Grierson's Raid: Part II

With many Yankee horsemen nodding off in their saddles and falling up to a mile behind their units, it was good that the safe haven of Baton Rouge was a mere six miles away. Grierson determined that they were within Union lines and could stop and rest for the night. As Grierson, who insisted he stay awake, was playing a piano in the plantation house his unit was staying at, he was interrupted by a warning of approaching enemy cavalry. He knew better, however, and he rode out to meet the incoming troops, who were two companies of Union cavalry from Baton Rouge.

What happened was, as Jerry Korn tells it, "one of Grierson's sleeping riders had been carried by his horse into a Union encampment outside Baton Rouge; the troopers had been dispatched to check this man's incredible story that he was a part of a Federal forces that had just ridden through enemy territory all the way from Tennessee. Major General Christopher C. Auger, Federal commander in Baton Rouge, was awestruck by Grierson's achievement and insisted that his troopers parade through the city. Grierson demurred, but Auger would not be refused. So the raiders were wakened and-ragged, caked with dust, and still half asleep-they staged a two-hour parade that afternoon through the streets of Baton Rouge, some of them dozing on their horses" (Korn, 95).

Thus, Grierson's incredible cavalry raid came to end 16 days and 600 miles after they began. This raid was indeed a huge success; over 100 Confederates were killed or wounded, 500 were captured, and only 24 of his men were casualties. Grierson's men destroyed 50 miles of railroad and captured over 1,000 horse and mules. The commander stated that they had "captured and destroyed over 3,000 stands of arms, and other army stores and Government property to an immense amount" (Korn, 95). His men covered, in the last day-and-a-half of the ride, 76 miles without stopping for any reason.

General Grant later dubbed Grierson's raid "one of the most brilliant cavalry exploits of the war" (Korn, 96). In addition to the above achievements, Grierson's troops did exactly what Grant had wanted them to do: keep Pemberton and the Confederate forces busy and distracted from Grant's army. And in that achievement, Grierson's raid was a significant determinant of the outcome of the Vicksburg Campaign of 1863.

Sources Used: Korn, Jerry. War on the Mississippi: The Vicksburg Campaign, 1985.

MacPherson, James. Ordeal