Tomorrow, I’ll be performing in Selma, Alabama at the 187th Birthday Anniversary & the 9th Annual Birthday Party for Lt. Gen. Nathan B. Forrest. I wrote a song for the occasion. This song was written based on information gleaned from a book, That Devil Forrest: The Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest by John Allan Wyeth, a surgeon who rode with Forrest. There’s much we don’t know about this great man due to the myth-makers and historical revisionists who are determined to make everything about the South look bad.

That Devil Forrest

Standing over six feet high,
Wounded half a dozen times,
Fiery blue eyes
Looking up at the sky
Calling down the good Lord’s Wrath,
That devil, Forrest.

A fierce rebel ghost,
The first there with the most,
Never lost a fight,
Believed his cause was right,
Bold raider of the night
That devil, Forrest.

Killed 30 Yankees with his own hand,
And two of his own soldiers who ran,
He gave Sherman tell,
He fought them well,
A demon the Yankees feared,
That devil, Forrest.

Black rebels at his side,
Carrying pistols and Bowie knives,
Holt Collier and many others,
Who fought for masters and for brothers,
In the thick of any fight,
With that devil, Forrest.

At Fort Donelson, they hemmed him in,
But he boldly rode out with his men,
He wouldn’t surrender,
He  wouldn’t give in,
He gave the South some hope,
That devil, Forrest.