A Battle Unfolds

During the battle, smoke and dust clouds hung motionless near the ground all day, limiting Maj. Gen. James McPherson’s view from this vantage point, though he could make out a skirmish line along Fourteenmile Creek at the bridge, the Confederate battle line beyond, and additional forces on the Gallatin Road to the right. Sgt. S.H.M. Byers of the 5th Iowa recalled country roads choked with dust up to the shoe tops, a yellow atmosphere, and distant columns traced by their dust. The Confederates planned to push the Federals against a bend in Fourteenmile Creek, waited at the bridge, placed artillery with three cannon, and posted regiments on the Gallatin Road to strike the Union right and rear as part of General Gregg’s trap. The Union army approached Raymond from its overnight encampment around Roach’s plantation, nine miles south, and the ridge became known as McGavock’s Ridge after Col. Randall McGavock, CSA, a former mayor of Nashville, Tennessee, was killed in the action.

Mississippi · United States