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The Battle of Raymond was fought on May 12, 1863, near Raymond, Mississippi, during the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. The bitter fight pitted elements of Union Army Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee against Confederate forces of Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton's Department of the Mississippi and East Louisiana. The Confederates failed to prevent the Federal troops from reaching the Southern Railroad and isolating Vicksburg, Mississippi, from reinforcement and resupply. During the morning of the 12th, the Confederates enjoyed a two-to-one advantage in numbers, as they faced off across Fourteen Mile Creek against a single Federal brigade. However, as morning turned to noon and the Confederates waited in ambush, the remainder of the Federal division secretly deployed into the fields beside the brigade, giving the Union troops a three to one advantage in numbers and a seven to one advantage in artillery. The ranking Confederate officer, Brig. Gen. John Gregg, attempted to achieve tactical surprise and rout the Federal force as it crossed the creek, but he was in turn tactically surprised and routed from the field by the Union XVII Corps under the command of Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson. The Union casualties at Raymond were 68 killed, 341 wounded, and 37 missing. The Confederate casualties were nearly double: 100 killed, 305 wounded, and 415 captured.〔Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, Chapter 34〕〔Grabau, page 66〕〔OR Series 1 - Volume 24 (Part III) Chapter XXXVI page 638〕 The small battle had an inordinately large impact on the Vicksburg Campaign. Union interdiction of the railroad interrupted Pemberton's attempt to further consolidate his forces and prevented him from linking up with his commanding officer, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. As a result, Pemberton was limited to three options: abandon Vicksburg, withdraw into the city and accept a siege, or fight a meeting engagement against a superior force. Facing conflicting orders from his superiors and open insurrection from his subordinates, Pemberton would be forced into the latter choice on May 16, 1863, at the Battle of Champion Hill. ==Preparations for battle== As part of Pemberton's plan to hold Grant's army in check along a broad front roughly delineated by Fourteen Mile Creek, Pemberton ordered all reinforcements arriving in Jackson, Mississippi, to march to Raymond, 20 miles (30 km) to the southwest. There they would form the left wing of a force superior in size to the Federal army. In Raymond, arriving reinforcements would be supported by Wirt Adams's Cavalry Regiment, which was scouting the roads for indications of a Federal movement towards Jackson. Adams had been ordered by Pemberton to leave his regiment in Raymond and ride to Edwards, Mississippi, 15 miles (24 km) away to organize the assorted cavalry attached to the Confederate main body.〔OR Series 1 - Volume 24 (Part III) Chapter XXXVI page 851〕 However, Adams elected to obey a subsequent order from Confederate Maj. Gen. John S. Bowen instructing him to bring his whole force to Edwards.〔OR Series 1 - Volume 24 (Part III) Chapter XXXVI page 853〕 The Confederate infantry making its way to Raymond by way of the rail and road included Gregg's and Maxey's overstrength brigades from Port Hudson, Louisiana, and William H.T. Walker's and States Rights Gist's brigades from the east. Complicating the journey, however, was Grierson's Raid, which rendered unusable portions of the railroad east of Jackson and about 50 miles (80 km) of track south of Brookhaven, Mississippi. Gregg's men consequently marched all but 85 miles (137 km) of the 200 mile (300 km) journey from Port Hudson to Jackson, arriving on May 9. A second cavalry raid, launched by Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson, cut the railroad just north of Brookhaven, trapping the cars of the Jackson & New Orleans Railroad with General Maxey's brigade too far south to assist in the ensuing battle. After being granted a day of rest on the Pearl River just north of Jackson, Gregg received orders to march to Raymond at first light on May 11. Subsequently, Gregg's brigade arrived in Raymond late in the afternoon, and "dropped to rest as soon as halted."〔Drake, page 25〕 The rest would prove to be a short one. Rather than finding Wirt Adams's cavalry regiment guarding the roads into town, Gregg found the network of roads posted by a five-man detachment of Confederate cavalry and a company of state cavalry.〔OR Series 1 - Volume 24 (Part I) Chapter XXXVI page 736〕 Gregg was forced to picket the roads out of town with his weary infantry. Unbeknownst to anyone in the Confederate army, McPherson's men of the XVII Corps were lurking near Utica, Mississippi, maintaining strict drum and bugle silence and a strong cavalry screen. The two divisions had been inching along the parched ridge road between Utica and Raymond for two days, struggling to maintain proximity to a water source, while the remainder of Grant's army probed north towards the railroad.