime in late 1866 or early 1867. A common report was that Forrest arrived in Nashville while the Klan was meeting at the [[Maxwell House Hotel]] in April 1867, probably at the encouragement of former fellow CSA general, turned state Klan leader, [[George Gordon (Civil War General)|George Gordon]].{{sfn|Newton|2014|p=11}} The organization had grown to the point that an experienced commander was needed, and Forrest was well-suited to assume the role. In Room 10 of the Maxwell, Forrest was sworn in as a member by [[John W. Morton (Tennessee politician)|John W. Morton]].<ref name="tennesseanobit">{{cite news|title=John W. Morton Passes Away in Shelby|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/119557576/?terms=%22John%2BW.%2BMorton%22|access-date=September 25, 2016|work=The Tennessean|date=November 21, 1914|pages=1–2|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|url-access=registration|quote=To Captain Morton came the peculiar distinction of having organized that branch of the Ku Klux Klan which operated in Nashville and the adjacent territory, but a more signal honor was his when he performed the ceremonies which initiated Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest into the mysterious ranks of the Ku Klux Klan.|archive-date=October 8, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161008185807/https://www.newspapers.com/image/119557576/?terms=%22John%2BW.%2BMorton%22|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Hurst|1993|pp=284–285}} Brian Steel Wills quotes two KKK members who identified Forrest as a Klan leader.{{sfn|Wills|1993|p=336}} James R. Crowe stated, "After the order grew to large numbers we found it necessary to have someone of large experience to command. We chose General Forrest".<ref name="Quarles199942">{{cite book|author=Chester L. Quarles|title=The Ku Klux Klan and Related American Racialist and Antisemitic Organizations: A History and Analysis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fhcnmDIQOW8C&pg=PA42 |year=1999|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-0647-0|page=42 |access-date=March 4, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509175437/https://books.google.com/books?id=fhcnmDIQOW8C&pg=PA42#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> Another member wrote, "N. B. Forrest of Confederate fame was at our head, and was known as the Grand Wizard. I heard him make a speech in one of our Dens".{{sfn|Wills|1993|p=336}} The title "[[Grand Wizard]]" was chosen because Forrest had been known as "The Wizard of the Saddle" during the war.<ref>{{harvnb|Hurst|2011|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=1LIvYI_ER5kC&pg=PA287 287]}}: "The next order of business was the naming of a leader and the designation of his title. Nominations were solicited. 'The Wizard of the Saddle, General Nathan Bedford Forrest,' a voice from the back of the room called out. The nominee was elected quickly, and in keeping with the off-the-cuff impulsiveness of the early Klan, was designated grand wizard of the Invisible Empire."</ref> According to Jack Hurst's 1993 biography, "Two years after [[Battle of Appomattox Court House|Appomattox]], Forrest was reincarnated as grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. As the Klan's first national leader, he became the [[Lost Cause of the Confederacy]]'s avenging angel, galvanizing a loose collection of boyish secret social clubs into a reactionary instrument of terror still feared today."{{sfn|Hurst|1993|p=6}} Forrest was the Klan's first and only Grand Wizard, and he was active in recruitment for the Klan from 1867 to 1868.{{sfn|Newton|2014|p=11}}{{sfn|Browning|2004|p=15}}<ref name="Martinez2007PA18">{{cite book|author=James Michael Martinez|title=Carpetbaggers, Cavalry, and the Ku Klux Klan: Exposing the Invisible Empire During Reconstruction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aLXSgDimlD0C&pg=PA18 |year=2007|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7425-5078-0|page=18|access-date=March 4, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509175433/https://books.google.com/books?id=aLXSgDimlD0C&pg=PA18#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Browning|2004|p=99}}<ref name="Philpott2016">{{cite book|author=Don Philpott|title=Critical Government Documents on Law and Order |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zLWcDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA52 |year=2016|publisher=Bernan Press|isbn=978-1-59888-784-6|page=52 |access-date=March 10, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509180316/https://books.google.com/books?id=zLWcDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA52#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Morton1909">{{cite book|author=John Watson Morton|year=1909 |title=The Artillery of Nathan Bedford Forrest's Cavalry: "the Wizard of the Saddle" |publisher=Publishing house of the M.E. Church, South, Smith & Lamar, agents|page=[https://archive.org/details/artillerynathan01mortgoog/page/n371 345] |url=https://archive.org/details/artillerynathan01mortgoog}}</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Phelan|first=Ben|date=January 16, 2009 |title=Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and the KKK|url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/fts/palmsprings_200801A41.html|website=pbs.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090220135735/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/fts/palmsprings_200801A41.html|archive-date=February 20, 2009}}</ref>

