A DASHING EXPLOIT - FORREST'S OWN ACCOUNT OF THE PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF STREIGHT.
This post is a newspaper article taken from a Nashville Banner correspondence and published in the ‘The Anderson Intelligencer’ on July 19, 1866 in Anderson, SC. It is the story of Forrest and Miss Emma Sansom as told by Forrest.
Late one afternoon, long after this, at the moment when the entire Confederacy was ringing with his pursuit and capture of Col. Streight, Forrest came into the editorial room of the Rebel at Chattanooga, where three or four of his old friends were collected, and gave us a minute narrative of the recent campaign. His descriptive powers are naturally very good, and on this occasion he was full of his history, and spoke with the enthusiasm and simplicity of a child.
He had pursued Streight's column, fighting every day, for nearly a fortnight, over an almost barren country for over several hundred miles and with an inferior force, capturing him at last by stratagem. "I wasn't certain, when I demanded his surrender, which would have to give in, him or me. But it was like a game of poker. I called him on a single 'pair' to his 'full' trusting to luck. He seemed, at first, to have very little confidence in my hand. But I said, I give you five minutes. I've followed you and fought you for two weeks, and now I've got you where I want you. I'm tired of sacrificing lives, and offer you a chance to stop it. If you don't, I warn you I won't be answerable for the consequence."
Streight was "fairly bluffed." He was in a strange country. His adversary was known to be a desperate man. His command was jaded. What could he do? If he stood out any longer and was mistaken he might be sacrificed. He surrendered, and in a few minutes he and his men were disarmed prisoners under the escort of one-fourth of their number. "Where is the rest of your command, General?" asked Col. Streight. Forrest smiled grimly, and made no reply. Presently, when they arrived in the village of Reme, the mystery was removed and the gallant but outwitted Indianan saw his blunder.
It was during the pursuit of Streight that an incident occurred which Forrest reported with great satisfaction. The chase was becoming excited and the Confederates were beginning to be eager for its conclusion, when they reached a stream over which the enemy had crossed in safety, but which had in the meantime risen so rapidly as to be impassable. Forrest rode along the banks baffled and angry, while the bullets from the other side spun through the trees and whistled about his ears.
After vainly seeking for half an hour, he came to a cabin which stood alone in the wilderness near the water's edge. Here, as a last resort, he inquired for a ford. A young girl ran out and said, "I can show you one if you take me behind you." The mother was very much shocked, but the girl continued, "I'm not afraid. You're General Forrest, and will take care of me."
"Hop up," then, said Forrest, riding close to the fence. The girl bounded upon the horse, hung tightly to the General's saber sash, and away they rode, down the stream and through the bush wood, to the rattle of sharpshooting and the whizzing of minnies.
"What's that?" said the girl innocently, as one of them came very near.
"That," said Forrest, “is a scared bird."
They reached the ford in safety, the command passed over, and the General turned to his gallant little guide and asked what he could do for her? She replied that her brother had been captured by Col. Streight, and was a prisoner in his hands; all that she desired was his release. “Very well," said Forrest, taking a note of the name, "You shall have him by twelve o'clock to-morrow."
It was turned of 11 o'clock the next day when Streight surrendered. Immediately Forrest called for John Sansom, who promptly appeared, glad enough to be relieved, and wondering what could be wanted with him by his own General. "I promised your sister Emma," said Forrest, when the young man approached, "to send you to her by 12 o'clock to-day. Time's nearly up. Take the best horse you can find and put out. Double quick now! March!"
As related by Forrest himself, with the earnest delight of his nature, and in that quiet little editorial room, at the close of a summer day, with all its freeness about it, the story was thrilling, and we at once resolved to make a heroine out of the little rustic, Emma Sansom. Subsequently she received a grant of land and a vote of thanks from the General Assembly of Alabama; but the remembrance of that ride behind the most daring cavalry leader of the American continent should be worth more to her than all the grants and resolutions which Legislatures have power to give. I know that Forrest looks back upon it with pride that exceeds the sense of the victory which it secured, and never alludes to it without a touch of the old fire and a quick returning of the old flash.
