Image Credit: Google Earth
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
Thirteen flags have been removed from a property in Nashville where a controversial statue of a Confederate General was taken down almost three years ago.
Along I-65 in Crieve Hall, where the statue of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest once stood, the flags served as a reminder of both the Confederacy and the Battle of Nashville.
The 3.59-acre property, once owned by the late William “Bill” Dorris who died four years ago, was sold in April 2023 to an LLC affiliated with local business owner Philip Lindsley. Dorris willed most of the property to the Battle of Nashville Trust (BONT) with the stipulation that Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), a nonprofit organization, take charge of the flags and their poles via a deed lasting 99 years. An easement continues to give SCV access to the flags.
Although the intent for the display was to include the seven Confederate flags that have been flying for decades, the trustee for BONT was tasked with reaching a compromise between the two nonprofits. It was decided that the United States flag and current-day state flags, both Confederate and Union, that participated in the December 1864 battle was a more site-appropriate display and these have now replaced the Confederate flags.
Anyone traveling that stretch of the interstate regularly between 1998 and 2021 when the statue was removed the year after Dorris died, is familiar with the 25-foot fiberglass tribute to part of Tennessee’s history.
League of the South’s co-founder and board member Jack Kershaw was enlisted by Dorris to create the weapons wielding general astride a rearing horse. Upon its installation, and for over two decades, the cartoonish statue was the source of much criticism and an object of vandalism on more than one occasion.
In addition to being shot no less than six times over the years, the statue was also defaced with anti-Trump signs in 2016, painted pink in 2017, and was also toppled at one point.
In July 2017, the Nashville Metro Council approved a resolution to ask the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) if they would plant foliage in order to block the view of the statue from passersby. In his reply, TDOT commissioner John Schroer stated that, “TDOT does not plant foliage on its right-of-way with the sole intention of blocking items on private property based on what might be offensive to some and not to others.”
The eventual tearing down of the statue came after the removal of the Nathan Bedford Forrest bust from the State Capitol in Nashville earlier in 2021, and also the relocation of Forrest’s and his wife’s remains from Memphis to the National Confederate Museum in Columbia, TN.
While the plan for the statue was for it be stored in a shed on the property, the Tennessean’s Sky 5 show captured images that show it was badly damaged during its removal.
Much of the statue’s controversy stems from the fact that Forrest is infamous for having served as the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan from 1867 to 1869 and his history as a wealthy slave trader in the mid-South.
According to nonprofit Tennessee History for Kids Founder Bill Carey, Forrest was one of the best-known slave traders in the area by 1857, and was swiftly promoted to a lieutenant colonel in command of the 3rd Tennessee Confederate Cavalry during the Civil War.
In 1864, Forrest and his men conducted what would later be called the Fort Pillow Massacre at a Union fortress on the Mississippi River in Tennessee, a fort guarded by hundreds of African American Union soldiers. Northern newspapers reported that Confederate troops continued to kill Union soldiers as they attempted to surrender, a claim that Forrest and his men would later refute.
By 1869, Forrest was reported as believing the Klan to be ungovernable, saying that its methods were damaging to the South. Upon his withdrawal of his position as Grand Wizard, he ordered the group to be disbanded but they ignored his call to burn their Klan paraphernalia and disperse.
After the war, Forrest’s fortunes took a turn for the worse and he found himself in a poor financial situation. With his devout wife by his side, he eventually began attending church, repented of his past evil deeds, and made a public confession in Christ. His later years show evidence of a change of heart as he pledged his help to a Memphis civil rights group, promising to “do all in my power to elevate every man, to depress none.”
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
