Testimony of Nathan Bedford Forrest Before the Joint Select Committee of the U.S. Congress on the Ku-Klux, etc., Part 2

The Testimony of

Nathan Bedford Forrest

Before the Joint Select Committee of the United States Congress on the Ku-Klux, etc., June 27, 1871

Part 2

[Publisher’s Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. – Here is Part 2 of Forrest’s testimony. To bring you up to date:

On June 27, 1871, in Washington, D.C., Nathan Bedford Forrest testified under oath before the Joint Select Committee of the United States Congress on the Ku-Klux.ⁱ Forrest had been called to testify because the Committee thought that he and Gen. John B. Gordon knew more about the KKK than anybody else.

Ever since the end of the War Between the States, Forrest has been falsely accused of being the grand wizard and founder of the KKK. However, John Allan Wyeth in his famous biography Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest writes about Forrest’s testimony:

Forrest testified that while he did not take an active part in the organization of the Ku-Klux, he knew that it was an association of citizens in his state (Tennessee) for self-protection. There was a great, widespread, and deep feeling of insecurity felt by those who had sympathized with the South in the war, as a result of Governor Brownlow’s calling out the militia and his proclamation, which they had interpreted as a license for the state troops, without fear of punishment, to commit any kind of depredation against those lately in arms against the Union. Forrest stated that he had advised against all manner of violence on the part of the Southern people, and when the Loyal Leagues, for fear of the Ku-Klux, began to disband, he urged the disbanding of the other society.ⁱⁱ

The Committee believed Forrest and concluded in their final report:

The statements of these gentlemen (Forrest and Gordon) are full and explicit. . . . The evidence fully sustains them, and it is only necessary to turn to the official documents of Tennessee to show that all Forrest said about the alarm which prevailed during the administration of Governor Brownlow was strictly true. No State was ever reduced to such humiliation and degradation as that unhappy commonwealth during the years Brownlow ruled over her.ⁱⁱⁱ

Forrest’s testimony is fascinating and will be published in its entirety over the next few weeks. Here is Part 2.]

N. B. FORREST sworn and examined (continued)

This post will be completed in the next few days and an email blast sent out.

To Be Continued

ⁱ United States Congress. Joint Select Committee On The Condition Of Affairs In The Late Insurrectionary States, Luke P Poland, John Scott, and Woodrow Wilson Collection. Report of the Joint select committee appointed to inquire into the condition of affairs in the late insurrectionary states, so far as regards the execution of laws, and the safety of the lives and property of the citizens of the United States and Testimony taken. [Washington, Govt. print. off, 1872] Web https://lccn.loc.gov/35031867. Forrest’s testimony is in Volume XIII, Miscellaneous and Florida.

ⁱⁱ John Allan Wyeth, That Devil Forrest, Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959), 550-551.

ⁱⁱⁱ Ibid.