July Birthdays

Nathan Bedford Forrest, born July 13, 1821

Nathan Bedford Forrest was born to a poor family near Chapel Hill in Bedford County, Tennessee. He and his twin sister, Fanny, were the two eldest of blacksmith William Forrest's children with wife Mariam Beck. Bedford, as he was called, was named for his grandfather and the county in which he was born.  He had five younger brothers: John, William, Aaron, Jesse,  and Jeffrey.  The other children, including Nathan's twin sister, Fanny, died as children.  When the Civil War began. Nathan Bedford Forrest was 40 years old and a millionaire.  He was one of the richest men in the South, having amassed a personal fortune that he claimed was worth $1.5 million.

George Nelson Stone, born July 17, 1839
George Nelson Stone was born in Stark, New Hampshire. When he was three years old, his parents with their three sons and five daughters moved to Lowell, Massachusetts. At ten years old, he was office boy for a year for Benjamin F. Butler, who was a successful attorney in Lowell. He was 21 years old when the Civil War began.







George Pendleton, born July 19, 1825

George Hunt Pendleton was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the fourth of seven children in the wealthy and prominent family of  Nathanael Greene Pendleton.  Nathanael Greene Pendleton served in the War of 1812 and was one of Ohio's representatives in the United States Congress.  George Pendleton was 36 years old when the Civil War began.

Clement Vallandigham, born July 29, 1820
Clement Laird Vallandigham was born New Lisbon, Ohio (now Lisbon, Ohio), the fifth of seven children of Clement Vallandigham, a Presbyterian minister, and his wife Rebecca Laird Vallandigham. He was 41 years old when the Civil War began.









George Thomas, born July 31, 1816

George Henry Thomas was born at Thomaston, near Newsom's Depot, in Southampton County, Virginia. His father, John Thomas, of Welsh descent, and his mother, Elizabeth Rochelle Thomas, a descendant of French Huguenot immigrants, had nine children. George was the youngest of the three boys; he had six sisters. He was 44 years old when the Civil War began.