Following the war, the United States Congress began passing the [[Reconstruction Acts]] to specify conditions for the readmission of former Confederate States to the United States,<ref name="Franklin1995">{{cite book|author=John Hope Franklin|title=Reconstruction After the Civil War|edition=Second|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GH1W13Xv5y8C&pg=PA129|year=1995|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-26079-2|page=129|access-date=March 8, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509180335/https://books.google.com/books?id=GH1W13Xv5y8C&pg=PA129#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Schroeder-LeinZuczek2001">{{cite book|author1=Glenna R. Schroeder-Lein|author2=Richard Zuczek|title=Andrew Johnson: A Biographical Companion|url=https://archive.org/details/andrewjohnsonbio0000schr|url-access=registration|year=2001|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-030-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/andrewjohnsonbio0000schr/page/195 195]}}</ref><ref name="Summers2014">{{cite book|author=Mark Wahlgren Summers|title=The Ordeal of the Reunion: A New History of Reconstruction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FudjBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA90|year=2014|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-1-4696-1758-9|pages=90–91|access-date=March 8, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509180343/https://books.google.com/books?id=FudjBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA90#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> including ratification of the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth]] (1868), and [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifteenth]] (1870) Amendments to the United States Constitution. The Fourteenth addressed citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws for formerly enslaved people, while the Fifteenth specifically secured the voting rights of black men.<ref name="Tsesis2010">{{cite book|author=Alexander Tsesis|author-link=Alexander Tsesis|title=The Promises of Liberty: The History and Contemporary Relevance of the Thirteenth Amendment|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ORk2AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA88|year=2010|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-52013-3|page=88|access-date=March 8, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509180232/https://books.google.com/books?id=ORk2AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA88#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> According to Wills, in the August 1867 state elections the Klan was relatively restrained in its actions. White Americans who made up the KKK hoped to persuade black voters that returning to their pre-war state of bondage was in their best interest. Forrest assisted in maintaining order. After these efforts failed, Klan violence and intimidation escalated and became widespread.{{sfn|Wills|1993|p=338}} Author Andrew Ward, however, writes, "In the spring of 1867, Forrest and his dragoons launched a campaign of midnight parades; 'ghost' masquerades; and 'whipping' and even 'killing Negro voters and white Republicans, to scare blacks off voting and running for office{{'"}}.{{sfn|Ward|2005|p=386}} In 1868, "Klan organizers circulated printed rituals. Forrest and his business partners were then promoting an insurance venture, and their travels facilitated the movement ."<ref>{{cite book |last=Fitzgerald |first= M.W. |year=2017 |title=Reconstruction in Alabama: From Civil War to Redemption in the Cotton South |location=Baton Rouge |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |page=181}}</ref>

