The Horse Soldiers

The Horse Soldiers
1959 movie poster
Directed by	John Ford
Produced by	John Lee Mahin Martin Rackin
Written by	John Lee Mahin (screenplay) Martin Rackin (screenplay) Harold Sinclair (novel)
Starring	John Wayne William Holden Constance Towers Althea Gibson
Music by	David Buttolph
Cinematography	William H. Clothier
Edited by	Jack Murray
Production company	The Mirisch Company
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	June 12, 1959 (1959-06-12)
Running time	120 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$4 million (est. US/ Canada rentals)

The Horse Soldiers is a 1959 Western war film set in Mississippi during the American Civil War. Loosely based on Harold Sinclair's 1956 novel by the same name, it was directed by John Ford and starred John Wayne, William Holden and Constance Towers. Althea Gibson, US tennis champion, had a minor role and insisted that her dialogue be rewritten, as she found its dialect demeaning. John Lee Mahin and Martin Rackin produced the movie and wrote its screenplay.

The film was loosely based on Harold Sinclair's 1956 novel of the same name, which in turn was based on the historic 17-day Grierson's Raid and Battle of Newton's Station in Mississippi during the Civil War.

In April 1863, Colonel Benjamin Grierson led 1,700 Illinois and Iowa soldiers from LaGrange, Tennessee to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, through several hundred miles of enemy territory, destroying Confederate railroad and supply lines between Newton's Station and Vicksburg, Mississippi. The mission was part of the Union Army's successful Vicksburg campaign to gain control over boat traffic on the Mississippi River, culminating in the Battle of Vicksburg. Grierson's destruction of Confederate-controlled rail links and supplies played an important role in disrupting Confederate General John C. Pemberton's strategies and troop deployments. Union General William Tecumseh Sherman reportedly described Grierson's daring mission as "the most brilliant of the war".