〔PUSG, page 183 & 194-195〕 Having uncovered Pemberton's main body, Grant ordered McPherson to move his two divisions into Raymond by mid-day May 12.〔PUSG, page 200〕 Rising before daylight, Federal cavalry screening General John Logan's Third Division triggered the alarm from the state cavalry posted on the Utica road almost immediately.〔(T. B. Riggin, Memorial Day Address )〕 Because the roads had not been properly posted, news of the arrival of thousands of Confederate troops in Raymond had spread. Having discovered from the locals that a large Confederate force was waiting just up the road, Logan attempted to deploy the 20th Ohio Infantry into a broad skirmish line and march nearly a mile through the almost impassable tangles. After an hour of stops and starts to straighten the line, and "a great expense of time, breath and strong language," Logan ordered the skirmish line shortened. Around 10 a.m., Logan's second brigade emerged into a small field that bordered Fourteen Mile Creek.〔Dwight〕 Word had reached Gregg that the Federal main body was due south of Edwards, so he estimated that this body of troops must be a raiding party.〔OR Series 1 - Volume 24 (Part III) Chapter XXXVI page 737〕 To much fanfare, he marched his men through the streets of Raymond to meet the threat. Arriving on the hills overlooking Fourteen Mile Creek, he ordered his troops to conceal themselves, then ordered Col. Hiram Granbury, commander of the veteran 7th Texas Infantry Regiment, to send Company A and a portion of Company B to picket the bridge over the creek due to their new Enfield Rifles.〔(Report Of Hiram Granbury )〕 Gregg's plan appears to have been to lure the raiding party into making a rash charge over the bridge to save it from being burned. Once the Federal force was on the Confederate side of the bridge, Gregg's 3,200 men would erupt from their hiding places and drive the Union force into the creek bed where they would be pinned for the slaughter. Gregg watched with anticipation as the Federal skirmish line crossed the field and engaged his pickets. Anticipation turned to surprise, however, when at 10 o'clock the skirmishers halted in the tree line and called up DeGolyer's 8th Michigan Battery Light Artillery to clear the bridge with a few rounds of canister shot. The presence of artillery could only mean one thing: the force occupying the field before him was no mere raiding party, but at least a full Federal brigade. Gregg remained undaunted, and merely altered his plan for attack. His main body would shift to the left, leaving the fields that were now threatened by the federal artillery a mere 500 yards (500 m) away for the safety of the hills above Fourteen Mile Creek. Two large regiments of infantry would launch the ambush when the Federal brigade crossed the creek, while two more large regiments would slip silently through the woods into the rear of the Federal line, capturing the artillery battery and trapping the Union troops in the bed of Fourteen Mile Creek, where they would be forced to surrender. In the heat of preparation, Gregg forgot to inform Pemberton of these plans.〔 Pemberton's plan had been to allow Grant to dictate the focus of the Federal attack. Grant could turn east and attack Raymond, or turn west and attack Edwards. In doing so, Grant's vulnerable rear would be open to attack by whichever force was not engaged.〔OR Series 1 - Volume 24 (Part III) Chapter XXXVI page 861〕 Pemberton had explicitly ordered Gregg not to bring on a general engagement with a larger force, but to withdraw to Jackson in the face of overwhelming odds while Pemberton dealt the Federal army a heavy blow from behind.〔OR Series 1 - Volume 24 (Part III) Chapter XXXVI page 862〕 Technically, Gregg did not feel he was violating that order, because the over-strength Confederate brigade of 3,200 men, with reinforcements on the way, outnumbered the average federal brigade by over 2-to-1 odds. What Gregg could not see, because McPherson was orchestrating his own ambush, was the entire Third Division of McPherson's Corps silently deploying into the field beside the Second Brigade. Knowing that the woods ahead hid a large Confederate force, McPherson began to suspect an ambush. After having his men stack arms, eat lunch, and rest for the fight ahead,〔 he deployed a brigade to the rear for reserves, and posted his left flank with cavalry and his right flank with the 31st Illinois Infantry Regiment and additional cavalry.〔OR Series 1 - Volume 24 (Part III) Chapter XXXVI page 707 & 735〕 The men were just wrapping up lunch when an artillery duel opened up between the Union artillery near Fourteen Mile Creek and Gregg's artillery,〔 which had been called forward by General Gregg to a hilltop 700 yards (600 m) distant.〔OR Series 1 - Volume 24 (Part III) Chapter XXXVI page 747〕 Around noon, McPherson ordered Logan forward.〔OR Series 1 - Volume 24 (Part III) Chapter XXXVI page 711〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Raymond」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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