24. The Union’s First Great Successful Cavalry Raid
In the war’s first years, Confederate cavalry was markedly superior to that of the Union. By war’s end, the North’s cavalry had not only clawed its way to equality with that of the South but became superior to the Rebel horsemen. It took time, and plenty of bitter trial and error, however. An early harbinger of that pendulum swing occurred on April 17th, 1863, when Union Colonel Benjamin Grierson led a cavalry brigade of 1700 horsemen out of La Grange, Tennessee.
Colonel Grierson took his horsemen southward and plunged with them deep into Mississippi. The ensuing raid would eventually traverse the length of that state, and come out at the other side and the safety of Union lines in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. En route, the raiders did plenty to discomfit the Confederates and disrupt their communications. The Union cavalrymen tore up railroad tracks, destroyed bridges, wrecked and demolished enemy installations and facilities, and otherwise wrought havoc and sowed confusion throughout Mississippi.
