By Karen Hall

Editor

Civilian and military re-enactors of the Civil War gathered Saturday near Chapel Hill to raise funds for the continued restoration of Nathan Bedford Forrest's boyhood home, now the property of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The weather was perfect for stepping back in time, neither too hot nor too cold, with a pleasant breeze, and mercifully free of rain.

Thus the miseries of soaked woolen uniforms and leaking canvas tents were avoided and the re-enactors could concentrate on portraying the way people lived and fought 150 years ago. In the civilian encampment, blacksmiths forged useful items over coal fires, musicians played cheerful 19th century music, spinning and weaving was demonstrated, and fried pies were prepared and cooked over an open fire.

A group of cavalry re-enactors showed off their well-schooled mounts as they performed a series of maneuvers, fired their pistols and long guns, and showed spectators their authentic tack and equipment. A group of Union scouts was detected hidden at the edge of the meadow and a short skirmish was fought, with the Confederates emerging victorious, herding two prisoners back to their lines.

Through it all wandered Forrest, portrayed by Mike Cole of Mt. Juliet, manager of Nashville's Bicentennial Mall State Park.

Cole is totally believable as Forrest, and resembles him to an uncany degree.

He has played Forrest at least 10 to 12 times in the last two years. Before that Cole was a Revolutionary War re-enactor, but he's had to drop that for now.

"I can't do the 18th century with the beard," Cole explained.

He bought most of the uniform and equipment from Blockade Runner in Wartrace. Cole showed off his sword, similar to the Union officer's saber Forrest found at Trenton.

"He was a tall man," Cole said. "He liked the long sword."

Forrest immediately sharpened the weapon, and when subordinates told him he was not expected to use it, Forrest merely exclaimed, "Turn the grindstone."

"War is fighting and fighting means killing," he famously said. Forrest rode into battle with four pistols, Cole said, two on the saddle and two at his waist, as well as the sword, which he used both for fighting and for pointing the direction he wanted his men to go. Light colored gauntlets also helped draw attention to an officer's gestures in the smoke and confusion of battle.

Forrest led from the front, and never sent his men where he was unwilling to go himself. Because of this behavior he had 29 horses shot out from under him, and personally killed as many as 30 of the enemy.

He was wounded several times, but no injury kept him out of action for long. It was illness that finished Forrest off at age 56 in 1877: "acute complications of diabetes," according to Wikipedia.

"If anyone fell under a lucky star, Forrest did," said Cole.

"Bedford Forrest was a legend in his own times and now," said historian Dr. Michael Bradley in a short lecture that was one of the day's attractions.

"We believe good stories about Bedford Forrest," Bradley said, even when some of them are proved to have originated years after his death.

A few bad stories about Forrest are believed as well, admitted Bradley, such as the one that Forrest was a founder of the Ku Klux Klan.

"We can't even prove he was a member of the Klan," said Bradley, though other historians dispute this.

Bradley summarized what made Forrest such a legend.

First, he was a winner. He did not accept defeat as final.

Second, he did not accept his start as his ending place. From his boyhood home in the rough and rocky backwoods near Chapel Hill, Forrest and his family moved to more fertile land in Mississippi, and by the time the Civil War broke out, he was a millionaire several times over.

Third, he was a leader. Enlisting as a private, Forrest rose rapidly through the ranks, and showed a gift for strategy and tactics. His doctrines for mobile forces are still studied by military men all over the world.

Forrest's principals for combat, Bradley said, included "take the fight to the foe," "weapons make the man," and the vital importance of training and discipline. After one disastrous episode with inexperienced troops, Forrest decreed every man under his command would train six hours a day, without exception.

When someone asked who Forrest beat that was any good, Bradley recounted, the rejoinder was, "Why couldn't the U.S. Army find someone good enough to whip Bedford Forrest?"