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"Grant's crown of immortality was won, and the jewel that shone most brightly in it was set
there by the blood of the men of Champion Hills ...... Six thousand blue and gray-coated men were lying there in the woods, dead or wounded, when the last gun of Champion Hills was fired.

Major S. H. M. Byers, Fifth Iowa Infantry

 













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Battle of Champion Hill

 


"The Hill of Death"
Historic Marker


"THE HILL OF DEATH" read by Edwin C. Bearss, Historian Emeritus, National Park Service

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RECENT ARTICLES

Janesville Daily Gazette
Memoir of Pvt. James Warren
  McPherson, 10th Iowa

Lieut. Col Leonidas Horney
  Killed at Champion Hill

Union Occupies Cook Plantation
  Rebecca Drake & Sue Moore
Diary of Pvt. Arthur McCullough
  Co. D, 81st Ill
Discovering Names & Faces of
  Civil War Soldiers

Fighting for Vicksburg
  B.F. Boring, 30th Ill.
Alvin P. Hovey Reminisces
  Rebecca B. Drake
"Three Years with Grant"
  Sylvanus Cadwallader
Memorial Dedicated at St Albans
  Rebecca B. Drake
America History Tours Visits
  Champion Hill, Oct 2, 2009
Memoirs Historical and Personal
  Ephraim Anderson, 1st Missouri
2009 Anniversary Event
  Rebecca B. Drake
Tilghman Monument Dedication
  Rebecca B. Drake
Five Generations of Sid
 Champions
, Rebecca B. Drake
The Long Road Home
  Pvt. Myron B. Loop
1864 Pywell Photograph
  Big Black River Station
Coker House to be Razed
  Rebecca B. Drake
Administering Last Rites
  Father John Bannon
Maltida Champion: "I was in
  the Cellar During the Fight"
Mary Dabney Ware:
 "Behind Enemy Lines"
Margie's 1960 Scrapbook:
  Charm, Dot & Paul Jones
Battle of Big Black River Bridge
  Rebecca Blackwell Drake
Champion Dedication
  Grady Howell. Jr.
Capt. Samuel Ridley:
 "Bravest of the Brave"
Battle of Champion Hill:
  Killed and Wounded
The Battle of Baker's Creek
  W.T. Moore, Miss Light Artillery
Charles E. Comstock Diary,
  Co G, 34th Indiana
Gen. Cumming's Letter
  to Gen. Stephen D. Lee
Matilda Champion:
  "A Sorrow's Crown of Sorrow"

Vignettes of Champion Hill
  Margie Bearss
Champions of Champion Hill
  Rebecca B. Drake
Diary of William Montgomery:
  Confederate Scout
Will Montgomery: Scout
  Kay Cornelius
Brother Against Brother
  Rebecca B. Drake
History of the 78th Ohio
  Rev. Stevenson, Chaplain
Champion Hills
  Alonzo L. Brown, 4th Minnesota
Battle of Champion Hill
  G. B. McDonald, 30th Illinois
The Death of Gen John Bowen
  Rebecca B. Drake
Lt. William Drennan:
  Letters to His Wife
The Defense of Vicksburg
  Maj. Samuel Lockett
Letters of George B. Boomer
  Mary Boomer Stone
Vivid Experiences
  Pvt. A. H. Reynolds, 19th Ark.


Photography from Anniversary Events

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In Memoriam
Margie Riddle Bearss

October 22, 1925 — October 7, 2006


~ COMMEMORATING ~

150th ANNIVERSARY  
Battle of Champion Hill 

A Day on the

Champion Hill Battlefield

May 18, 2013


Featured Speaker
Bertram Hayes-Davis

Great-great grandson of Jefferson Davis

 

Sponsored by
The Champion Heritage Foundation

 

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Bertram Hayes-Davis
150th Anniversary Event
Featured Speaker

On May 18, 2013, the Champion Heritage Foundation will host an all-day event to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Champion Hill. Bertram Hayes-Davis, the great-great grandson of the president of the Confederate States, Jefferson Davis, has been named as event speaker.

"Having Bertram Hayes-Davis accept the Champion Heritage Foundation’s invitation to speak at Champion Hill was exciting for me," said Rebecca Blackwell Drake, local author and historian who has worked for battlefield preservation in Mississippi since 1999. "The 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Champion Hill calls for a special commemoration and we could think of nothing better than to have Bertram Hayes-Davis as speaker."

