VICKSBURG Chapter Forty-Four

Gazing down the gentle mile long slope toward Fourteen Mile Creek, the Federal skirmish line knew the rebels were hiding in the tangle before them. But they kept coming, offering themselves as targets because this morning, Tuesday 12 May 1863, that was their job. There were two quick shots from the rebel snipers. Then there was a long silence followed by four or five shots. Then the line stopped and was filled in by the forward regiments of the Federal 3^rd division.

The adjutant to Colonel Manning of the 20^th Ohio, 19 year old Henry Dwight remembered the long and painful descent, “The trees and underbrush were covered with thorny vines which trailed in tangled chains from branch to branch. Great moss grown trunks of fallen trees had to be climbed over...After passing such an obstacle it was always some minutes before the line could could find itself again. Sometimes it could not find itself, and a halt had to be sounded....there would be a great expense of time, breath and strong language, in trying to get the ends of the broken line together.”

Shepherding the rebel's before them, the Federals reached the bottom of the hill and halted in a clearing near the creek, “...wiping the sweat off their faces as they stood fanning themselves in the shade." Dwight (above) continued,  "A staff officer was waiting...with the order to halt in the clearing and to rest for lunch...” The 20^th Ohio stacked their arms and, “...filled our canteens at the brook, or poured the cool water over our heated faces....

"The other regiments of the brigade came up, an Indiana regiment (in fact it was the 8^th Illinois) going into line along the edge of the woods on our right, and the 78th (Ohio) taking the place on our left, with the 68th (Ohio) near by (Captain Samuel) DeGolyer’s battery (8^th Michigan artillery)...(which) stopped in the road near the skirmish line...” Shortly after the Michigan gunners started to unlimber, “Bang cr r r r r rang! Bang cr r r r r r rang!” came the two shells from the peaceable country in front, bursting over the heads of the groups in the road.”

The canon fire was from Captain Hiram Miller Bledsoe's Missouri battery. It was answered almost immediately by DeGolyer's guns. Wrote adjunct Dwight, “...we hadn’t time to more than turn our heads when from out of the quiet woods on the other side of the brook there came a great yell, of thousands of voices, followed by such a crashing roar of musketry....some twenty or thirty were dead or wounded from that first volley....

But quick as thought, all who could stand had taken their guns and plunged through the brook. On the other side, not fifty yards distant, the enemy were crashing through the underbrush in a magnificent line determined to carry all before them.”

The rebels on the north side of Forty Mile Creek were the 305 men of the 7^th Texas infantry, under Colonel Hiram Grandbury, with the 348 men of the 3^rd Tennessee to their right. Luckily for the Buckeyes the rebel assault was not aimed at the 20^th Ohio, and instead slammed into the 8^th Illinois, shattering it, and  “...the whole regiment broke into inch bits, the boys making good time to the rear. This left the Johnnies a clear road to pass our flank...and putting bullets into the reverse of our line...At this moment the fate of the brigade...depended on the possibility of our holding those fellows at bay until the other brigades could be brought up.”

To 20 year old Osborn Hamline Ingham Oldroyd – so named so his initials spelled Ohio - newly elected 5^th sergeant of the 20^th Ohio, had advanced even farther forward - “...probably a hundred yards, when we came to a creek... down we slid, and wading through the water, which was up to our knees, dropped upon the opposite side and began firing at will...the enemy were but a hundred yards in front of us... Every man of us knew it would be sure death to all to retreat, for we had behind us a bank seven feet high, made slippery by the wading and climbing back of the wounded... For two hours the contest raged furiously...The creek was running red with precious blood spilt for our country. 

"My bunk- mate and I were kneeling side by side when a ball crashed through his brain, and he fell over with a mortal wound...The second lieutenant in command was wounded; the orderly sergeant dropped dead, and I find myself (fifth sergeant) in command of the handful remaining. In front of us was a reb in a red shirt, when one of our boys, raising his gun, remarked, "see me bring that red shirt down," while another cried out, "hold on, that is my man." Both fired, and the red shirt fell...the enemy charged, fighting hand to hand, being too close to fire, and using the butts of their guns.”

The impulsive counter attack by the Ohio boys had allowed the Michigan gunners to pull their artillery back up the slope to a new positions 600 yards above the creek. Here they were supported by the 78^th and 68^th Ohio infantry regiments, and the gunners worked the two 12-pound bronze howitzers and four 12 pound James rifles, furiously. 

These latter weapons had been developed by Rhode Island Democratic Senator and self taught engineer Charles Tillinghast James, as a way of giving longer range to obsolete smoothbore 6 pound cannon. 

But the rifling (above) in the soft bronze quickly wore down, and accumulating powder residue in the grooves made the guns increasingly inaccurate. In fact, just 7 months earlier, on 17 October, 1862, the inventor himself had been killed when a worker armed with a wrench attempted to remove a misfired round during a demonstration, and it went off, killing himself and the 57 year old inventor. 

 But this morning, the late Jame's invention proved more than adequate at blasting the 7^th Texas with grape and canister shot from close range, breaking up their attack.

