The Nathan Bedford Forrest Boyhood Home, the only surviving house of the three the Forrest family occupied in the northern end of Marshall County, stands a quarter mile ahead. In 1830, Forrest's father, William Forrest, bought the two-story log house and 181 adjacent acres beside the farm of his father-in-law, John Beck. The family moved there from Chapel Hill when Bedford, the oldest son, was nine years old, and William Forrest added a one-story extension and front porch for the growing household. In 1834, the family moved to northern Mississippi just below Memphis. William Forrest, a blacksmith, died three years later, and sixteen-year-old Bedford became the nominal head of the household, though his mother was well able to manage the family. Before the war, Bedford Forrest made his living as a slave trader and speculator, developed a keen ability to read people, became a millionaire, and ranked among the richest men in the South. In 1861, he enlisted as a private in the Confederate forces at Memphis, and by the end of the war he was a lieutenant general. He later returned to this area several times to rest and feed his men while recruiting in Middle Tennessee, and he visited his cousin, Abraham Forrest Lillard, at nearby Lillard's Mill to stock his wagons with meal, flour, and other goods. Despite his earlier lack of military training or experience, his gifts as a leader and tactician earned him the nickname "Wizard of the Saddle," and his tactics continue to be studied at the nation's military academies.