In an 1868 interview by a [[Cincinnati]] newspaper, Forrest claimed that the Klan had 40,000 members in [[Tennessee]] and 550,000 total members throughout the Southern United States.<ref name="Gitlin2009">{{cite book|author=Marty Gitlin|title=The Ku Klux Klan: A Guide to an American Subculture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DJ4YHu0DX0AC&pg=PA6|year=2009|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-36576-8|page=6|access-date=December 11, 2015|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509180349/https://books.google.com/books?id=DJ4YHu0DX0AC&pg=PA6|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Bartoletti2014">{{cite book|author=Susan Campbell Bartoletti|title=They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fnoQBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA138|year=2014|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-0-547-48803-5|page=138|access-date=April 9, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509180539/https://books.google.com/books?id=fnoQBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA138#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> He said he sympathized with them, but denied any formal connection, although he claimed he could muster thousands of men himself. He described the Klan as "a protective political military organization&nbsp;... The members are sworn to recognize the government of the United States ... Its objects originally were protection against [[Union League|Loyal Leagues]] and the [[Grand Army of the Republic]]&nbsp;...".<ref name="Current1992">{{cite book|author=Richard Nelson Current|title=Lincoln's Loyalists: Union Soldiers from the Confederacy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RIbFlZS5V6oC&pg=PA207|year=1992|publisher=University Press of New England|isbn=978-1-55553-124-9|page=207|access-date=April 9, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509180404/https://books.google.com/books?id=RIbFlZS5V6oC&pg=PA207#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Davison|Foxx|2007|p=451}} After only a year as Grand Wizard, in January 1869, faced with an ungovernable membership employing methods that seemed increasingly counterproductive, Forrest dissolved the Klan, ordered their costumes destroyed,<ref>{{citation|last=Tures|first=John A.|title=General Nathan Bedford Forrest Versus the Ku Klux Klan|website=HuffPost|date=July 6, 2015|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-a-tures/general-nathan-bedford-fo_b_7734444.html|access-date=August 23, 2017|archive-date=August 19, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819155104/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-a-tures/general-nathan-bedford-fo_b_7734444.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and withdrew from participation. His declaration had little effect, and few Klansmen destroyed their robes and hoods.<ref name="Wade199859">{{cite book|author=Wyn Craig Wade|title=The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6O_XYBMhNYAC&pg=PA59|year=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-512357-9|page=59|access-date=March 17, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509180540/https://books.google.com/books?id=6O_XYBMhNYAC&pg=PA59#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1871, the [[United States congressional committee|''U.S. Congressional Committee Report'']] stated that "The natural tendency of all such organizations is to violence and crime, hence it was that Gen. Forrest and other men of influence by the exercise of their moral power, induced them to disband".

====Democratic convention 1868====
{{main|1868 Democratic National Convention}}
[[File:1868 carte de visite - Nathan Bedford Forrest - Mathew B. Brady in New York City - Steve and Mike Romano Collection.jpg|thumb|1868 ''[[carte de visite]]'' of Nathan Bedford Forrest taken by [[Mathew B. Brady]] in New York City at the time of the 1868 Democratic Convention (Steve and Mike Romano Collection, ''Military Images'')]]
The Klan's activity infiltrated the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]'s campaign for the [[1868 United States presidential election|presidential election of 1868]]. Prominent ex-Confederates, including Forrest, the Grand Wizard of the Klan, and South Carolina's [[Wade Hampton III|Wade Hampton]], attended as delegates at the 1868 Democratic Convention, held at [[Tammany Hall]] headquarters at 141 East 14th Street in New York City.{{sfn|Newton|2014|p=12}}{{sfn|Calhoun|2017|p=46}} Forrest rode to the convention on a train that was stopped just outside of a small town along the way, when he was confronted by a well-known fighter shouting "d[amne]d butcher" and wanting to "thrash" him. When Forrest rose and approached the bully, his larger challenger's "purpose evaporated."{{sfn|Hurst|2011|p=300}} Former governor of New York [[Horatio Seymour]] was nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate, while Forrest's friend, [[Francis Preston Blair Jr.]], was nominated as the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Seymour's running mate.{{sfn|Newton|2014|p=12}} The Seymour–Blair Democratic ticket's campaign slogan was: "Our Ticket, Our Motto, This Is a White Man's Country; Let White Men Rule".{{sfn|Newton|2014|p=12}} The Democratic Party platform denounced the Reconstruction Acts as unconstitutional, void, and revolutionary.{{sfn|Calhoun|2017|p=46}} The party advocated the termination of the Freedman's Bureau and any government policy designed to aid blacks in the Southern United States.{{sfn|Calhoun|2017|p=46}} These developments worked to the advantage of the Republicans, who focused on the Democratic Party's alleged disloyalty during and after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]].{{sfn|Calhoun|2017|p=46}}

