BGuthrie Photos: MS -- Champion Hill

MS -- Champion Hill:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. CHAMP_130601_003.JPG: This marker had been dedicated just a couple of weeks prior, on May 18, 2013. The Battle of Champion Hill: Fight for the Crossroads: The Crossroads is a junction formed by the Middle Road from the east, the Ratliff plantation road from the south, and the Jackson Road from the north as it descends from the crest of Champion Hill and turns west. At 1:30pm on May 16, 1863, Federal forces overran the crest of Champion Hill, one-half mile north, pushing back the Confederate forces of Stephen D. Lee and Alfred Cumming. James Slack's brigade of Alvin P. Hovey's Union division attacked the Crossroads from the northeast. The 24th Iowa captured the four guns of Waddell's Alabama Battery that had opposed Peter Osterhaus' and Eugene Carr's Union divisions approaching on the Middle Road. Francis Cockrell's Confederate brigade of Missourians and Arkansans counterattacked and drove the Federals back over the crest of Champion Hill. The Federals soon rallied and recaptured Champion Hill and the Crossroads. The outnumbered Confederates hastily retreated to the Big Black River. Estimated Casualties: 2,441 Union and 3,851 Confederate.
2. CHAMP_130601_087.JPG: A Narrow Escape: The Battle of Champion Hill raged back and forth for hours, earning the site a reputation as "the hill of death." As more Union reinforcements arrived, Pemberton gave the order to retreat. With Pemberton's army in danger of being trapped, a messenger arrived with news that the lower Backers Creek bridge (destroyed in recent rains) had just been rebuilt. Pemberton directed the army there and ordered two batteries and Gen. Lloyd Tilghman's brigade, a unit of Loring's Division, to hold their position on the Raymond Road until all the Confederates made it safely across. Unfortunately for Pemberton, Loring's Division was unable to cross and never rejoined Pemberton's army. "[With] the ingenious construction of this bridge, Major [Andrew] Hickenlooper, Chief Engineer of General McPherson's corps, has, during this brief but brilliant campaign, earned for himself a most enviable reputation. This bridge is certainly the most easily constructed, and it is the most secure, of any impromptu bridge known. The buoyancy of a 500-pound bale of cotton is quite 400 pounds and serviceable for eight days." -- Harper's Weekly, June 27, 1863 The next day, portions of both armies fought again west of Edwards along the Big Black River. There the Confederates defended the railroad bridge from behind earthworks, hoping to allow Loring's Division time to cross the Big Black. Overrun by Union troops who assaulted the position, however, the Confederates fled across the river and burned the bridge behind them. Pemberton's army had narrowly escaped into the defenses of Vicksburg.
3. CHAMP_130601_094.JPG: The Death of General Tilghman: General Lloyd Tilghman, a graduate of West Point Military Academy, settled in Kentucky after the Mexican War. In October, 1861, Tilghman was commissioned Brigadier General in the Confederate Army. At Champion Hill he led a brigade whose artillery battled against a Union battery all day. From a position on the next ridge to the left and astride Raymond Road, Tilghman's brigade covered the retreat of Pemberton's scattered army. At the height of this action, Tilghman was shot and killed. His troops took his body with them and buried him in Vicksburg. Tilghman's remains were later reinterred in Woodlawn Cemetery in New York City. The Monuments: In 1907 Tilghman's sons, Frederick B. and Sidell Tilghman, proposed a dramatic equestrian statue in memory of their father for installation in the Vicksburg National Military Park. Sculpted by F. William Sievers, the monument was erected in 1926. Tilghman's sons also erected a stone monument marking the spot where he was killed at Champion Hill. To identify the site, Capt. William T. Rigby, superintendent of the Vicksburg National Military park, gathered with several eyewitnesses and neighbors, including JG Spencer of Port Gibson, to determine the exact location. Spencer was serving an artillery piece only 30 feet away when Tilghman was killed. The stone monument is located just off the road approximately 0.2 miles to the left. The monument is located on private property. "We learned from these prisoners that the last shot we had fired had killed General Tilghman the ball passing entirely through him, and killing his horse behind him." -- Corp. Charles P. Haseltine, Chicago Mercantile Battery, "My Last Shot in the Vicksburg Campaign"
