From here, Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson's task force, made up of the 6th Illinois, 7th Illinois, 2nd Indiana Cavalry, and Battery "K," 1st Illinois Artillery, raided into the Deep South. Using as advanced guard Federals in Confederate uniform and other stratagems, it cut the Mobile and Ohio Railroad at West Point, destroyed the Vicksburg Railroad at Newton Station, and otherwise disrupted Pemberton's measures for defending Vicksburg. It arrived in Federal territory at Baton Rouge on May 3, 1863.