Carte de visite photograph of Forrest in uniform. Chest up view wearing double-breasted frock with collar insignia visible. Image is clear with very good contrast. Mount shows light wear to printed border. Pencil identifications on front and back. Photographer's backmark, E. & H.T. Anthony, New York.

Nathan Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821 – October 29, 1877) was a prominent Confederate Army general during the American Civil War and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan from 1867 to 1869. Before the war, Forrest amassed substantial wealth as a cotton plantation owner, horse and cattle trader, real estate broker, and slave trader. In June 1861, he enlisted in the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry and became one of the few soldiers during the war to enlist as a private and be promoted to general without any prior military training. An expert cavalry leader, Forrest was given command of a corps and established new doctrines for mobile forces, earning the nickname "The Wizard of the Saddle". He used his cavalry troops as mounted infantry and often deployed artillery as the lead in battle, thus helping to "revolutionize cavalry tactics".

In April 1864, troops under Forrest's command at the Battle of Fort Pillow massacred hundreds of troops, composed of black soldiers and white Tennessean Southern Loyalists fighting for the Union, who had already surrendered. Forrest was blamed for the slaughter in the Union press.

Forrest, who was a Freemason, joined the Ku Klux Klan in 1867 and was elected its first Grand Wizard. In 1869, Forrest expressed disillusionment with the group; he then withdrew from the organization. In the last years of his life, Forrest made a public speech in favor of racial harmony.

In June 2021, the remains of Forrest and his wife were exhumed from Health Sciences Park, where they had been buried for over 100 years and a monument of him once stood. They were later reburied in Columbia, Tennessee. In July 2021, Tennessee officials voted to move Forrest‘s bust from the State Capitol to the Tennessee State Museum.  [jet] [ph:L]

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