General Forrest is one of the most famous and controversial figures from the Civil War.  One of the wealthiest men in the south, he enlisted as a private and was quickly promoted.  By the end of the war he was a Lieutenant General and famous for his innovative use of cavalry and many decisive victories.  He lacked a formal military education, but was a brilliant tactician and a natural leader.  Historian Shelby Foote believed that the Civil War produced two authentic geniuses: Abraham Lincoln and Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Nathan Bedford Forrest was controversial for two main reasons.  First, he was accused of committing war crimes at the Battle of Fort Pillow.  Union soldiers, and later one of his own men, claim that he directed a massacre of hundreds of black union soldiers and white southern Unionist prisoners who were trying to surrender.  Forrest's men insisted that the Union men continued to fire and had not surrendered.  Second, after the conclusion of the war Forrest was elected as the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, a secret organization notorious for its reign of terror against blacks and their supporters throughout the south.  He served in this role for only around a year and late in his life advocated for racial reconciliation.  

When Sterling Brewer, Jr. wrote asking for information about his son James, Forrest was polite but could not remember if James had served under him.  "My command was large," he wrote, "[n]ot having a roll of my own escort, with me and the company being large, he may have belonged to it, if so I do not remember him.  Such is the fate of war, that many a gallant boy's name remains in obscurity, and he not yet heard from by his doting parents.  Hoping sir that you may gain early information that your son still lives and will be with you very soon.  I am, very respectfully, your obt. svt. [obedient servant], N.B. Forrest."

In fact James Sterling did server under General Forrest, enlisting in 1863 prior to his 18th birthday.  On May 29, 1863 he wrote to his father to tell him he had arrived at Forrest's command and met the general.  James formed a positive impression of Forrest and seemed to be enjoying his early days in the Confederate army:

"We have guarding duty to do of any kind, no picketing, no scouting, we have only to act as couriers about the camps or different parts of the command and to attend him whenever he rides off and to carry his orders in battle.  We are better armed and equipped than the other privates, we have better horses and the General chooses none but decent nice men.  I have heard no swearing at all hardly since we got here.  The escort camps around the Headquarters of the General are entirely separate from the rest of the Army, therefore like a different family from the privates.  Gen. Forrest is a very nice clever man; he camps in the field like us.  He seems to think himself no better man than his escort as he is very intimate with them."

James was quite proud of his horse, which he may have brought with him from home.  "This Brigade all have very fine horses, and horses sell high too.  Ginny would bring $500 very readily, in fact, I have already been offered that for her by Capt. Gray.  Gen[eral] Stearnes also wants her."  James closes by assuring his father that he reads his Testament regularly and sends $25 back home since he has little use for it in the Army.

The next letter we have is from two years later, and it is interesting to see the change in tone from the early letter.  James writes from Tupelo, Mississippi on February 10, 1865:

"Having just returned from a very tiresome and fruitless scout, I will write to you, if perchance I will be so lucky as to find some private means of sending it through.  I am afraid of the 'flag of truce' mail does not work well for I cannot get any answers to my numerous letters.  If I can manage some plan (which I think I can) of getting at least one letter from home to tell me if you receive my letters.  I have never received but one from you since I left home and that was near Paducah."  Communication between soldiers and their families was extremely difficult during the war, and this situation was not uncommon.

In a letter sent on the same day to his younger brother and sister, James describes the experience of battle in poetic fashion and gives some insight into why he fought this war.  While the North was fighting for a cause, the South was fighting for their home.

"Sometimes when marching late at night, when all my fellow soldiers are sleepy and tired, my imagination wanders back across the whole breadth of my own dear state across the sparkling waters of the Tennessee and the Cumberland.  I finally find myself at home, strolling as we often have done together in the garden or among the flowers or through the stately woods in search of the delicate spring flowers.  I hear your silvery laughter once more as if I were really present, but more than once I have been aroused from dreamy consciousness by the shrill blast of the bugle announcing "the enemy is in front" and then for the next few hours all is one continual uproar, the thundering sound of artillery and rattling of musketry, the tramping and prancing of thousands of war horses.  I scarcely have time to think of anything except 'strike for your home and firesides.'  What youth would not strike for all he holds dear in life?"

In the letter to his parents James provides a more matter of fact account.  "I feel well, I tell you.  It seems that I am in my natural element.  I wake to the sound of the Bugler at 5 o'clock, get up feed and curry my horse half an hour and eat my breakfast, which consists of good wholesome food, and then for a fight.  Upon the whole, it is a very interesting life, although we have not been as successful as we might have been.  It is all, yes I say all owing to the inefficiency of our general commanding.  If either of the division commanders had been in his place, Nashville and the whole of our beloved state would have been ours.  We would have truly eaten our Christmas dinners at home, a large number of us."  

James Brewer still kept a high opinion of General Forrest, however, writing that "This man will come out of the war next to Gen. Lee.  There has been great dissatisfaction with Pres. [Jefferson] Davis but I do not blame him so much as others do."  In their post-war writings, both General Robert E. Lee and Confederate President Jefferson Davis would agree with James, saying that the Confederate command had failed to fully utilize General Forrest's talents. 

His thoughts now turned to the future.  It must have been clear by this time that the South would not emerge victorious.  "Dear Ma and Pa, I do not know when I can come home - but I feel like if we do fail in our just cause, I will not give myself up to be dealt with as the tender mercies of the hothead Abolitionists shall dictate, but will roam away to the far West to live with the Indians and wild beasts rather than submit to Yankee rule.  Do not give yourself any trouble on my account, for He who has protected me thus far will finally bring me home to friends and loved ones.  I believe now as ever that our cause is just and will continue to fight for it until the last man leaves my side.  I am not actuated by any malice, but only with an invincible desire to defend right and justice."

