1) The document describes the Battle of Champion Hill that took place on May 16, 1863 between Union forces led by Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate forces led by John C. Pemberton near Vicksburg, Mississippi. 2) It recounts Logan's division getting held up by Hovey's division at an intersection, frustrating Logan. Later, Hovey launched an initial successful attack on Pemberton's left but was then driven back in a Confederate counterattack. 3) Grant arrived as the battle began and helped stabilize the Union lines as Hovey retreated, directing reinforcements into place that stemmed the Confederate pursuit and allowed Hovey to reform and reengage. The battle lasted

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"Three Years with Grant"
THE BATTLE OF CHAMPION'S HILL
By Sylvanus Cadwallader
War Correspondent for the Chicago Times
Edited by Benjamin P. Thomas with an Introduction by Brooks D. Simpson.
On the morning of May 15, I made an early start
from Jackson for the front and arrived at McPherson’s
headquarters late in the afternoon. A disagreeable
rain set in which lasted all night. It added greatly to
the fatigue and discomforts of the marching troops,
but did not materially delay them. All were in position
on the morning of the 16th, excepting McClernand.
Some of his divisions were behind and otherwise out
of place, although he marched on a shorter line than
McPherson to the point of convergence. Thus he
unwittingly added to the long list of shortcomings
another black mark in Gen. Grant’s book of
remembrance. I messed that night and next morning
at Gen. Logan’s headquarters, slept under the
friendly shelter of one of his tents, and was up early
anticipating coming events. Grant and Staff spent the
night at Clinton.
Logan’s division of McPherson’s Corps had the
advance in the morning and moved out of Camp early
and briskly, expecting to encounter Pemberton in the
forenoon and having the honor of opening the battle
which all agreed was now inevitable. Logan and
myself were near the head of his column, after an
hour or two of marching, when we reached a road
coming obliquely into ours from the one on which
McClernand’s advance was to be made, and Hovey’s
Maj. Gen. James B.
McPherson
XVII Corps

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division of the latter’s Corps was already half past.
Logan was compelled to halt till Hovey had passed
this intersection, and then start on squarely in
Hovey’s rear. I rarely ever witnessed such an
exhibition of rage, profanity and disappointment as
Logan then gave. The air was just blue with oaths,
till speech was exhausted. McPherson’s arrival a few
minutes after was the signal for another outburst.
But there was no apparent remedy. Hovey had the
road by right of prior occupation, but Logan’s division
was avenged before nightfall.
In the meantime McPherson learned of
Pemberton’s proximity, and sent word to Grant
urging him to come to the front. By half past seven in
the morning Grant and staff were on the road from
Clinton, and arrived at Champion’s plantation lying in
front of the ridge or hill on which the battle was
fought, just as Hovey opened fire on the enemy’s left
and commenced the day’s engagement….
The road on which Hovey and McPherson marched
passed across the north end of Champion’s plantation
till it reached the western border of the lowland when
it turned to the left, and ascended to the northern
end of the timbered land which extended a mile or
two southward, when it turned westward again on its
way to Vicksburg. On the crest of this ridge facing
eastward, Pemberton was found in line of battle
awaiting McClernand’s attack. Hovey’s division
followed the road up the sloping end of the ridge and
fell upon Pemberton’s left under Gen. Stevenson with
such impetuosity that it was driven pell-mell in the
utmost confusion and disorder before it could be
reinforced from the rebel center and right. As it was
rolled back it became stronger and stronger until it
rallied, reformed, and was reinforced; when it in turn
repulsed Hovey severely, following up its advantages
to the extent of sending it flying back over the
ground it had just so gallantly won.
Between the end of Hovey’s splendid charge, and
Stevenson’s equally successful counter-charge, there
Maj. Gen. John A. Logan
3d Division XVII Corps
Brig. Gen. Alvin P. Hovey
12th Division, XIII Corps

