William H. Forrest

William H. Forrest
Quarter-plate tintype, Matt Hagans Collection (Military Images, Spring 2018)
Born	c. 1831 Tennessee, U.S.
Died	(1875-03-14)March 14, 1875 Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.

William Hezekiah Forrest (c. 1831 – March 14, 1875), called Bill Forrest, was one of the six Forrest brothers who engaged in the interregional slave trade in the United States prior to the American Civil War. During the war he served under his brother Nathan Bedford Forrest's command as leader of a group of Confederate-aligned raiders called the Forty Thieves. After the war Forrest was involved in several shooting incidents and was implicated in the assassination of a Freedmen's Bureau sub-commissioner in 1866. Multiple accounts describe Forrest as an unstable and lethal "desperado." Forrest died in 1875 of either "dissipation" (alcohol dependence) or "stomach congestion."