4. CHAMP_130601_101.JPG: Chicago Mercantile Battery -- Artillery in the Yard: "I took four guns up the road... We passed the line of infantry, who were lying down on either side of the road and went into battery on the left in front of a planter's [Coker's] house, which set back from the road about 300 feet. On the next ridge, which was 330 yards from us, the rebel batteries and infantry were posted. Their batteries were plowing the ground around us. Their batteries were plowing the ground around us. We unlimbered and ran the guns by hand nearly to the top of the ridge so as to not expose the horses." -- Capt. Pat White, Chicago Mercantile Battery Artillery used the crest of this ridge throughout the battle. From here Confederate guns commanded the Raymond Road, preventing a Union advance from the right. Late in the afternoon, the Confederates deployed closer to Bakers Creek, and Union artillery moved up and took this position, aiming west. One of the two Union artillery units in the Coker House yard was the Chicago Mercantile Battery, an elite unit sponsored by Chicago businessmen. Among the members, six received the Medal of Honor for their actions during the second assault on Vicksburg on May 22, six days after the Battle of Champion Hill. "The Chicago Mercantile Battery was organized in August 1862, and most recruits were "well-born, well-bred, well-educated... Some were about to enter Harvard, Tufts, or Yale, and all were connected with good families... We shall not see them all again." -- Mary Livermore, from Chicago's Battery Boys, by Richard Brady Williams
5. CHAMP_130601_116.JPG: On the Eve of the Bloodbath: As Grant's troops advanced from Jackson, Confederate General Pemberton brought about half of his force out of Vicksburg to challenge the Union advance. Thinking he would intercept the Union Army, or at least its supply wagons, Pemberton marched easy along this road and bivouacked in this area on the night of May 15. In the morning, Grant's army surprised the Confederates by marching west from Clinton along three roads and boat armies positioned themselves for battle. Gen. James B. McPherson's troops foraging at the Ratliff House (above and located on the map). Rather than depend completely on a long supply train across enemy country, Grand acquired many provisions en route. The roads north of here were narrow and slightly sunken. In order to remove hundreds of supply wagons to safety once the battle broke, Confederates were forced to cut notches in the embankments, turn the wagons around by hand and rehitch them to the teams. This maneuver was costly in manpower and time, especially in the case of Confederate Gen. John Bowen, who lost his ammunition supply at the height of his successful countercharge on Champion Hill. "Very small variations in landscape can make big variations in military outcome." -- Historian Warren Gorden, 2008
6. CHAMP_130601_204.JPG: The Coker and Gervin Families: Henry B Coker built this house in 1852 on 800 acres left to his wife, Sarah Elizabeth Cotton Coker, by her first husband. The Cokers were among the wealthier families in the Midway community. Their 800-acre plantation grew cotton for cash and foodstuffs for the labor force and the family. The plantation included a sawmill, a cotton gin, slave quarters, and a shed for farm equipment. After the family returned from their wartime refuge in Alabama, HB Coker returned to farming. By the time of his death in 1878, Coker had added 300 acres to the farm. In 1933, Maude, the youngest Coker daughter, sold her childhood home and more than a thousand acres to Alfred Gervin, who moved his family here from the Mississippi Delta and named the farm Greenwood Plantation. The Gervins made few changes, eventually adding a bathroom on the east side, a fireplace in the central hall and painting the interior woodwork white. "... as soon as school was out in the spring my mother sent me off to Edwards... where I remained until September. "I look back and wonder how the [Gervin] family stood it, but they were a big loving family and taking in extras was so common that the dining room table featured long backlist benches... so all we did was just scooch together a bit closer whenever when anyone showed up at meal time." -- Betty DIal Brumfield, McComb Enterprise Journal, Nov. 6, 1985
7. CHAMP_130601_220.JPG: Architecture and Renovations: What you see here is a reconstruction of the 1852 house built by the Cokers. Efforts to fully restore the original house were not successful. In order to save the structure, the house was dismantled and the salvaged materials were used in the rebuilding. The Coker House was built in the vernacular Greek Revival architectural style used in many planters' houses and town houses in the Deep South. The Floor plan features a wide center hall with two matching rooms on either side. The facade has an attached portico supported by four squared columns with Greek Revival detailing. The kitchen and dining room was located in a single outbuilding immediately behind the house to safeguard the house from fire. It was removed in the 1960s. Preservation: In 1933 Maude Coker Thomas sold the house and property to Alfred Gervin who lived here with his family for the next thirty years. Fred Adams of Cal-Maine Foods purchased the poverty in 1963 and later donated the house to the Jackson Civil War Round Table, a nonprofit history and preservation organization. Unable to raise sufficient funds for a complete restoration, the Round Table deeded the house to the State of Mississippi in 2000.
