Nathan Bedford Forrest

Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821-1877) was a Confederate cavalry general during the War of Secession. He served in the western theater, and was known for his speed on the march, the suddenness of his attacks, his personal courage, and his ruthlessness to Union forces and blacks. (Before the war he had made his fortune as a slave trader.) He ranked alongside Jeb Stuart as the South's greatest cavalry commander.

He was the great-grandfather of Nathan Bedford Forrest III. (The name skipped a generation; Forrest did not see fit to name his son after himself, making him almost unique among the Confederacy's founding fathers.) The younger Forrest was tapped by President Jake Featherston to be Chief of the Confederate General Staff during the Second Great War. The selection seemed to be an odd choice, as Featherston and the Freedom Party were dedicated to reforming the military and purging it of the blue-blooded descendants of War of Secession heroes. However, Featherston exempted Forrest from his usual disdain, partly because the man had proven himself more than competent in his own right and partly because the original Nathan Bedford Forrest was a man to whom Featherston could relate.