Hey everyone, we wanted to let you know that just today over on Patreon we released

Membership episode number 93 in which we start to look at Gearsons raid during the

Vicksburg campaign. During one of the most famous cavalry raids of the Civil

War, Colonel Benjamin Gearson and his men set out from southern Tennessee on April 17,

1863 and over the course of 16 days rode 600 miles through enemy territory

before reaching Union lines at Baton Rouge, Louisiana on May 2nd.

William to come to Sherman who was not the easiest man to please, always held

Benjamin Gearson in high regard. According to Sherman the former music teacher

from Illinois was quote, one of the most willing, ardent and dashing cavalry officers

I ever had. He handled his men with great skill doing some of the prettiest work of the

war. A potentially deadly incident on the western

planes five years after the Civil War did nothing to lessen Sherman's soldierly regard

for Gearson. At Fort Sill, Oklahoma in May 1871 Gearson found the perfect opportunity

to repay Sherman for his kind words and good opinion when Gearson, always known for

his cool head, helped Sherman hold on to his. By then Sherman had succeeded his good

friend Ulysses Grant, now president of the United States, as commanding general of the

U.S. Army. Through Sherman's personal intercession, Gearson obtained command of Fort Sill, leading

the all black 10th cavalry regiment in the ongoing campaign against rest of Native Americans

on the planes. Sherman had gone west to investigate recent attacks by Kiowa and Comanche Indians,

who were leaving the sanctuary of their agency near Fort Sill to raid white settlements

and wagon trains across the border in Texas. Upon his arrival at Fort Sill, Sherman

demanded to see the principal, Kiowa Chiefs, and hear their version of events. Chiefs

...