http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=%22Forrest+offered+freedom+to+44+of+his+slaves+%22&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=%22Forrest+offered+freedom+to+44+of+his+slaves+%22&gs_rfai=&cad=h
On the Black Confederate site; http://www.scvcamp469-nbf.com/theblackconfederatesoldier.htm
Historian Ed Kennedy used the Forrest black troop example, among others, at a Kansas Round Table in 2001.
Civil War Historian Ed Kennedy is a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army and a former instructor of history at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. He teaches Army Reserve Officer Training Corps classes at Leavenworth High School and is co-owner of Historical Leadership Seminars, a private company that takes corporate executives to battlefields to teach leadership and decision-making skills.
Sometimes, there is enough verification. Part of Forrest's speech before the Pole Bearers says: "We may differ in color, but not in sentiment Many things have been said about me which are wrong, and which white and black persons here, who stood by me through the war, can contradict." He is plainly saying that both white and black people present stood by him during the war. This speech took place July 5, 1875, in Memphis. Perhaps it was in the newspaper. Perhaps you or Chief Upton could look it up. Stan