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24 2 “Through the Heart of Rebel Country” The History and Memory of Grierson’s Raid Charles D. Grear At dawn on April 17, 1863, the men of Colonel Benjamin Henry Grierson’s cavalry brigade broke camp in Tennessee not knowing they were about to embark on the most daring Union raid of the Civil War. Fulfilling their part in the 1863 Vicksburg Campaign, the horsemen traversed Mississippi and Louisiana for sixteen days, wreaking havoc on Confederate logistics while Grierson dumbfounded Rebel leaders as to his intentions and whereabouts. What became known as Grierson’s Raid “through the heart of Rebel country”1 has remained a cultural icon down to the current generation . Despite the complexity and significance of the 1863 Vicksburg Campaign , only Grierson’s Raid truly entered the lexicon of popular history and the memory of Americans, becoming the most remembered and celebrated Union cavalry raid of the Civil War.2 Though only a small part of the campaign, Grierson’s Raid played a pivotal role in the capture of the Gibraltar of the South. Major General Ulysses S. Grant’s plan to outmaneuver and overwhelm Confederate forces in western Mississippi was complex. He deployed three main forces, two to attack enemy positions at Grand Gulf and Port Gibson, and a third under Major General William Tecumseh Sherman feigning an attack north of Vicksburg at Snyder’s Bluff. Additionally, Grant organized two mounted forays. With the cooperation of Major General William S. Rosecrans, Abel Streight’s five regiments of mounted infantry rode through northeastern Mississippi, Alabama, and into Georgia on mules to siphon off the bulk of Confederate cavalry from northern Mississippi and to sever the Western & Atlantic Railroad , hampering General Braxton Bragg from reinforcing and resupplying Vicksburg. Streight’s other objective was to draw off the formidable Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who had been a thorn in Grant’s side in his previous attempts to capture Vicksburg. Despite the success of pulling “Through the Heart of Rebel Country” 25 Confederate cavalry to Georgia, Streight’s men eventually tired and were captured by Forrest.3 The second foray, Grierson’s Raid, garnered the most attention, achieved more immediate success, and embedded its image in the American popular memory. Grant and his lieutenants devised another cavalry raid to create yet another diversion for Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton while isolating Confederate forces defending Vicksburg. Specifically, a brigade of cavalry would ride south from La Grange, Tennessee, into Mississippi. The raiders would ride between the state’s two major north–south railroads, the Mississippi Central and the Mobile & Ohio, cutting both lines while severing the main east–west arterial rail line, the Southern Railroad, at Newton Station, Mississippi. Additionally, Grant ordered them to disrupt Confederate communication lines along the railways by cutting telegraph wires and wrecking telegraph offices in addition to the general destruction of military supplies discovered during their trek. Once the cavalrymen fulfilled the main objectives , they were to loop back through Alabama to the safety of friendly lines.4 Leading the raid was Colonel Benjamin Henry Grierson, a former music instructor from Illinois who disliked horses after of an accident as a child nearly killed him. His command was a brigade composed of the 6th and 7th Illinois and 2nd Iowa Cavalry regiments, a total of seventeen hundred men. Grierson and his raiders broke camp early on the morning of April 17, 1863, with enough rations for five days and forty rounds of ammunition each. Travelling light, the aggressive Federal horse-soldiers quickly learned how to acquire sustenance for the sixteen days they rode through the heart of Dixie. By the second day, they were already in Mississippi capturing and destroying property. Encamped at Pontotoc, Mississippi, on April 20, Grierson decided to cull out 175 men not fit to continue and sent them back to La Grange with the captured property and prisoners. Dubbed the “Quinine Brigade,” after the noted antimalarial drug used since the seventeenth century, the returnees received instructions from Grierson to leave “the impression that the whole command had returned” to deceive the enemy into thinking that the raid was only to collect supplies. Grierson’s stratagem worked, confusing the Confederates long enough to give him a ten-hour head start.5 Freed of slow troops and the weight of captured Confederates and their supplies, Grierson quickly moved south and continued his deceptions. The following day, the Illinoisan made a still larger detachment, this time the entire 2nd Iowa. Under the command of Grierson...

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