Battle of Port Gibson

Part of the American Civil War

Date	May 1, 1863
Location	Claiborne County, near Port Gibson, Mississippi Coordinates: 31°57′21″N 91°01′22″W / 31.9557°N 91.0228°W / 31.9557; -91.0228
Result	Union victory

Belligerents

United States (Union)

CSA (Confederacy)

Commanders and leaders

Ulysses S. Grant

John S. Bowen

Units involved

Army of the Tennessee

4 brigades

Strength

2 corps

4 brigades

Casualties and losses

861

787

The Battle of Port Gibson was fought near Port Gibson, Mississippi, on May 1, 1863, between Union and Confederate forces during the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. The Union Army was led by Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and was victorious.

Grant launched his campaign against Vicksburg, Mississippi, in the spring of 1863, starting his army south from Milliken's Bend on the west side of the Mississippi River. He intended to storm Grand Gulf, while his subordinate Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman deceived the main army in Vicksburg by feigning an assault on the Yazoo Bluffs. Grant would then detach the XIII Corps to Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks at Port Hudson, Louisiana, while Sherman hurried to join Grant and James B. McPherson for an inland move against the railroad. The Union fleet, however, failed to silence the Confederate batteries at Grand Gulf. Grant then sailed farther south and began crossing at Bruinsburg, Mississippi, on April 30. Sherman's feint against the Yazoo Bluffs—the Battle of Snyder's Bluff—was a complete success, and only a single Confederate brigade was detached south.

The only Confederate cavalry in the area, Wirt Adams's regiment, had been ordered away to pursue Grierson's raiders, and Maj. Gen. John S. Bowen performed a reconnaissance in force to determine the Grant's intentions. Bowen moved south from Grand Gulf with Green's Brigade and took up a position astride the Rodney road just southwest of Port Gibson near Magnolia Church. A single brigade of reinforcements from Vicksburg under Brig. Gen. Edward D. Tracy arrived later and was posted across the Bruinsburg Road two miles north of Green's position. Baldwin's Brigade arrived later and was positioned in support of Green's Brigade. One-hundred-foot-tall (30 m) hills separated by nearly vertical ravines choked with canebrakes and underbrush rendered Bowen's position tenable, despite the overwhelming Union force heading his way.

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