United States Army officer.

Benjamin Henry Grierson was born in Pittsburgh in 1826, grew up in Ohio, and finally settled in Jacksonville, Illinois, where he taught music and started a business career. At the start of the Civil War Grierson volunteered and soon became a staff officer in command of several cavalry divisions, achieving distinction during the years of conflict.

Although not a graduate of West Point, after the war Grierson decided to remain in the Regular Army. Given the rank of colonel, he accepted the appointment to organize the 10th U.S. Cavalry, one of two mounted regiments composed of black enlisted men and white officers that became known as the Buffalo Soldiers. He was brevetted brigadier general and major general in the regular army in 1867, beginning a long and vigorous career serving on the western frontier.

Grierson headed the District of the Indian Territory, commanding Fort Riley, Kansas and Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, from 1867 until 1869. He selected the site for Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and commanded the post until 1872. After two years supervising recruiting efforts in St. Louis, in 1875 he was sent to Fort Concho, Texas, where he then commanded the District of the Pecos from 1878 until 1880. In the following years he was in charge of the District of New Mexico and then the Department of Arizona.

For nearly a quarter of a century Grierson was actively engaged in scouting and exploring throughout the western states and territories, often in the midst of the most hostile Indians of the frontier. He was known to treat both Indians and his black troops as tolerantly as was possible and seems to have earned affection and loyalty from those men who served closely with him.

Grierson married Alice Kirk in 1854, and they had seven children. Alice died in 1888, and in 1897, Grierson married the widow Lillian Atwood King. In 1890, after finally being awarded the rank of brigadier general in the regular army, Grierson retired to his ranch in Concho, Texas. He died of a stroke in 1911.