West Point, New York, United States
John Horace Forney entered United States Military Academy at West Point, in 1848, graduating 22nd four years later.
West Point, New York, United States
John Horace Forney entered United States Military Academy at West Point, in 1848, graduating 22nd four years later.
John Horace Forney was born on August 12, 1829, in Batley Forge, Lincoln County, North Carolina, United States. He was the son of Jacob Forney and Sabina Swope Hoke Forney. His father, a planter, moved the family to Alabama in 1835, settling in Jacksonville.
In Jacksonville, John Forney was educated by private tutors.
He entered United States Military Academy at West Point, in 1848, graduating 22nd four years later.
John Horace Forney served in garrison in Kentucky and on the frontier in the Indian Territory. In 1855, he was on the staff of General Charles F. Smith during an exploring expedition to Pembina, and in 1858 he commanded the pioneer corps on General Albert S. Johnston's expedition to Salt Lake. In 1860, while an instructor of tactics at West Point, he was commissioned first lieutenant of the Tenth United States Infantry; however, foreseeing the approaching sectional conflict between North and South, he resigned and offered his services to Governor Andrew B. Moore of Alabama on 23 Jan. 1861. Commissioned a colonel of artillery in the Alabama state troops, Forney commanded at Pensacola, Fla., until 16 March when he was promoted to captain in the regular Confederate Army and assigned to the staff of General Braxton Bragg.
Upon the formation of the Tenth Alabama Regiment in Montgomery in May 1861, Forney was elected its colonel and commissioned on 4 June. His brother, Captain William Henry Forney, commanded a company in the same regiment. The Tenth Alabama Regiment soon was sent to Virginia, where it became part of General Kirby Smith's brigade after the Battle of First Manassas. Colonel Forney commanded this brigade for three months. In the Battle of Dranesville on 20 Dec. 1861, Forney, again in command of the Tenth Alabama Regiment, led his men in battle for the first time. During a gallant charge in the fighting, both he and his brother William Henry were seriously wounded. On 14 Mar. 1862, Forney was promoted to brigadier general, to rank from 10 March, and on 27 Oct. 1862, he received the rank of major general, to rank from the same date. The reason for such a rapid promotion has never been explained in the records. Afterward, General Forney was assigned to the Department of South Alabama and West Florida, with headquarters in Mobile.
During the campaign for Vicksburg in the summer of 1863, he led a division of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas troops comprising two brigades under brigadier generals Louis Hebert and John C. Moore. This division took part in the siege of the city and became part of Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton's army. Forney's men held the center of Pemberton's line of defensive trenches and earthworks and successfully repulsed Union forces in the attacks on 19 and 22 May 1863. After the fall of Vicksburg, Forney was paroled and during July 1863 commanded a parole camp at Enterprise, Miss. For a time he appears to have been a supernumerary officer without a command, but from July 1864 until the end of the war he commanded a division of troops in the District of Texas under General John B. Magruder in the Department of the Trans-Mississippi. He was paroled in Galveston, Tex., on 20 June 1865.
After the war, he operated a small military academy in Jacksonville, Alabama, and worked as a surveyor and civil engineer.
John Horace Forney married Septima Sexta Middleton Rutledge Forney on February 5, 1863. They had five children: Emma Rutledge Forney, Jacob Forney, Mary C. Forney, Sabina Hoke Forney Stevenson, Annie Rowan Forney Daugette.
1787-1856
1800-1881
1819-1880
1821-1880
1823-1894
1826-1907
1832-1918
1835–1864
1838-1914
1836-1920
1864-1953
1868-1902
1871-1939
1873-1966
1876-1974
After a period without a command, John Horace Forney followed John George Walker as commander of the Texas Division, Division 1 of I Corps, Trans-Mississippi Army in September 1864.
