Overview

Benjamin Grierson's Union cavalry thrust through Mississippi is one of the most well-known operations of the Civil War. The last serious study was published more than six decades ago. Since then other accounts have appeared, but none are deeply researched full-length studies of the raid and its more than substantial (and yet often overlooked) results. The publication of Timothy B. Smith's The Real Horse Soldiers: Benjamin Grierson's Epic 1863 Civil War Raid through Mississippi, now available in paperback, rectifies this oversight. There were other simultaneous operations to distract Confederate attention from the real threat posed by General U. S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee across the Mississippi River from Vicksburg in Louisiana. Grierson's operation, however, conducted with three cavalry regiments and a battery of small artillery pieces, is the most famous. For 16 days (April 17 to May 2), Grierson led Confederate pursuers on a high-stakes chase through the entire state of Mississippi, entering through the northern border with Tennessee and exiting its southern border with Louisiana. The daily rides were long, the rest stops short, and the danger as high as the tension. Ironically, the man who led the raid was a former music teacher who some say disliked horses. Throughout, he displayed outstanding leadership and cunning, destroyed railroad tracks and supplies, burned trestles and bridges, freed slaves, and created as much damage and chaos as possible. Novelists have attempted to capture the larger-than-life cavalry raid in the popular imagination, and Hollywood reproduced the daring cavalry action in The Horse Soldiers, a 1959 major motion picture starring John Wayne and William Holden. Readers of The Real Horse Soldiers who think they know all about this cavalry operation will quickly discover just how complex and important it was, and how close it came to abject failure. Based upon years of research and presented in gripping, fast-paced prose, Timothy B. Smith's award-winning The Real Horse Soldiers captures the high drama and tension of the 1863 horse soldiers in a modern comprehensive study. 12 maps, 36 photographs

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9781611215304

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Reviews

Ulysses S. Grant proved he was the master of the strategic cavalry raid by launching Col. Benjamin Grierson's spring 1863 cavalry ride through the heart of Confederate Mississippi. The bold and exciting raid created so much havoc within Southern command circles that Grant was able to sneak across the Mississippi River against minimal opposition, dooming Vicksburg. The Real Horse Soldiers, award-winning Western Theater historian Timothy B. Smith's excellent new release, draws upon a wide variety of previously untapped primary sources and brings to life in vivid detail the importance of this cavalry thrust. I highly recommend it. --Eric J. Wittenberg, award-winning author of Holding the Line on the River of Death: Major Civil War author Timothy B. Smith has done it again. He insightfully sheds important light on U. S. Grant's use of Union cavalryman Benjamin Grierson's speed and stealth to confuse the Confederates and help him capture Vicksburg. Another well-researched and well-written military history by one of the nation's leading Civil War historians. --John F. Marszalek, Executive Director of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library, Mississippi State University Adding his best work yet to an impressive and ever-expanding list of publications, Tim Smith's release of The Real Horse Soldiers: Benjamin Grierson's Epic 1863 Civil War Raid Through Mississippi promises to be a blockbuster the magnitude of John Ford's 1959 film starring John Wayne and William Holden. This epic account is as thrilling and fast-paced as the raid itself and will quickly rival, if not surpass, D. Brown's Grierson's Raid as the standard work on what William T. Sherman called the war's 'most brilliant raid.' --Terrence J. Winschel, historian (ret.), Vicksburg National Military Park Impressively informed and informative, exceptionally well researched, written, organized and presented, The Real Horse Soldiers is enhanced for academia with the inclusion of maps, illustrations, a sixteen page bibliography, a twelve page list of acknowledgments, and an eleven page index. --Midwest Book Review A very valuable contribution to the literature of the Vicksburg campaign and the role of cavalry in the Civil War, this also throws some light on the art of deception as practiced at the time. --The NYMAS Review

Impressively informed and informative, exceptionally well researched, written, organized and presented, The Real Horse Soldiers is enhanced for academia with the inclusion of maps, illustrations, a sixteen page bibliography, a twelve page list of acknowledgments, and an eleven page index. --Midwest Book Review Major Civil War author Timothy B. Smith has done it again. He insightfully sheds important light on U. S. Grant's use of Union cavalryman Benjamin Grierson's speed and stealth to confuse the Confederates and help him capture Vicksburg. Another well-researched and well-written military history by one of the nation's leading Civil War historians. --John F. Marszalek, Executive Director of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library, Mississippi State University A very valuable contribution to the literature of the Vicksburg campaign and the role of cavalry in the Civil War, this also throws some light on the art of deception as practiced at the time. --The NYMAS Review Ulysses S. Grant proved he was the master of the strategic cavalry raid by launching Col. Benjamin Grierson's spring 1863 cavalry ride through the heart of Confederate Mississippi. The bold and exciting raid created so much havoc within Southern command circles that Grant was able to sneak across the Mississippi River against minimal opposition, dooming Vicksburg. The Real Horse Soldiers, award-winning Western Theater historian Timothy B. Smith's excellent new release, draws upon a wide variety of previously untapped primary sources and brings to life in vivid detail the importance of this cavalry thrust. I highly recommend it. --Eric J. Wittenberg, award-winning author of Holding the Line on the River of Death: Adding his best work yet to an impressive and ever-expanding list of publications, Tim Smith's release of The Real Horse Soldiers: Benjamin Grierson's Epic 1863 Civil War Raid Through Mississippi promises to be a blockbuster the magnitude of John Ford's 1959 film starring John Wayne and William Holden. This epic account is as thrilling and fast-paced as the raid itself and will quickly rival, if not surpass, D. Brown's Grierson's Raid as the standard work on what William T. Sherman called the war's 'most brilliant raid.' --Terrence J. Winschel, historian (ret.), Vicksburg National Military Park

Author Information

Timothy B. Smith (Ph.D. Mississippi State University, 2001) is a veteran of the National Park Service and currently teaches history at the University of Tennessee at Martin. In addition to many articles and essays, he is the author, editor, or co-editor of eighteen books, including Champion Hill: Decisive Battle for Vicksburg (2004), which won the nonfiction book award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters, Corinth 1862: Siege, Battle, Occupation (2012), which won the Fletcher Pratt Award and the McLemore Prize, Shiloh: Conquer or Perish (2014), which won the Richard B. Harwell Award, the Tennessee History Book Award, and the Douglas Southall Freeman Award, and Grant Invades Tennessee: The 1862 Battles for Forts Henry and Donelson (2016), which won the Tennessee History book Award, the Emerging Civil War Book Award, and the Douglas Southall Freeman Award. He is currently writing a book on the May 19 and 22 Vicksburg assaults. He lives with his wife Kelly and children Mary Kate and Leah Grace in Adamsville, Tennessee.

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