THE BATTLE OF CHAMPION HILLS. 67 | 307 to form a junction with Pemberton corps, being now close upon him, and at some point on the Big Black, the rest of McClernand's, followed by above the railroad. It was, there- McPherson's corps, rapidly coming fore, Grant's business and purpose to up. prevent this conjunction by meeting and beating Pemberton before it could be effected. At 5 A. M.," Grant learned that Pemberton's force consisted of 80 regiments, with 10 batteries of artillery, probably numbering in all about 25,000 men," now eagerly advancing with intent to fall unexpectedly on his rear; and he resolved to anticipate the delivery of this blow. Pushing forward Blair's division toward Edwards's Station, he directed McClernand to follow, with that of Osterhaus; McPherson, with his entire corps, following directly. Gen. Grant now reached the front, and found Hovey's skirmishers close to the enemy's pickets, while his troops were rapidly coming into line, and might, had they been strong enough, have opened the battle at any moment. The enemy in their front held a very strong position on a narrow ridge, with his left resting on a height, where the road toward Vicksburg made a sharp turn to the left, with the crest of the ridge and his left flank covered by a dense forest. McPherson's corps, except Ransom's brigade, soon came up, and was thrown to the right, so as to threaten the enemy's rear. Still, our numbers on the field were inadequate, and Grant forbade an attack until he could hear from McClernand, who was advancing with two divisions, from Bolton Station on our right, but on parallel roads which converged two miles east of Edwards's Station. But, while Grant was thus impatiently listening for the sound of McClernand's guns, and sending him orders to push forward rapidly, the firing between Hovey's and the Rebel skirmishers gradually grew, by 11 A. M., into a battle; and— since a single division could not long resist two or three times its numbers Pemberton was in position near Edwards's Station, when he received" a dispatch from Johnston suggesting -he says not ordering--a combined attack on McPherson, then at Clinton, and called a council to consider the proposition. After hearing its advice, he decided to attack next morning; but was delayed by the swollen condition of a branch of Baker's creek till afternoon; when he advanced four or five miles, and took up a strong position on CHAMPION HILLS, Southward of the railroad, and about midway between Jackson and Vicksburg. Here he received, next morning," a note from Johnston, directing him to move northward, so as to form a junction with his own-one brigade and then another of shattered forces, most of which had Crocker's division was sent in to Hoso recently been driven out of Jack-vey's support; while McPherson's othson. Pemberton thereupon ordered er division, under Logan, was working his trains sent back toward the effectively upon the enemy's left and Black, and would have followed with rear, essentially weakening his efforts his army, but it was too late; Gen. in front. McClernand's remaining Hovey's division, of McClernand's divisions failed to arrive at the front, 67 May 16. 68 A Rebel report says 17,500. ❝9 May 14. 70 May 16. however, until after the enemy had | turing seven guns and several hundred prisoners, and thus gaining the road in the Rebel rear, which cut off Loring's retreat, and compelled him to escape as he could. been driven with heavy loss from the field; Logan's division having penetrated so nearly to the road leading to Vicksburg as to cut off Loring's division from Pemberton, and compel it to retreat deviously southward, evading our left, and narrowly escaping capture, by the sacrifice of all its guns; thus reaching Jackson on the 19th. The credit of this victory devolves mainly on Hovey and his heroic division, which was for hours closely engaged with superior numbers strongly posted and well covered by the dense forest, who fought gallantly, and repeatedly crowded back our line by the sheer weight of that op posing it. When his infantry had thus been crowded back from the ridge they had carried by desperate fighting, and compelled to abandon 11 Rebel guns they had taken, Hovey massed his artillery, strengthened by Dillon's Wisconsin battery, on elevated ground at his right, and opened on the advancing foe an enfilading fire that arrested and turned them back, under a tempest of cheers from our boys. The loss of this single division was 211 killed, 872 wounded, and 119 missing: total, 1,202-about one-third of its force, and nearly half our entire loss in the battle. But McPherson's corps fought, so far as it had opportunity, with equal gallantry, and was handled with equal . skill; Stevenson's brigade making a brilliant charge across ravines, up a hill, and through an open field, cap 71 Grant evidently blames McClernand for lack of energy in this battle; though he says: "The delay in the advance of the troops immediately with McClernand was caused, no doubt, by the enemy presenting a front of artillery and infantry where it was impossible, from Before the Rebel defeat was decided, Hovey having repeated his call for rëenforcements, Grant