Okay, that’s it. This is the final straw. Far as I’m concerned, it is now officially Clobberin’ Time.

The remains of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife Mary Ann Montgomery have been dug up as part of the lefts efforts to remove all markers and monuments to the historic cancelled. The bodies are now being held in an undisclosed location until they can be brought to their new resting place at the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ National Confederate Museum in Columbia, Tennessee.

The museum is roughly 200 miles from their previous grave in Memphis.

Contra Cassandra’s implication that the shitlibs were behind disturbing the eternal rest of one of the greatest cavalrymen in all history and his wife, I consider this to be a good thing. The Sons, may the good Lord bless and keep them, were the ones who did the dig, and vow that they’ll see to it no further bullshit from the ghoulish, history-revising, grave-robbing Left will be tolerated.

The former slave trader and with his wife have been entombed in the park for more than 100 years. Moving them is a complicated procedure that will take weeks to complete.

“The Forrest family felt that the remains of Forrest and his wife should be some place where he can be respected, protected, and visited without any danger, which is not the case here,” said Lee Millar with the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Amen to that, brother. Again: bless you and your fine, noble organization. More welcome news:

It’s been three years since the general’s statue was removed from the pedestal. Years of legal wrangling followed until both sides reached this settlement. Memphis Greenspace owns the park. Its leader is pleased with the outcome.

“And so we’re out here working together to get this job done,” said Memphis Greenspace President Van Turner. “And I think it sends a message that we’re much stronger when we work together and we unite for one common task.”

That unity was interrupted by a very vocal volunteer who unloaded expletives on Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer at the site.

She led the ‘Take ‘Em Down 901’ effort in 2017 to remove the statue. She spoke with reporters as the man belted out a loud rendition of “Dixie” behind her.

“We are not post-racial America,” said Sawyer. “We are not post-racial Memphis. This hatred and this racism is large and loud.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I repeat. Not that they’re listening, or care.

Back over to GP for more of same:

The park where the Forrest’s were laid to rest was called Forrest Park until a name change in 2013. A statue of him in the park was removed in 2017, after Greenspace bought the park.

The Hill reports that in April, Atlanta’s school board unanimously voted to rename Forrest Hill Academy, named after the Confederate general, to the Hank Aaron New Beginnings Academy.

This is not the only grave the left is digging up.

The city of Richmond, Virginia is also planning to dig up the grave of Confederate General Ambrose Powell Hill.

AP Hill, of course, was another accomplished and respected officer of the Confederacy.

As for Forrest, I’ve posted in detail on the man Sherman once acknowledged as “the most remarkable man our civil war produced on either side” before—more than once, if memory serves—but without even checking I’m going to just assume that those archives were lost along with the rest of the nigh-upon twenty years’ worth of ’em after our little Rooskie incursion here. So although it’s probably a rerun, have yourself a little more info anyway on the man once both respected and feared (depending on what side you were on, natch) as The Wizard Of The Saddle that most people are completely in the dark about.

Easily the most controversial figure in the Civil War, probably the most controversial figure in American history, Nathan Bedford Forrest has always been the subject of fierce debate. Self-made millionaire who rose from poverty with much of his money made as a slaver trader; a semi-literate whose tactics and strategies as the most successful cavalry commander of the  Civil War are still studied at military academies around the world; a brilliant general celebrated by the South and condemned by the North as the perpetrator of a massacre at Fort Pillow; a man who killed in combat 31 Union soldiers in the War but who after the War constantly had former Union soldiers visit him to shake his hand; and  a racist who helped found the Ku Klux Klan after the War, but who also made a remarkable speech near the end of his life.

In 1875 Forrest was invited to address a meeting of the Independent Order of Pole Bearers, an early black civil rights organization in Memphis, at their Fourth of July barbecue on July 5.  Forrest was told by many whites that he should not accept, but Forrest went. Just before he spoke he was presented a bouquet of flowers by Miss Flora Lewis, a daughter of one of the members of the Pole Bearers. Here is Forrest’s speech.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I accept the flowers as a memento of reconciliation between the white and colored races of the Southern states. I accept it more particularly as it comes from a colored lady, for if there is any one on God’s earth who loves the ladies I believe it is myself. (Immense applause and laughter.) I came here with the jeers of some white people, who think that I am doing wrong. I believe I can exert some influence, and do much to assist the people in strengthening fraternal relations, and shall do all in my power to elevate every man, to depress none.

