On July 17, 2019, Timothy B. Smith presented "The Real Horse Soldiers: Benjamin Grierson’s Epic 1863 Civil War Raid through Mississippi" as part of the History Is Lunch series.
Grierson’s Union cavalry thrust through Mississippi is one of the best-known operations of the Civil War. Intending to distract Confederate attention from the real threat posed by Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee, Grierson led pursuers on a high-stakes chase across the entire state for 17 days in the spring of 1863.
“The daily rides were long, the rest stops short, and the tension high,” said Smith. “Throughout, Grierson displayed outstanding leadership and cunning, destroyed railroad tracks, burned trestles and bridges, freed slaves, and created as much damage and chaos as possible.”
Grierson’s Raid broke a vital Confederate rail line and consumed the attention of the Confederate high command. “In the meantime, Grant moved his entire Army of the Tennessee across the Mississippi River below Vicksburg, spelling the doom of that city, the Confederate chances of holding the river, and perhaps the Confederacy itself,” said Smith.
John F. Marszalek, executive director of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library at Mississippi State University, wrote that “Major Civil War author Timothy B. Smith has done it again. He insightfully sheds important light on U. S. Grant’s use of Union cavalryman Benjamin Grierson’s speed and stealth to confuse the Confederates and help him capture Vicksburg. Another well-researched and well-written military history by one of the nation’s leading Civil War historians.”
Timothy B. Smith is a veteran of the National Park Service and currently teaches history at the University of Tennessee at Martin. He earned his PhD from Mississippi State University in 2001 and is the author, editor, or co-editor of eighteen books, including Champion Hill: Decisive Battle for Vicksburg and Corinth 1862: Siege, Battle, Occupation. He is at work on a book about the May 19 and 22 Vicksburg assaults.
History Is Lunch is a weekly lecture series of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History that explores different aspects of the state's past. The hour-long programs are held in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium of the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum building in Jackson. MDAH livestreams videos of the program at noon on Wednesdays on their Facebook page, / mdahofficial .