Civil_War_Quarterly_-_Early_Winter_2015_USA

of success, two other short raids were to be

launched at the same time by the Army of

the Tennessee into northern Mississippi.

Meanwhile, the Army of the Cumberland

was planning a raid through northern

Alabama and Georgia, which was also

timed to coincide with Grierson’s raid.

Commanding the Confederate Depart-

ment of Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana

was Lt. Gen. John Pemberton, who had

about 50,000 men. The strongest force

was kept at or near Vicksburg, while two

cavalry units under the command of

Colonel William Wirt Adams were sta-

tioned at Port Gibson. Another large force

was positioned at Port Hudson under

Brig. Gen. Franklin Gardner. Other forces

under Maj. Gen. William Loring and Brig.

Gen. John Chalmers were in northern

Mississippi, while Brig. Gen. Daniel Rug-

gles, in Columbus, was responsible for

defending northeast Mississippi. Troops

were also stationed at such places as Jack-

son and Grand Gulf, supported by local

militias and state troops spread through-

out the department.

Grierson, a music teacher before the war,

was visiting his family in Jacksonville, Illi-

nois, when a telegram arrived from Hurl-

but telling him to return immediately. The

raid was on. Grierson arrived back at La

Grange in the early hours of April 17, and

Smith gave him some last-minute instruc-

tions to cut the Southern Railroad and, if

practicable, the Mississippi Central and the

Mobile & Ohio Railroads as well. After

talking with Smith, Grierson rejoined his

brigade. Colonel Edward Hatch, comman-

der of the 2nd Iowa, had the brigade ready

to go.

Riding south, Grierson’s force was soon

split, with the 6th Illinois advancing on a

western road and the 7th Illinois and 2nd

Iowa on a parallel road to the east. Grier-

son’s horse soldiers covered 30 miles the

first day, stopping for the night four miles

northwest of the town of Ripley at a plan-

tation owned by a Doctor Ellis. After cap-

turing some Confederates nearby, the troop-

ers settled down for the night, lighting fires

and enjoying fare taken from Ellis’s smoke-

houses—something they would do at many

local plantations in the coming days.

By 7 AM, the raiders were mounted and

moving toward Ripley with the 7th Illinois

under Colonel Edward Prince leading the

way. Once at Ripley, Grierson ordered

Hatch to make a feint with the 2nd Iowa

east toward the Mobile & Ohio Railroad,

while the rest of the brigade headed south

toward New Albany.

Four miles south of Ripley, gunshots sud-

denly rang out as a detachment of eight

Confederate horse soldiers fired at the

advance party of the 7th Illinois. The blue-

jacketed troopers charged after the fleeing

Rebels but soon reined up their mounts.

Nobody was hurt in the exchange, and the

advance party, fearing an ambush, decided

to wait for Prince and the rest of the regi-

ment to join them. Concerned that a strong

Rebel force might be lurking along the Tal-

lahatchie River, 12 miles away, Prince

ordered Major John Graham to take to his

1st Battalion and ride hard for the bridge

at New Albany.

Hatch and his 2nd Iowa horsemen,

meanwhile, turned south toward Molino.

Scouts from Colonel J.F. Smith’s 1st Mis-

sissippi Regiment, a state guard unit based

out of Chesterville, soon spotted the col-

umn of Federals. Having only one com-

pany on hand to face the enemy cavalry,

Smith dispatched a messenger to Chester-

ville while he attempted to slow down the

Union advance.

Hatch was not the only Federal raider

then skirmishing with the Confederates.

Graham and his hard-riding battalion

encountered Rebel pickets as they thun-

dered toward the bridge over the Talla-

hatchie. While some of the pickets fired at

the Federals, others attempted to tear up

planks and torch the bridge. Graham’s cav-

alry was coming too fast for the pickets to

do much damage, and they scrambled for

their horses and attempted to escape. Four

of them weren’t fast enough and were cap-

tured along with the bridge. Graham

ordered his men to dismount, repair the

planks, and prepare to defend the bridge.

As it turned out, it was unnecessary; Gri-

erson and the main column forded the river

three miles upstream.

By late afternoon the two Illinois regi-

ments had reunited at New Albany and

pushed five miles southeast under a dark-

ening sky. Grierson was hoping that Hatch

would rejoin him, but the Iowans halted

for the night after crossing the upper

branches of the Tallahatchie. The Illinois

troopers camped for the night at another

local plantation, enjoying food from its

smokehouses and finding a herd of horses

and mules hidden in the woods. The four

prisoners taken at the bridge, meanwhile,

starting talking. Two of them were state

troopers, while the other two belonged to

An alert crew from the 1st Illinois Artillery poses beside their gun. The unit’s Battery K took along six

light-caliber Woodruff guns on the Grierson raid.

Library of Congress

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