CHAPTER XI.
SOUTH CAROLINA TROOPS IN MISSISSIPPI—ENGAGEMENT NEAR JACKSON—THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN—SIEGE OF JACKSON.
On May 2d the secretary of war telegraphed General Beauregard as follows: "Advices show the enemy abandoning their attack on the eastern coasts and concentrating great forces on the Mississippi. Send with utmost dispatch 8,000 or 10,000 men to General Pemberton's relief." General Beauregard replied that he had returned to North Carolina Cooke's and Clingman's brigades, but would send at once 5,000 men and two light batteries to General Pemberton's relief. He added that he would then have left only 10,000 infantry available for the defense of South Carolina and Georgia, and if he sent more troops to Pemberton, he would lose command of the Savannah railroad. This satisfied the secretary, and on the 4th he telegraphed General Beauregard to hurry the 5,000 troops on as soon as possible.
Accordingly, orders were issued, assigning Brig.-Gens. S. R. Gist and W. H. T. Walker to the command of brigades, with a light battery attached to each, and directing them to report to General Pemberton. These two brigades were composed of Georgia and South Carolina troops, the Fourth Louisiana battalion being attached to Walker's brigade.
By General Beauregard's order of May 4, 1863, the command of Carolinians and Georgians known in the Western army as Gist's brigade was duly formed. The following was its composition: Sixteenth South Carolina, Col. James McCullough; Twenty-fourth South Carolina, Col. C. H. Stevens; Eighth Georgia battalion, Capt. Z. L. Watters; Forty-sixth Georgia, Col. P. H. Colquitt; Ferguson's battery, Capt. T. B. Ferguson.
On the 5th, General Beauregard telegraphed General Pemberton that he would send two brigades of his best troops, and requested that they be kept together under General Gist. On the 6th, the first of Gist's troops, five companies of the Forty-sixth Georgia, under Col. P. H. Colquitt, and the Twenty-fourth South Carolina, under Lieut.-Col. Ellison Capers (Col. C. H. Stevens remaining to bring on the stores of the regiment), left Charleston for Jackson, Miss., by way of Atlanta, Montgomery, Selma and Meridian. Delayed on the way, these commands reached Jackson on the evening of May 13th, and went into bivouac near the depot, with orders to be ready to march out on the Clinton road at dawn next day. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston reached Jackson by the same train.
The situation was most critical in Mississippi. General Grant's army was thrown between Jackson and Vicksburg, holding the railroad at Clinton, where McPherson's corps was encamped. Sherman's corps was between Jackson and Raymond, McClernand's in supporting distance. General Pemberton, with 17,000 men, was at Edwards depot and marching to give battle. General Johnston did not have exceeding 6,000 men in and about Jackson. The three corps of General Grant numbered about 45,000 effectives.
It was easy to beat Johnston at Jackson before Pemberton could possibly come to his aid, as the latter had only reached Edwards on the 13th, and formed for defensive battle at that point. Clinton was 8 miles from Jackson, and Edwards was distant 25 miles, so that Grant was between Pemberton and Johnston, 25 miles from the former and 8 miles from the latter. This was the situation on the night of the 13th of May. McPherson advanced upon Jackson early on the 14th, on the Clinton road, and Sherman at the same time, on the Raymond and Mississippi Springs road, both corps converging on Jackson, while Pemberton was in line of battle at Edwards, and General Grant's cavalry was demonstrating in his front to keep up a show of attack. To check McPherson and Sherman while valuable stores were being removed from Jackson toward Canton, General Johnston sent the troops he could command out on the roads leading to Clinton and Raymond.