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ensued a lull in the firing, while each was preparing
for a second contest. I was lying on the blue grass in
Champion’s front yard, with Grant and staff near by
in the shade, when I asked Rawlins if I had not better
ride up in the timber and “see what was going on.”
He thought it the proper thing to do if I felt so
inclined, whereupon I mounted and started. I soon
found a few dead, and many wounded.
Coming to an abandoned four-gun battery of six-
pound Confederate cannon which Stevenson had
been obliged to leave behind him, I stopped to
examine them. Several of the horses lay dead in the
harness, and dead men in blue and gray were also
plentiful. The forest as far as I could see was torn
and trampled. While there, trying to get some slightly
sounded men to run the cannon back towards the
rear, the fighting was fiercely renewed some distance
ahead of me, and I was not long in discovering the
tide of battle had turned in my direction. The rattling
musketry fire came nearer and nearer, the noise and
storm of battle grew louder and stronger every
minute; and very soon some rebel guns commenced
a furious cannonade on Hovey’s broken, retreating
ranks. The air was filled with the roar of battle; and
with leaves and twigs from saplings and trees. Next,
the road and woods was filled by the slightly
wounded, and stragglers, who came singly and in
squads, until it seemed as if the whole command was
irretrievably routed.
I was not long in deciding that my point of
observation ought to be further to the rear, but I was
determined to not add to the panic by any exhibition
of haste! But as I now write after the lapse of forty
years since the date of that battle, several of which
often placed me in positions of greater danger, I
never felt more like hurrying in my life. My pride in
making a show of courage, which I was far from
feeling; and in setting a good example to others;
enabled me to ride at a moderate pace till I had
passed to the front of Hovey’s disorganized men.
Lt. Gen. John C.
Pemberton
Department of Mississippi
and West Louisiana
Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant
Army of the Tennessee

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At the foot of the hill in the open ground I met
Gen. Grant and told him precisely what I had just
witnessed –that Hovey’s division was destroyed for
the time being- and would soon come over the brow
of the hill, with very little show of military formation.
Turning to McPherson, who just then rode up, Grant
said: “Cadwallader reports that Hovey is being driven
back.” McPherson replied that he also had just been
informed of it. Grant spoke up with great quickness:
“Then I would move Quimby into line here, and
pointing with his finger said: I would place a battery
here, and another there.
These dispositions were made just as Hovey’s
stampeding men poured over the crest. Hovey’s
troops were passed through the ranks of Quinby’s
brigade, reformed in its rear, and returned valiantly
to the encounter which continued for at least two
hours. As the rebels emerged from the timber in
pursuit of Hovey the two batteries so opportunely
posted, opened fire and staggered them back. Quinby
started up the slope bearing to the right, and Hovey
soon advanced along the line of his previous march
and flight. Logan passed the north end of the ridge
and turned southward. Crocker’s division came into
line between Hovey’s right and Logan’s left, when the
real battle began….
Impressions of great events recorded at the time
are often of more value than after reflections and
philosophizing. For this reason I append a few
extracts from a letter written by me that evening to
my wife in Milwaukee, Wisconsin:
“Champion’s Hill
18 miles east of Vicksburg
May 16, 1863
…We have had another terrific battle. Though not
so stupendous as some, not so many troops being
engaged, it has been as hotly contested as any could
be. The rattle of musketry was incessant for hours.

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be. The rattle of musketry was incessant for hours.
Cannons thundered till the heavens seemed bursting.
Dead men, and wounded, lay strewed everywhere. I
have been riding day and night throughout this
campaign. The army is absolutely nomadic. We
march and fight alternately. I find it impossible to get
a list of the killed, for “dead men tell no tales.” And
in these cases no one tells for them. Missing, means
dead in this army. My heart sickens at the suspense
many families must suffer. I saw Col. Gab Bouck and
Lieut. Col. Beall of the 18th Wisconsin, after today’s
fighting. No officer in that regiment is killed or
wounded. Col. Gill’s regiment (29th Wis.) was in the
battle. Don’t know how it fared. Publish these items
of information in the Milwaukee Daily News, on
account of the families interested. I promised to write
for them, but this publication will be better. Gen.
Grant has defeated Pemberton today quite badly.
Vicksburg must fall now. I think a week may find us
in possession – it may take longer, but the end will
be the same…”
Cadwallader Coins Battle as Champion’s Hill.
When the battle of Champion’s Hill was over, I sat down to write my account
of it for publication. Joseph B. McCullah, then correspondent of the Cincinnati
Commercial and after editor of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, consulted me as
to the best name to give it in our dispatches. We expected to transmit the first
newspaper accounts from the field, and concluded that it would be permanently
fixed in the public mind by any suitable name which we should use in concert.
We agreed at once upon the name and dated our letters from “Champion’s
Hill.”
Historic Source: Three Years With GRANT by Sylvanus Cadwallader, edited
by Benjamin P. Thomas with an Introduction by Brooks D. Simpson. Copyright
1955 by Benjamin P. Thomas. Copyright renewed in 1983 by Salome K.
Thomas. Published by Knopf, Inc. with Introduction to the Bison Book Edition,

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1996, University of Nebraska Press. New and used copies of the book can be
ordered through Amazon.com.
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