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Benjamin H. Grierson

Benjamin Henry Grierson
Benjamin H Grierson.JPG
Benjamin H. Grierson
Born (1826-07-08)July 8, 1826
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Died August 31, 1911(1911-08-31) (aged 85)
Omena, Michigan
Place of burial Jacksonville East Cemetery,
Morgan County, Illinois
Allegiance United States of America
Union
Service/branch United States Army
Union Army
Years of service 1861–1890
Rank Union Army brigadier general rank insignia.svg Brigadier General
Union Army major general rank insignia.svg Brevet Major General
Commands held 6th Illinois Cavalry
10th U.S. Cavalry
Department of Arizona
Battles/wars American Civil War
Indian Wars

Benjamin Henry Grierson (July 8, 1826 – August 31, 1911) was a music teacher, then a career officer in the United States Army. He was a cavalry general in the volunteer Union Army during the Civil War and later led troops in the American Old West. He is most noted for an 1863 expedition through Confederate-held territory that severed enemy communication lines between Vicksburg, Mississippi and Confederate commanders in the Eastern Theater. After the war he organized and led the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry Regiment from 1866 to 1890.

Grierson was born in the borough of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, today a section of Pittsburgh. He was the youngest of five siblings. Grierson became afraid of horses when at age eight he was kicked and nearly killed by a horse, after which he hated horses - ironically, he would become a great cavalry commander.

In 1851, he became a music teacher and band leader in Jacksonville, Illinois.

He married Alice Kirk of Youngstown, Ohio on September 24, 1854. The couple had seven children, four of whom survived to adulthood.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Grierson enlisted as a volunteer aide-de-camp to Maj. Gen. Benjamin M. Prentiss. Promoted to major on October 24, 1861, he joined the 6th Illinois Cavalry and was promoted to colonel of that regiment on April 13, 1862. His regiment was engaged in a number of small skirmishes and raids on railroads and facilities in Tennessee and Mississippi that spring and summer. In November, he became a brigade commander in the Cavalry Division of the Army of the Tennessee. In December, he participated in the pursuit of Confederate Earl Van Dorn after his Holly Springs raid against the supply lines of General Ulysses S. Grant.


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