Forrest's Last
McLean County (the tiny Kentucky county just south of where I used to live in Owensboro) likes to promote itself as the site of "Forrest's First." There in late 1861, in a field just outside the tiny town of Sacramento, a Confederate Colonel named Nathan Bedford Forrest fought and won his first battle. It was a little skirmish, but McLean Countians have blown it up into something huge, claiming that the experience Forrest gained there led to the supposed brilliant leadership he displayed for the rest of the war.
So if the Battle of Sacramento can be said to be the site of Forrest's First victory, then this field at Brices Cross Roads is the site of Forrest's Last. He carried the day here, though doing so cost him his shot at Sherman. From here, he would go on to lose one big battle (more on that later), after which he would be little more than a raider, a rebel gnat buzzing in the face of the victorious Union. But his memory lingers on here north of Tupelo, where the private Brices Cross Roads Battlefield Commission and a few local families preserved the last field that was his, holding on tightly so that even now, it won't fall into Union hands.
Forrest's Last
McLean County (the tiny Kentucky county just south of where I used to live in Owensboro) likes to promote itself as the site of "Forrest's First." There in late 1861, in a field just outside the tiny town of Sacramento, a Confederate Colonel named Nathan Bedford Forrest fought and won his first battle. It was a little skirmish, but McLean Countians have blown it up into something huge, claiming that the experience Forrest gained there led to the supposed brilliant leadership he displayed for the rest of the war.
So if the Battle of Sacramento can be said to be the site of Forrest's First victory, then this field at Brices Cross Roads is the site of Forrest's Last. He carried the day here, though doing so cost him his shot at Sherman. From here, he would go on to lose one big battle (more on that later), after which he would be little more than a raider, a rebel gnat buzzing in the face of the victorious Union. But his memory lingers on here north of Tupelo, where the private Brices Cross Roads Battlefield Commission and a few local families preserved the last field that was his, holding on tightly so that even now, it won't fall into Union hands.