8. CHAMP_130601_226.JPG: The Coker House and the Battle of Champion Hill: The Coker House is the only remaining structure on grounds where the pivotal Battle of Champion Hill was fought on May 16, 1863. Located on the southern margin of the battlefield, the house sustained fire from both Union and Confederate artillery as the battle lines shifted throughout the day. This house, like others in the area, served as a field hospital after the battle. "... for over an hour we loaded our guns and killed each other as fast as we could. "I've been in... greater battles than Champion Hill, but only once did I see two lines of blue and gray stand close together and fire into each other's faces for an hour and a half." -- Capt. Sam Byers, 5th Iowa Infantry Artillery Duel: Artillery was positioned in front of this house much of the day. In the morning, Confederate artillery along Cotton Ridge (the name of the subtle high ground where you are standing) held off Union soldiers advancing from the east. Late in the afternoon, the Confederate battery withdrew and a Union battery took its place, aiming at the new Confederate position on the next ridge to the west. The artillery duel directed to and from the Coker House was peripheral to the main Battle of Champion Hill, centered two miles north. However, at the end of the battle, the engagement here became critical as it provided cover for the Confederate army's withdrawal. "One cannon shot went straight through the house... In the room nearest the battery was a piano, standing diagonally across the room, with a corner jut in the right place in the path of the ball. Of course it was knocked off, but the tones were all left..." -- Sgt. Thomas B. Marshall, 83d Ohio Infantry
9. CHAMP_130601_248.JPG: The Vicksburg Campaign: One Battle, Two Names: Sometimes a Civil War battle was called by two names -- one used by northerners the other by southerners. Above is a Union map of the battle of Champion Hill, with the Confederate below. The Vicksburg Campaign "Vicksburg is the key," said President Abraham Lincoln. "The war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket." The United States government had to control the lower Mississippi River in order to move agricultural products to world markets, to split the South and sever its supply lines. In the spring of 1863, Major General Ulysses S. Grant launched the Army of the Tennessee on a series of maneuvers and battles to pocket Vicksburg and end the war. "The most brilliant campaign ever fought on American soil" involved deception and counter-intelligence, rapid marches, naval actions, a large-scale amphibious crossing, and fighting in difficult terrain and harsh climate. Grant's invading force brought war to the interior of the Deep South and eventually captured Vicksburg and an entire Confederate army, re-opening the Mississippi River. In the Vicksburg campaign region, visitors will encounter some of the most varied and difficult terrain on any military campaign. Some of the sites and nearby roadways have changed little since the Civil War. At several sites along the way, and at the Vicksburg National Military Park, interpretation is provided.
10. CHAMP_130601_266.JPG: Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Gervin and their friend Jim pose on the front porch soon after the Gervins purchased the house in 1933.
11. CHAMP_130601_314.JPG: A Refugee Family: As the Civil War moved into the Deep South, many people fled the shifting war front. Two coinciding events encouraged Henry Coker to become a refugee: the death of his wife and the approach of the Union navy, streaming up the Mississippi River from New Orleans. After his wife died on April 30, 1862, Coker took his slaves and two youngest children to Alabama, near Tuscaloosa. He returned in 1864. "How foolish it is for the Southern people to flee and leave their beautiful property to the foe. We only want something to eat. There are some who would apply the torch to a deserted home, that would not do so if the owners remained in it." -- Sgt. Osborn H. Oldroyd, 20th Ohio Infantry "... I had the pleasure of eating a nice dinner with out friend and neighbor, HB Coker. We are camped only 5 miles from him and we talked all day yesterday till 12 last night. Our old neighborhood came in for a large share of the thoughts..." "... Coker is keeping a kind of bachelor establishment with his dear little children to keep him company. Maud [sic] is a sweet little girl and Edward Kenny is a fine boy -- now over two years old -- and Coker certainly does stand in need of a wife." -- Sid Champion, 28th Miss. Calvary, May 2, 1864, Tuscaloosa County
Wikipedia Description: Battle of Champion Hill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Battle of Champion Hill, or Bakers Creek, fought May 16, 1863, was the pivotal battle in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. Union commander Major General Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Tennessee pursued the retreating Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton and defeated his army twenty miles to the east of Vicksburg, Mississippi, leading inevitably to the Siege of Vicksburg and surrender.