His father Sterling did not share these romantic visions and wrote back a few days later.  "All this talk about roaming to the far West - Indians and wild beast is nonsense.  Come home when you can do so honorably.  I would urge upon you the advice I gave you at the back gate the evening you left . . . .  Oh how happy we shall all be when you can come home to stay.  May God in his infinite goodness speed the day.  My soul is very tired of this war.  May God forever bless you my dear boy."

At the conclusion of the war it appears James spent time in a Northern prison, and ended up in Michigan.  In a letter from April 1866, he informs his father that he has gotten married to a girl named Lulu Borst, and that she comes from a respectable family.  He clearly felt guilty about getting married while away from his family.  "I wish to make us perfectly happy with your full forgiveness and blessing - Can we have it?  Do not chide us for God knows I have suffered quite enough already.  Forget all this and make us happy."

James also informs his father that he voted for the Copperheads (Northern Democrats who opposed the war) in the recent elections even though he was not yet old enough to do so legally.  "I was not asked my age at all but received my vote all right.  Therefore I have fought the Abolitionists in the field and at the polls and am not yet one and twenty.  I send you a Democratic paper.  With the exception of a cold and sore lung, I am well."

Unfortunately, the sore lung was likely an early sign of a disease that would prove fatal.  The family bible states that James Brewer died July 8, 1869 at 5 o'clock a.m., the same time as his early morning bugle calls when in the Army.  He was only 24 years old.  The cause of death was listed as Consumption, the common name for Tuberculosis at the time.  An estimated 13,000 soldiers died of this disease, likely contracted in the poor conditions of the Army camps, and many more died shortly after the war.

On January 16, 1866, Sterling Brewer, Jr. received a letter from his older brother James Moody Brewer.  James Moody was 71 years old when the letter was written, while Sterling was only 54.  The complete transcription of the letter, which was done by Henry Sterling James in 1991 can be found here, and a copy in the original handwriting is here, although it is quite difficult to read.  The entire letter is interesting but I present a few highlights:

- The letter opens, "My Dear Brother, I received your welcome letter dated 24th Decr (sic), last evening and hasten to answer it.  I have not heard from you since this destructive war commenced.  I did not know but you were all murdered."  "I have suffered enough seemingly to kill any man but Providence has spared my poor unworthy life - perhaps for some useful purpose."

- "I have lost everything by this detestable war - my negroes (7 in all) have left me.  I have nobody to do anything for me.  I get up before day of a morning and make a fire - but this I don't mind."

- "George Locke and all my boys but James have served in the Army all the way.  Sam had the command of a company in General Johnson's army.  Hite was in Forrest's Cavalry.  He was in many severe battles.  He was at the taking of Fort Pillaway (sp), was with the first that charged the Breastworks.  On one occasion he had a horse blown up by a shell & killed without hurting him.  None of the boys got wounded."

- James Moody asks Sterling if he would be willing to take several of the family members at his school in the hopes they could learn a profession to support themselves.  It is clear that the family has been severely impacted by the war.  "I am totally unable to help him as I have nothing myself & no way to make anything - I tried last year to help make a little crop of cotton but my weakness was such that I had often to lye down in the field."

- James Moody Brewer had eleven children.  From his first marriage: William Camp Brewer, Sterling Brewer and two other unknown sons.  From his third marriage: Napoleon, Samuel, John, Ann, Theodore, Mary, and James.  Theodore was known as "Hite" and is referred to Hite throughout the letter.  It appears that at least two of James Moody Brewer’s sons, John and Napoleon, died during or shortly after the war.  The picture below is of Napoleon Brewer, and you can find his Civil War diary here.

- "Hite is one of the studiest boys I ever saw [Hite, or Theodore, would go on to become a Methodist Minister, missionary to Native Americans in Oklahoma, and founder of the Spaulding Female College], just such a one as his brother John (my dear child) every body that knew John loved him as he was an example to all - He was I hope truly religious, and is now in Heaven.  My dear brother you can't imagine how much I have suffered in the loss of my dear children.  Napoleon was to me a dear child.  He professed religion before he died & have hope that he was saved."

- James Moody relates an interesting historical note about Governor Isham Harris of Tennessee.  Immediately after the Civil War, Governor Harris spent several years in exile in Mexico and England.  James writes "Letters from Mexico written by Gov. Harris speak in such high terms of that country that it has put a good many persons in the notion of going there."  "Our old friend G.W.D. Harris, I learn is fixing to move to Mexico - his brother the governor is the cause of it I suppose and is a gestation of the government."

Another interesting aspect of the Brewer Civil War story is a quilt that was made by Virginia (Glenn) Brewer. On the day the last 30 boys from the school left to join the Confederate army, a Confederate flag made by Virginia was raised in a ceremony on the school grounds. By 1852 the Union army had pushed south and was approaching the Clarksville, Tennessee area after capturing Fort Donelson. Hearing the approaching army, the family hid the Confederate flag and their silver spoons in two hidden cabinets on either side of the living room fireplace. When the army arrived they agreed to feed them breakfast in return for a promise not to burn or destroy the family property. The Union soldiers complied and moved on and the Confederate army would never retake the area. Rather than waste the Confederate flag, Virginia Brewer cut it up and used it to sew a quilt. The quilt is still in the family and according to Virginia Brewer's wishes is passed down from eldest daughter to eldest daughter. You can see a picture of the quilt and more of the story here.

Sources:

- Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Bedford_Forrest, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuberculosis, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isham_G._Harris, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Donelson

- http://www.flickr.com/photos/wrbphotography/sets/72157625863751483/