[329] Edwards' Station; he could have put it in motion during the day for Clinton by the Brownsville road, which passes about four miles north of Bolton; by marching from seven to nine miles on that day his heads of columns would have found themselves in the evening of the same day above this point. Now, it was only at nine o'clock in the morning on the following day that the first Federal mounted men made their appearance in that vicinity; Hovey's infantry only arrived toward noon, McPherson in the evening, and the rest of the Federal army was at that hour still near Jackson and Raymond. Pemberton, therefore, could have continued his march on the 15th. If he had advanced in the direction of Clinton, he would have fallen in with the Federal right; if, on the contrary, he had marched toward Calhoun, where Johnston was, he would have joined the latter without encountering the enemy. But even supposing that a battle had been fought either at Bolton or on the Clinton road, and that Pemberton had been as completely beaten as he was at Champion's Hill, he would, instead of finding himself shut up in Vicksburg, have been driven north, and would thus have given Johnston the means of causing the siege of Vicksburg to be raised, and at all events have preserved fifteen or eighteen thousand soldiers to his cause who were shortly after included in his fatal capitulation.
But he was so determined not to be separated from Vicksburg that, according to his own report, he would have fallen back upon this place even if he had repulsed Grant at Champion's Hill; and then his success would only have resulted in adding the six thousand men of Loring's division to the long list of prisoners whom six weeks later he surrendered to Grant.
The day of the 17th was the sequel and completion of the victory achieved by the Federals the day before. While a mass of fugitives who deserted their colors were hurrying along the Vicksburg road, and carrying to the inhabitants of Vicksburg the news of the disaster, with the prelude of the terrible scenes of which this city was to be the theatre, Pemberton was trying to cover his retreat as well as he could. All the trains had crossed the bridge of Big Black River, but nothing had been heard from Loring: it was necessary to wait for him in
