Secesh (@Secesh)

Toward dusk on their return journey, within a mile of home, the two sisters found themselves pursued by a panther. The sister begged Mrs. Forrest to drop the basket of chicks, which the panther apparently had scented, but she refused. When their horses had to slow to cross a high-banked creek within earshot of their home, the panther attacked. Mrs. Forrest's horse, bleeding profusely from the big cat's assault, reared and threw its assailant into the stream, then died, while the panther fled as the rest of the Forrest household came running with their dogs. Clawed severely on her neck and shoulders, Mrs. Forrest had her clothes torn from her back, but she held on to the chickens. Another of her eldest son's youthful exploits immediately followed this incident. As soon as Mariam Forrest's wounds were dressed, he took a flintlock musket and some hounds into the night to wreak vengeance. In deep woods around midnight, the dogs treed the panther, and the youth waited below in the dark until dawn brought sufficient light for a shot. By 9 A.M. he returned home carrying the animal's scalp and ears. Legend quotes him as having grandly told the matriarch, "Mother, I am going to kill that beast if it stays on the earth." His actual words probably weren't that pretty, but their spirit was one he would live by most of his life: no creature, four-legged or otherwise, could harm him or his with impunity. -- Hurst, Jack. "Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography" #sec020 #forrest #nathanbedfordforrest #mother #panther #attack #chicks #hunt #killed