ng, the superintendent of the
railway, who was on the train by which he had come. Fleming appeared--a
little man on crutches (he had recently broken a leg), but with the
energy of a giant--and at once stated what he could do in the way of
moving supplies on his line, which had been repaired up to the Tennessee
boundary. Forrest's whole manner now changed. In a dozen sharp sentences
he told his wants, said he would leave a staff officer to bring up his
supplies, asked for an engine to take him back north twenty miles to
meet his troops, informed me he would march with the dawn, and hoped to
give an account of himself in Tennessee.

Moving with great rapidity, he crossed the Tennessee river, captured
stockades with their garrisons, burned bridges, destroyed railways,
reached the Cumberland River below Nashville, drove away gunboats,
captured and destroyed several transports with immense stores, and
spread alarm over a wide region. The enemy concentrated on him from all
directions, but he eluded or defeated their several columns, recrossed
the Tennessee, and brought off fifteen hundred prisoners and much spoil.
Like Clive, Nature made him a great soldier; and he was without the
former's advantages. Limited as was Clive's education, he was a person
of erudition compared with Forrest, who read with difficulty. In the
last weeks of the war he was much with me, and told me the story of his
life. His father, a poor trader in negroes and mules, died when he was
fifteen years of age, leaving a widow and several younger children
dependent on him for support. To add to his burden, a posthumous infant
was born some weeks after the father's death. Continuing the paternal
occupations in a small way, he continued to maintain the family and give
some education to the younger children. His character for truth,
honesty, and energy was recognized, and he gradually achieved
independence and aided his brethren to start in life. Such was his short
story up to the war.

Some months before the time of our first meeting, with two thousand men
he defeated the Federal General Sturgis, who had five times his force,
at Tishimingo; and he repeated his success at Okalona, where his
opponent, General Smith, had even greater odds against him. The battle
of Okalona was fought on an open plain, and Forrest had no advantage of
position to compensate for great inferiority of numbers; but it is
remarkable that he employed the tactics of Frederick at Leuthen