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Historic Headstone Set
at Champion Hill

By Rebecca Blackwell Drake

 

Early on the morning of December 12, 2012, trucks and cars began pulling onto Midway Station road, located on the Champion family property. The guests had come to witness the setting of a long overdue headstone for Lula Johnson Townsend, turn of the century matriarch of the Champion Hill community. A light frost covered the ground, casting a shimmering beauty throughout the woods.

The vehicles maneuvered the sunken roadbed before parking in view of an 1840s cemetery. The burial site, accentuated by broken headstones scattered amidst the fallen leaves, held the remains of those who had passed away long ago.

The last vehicle to pull through the gate and up to the cemetery was a company truck from Yazoo City. The truck’s precious cargo was a newly inscribed headstone for Lula Townsend who was born at Champion Hill in 1878, one year after the close of the Reconstruction Era, and lived at Champion Hill until her death in 1958. She was widely recognized as a “mover and shaker” in the black community.

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Letters of Pvt. Ackless W. Geeslin
to his wife, Mary Ann

22nd Iowa Infantry

 

May 16 Three miles west of Raymond I have had no opportunity of sending my letter out yet so I will write some more. I am still well and hearty. Good news. Jackson is ours, the Capitol of the state. O’ we are playing smash down here. I tell you the poor rebs have got perfectly scared and just as soon as we open on them they run. We have tore up their R.R. for miles. Their troops can neither get to nor from Vicksburg.

 

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Gen. Bowen's Wife in Raymond

By Rebecca Blackwell Drake

 

In 1862, when the War came to Mississippi, one of the Confederate officers assigned to protect the Big Black River railroad bridge between Edwards and Bovina was Brig. Gen. John S. Bowen, commander of the First Missouri Regiment. Accompanying Bowen to Mississippi was his pregnant wife, Mary Kennerly Bowen of St. Louis. She refused to be separated from her husband. When Bowen left St. Louis to enter the war, Mary was by his side, leaving their two small children, Menard Kennerly (age seven) and Anna, (age two), at the family home to be cared for by Mary’s mother.

General Bowen received his first real taste of war on April 6, 1862, when, during the battle of Shiloh, he had two horses shot from under him and was severely wounded. Mary accompanied him to Memphis where he was hospitalized until early May. Bowen rejoined his regiment at Corinth and was soon ordered to Vicksburg to defend the city from naval attacks.

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Commemorative Medallions
to be Awarded
to Descendants of Soldiers Who Fought
 

During the opening ceremonies commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Champion Hill, commemorative medallions will be awarded to the descendants of those who fought.

To receive honorary medallion, honorees must apply online and the family member(s) must be present. Rebecca Drake and Sid Champion V, the great-great grandson of Sid and Matilda Champion, will present the medals. The medallions will also be sold to the public with all proceeds going to further interpret the Champion Hill battlefield.

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Late Medallion
Registration

 

Registration to receive

an honorary medallion at the main ceremony is closed. Late requests are still being accepted and will be awarded at 5:00 p.m. ceremony on the Champion Hill M.B. Church grounds.

 


Directions to the 150th Event
Champion Hill MB Church

Take I-20 to Exit 27, Bolton.
Go south 0.8 miles to a 4-way stop in the heart of town. Then continue straight for 0.2 miles over the railroad tracks to the first street on the right. Turn right on Champion Hill Road for 4 miles. The Champion Hill MB Church is on the left. There should be signs of cars and activity on the roadside.

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Champion Hill Tours
With Sid Champion V

Tour Champion Hill with Sid J. Champion (Sid V), the great-great-grandson of Sid and Matilda Champion.

  • The Cross Roads

  • Old Jackson Road

  • The Hill of Death

  • Original House Site and Historic Marker

  • Midway Station

  • Family Cemetery and Memorabilia

  • Margie Bearss Memorial

$50 per person (minimum of 2)  Call 601-316-4894

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 and tourists comments>

 

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NEW

LEAVES
The Diary of Elizabeth Meade Ingraham

The Rebel Sister of
General George Meade

By Rebecca B. Drake & Sue B. Moore

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Collected Stories of the Vicksburg Campaign

By Rebecca Drake and Margie Bearss

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Darwina's Diary: A View of Champion Hill ~ 1865
Edited By
Rebecca Drake and Margie Bearss

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My Dear Wife ~
Letters to Matilda

The Civil War Letters of Sid and Matilda Champion

By Rebecca Drake and Margie Bearss

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