After Forrest's death, "The New York Times" reported that "General Bedford Forrest, the great Confederate cavalry officer, died at 7:30 o'clock this evening at the residence of his brother, Colonel Jesse Forrest", but also reported that it would not be for military victories that Forrest would pass into history, i.e., he would be most remembered for Fort Pillow. Forrest's claim that the Fort Pillow massacre was an invention of Northern reporters is contradicted by letters written by Confederate soldiers to their own families, which described extreme brutality on the part of Confederate troops. The New York newspaper obituary stated: