Grierson's Raid
Grierson's Raid | |||||||
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Part of the American Civil War | |||||||
Col. Benjamin Grierson leading his 6th Illinois Cavalry | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United States (Union) | CSA (Confederacy) | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Benjamin H. Grierson |
W. Wirt Adams Robert V. Richardson and others | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
3 regiments | unknown |
Grierson's Raid was a
Background
Early in 1863, Major General Charles Hamilton, the commander of the Corinth section of Grant's division, suggested what would eventually become Grierson's Raid. Subsequently, due to Hamilton's insistence on procuring a command that would garner him more glory, Hamilton offered his resignation. Grant quickly accepted.[3]
In the
The Raid
Grierson and his 1,700 horse troopers, some in Confederate uniforms serving as scouts for the main force, rode over 600 miles (970 km) through hostile territory (from southern Tennessee, through the State of Mississippi and into Union-held Baton Rouge, Louisiana), over routes no Union soldier had traveled before. They tore up railroads and burned crossties, freed slaves, burned Confederate storehouses, destroyed locomotives and commissary stores, ripped up bridges and trestles, burned buildings, and inflicted ten times the casualties they received, all while detachments of his troops made feints confusing the Confederates as to his actual whereabouts, intent and direction. Total casualties for Grierson's Brigade during the raid were three killed, seven wounded, and nine missing. Five sick and wounded men were left behind along the route, too ill to continue. Greirson reported to have killed and wounded 100 Confederates, captured 500, destroyed between 50 and 60 miles of railroad, destroyed over 3,000 stands of arms (a rifle plus all its accompanying kit[5]), and captured 1,000 horses and mules.[6]
On April 21, 1863, Confederate cavalry commander Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, had captured another Union raider, Col. Abel Streight, in Alabama following a poorly supplied and poorly planned raid (Streight's Raid
Although many other Confederate cavalry units pursued Grierson vigorously across the state (most notably
In popular media
The movie The Horse Soldiers, directed by John Ford, and starring John Wayne, William Holden and Constance Towers, and the Harold Sinclair novel of the same name on which it is based, are fictional variations of Grierson's Raid.
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-89029-061-3.
- ^ "Civil War Harper's Weekly". June 6, 1863. Retrieved October 7, 2007.
- ISBN 978-0-8093-0880-4.
- ISBN 0-8317-9127-6.
- ^ https://civilwartalk.com/threads/what-is-a-stand-of-arms.84395/
- ^ "Grierson's Raid".
- ISBN 0317527533.
Further reading
- Laliki, Tom (2004). Grierson's Raid: A Daring Cavalry Strike Through the Heart of the Confederacy. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York. ISBN 0-374-32787-4.
- Lardas, Mark (2010). Roughshod Through Dixie – Grierson’s Raid 1863, Osprey Raid Series #12; Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84603-993-5