Nathan Bedford Forrest enlisted in the War of the Rebellion for the South as a private in 1861. By 1862 he had risen to the position of lieutenant-colonel. Forrest had never been in the army nor had he attended a military preparation institution—he had no military experience yet still rose to be a great commander.
At Fort Donelson in Kentucky, Forrest was under the command of Generals Pillow, Floyd, and Buckner. The Confederate army had retreated and was in a poor position to defend an attack from the Ulysses S. Grant led-Union forces by mid February. The three generals debated surrendering to the Union and under what circumstances to do so. Forrest was called into Pillow's headquarters, between one and two o'clock in the morning on February 16, 1862, where he was informed that scouts had told the generals that the Union occupied the same location as the previous night. Forrest found this hard to believe as he had been in that area the previous night. In a compromise, Forrest went to determine the condition of a road that ran along the river as a possible escape route, and to determine the position of the Union troops. Upon returning he informed the three generals that the enemy was in the same location as he had last seen them, and that the conditions of the road were bearable for travel.