====Election of 1868 and Grant====
[[Image:George W. Ashburn.jpg|right|thumb|Prominent Republican organizer [[George Ashburn]] was murdered in Georgia by the Ku Klux Klan on March 31, 1868.]]
During the presidential election of 1868, the Ku Klux Klan, under the leadership of Forrest, and other terrorist groups, used brutal violence and intimidation against blacks and Republican voters.<ref name="Grant, Reconstruction and the KKK 2018">{{cite web|title=Grant, Reconstruction and the KKK|url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/grant-kkk/|date=2018|access-date=April 15, 2018|publisher=American Experience |website=pbs.org}}</ref>{{sfn|Chernow|2017|p=588}} Forrest played a prominent role in the spread of the Klan in the Southern United States, meeting with racist whites in Atlanta several times between February and March 1868. Forrest probably organized a statewide Klan network in Georgia during these visits.{{sfn|Bryant|2002}} On March 31, the Klan struck, killing prominent Republican organizer [[George W. Ashburn|George Ashburn]] in [[Columbus, Georgia|Columbus]].{{sfn|Bryant|2002}}

The Republicans had nominated one of Forrest's battle adversaries, U.S. war hero [[Ulysses S. Grant]], for the presidency at their convention held in October. Klansmen took their orders from their former Confederate officers.{{sfn|Chernow|2017|p=588}} In Louisiana, 1,000 blacks were killed to suppress Republican voting. In Georgia, blacks and Republicans also faced a lot of violence. The Klan's violence was primarily designed to intimidate voters, targeting black and white supporters of the Republican Party.{{sfn|Bryant|2002}} The Klan's violent tactics backfired, as Grant, whose slogan was "Let us have peace", won the election and Republicans gained a majority in Congress.<ref name="Grant, Reconstruction and the KKK 2018"/> Grant defeated [[Horatio Seymour]], the Democratic presidential candidate, by a comfortable electoral margin, 214 to 80.{{sfn|Calhoun|2017|p=55}} The popular vote was much closer: Grant received 3,013,365 (52.7%) votes, while Seymour received 2,708,744 (47.3%) votes.{{sfn|Calhoun|2017|p=55}} Grant lost Georgia and Louisiana, where the violence and intimidation against blacks were most prominent.

====Klan prosecution and Congressional testimony (1871)====
Many in the United States, including President Grant, backed the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave voting rights to American men regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". Congress and Grant passed the [[Enforcement Acts]] from 1870 to 1871 to protect the "registration, voting, officeholding, or jury service" of African Americans. Under these laws enforced by Grant and the newly formed [[United States Department of Justice|Department of Justice]], there were over 5,000 indictments and 1,000 convictions of Klan members across the Southern United States.<ref name="Grant, Reconstruction and the KKK 2018"/>

