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Jesse A. Forrest

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Jesse A. Forrest
Image
Jesse Forrest, 1860 census of Memphis, Tennessee
Born(1834-04-09)April 9, 1834
DiedDecember 15, 1889(1889-12-15) (aged 55)
Relatives

Jesse Anderson Forrest (April 9, 1834 – December 15, 1889) was an American slave trader, Confederate cavalry colonel, livery stable owner, and cotton plantation owner of Tennessee and Arkansas, United States.

Biography

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Before the war, the Forrest brothers were engaged in the slave trade at Memphis, Tennessee, and up and down the Mississippi River.[1][2] Nathan Bedford Forrest's five younger brothers were "ideal partners" for building an interstate trading network, and "over the course of a few years, all the Forrest brothers—including the two youngest, Jesse and Jeffrey—participated in building a formidable slave-trading operation."[1]: 58  At the time of the 1860 U.S. census, "J. E. Forrest" lived in the seventh ward of Memphis with his wife Sarah, their four young children, and a man, Nicholas Innes, who listed his occupation as "pilot."[3] Forrest listed his occupation as "negro trader," and he owned $3,000 in real property and $6,000 in personal property (which would have included enslaved people of whom he had legal ownership).[3]

Jesse Forrest fought alongside his brother Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest in the American Civil War,[4] as well as under command of other Confederates such as Gideon J. Pillow.[5] He enlisted as a private in the Tennessee Mounted Rifles and was a lieutenant colonel by 1862.[6] News reports during and after the war describe him as a colonel; the Confederate Officers' Card Index lists his highest rank as lieutenant colonel.[7] He was listed as colonel commanding the 21st Tennessee Cavalry Regiment when he was injured in a fight near Decatur in 1864.[8] After the war he worked as an "extensive levee and railroad contractor, farmer, and dealer in livestock."[6] A father of six, in later life he owned three large plantations at Walnut Bend, Arkansas.[9] He died of "malarial hemaeturia" in Memphis, Tennessee in 1889.[10]

References

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  1. 1 2 Huebner, Timothy S. (March 2023). "Taking Profits, Making Myths: The Slave Trading Career of Nathan Bedford Forrest". Civil War History. 69 (1): 42–75. doi:10.1353/cwh.2023.0009. ISSN 1533-6271. S2CID 256599213. Project MUSE 879775.
  2. ↑ Bancroft, Frederic (1959). Slave trading in the Old South. Internet Archive. New York, Ungar. p. 262.
  3. 1 2 "Entry for J E Forrest and Sarah Forrest, 1860". United States Census, 1860 – via FamilySearch. Occupation: Negro Trader
  4. ↑ "Jesse Forrest". Memphis Avalanche. December 20, 1889. p. 1. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  5. ↑ "Memphis". Memphis Bulletin. August 4, 1863. p. 1. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  6. 1 2 "Col. Jesse A. Forrest". The Intelligencer. December 26, 1889. p. 2. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  7. ↑ "Entry for Jesse Anderson Forrest". United States Confederate Officers Card Index, 1861–1865 – via FamilySearch.
  8. ↑ Confederate military history. Vol. 8. Atlanta, Ga.: Confederate Publishing Co. 1899. p. 244. hdl:2027/rul.39030020247336. Retrieved December 19, 2023 – via HathiTrust.
  9. ↑ "Col. Jesse A. Forrest". Nashville Banner. December 17, 1889. p. 4. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  10. ↑ "Entry for Jessie A Forrest, 15 Dec 1889". Tennessee, Shelby County, Memphis, Board of Health Death Records, 1848–1913 – via FamilySearch.
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