Nathan Bedford Forrest was a Confederate general widely portrayed by the Southern press as the Civil War’s most daring and cunning cavalryman. With no formal military training, Forrest quickly rose from the ranks of private to lieutenant general. Following the war, he served as the Ku Klux Klan’s first grand wizard, but later called for the organization’s disbandment. Read more about it!

The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.

The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.