"As Gen. Forrest would say, 'Talk is cheap.'"
It is said that the ghost of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest rides around the haunted battlefields of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky by night. Some have reported the gray caped spirit of Gen. John Bell Hood in the woods around Chickamauga Creek.
Left wingers have the right to criticize the Confederacy and its politics. But I'd like to see one of them carry on a conversation with Hood or Forrest regarding the honor of Confederate soldiers. I'd like to see one of them dishonor the Confederate flag in the presence of these men. That would truly be a courageous act.
Frankly, I don't think our liberal friends have the stomach for such conversation.
John Bell Hood commanded the Army of Tennessee. He fought at Gettysburg where he permanently lost the use of his left arm in battle. Being transferred to the western front, Hood launched a massive attack into a gap in Union lines at the Battle of Chickamauga and had his right leg blown off. In spite of these permanent and hideous wounds, Hood continued to fight for most of the remainder of the war. You would not wish to argue character with General Hood.
Neither will wise men speak ill of the Southern spirit in the presence of Gen. Forrest. Bedford was in his share of tough fights, before and after the war. In 1841, Forrest's uncle was killed by several of the Matlock brothers in Hernando, Mississippi. Bedford shot two of them with his two-shot pistol and wounded two more in a knife fight. He stood 6 feet, 2 inches tall and weighed 210 pounds. It is estimated that during the war Bedford personally killed 30 enemy soldiers. He was known as a hard rider and fierce swordsman. At the Battle of Fallen Timbers he charged a large group of enemy soldiers only to realize too late that his men had abandoned the charge to leave Forrest intermingling with the enemy alone. Realizing his men were not with him, Forrest used his Colt and sabre to clear the road of enemy troops and galloped back to his own men. A Union soldier attempted to dismount Forrest by pulling him off his horse. Forrest yanked the man across the saddle in front of him, charged back to his own lines, then dropped the enemy soldier to the ground with a heavy thud. During this escapade, Forrest was shot in the back at point blank range with a musket. A surgeon removed the ball without the benefit of anesthesia.
At Brice's Cross Roads, Forrest commanded 500 troops when he encountered a Union force of 8,500 troops under Brig. Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis. Forrest charged the northern troops and drove them from the field, having his horse shot from under him in the fight. Biographers state that Forrest had 15 horses shot from under him during the war. A conversation about the inadequacies of southern virtue is one that I would not wish to have with Mr. Forrest.
So when the sissy left wingers speak of kicking the a--es of Confederates, they do so only from the safety of television studios, wearing their lipstick, face powder and cheap cologne.
As Gen. Forrest would say, "Talk is cheap."
