Battle of Champion Hill

Lazy Bayou

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Mississippi
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 Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Tennessee pursued the retreating Confederate Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton and defeated his army twenty miles to the east of Vicksburg, Mississippi, leading inevitably to the Siege of Vicksburg and surrender.

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 vanguard of his force.

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 (5 km)-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 were 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 rearguard, 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.

For more see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Champion_Hill
 
Perhaps the finest moment of General John Bowen, Martin Green, Francis Cockrell and the Missourians! Not only did they take the hill, but moved down the reverse crest, drove off Union reinforcements and destroyed supply wagons before they were forced to retire as a result of heavy casualties and having pushed beyond the support of friendly units.
 
Perhaps the finest moment of General John Bowen, Martin Green, Francis Cockrell and the Missourians! Not only did they take the hill, but moved down the reverse crest, drove off Union reinforcements and destroyed supply wagons before they were forced to retire as a result of heavy casualties and having pushed beyond the support of friendly units.

Yeah. Bowen's people deserve a lot of credit. They were easily the best Confederate brigades at the battle - and throughout the campaign.
 
I've been wanting to travel up to Vicksburg for awhile now. I live probably 4-5 hours away would be my guess.

Anyone ever went on the tour here before? http://battleofchampionhill.org/

I thought about trying it but wanted to see if anyone here had done that and if it was worth the money.
 
forced to retire as a result of heavy casualties and having pushed beyond the support of friendly units.

I thought that they were forced back because Gen. Stevenson sent Barton's wagons with their ammo back towards the Big Black River!

Carter Stevenson never did explain why that was! (Page 381 in the chapter "Tally" in the book: Champion Hill Decisive Battle For Vicksburg by Tim B. Smith)

Kevin Dally
 
Hey Donna, the link didn't work for me. Could you try it again? Looking forward to reading it.

Bowen died from from dysentery if I am not mistaken that he got during the siege.

Thanks,

Mark
 
Ah yes! I have read this very article in the past. The article also mentions Father Bannon, the Irish-born, Catholic priest that served as chaplain of Missouri troops, C.S., a good number of them Irish immigrants and from St. Louis. He left a diary behind... NOT your typical Confederates.

This leads away from Champion Hill, but to another interesting little tidbit/side note, related to Bowen. The adjutant of the Missouri Brigade was a Major James Loughborough. He was a real estate dealer from St. Louis. I grew up on a the street - Loughborough Ave - the name of which nobody could ever guess the origin of, however, with this little bit of information it is all clear. The street is not too far from another street, Bowen St., which is only several blocks away. Interestingly, the area I grew up in was mostly Roman Catholic, mostly German and Italian and was near an area of St. Louis known as Dutchtown-clearly the German area of South St. Louis. This history comes later... I am sure Major Loughborough or his descendants had some hand in naming these streets. No "Cockrell", "Green" or "Bannon" streets though...

Further, of note, I lived about a mile from a section of St. Louis that used to be the town of Carondelet. There was a foundry there and much history. It sits on the west bank of the Mississippi, and has been since incorporated into St. Louis proper. Amazing how all the history meets in so small a span of space. Only the "Easterners" think this only applies to them!

Thank you Ruffian. To all, I apologize for the digression.
 
...and may have had something to do with this...

USSCarondelet.jpg
USS Carondelet

and 32 others, including the Cincinnati, Louisville, Pittsburg, Mound City, Baron de Kalb, etc.

Sorry Lazy Bayou for completely highjacking your thread...but as you know, Missouri is kind of like the Virginia of the west - the CENTER OF EVERYTHING!
 
Ah yes! I have read this very article in the past. The article also mentions Father Bannon, the Irish-born, Catholic priest that served as chaplain of Missouri troops, C.S., a good number of them Irish immigrants and from St. Louis. He left a diary behind... NOT your typical Confederates.

