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Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Attack on Grand Gulf-operations below Vicksburg (search)
orce of nearly sixty thousand men. Jackson is fifty miles east of Vicksburg and is connected with it by a railroad. My first problem was to capture Grand Gulf to use as a base. Bruinsburg is two miles from high ground. The bottom at that point is higher than most of the low land in the valley of the Mississippi, and a good road leads to the bluff. It was natural to expect the garrison from Grand Gulf to come out to meet us and prevent, if they could, our reaching this solid base. Bayou Pierre enters the Mississippi just above Bruinsburg and, as it is a navigable stream and was high at the time, in order to intercept us they had to go by Port Gibson, the nearest point where there was a bridge to cross upon. This more than doubled the distance from Grand Gulf to the high land back of Bruinsburg. No time was to be lost in securing this foothold. Our transportation was not sufficient to move all the army across the river at one trip, or even two; but the landing of the 13th cor
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 7. (ed. Frank Moore), chapter 19 (search)
deeming it important to surprise the enemy if he should be found in the neighborhood of Port Gibson, and if possible to prevent him destroying the bridges over Bayou Pierre, on the roads leading to Grand Gulf and to Jackson, I determined to push on, by a forced march, that night as far as practicable. battle of Port Gibson. Aom a fugitive negro, that the two roads diverging at Shaiffer's led to Port Gibson-one to the right by Magnolia Church, and the other to the left, passing near Bayou Pierre, where it is spanned by a rail and earth road bridge; also that the greatest distance between the roads was only some two miles; that the space between and forith's division, leading the advance, and followed by the rest of my corps, triumphantly entered Port Gibson, through which place and across the south branch of Bayou Pierre the enemy had hastily fled the night before, burning the bridge across that stream in his rear. This, the battle of Port Gibson or Bayou Pierre, was one of
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 7. (ed. Frank Moore), chapter 27 (search)
y loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners. The repulse of the enemy on our left took place late in the afternoon. He was pursued toward Port Gibson, but night closing in, and the enemy making the appearance of another stand, the troops slept upon their arms until daylight. In the morning it was found that the enemy had retreated across Bayou Pierre, on the Grand Gulf road, and a brigade of Logan's division was sent to divert his attention while a floating bridge was being built across Bayou Pierre, immediately at Port Gibson. This bridge was completed, eight miles marched by McPherson's corps to the north fork of Bayou Pierre, that stream bridged, and the advance of this corps commenced passing over it at five o'clock the following morning. On the third the enemy was pursued to Hawkinson's Ferry, with slight skirmishing all day, during which we took quite a number of prisoners, mostly stragglers from the enemy. Finding that Grand Gulf had been evacuated, and that the advance
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Volume 3., chapter 5.69 (search)
eir troops had to be met. We were fortunate, to say the least, in meeting them in detail: at Port Gibson, 7000 or 8000; at Raymond, 5000; at Jackson, from 8000 to 11,000; at Champion's Hill, 25,000; at the Big Black, 4000. A part of those met at Jackson were all that were left of those encountered at Raymond. They were beaten in detail by a force smaller than their own, upon their own ground. Our loss up to this time was:    Killed.Wounded.Missing. Port Gibson 13171925 South Fork, Bayou Pierre     1   Skirmishes, May 3d 19  Fourteen Mile Creek 624  Raymond 6633937 Jackson 422517 Champion's Hill 4101844187 Big Black 392373 Bridgeport  1     Total[In all, 4379]6953425259 Of the wounded many were but slightly so, and continued on duty. Not half of them were disabled for any length of time. The revised statements (unpublished Official Records, Vol. XXIV., part I., p. 167) show that the aggregate Union losses, including the above, from May 1st to Jul
Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 2., Chapter 22: the siege of Vicksburg. (search)
ter was unable to move forward until he was re-enforced by a brigade of General Logan's division of the advance of McPherson's corps. Another brigade of the same division was sent to the help of McClerand, and after a long and severe struggle the Confederates were repulsed, late in the afternoon, with heavy loss, and pursued to Port Gibson. Night coming on, the Nationals halted and rested on their arms, expecting to renew the contest in the morning. But the Confederates had fled across Bayou Pierre during the night, burned the bridges over the two forks of the bayou behind them, and retreated toward Vicksburg. So ended the battle of Port Gibson. View on Lake Providence. The bridges were rebuilt and the pursuit of the Confederates was continued. Meanwhile Porter was directed to assail Grand Gulf again, but on approaching it, on the 3d of May, he found it deserted. The Confederates there, flanked by the Nationals at Port Gibson, had joined with the defeated troops in their f
