August 1868; General Nathan Bedford Forrest told a Congressional committee after the war: He said to 45 colored fellows on my plantation that I was going into the army; and if they would go with me, if we got whipped they would be free anyhow, and that if we succeeded and slavery was perpetrated, if they would act faithfully with me to the end of the war, I would set them free. Eighteen months before the war closed I was satisfied that we were going to be defeated, and I gave those 45, or 44 of them, their free papers for fear I might be called. In late August, General Nathan Bedford Forrest gave an interview to a reporter. Forrest said of the black men who served with him: "... these boys stayed with me... and better Confederates did not live." …show more content…
1864; Reports, Correspondence, Brigadier General Alexander As both (U.S. Army, District of West Florida) We pursued them closely for 7 miles, and captured 4 privates of Goldsby's company and 3 colored men, mounted, and armed, with 7 horses and 5 mules with equipment, and 20 Austrian rifles