Forrest testified before the Congressional investigation of Klan activities on June 27, 1871. He denied membership, but his role in the KKK was beyond the scope of the investigating committee, which wrote: "Our design is not to connect General Forrest with this order (the reader may form his own conclusion upon this question)".<ref name="States1872">{{cite book|author=United States. Congress. Joint Select Committee on the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States|title=Report of the Joint Select Committee to Inquire Into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States, So Far as Regards the Execution of the Laws, and Safety of the Lives and Property of the Citizens of the United States and Testimony Taken: Report of the Joint committee, Views of the minority and Journal of the Select committee, April 20, 1871 – Feb. 19, 1872|url=https://archive.org/details/reportofjointsel04unit_0|year=1872|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|page=[https://archive.org/details/reportofjointsel04unit_0/page/n526 14]|quote=When it is considered that the origin, designs, mysteries, and ritual of the order are made secrets; that the assumption of its regalia or the revelation of any of its secrets, even by an expelled member, or of its purposes by a member, will be visited by 'the extreme penalty of the law', the difficulty of procuring testimony upon this point may be appreciated, and the denials of the purposes, of membership in, and even the existence of the order, should all be considered in the light of these provisions. This contrast might be pursued further, but our design is not to connect General Forrest with this order, (the reader may form his own conclusion upon this question,) but to trace its development, and from its acts and consequences gather the designs which are locked up under such penalties.}}</ref> The committee also noted, "The natural tendency of all such organizations is to violence and crime; hence it was that General Forrest and other men of influence in the state, by the exercise of their moral power, induced them to disband".<ref>{{cite report |title=Report of the Joint Select Committee to Inquire into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States |volume=1 |date=1872 |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Government Printing Office |url=https://archive.org/details/reportofjointsel01unit_0/ |page=463}}</ref> George Cantor, a biographer of Confederate generals, wrote, "Forrest ducked and weaved, denying all knowledge, but admitted he knew some of the people involved. He sidestepped some questions and pleaded failure of memory on others. Afterwards, he admitted to 'gentlemanly lies'. He wanted nothing more to do with the Klan, but felt honor bound to protect former associates."<ref name="Cantor2000">{{cite book|author=George Cantor|title=Confederate Generals: Life Portraits|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AW4VAQAAMAAJ&q=%22gentlemanly%20lies%22|year=2000|publisher=Taylor Trade Pub.|isbn=978-0-87833-179-6|page=78|access-date=May 13, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509180540/https://books.google.com/books?id=AW4VAQAAMAAJ&q=%22gentlemanly%20lies%22|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Race and politics (1870s)====
[[File:The Commercial Appeal Sun Jun 14 1908.jpg|thumb|The lionization of Forrest was especially keen during the post-[[Reconstruction Era|Reconstruction]] period now known as the [[nadir of American race relations]] ("When Forrest Came to Town" ''Memphis Commercial Appeal'', June 14, 1908)]]
After the [[lynching|lynch mob]] murder of four black people who had been arrested for defending themselves in a brawl at a barbecue, Forrest wrote to Tennessee governor [[John C. Brown]] in August 1874 volunteering to personally lead a posse to punish the "white marauders" responsible. Brown politely declined the offer.{{sfn|Davison|Foxx|2007|pp=474–475}}

In January 1875, Forrest came to Nashville to work against the re-election of Andrew Johnson for Senate; four of the six other candidates being considered by the Tennessee Assembly were fellow former high officers in the Confederate Army, namely generals [[John C. Brown]], [[William B. Bate]], [[William Andrew Quarles|W. A. Quarles]], and Colonel [[John H. Savage]]. According to historian [[Fay W. Brabson]], when Forrest arrived Johnson cunningly told him, "When the gods arrive, the half-gods depart; if the people really wanted to bestow honor where honor was due, they should support Forrest for the Senate instead of any one-horse general." Forrest was duly flattered and left town for Memphis that night, leaving the "lesser military contenders" to fight amongst themselves amidst a losing battle with Johnson.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Brabson |first=Fay Warrington |url=https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchCode=LCCN&searchArg=77151079&searchType=1&permalink=y |title=Andrew Johnson: a life in pursuit of the right course, 1808–1875: the seventeenth President of the United States |date=1972 |publisher=Seeman Printery |location=Durham, N.C |pages=258 |language=en-us |access-date=December 27, 2023 |archive-date=August 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230803085005/https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchCode=LCCN&searchArg=77151079&searchType=1&permalink=y |url-status=live }}</ref>

In his last public appearance, Forrest gave a speech on July 5, 1875 before the Independent Order of Pole-Bearers Association, a post-war organization of black Southerners advocating to both improve black people's economic condition and gain equal rights for all citizens. He made what ''[[The New York Times]]'' described as a "friendly speech"<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1111/j.1533-8525.1999.tb02361.x |title=Kommemorating the Ku Klux Klan |journal=The Sociological Quarterly |volume=40 |pages=139–158 |year=1999 |last1=Lewis |first1=Michael |last2=Serbu |first2=Jacqueline}}</ref><ref name="nytimes.com">{{citation|url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0713.html|title=On This Day: Death of General Forrest|newspaper=The New York Times|date=October 30, 1877|access-date=February 17, 2017|archive-date=June 11, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611180050/http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0713.html|url-status=live}}</ref> during which, when offered a bouquet by the daughter of a Pole Bearers' officer, he accepted them,<ref name="Stephens2012">{{cite book |author=John Richard Stephens |title=Commanding the Storm: Civil War Battles in the Words of the Generals Who Fought Them |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e2VBBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT319 |year=2012|publisher=Lyons Press|isbn=978-0-7627-9002-9|page=319 |access-date=April 9, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509180540/https://books.google.com/books?id=e2VBBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT319#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> thanked the young black woman and kissed her on the cheek. Forrest spoke in encouragement of black advancement and endeavored to be a proponent for espousing peace and harmony between black and white Americans.<ref name="memphis-appeal">{{citation|title=Memphis daily appeal. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847–1886, July 06, 1875, Image 1|website=Library of Congress, Chronicling America|issue=1875/07/06|date=August 4, 2008 |issn=2166-1898|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045160/1875-07-06/ed-1/seq-1/|access-date=August 23, 2017|publisher=National Endowment for the Humanities|archive-date=August 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823161940/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045160/1875-07-06/ed-1/seq-1/|url-status=live}}</ref>

