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"Grant's crown of immortality was won, and the jewel that shone most brightly in it was set
Major S. H. M. Byers, Fifth Iowa Infantry | ||
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"The Hill of Death" "THE HILL OF DEATH" read by Edwin C. Bearss, Historian Emeritus, National Park Service
Margie Bearss'
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~ COMMEMORATING ~ 150th ANNIVERSARY
A Day on the Champion Hill Battlefield May 18, 2013
Great-great grandson of Jefferson Davis
Sponsored by Headstone Unearthed at Champion Hill By Rebecca B. Drake
"I could see the writing on the broken headstone," said Gloria "and all I could do was to holler, 'Lord have mercy.' I was blown away." Realizing that she had unearthed a stone relevant to Champion Hill, she contacted Sid Champion V, also a property owner at Champion Hill as well as a professional battlefield tour guide. The public reaction was immediate. Champion called WJTV to come out and film the 'find' and the footage was seen that night on the local news. Pvt. James Warren McPherson 10th Iowa Infantry E xcerpt is from the memoirs of Pvt. James Warren McPherson written in 1920 when he was seventy-eight years old.
So we were now ordered into the battle of Champion Hill, our regiment on the left of the line 80 rods [1/4 mile] up a hill and commenced firing. I could not see anyone, but I soon found we had a large force of Rebels in our front and they were pouring the lead into our ranks men were dropping all around us. Nine were killed out of our Co.
Janesville Daily Gazette Champion Hill Battle Field Tuesday, May 26, 1863
Early this morning Gen. McClernand’s corps was put in motion. Gen. Hovey’s division was on the main road from Jackson to Vicksburg, but the balance of the corps was a few miles to the southward. On a parallel road, Gen. McPherson’s corps followed Hovey’s division closely.
~ A Photographic Journey ~ A Day at Champion Hill
May 14, 2011
Photography by Rik Hall
Mannequin Display Featured at By Rebecca B. Drake
Bertha Lewis,
a native of Bolton, designed and created As the crowd gathered on May 14th to commemorate the 148th Anniversary of the Battle of Champion Hill, they were delighted to find life-sized mannequins situated around the Champion Hill MB Church grounds. The display featured images of the Champion family prior to the war as well as an exquisite mannequin of the diarist Darwina Loud, a Freedman school teacher who came from Pennsylvania in 1864 to help teach the newly-freed Slaves to read and write.
What a 30th Illinois Boy Experienced in
"Our part of the line seemed to monkey or maneuver all forenoon, and finally took position in an open cornfield, on a sloping, sandy hillside, where the burning rays of a Mississippi sun had a fair sweep at us."
The two armies camped on the night of May 15 in close proximity. The pickets were very active, and their firing was brisk all night, and as the dawn of the 16th approached, clear and hot, the clatter of the picket-line soon swelled into the road of the battle. We were now fighting a new foe, Pemberton instead of Johnston, with Johnston somewhere in our rear, likely at any moment to open upon us. It soon developed that that the heat of the battle was to the left of us, and in front of Gen. Hovey’s Division. |
Champion Hill
Tours
Tour Champion Hill with Sid J. Champion (Sid V), the great-great-grandson of Sid and Matilda Champion.
$50 per person (minimum of 2) Call 601-316-4894
<click for more
LEAVES
The Rebel Sister of By Rebecca B. Drake & Sue B. Moore
Collected Stories of the Vicksburg Campaign
By Rebecca Drake and Margie Bearss
Darwina's Diary: A
View of Champion Hill ~ 1865
My Dear Wife ~ The Civil War Letters of Sid and Matilda Champion By Rebecca Drake and Margie Bearss
In Memoriam October 22, 1925 — October 7, 2006
Photography from Anniversary Events
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RECENT ARTICLES
Now In Audio 
Bertram Hayes-Davis
During
the month of March, Gloria Bailey, battlefield property owner, hired
someone to till her land to make way for her spring garden. The result
of the tilling produced the unexpected – an old headstone marked "Sacred
to the Memory of Sarah Roberts, wife of Isaac Roberts" was found beneath
the soil. 
Two days brought us to Champion Hill.
Hovey’s Div. had been fighting all the morning, and we met them on the
run. Just a short time before we went into the fight, we had halted for
a spell and Gen Grant and Gen McPherson rode up and I heard them
talking. McPherson said we are in for a fight, we were drawn up in line
and our Captain said now boys if anyone don’t want to go in this you can
fall out but no one stepped out, but as sick as I was I had better been
in bed.
The federal army under Gen. Grant has won another glorious victory. A furious battle, lasting nearly five hours, has resulted in the defeat of the enemy at all points, with the loss of from two to three thousand killed and wounded, three complete batteries heavy rifled cannon, besides several single pieces, and from 1,500 to 2,000 prisoners in our hands, and an immense quantity of small arms and camp equipage. Our success is signal and complete. Nothing mars the intense satisfaction of officers and men but the heavy sacrifice of life by which it was achieved.
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