• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

 Benjamin Henry Grierson (July 8, 1826 – August 31, 1911) was a music teacher, then a career officer in the United States Army. He was a cavalry general in the volunteer Union Army during the Civil War and later led troops in the American Old West. He is most noted for an 1863 expedition through Confederate-held territory that severed enemy communication lines betweenVicksburg, Mississippi and Confederate commanders in the Eastern Theater. After the war he organized and led the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry Regiment from 1866 to 1888.

Colonel Grierson is a prominent figure in Turner Network Television’s documentary, "Buffalo Soldiers".

The part of Colonel Marlowe, played by John Wayne in the movie The Horse Soldiers, is loosely based on Grierson. 

Horse Soldiers was based on a novel by Harold Sinclair.

Grierson’s Home and grave are in Jacksonville, Illinois

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Grierson