Book excerpt: General Nathan Bedford Forrest was a brave and ingenious Confederate officer who won all but one of the battles he led; a philanthropist who gave generously to family, friends, and charities; and a humanitarian who not only spared the lives of numerous Yankees on the battlefield, but who freed his slaves years before Lincoln reluctantly issued his fake and illegal Emancipation Proclamation. And unlike our liberal sixteenth president, who purposefully delayed abolition, hindered black social and political advancement, and campaigned throughout his life to have all blacks deported out of the U.S., after the War conservative Forrest crusaded to bring new African immigrants into the South-with full civil rights. No one would know any of this by reading the typical works on Forrest, however, nearly all which are written and published by enemies of the South. In fact, according to most Northern and New South authors Forrest was a violent redneck, an unregenerate racist, a barbaric slave trader, a philandering husband, an illiterate hillbilly, the founder and grand wizard of the KKK, and "the butcher of Fort Pillow." None of this is true, but it continues to be presented in our history books as fact. In "A Rebel Born: A Defense of Nathan Bedford Forrest"-winner of the prestigious Jefferson Davis Historical Gold Medal-unreconstructed Southern historian, Tennessee author, and Forrest scholar Lochlainn Seabrook reveals the truth about one of history's most fascinating, charismatic, complex, romantic, and unique individuals. In this refreshingly positive appraisal of Forrest, widely acclaimed as Seabrook's "masterpiece," the author corrects the many falsehoods about him, and, using well researched documentation, shows that the modern negative image of the General derives solely from slanderous myths created 150 years ago by Lincoln's anti-South propaganda machine. The longest book ever written on Forrest, this newly revised Civil War Sesquicentennial hardcover edition includes his life story, over 2,000 footnotes, hundreds of photos and illustrations (many never before seen by the public), a list of Forrest's military engagements, a Forrest life calendar, Forrest and Montgomery family trees, an 800-book bibliography, a detailed index, and more. Learn the facts about Forrest, facts that have been wantonly suppressed by anti-South proponents. The Foreword is by Dr. Clyde N. Wilson, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History, University of South Carolina, and author of "Defending Dixie: Essays in Southern History and Culture." Civil War scholar Lochlainn Seabrook, a cousin of General Forrest, is the most prolific and popular pro-South writer in the world today. Known as the "new Shelby Foote," he is an award-winning author of over 45 books. A seventh-generation Kentuckian of Appalachian heritage, Mr. Seabrook has a forty-year background in American and Southern history, and is the author of the runaway bestseller "Everything You Were Taught About the Civil War is Wrong, Ask a Southerner!" He is the author of eight books on Forrest, more than any other writer, and his screenplay of his book "A Rebel Born" is being turned into a major motion picture.