In response to the Pole-Bearers speech, the [[Confederate Survivors Association|Cavalry Survivors Association of Augusta]], the first Confederate organization formed after the war, held a meeting on July 30, 1875 in which Captain Francis Edgeworth Eve, a former enlisted cavalry soldier who had been [[Confederate Conscription Acts 1862–1864#Election of officers|elected to his rank]] in the [[Georgia Hussars]], gave a speech expressing strong disapproval of Forrest's remarks promoting inter-ethnic harmony, ridiculing his faculties and judgment and berating the woman who gave Forrest flowers as "a mulatto wench". The association voted unanimously to amend its constitution to expressly forbid publicly advocating for or hinting at any association of white women and girls as being in the same classes as "females of the negro race".<ref>{{citation|work=Augusta Georgia Chronicle|date=July 31, 1875|url=http://deadconfederates.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/augusta-chronicle-31-july-1875-p-4.pdf|title=Ex-Confederates: Meeting of Cavalry Survivor's Association|access-date=July 13, 2015|archive-date=September 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150916000410/https://deadconfederates.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/augusta-chronicle-31-july-1875-p-4.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> The ''[[The Telegraph (Macon)|Macon Weekly Telegraph]]'' newspaper also condemned Forrest for his speech, describing the event as "the recent disgusting exhibition of himself at the negro jamboree" and quoting part of a ''[[Charlotte Observer]]'' article, which read "We have infinitely more respect for [[James Longstreet|Longstreet]], who fraternizes with negro men on public occasions, with the pay for the treason to his race in his pocket, than with Forrest and [[Gideon Johnson Pillow|[General] Pillow]], who equalize with the negro women, with only 'futures' in payment".<ref name="SavannahMorningNews1875">{{cite news |editor1-last=Thompson |editor1-first=W. T. |title=Savannah Morning News (Savannah, Ga.) 1868-1887, July 17, 1875 |url=https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn82015137/1875-07-17/ed-1/seq-2/ |access-date=10 December 2024 |work=Savannah Morning News |date=July 17, 1875 |page=2}}</ref>

===Death===
[[File:Elmwood Cemetery S Pauline St 2010-09-25 Memphis TN 17.jpg|thumb|left| A number of Forrest family members are buried at Memphis' [[Elmwood Cemetery (Memphis, Tennessee)|Elmwood Cemetery]].]]
Forrest reportedly died from acute complications of [[diabetes]] at the Memphis home of his brother Jesse on October 29, 1877.{{sfn|Welsh|1999|p=72}} His eulogy was delivered by his recent spiritual mentor, former Confederate chaplain [[George Tucker Stainback]], who declared in his eulogy: "Lieutenant-General Nathan Bedford Forrest, though dead, yet speaketh. His acts have photographed themselves upon the hearts of thousands, and will speak there forever."{{sfn|Ashdown|Caudill|2006|p=64}}

Forrest's funeral procession was over two miles long. The crowd of mourners was estimated to include 20,000 people.<ref name="Jones2006" /> According to Forrest biographer Jack Hurst, writers present at the public viewing of Forrest's body and the funeral procession noted many black citizens among them.{{sfn|Hurst|2011|p=9}}

