On December 14, 1862, Major General Nathaniel P. Banks relieved Major General Benjamin F. Butler of command of the Army of the Gulf, the forces of which became the new XIX Army Corps. Major General Augur was given command of its 1st Division. Major General Augur was in command at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on May 2, 1863, where he unexpectedly received Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson leading his tattered and exhausted volunteer Brigade of Union cavalrymen from their sixteen-day, 600 mile raid (Grierson's Raid) behind Confederate lines in Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. Augur insisted that Grierson's command be honored with a parade, and subsequently Grierson and his troopers were regaled with flying banners and martial music as they entered the city marching in a column that extended for two miles through the streets of Baton Rouge.