Grierson, Benjamin Henry (1826-1911)

US soldier. He taught music before joining an Illinois regiment shortly after the outbreak of the American Civil War. Although he claimed to despise horses, he accepted a transfer to the 6th Illinois Cavalry; Ulysses S Grant chose him to lead what became the most famous federal cavalry raid of the war. Leaving LaGrange, Tennessee, on 17 April 1863, and arriving in Louisiana on 2 May, he took 1,700 troopers on a 600-mile gallop of destruction through Mississippi, providing an effective strategic diversion for Grant's Vicksburg Campaign. Grierson saw long post-war service on the frontier, retiring as a brigadier general in 1890. The son of Irish immigrants, he was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.