Originally aired on January 31, 1997 - In part 127 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson profiles the life and career of Colonel Benjamin Grierson, the Illinois music teacher who conducted the Civil War’s first long-range expedition by Union Calvary into enemy territory.
#127 – Grierson’s Raid
Some historians have called it the most spectacular cavalry adventure in the Civil War. It certainly was a major factor in the Union seizure of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Unfortunately, Hollywood’s depiction of the action (a popular movie entitled The Horse Soldiers) bears only slight resemblance to the facts.
In the war’s third spring, General U. S. Grant began the largest Union offensive yet staged against the last major Confederate fortress on the Mississippi River. It was necessary to divert attention away from the Union army as it sought to cross the river below Vicksburg. Toward that end, Grant turned to an improbable but highly competent colonel named Benjamin Grierson.
Having John Wayne portray Grierson in the movie was terrible miscasting. The real Ben Grierson was 30 years old, thin, sleepy-eyed, with long dark hair and beard. He possessed no formal military training. Grierson was, in fact, a music teacher, band conductor, piano tuner, and songwriter. His chief prewar accomplishments were organizing amateur bands in small towns across Illinois. Further, he had disliked horses since childhood, when one kicked him in the head.
Grierson enlisted in the infantry at war’s outset, but the governor of Illinois overrode his objections and assigned him to duty as a cavalry officer. The appointment was a stroke of good luck. By the autumn of 1862, Grierson was one of the finest horse soldiers in the Union armies. He commanded a brigade of three veteran regiments from Illinois and Iowa. He also displayed a cavalryman’s eccentricities. While Jeb Stuart had a banjo player on his staff, Grierson kept a Jew’s harp in his pocket and was prone to playing it as inopportune times.
On April 17, 1863, Grierson left LaGrange, Tennessee with 1,700 horsemen. Their chief mission was to create confusion and to keep Vicksburg defenders off-balance. From start to end, the Union horsemen were in hostile territory. They also had to give the impression that this was more than a hit-and-run cavalry raid.
The long column sliced between two rail lines south and southwest across Mississippi. General John C. Pemberton, commanding at Vicksburg, lacked sufficient cavalry and thus had no way of telling where Grierson was or what he intended to do. The Federals also kept their whereabouts unknown by cutting telegraph lines as they advanced. Pemberton dispatched all the horsemen he had, plus a full infantry division, in pursuit of the Grierson raiders.
It appeared repeatedly as if Grierson would lose his entire command. Yet the colonel boldness, cunning, and speed to best advantage. He continually detached small units from the main body to ride off in various directions. Hence, Grierson was reported everywhere but never where he was presumed to be.
The Federal horsemen tore up 50 miles of three different railroads on which Pemberton depended for supplies. A half-dozen depots and scores of freight cars were put to the torch. Federals won several skirmishes, inflicted 100 Confederate casualties, and captured 500 other soldiers – all at a cost of only 24 men.
On May 2, Grierson and his exhausted command road into Union-held Baton Rouge, Louisiana. More than 300 runaway slaves had followed the column to freedom. In 16 days, Grierson’s command had traveled 600 miles, severed communication and transportation lines, caused massive destruction and left in their wake both chaos and gloom. At the same time, and most importantly, Grant had an almost free hand in maneuvering his forces for a direct – and climactic – lunge at Vicksburg.
An Illinois music teacher had conducted the Civil War’s first long-range expedition by Union cavalry into enemy territory. Doing so, he had contributed mightily to the North cutting off a third of the Confederacy by gaining control of the Mississippi River.