A just and righteous cause : Benjamin H. Grierson's Civil War memoir / edited by Bruce J. Dinges and Shirley A. Leckie.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Grierson, Benjamin Henry, 1826-1911.

Contributor:

Dinges, Bruce J.

Leckie, Shirley A., 1937-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Grierson, Benjamin Henry, 1826-1911.

Grierson, Benjamin Henry.

United States. Army--Biography.

United States.

Generals--United States--Biography.

Generals.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Cavalry operations.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (478 p.)

Place of Publication:

Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

General Benjamin H. Grierson is most widely known as the brilliant cavalryman whose actions in the Civil War's Mississippi Valley campaign facilitated Ulysses S. Grant's capture of Vicksburg."" There is, however, much more to this key Union officer than a successful raid into Confederate-held Mississippi. In "A Just and Righteous Cause: Benjamin H. Grierson's Civil War Memoir, " edited by Bruce J. Dinges and Shirley A. Leckie, Grierson tells his story in forceful, direct, and highly engaging prose. "A Just and Righteous Cause" paints a vivid picture of Grierson's prewar and Civil War career, touching on his antislavery views, Republican Party principles, and military strategy and tactics. His story begins with his parents' immigration to the United States and follows his childhood, youth, and career as a musician; the early years of his arriage; his business failures prior to becoming a cavalry officer in an Illinois regiment; his experiences in battle; and his Reconstruction appointment. Grierson also provides intimate accounts of his relationships with such prominent politicians and Union leaders as Abraham Lincoln, Richard Yates, Andrew Johnson, William T. Sherman, Ulysses S. Grant, John C. Fremont, and Benjamin Prentiss. Because Grierson wrote the memoir mainly with his family as the intended audience, he manages to avoid the self-promotion that plagues many of his contemporaries' chronicles. His reliance on military records and correspondence, along with family letters, lends an immediacy rarely found in military memoirs. His reminiscences also add fuel to a reemerging debate on soldiers' motivations for enlisting in Grierson's case, patriotism and ideology and shed new light on the Western theater of the Civil War, which has seen a recent surge in interest among Civil War enthusiasts. A non-West Point officer, Grierson owed his developing career to his independent studies of the military and his connections to political figures in his home state of Illinois and later to important Union leaders. Dinges and Leckie provide a helpful introduction, which gives background on the memoir and places Grierson's career into historical context. Aided by fourteen photos and two maps, as well as the editors' superb annotations, "A Just and Righteous Cause" is a valuable addition to Civil War history. "

Contents:

An American boyhood

Rallying around the flag

Colonel of the 6th Illinois cavalry

Scouting after guerillas in West Tennessee

From Iuka to Holly Springs

Grierson's raid

The siege of Port Hudson

Reorganizing the cavalry in West Tennessee

The Meridian expedition

Operations against Forrest

Brice's Cross Roads

A.J. Smith's operations in Mississippi

Reorganization and controversy

Raid on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad

A visit to Washington

Final operations

Reconstruction duty

Conclusion.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 419-427) and index.

ISBN:

1-280-69792-X

9786613674883

0-8093-8709-3

1-4416-1941-0

OCLC:

435767686