PROFILE of DAVID PERKINS GRIER
8th MO Infantry (US) Company G
	Portrait of David Perkins Grier

At the time the Civil War broke out, David Perkins Grier (born in 1836) was a member of the "National Blues", a militia in Peoria, Illinois.
 
On the 25th of June 1861, the Elmwood Illinois Guards (about one hundred men), with David P. Grier as their Captain, left Illinois for St. Louis to join the American Zouave or Eighth Missouri Regiment.   Captain Grier's company were sworn in the next day after their arrival, and became Company G.

Grier was commissioned a Captain with the 8th MO, Company G, in June, 1861.   While he was with the 8th MO, he was involved in the following battles: Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Corinth, and Shiloh.   He served with the 8th MO until Sept. 1862.
 
At that time, Grier returned to Illinois and helped his brother-in-law form the the 77th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, serving with them until the end of the Civil War.   He was promoted to Brigadier General by brevet in March 1865.
 
After the war, David Grier lived in St. Louis, and was active in the GAR - he was a member of the Ransom Post #131 and the Fraternal Order of the Legion of Honor.   When the Grand Army of the Republic had their encampment in St. Louis, he was Grand Marshall of the parade.   Grier wrote the introduction to Lt. W. H. Bentley's History of The 77th Illinois Volunteer Infantry.
 
He died in 1891, and was buried in the Springdale Cemetery (Peoria, Illinois).   One of the speakers at the funeral was Col. Seth W. Cobb, who had been in the Confederate Army.   Cobb and Grier had met during the war, and afterwards became good friends.