Forrest's Murfreesboro Raid Historic Marker (1 of 4)

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Nathan Bedford Forrest was a Confederate cavalry commander and slave trader who conducted a well-known cavalry raid on Murfreesboro in July of 1862. Forrest was born in 1831 in Chapel Hill, Tennessee. Prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, he was a well-known and successful slave trader who grew wealthy from the profits reaped from auctions of enslaved people at his lot in Memphis. During the Civil War, he became famous for lightning-fast cavalry raids that disoriented and outmaneuvered Federal troops and earned him a nickname: “the Wizard of the Saddle.” Forrest’s raid on Murfreesboro is one such example of these raids. However, Fast-moving raids were not Forrest’s only Civil War legacy; he was also responsible for the 1864 massacre of USCT soldiers at Fort Pillow in Memphis. The “Forrest’s Raid on Murfreesboro” markers were erected by the Tennessee Historical Commission.

Marker Text:
"A Task force of Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest's Brigade, consisting of the 1st Georgia Battallion (Morrison) and led by Forrest in person, charged rapidly to this area at daybreak, where they overcame one company of the 9th Michigan Infantry and two companies of the 8th Kentucky Cavalry, released a number of Confederate civilian prisoners and captured the area commander, Brig. Gen. T.T. Crittenden, and his staff, while other units of the brigade busied themselves elsewhere."