ordered McPherson to advance whatever of his corps was still disposable by the left to the enemy's front; and, proceeding himself to observe this moyement, he discovered that the Rebels were in full retreat. On reaching the Raymond road, he saw Carr's and then Osterhaus's division of McClernand's corps, well advanced on the left, and ordered them to pursue the enemy with all speed to the Black, and, if possible, across that river. This pursuit continued till after dark; resulting in the capture of a train of cars loaded with provisions and munitions, but very little else;" though the Rebels lost considerably in munitions and stores, which they were obliged to abandon to the flames. Sherman's corps had no part in this engagement, being still on its way from Jackson when it closed; and Ransom's brigade of McPherson's corps only arrived after the enemy had retreated. As but three divisions of McClernand's corps were even constructively present, it is morally certain that this action was fought by fewer men on our side than on that of the Rebels. Grant reports our loss in this desperate struggle at 426 killed, 1,842 wounded, and 189 missing: total, the nature of the ground and the density of the forest, to discover his numbers. As it was, the battle of Champion Hills, or Baker's creek, was fought mainly by Hovey's division of McClernand's corps and Logan's and Quinby's divisions (the latter commanded by Brig-Gen. M. M. Crocker) of McPherson's corps." GRANT CROSSES THE BIG BLACK. 2,457. The Rebels lost quite as heavily in killed and wounded, some 2,000 prisoners, 15 or 20 guns, with thousands of small arms, &c. Among their killed was Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, of Maryland. 309 his men who could reach it fled, leaving 18 guns, 1,500 prisoners, several thousand stand of arms, and large quantities of commissary stores, to fall into the hands of the victors, whose entire loss here was but 29 killed, and 242 wounded. But the bridges were of course burned by the fugitives; and the deep river, with its forest-covered western bluff lined with sharp-shooters, baffled our ad train was with Sherman, now on his way to Bridgeport, several miles farther up; and our attempts to force a passage, under cover of a fire of artillery, were baffled until after dark; when the Rebels, aware that they would be flanked if they attempted to remain here, fell back to the friendly shelter of the fortifications of Vicksburg. Next morning," the pursuit being renewed, the enemy were found strongly posted on the Black, with a bold, wooded bluff directly at the water's edge on the west side, while on the east, an open, cultivated bot-vance for hours. Our only pontoon tom, nearly a mile broad, has a bayou of stagnant water, ten to twenty feet wide and two to three feet deep, to the east of it. This had been made to serve as a wet ditch, with a line of rifle-pits behind it; and here Carr's division was stopped two or three hours, until Lawler, commanding his right brigade, discovered a way of approach whereby it could be successfully assaulted, and ordered a charge, which was gallantly made; but the volley which was fired by the enemy at close range as his command rushed across the level, open ground, down to the bayou, taking our column in flank, swept down 150 of our men. None faltered nor turned back, however, nor even stopped to fire till they were all across the bayou; when, pouring in a deadly volley, without waiting to reload, they swept on with fixed bayonets, leaving the Rebels, who had not yet found time to reload, no choice but surrender. Gen. Osterhaus, who with his division had come up on our left, was here wounded by a fragment of shell. Beside the railroad bridge, Pemberton had constructed an army bridge over the Black, composed mainly of three steamboats; across which, all 73 May 17. 73 Floating bridges having been constructed here and three miles above, during the night, the passage of both McClernand's and McPherson's corps commenced at 8 A. M.; Gen. Sherman crossing simultaneously on his pontoons at Bridgeport, and pressing on to within 3 miles of Vicksburg; when, turning to the right, he took possession, unopposed, of Walnut Hills and the banks of the Yazoo adjacent. McPherson, striking into Sherman's road, followed it to the point where the latter had obliqued to the Walnut Hills, where he halted for the night; while McClernand, advancing on the direct highway from Jackson nearly to Vicksburg, swayed to the left, so as to cover the roads leading into that city from the south-east; so that by next morning the investment of the doomed city was substantially complete; while "3 May 18. was ambushed" and fired on by 200 sharp-shooters at Liverpool Landing on his return, with a loss of 1 killed, 9 wounded; but encountered no other resistance. An immediate assault on the landward defenses of Vicksburg was de Porter, who had returned to the Yazoo on the 16th, now reopened communication hence with Grant and Sherman, sending them much needed provisions, and preparing to attack the batteries on Haines's Bluff, which the enemy had begun" to evacuate, and which, on the appearance of our gunboats, they ran away from, leav-termined