Book excerpt: In June 1861, practically unschooled, without military training or experience, Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821–1877) enlisted in the Confederate Army as a private. Yet by the Civil War's end he was a lieutenant general whose dazzling exploits and bloody victories caused him to be regarded by his Northern opponents as a "devil," by Southerners as a living legend, and by historians as the greatest cavalry commander and one of the few authentic military geniuses produced by the war. His spectacular, unparalleled career has intrigued generations of Civil War scholars and enthusiasts. Subsequent biographies or studies of him have never totally superseded The Campaigns of General Nathan Bedford Forrest (1868) by General Thomas Jordan (West Pointer and chief of staff to Generals Beauregard, Albert Sidney Johnston, and Braxton Bragg) and the professional journalist J. P. Pryor. Forrest himself gave them complete access to his military papers, spent many hours in interviews with them, and closely supervised their writing. Hence, this work is not just a flat campaign study of Forrest—in effect, it is his military memoir and as such remains the most valuable source on Forrest and his cavalry.