The Battle of Champion Hill

Originally published August 2019 · p. 24

On Friday, May 3, 2019, James Lighthizer, President of the American Battlefield Trust, unveils a monument to Edwin C. Bearss, standing right, at Champion Hill in Hinds County, (American Battlefield Trust)

HINDS COUNTY, Miss.— On May 16, 1863, following the Union capture of Jackson, Miss., Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s 32,000 advancing Union soldiers met 22,000 Confederates under Maj. Gen. John C. Pemberton in a fierce struggle for a vital crossroads roughly halfway between Vicksburg and Jackson. Pemberton posted his divisions on high ground in a three mile line covering the roads from Jackson. Grant’s men moved west along the Jackson Road and met Pemberton’s men at Champion’s Hill. Outflanked, Pemberton stretched his line to hold back the Yankees, advancing all across his front. As the Union soldiers tried to reform and consolidate their gains, they were nearly swept away by a counterattack led by Brig. Gen. John Bowen’s Division of Missourians and Arkansans. After Grant ordered more men forward Bowen’s Confederates were themselves driven off, initiating a general retreat. Confederate Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman was killed while directing a desperate rearguard action that enabled most of the Confederate army to escape towards Vicksburg. The decisive Union victories at Champion Hill and a following engagement at the Big Black River the next day were instrumental in forcing the Confederates into a doomed position inside the Vicksburg fortifications. The Battle of Champion Hill was the largest and bloodiest action of Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign. Find more history and resources at www.battlefields.

Edwin C. Bearss “In May 2019, the Trust proudly unveiled a monument in honor of Ed’s truly monumental contributions to teaching American history and preserving American battlefields. The monument will stand on Ed’s beloved Champion

Hill, and is a small token of the Trust’s unwavering thanks and appreciation. Badly wounded by Japanese machine-gun fire in New Guinea during World War II, Ed Bearss spent 26 months in military hospitals where he devoted countless hours to reading history. A Montana native educated in a one-room schoolhouse, Ed began his long and storied National Park Service career in 1955 at Vicksburg National Military Park, where he helped locate the sunken Union gunboat USS Cairo. From 1981 to 1994, Ed served as the chief historian for the National Park Service. Since his retirement in 1995, Ed has continued to give lectures and battlefield tours, writing and appearing on numerous TV programs, including Ken Burns’ The Civil War. Ed has received many honors, including the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Distinguished Service Award. His dedication to battlefield preservation and Civil War history prompted the American Battlefield Trust to name its Lifetime Achievement Award after him, and he was its first recipient in 2001. In 2018, the organization rededicated the award and again presented it to the longtime trustee, who turned 95 that June.

Edwin C. Bearss seen at his home in Virginia.

(Buddy Secor) Learn more at www.battlefields.org/Edwin_Bearss. The American Battlefield Trust is dedicated to preserving America’s hallowed battlegrounds and educating the public about what happened there and why it matters today. The nonprofit, nonpartisan organization has protected more than 50,000 acres associated with the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War, including 2,856 acres in Kentucky and 3,516 acres in Tennessee. Learn more at www.battlefields.org.