Dead for 128 years but still on the move

In 1877, Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the greatest cavalry generals in world history, was buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis, Tenn.

In 1905, Confederate veterans arranged to move his remains, and those of his wife Mary, to a new site, named Forrest Park, which is adorned with his equestrian statue.

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Now, however, the New York Times reports concerning:

"The cavalryman whose outnumbered men whipped the Yankees at Brice's Crossroads in northern Mississippi." (as one of several Forrest victories):

"A downtown development agency urged the City Council to consider renaming Forrest Park, as well as two other city parks, Confederate Park and Jefferson Davis Park. A prominent local lawyer suggested … transferring the bodies of Forrest and his wife away from the park, back to the cemetery from which they came."

But Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton said, "Digging up and moving graves or renaming parks is not the proper way of dealing with the issue."

But what is the proper way? Well, added His Honor, give the park to the University of Tennessee because: "In the aftermath of the tragic assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in our city, we do not need another event that portrays Memphis nationally as a city still racially polarized and fighting the Civil War all over again."

New York Times reporter John Branston failed to asked Mayor Herenton:

"What about our nation's capital? Do you think it should continue to be named for a slave owner named George Washington – with a prominent memorial to another slave owner named Thomas Jefferson?"

That neither of these two and a number of additional U.S. presidents who owned slaves were either slave traders like Forrest before the war, or led the Ku Klux Klan after that war, is a consideration, even though Forrest eventually resigned from the post-war Klan, which later disbanded before being reorganized in the early 20th century.

The Times did not note that this demand for the second reburial of Gen. Forrest came only after the June death of Memphis resident and Civil War authority Shelby Foote, who "opposed renaming the parks, arguing that the Civil War and the Confederacy were an indelible part of the region's past."

That seemed to be a singularly intelligent and reasonable approach to the remembrance of one of America's ablest and most courageous soldiers.

And while one local minister in Memphis was trying to organize a Forrest protest march for today, the mayor of Southaven, Miss., (a fast-growing city where many white Memphians have moved over the years) said he would be happy to have the Forrest equestrian statue in Southaven.