Benjamin Grierson
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
This is a close up of General Benjamin Grierson and a soldier from the Union (left) and the Confederacy (right).
"General U.S. Grant, commanding the forces advancing towards Vicksburg on the Mississippi, sent Colonel Benjamin Grierson and 1,700 troopers on a 600 mile ride in sixteen days from La Grange, Tennessee to Baton Rouge, Louisiana..."
This is the entire mural. The quote along the mural reads "With malice toward none, with charity for all, do all which may achieve a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." -excerpt from Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
Grierson’s amazing musical ability peaked during his time in Jacksonville. In his biography he is mentioned saying that “much additional music was written and arranged for the excellent band and orchestra in Jacksonville, of which I was the leader.” He often wrote for private entertainments and Christmas family meetings, which he very much enjoyed. He never got around to publishing music, but many Jacksonville citizens urged him too. Instead he left them stowed away in his attic; a reminder of a dream he had for later in his life.
At the outbreak of the Civil War Grierson was 34, a husband, and a father of two young boys. At this point in his life he had no military training, but was active in politics within his community. He learned under many politicians-turned soldiers, and in 1862 Richard Yates made him colonel of the 6th Illinois Cavalry. During the war he served under “appreciative eyes” of William T. Sherman and Ulysses S. Grant. Unfortunately a knee injury interrupted his military career, but gave him time to visit those back home in Jacksonville.
Of his short return home he mentions, “I had been so well known at Jacksonville before the war that, although I remained quietly housed at our old homestead, many people came to see me there” (???). Many of his close friends in Jacksonville were the professors of Illinois College, and teachers of other learning institutes. Even without his contribution to his nation, Grierson clearly was a man of good stature.
Grierson, the military leader, was most famous for his leading of an amazing cavalry raid through Missouri towards the end of April in 1863. After the war he remained in the army and contributed greatly. In 1897 he married Lillian King, a widow of Jacksonville, and remained there for the remained of his life, dying in his summer home on August 31, 1911. He is buried in Jacksonville East Cemetery.
The mural was created by Dave Petri of Green Bay, WI to commemorate the accomplishments of Benjamin Grierson.
Sources
Dinges, Bruce J., and Shirley A. Leckie, eds. A Just and Righteous Cause: Benjamin H. Grierson Civil War Memoir. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2008.