on by Grant, who appreing guns, forts, munitions, tents, and hended an attack on his rear by equipage of all kinds, to fall into our Johnston, strongly rëenforced from hands. It would hardly be credited Bragg's army, and who counted much on other testimony than his own," on the demoralization of Pemberthat our Admiral proceeded to de- ton's forces by their succession of stroy this inestimable material of defeats and disasters. Accordingly, war, with full knowledge that Grant's after some reciprocal cannonading triumphant army, more especially and sharp-shooting, a general assault Sherman's corps, were at hand to was ordered at 2 P. M.; 18 which only defend and utilize it. resulted in an advance of the front of our several corps to a close proximity to the Rebel defenses. Blair's division of Sherman's corps alone planted its colors on their works; the 13th regulars, of Giles Smith's brigade, doing so at a cost of 77 out of 250 men; its leader, Capt. Washington, being among the mortally wounded. The 83d Indiana, Col. Spooner, and the 127th Illinois, Col. Eldridge, likewise carried the outer slope of the Rebel earthworks, and held their ground till night, firing at any head that appeared above the parapet, but were unable to enter; while the regiments on either side of these, though they gained positions close up to the works, were even less successful. Sherman, seeing that they were here exposed to hourly 76 The fall of Haines's Bluff completely uncovered Yazoo City, in fact, the whole Yazoo Valley; and Porter at once dispatched Lt. Walker, with five gunboats, up the river. Walker reached Yazoo City at 1 P. M. ;" finding the Rebel Navy Yard and vessels in flames, and the city ready to surrender. Among the vessels on the stocks was the ram Republic, 310 feet long by 75 wide; the Mobile, ready for plating, &c., &c. In the Navy Yard, were five saw and planing mills, an extensive machine-shop, beside carpenter and blacksmith shops, &c., &c. All of these that the Rebels had not already fired were burned by Walker, who found 1,500 Rebel sick and wounded in hospital and paroled them. He THE GRAND ASSAULT ON VICKSBURG. 311 decimation to no purpose, ordered | of the column a fire that swept it down in an instant. No troops them, after dark, to fall back a short distance to a point where the irregularities of the ground afforded them comparative shelter and safety. The two following days were devoted to bringing up and distributing provisions-the campaign in Mississippi having thus far been prosecuted on our part with scarcely a day's rations for three days' service: the country traversed being drawn upon for whatever it could afford while roads were made, cannon planted, &c.; the enemy likewise improving the time to the utmost. And now Gen. Grant ordered a second and more determined assault at all points, to be made simultaneously at 10 A. M.” At the moment named, our soldiers darted from under cover and rushed upon the Rebel works before them-their men all shielded by their breastworks, while ours were necessarily exposed to a close and deadly fire. Sherman's attack was made by Frank Blair's division, led by the brigade of Gen. Hugh S. Ewing, 30th Ohio, with Giles Smith's and T. Kilby Smith's closely following; sharp-shooters skirmishing in the advance, and a storming party carrying boards and poles wherewith to bridge the ditch-five batteries concentrating their fire on the enemy's bastion constructed to command the approach. could or should persist in braving such utter, useless destruction. The rear of the column attempted to rush on; but it was madness; and soon all had sought cover from that deadly fire. Still, the assault was not abandoned; but, swerving to the left, Ewing's men, in the advance, crossed the ditch on the left face of the bastion, and, climbing up its exterior slope, planted their colors near the top, and burrowed in the earth for shelter from the flanking fire of the enemy; while Giles Smith's brigade, turning down a ravine, found cover, formed line, and threatened the parapet still farther to the left; Kilby Smith deploying his men on the off slope of a spur of hill, and keeping up, with Ewing's, a fire on any head that appeared above the parapet. Our artillery and infantry being still at work, our stormers easily held their ground; and, at length, Giles Smith's and Ransom's brigades attempted to carry the parapet by assault; but were repelled with loss. Meantime, Steele's division, which had advanced half a mile farther to the right, was fighting desperately to little profit; yet, on the receipt of a dispatch from McClernand to Grant, announcing that his corps had carried three Rebel forts, Sherman ordered Tuttle to renew the assault on his left; and Mower's brigade was In vain. The storming party had sent up where Ewing's had been rereached the salient of the bastion pulsed. Mower did his best; and the unassailed, and passed toward the colors of his leading regiment (11th sally-port, when there shot up be- Missouri) were planted beside those hind the parapet, a double rank of of Blair's storming party, and there the enemy, who poured on the head remained till withdrawn after night 79 May 22. |