On the morning of May 16, 1863, Confederate cannon on this ridge opened an artillery duel with Union guns nearly a mile east on the Raymond-Edwards Road. By late afternoon, repeated Union assaults forced Confederate positions north of here to give ground, threatening to cut off and trap the Confederate army. Ordered to defend the Confederate line of retreat, Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman directed the guns to move westward along the ridge to buy time for the army to withdraw. Union gunners soon occupied this position, dropped trails, and the duel continued. Tilghman was killed by a Union shell, but the delaying action allowed most of the Confederate army to retreat. Company G, 1st Mississippi Light Artillery, held this position for most of the battle before moving west to cover the retreat and later fought in the Siege of Vicksburg. The Chicago Mercantile Battery, one of two Union artillery units in the Coker House yard during the latter half of the battle, was an elite battery sponsored by Chicago businessmen, and Corporal Charles R. Haseltine later recalled that prisoners said the final shot had passed through Tilghman and killed the horse behind him.
