From Champion Hills, the
Confederates were pursued, and bivouacked during the night of May 16, 1863, on the hill overlooking
Edwards' Station and the fertile plain between it and the
Big Black River.
The pursuit was renewed in the morning, but the
Confederates were soon found well posted( on both sides of the river, near the railway bridge, and were strongly fortified.
Behind their defences on the eastern side of the river were several brigades; and above the bridge
Pemberton had constructed a passage-way for troops, composed of the hulks of steamboats.
General Carr's division led the Nationals, and first engaged in battle; and soon there was a fierce struggle between the two armies in the forest for three hours, when
General Lawler, commanding
Carr's right, gave an order for his brigade, composed of
Iowa and
Wisconsin troops, to charge.
They sprang forward and drove the
Confederates to their intrenchments, but suffered fearfully from an enfilading fire from a curtain of the
Confederates' breastworks, which prostrated 150 of their number.
The assailants waded a shallow bayou, and charged on the works before the
Confederates had time to reload.
Meanwhile, many of those within fled
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across the river, and communicated their own panic to the troops there.
They expected the Nationals would immediately
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Rattle at Rig Black River. |
cross the stream; so they burned both bridges — cutting off the retreat of their comrades, who were yet fighting.
They fled pell-mell towards the defences around
Vicksburg.
the assailed garrison, about 1,500 strong, was captured, with seventeen guns, several thousand small-arms, and a large quantity of stores.
They lost, in killed and wounded, 262 men.
General Osterhaus, of the Nationals, was wounded,
and the command of his troops devolved upon
Brig.-Gen. A. L. Lee.
Sharp-shooters in the works on the high banks across the river covered the retreat of the
Confederates, and for hours kept the Nationals from constructing floating bridges.
Grant's pontoon train was with
Sherman, who had been making his way from
Jackson to another point (above) on the
Big Black River.
The Confederates at the bridge fled to
Vicksburg.
A floating bridge was constructed, and at the same time (May 18, 1863) the three corps crossed the river, and began the
siege of Vicksburg.
