Camp Forrest

Camp Forrest, located in a wooded area east of the city of Tullahoma, Tennessee, was one of the U.S. Army's largest training bases during World War II.

An active army post between 1941 and 1946, it was named after Civil War cavalry Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest.

[1]Because the Army had leased Peay, he instructed the National Guard Bureau to contact the Tennessee state authorities for their recommendations on a new name.

Furthermore, he directed that “the desires of the State authorities will be followed unless it is found that the name selected is unsuitable for psychological or other reasons.” The Tennessee adjutant general recommended Nathan Bedford Forrest, a native Tennessean whose birthplace was nearby.

Despite the notorious reputation of Forrest, a prewar slave trader and then a founder of the Ku Klux Klan after the Civil War, the Historical Section and the G–3 accepted this recommendation.

The camp also held Japanese, German, and Italian-American civilians who were arrested at the outbreak of the war under a program called "Alien Enemy Control".

Official government documents made available in the late 1990s indicate that over 25,000 "alien enemies" were held at various locations throughout the United States.

Because of maneuvers and operations, civilians had to adjust to blocked roads, traffic jams, crowded stores, the absence of mail delivery and driving at night without lights.

The camp's Sports Arena was bought by Lincoln Memorial University and moved to Harrogate, Tennessee, where it was rechristened as the Mary E. Mars Gymnasium.