MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Soldier re-enactors fired muskets in salute and United Daughters of the Confederacy in ankle-length dresses set wreaths before the towering statue of Nathan Bedford Forest in Memphis, paying tribute to a Confederate cavalryman whose exploits still divide Americans today.

The annual tribute Sunday to the hard-driving Confederate lieutenant general coincided this year with the 190th anniversary of his July 13 birth and the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, where he achieved his greatest success — and lasting notoriety.

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The tribute in downtown Memphis at Forrest's burial site signaled that the cult of personality remains alive among the admirers of Forrest, a slave trader and cotton farmer whose deeds during and after the war still prompt division against those detractors who have deemed him a virulent racist.

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