Background:
Following the Union occupation of Jackson, Mississippi, on May 14, both Confederate and Federal forces made plans for future operations. General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding all Confederate forces in Mississippi, retreated, with most of his army, up the Canton Road, but he ordered Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton, commanding three divisions (about 23,000 men), to leave Edwards Station and attack the Federals at Clinton. Pemberton and his generals felt that Johnston’s plan was dangerous and decided instead to attack the Union supply trains moving from Grand Gulf to Raymond. On May 16, however, Pemberton received another order from Johnston repeating his former directions. Pemberton had already started after the supply trains and was on the Raymond-Edwards Road with his rear at the crossroads one-third mile south of the crest of Champion Hill. Thus, when he ordered a countermarch, his rear, including his many supply wagons, became the advance of his force.

Battle:
On May 16, at about 7:00 a.m., the Union forces engaged the Confederates and the Battle of Champion Hill began. Pemberton's force drew up into a three mile-long defensive line that ran from southwest to northeast along a crest of a ridge overlooking Jackson Creek. Grant observed in his Personal Memoirs, "... where Pemberton had chosen his position to receive us, whether taken by accident or design, was well selected. It is one of the highest points in that section, and commanded all the ground in the range."

Pemberton was unaware that one of the three Union columns was moving along the Jackson Road against his unprotected left flank on Champion Hill. For protection, Pemberton posted Brig. Gen. Stephen D. Lee's Alabama brigade atop Champion Hill where they could watch for the reported Union column moving to the crossroads. Lee spotted the Union troops and they soon saw him. If this force was not stopped, it would cut the Rebels off from their Vicksburg base. Pemberton received warning of the Union movement and sent troops to his left flank. Union forces at the Champion House moved into action and emplaced artillery to begin firing.

When Grant arrived at Champion Hill around 10:00 a.m., he ordered the attack to begin. John A. McClernand's corps attacked on the left, James B. McPherson's on the right; William T. Sherman's corps was well behind the others, departing Jackson. By 11:30 a.m., Union forces had reached the Confederate main line and at about 1:00 p.m., they took the crest while the troops from Carter L. Stevenson's division retired in disorder. McPherson's corps swept forward, capturing the crossroads and closing the Jackson Road escape route. The division of John S. Bowen then counterattacked in support of Stevenson, pushing the Federals back beyond the Champion Hill crest before their surge came to a halt. They had insufficient troops to hold that position, however. Pemberton directed William W. Loring to send forces from the southern area of the line (where they were only lightly engaged with McClernand's ineffective attack) to reinforce the Hill, but Loring refused, citing a strong Union presence to his front.

Grant then counterattacked, committing forces that had just arrived from Clinton by way of Bolton. Pemberton’s men could not stand up to this assault, so he ordered his men from the field to the one escape route still open: the Raymond Road crossing of Bakers Creek. By now, Loring had acceded to Pemberton's direction and marched toward the fighting, but by a circuitous route that kept them out of action. Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman's brigade formed the rear-guard, and they held at all costs, including the loss of Tilghman, a victim of artillery fire. In the late afternoon, Union troops seized the Bakers Creek Bridge, and by midnight, they occupied Edwards. The Confederates fell back to a defensive position at the Big Black River in front of Vicksburg. The Battle of Big Black River Bridge there the next day would be the final chance for Pemberton to escape.

Aftermath:
Champion Hill was a bloody, but decisive, Union victory. In his Personal Memoirs, Grant observed, "While a battle is raging, one can see his enemy mowed down by the thousand, or the ten thousand, with great composure; but after the battle these scenes are distressing, and one is naturally disposed to alleviate the sufferings of an enemy as a friend."

Grant criticized the lack of fighting spirit of his rival, McClernand, dissatisfied that he had not killed or captured Pemberton's entire force. McClernand's casualties were low on the Union left flank (south); McPherson's on the right were the bulk of the Union losses, about 2,500. The Confederates had about 4,300 casualties. Their effective loss included most of Loring's division, which had marched off to join Joseph E. Johnston in Jackson.

Battlefield preservation:
Discontiguous portions of the battlefield, totaling over 800 acres (3.2 km�), are owned by the State of Mississippi. These properties are being held for possible future inclusion in Vicksburg National Military Park. The Coker House stands adjacent to a south portion of the Champion Hill battlefield. It was used as a hospital by Federal forces and upon departing, they extensively looted both the house and the plantation stores. Bullet holes in the front door and jamb and cannonball holes on the west side of the Coker House remain as evidence of the Battle of Champion Hill. In 1985, the historic property was donated to the Jackson Civil War Roundtable and later deeded to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Presently the house is in ruins and its future history on the Champion Hill battlefield is unknown. Thousands of acres of the core battlefield are privately owned, listed as II.1. Class A (opportunity for comprehensive preservation, good integrity, low threat) by the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission.
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