This leads away from Champion Hill, but to another interesting little tidbit/side note, related to Bowen. The adjutant of the Missouri Brigade was a Major James Loughborough. He was a real estate dealer from St. Louis. I grew up on a the street - Loughborough Ave - the name of which nobody could ever guess the origin of, however, with this little bit of information it is all clear. The street is not too far from another street, Bowen St., which is only several blocks away. Interestingly, the area I grew up in was mostly Roman Catholic, mostly German and Italian and was near an area of St. Louis known as Dutchtown-clearly the German area of South St. Louis. This history comes later... I am sure Major Loughborough or his descendants had some hand in naming these streets. No "Cockrell", "Green" or "Bannon" streets though...

Further, of note, I lived about a mile from a section of St. Louis that used to be the town of Carondelet. There was a foundry there and much history. It sits on the west bank of the Mississippi, and has been since incorporated into St. Louis proper. Amazing how all the history meets in so small a span of space. Only the "Easterners" think this only applies to them!

Thank you Ruffian. To all, I apologize for the digression.

James Loughborough's wife was Mary Ann Loughborough, who wrote My Cave Life at Vicksburg.
 
Perhaps the finest moment of General John Bowen, Martin Green, Francis Cockrell and the Missourians! Not only did they take the hill, but moved down the reverse crest, drove off Union reinforcements and destroyed supply wagons before they were forced to retire as a result of heavy casualties and having pushed beyond the support of friendly units.
They ran out of ammo due to the stupidity of Gen. Carter L. Stevenson sending their ammo train back to the rear!

Kevin Dally
 
Actually Bowen's troops never did reach the Federal ordnance wagons. At the sight of them making their way past Champion Hill, the Federal ordnance wagons turned tail and headed the other way. And by that point Bowen's troops had suffered heavy losses, were running low on ammunition (and couldn't be resupplied due to the reasons mentioned above) and were still fighting off Federal reinforcements. That was about the farthest they got before they were forced to conduct a fighting retreat, scavenging what ammo they could from the dead and wounded. Nevertheless, Bowen's Missourians and Arkansans did some magnificent fighting that day!
 
What I've always found odd is most historians seem to side with McCulloch when hes critical of the Missouri troop quality at and after Wilsons Creek, and even during the Pea Ridge campaign. When it was Missourians who did the bulk of fighting at WC on Bloody Hill, at Pea Ridge it was once again Missouri troops who carried the fighting at Elkhorn Tavern only to have McCullochs troops fail, Time and time again whether at Corinth, Champions Hill, Vicksburg those same troops he disparaged were the flower of whatever army they were in, Would think its rather apparent McCulloch didn't know boo about troop quality...........Yes some cavalry under Rains put in a bad performance before WC, but how long can you excuse him condemning thousands of what turned out to be some of the best troops of the war because of a few hundred cavalry?
 
forced to retire as a result of heavy casualties and having pushed beyond the support of friendly units.

I thought that they were forced back because Gen. Stevenson sent Barton's wagons with their ammo back towards the Big Black River!

Carter Stevenson never did explain why that was! (Page 381 in the chapter "Tally" in the book: Champion Hill Decisive Battle For Vicksburg by Tim B. Smith)

Kevin Dally
It is very interesting, and somewhat confusing to me, when it is said that Stevenson "sent Bowen's ammunition train back." Pemberton ordered the "Army's entire train" back. I've never understood how it was just Bowen's train (unless the references means to imply Bowen's trains that were among the rest of the army's trains).

Though the Army's train followed behind the entire army, there were seperate trains following each division. Those supply wagons would have been with Bowen as he occupied the center, seperate from the army's train, and should have followed Bowen as he moved to support the Confederate left. I don't see how those specific wagons could have been removed by Stevenson.

Nevertheless, we know Bowen ran out of ammunition. But we also know through the official record that Bowen's men were resupplied during the retreat - as they held the lower ford open for Loring. Where did those supplies come from? They could not have come from the army's train. They must have come from the division trains. Historians really don't explain this.

The only thing I can think is that Bowen's division wagons did not make it with Bowen as he moved from the center to the left (the terrain and traffic probably didn't allow it). Then when Stevenson' men collapsed and retreated, the division wagons of Bowen got caught up in that retreat south where Bowen eventually caught up with it later that day but after Bowen had been repulsed on the left.

It's just one of those gaps in the story that's hard to piece together.
 
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