My understanding of Forrest and the way he fought at close quarters was that he was a big fan of sawed-off 12 gauges with double-ought buck, followed by .36 or .40 single-action revolvers, then as a last resort with sabers, honed to a razor's edge on BOTH sides of the blade. Forrest wasn't much for protocol when it came to fightin'.

He normally used horses as a means of transportation from point A to point B, then fought his men as infantry, so there were 'long' rifles / carbines as well.

Forrest would often have his yankee prisoners stack their weapons, then go thru them to select a better version of what he or his troopers had at the time. Also, I vaguely remember that the last saber NBF had was a union blade, and sold for a 'kazillion' dollars at an auction in California.