Nathan Bedford Forrest's critics have called him everything from a violent backwoodsman, illiterate redneck, and cruel slaver, to a crooked politician, unfaithful husband, and simple-minded hillbilly. However, traditional unreconstructed writers, like Southern historian and award-winning Tennessee author Lochlainn Seabrook, know that General Forrest was none of these things. In fact, he was quite the opposite, as is revealed in Seabrook's classic work: "Nathan Bedford Forrest: Southern Hero, American Patriot." As we learn in this enlightening little book, far from being an inhumane slave owner and trader, Forrest granted most of his servants their freedom even before Lincoln's War. Others he enlisted in his own command (half of dozen who served as his personal guards), then emancipated them in the fall of 1863 - the same year Lincoln issued his "military measure," the fake and illegal Emancipation Proclamation (which freed no slaves in either the North or the South). Forrest never separated servant families, refused to sell to cruel slavers, and was even responsible for reuniting several divided black families. Unlike Lincoln - who throughout his life repeatedly blocked black civil rights and aggressively campaigned for American apartheid and the deportation of all blacks out of the U.S. - after the War Forrest happily hired back his original servants with full civil rights, then called for the South to repopulate herself with new African immigrants. Neither the founder or leader of the KKK as pro-North and New South historians disingenuously teach, Forrest closed the anti-Yankee organization down when it began to take on racist overtones. These and many other captivating facts are presented clearly and concisely by Seabrook, a cousin of Forrest, in this tourist-friendly, rousing defense of the Wizard of the Saddle, one of the greatest, most inspiring, beloved, romantic, complex, and intriguing figures in American history. Written for the general market, "Nathan Bedford Forrest" is the first of Seabrook's four books on the General, and is one of our top sellers. Lavishly illustrated and formatted in an easy-to-read style, at 120 pages this short inexpensive book is perfect for Civil War museum shops, historic homes, or any tourist hot spot. Makes a great gift as well. "Nathan Bedford Forrest," based on Seabrook's more scholarly 822-page award-winning bestseller, "A Rebel Born: A Defense of Nathan Bedford Forrest," includes 134 footnotes, a bibliography, and an index. Foreword is by bestselling author James Ronald Kennedy ("The South Was Right!"). Lochlainn Seabrook, winner of the prestigious Jefferson Davis Historical Gold Medal, is the author of over thirty popular adult and children's books, including: "The Quotable Nathan Bedford Forrest"; "Give 'Em Hell Boys! The Complete Military Correspondence of Nathan Bedford Forrest"; "Everything You Were Taught About the Civil War is Wrong, Ask a Southerner!"; "Honest Jeff and Dishonest Abe: A Southern Children's Guide to the Civil War"; "Lincolnology: The Real Abraham Lincoln Revealed in His Own Words"; "The Quotable Robert E. Lee"; "The Old Rebel: Robert E. Lee As He Was Seen By His Contemporaries"; "Abraham Lincoln: The Southern View"; "The McGavocks of Carnton Plantation: A Southern History"; "The Unquotable Abraham Lincoln: The President's Quotes They Don't Want You to Know!" ;"The Quotable Jefferson Davis"; "Encyclopedia of the Battle of Franklin"; "Carnton Plantation Ghost Stories: True Tales of the Unexplained From Tennessee's Most Haunted Civil War House!"; and "The Caudills: An Etymological, Ethnological, and Genealogical Study."