Cold cast bronze statue of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest is from the series of twelve busts by Ron Tunison titled, “The Men they Followed”, which commemorated the leaders of the Civil War. Each portrays a superb likeness and captures with great detail these distinctive personalities through the masterful sculpting abilities of Ron Tunison.

The sculpture measures 8” in height including the base that is cast as one piece with the bust. Reverse is signed by Tunison, dated 1992 and numbered 325/350. Accompanied by Collector’s Certificate signed by Ron Tunison.

Nathan Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821 – October 29, 1877), was one of the few officers on either side of the war to enlist as a private and be promoted to general officer and corps commander during the war. He created and established new doctrines for mobile forces, earning the nickname The Wizard of the Saddle. After the war ended, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and General Robert E. Lee both expressed their belief that the Confederate high command had failed to use Forrest's talents fully. Union general William Tecumseh Sherman called him "that devil Forrest" during wartime communications with Ulysses S. Grant and considered him "the most remarkable man our civil war produced on either side". He is considered one of the Civil War's most brilliant tacticians. Without military education or training, he became the scourge of Grant, Sherman, and almost every other Union general who fought in Tennessee, Alabama, or Kentucky. Forrest fought by simple rules: he maintained that "war means fighting and fighting means killing" and that the way to win was "to get there first with the most men". His cavalry, which Sherman reported in disgust "could travel one hundred miles in less time it takes ours to travel ten", secured more Union guns, horses, and supplies than any other single Confederate unit. He played pivotal roles at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, the capture of Murfreesboro, the Franklin-Nashville campaign, Brice's Cross Roads, and in pursuit and capture of Colonel Streight's Raiders.

Ron Tunison (1947 – 2013) was born in Richmond Hill, N.Y., and was a graduate of the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. He was a scholarship student at the NYC National Academy where he continued his sculpting studies. He went on to become an internationally acclaimed sculptor of nine heroic bronze monuments: "General W. Crawford," near Little Round Top on the Gettysburg Battlefield, the “Friend to Friend Masonic Memorial" on Steinwehr Ave., the bas-relief "Delaware State Memorial" on Taneytown Road, and "The Gettysburg Civil War Women's Memorial" at Evergreen Cemetery. On the Antietam National Battlefield is Tunison's "Irish Brigade Monument." "The Bivouac" is at the entrance to the Civil War Soldier's Museum at Pamplin Historical Park near Petersburg, Va. "The Delaware Continentals" heroic size bronze of three advancing Revolutionary War soldiers stands atop a twenty-five foot granite pedestal in front of Legislative Hall at Dover, Delaware. At Ringgold Gap in Atlanta, Ga., is Ron's life-size General Patrick Cleburne. Dedication ceremonies for “General John Barry, U.S. Naval Commander”, took place May 10th, 2014 at U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.  Ron was the entrepreneur behind his own company Historical Sculptures, where he sculpted smaller statues. [ld/sl]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS ITEM, AS WITH ALL OTHER ITEMS AVAILABLE ON OUR WEB SITE,

MAY BE PURCHASED THROUGH OUR LAYAWAY PROGRAM.

FOR OUR POLICIES AND TERMS,

CLICK ON ‘CONTACT US’ AT THE TOP OF ANY PAGE ON THE SITE,

THEN ON ‘LAYAWAY POLICY’.

THANK YOU!