Grierson's Raid was an event during the American Civil War. It ran from April 17, to May 2, 1863. Confederate cavalry commanders such as Nathan Bedford Forrest, John Hunt Morgan and J.E.B. Stuart had so far rode circles around the Union (literally, in Stuart's case; see the Seven Days Campaign), and it was time to out-do the Confederates in cavalry expeditions. The task fell to Colonel Benjamin Grierson, who, oddly, hated horses.

Grierson and his 1,700 horse troopers rode through over six hundred miles of hostile territory (from southern Tennessee, through the state of Mississippi and to Union-held Baton Rouge, Louisiana), over routes no Union soldier had traveled before. He tore up railroads and burned crossties, freed slaves, burned Confederate storehouses, inflicted ten times the casualties he received, destroyed locomotives and commissary stores, ripped up bridges and trestles, burned buildings, all while detachments of his troops made feints confusing the Confederates as to his actual whereabouts and direction.

Vicksburg's general Pemberton was short on cavalry and could do nothing to Grierson, and an entire division of Pemberton's graybacks were tied up defending the Vicksburg -- Jackson railroad from the slippery Grierson, and consequently did nothing to stop Grant's landing. The premier Confederate cavalry commander, Nathan Bedford Forrest, was off chasing another Union raider named Abel Streight in Alabama, and did nothing to stop Grierson.

While Streight's Raid failed, occupying the deadly Forrest perhaps sealed the success of Grierson's Raid. Of course every Confederate in the state -- save perhaps Forrest -- was hot in Grierson's trail. All they gained was mass confusion. Grierson and his troopers ultimately pulled in to Baton Rouge; combined with Sherman's feint, the befuddled Confederates did not oppose Grant's landing on the east side of the Mississippi.

See also

Actions prior to Grant's landing before the siege of Vicksburg

Grierson's Raid in Hollywood

The movie The Horse Soldiers, directed by John Ford, and starring John Wayne and William Holden is losely based on Grierson's Raid.