Who Shot Nathan Bedford Forrest?

Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest was among the most brilliant tacticians of the Civil War. Having served the Confederacy with such distinction and valor that even Ulysses Grant and Tecumseh Sherman could not help heaping military praises upon the man!

Nathan Bedford Forrest’s infamy is illustrated in this incredible Civil War story. In April 1863 one of Forrest’s lieutenants, Andrew Gould, had inadvertently lost 2 of the regiment’s cannons. Meeting an ambush in Alabama, Andrew Gould retreated his men but left the cannon behind . . . I guess they were in a hurry!

Bedford Forrest was not a commander you wanted to muck about with nor disappoint, and without blinking an eye Forrest relieved Andrew Gould of his position. He booted Gould right out of his regiment. In the military, where death comes before dishonor, this was the ultimate dishonor.

Two months later Andrew Gould ran into Bedford Forrest at a function in Tennessee and decided to confront him about their past disagreement. Forrest, of course, derided him as an annoyance and thought it supremely undignified to revisit such matters at a social function.

In the heat of the moment Gould pulled out his revolver and SHOT Nathan Bedford Forrest!

Wounded and bleeding, yet without even flinching, Forrest extended his arm with steely resolve and grasped Gould tightly in his grip while Gould’s gun was still smoking! With his sides gushing blood and Gould’s shooter firmly grasped in one of his hands, Forrest pulled out his pocket knife with his other hand. Bedford Forrest then, with cold calculation, opened his folding knife with his teeth, all the while staring a deadly-hardened glare at Andrew Gould. Like a scene from the Godfather, Nathan Forrest stabbed Andrew Gould calculatingly in the gut before releasing him.

The bullet had pierced Bedford’s side, and when the doctors rushed to him they pronounced his wounds fatal! Andrew Gould, of course, fled the scene. Everyone expected Nathan Bedford Forrest to die – no one had expected any of this to even have happened.

It turns out that the bullet that had been fired into Forrest’s body missed any vital organs and he was actually ok – he was one tough fellow! Andrew Gould, on the other hand, had sustained very serious injuries from Bedford Forrest’s knife which had inflicted exactly the wounds that Forrest had intended to. How very ironic.

Andrew Gould died of these knife wounds not long after. While Andrew Gould was the man who shot Nathan Bedford Forrest, he did not kill him. Bedford Forrest jumped right back in to action and continued to achieve glory in the Civil War for the Confederacy. He was admired by Southern and Union officers alike and even went on to write a poignant narrative of his life.

Read more Civil War stories such as “Abraham Lincoln’s Runaway Ship!”

Civil War Blunders: Abraham Lincoln’s Runaway Ship