Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Overall, a first-rate biography, both from a military and from psychological and spiritual sense.
Though it indeed lacks maps, the knowledgeable student of the War for Southern Independence will find those included to be sufficient. The work is not, as some have intimated in these reviews, unfair or essentially negative in its presentation of the man, Forrest.
On the contary, Forrest fans will find it delightfully free of the anti-Forrest rancor which politically correct historical revisionsists are so famous for. Hurst understands that the so-called "distasteful activities" were 100% legal at the time, and presents them without undue bias. Forrest is in no way presented as any more racist than his contemporaries, and shown as he was, significantly more compassionate toward African Ameicans than many in these reviews would suggest (Did they even read the book? -- one wonders).
His celebrated ruthlessness in a fight is balanced by a historically well-established backwoods chivalry which markedly contrasts this uneducated but brilliant man (6 mo. total formal schooling), with some of his contemporaries such as the war-criminal-by-his-own-admission, Sherman. The admiration which he earned from his troops is also well-documented, though he accurately is depicted in this work as having shot both deserters and cowards in battle.
Forrest's amazing ability to size up situations at a glance, to see the unseen part of the field, and to comprehend distances and the geometry of operational and tactical logistics is well- covered.
Several longstanding misconceptions are properly laid to rest in this work, among them, that Forrest founded the Kuklos Klan - He did not. He was asked and accepted to be its first Grand Wizard (a title developed in his honor, since he was well-known as the "wizard of the saddle"). Forrest's subsequent Congressional testimony against the Klan is detailed, as is his (successful) effort to disband the Klan (the present-day Ku Klux Klan is dominated by midwesterners and northerners, is the third such organisation in history, and is descended from the first Klan in name only).
Forrest's signal bravery and inimitable style comes through in this work better than in any other I have read. He stands up off the pages, whether in his manner of chasing away other beaus in competition for his bride (yes, there is even romance in this story), in his regrettable knife-killing of a subordinate who shot him in a violent dispute over lost cannon (No damn man kills me and lives!), or in his pragmatic treatment of the slaves he unflinchingly bought and sold. He was a poor scrabbler, an ambitious climber, but an exemplary fighter of unique integrity and fearless grit.
The Fort Pillow battle is well-documented, presenting a dispassionate and careful discussion of the facts as ascertained from study of the collected records of all involved; as well as both the Yankee propaganda against him, and his own "Keep up the Skeer" propaganda. The dispassionate discussion sheds new light on this shattering defeat which resulted in such heavy losses for the all-black regiments involved. This controversial engagement is very well-treated by Hurst.
Forrest was a one-of-a-kind man from a very different time, and an unrecognizable place to modern Americans -- even westerners. That is borne out in this very exciting book. This work is not to be read by those seeking a cartoon caricature of this towering man among men -- the finest cavalryman yet produced by the English-speaking world.
JEFF WHITE
Major, United States Army MS, DMSM
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