Nathan Forrest North And South Comparison

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In “Nathan Bedford Forrest; A Biography” by Jack Hurst, there are many occurrences of literary and historical contrast. One main occurrences are the contrast of the North and South's’ beliefs of slavery. The other is the contrast of General Nathan Bedford Forrest and General William Tecumseh Sherman and how they chose to fight the war. To begin, a major contrast is obviously the beliefs of both the North and the South. In the biography, the ideas and actions of both sides is equally shown. It is however mostly shown from the southern perspective, as Forrest was a general in that army. The Union believed in equality to all, and that the imprisonment of the African Americans was wrong. They were willing to die for this equality. The biography shows this belief when it says they fought “Like ocean waves against a shore, they ‘would come forward and fall back, rally and [come] forward again, with the like …show more content…

Both men were generals in their respective right, yet they chose to fight in different manors. Gen. Sherman used a tactic known as hard war, or also under the more popular name total war. This being the fight of using any means necessary―including weapons, strategy, and rath―to end a battle and land a crushing blow to the enemy in which no opposing soldier walks away healthy. He did not care much for the others or for honor. He only really cared about the well-being of his own troops, which is indeed admirable. Gen. Bedford Forrest, on the other hand, took a different approach. Mr. Forrest is famed for his quote “‘I finished the war one horse ahead’”. Forrest had no care as to what happened to the enemy, which is likewise to Sherman, yet he cared not for his own soldiers either. His only priority is that he walked off the battlefield with more numbers alive than the other. It is not the most humane, but certainly