(Applause.)

I want to elevate you to take positions in law offices, in stores, on farms, and wherever you are capable of going. I have not said anything about politics today. I don’t propose to say anything about politics. You have a right to elect whom you please; vote for the man you think best, and I think, when that is done, you and I are freemen. Do as you consider right and honest in electing men for office. I did not come here to make you a long speech, although invited to do so by you. I am not much of a speaker, and my business prevented me from preparing myself. I came to meet you as friends, and welcome you to the white people. I want you to come nearer to us. When I can serve you I will do so. We have but one flag, one country; let us stand together. We may differ in color, but not in sentiment. Many things have been said about me which are wrong, and which white and black persons here, who stood by me through the war, can contradict. Go to work, be industrious, live honestly and act truly, and when you are oppressed I’ll come to your relief. I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for this opportunity you have afforded me to be with you, and to assure you that I am with you in heart and in hand.” (Prolonged applause.)

After his brief speech, Forrest warmly thanked Lewis for the flowers and then unabashedly and unhesitatingly kissed her on the cheek, an incredibly bold move at a time when such a thing was unheard of either North or South, but entirely in character for the always-audacious Forrest. In fact, it was that very Devil-may-care audacity which was a huge component of what made him such a fiendishly brilliant cavalry officer.

At the start of the Civil War, Forrest enlisted as a private in the Tennessee Mounted Rifles. As more men joined the outfit, Forrest personally purchased guns, uniforms and supplies to equip the unit. He was soon promoted to lieutenant colonel and placed in charge of raising and training his own battalion. In February 1862, Forrest and his troops were cornered by Union general Ulysses S. Grant at Fort Donelson, Kentucky. His command refused to surrender to Grant and Union forces charged in to take the fort. Forrest led 700 cavalrymen through the snow, past the Union lines, and escaped to Nashville where he coordinated evacuation efforts.

Two months later, in the aftermath of the Battle of Shiloh, at Fallen Timbers, Forrest was commanding the rear guard of the withdrawing Confederate troops. In an attempt to hit the enemy one more time, Forrest drove deep the advancing Union line far ahead of his own men and found himself surrounded by Union troops. After he emptied his two revolvers, he drew his saber and began slashing at the oncoming enemy. One soldier stuck his rifle into Forrest’s side and fired, lifting Forrest off his saddle and lodging a mini ball near his spine. Forrest regained control of his horse, remounted and took off. As Union forces shot after him, he reached down and grabbed an unsuspecting Union soldier and brought him up on the back of his horse, then dumping the man to the ground once he was in the clear.

Beginning in December 1862 and well into 1863, Forrest and his cavalry harassed General Ulysses S. Grant’s forces as they prepared for an attack on Vicksburg. Cutting off communication lines and raiding stores of supplies, Forrest relied on guerrilla tactics and never fully engaged the enemy’s superior forces. As a result, General Grant was forced to revise his strategy. Eventually, after a six-month siege, Vicksburg fell, but Forrest continued to attack boldly and retreat swiftly, frustrating one Union commander after the other and further expanding his reputation.

There’s tons more yet to know about Bedford Forrest; love him or hate him, as is the case with so many other historical figures the story is a lot deeper and more complex than conventional wisdom tells. As our most colorful and intriguing icons fade deeper into the mists of time the tale of their lives, their exploits, and their personalities becomes ever more expurgated. This is NOT an accident.

With well-known Confederates like Forrest, the problem is not so much one of forgetfulness or a need for brevity as it is one of ill intent: the Left needs the honor of our Southern heroes to be stained and besmirched for purely utilitarian reasons, and so they have been. When a man as upright, humane, and scrupulously virtuous as the great Robert E Lee is routinely tarred as some kind of infernal demon, then the agenda is revealed, for all with eyes to see.

