MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The remains of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife Mary Ann Montgomery Forrest were laid to rest Saturday after they were removed to a new museum in Columbia, Tennessee.
Lee Millar, spokesman for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which had fought a drawn-out legal battle with government officials in Memphis and Shelby County, confirmed the reburial ceremony to WREG.
Forrest, a slave trader and early leader of the KKK, had been buried under a monument in a public park on Union Avenue in Memphis since the graves were moved from a nearby cemetery in the early 20th century.
The removal of Forrest’s monument and remains began in 2017 when city officials voted to transfer the park to a private nonprofit group after the state took measures to block the monument’s removal.
The remains were discovered June 7 this year, and removed a few days later, according to Van Turner with Memphis Greenspace, the nonprofit that now controls the land formerly known as Forrest Park.
