BY KEVIN DAVIS
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
As a special highlight of Simpson County’s Bicentennial celebration, Co-Lin Simpson Center hosted Jim Woodrick on April 23 with a presentation on “Peril on the Pearl,” Union General Benjamin Grierson’s cavalry raid that passed through Simpson County in 1863.
A Meridian native, Woodrick is the director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and an author.
In the multipurpose room of Co-Lin Simpson Center, Woodrick spoke to a full room of Civil War buffs and others about Grierson’s trek from LaGrange, Tenn., southward. He left the morning of April 17, 1863, traveling 600 miles in 16 days and arriving in Baton Rouge, La. Along the way they fought in 11 skirmishes.
With Grierson were 1,700 horse soldiers of the 6th and 7th Illinois Cavalry Regiments and the 2nd Iowa Regiment. Their main purpose was to create a diversion plan to distract and draw out Confederate General John C. Pemberton and his forces away from his defenses at the crucial city of Vicksburg, Miss.
A secondary purpose was to cause destruction as the Raiders moved across the state. Along the way, they demolished railroad tracks, burned bridges, and destroyed supplies and Confederate storehouses in the towns they passed through.
The Raiders passed through Simpson County on Sunday and Monday, April 26 and 27, 1863. They left their camp in Smith County the morning of April 26th by nightfall, passing through Westville, the county seat of Simpson at the time. Without much fanfare the soldiers moved to the plantation of George Williams on the east side of Strong River. There, Grierson and his men collected food for their horses and themselves.
Grierson’s troops split up with some remaining at the plantation and others crossing the Strong River arriving at Smith Plantation between the Strong and Pearl rivers.
A detachment of soldiers was sent ahead to secure the ferry that crossed the Pearl River near Georgetown. There was no bridge over the Pearl River at that time.
Late in the night the Union soldiers began crossing the Pearl and by the next morning, April 27th, Grierson and all his men were across. Grierson ate breakfast at a plantation on the Copiah side of the River before he joined the main party of cavalry soldiers who had moved on over to the town of Hazlehurst to destroy rails there.
There was no Civil War battle in Simpson County. Grierson’s Raid was the only significant action that took place in the county during the War Between the States.
In addition to Woodrick, Grady Howell, Biloxi native and author, was available with a selection of his Civil War and Mississippi history books for sale.
Records of men who served in the Civil War from Simpson County – primarily the Westville area – were also available for perusal along with a list of Confederate soldiers killed.
