unlisted Nathan Bedford Forrest quote

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Thu Mar 7 00:26:50 UTC 2013


Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> Besides being the founder and dissolver of the original Ku Klux Klan,
> Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest is known for the following:
>
> Command responsibility for the Ft. Pillow massacre in 1864.
>
> Allegedly having had 29 horses shot out from under him.
>
> Never having offered the advice to "git thar fustest with the mostest."
>
> And having said, "War means fighting and fighting means killing."
>
> Forrest almost certainly said the latter, which is cited over 900 times in
> GB, but it isn't in YBQ.  General James R. Chalmers attributed it to him
> (calling it Forrest's "favorite maxim") in the _Southern Historical Society
> Papers_ VII (1879), p. 454.

Below is an excerpt from a "letter written by Bryan McAllister at
Meridian, Mississippi, on the 13th of May 1865." Bryan McAllister
claimed that he spoke with Lieutenant-General N.B. Forrest who
delivered the lines below.

The version of the quote given here is not as memorable, in my
opinion, but it may have been restated by others. It is also possible
that Forrest spoke more than one version.

Title: Anecdotes, poetry, and incidents of the war: North and South : 1860-1865
Author: Frank Moore
Year: 1866

http://books.google.com/books?id=1GUUAAAAYAAJ&q=%22means+killing%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
When I went into the war, I meant to fight. Fighting means killing. I
have lost twenty-nine horses in the war, and have killed a man each
time.
[End excerpt]

Garson

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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