The Horse Soldiers is a 1959 western film, set in the American Civil War, directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne, William Holden and Constance Towers. The film was based on Harold Sinclair’s novel of the same name. The team of John Lee Mahin and Martin Rackin both wrote the screenplay and produced the movie.
The movie is based on the true story of Grierson’s Raid, led by Colonel Benjamin Grierson who, along with 1700 men, set out from northern Mississippi and rode several hundred miles behind enemy lines in April 1863 to cut the railroad between Newton’s Station and Vicksburg, Mississippi. Grierson’s raid was part of the Union campaign, culminating in the Battle of Vicksburg. The raid was as successful as it was daring, and remarkably bloodless. By attacking the Confederate-controlled railroad it upset the plans and troop deployments of Confederate General John C. Pemberton.
Production
The Horse Soldiers was filmed on location in Louisiana and in and around Natchez, Mississippi. John Ford cut the film’s climactic battle scene short when Fred Kennedy, a veteran stuntman and bit player, was killed in a horse fall. Ford was so upset he closed the set and had to film the rest of the scene later in the San Fernando Valley. The scene with the fatal fall remains in the film.
Cast
- John Wayne as Col. John Marlowe
- William Holden as Maj. Henry ‘Hank’ Kendall
- Constance Towers as Miss Hannah Hunter of Greenbriar
- Althea Gibson as Lukey, Miss Hunter’s fiercely loyal black maid
