Forrest, Nathan Bedford (1821-1877) to A. P. Mason
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC08900 Author/Creator: Forrest, Nathan Bedford (1821-1877) Place Written: Columbia, Tennessee Type: Letter signed Date: 21 December 1864 Pagination: 2 p. ; 20 x 13 cm. Order a Copy
Writes to Colonel Mason about the shelling of Columbia, Tennessee and the situation of prisoners during the Tennessee Campaign: "I told him [Union General Edward Hatch] that we had no forces in the town excepting a skirmish line, that his fire has endangered his own wounded who are in the town, and that if it did not cease I should place the wounded directly under it. After this the firing ceased." Discusses his correspondence with Hatch about a prisoner exchange and his feelings that it implied that there were no Union infantry to the front of his position. Written at Headquarters near Columbia.
Nathan Bedford Forest (1821-1877) was a self-made man, a planter and slave dealer who, without formal military training, rose to be a Major General in the Confederate Army.
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