Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821-1877) twice-signed Selma Marion Memphis Railroad Company $1,000 First Mortgage Eight Per Cent Bond, No. 239, endorsed by the State of Alabama, dated September 1, 1869. Signed by Forrest as Company President, as well as Secretary Alpheus Monroe Fowlkes. Lithographed by Henry Seibert & Brothers, New York, with a vignette of a train in a landscape setting, top center, and a smaller vignetter of workers carrying cotton, lower right, surrounded by a decorative green border.  Signed again by Forrest en verso along with Governor of Alabama William Hugh Smith's endorsement signature and additional writing. 33 Coupons remain. Note: Nathan Bedford Forrest was a Confederate Calvary leader who attained the rank of lieutenant general in the Confederate Army, and after the war was involved in various business enterprises, including this railroad. Forrest, an inveterate opponent of Reconstruction, used such ventures to rebuild his fortune after the Civil War. He was not as successful in railroad promotion as in war and, under his direction, the company went bankrupt (adapted from https://www.gilderlehrman.org/collection/glc01593).

Very good condition with slight yellowing, right paper edge with chips.