Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest is perhaps the most compelling and complicated individual that the Civil War brought to prominence. In looking at his life and military career, it quickly becomes obvious that for those who admire him, as well as those who despise him, there is no shortage of ammunition. In
The Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest
(1899), John Allan Wyeth, a former Confederate soldier who briefly served under Forrest's command, narrates some of the building blocks of the Forrest legend, from his spectacular string of victories as a brave and gifted soldier to his prominent role in the founding of the Ku Klux Klan.