Army Life: From a Soldier's Journal

XV. MAGNOLIA HILLS

CHAPTER XV. MAGNOLIA HILLS. Sunday morning I went forward and passed over much of the hard-fought battle field of Friday. The battle field presented a scene both grand and terrible. The dead had nearly all been buried and all of the wounded taken to the field hospitals. Enough remained, however, to plainly show how fierce the struggle had been. Horses, mules, wagons and guns, both large and small, lay strewn upon the field, often heaped together in a huge, misshapen mass, and the strong forest trees, the staunch old oaks, the beautiful magnolias, were torn and scattered as though fierce tornadoes had swept them down. The ground that was fought over beggars description. The huge hills and deep gulleys running and counter-running in every direction created a wild and broken country. What a place for a battle field! Taking position upon the top of the high hills the Confederates supposed it impossible for them to be dislodged. They were certain, they thought, that a successful charge could not be made against them. This belief was a natural one. It would naturally be supposed that a steep hill or mountain side, with an ascent so steep that soldiers could only with great difficulty climb it, would be the easiest defended and the most dangerous ground for an attempted charge. Our soldiers soon learned differently. They discovered that whenever the enemy held the top of a high hill a charge could be made up its steep sides much more safely than upon more level ground. Even when it was so steep that they had to support themselves by catching hold of the underbrush and limbs of trees and even actually climbing up on their hands and feet they could successfully charge the enemy who was holding the brow of the hill. One reason why this is so arises from the fact that it is almost impossible for those on the top of a high elevation to fire low enough to harm those advancing up the elevation. In an open field fight a charge up the side of a high hill or mountain side is the safest one that can be made. The Confederates upon the top always fired over the heads of the Union boys. Our soldiers found that they could safely run up hill, under the enemy’s bullets without firing and when they reached the top they would, with loaded guns, meet the Confederates with unloaded guns in their hands. All the rebels could do under such circumstances was to seek safety in running down the other side of the hill. - Army Life. 136 Thus each Union charge up the steep sides of Magnolia Hills was successful. When within two miles of Port Gibson, I stopped to eat breakfast, and had barely finished when some of our soldiers came up and said that we were on dangerous ground, as an attack was expected from the rear. Upon reaching the open road, I was surprised to find that, while I was eating breakfast, a line of battle had been formed within two hundred yards of and fronting toward us. My companions in the receipt of the cheerful information were an old colored man and his wife, living in a log cabin by the roadside, and at whose fire I had made some coffee. They were thoroughly alarmed, and without ceremony rushed through the Union line of battle, and sought safety in its rear. I went up and joined the Union line of battle. In a short time our scouts came back, with the information that rebels were running away instead of coming up for a fight. I then bid the Union soldiers farewell and pushed ahead. GRAND GULF AND PORT GIBSON. I soon reached Port Gibson.1 Here I learned that Carr’s division had started for Grand Gulf. I started forward and soon found the Thirty-third. They were slowly advancing with a skirmish line in front. When we got within four miles of Grand Gulf,2 information was received that the forts at Grand Gulf had been evacuated by the rebels and were now in the hands of our soldiers . Thus our mission in that direction was ended. We now returned to Port Gibson, crossed the bayou and marched five miles toward Black River. At night we camped in line of battle, in a field of growing corn which the boys pulled and placed under their blankets to keep them out of the mud. We lay still...