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Posted By: Bob

Yes, Anthony, you are correct. Nathan Bedford Forrest started the KKK then dropped out because it became too violent. It re-emerged in Indiana and was a political force in that state as I recall from reading history books. Interestingly enough Shelby Foote, the noted Civil War historian once said the Civil War produced two geniuses, Abraham Lincoln and Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest was not only one of the bravest soldiers (he rose to the rank of general) in the Civil War but was an absolutely brilliant strategist, overshadowing Lee and Jackson, but never got the credit. He was constantly outnumbered by the blue bellies 3,4 and 5 to 1 but pulled off stunning victories in the Western theater of the War. One can only wonder how the War might have differed if it had been Forrest and not Lee as supreme commander. Marsh Robert was an awesome general but his blunders at Antietam and Gettysburg turned the tide of the War against the South. Had the South prevailed at Gettysburg, there was a chance that the War would have ended with a separated union as the anti-war movement was strong in the North and there was a chance either England or France would have joined the Confederate States as France had done with the Rebels in 1781.