Battle of Champion’s Hill » HistoryNet - From the World's Largest History Magazine Publisher

On the Confederate left, Barton’s line was crumbling, his Georgians unable to stem the blue tide. John Stevenson’s Yankees crossed an all but impassable hollow as if it weren’t there, charging up the ridge where Barton’s eight cannon were emplaced. As the Rebel infantry melted away, the cannoneers switched to double charges of canister, but even that couldn’t stop Stevenson’s assault.

The 1st Mississippi’s Ridley found himself standing alone at a cannon. Faced with the choice of running or giving up, he chose neither, opting instead to work the gun alone. At that moment, Union General McPherson rode up. Seeing the gallantry of the young Confederate captain, the general tried to save his life, but before McPherson could intervene, Ridley fell, struck by no less than six Minie bullets. Only eight of the 82 men Ridley had taken to the ridge top survived.

As Carter Stevenson’s line weakened, Pemberton sent a staff officer to bring up Bowen’s and Loring’s divisions. The staffer galloped off down the plantation road to Bowen’s position. One of Loring’s officers was there. He promised to pass the order along, although he had some doubts that Loring would comply.

Loring was not exactly known for his willingness to cooperate. Besides this, Loring had little faith in Pemberton, a Pennsylvania native who had ‘married South.’ When the Civil War broke out, Pemberton had chosen to cast his lot with his adopted homeland. Many politicians and officers distrusted Pemberton, and Loring had been overheard to say that he would not care if Pemberton lost a battle, so long as it resulted in the Pennsylvanian’s being relieved of command.

Back at the Roberts house, Pemberton was growing increasingly impatient. Fuming and cursing, he mounted up and rode off down the plantation road to bring up the troops himself. A short distance away, he found Col. Cockrell’s brigade, double-quicking up the road. Pemberton directed Cockrell to the crossroads to bolster Carter Stevenson’s sagging line.

Cockrell’s brigade arrived just as Slack’s charge struck. The 3rd and 5th Missouri went into line of battle at once, only to find themselves under horrendous fire. The 2nd and 6th Missouri then came up and threw their weight into the fight. Seeing that his men were gaining a foothold, Cockrell sent the 1st Missouri into line and ordered his artillery to unlimber. Bowen’s 2nd Brigade, Brig. Gen. Martin Green’s Arkansans, came up on Cockrell’s right.

Cockrell rode up and down behind the line, clutching his reins and a large magnolia blossom in one hand and his saber in the other. At a signal from Cockrell, the division unleashed an ear-splitting Rebel yell and tore into the Federals. Cockrell’s hard-charging Missourians stormed up the face of Champion’s Hill, where the fighting became, in the words of a regimental historian, ‘desperate and bloody.’ One company of Missourians reached the hilltop to find McGinnis’ Yankees just beyond. The Missourians fired with ‘one unbroken, deafening roar of musketry.’

Bowen’s men, considered by some as ‘undoubtedly the best combat troops in either army,’ swept on, driving the Union troops ‘like chaff before the wind.’ The Federals fell back so far that Cockrell’s men caught sight of Union teamsters frantically whipping their horses, desperately trying to get their ordnance wagons out of the path of the charging Confederates.

Lee, seeing the tide turn, urged his own troops onward. Private W.T. Moore, standing nearby, heard Lee shout, ‘For God’s sake, rally and drive them back!’ The Alabamians re-formed, as Moore put it, ‘as if by magic,’ and charged. They came to a rail fence bordering a field in which Captain Samuel DeGolyer’s 8th Michigan Battery was emplaced. DeGolyer opened fire just as Lee’s men began to throw down the fence rails. The Michiganders’ aim was right on. The Federal shells burst on the fence line, sending dirt, fence rails and mangled bodies flying through the air. Even the Union gunners were shocked by the sight. The shattered Alabamians began to fall back.

McGinnis had been pleading for reinforcements and, finally, Brig. Gen. Marcellus Crocker’s 7th Division of McPherson’s corps came swinging up to the front. Col. George Boomer had barely gotten his 3rd Brigade into line of battle in a field south of the Champion house when he learned that Hovey’s front had collapsed.

Boomer responded instantly. He shifted his brigade about by the left flank and double-quicked it up the hill, only to be almost bowled over by McGinnis’ fleeing men. Boomer’s troops faltered briefly. Stragglers told them that they had left 1,200 bodies behind on the hilltop. Boomer worried that the panic would spread to his own men, but the 3rd Brigade pressed on.

The momentum of the battle again began to favor the Federals. Col. John B. Sanborn’s 1st Brigade was moving up the hill, and Hovey had pulled together 16 cannons on a rise in an open field southeast of the Champion house. These guns showered Green’s line with canister and shot. Ordered to turn the Union left, the Arkansans pushed on into the storm, only to run squarely into the last of Crocker’s brigades, Col. Samuel Holmes’ 2nd. The firing intensified terrifically, until the men could barely make out those on either side of them. They fired by guess, aiming at muzzle flashes in the dense, sulphurous clouds of powder smoke. Eventually, the combined force of the three fresh brigades and the artillery barrage broke the Confederate charge.

Cumming, having finally rallied his men, was leading them to Bowen’s support when the Union counterassault struck. The Georgians broke and fled again, leaving behind Lee’s Alabamians, who had been sheltering in the trees since their own charge had been crushed by DeGolyer’s guns. The 30th Alabama managed to get clear before the Union line rolled over them, but Col. Michael Woods’ 46th Alabama was cut off and forced to surrender. Woods had gone into battle with more than 300 men. He surrendered just over 70.

Pemberton was furious that Loring had still not appeared. He sent Major Jacob Thompson, his assistant inspector general, to again order the recalcitrant Loring to come up with all possible speed. Thompson dutifully galloped off to the Raymond Road, where he discovered that Loring had realigned his division somewhat, but had made no attempt to move to the left. Loring had shifted two brigades onto the ground that Bowen had vacated, and Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman’s 1st Brigade sat astride the Raymond Road on Cotton Hill, about 600 yards west of the ridge where sat the Coker house. Burbridge now held the ground near the Coker house, which was filled with Confederate wounded.

Although Burbridge had not pressed further, Loring was still unwilling to disengage. Thompson returned to the Roberts house with this unpleasant news just as Osterhaus renewed his drive on the Middle Road. Exasperated, Pemberton mounted to go after his errant commander himself. As before, he’d gone only a short distance when he sighted Brig. Gen. Abraham Buford’s brigade. The much-relieved Pemberton told Buford to send two regiments to the crossroads to support Green and the remainder of his brigade to the Jackson Road. These orders delivered, Pemberton continued his search for Loring.

The 12th Louisiana and 35th Alabama rushed to the support of Cockrell’s artillery, which had opened fire on Osterhaus’ line. This barrage slowed the Union drive somewhat, but the Federals kept up the pressure. Many of Bowen’s battered foot soldiers, having endured more than they could take, broke and ran. In the course of the melee, Waddell’s unlucky cannon changed hands for the third time.

Pemberton, unable to locate Loring, had returned to the Roberts house. There, he was told that Bowen’s line had broken. Sadly, Pemberton ordered a general retreat. The Confederates would have to pull back to the Raymond Road, where they could cross a bridge that Pemberton’s engineers had labored all day to build. The general mounted and rode away with his staff officers.

Pemberton had been gone only a few minutes when Loring appeared on the scene, leading Winfield S. Featherston’s 2nd Brigade. He saw that many of Carter Stevenson’s troops were still on the field, as were Buford’s. Loring began to piece together a counterattack, but before he could complete his disposition, word of the retreat order reached him. Loring countermanded his attack orders and began to disengage.