FIRST with MOST FORREST/CONFEDERATE, CIVIL WAR/1944 1ST

A solid First Edition copy of this scarce and fascinating military biography Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who joined the Confederate Army at age 40 as a private in the cavalry, and four years later had attained the rank of Lieutenant General. A bold and prudent commander, his tactics, daring, and motto "Get their first with the most" won him the accolade from the Union Army as "That Devil Forrest". The author is openly admiring of his subject and glosses over some of the darker periods Forrest's career such as the Fort Pillow massacre. However, Henry's familiarity with railroads as longtime assistant to the president of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis line brings out good detail on movement and logistics of Forrest's campaigns. With maps. Published 65 years ago, this edition is now long out of print and scarce, often selling for between $50 and $100+.

From the Text: "Pursuing the practice of personally raising troops, common in all American wars, even into the early stages of the First World War, Forrest opened his recruiting headquarters at the Gayoso Hotel in Memphis, and began to publish in the newspapers his call for 500 men for 'mounted ranger service,' the men to furnish their own mounts and arms, 'shot guns and pistols preferable.'

"But the future commander of the battalion...had no intention of depending on such casual and uncertain sources of supply, nor yet on the scant resources of the new Confederate government. He started then the practice which he followed all the way through. He went out and supplied himself.

"Within a week after his designation to raise troops he was in the officially neutral state of Kentucky, seeking both recruits and equipment. The equipment he bought and paid for with his own funds but buying and paying for it was but the beginning. Five hundred pistols - no sabers - and one hundred sets of horse equipment, with other needed supplies, were gathered and stored in a Louisville livery stable. Thence some of the supplies moved into the country as 'potatoes', others moved to a tanyard in the suburbs as 'leather', and still others, stowed in coffee sacks, were carried by Forrest himself and a handful of enthusiastic young Southern sympathizers to be loaded on a little train of ordinary farm wagons, which went quietly south that night. 'Potatoes', 'leather,' and 'coffee' all reached the Confederate lines in Tennessee safely.

"During the July weeks in which Forrest was in Kentucky, the war, which since January had been in a vast and vague confusion of organizing, began to take shape. First Manassas was fought in Virginia that month, and in Missouri there were small engagements between Missouri state troops and the Union Army contending for the possession of that state..." 

Contents include: 1st 40 years 1821-61; First command and 1st fight; Fall of Fort Donelson; Battle at the place of Peace; From Mississippi to Kentucky; 1st West Tennessee Campaign; Pursuit and capture of Streight; Retreat with the Army of Tennessee; To New Fields; Okolona's Debut in victory; Forrest of Fort Pillow; Brice's Cross roads; Harrisburg; Memphis; Rear guard of retreat from Tennessee; Note on geographical changes; Notes; Bibliography; Index. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thick Octavo - sized hardcover book; 558 pages of text, 10 maps, and 24 illustrations. Very Good condition book: no torn pages; one uncut page; no writing or markings in the text; front hinges slightly loose; no ownership markings: small "100" on bottom page edges. Original binding, with gilt lettering, light fraying to corners and spinetips, fading to spine. A solid and attractive copy of this scarce book.

Please look through my other auction listings- I have listed many scarce and unusual books this week on ebay. Please bid on more than one book, because I will be happy to reduce shipping costs for multiple purchases. Media mail postage within the United States would be $4 for this item and $1 for each additional book. International bids welcomed, international airmail postage $13; Canadian airmail postage $10.