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rebels,
(so it was said) making us travel five or six miles for nothing,
as it appeared to us.
We did not get to see the great rebel capital as
we wished, as we encamped on the outer side of it. The next morning
we were ordered back toward Vicksburg, and on the 16th came upon
the enemy in full force at Champion Hills, where our regiment
was hotly engaged for five or six hours, losing eight men killed
and fifty-six wounded. Company E lost none killed, but had four
wounded, one of whom has since died – Jacob Beisaker, who was
wounded in the leg, and had to have it amputated. He died on
the hospital boat bound for Memphis. In his death Company E loses
a good soldier, and his widowed mother a noble boy. She has the
sympathies of all the members of the company, and has the consolation
of knowing that he died in a good cause. He was loved and respected
by all his companions in arms, and it seems hard that we had to
part with him.
The battle of Champion Hills will long be remembered
by the old Seventy-Eighth, as well as by a great many others.
The rebel regiment in front of us in the fight was the Forty-Third
Georgia, and its mortality list shows that we done good work.
The rebels were completely routed and demoralized, and fled in
great confusion to the Black river bridge, where they endeavored
to make another stand, but were not given time. Our forces pursued
them early next morning, and made a charge on their works at the
bridge, capturing fifteen hundred prisoners, seventeen pieces
of artillery, and a lot of ammunition, when they made tracks toward
Vicksburg. Our forces were in pursuit as soon as pontoons could
be got across the river; and on the 18th we succeeded in driving
them in behind their forts. Our Brigade remained as a reserve
until the 22d, when we were ordered up to support the charge that
was made that day. But finding that a failure, the next day our
regiment was ordered to the support of a battery, which position
we held until the night of the 25th, when we were ordered to join
the expedition sent out to Mechanicsburg under General Blair.
Finding nothing but a few cavalry, which were soon routed, we
returned by way of Haine's Bluffs, where we remained three or
four days, and then to Vicksburg, where we were doing constant
duty in the rifle-pits until the 22d of June, when we were again
ordered to join an expedition sent out in command of General Sherman
to attend to Johnston, who had been threatening our rear for some
time. We threw up fortifications at a little place called Tiffin,
expecting an attack daily. We had been there but two or three
days when we heard of the great surrender of Vicksburg on the
4th. That night our Brigade was addressed by Colonel Force, commanding,
who gave us a neat little speech.
We could hear the firing all along at Tiffin, and
as it ceased that morning, it was supposed that something of the
kind had taken place, as we knew it could not hold out much longer,
and must eventually fall. After remaining at Tiffin a few days,
we moved to Bovina, on the Vicksburg and Jackson Railroad, remaining
there about a week. We got orders to move toward Jackson, where
we expected to have something to do, as Johnston was reported
there with forty thousand men, and strongly fortified. The first
day's march from Bovina brought us to Champion Hills, where we
encamped on the old
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