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Immediately after the war, Bedford Forrest returned home with the 'free' black men who fought with him. Sixty-five black troopers were with the General when he surrendered his command in May 1865. Forrest said of these black soldiers, "No finer Confederates ever fought."
What did Forrest fight for after the war was over? You may not believe it, but Forrest was probably the 'first white man' to fight for and promote equality and civil rights for blacks.
Many people ignorant of history say that Bedford was the founder of the KKK. The Klan had already been in existence for a year and a half when he was asked to assume the leadership because the people looked up to him as their hero and proven leader.
The KKK of the late 1860's bears no resemblance to the thugs and racists of the new Klan formed at the turn of the century. The Klan Forrest rode with was to fight against the Yankee scalawags and carpetbaggers who were raping the south after the war. US. Army occupation forces committed innumerable atrocities, which today would certainly be classified as international war crimes, much of it against the free blacks. General Forrest joined a citizen militia then called the Klan to protect the citizens of the South, black and white alike, from these vicious atrocities.
Under the 'true' history of the time, one of the first outings that Forrest went on with the Klan was to a black man's house who was accused of beating his wife. The black man, holding an axe, told Forrest that he 'owned' his wife and could beat her anytime he wanted to." Wherein Bedford took the axe from the man, taught him some southern manners on how to treat a lady (black or white), then told him that he had better never see a mark on the woman again.
Forrest disbanded the Klan in 1869 because its mission had been achieved. Union appointed Governor Brownlow and the viscous carpetbaggers had been defeated. Primarily because Forrest told the President of the United States that if they didn't stop stealing land and goods from Southern US citizens, abusing them, and molesting free blacks, he had the capability to start the Civil War over again. The US government was well aware that he could do exactly what he threatened to do with half a million white and several hundred thousand black soldiers standing firmly behind him.
At a time when the northern states were passing laws 'forbidding' blacks to live in their territories, Bedford Forrest publicly, and at great personal risk defended the civil rights of the black people.
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