Geocachers of West Tennessee Forums

[Titansfan]

Another of the 'forgotten caches' is Nat's Knob which is located in Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park.

If I recall correctly, the hill is the highest point in West Tennessee. The hill overlooks the Tennessee River and is near the location where CSA Gen. N.B. Forrest laid an ambush on the US Navy and supply depot across the river at New Johnsonville. Gen. Forrest sank many of the gunboats and barges and destroyed the supply depot, which later forced US Gen. Sherman to cut his supply lines leave Atlanta and march to the sea.
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Titansfan's Blog

[pcsenn]

An additional tidbit of information...

My wife's late father-in-law was raised in a house that stood where the welcome center to NBFSP is located now.

He is buried in "Flatwoods Cemetery" (N 36° 07.519 W 088° 01.854)
which is not too far away from the knob.
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He that tooteth not his own horn is destined to remain in a perpetual state of untootedness.

[MOWERMAN2468]

Also an interesting fact about CSA Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's sinking of the navy is that it was the first time a calvary defeated a navy. Ole' Forrest done a tremendous job on the yankee's navy, and Johnsonville. The reason I say Johnsonville is that on the other side of the river, there is a park of "Old Johnsonville", and of course there is now New Johnsonville. I have only been to Old Johnsonville once while out riding around one day with the family a couple of years ago. But there was a great deal of history to be learned about this area.
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I ENJOY GEOCACHING, AND I AM GETTING FAMILY AND FRIENDS INVOLVED. IT IS A GOOD FORM OF EXERCISE, OF COURSE I LOVE THE OUTDOORS SO THIS MAKES THIS A GREAT HOBBY FOR ME.

[MOWERMAN2468]

Copied from a sheet obtained at the Welcome center at N.B.F.S.P.
author: unknown

Nathan Bedford Forrest

1821-1877
Nathan Bedford Forrest, the "wizard of the saddle," was one of the finest Confederate cavalry commanders and one of the foremost military figure: produced by the state of Tennessee. He was particularly famous for his determination to be "first with the most men."

He was born in Chapel Hill, Tennessee, on July 13, 1921. He assumed responsibility for his family at the age of sixteen, following the death of his father. Despite a mere six months of formal education, Forrest rose from semi-subsistence to planter status, acquiring substantial property and wealth, largely through the slave trade.

When Tennessee seceded from the Union, Forrest enlisted as a private in Captain Josiah White's Tennessee Mounted Rifles (Seventh Tennessee Calvary), along with his youngest brother and fifteen-year-old son.Shortly
afterward, Governor Isham G. Harris authorized him to raise a regiment of mounted troops.Forrest recruited and equipped his command, generally
at his own expense.In December 1861, in his first major combat experience at Sacramento, Kentucky, Forrest demonstrated the traits of common sense tactics and close-hand fighting that would characterize his military career.

In February 1862 Forrest established a reputation for boldness when he led his men out of Fort Donelson rather than surrender. Elected Colonel, he led his command to Shiloh, where he was wounded during the Confederate retreat. Subsequently, Forrest won promotion to Brigadier General after a daring raid against a Union outpost at Murfreesboro in July 1862.

In mid-December 1862 Forrest led a raid into West Tennessee that destroyed Union supplies and disabled miles of track and trestlework. The Confederates eluded pursuit until forced into a pitched battle at Parker's Crossroads on December 31. With the battle almost won, a second Union force appeared, and Forrest was fortunate to save most of his force. Nevertheless, he succeeded in crippling the supply lines over which General U.S. Grant had hoped to support his initial operations against Vicksburg, Mississippi.

On February 3,1863, Forrest's command suffered a defeat at Dover, Tennessee, while under the command of Major General Joseph Wheeler. The following redeeming victories at Thompson's Station and Brentwood that spring, he stopped a Union raid led by Colonel Abel Streight through northern Alabama in April and May 1863. In his final confrontation with Streight, the Confederate cavalryman manipulated his forces magnificently, convincing of the federals to surrender their numerically superior forces by artificially inflating his own command.

Forrest participated in the retreat from Middle Tennessee led by General Braxton Bragg known as the Tullahoma Campaign. In the wake of the Confederate victory at Chickamauga, he urged, but failed to convince, Bragg to pursue the defeated Federals. Resentful of Bragg's ineptitude and earlier treatment of him, the fiery cavalryman bitterly denounced his superior officer. He obtained a transfer to an independent command in Mississippi adn for the third time in his military career created a new command of recruits and conscripts around a nucleus of battle-tested veterans.

Promoted to Major General on December 4,1863, Forrest conducted raids against Federal communications and supply lines in Tennessee. In April 1864, he captured Fort Pillow north of Memphis. In the later stages of that battle, Forrest lost control of his men. As members of the black and Tennessee Unionist garrison attempted to surrender, and act for which they should have been spared, some of Forrest's men fired on them. Of the fort's 585-605 men, between 277 and 297 were killed; 64 percent of these were U.S. colored troops. Charges of a "Fort Pillow Massacre" became grist for Northern propaganda mills during the war and plagued Forrest for the remainder of his life.

Following Fort Pillow, Forrest routed a larger force of Union infantry and cavalry in June at Brice's Cross Roads in Mississippi, arguably his finest military feat. In July he helped blunt another Union force at Tupelo, or Harrisburg, where he was wounded while directing the pursuit of retreating Federal troops. He recovered and led a surprise raid on Memphis that produced another Union retreat from Mississippi.

The story ended here. I have another page of his military exploits. It says something along the lines that after the war he operated several large plantations. And died in Memphis, Tennessee on October 29, 1877.
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I ENJOY GEOCACHING, AND I AM GETTING FAMILY AND FRIENDS INVOLVED. IT IS A GOOD FORM OF EXERCISE, OF COURSE I LOVE THE OUTDOORS SO THIS MAKES THIS A GREAT HOBBY FOR ME.