Volume XXVII Issue #3 • An Excerpt From:

Van Dorn's Holly Springs Raid

by Thomas E. Parson

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Note: All Blue & Gray feature articles are annotated.

The Davis’ Mill area along the old Mississippi Central Railroad at the Wolf River trestle. Here a Union garrison confronted the raiders.

Lt. Col. John S. Griffith, commander of the Texas Cavalry Brigade, had an idea—a solution to a problem. The problem that vexed him was the state of affairs of Confederate forces in Mississippi, a problem which occupied the thoughts of a great many officers, both Northern and Southern. For the entire month of November 1862, Federal troops under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had relentlessly moved southward, pushing the Confederates deeper into the Magnolia State toward the strategic bastion at Vicksburg. The Southerners were outmanned and outgeneraled, and by December 5, Grant had penetrated as far as Coffeeville, 90 miles to the southeast of Memphis. The Confederate commander, Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton, appeared helpless to impede him.

Griffith discussed the matter in detail with his friend, Maj. John S. Broocks of the 1st Texas Legion. As the men went over the events of the Union advance and shared their individual observations, it was obvious that the Federal army was advancing along the route of the Mississippi Central Railroad. It was also evident that Grant’s supply line was very long and tenuous. The tracks supplying the Northern army ran north to Jackson, Tenn., where the Mississippi Central made a junction with the Mobile & Ohio. From there the tracks continued north to the terminus at Columbus, Ky., on the Mississippi River. Stockpiles of supplies had been gathered at depots in Columbus, as well as in Jackson and Bolivar, Tenn., but the bulk of the materiel was at the massive supply depot of Holly Springs, Miss., 50 miles southeast of Memphis. The two men reasoned that if a sufficient force of cavalry could be sent on a raid to destroy the supplies at Holly Springs and effectively demolish the tracks of the Memphis & Charleston Railroad west toward Memphis, Grant would be forced to divert troops in response. In a best case scenario the Federal army could be slowed or even stopped.

A barrier to implementing this idea was the organization of the Confederate cavalry in the Mississippi theater. The cavalry was under the titular command of Col. William H. Jackson, and the individual brigades and regiments were assigned piecemeal to the divisions of the two army corps comprising Pemberton’s Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana. In order to make the plan feasible a strong force of cavalry would have to be combined under a single commander. Jackson was a fearless fighter but not the man Griffith envisioned leading the expedition. Griffith discussed his plan with each of his regimental commanders and they agreed there was only one man qualified and capable to lead such a raid: Maj. Gen. Earl “Buck” Van Dorn. A letter was prepared to present the officers’ ideas to the commanding general.