During the Battle of Chickamauga, General Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry held the extreme right of the Confederate Army. On the first day, fighting as dismounted cavalry, his men helped push Federal forces back from Reed's Bridge Road and Jay's Mill and pressured them to withdraw from near West Chickamauga Creek to a position along the LaFayette Road. As the senior general present, Forrest also commanded infantry units until General H.T.W. Walker arrived. On the second day, Armstrong's Division of Forrest's Cavalry Corps operated on the right of Breckinridge's Division and around 11:00 A.M. captured the Federal hospitals at the Cloud farm. Federal reserve troops under General Gordon Granger were then to the northeast around McAfee's Church, and when they moved in the afternoon to support General Thomas at Snodgrass Hill, Confederate cavalry pulled back to the east before returning to the Lafayette Road after their passage. Forrest's cavalry held that position through the afternoon, occasionally exchanging fire with Dan McCook's artillery of General J.D. Morgan's Division, which General Brannan had left on high ground northwest of the McDonald house to help protect the Federal left, and near the end of the battle there was some skirmishing with Turchin's Brigade of Reynolds Division from the Federal 14th Army Corps. Immediately afterward, Forrest pursued the retreating Federal Army as far as Rossville Gap, where he climbed a high tree and used a telescope to observe Chattanooga. He reported that the Federals were in some disarray and retreating fully to Chattanooga, and he strongly urged the Army of Tennessee to attack and complete their destruction, but General Braxton Bragg ignored the advice. The episode deepened the rift between Forrest and Bragg. After Chickamauga, Bragg ordered Forrest to turn over his troops and report to Gen. Joseph Wheeler despite knowing Forrest had vowed never to fight with Wheeler again. Forrest angrily confronted Bragg, threatened him with bodily harm, then wired his superiors in Richmond that he would obey no further order from Bragg and resigned his commission in protest. President Jefferson Davis refused the resignation, promoted Forrest to major general, and gave him command of all cavalry in west Tennessee and north Mississippi.

Photo: Dale K. Benington

Photo: Dale K. Benington

Photo: Dale K. Benington

Photo: Dale K. Benington

Photo: Dale K. Benington