All of which just goes to make tonight’s Tune Damage selection an obvious one, I’d say.

As I said way back when all this cancel-culture horseshit began: letting them take down the Confederate flags and statues was a bad, bad mistake. We all should have known that would be only the beginning. And like they say, sooner or later, they WILL get around to something you care about. Our friend and esteemed colleague Nitzhakon knows why.

S’truth. It is absolutely imperative that the Left not be allowed to take that first bite, because they’ll always come back for another, and another, and another until all is consumed. Real Americans have seen plenty enough demonstrations of that most essential truth by now. If we haven’t learned the lesson by now, well, that’s on us.

Update! Annnnd we have another. Because of course we do.

For more than one hundred years, a statue of General Thomas J. Jackson, known to the world as “Stonewall” Jackson, stood overlooking the grounds of the Main Post at the Virginia Military Institute, or VMI. Jackson taught at the school for the ten years before the Civil War broke out and he became a general in the Confederate Army. VMI graduate Moses Ezekiel, who fought as a cadet at the Battle of New Market, sculpted the statue. A Washington Post article from December 7th called the statue the “spiritual centerpiece” of the institute.

No longer. In the wake of the George Floyd murder, Black Lives Matter protests, and an explosive Washington Post article alleging racism at VMI, the institute’s Board of Visitors voted to remove the statue. Completely. They didn’t relocate it to a less-prominent place on the campus. They sent it completely off post. Stonewall’s statue ended up seventy miles away, in New Market, at a VMI-run museum that commemorates the cadet corps’ fight there against Union troops in 1864.

If VMI needed to atone for past racism, banishing Stonewall Jackson’s statue was an odd way to do it – and especially odd for a military school. Stonewall Jackson was one of America’s most accomplished battlefield generals. In the spring of 1862, Jackson commanded a Confederate force defending Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley against three separate Federal commands. Stonewall led his troops from battle to battle, marching over 350 miles in one month. He defeated all three of those Union commands, whose combined strength was three times that of his force. Jackson’s campaign prevented Lincoln from reinforcing Union troops menacing Richmond, the Confederate capital. Jackson then eluded his pursuers in the Valley, joined up with Robert E. Lee, and assisted Lee in defeating the Union army outside Richmond, which saved the city.

But, was Jackson an evil racist?

Doesn’t matter. Old Blue Light was a Confederate general, which now makes him merely a means to an end, another tool for the Left to use on their long march down the Shining Path.

It beggars belief that VMI (or the activists pressuring it) can’t (or won’t) devise a solution that acknowledges his shortcomings, but still honors a great general and a good person, on the campus of the school to which he dedicated much of his professional life. If, to be “inclusive” and “tolerant,” we must sandblast our past and sanitize our heritage, we risk becoming an emotionally and culturally brittle nation and a shallow people. Is this what “inclusion” has to look like? For all of us, across this country?

Good leaders lead by example, as Jackson did with his Sunday School. The Stonewall Jackson statue affair could have set a good example for others to follow, by showing how modern-day Americans can acknowledge the flaws of our heroes (and the times they lived in), but still commemorate their character and accomplishments.

No, no, a thousand times no. To hell with any pissypants “acknowledge their shortcomings” bending of the knee; I hereby declare myself all done with such weakness, if there ever had been any doubt about it before. From now on, best practice for all who oppose the Leftist Enemy can only be nothing short of open, unyielding hostility in rejection of EVERY ONE of their premises, contentions, accusations, and demands. Not one more inch of ground ceded; not one more gesture towards “compromise,” reconciliation, or comity offered.

NOT. ONE.

Either we destroy them, or we go down fighting to the very last ounce of strength. There is no Third Way—a cold, hard reality that has been made so compellingly clear that it can no longer be denied. So that’s it then; no more pretending that they’re acting in good faith, or that they’re at all amenable to reason or appeals to fairness and/or decency, or that they share so much as a single belief or ambition in common with Real Americans.

To bargain with them is folly; to shy from confrontation with them is disastrous; to submit to them is death. Treat them as what they actually are: The Enemy. No concessions. No surrender. Period, full stop, end of fucking story.