The controversial work was located on a narrow strip of private land in Nashville's Crieve Hall area and was visible from the city's Interstate 65 at 701D Hogan Road.

The work, by amateur sculptor Jack Kershaw, was widely mocked by national media for its crude craftsmanship[1] and attracted decades of controversy and repeated vandalism before its removal on December 7, 2021.

[1] The depiction showed Forrest mounted on a rearing horse holding a sword aloft in his right hand and a pistol in his left.

Kershaw was a member of The General Joseph E. Johnston Camp 28 Sons of Confederate Veterans, and a former attorney who represented convicted assassin James Earl Ray.

"[12] The SCV camp called it one of its most ambitious projects and noted the additional sponsorship of The Southern League and the Mary Noel Kershaw Foundation.

[8] In total, the dedication ceremony was attended by approximately 400 people, including Alberta Martin, who was once believed to be the last surviving widow of a Confederate soldier, and Tennessee State Senator Douglas Henry.

Shortly after the unveiling in 1998, BlueShoe Nashville noted that newspaper coverage showed that support for and dismay against the statue generally followed racial lines.

"[13] In 2006, local blogger Brent K. Moore wrote that Forrest "has an expression that one makes after sitting on a thumb tack.

"[9] Critic Connor O'Neill called it "our nation's ugliest Confederate statue... so absurd and tacky that it looks like a joke".

"[14] A November 2015 Vibe.com article entitled 7 Controversial & Offensive Tourist Attractions In The U.S. described the installation as the "ugliest" statue of Forrest and noted it is "surrounded by an overwhelmingly large display of numerous Confederate flags"[15] Rachel Maddow on MSNBC described it as having "terrifying marble blue eyes" and a "mouth like a circular saw".

[16] Comedian Stephen Colbert first quoted President Trump's tweets about "preserving the beautiful monuments" in the wake of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia then immediately mocked this statue by saying "apparently the Confederacy was founded by skirt-wearing nutcrackers riding wet lizards" and by mimicking the pose, shooting invisible soldiers following Forrest and riding an imaginary horse around the stage.

[27][28]In a separate statement, the Battle of Nashville Trust also noted that "even Forrest himself would think it was ugly,” adding that the Dorris property and statue were not on core battlefield ground.

[28][29] The statue was shot at more than once, vandalized regularly over the years, and more recently defaced with Black Lives Matter slogans, but always repaired.

"[32] In July 2015 the Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County sought permission to plant landscape screening in front of the monument to obscure its view from the interstate, but the request was denied by the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

[10] The statue was criticized by then-councilwoman and former mayor Megan Barry in the wake of the 2015 Charleston church shooting, as "an offensive display of hatred that should not be a symbol for a progressive and welcoming city such as Nashville.

[33] On August 15, 2017 the mayor of nearby Oak Hill, Heidi Campbell, wrote an open letter to Governor Haslam urging the statue be obscured with landscaping.

Nathan Bedford Forrest was not a racist"[37] and again called slavery a form of "social security" for African Americans, "a cradle-to-the-grave proposition.

[40] After removal of the statue, legal squabbles developed between two nonprofit organizations in regard to which flags should be displayed on the property.