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| Battle of Newton's Station | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theAmerican Civil War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United States (Union) |  CSA (Confederacy) | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Benjamin H. Grierson | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 2 Regiments | 34 Soldiers | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 4 | 25 | ||||||
TheBattle of Newton's Station was an engagement on April 24, 1863, inNewton's Station,Mississippi, during the famousGrierson's Raid of theAmerican Civil War (1861-1865).[1]
Union Armycavalry raiders of 1,700 troopers in a brigade of three mounted regiments (6th and7th Illinois and2nd Iowa Cavalry Regiments) under the command ofCol.Benjamin Grierson (1826-1911), in an effort to disruptConfederate States Army and civilian east-west communications and the railway line between Vicksburg and the state capital ofJackson further to the east.
They leftLaGrange, Tennessee in the north and drove south through Mississippi to eventually rendezvous with Federal-occupiedBaton Rouge, the state capital ofLouisiana to the south. The blue-coated troopers probed deep in enemy territory and entered the town of Newton's Station (now Newton). They succeeded in securing the town without any serious fighting and captured two Confederate trains nearby. The Yankee raiders also destroyed railroad facilities, equipment with the locomotives and box cars along with several miles of railroad track by tearing up and burning railroad ties, melting and twisting rails (nicknamed "General Sherman's neckties") and cutting telegraph wires and poles in the vicinity, severing communications between Confederate-heldVicksburg, under commanding Gen.John C. Pemberton (1814-1881) there and theEastern Theatre with other Southern commanders in theArmy of Northern Virginia, commanding GeneralRobert E. Lee and the administration of PresidentJefferson Davis at the Confederate capital inRichmond, Virginia.
The two trains (one a freight and the second a mixed freight and passenger) were actually captured by Lt-Colonel William Blackburn, who had ridden ahead in darkness to scout the town. His men set fire to the trains, and exploding ammunition led the nearby Grierson to assume the worst, that a major battle had started. He arrived with the main force to find Blackburn's men helping themselves to confiscated whiskey.
Over the next few hours, Union Army forces destroyed trackage and equipment, as far east to theChunky River and to the west as far as possible. A large building in the town with uniforms and arms was burned, and the railroad depot was burned (not before local hospital staff were allowed to remove medicine and food). Assembling his mounted forces, Colonel Grierson departed the area around 2 pm, leaving behind burned ruin, melted and twisted rails and devastated wreckage.
The 1863 Battle of Newton's Station and Grierson's cavalry exploits through Mississippi betweenLa Grange, Tennessee andBaton Rouge, Louisiana were the basis of the 1959 movieThe Horse Soldiers, directed byJohn Ford, starringJohn Wayne,William Holden andConstance Towers, and inspired by the earlier 1956historical fiction novel byHarold Sinclair (1907-1966) ofBloomington, Illinois.
32°19′13″N89°09′45″W / 32.320353°N 89.162423°W /32.320353; -89.162423
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