General Joseph E. Johnston, Narrative of Military Operations During the Civil War, Letters. (search)
Edwards's Depot. And I accordingly informed General Johnston, on the 12th May, that the enemy was apparently moving his heavy force toward Edwards's Depot, adding, That will be the battle-field if I can carry forward sufficient force, leaving troops enough to secure the safety of this place (Vicksburg). I was firmly convinced that the enemy's supplies must be very limited, as he moved with but few wagons, and his dependence upon those to be drawn from his distant base at Grand Gulf or Bayou Pierre very precarious. I had good reason, therefore, to believe that he would be forced either to advance immediately upon Edwards's Depot to give me battle (which I should have accepted or avoided, according to circumstances), or to return at once to his base upon the Mississippi River. On the 7th May, and previous to my movement across the Big Black, the President of the Confederate States telegraphed me as follows: I am anxiously expecting intelligence of your further active operations
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 5. (ed. Frank Moore), chapter 153 (search)
oes afterwards told us that the battery, consisting of two guns and ninety mounted men, left some five hours before our landing; but the fellows had greatly loitered on the way, for Col. Dudley reported he was within an hour of intercepting them. The twenty-third of June Rodney was passed without molestation, but having learned from various sources that resistance to the further advance of the transports would certainly be made by guns in position on the heights of Grand Gulf, we entered Bayou Pierre about three o'clock on the morning of the twenty-fourth, and attempted to reach its point of intersection with the Port Gibson and Grand Gulf Railroad, in order to move from thence on the rear of the town and heights of Grand Gulf. After passing up the bayou some nine miles, and still eight miles from Port Gibson, a raft across the bayou stopped us. We then backed down, for the bayou was too narrow to turn in, to one Colonel Berry's plantation, four miles only by a good wagon-road. Here
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 6. (ed. Frank Moore), chapter 190 (search)
r the enemy near Port Gibson, on the first, was one of the most important of the war. The capture of five cannon and more than one thousand prisoners, the possession of Grand Gulf, and a firm foothold on the highlands between the Big Black and Bayou Pierre, from whence we threaten the whole line of the enemy, are among the fruits of this brilliant achievement. The march from Milliken's Bend to the point opposite Grand Gulf was made in stormy weather, over the worst of roads. Bridges and ferrn had in the fight two brigades. With such a disparity in numbers, of course a confederate victory was next to an impossibility. General Bowen's object in leaving his position at Grand Gulf, on the south side of the Big Black, and crossing Bayou Pierre, was, we presume, to hold the enemy in check, and prevent their advance into the country and upon Port Gibson, until reenforcements, then known to be on the way, could arrive. The movements of the Federals, however, were rapidly made, and in
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 6. (ed. Frank Moore), chapter 210 (search)
s not my province, nor is this the proper occasion to impugn that order. Without intending injustice to any one, I may be permitted to say that my corps led the advance from Milliken's Bend to Bruin's Landing, and to the field at Port Gibson. At the latter place it was the first to attack the enemy and break his force. This battle was determinate of all our following successes. Pursuing the enemy next day, it captured the town of Port Gibson, and drove the enemy from the north bank of Bayou Pierre; thence marching toward Edward's Station, on the Vicksburgh and Jackson Railroad, it encountered and drove back the enemy from one of the crossings of Fourteen Mile Creek, on the same day that General Sherman drove him back from the crossing at Turkey Creek, and McPherson beat him near Raymond. Soon after it led the advance to Bolton on the railroad, and again against the enemy at Champion Hill, first attacking him and achieving a signal victory, with the assistance of McPherson's corps.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Sherman, William Tecumseh 1820-1829 (search)
and the rear in return. In the campaign and siege, terminating in the fall of Vicksburg, General McPherson has borne a conspicuous part. At the battle of Port Gibson, it was under his immediate direction that the enemy was driven, late in the afternoon, from a position that they had sueceeded in holding all day against an obstinate attack. His corps—the advance always under his immediate eye—were the pioneers in the advance from Port Gibson to Hankerson's Ferry. From the North Fork of Bayou Pierre to the Black River it was a constant skirmish, the whole skilfully managed. The enemy was so closely pressed as to be unable to destroy their bridge of boats after them. From Hankerson's Ferry to Jackson the 17th Army Corps marched upon roads not travelled by other troops, fighting the battle of Raymond alone; and the bulk of Johnston's army at Jackson also was fought by this corps entirely under the management of General McPherson. At Champion Hill, the 17th Army Corps and General M
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