NASHVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Vandals have painted the statue of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest along Interstate 65.
This is the second time in four months that the statue of the Confederate cavalry general and early Ku Klux Klan leader has been vandalized.
The statue of Forrest was covered in pink paint Wednesday morning.
It sits on private property owned by Bill Dorris, who told WKRN News 2 he thinks the vandals stood near the street and shot paint balls at the statue.
“Oh, just live with it. If they think the public will be pleased with painting it red, we will leave it red for a while,” Dorris told News 2.
The retired Nashville businessman put up the statue in 1998. Over the years, it’s been hit with more than just paint balls. A few vandals fired have even fired bullets at it.
Dorris said he plans to look at surveillance footage from a camera near the statue.
While Forrest is revered by some as a Southern battlefield tactician, he was also a slavetrader before the Civil War and an early founder of the Ku Klux Klan.
Just last year, the mayor of Oak Hill asked Gov. Bill Haslam to allow for the statue to at least be hidden from the interstate by trees. The Metro-Nashville council voted to make a similar request in 2015, but nothing was ever done.