Brigadier General Tyree H. Bell, C.S.A.: Forrest's Fighting Lieutenant.

Brigadier General Tyree H. Bell, C.S.A.: Forrest's Fighting Lieutenant. By Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes Jr. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2004. Pp. xii, 346. $45.00, ISBN 1-57233-309-X.)

This is military biography at its best by a master of the genre. Since publishing his authoritative General William J. Hardee, C.S.A. in 1965, the author has continued honing his skills by producing scholarly studies of the Civil War period. Now he presents the first biography of one of General Nathan Bedford Forrest's chief subordinates, a figure long neglected. Without Tyree H. Bell and a few other especially competent lieutenants Forrest could never have become a legendary cavalry leader. This book pinpoints Bell's essential contributions.

Fortunately for Hughes, he discovered and made good use of Tyree Bell's unpublished autobiography and had valuable assistance from two descendants of the general. But clearly this book is vintage Nat Hughes: clear, crisp battle narratives based on exhaustive research, biography set in family, community, and overall military context. This study has aspects of the so-called new Civil War history, showing the social context that impelled a middle-aged farmer from Newbern, Tennessee, with no military experience to risk all in going off to war.

Leaders and ordinary volunteers come alive in the pages as homegrown units from farm and village are organized and trained in 1861. Bell emerges as a rare natural leader trusted by subordinates and his superior officers alike because of his levelheaded, blunt, honest, and competent style. The "strict Methodist warrior" gained on-the-job experience in leading the Twelfth Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment and later a brigade in battles from Belmont, Missouri, to Shiloh, Tennessee, and then as part of General Braxton Bragg's Kentucky invasion (p. 46). In 1863 Bell transferred from the infantry to Forrest's cavalry service and became an indispensable brigade commander at such key conflicts as Fort Pillow, Brice's Crossroads, Harrisburg, and Johnsonville. Forrest respected him as an aggressive combat leader and an unrivaled recruiter of Confederate replacements in Union-controlled West Tennessee. The author traces Bell's every significant move and position throughout the war.

In spite of serious wounds, including the loss of an eye, Bell fought on to the war's end before returning to his family farm and business interests in Dyer County, Tennessee. This postwar phase of his life, although briefly treated, gives some insight into the complex Reconstruction period. Finally, Hughes explains why Bell subsequently moved to California, returning to his home state only late in life to help dedicate a memorial statue in Memphis to his commander, Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Echoing the praise of Forrest and those who served with Bell for this farmer-turned-warrior, the author's evaluations are mostly favorable, but his opinions are objective and at times critical. The author especially faults Bell for the excessive killing at Fort Pillow and for letting down Forrest at Selma, Alabama. Overall, this work can be highly recommended.

University of Memphis 

JAMES R. CHUMNEY