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Grierson's Raid #2

American Civil War

Originally aired on October 31, 1997 - In part 166 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson discusses the implausible raid led by Colonel Benjamin Grierson as a diversion during the siege of Vicksburg.

  

#166 – Grierson’s Raid

          Some of the most outstanding figures of the Civil War were unlikely heroes. One did not even look the part.  He was a swarthy, bearded, Scotsman with sunken eyes, a lopsided face and a thick shock of coal-black hair. He preferred a piano to a pistol. His name was Benjamin Henry Grierson.

            Born in Pittsburg, in 1826, Grierson moved with his parents to Illinois. He was composing and arranging music by the time he was fifteen. Grierson desired a college education and managed to get an appointment to West Point. His mother talked him out of going by convincing him that he was born to be a musician.

Grierson then became a music teacher. His specialty was organizing bands for small towns. The last thing he wanted when civil war came was to be in the cavalry. At the age of eight a kick from a skittish horse had crushed one of his cheekbones leaving his face permanently cock-eyed. Yet upon enlistment in 1861, and despite his protests Grierson was posted to the 6th Illinois Cavalry Regiment.

Slowly the 35-year-old officer overcame his fear of horses. He matured into a good equestrian. Grierson’s first action came in skirmishes with Tennessee guerillas. He was promoted to colonel and given command of a mounted brigade. That set the stage for Grierson most brilliant achievement in the Civil War.

In the spring of 1863, Union forces began preparations for a concerted move on the river fortress of Vicksburg, Mississippi. General U. S. Grant ordered Grierson on a diversionary and highly dangerous raid. The colonel and three regiments were to gallop due south across Mississippi destroy Confederate supply and communication lines, spread all the alarm possible in enemy territory; and, if lucky, reach safety inside the Union lines at Baton Rouge, Louisiana.             This strike would block reinforcements from General John Pemberton’s besieged Confederate garrison inside Vicksburg.

At daybreak on April 17th, Grierson left LaGrange, Tennessee with 1,700 horsemen. Only he knew their destination. If the situation made the colonel nervous he did not show it. While leading the column he often pulled a Jew’s harp from his pocked and enjoyed playing sprightly and somewhat twangy melodies.

Grierson’s raid exceeded all expectations. Combining boldness, cunning, and speed he and his men swept southward through Mississippi. The Union thrust lured most of Pemberton’s depleted cavalry, plus a full infantry division into futile pursuit. How Grierson avoided confrontation and full-scale combat was little short of miraculous.

Through skirmishes, rain, mud, and heat the Union column made its way southward. Fatigue became overwhelming. One of the horsemen wrote, “Men by the scores were riding sound asleep in their saddles. The horses excessively tired and hungry were stray out of the road.”

In sixteen days Grierson led his men triumphantly into Baton Rouge. The Union soldiers had covered 600 miles; won a dozen small engagements; inflicted a hundred casualties; captured 500 Confederates; all at the cost of 24 men. Destroyed were 50 miles of railroad on three different lines leading to Vicksburg, plus numerous depots and scores of rolling stock.

Grant called the escapade the most successful thing of the kind since the breaking out of the rebellion. And he predicted that the exploit would, “be handed down in history as an example to be imitated”. Strategically Grierson’s actions comprised one of the great cavalry achievements of the war because they were so instrumental in Grant’s capture of Vicksburg.

Not even Hollywood could concoct a more implausible story. Although Hollywood tried with a heavily fictionalized movie starring John Wayne. As is so often the case, if movie-makers had told the truth the finished product would have been more exciting and far more educational.

Dr. James I. "Bud" Robertson, Jr., is a noted scholar on the American Civil War and Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Virginia Tech.