[327] being ordered to defend this important pass, while the other corps, continuing their march in a state of indescribable confusion, did not stop until one o'clock in the morning, in the vicinity of Bovina Station.
The battle of Champion's Hill, considering the number of troops engaged, could not compare with the great conflicts we have already mentioned, but it produced results far more important than most of those great hecatombs, like Shiloh, Fair Oaks, Murfreesborough, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville, which left the two adversaries fronting each other, both unable to resume the fight. It was the most complete defeat the Confederates had sustained since the commencement of the war. They left on the field of battle from three to four thousand killed and wounded, three thousand able-bodied prisoners, and thirty pieces of artillery. But these figures can convey no idea of the magnitude of the check experienced by Pemberton, from which he could not again recover. The strongest of his divisions (Loring reached Jackson with 5778 men) had been isolated, and could not again get into line for some time. The others were so reduced in number as to envy the fate of the latter: driven beyond Big Black River, definitely separated from Johnston, they could not avoid total destruction except by seeking refuge in Vicksburg, which was destined to become their prison. They were no longer in a condition to attempt, even under a commander other than Pemberton, the bold march which alone could have saved them from the terrible fate of an army shut up in a strong place. Grant's losses, amounting to 426 killed, 1842 wounded, and 189 prisoners, were borne exclusively by the fifteen thousand men forming the two divisions under McPherson and Hovey; the latter had 1083 men disabled—that is to say, one-third of his effective force—while Osterhaus' division had only 90. Out of twenty-four men struck in Smith's division, on the extreme left, there was not a single man killed. The conduct of McClernand, who during the entire day failed to bring the fifteen thousand men under his command into action, despite the repeated orders of his chief, was very properly denounced by Grant. Loring remained motionless before him with only six or seven thousand Confederates, so that, in reality, the battle was fought by fifteen or sixteen thousand men on each side.
