2 PAH fe ASU DUMBO NG EB Ut ico 
Shortly after his eighteenth birthday he was captured while on dispatch 
duty near Corinth, Mississippi. He destroyed the dispatch. In a letter dated 
December 19, 1923, now in the Survey Library, he wrote: “At General 
Braggs’ headquarters I was threatened with hanging if I did not produce 
my dispatch. . .” He was imprisoned for four months at Mobile, Macon, and 
Richmond, and then was paroled and released. It is significant that he 
bought a Bible and a Greek grammar while at Mobile. 
Forbes was among the troopers who 
accompanied Colonel B. H. Grierson on 
his daring cavalry raid through the 
heart of the western Confederacy. The 
raid was designed to interrupt communi- 
cations and aid in the capture of Vicks- 
burg. There is an account of it, includ- 
ing photographs of Stephen and Henry, 
in D. A. Brown’s Grierson’s Raid, Univ. 
Ill. Press, 1954. He was under fire on 22 
occasions. His army service terminated 
in November, 1865. Of his experience in 
the war, Forbes’ son, Ernest (Forbes, 
EK. B., in Memorial of the Funeral Serv- 
ices for Stephen Alfred Forbes, Univ. 
Ill. Press, p. 9, 1980), quotes him as 
having stated: 
"Those of us who survived the Civil War 
in good health and strength, with morals 
unstained and minds still alert, have had 
no final cause to regret what seemed at 
the time the complete wreckage of our 
plans of life. To us war was not hell, but 
at the worst a kind of purgatory, from 
whose flames we emerged with much of dross burned out of our characters, and 
with a fair chance still left to each of us to win his proper place in the life of 
the world." 
Forbes attended Rush Medical College in Chicago after the war. He left 
there because he doubted that he was temperamentally suited to surgical 
aspects of the medical profession and because he was no longer able to 
finance his education. From 1867 to 1872, he raised strawberries near Car- 
bondale, taught school at Makanda, Benton, and Mount Vernon, studied 
and practiced medicine under a preceptor, and studied briefly at Illinois 
State Normal University. Finally, in 1872, he began the career in biology 
which ended in Urbana. His son (Forbes, E. B., in Memorial of the Funeral 
Services for Stephen Alfred Forbes, Univ. Ill. Press, p. 7, 1930) believed 
that “His interest in natural science was determined by an academic tradi- 
tion in the family, by an agricultural background, by four years’ out-of- 
door experience in the army, by a naturally thoughtful habit, and by a 
continuing scientific interest after the cessation of his medical studies.” 
As a scientist, he showed himself to be accomplished in several fields of 
biology: ornithology, entomology, ichthyology, aquatic biology, and ecology. 
Few men have proved so eminently able in so many specialties. 
His tremendous energy, extensive accomplishments, and great intellect 
are abundantly evident in his many publications. Forbes began to publish 
in 1870 and continued writing until his death. During this period he pub- 
lished over 400 titles. A complete bibliography has been presented by L. O. 
Forbes in Uniform, 1861 
