Editing Nathan Bedford Forrest (section)

===West Tennessee raids===
[[File:NathanBedfordForrestportrait.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Gen. Bedford Forrest]]
Promoted on July 21, 1862, to [[Brigadier General (CSA)|brigadier general]], Forrest was given command of a Confederate cavalry brigade.{{sfn|Eicher|Eicher|2001|p=240}} In December 1862, Forrest's veteran troopers were reassigned by General [[Braxton Bragg]] to another officer despite his protest. Forrest had to recruit a new brigade of about 2,000 inexperienced men, most of whom lacked weapons.<ref name="Jones2017">{{cite book|author=Robert C. Jones|title=Alabama and the Civil War: A History & Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SggmDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA13|year=2017|publisher=Arcadia Publishing Inc.|isbn=978-1-4396-6075-1|page=13|access-date=March 12, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509171041/https://books.google.com/books?id=SggmDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA13#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> Again, Bragg ordered a series of raids to disrupt the communications of the U.S. Army forces under Grant, which were threatening the city of [[Vicksburg, Mississippi]]. Forrest protested that sending such untrained men behind enemy lines was suicidal, but Bragg insisted, and Forrest obeyed his orders. In the ensuing raids, he was pursued by thousands of U.S. soldiers trying to locate his fast-moving forces. Avoiding attack by never staying in one place long, Forrest eventually led his troops during the spring and summer of 1864 on [[West Tennessee Raids|raids]] into west Tennessee, as far north as the banks of the [[Ohio River]] in southwest Kentucky and into north Mississippi.{{sfn|Axelrod|2011|p=86}}<ref name="Millar2018">{{cite book|author=G. Lee Millar|title=Forrest Stories: Humor of Bedford Forrest and His Cavalry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MYRVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT60|year=2018|publisher=AuthorHouse|isbn=978-1546235569|page=60|access-date=May 20, 2020|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509170958/https://books.google.com/books?id=MYRVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT60#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

Forrest returned to his base in Mississippi with more men than he had started with. By then, all were fully armed with captured U.S. Army weapons. As a result, Grant was forced to revise and delay his [[Vicksburg campaign]] strategy. Newspaper correspondent Sylvanus Cadwallader, who traveled with Grant for three years during his campaigns, wrote that Forrest "was the only Confederate cavalryman of whom Grant stood in much dread".<ref name="Miers1984">{{cite book|author=Earl S. Miers|title=The Web of Victory: Grant at Vicksburg|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E4wmyy-nBfgC&pg=PA53|year=1984|publisher=LSU Press|isbn=978-0-8071-1199-4|page=53|access-date=March 4, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509171053/https://books.google.com/books?id=E4wmyy-nBfgC&pg=PA53#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Mitcham|2016|p=10}}