[[File:Elmwood Cemetery S Pauline St 2010-09-25 Memphis TN 14.jpg|thumb|Forrest helped raise money for a Confederate monument at the cemetery.]]
Forrest was buried on October 30, 1877 at [[Elmwood Cemetery (Memphis, Tennessee)|Elmwood Cemetery]] in Memphis with military honors and rites as a member of the [[Odd Fellows|Oddfellows]].{{sfn|Foote|1974|p=1052}}<ref>{{Cite news |date=1877-11-04 |title=The Death of Nathan Bedford Forrest- razz |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-morning-star-and-catholic-messenger/43298173/ |access-date=2024-07-28 |work=The Morning Star and Catholic Messenger |pages=8}}</ref> In 1904, the remains of Forrest and his wife Mary were [[Burial#Reinterment|disinterred]] from Elmwood and moved to a Memphis city park that was originally named Forrest Park in his honor but has since been renamed Health Sciences Park.<ref name="Sainz">{{citation|last=Sainz|first=Adrian|title=Memphis renames 3 parks that honored Confederacy|url=https://news.yahoo.com/memphis-renames-3-parks-honored-confederacy-010653790.html|access-date=February 6, 2013|archive-date=February 9, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130209164235/http://news.yahoo.com/memphis-renames-3-parks-honored-confederacy-010653790.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

On July 7, 2015, the Memphis City Council unanimously voted to remove the statue of Forrest from Health Sciences Park, and to return the remains of Forrest and his wife to Elmwood Cemetery.<ref name="TaylorArthur2015">{{cite news|author1=Eryn Taylor|author2=Shay Arthur|title=Council begins process of removing Nathan Bedford Forrest's remains|url=https://wreg.com/2015/07/07/statue-debate-heats-up-as-city-council-gets-set-to-vote/ |access-date=September 3, 2019|work=News Channel 3|publisher=WREG|date=July 7, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190423002454/https://wreg.com/2015/07/07/statue-debate-heats-up-as-city-council-gets-set-to-vote/|archive-date=April 23, 2019|language=en|url-status=live}}</ref> However, on October 13, 2017, the [[Tennessee Historical Commission]] invoked the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act of 2013 and U.S. Public Law 85-425: Sec. 410 to overrule the city.<ref name="TDEC2018">{{cite web|title=Tennessee Heritage Protection Act|url=https://www.tn.gov/environment/about-tdec/tennessee-historical-commission/redirect---tennessee-historical-commission/tennessee-heritage-protection-act.html|website=www.tn.gov|publisher=Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation|access-date=April 14, 2018 |language=en|archive-date=April 12, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180412195019/https://www.tn.gov/environment/about-tdec/tennessee-historical-commission/redirect---tennessee-historical-commission/tennessee-heritage-protection-act.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Consequently, Memphis sold the park land to [[Memphis Greenspace]], a non-profit entity not subject to the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act, which immediately removed the monument as explained below.<ref name="CommercialAppeal2017">{{cite news|url=http://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/government/city/2017/12/20/memphis-council-votes-immediately-remove-confederate-statues/960707001/|newspaper=[[Memphis Commercial Appeal]]|title=Memphis removes Confederate statues from Downtown parks|date=December 21, 2017|access-date=December 21, 2017|archive-date=December 21, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171221081742/http://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/government/city/2017/12/20/memphis-council-votes-immediately-remove-confederate-statues/960707001/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="WashingtonPost2017">{{cite news|title=Memphis to Jefferson Davis: 'Na na na na, hey, hey, goodbye'|first=Fred|last=Barbash|date=December 21, 2017|access-date=December 21, 2017|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://s2.washingtonpost.com/20f12b/5a3be18afe1ff6194e5e2822/ZGFuaWVsYmVpc2VuYmVyZ0BnbWFpbC5jb20%3D/36/122/ce43b833f25d2f95e08f74b8fbc71cb8|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509180908/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/12/21/memphis-to-jefferson-davis-na-na-na-na-hey-hey-goodbye/?undefined=&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1|url-status=live}}</ref>

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