Hoyt Cagle
Lawrence County and Forrest's Death
Sat Jun 16 15:03:18 2001


THe following is from the Moulton Advertiser (Lawrence County, AL). All names are local, including the Governor. Forrest was a personal friend of, and visited with, James Edmunds Saunders of the local "Rocky Hill" Plantation. Thought some might find it of interest.
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Lieut. Gen. N.B. Forrest. Citizens' Meeting.
At a meeting of the Citizens of North Alabama, held at Courtland, Ala., on Monday the 12th day of November, 1877, Hon. Henry C. Speake was elected Chairman, and John Phelan, Esq., Secretary.
Gen. Joseph Wheeler then stated the object of the meeting, and in eloquent eulogy on the character and life of the distinguished dead, announced the death of Lieut. Gen. N.B. FORREST, and moved that a committee of four be appointed by the Chairman, to draft and report suitable resolutions upon his death.
Thereupon the Chairman appointed Gen. Joseph Wheeler, Col. Richard O. Pickett, Gov. David P. Lewis, and Gen. E.A. O'Neal , said committee.
The committee retired and after deliberation, reported the following resolutions:
Resolved, That the people of North Alabama receive with the deepest grief the sad intelligence of the death of Lieutenant General NATHANIEL BEDFORD FORREST.
A man who, while yet in boyhood, set a most commendable example to the young men of our country, by his noble sets of devotions and self-sacrifice for the comfort, happiness and welfare of his widowed mother and fatherless little brothers and sisters:
A man who, in his first efforts of manhood, exhibited a degree of energy and earnestness in the pursuit of his occupation, and an honor and integrity in his actions with his fellow man, which did with him and always crown the efforts of man with success:
A man, whose benevolence and charity was never wanting among the poor, the unfortunate and the destitute:
A man, so endowed with all the qualities which make a great Military leader, that he almost instantly sprung from the private walks of life to the rank of a great commander, and in three short years embazoned the name among those whom history will class as of the highest and most enviable renown:
A man who, though emaciated and wasted by disease, never relaxed his efforts to leave comforts and competence to his family, and who, the day before his death, was standing at his post of duty, making a last dying effort for those he had promised to love and to cherish:
A man who, though moved by a spirit and passions troublous and restless as the wildest rage of a storm-beaten ocean, by a gigantic struggle overcome and conquered himself, and with the meekness of a lamb humbled his turbulent spirit before man
and before his Creator.
On motion, it was Resolved, That the Editors of the Moulton Advertiser, the Courtland Recorder, and the Montgomery Advertiser be requested to publish these proceedings, and that a copy of the same be forwarded to the family of the deceased.
H.C. SPEAKE, Chairman,
John Phelan, Secretary.
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Moulton Advertiser 11/22/1877