Benjamin Henry Grierson, USA

Born: July 8, 1826, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

• Educated in Youngstown, Ohio, and later taught music there
  
• Moved to Jacksonville, Illinois, and taught music there
  
• Opened a store in Meredosia, Illinois, on the Illinois River
  
• At start of Civil War, enlisted in the U. S. Army as a private
  
• Volunteered as Aide-de-Camp to Union Gen. Benjamin Prentiss, May 8, 1861
  
• Commissioned Major, 6th Illinois Cavalry, USA, Regulars, October 24, 1861
  
• Colonel, USA, Regulars, April 12, 1862
  
• Brigadier General, USA, Volunteers, to rank from June 3, 1863
  
• Brevet Major General, USA, Volunteers, February 10, 1865
  
• Major General, USA, Volunteers, March 19, 1866, to rank from May 27, 1865
  
• Mustered out of USA, Volunteers, service, April 30, 1866
• Continued in USA, Regulars, as Colonel, 10th Cavalry, participating in Indian fighting on the western frontier, July 1866
  
• Won Brevet Brigadier General, USA, Regulars, for Grierson's Raid, 1867
  
• Won Brevet Major General, USA, Regulars, for 1864-1865 raids, 1867
  
• Brigadier General, USA, Regulars, April 5, 1890
  
• Resigned USA commission, July 1890
  
• Moved to Jacksonville, Illinois

Died: September 1, 1911, Omena, Michigan
Buried: Jacksonville Cemetery, Jacksonville, Illinois

COMMANDS:

• Commander, Grierson's Cavalry Brigade, Right Wing, XIII Corps, Army of the Tennessee, November - December 1862
• Commander, 1st Cavalry Division, XVI Corps, Army of the Tennessee, December 18, 1862 - May 1863
• Commander, 1st Cavalry Division, XVI Corps, Army of the Tennessee, July 24 - September 23, 1863
• Commander, 1st Cavalry Division, XVI Corps, Army of the Tennessee, October 24, 1863 - April 27, 1864
• Commander, 1st Cavalry Division, XVI Corps, Army of the Tennessee, May 11 - June 20, 1864
• Commander, Cavalry Corps, District of West Tennessee, Army of the Tennessee, June - November 1864
• Commander, Cavalry Corps, Military District of West Mississippi, March - May 1865

BATTLES:

• Raids in western Tennessee & northern Mississippi, 1862
• Holly Springs, Mississippi, 1862
• Grierson's Raid in Mississippi, April 17 - May 2, 1863
• Raids in Tennessee & Mississippi, December 1864 - March 1865
• Mobile, Alabama, 1865

(Source: Ezra J. Warner, Generals In Blue, (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992), pp.3-577; Mark M. Boatner III, The Civil War Dictionary, (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1959), pp. 1-954; Patricia L. Faust, ed., Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia Of The Civil War, (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers), pp. 1-850; Bruce Catton, The Civil War, (Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1987), pp. 323-350; E. B. Long, The Civil War Day By Day An Almanac 1861-1865 (New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc. 1971), pp. 2-697.)