J. Harvey Mathes, the author of this book, wrote from the experience of having served as in the 37th TN. Regiment, C.S.A., and after settling in Memphis, Tennessee, knowing General Forrest personally. Mathes worked as a journalist after the war, and served on several Memphis newspapers. Consequently, his writing style is precise and to the point. He reports facts without judgment or sentimentality. Several anecdotes are included in the book, which will be fresh even to the most astute of Forrest scholars. One cannot help but be amazed time and time again at the exploits of this "untutored genius" of warfare as recorded by Mathes.