Bledsoe's Battery

Anticipating an enemy approach to Raymond from both roads, Confederate General Gregg placed Capt. Hiram Bledsoe’s battery of three cannon and a battalion of infantry here to defend the town from either direction. On May 12, however, the main action developed along the Utica Road near the bridge, toward which these guns are aimed. Working with Confederate skirmishers along Fourteenmile Creek, the battery opened fire on the first Federal troops approaching the creek about a thousand yards to the south. It then fought an inconclusive all-day duel against a larger battery of twenty-two cannons nearly a mile south, during which one of the guns exploded. Gregg may have used this high ground as a vantage point to watch the battle, but smoke and haze kept him from judging the size and strength of the Union forces. The battery consisted of two 12-pounder cannons and a rare breech-loading English-made Whitworth rifled cannon.

Mississippi · United States