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615 Series I Volume XXIV-I Serial 36 - Vicksburg Part I

Page 615 Chapter XXXVI. BATTLE OF PORT GIBSON, MISS.

battle of the 16th over 100 men. I will send you reports,&c., as soon as my field desk comes up. It is at Grand Gulf, where in has been for nearly a month. One thing, the Twenty-eighth has added new laurels to the noble young State of Iowa, and will continue to do so.

I remain, respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOSEPH G. STRONG,

Adjutant Twenty-eighth Iowa.

N. B. BAKER.

Adjutant-General State of Iowa.

Number 17. Reports of Brigadier General Eugene A. Carr, U. S. Army, commanding Fourteenth DIVISION, including operations April 12-May 22. HEADQUARTERS FOURTEENTH DIVISION, May 31, 1863.

COLONEL: In obedience to a letter dated Headquarters Thirteenth Army Corps, camp near Vicksburg, MISS., May 24, 1863, I have the honor to submit the following report:

My DIVISION left Milliken's Bend April 12, and proceeded to Perkin's plantation, on the Mississippi, below Vicksburg, where it arrived on the 23rd, having been engaged in making and repairing roads, repairing levees, making, getting together, and navigating boats of different kinds. Distance from Milliken's Bend to Perkin's plantation, 30 miles.

On the night of April 27, we embarked on steamboats and barges, and the next day moved down the river and disembarked at Hard Times. That evening we marched 2 miles across to a point on the Louisiana side, below Grand Gulf.

The next morning (April 30) we re-embarked and moved down the river to Bruinsburg, on the Mississippi side, where we landed, and, after drawing three day's rations, which were to last for five, we moved out on the road to Port Gibson.

At 1 o'clock on the morning of May 1, my SECOND Brigade, being in advance, came upon the enemy, strongly posted with artillery, at Magnolia Church, about 12 miles from Bruinsburg and 4 miles from Port Gibson. The enemy opened on the head of the column with artillery, whereupon I formed the brigade in line, brought up the batteries, the First Iowa (Griffiths') and First Indiana (Klauss'), and after firing about two hours drove away and silenced the enemy's guns. In the morning the enemy opened on road coming in from our left front, when four companies of the Thirty-THIRD Illinois, under Major Potter, were sent out to check them and hold them at bay till the arrival of General Osterhaus' DIVISION, which was assigned to contend with them on that road.

The enemy had returned to his position near Magnolia Church, and at 6. 30 in the morning we again attacked him, supported by Hovey's DIVISION. I kept the enemy employed with my SECOND Brigade and the two batteries on the left of and in the road, while I sent the First Brigade, brigadier General William P. Benton commanding, through ravines, canebrake, and timber to the right of the road, to press on his left flank. Some of the regiments of General Hovey's DIVISION came up, and, with their assistance, the First Brigade charted and routed the enemy, capturing two guns, a stand of colors, some prisoners, and small-arms. The enemy retreated about 2 miles, and took up a new


Page 615 Chapter XXXVI. BATTLE OF PORT GIBSON, MISS.