The One Greatest Ride of the Civil War...!

The Greatest Ride of the Civil War.....!!

  • CS J.E.B. Stuart: Ride around the AOP, 1862

    Votes: 43 30.5%
  • US Ben Grierson: Ride through Mississippi, 1863

    Votes: 37 26.2%
  • CS Jo Shelby: Ride through Missiouri. 1863

    Votes: 7 5.0%
  • CS Nathan Forrest: Ride through Tennessee, 1863

    Votes: 19 13.5%
  • CS John Mosby: Greenback Raid, 1863

    Votes: 6 4.3%
  • CS John Morgan: Ride to Ohio, 1863

    Votes: 16 11.3%
  • US James Wilson: Ride through Alabama, 1865

    Votes: 3 2.1%
  • US Phil Sheridan: Richmond Raid, 1864

    Votes: 3 2.1%
  • US A.D. Straight: Mule ride to Georgia. !863

    Votes: 2 1.4%
  • Another: I know I missed some....

    Votes: 5 3.5%

  • Total voters
    141

5fish

Captain
Joined
Aug 26, 2007
Location
Central Florida
We can talk about who was the best or greatest cavalry man but in this thread which cavalry man had the one greatest and glorious ride or raid into their opponent backyard during the Civil War.

Was it:...

CS. Jeb Stuart: Ride around the AoP, 1862

US. Ben Grierson: Ride through Mississippi, 1863

CS. Jo Shelby: Ride through Missouri, 1863

CS. Nathan Forrest: Ride through Tennessee, 1863

CS. Joe Mosby: Greenback Raid, 1863

CS. John Morgan: Ride to the Ohio, 1863

US. James Wilson: Ride through Alabama, 1865

US. Phil Sheridan: Richmond Raid, 1864

US. A.D. Straight: Mule ride to Georgia. 1863

Another Ride: I know someone will find another Ride I should have listed....

Remember, I am looking for the one greatest, glorious ride or raid of the Civil War. I have given you a list but you are free to pick whatever ride you feel was "THE ONE GREATEST RIDE OF THE CIVIL WAR" by a cavalry man.

Some thoughts.....
 
Good thread, Fish. My GGGrandpa rode with Grierson in the 6th Ill. Cav. He was injured one night during a driving rainstorm as they rode south. Don't know much of the details but apparently it was dark, storming, difficult to see, and they were in a hurry. The riders were following too close to each other in those conditions, trying to keep in sight of those ahead. One horse slipped, fell, and brought about a pile-up collision, in which he was involved. Pension records say when his horse took a tumble GGGWise broke his leg, and some ribs due to falling on his sword scabbard. That's about all I know.

It wasn't perhaps the greatest, most notable, daring ride of the war, but it was pretty awesome in scope, size, duration.



Lee
 
Grierson raid is consider one of the more successful ones of the Civil war. I think it along with Straight's raid distracted the rebels so Grant could cross the Mississippi River uncontested.

A muse..
 
I believe that Grant sent those rides to keep Forrest occupied and off his back.

Ole
 
As far as raids go, few excelled Forrest, but Forrest generally raided into territory with which he was well familiar. Liking raiding the kitchen so to speak, except he found yankees in the frig. Under the guide of the statement starting this thread, the honor should indeed go to John Hunt Morgan, a man who loved a good raid.
 
I liked Morgan's Christmas raid immediately following his wedding. Capturing the garrisons at Elizabethtown and Muldraugh's Hill allowed the destruction of two major railroad trestles, capture of prisoners in the thousands, capturing 2m in Union supplies, and destruction of 20 miles of track (along with several other bridges) in only three weeks time at a loss of only 2 killed and 24 wounded.
 
Morgan was dashing and daring, but even his Christmas Raid, as successful as it was, could have been even more so had he left earlier. By the time he went on his raid, the Union tunnels near Nashville had reopened and Rosencrans' army had received enough supplies to be able to fight the battle of Stone's River. With some different timing, and perhaps in a different direction, Morgan could have had an even bigger impact on the war in Middle Tennesse at that time.