About the same time General Logan arrived himself in the line, and “with the shriek of an eagle”, screamed at the soldiers of the broken 8^th Illinois, “For God’s sake men, don’t disgrace your country.” And it worked. Logan's horse was killed under him, but the shocked Yankees reformed just in time to blunt the assault by the 3^rd Tennessee on the 8^th Michigan artillery. Within ten minutes, the Tennesseans suffered 190 killed or wounded, including their commander, Colonel McGavock.

The insanity and ferocity of the fight was captured by Henry Dwight, with the 20^th Ohio, still defending the north bank of Forty Mile Creek. In amazement he watched while a rebel officer, “... not more than thirty feet from where I stood, quietly loaded up an old meerschaum, lit a match... and when he had got his pipe well a-going, he got hold of his pistol again and went on popping away at us as leisurely as if he had been shooting rats.” 

Like two prize fighters slugging it out in the center of the ring, the Ohio and Texas boys held their ground, just yards apart. Still, Dwight noted, “...we were left sticking out like a sore finger for the best part of another hour. There were only nine companies of us, and out of those about the number of one company had been killed or wounded.”

But they held. And Logan, now remounted, hurried forward new regiments, aided by General McPherson who ushered elements of Brigadier General John Smith's division forward to stabilize the Union right and regiments of Brigadier General John Stevenson's division to bolster the left. 

By now, about 1:00pm, the Confederate commander, John Gregg, realized he was facing more than a mere battalion. He pulled the 41^st Tennessee out of their position guarding the road to Bolton, and sent over 350 of them forward to slow the now advancing Yankee soldiers. And under cover of that counter assault the rebels began to withdraw.

Dwight noted, “Now we could stand up and stretch our legs and rinse the charcoal and saltpeter out of our mouths...I looked at my watch. We had been at work on those Texans near two hours and a half...We were a hard looking lot. The smoke had blackened our faces, our lips and throats so far down that it took a week to get the last of it out....

“Attention battalion, forward march,” came the order of Colonel Force again, and away we went with a shout, over the ghastly pile of Texans...Shortly we came out into a big cornfield beyond the woods, and the first thing I saw on the ground was the meerschaum which the Rebel officer had smoked in the fight. It was still warm as it lay where it had dropped from his mouth when he ran, and I picked it up and took my turn at smoking it.”

Tuesday, 12 May, 1863 was a tragic day for General John Gregg's brigade. A week before the ambitious Texan had left Grand Gulf with 7 regiments and a 3 gun battery. At Raymond the 3^rd Tennessee regiment had lost more than a third of its strength. 

The 7^th Texas had lost almost 50% of their members killed, wounded or missing. Bledsoe's 3 gun battery had lost crew members when one of its guns exploded. The wounded filtered back to the town of Raymond, where the citizens did they best to care fore the 100 killed, 270 wounded, and about another 300 captured or missing - or about 7% of General Gregg's entire force.

Yankee losses in the battle were 69 killed, 341 wounded and just 32 missing, or 442 causalities out of the 12,000 federals engaged, or 3.2% of McPherson's XVII Corps. But to Sergeant Oldroyd (above, 20 years after the war) that number 440 meant warm living blood. As the battle wound down, young Oldroyd wrote, “I took the (company) roll-book from the pocket of our dead sergeant, and found that while we had gone in with thirty-two men, we came out with but sixteen - one-half of the brave little band, but a few hours before so full of hope and patriotism, either killed or wounded. Nearly all the survivors could show bullet marks in clothing or flesh, but no man left the field on account of wounds. When I told Colonel Force of our loss, I saw tears course down his cheeks...”

Seven miles away from the carnage Lieutenant General Ulysses Simpson Grant (above) was at the Dillon Farm, finishing a long day, and planning an assault on Edward's Depot, to be followed by the  crossing of the Big Black River bridge. And then the dispatches from General McPherson finally arrived. The news of a battle at Raymond, startled Grant. He had known of Gregg's battalion at Jackson, but so aggressive had the rebels been this day, that McPherson estimated their strength at double the 4,000 which had in fact attacked Logan's 7,000 man division. Taken together with the rumors that General Johnson was on his way from Tennessee to take charge of a gathering force at Jackson, convinced Grant he had best deal with this threat before he tried crossing the Big Black River and attacking Vicksburg. 

Grant's overworked staff now ground out new orders for the following day. McPherson was to move north, and take first Clinton, cutting the only rail line to Vicksburg, and then move on Jackson from the West. General Sherman was to advance up the Utica road to Raymond, and advance through Mississippi Springs to approach Jackson from the south/west. That would put the Mississippi capital between 35,000 Federal troops. General McClernand, once in position to lead the assault with his 17,000 men was now to continue to screen the Federal army by blinding rebel soldiers around Edwards Depot and along Bakers Creek before pulling back to be available should they be needed in Jackson.

But there was an inescapable feeling among the Yankee troops, from Grant down to the lowest private, that things were now going to begin happening very fast.

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