Fields of Honor by Edwin C. Bearss

Author:Edwin C. Bearss [Bearss, Edwin C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4262-0620-7
Publisher: National Geographic Society
Published: 2009-09-30T04:00:00+00:00

Chief engineer to Grant during the Union advance through Tennessee, Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson commanded the Federal XVII Corps during the Vicksburg campaign.

(photo credit 7.2)

By this time Logan has called up and committed Brig. Gen. John D. Stevenson’s brigade. Two of Brig. Gen. Marcellus M. Crocker’s three brigades are also on the field. More than 10,000 bluecoats demonstrate to the butternuts that their fire-eating politicians were in error when, as the secession crisis threatened breakup of the Union, they boasted that one Southerner could whip ten Yankees. Numbers now tell. McPherson, by 3 p.m., gets his act together after five hours. Soon Colonel MacGavock is dead, and the Rebels give ground, slowly at first and then rapidly. By four o’clock they retreat through Raymond, taking the road toward Jackson by way of Mississippi Springs.

McPherson marches into Raymond. First in are from the 20th Ohio of Dennis’s brigade. The good ladies of Raymond have arranged on the courthouse square a super picnic lunch. They plan to feed the Confederates when they return victorious. The Rebels, however, do not pause, let alone stop, in Raymond to partake of the picnic laid out for them. The Buckeyes and friends make sure it does not go to waste. Union battle casualties are 68 killed, 341 wounded, and 37 missing; Gregg listed his losses as 73 dead, 252 wounded, and 190 prisoners.

Among Grant’s senior officers, James McPherson combined intelligence, good looks, and loyalty. But of Grant’s three corps commanders present with the army at Raymond, as later in the campaign, he will prove to be overly cautious and least willing to close with the foe. This is true whether discussing the May 22 Vicksburg assault, the October 1863 Canton expedition, or Georgia’s Snake Creek Gap in May 1864.

News of McPherson’s victory at Raymond causes Grant to change his plans. Instead of moving northward, he’ll send Sherman and McPherson against Jackson, with orders to drive out the Confederates there, sever the area railroads, and destroy whatever manufacturing they encounter. McClernand will swing north and then east, keeping an eye on Pemberton at Edward’s Station; once McPherson and Sherman finish their mission, they are to join McClernand and attack Pemberton. In Jackson on May 13, an exhausted and ill Joseph Johnston arrives to take command in the aftermath of Confederate defeats at Port Gibson and Raymond. Because Federal forces threaten northern Mississippi and Alabama, the ailing Johnston has had to take a 300-mile detour to travel from Tennessee to the front in Mississippi. With reinforcements he will have perhaps 12,000 men to face Grant’s 20,000.

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