Fragile Freedom

Thrown from his horse and kicked in the head as he tried to answer his brothers frantic calls, for two weeks the 8 year old boy lay in a coma, teetering on the edge of life and death. When he eventually regained consciousness, and the bandages were removed he had lost sight in one of his eyes. Though the blindness would eventually fade, his fear of the powerful animal would not. Distrustful of horses for the rest of his life in many senses Benjamin Grierson was perhaps one of the most unlikely of soldiers, let alone a Calvary Officer. Yet, with the drums of war now beating, and the bonds of union between the states shattered, the music teacher from Jacksonville, Illinois, deeply in debt, with his wife and children living with his parents, enlisted as an unpaid aid to Major General Benjamin Prentiss. It was here that he flourished, rising first to the rank of Major, and then Colonel of the 6th Illinois Calvary. Now, with the resignation of General Charles Hamilton, and his eyes set on the last Confederate Stro