Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 1

At six and a half o'clock, McPherson dispatched to Grant: ‘I think it advisable for you to come forward to the front as soon as you can.’¹ Grant started at once, at forty minutes past seven, for the advance. On the way, he found Hovey's division at a halt, and the road blocked up with wagon-trains at the crossing, and himself ordered all quartermasters and wagon-masters to draw their teams to one side, and make room for the passage of troops. McPherson was brought up by the road thus cleared. Passing to the front, Grant found Hovey's skirmishers near the enemy's pickets. The troops were rapidly getting into line, and Hovey could have brought on an engagement at any moment.

The enemy was strongly posted, with his left on a high wooded ridge, called Champion's hill, over which the road to Edward's station runs, making a sharp turn to the south, as it strikes the hills. This ridge rises sixty or seventy feet above the surrounding country, and is the highest land for many miles around; the topmost point is bald, and gave the rebels a commanding position for their artillery; but the remainder of the crest, as well as a precipitous hillside to the east of the road, is covered by a dense forest and undergrowth, and scarred with deep ravines, through whose entanglements troops could pass only with extreme difficulty. To the north, the