Colonel Benjamin Grierson’s Cavalry Raid in 1863

4/17/17

[Kartographer]

Early on the morning of April 17, 1863 La Grange, Tennessee Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson, commander of the 1st Brigade of the Cavalry Division, XVI Corps, Army of Tennessee lead ou this Horse Soldiers, his orders included nothing less than an invasion of Mississippi–one of the most daring and successful cavalry raids of the Civil War.

[Kartographer]

From April 17 until May, 2 Grierson command consisting of 1,700 veterans from the 6th and 7th Illinois and the 2d Iowa Cavalry regiments went through the heart of Mississippi Traveling more than 600 miles in those 16 days, with little rest or sleep, Grierson's raiders had captured 500 Confederates, killed or wounded another 100, destroyed more than 50 miles of railroad and telegraph, 3,000 stands of arms and thousands of dollars worth of supplies and property. Over 1,000 mules and horses were captured, in addition to tying up all of Pemberton's cavalry, one-third of his infantry and several regiments of artillery. Grierson suffered, including Hatch's losses, total casualties of 36.

[Kartographer]

[BenLurkin]

This is the kind of thing you can do when you have a substantial advantage in manpower and resources.

[Sybeck1]

I am a native of Holly Springs, one of the cities shown on the map. This is Pilgrimage week, the yearly observance of it’s antebellum history

http://www.hollyspringspilgrimage.com/

[Tallguy]

Does take some imagination, guts and tactical flexibility to pull it off, however. The goal was to distract Pemberton, and it did that.

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

"Grierson suffered, including Hatch's losses, total casualties of 36"

Does that include Lukey?

[KC Burke]

The calvary usage in the Civil War was an interesting moment in time. Soon thereafter, they were marginalized due to better rifles and artillery and by the time of WWI they were mounted dragoons at best.

[PLMerite]

This was the basis/inspiration for the John Wayne movie, “The Horse Soldiers,” yes?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkQQcnsE21o

[RightGeek]

My favorite clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZKxXNzjfPk

[DoodleDawg]

This is the kind of thing you can do when you have a substantial advantage in manpower and resources.

Yet lacking both didn't seem to slow down Bedford Forrest any.

[jmacusa]

Interestingly though cavalry troops continued to be used through all of WW2.

[PLMerite]

I always liked this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRHtjjDslKI

[KC Burke]

But only as mounted infantry and scouts. The Crimean War and the Civil War were about the time of the last calvary fighting from horseback on an organized scale.

It is interesting to note how little coverage has been given to the use of horse and mule clear up to WWII, but the great skills of Forrest, Morgan, Sheridan, and Grierson in mounted attacks passed shortly thereafter.

[BenLurkin]

Yup. Hit ‘em where they ain’t.

[BenLurkin]

Excellent.

[Kartographer]

This was the basis/inspiration for the John Wayne movie, “The Horse Soldiers,” yes?

Yes it was

[C19fan]

Always find it interesting there was no heavy cavalry wearing breast plates as one saw in Europe. American cavalry was hardly employed for shock action.

[C19fan]

The Franco-Prussian war of 1870 saw both sides still employ traditional heavy cavalry. The last major battle between cavalry units was during the Soviet-Polish war of 1919-1921.

[KC Burke]

We were past the point in long gun history where rate of fire, ring bayonets and pikes could stave off armored calvary as it could not in Vienna against the Polish heavy calvary some 180 years prior.

[KC Burke]

That is a good point. However it was two similar fast mobile forces of like character meeting head-to-head. Such cavalry could not have much luck with entrenched infantry with embanked artillery as was seen thereafter.