Confederate
Brig. General Nathan Bedford Forrest was not amused when he learned the
identity of a civilian taken prisoner at Holly Springs, Mississippi, in
December 1862. Because Forrest was barely able to scribble a few common words,
no written records of his order has survived. His oral command probably was
brief and to the point: “Pass that woman through the lines, and waste no time.”
His
captive, Julia Grant, is believed to have been the only wife of a Union major
general to be taken prisoner by a Confederate force.
Often
accompanied by their youngest son, Jesse, Mrs. Grant was with her husband in
numerous camps. When Grant settled down at City Point, Virginia, for the long
siege of Petersburg, it was his wife who made sure that he frequently had “good
home-cooked food.”