(I'm just now finishing reading "Rebel Raider" by James A. Ramage, so some of this is still fresh on my mind.)

Also, his first raid into Kentucky convinced him that Kentuckians would join the Confederacy en masse if a Confederate Army was in the state, and this false report had some negative consequences on Braxton Bragg's mindset as he invaded the Bluegrass State.

His "Great Raid" was simply an example of disobedience of orders and though it scared a lot of people, Morgan ended up in prison, hardly the sign of a successful raid. Overconfidence caught up to him here.

His final raid into Kentucky was another example of him ignoring orders. The Confederates needed men in the Shenandoah Valley, yet Morgan went off into Kentucky again, a raid where his men robbed banks and generally were ill-disciplined.

From what I've gathered in this book, Morgan's effectiveness declined as time passed, he gained too much confidence, spent too much time worrying about his new wife, and changed his tactics, going further away from pure guerilla hit-and-run tactics. His fame and reputation grew during this same time, but maybe at the detriment of his accomplishments.
 
More directly on topic, I'll go with Stuart's ride due to the embarrassement it caused the Union and the morale boost it gave the Confederacy.

Grierson's raid late in the war may be a better choice due to its effectiveness, but I'll go with Stuart's due to the tone it set early in the war about the quality and confidence of both Eastern armies and their cavalry.
 
Also... Stuart's RAMcC came at a time when the south had been suffering reverses on the battlefield (Seven Pines, Forts Henry and Donelson, and I think Norfolk had just been captured). It was a huge morale boost for the army and the civilian population, as well as successful in intelligence-gathering. Also he lost only one man.

That said, I was also tempted to vote for Grierson because it was such a big part in enabling Grant to get across the Mississippi. In its ramifications/fallout, it's probably the more important of the two. But as far as the rides per se, I voted Stuart.
 
When I first saw this thread, I thought, "What a waste of bandwidth!" But the reasoned, scholarly responses are so impressive that I think I'll go shut up now.

Ole
 
When I first saw this thread, I thought, "What a waste of bandwidth!" But the reasoned, scholarly responses are so impressive that I think I'll go shut up now.
Wait until I resurrect the "Who would you like to be courted by" thread.
 
Stuart has always been my favorite since I was a kid but Greirson raid seems to have greatly help Grant early in his campaign to take Vicksburg, I was wobbling towards Stuart then....

I thought about James Wilson raid through Alabama and Georgia and its impact on the war and the embarrassing of Old Forrest. I thought James Wilson went up against who many think was the best cavalry man of the war and completely outclassed the confederate hero.

Wilson was like Sherman unstoppable as he and his men rode to George. Along the way he took cities, destroyed confederate war supplies, overran Forrest's headquarters, and limited looting of his soldiers, unlike Sherman. He did all that while facing off with the confederate supposing best in Forrest.

Wilson did his raid by defeating the best.... I am wobbling again....
 
Stuart for the intelligence/troop dispositions for the southern army defending Richmond and the morale boost it gave both the army and civilians,

Greirson's Raid for the diversion of troops and the destruction of supplies. Also it created a morale problem for the South.
 
Stuart has always been my favorite since I was a kid but Greirson raid seems to have greatly help Grant early in his campaign to take Vicksburg, I was wobbling towards Stuart then....

I thought about James Wilson raid through Alabama and Georgia and its impact on the war and the embarrassing of Old Forrest. I thought James Wilson went up against who many think was the best cavalry man of the war and completely outclassed the confederate hero.

Wilson was like Sherman unstoppable as he and his men rode to George. Along the way he took cities, destroyed confederate war supplies, overran Forrest's headquarters, and limited looting of his soldiers, unlike Sherman. He did all that while facing off with the confederate supposing best in Forrest.

Wilson did his raid by defeating the best.... I am wobbling again....

Wilson's "raid" could hardly be called that. He wintered at Gravelley Springs, Alabama in what is now considered the largest calvary encampment ever assembled in the northern or maybe the western hemisphere and in the spring took that horde and wandered south...
 
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