At Champion's Hill, Major General John A. Logan found General Hovey's command drawn up in line of battle with the enemy discovered in force on a high ridge and well supported by artillery. The Eighth Michigan Battery under Captain DeGolyer had been placed two hundred yards in rear of General Leggett, Company D, First Illinois Light Artillery under Captain Rogers occupied the right of General Smith, and the Third Ohio Battery under Captain Williams formed on a commanding ridge in rear of Logan's lines as a reserve. A soldier of the 30th Illinois Infantry recalled maneuvering all forenoon before taking position in an open cornfield on a sloping sandy hillside under intense heat, then seeing DeGolyer's battery rush into the field behind them with six cannon, twelve wagons, and forty-eight horses, unlimber, wheel into position, and open fire on Confederate forces in the woods beyond an old rail fence. He remembered the cannonade passing so low and close that men lying near the guns suffered dizziness and vomiting, while hot lead butts from percussion shells and scalding black residue from the guns added to the danger and discomfort.
