Grierson's Raid

Grierson's raid was a diversion, and it worked. Grant wanted Confederate attention pulled away from his crossing below Vicksburg, so Grierson, a former music teacher who disliked horses, led about 1,700 cavalrymen some 600 miles through Mississippi to Baton Rouge. They cut rails, burned stores and freed enslaved people, while detachments made feints that kept Pemberton guessing where they were headed. The brigade lost three killed. A Confederate division stayed tied to the railroads, and the raid later inspired the novel and film The Horse Soldiers.

What the plaque says

Grierson's Raid April 17, 1863 From here, Col. Benjamin H. Grierson's task force (6th Ill., 7th Ill., 2nd Ind. Cav., Btry "K", 1st Ill. Art.) raided into the deep south. Using as advanced guard Federals in Confederate uniform and other stratagems, he cut the Mobile & Ohio RR at West Point, destroyed the Vicksburg RR at Newton Sta., and otherwise disrupted Pemberton's measures for defending Vicksburg. He arrived in Federal territory at Baton Rouge May 3, 1863.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Rust College — 22 mi
  The first historically Black college founded in Mississippi, started in 1866 in a Holly Springs church by a formerly enslaved minister and a white Methodist clergyman.
• Ida B. Wells-Barnett Museum — 22 mi
  The house in Holly Springs where Ida B. Wells was born into slavery in 1862, now a museum of African American history, art and culture.

More markers nearby

• Home of Lucy Holcombe Pickens — steps away
• Tent City — 14 mi
• Willie Mitchell — 15 mi
• Benton County Courthouse — 15 mi