[221]
The guns that worked at close range in advance of Lieutenant Terry's naval Battery, at the edge of another wooded height, stood Federal Battery no. 9 (Cox's), within about 300 yards of the Confederate fortifications, its two 12-pounder rifles doing telling work against the Confederate forts in their front. The Federals pushed their entrenchments nearest to the works of the defenders at this part of the line — so near that a duplicate of Grant's message to Banks announcing the surrender of Vicksburg was thrown within the Confederate lines on July 7th. This picture shows the method of constructing field fortifications, the parapet here being revetted with cotton-bales. |