The Union Army's objective was Port Gibson, the most important town in that vicinity and located on Bayou Pierre. The Union troops were on the southern side of this stream. The Confederate commander at Grand Gulf, after watching the Union movements down the river, took steps to halt their advance.
To reach them, the Confederate Grand Gulf garrison had to cross the bayou. As the water was high, they had to go far out of their way to the only bridge in the vicinity - the one at Port Gibson. The Union troops hoped to secure the bridge before the arrival of the Confederates. And, the Confederates hoped to meet the invading force at or very near their landing in Bruinsburg. But neither side had its wish granted. The Confederates reached the bridge at Port Gibson, crossed over it and pushed five miles toward Bruinsburg.
At two o'clock this morning, the advance troops of each Army met, and light skirmishes continued throughout the night. At daylight General McClernand reconnoitered the position. The Confederate commander had positioned a large body of troops in the ravines with heavy timber and cane. General McClernand deployed his men and attacked.
A Confederate battery placed upon a hill was annoying the Union troops. Union artillery was quickly set up and the battle of Magnolia Hills began. The Confederates had stationed another battery near Magnolia Church, and there a furious fight continued for some time, with a large number of soldiers on both sides killed or wounded.
The 130th Illinois Infantry was not at the front of the column, nor involved in the early fighting. But soon they began to move forward. Just before starting on the march each man received a little whiskey in his canteen. The regiment had never been in battle, and it was not known if the whiskey was meant to give them extra courage or if the enforced march required stimulants. Whatever the intentions might have been, no good came from the whiskey, and before night several in the regiment were foolishly drunk.
As the sun began to rise, the Illinois boys started off at a brisk pace. For two miles the road ran through the river bottom, then up a long hill of red clay, next by quiet farmhouses and cultivated fields, through pretty wooded groves and up quiet lanes, all bearing the marks of peace, and resting in supposed security from the inroads of invading armies.
The boom of cannon could be heard, and after awhile the rattle of musketry. This excited the men from the 130th, and they marched faster. As the morning advanced it became very warm and many threw away knapsacks, overcoats and anything and everything that impeded progress toward the sounds of battle in front.
Around noon the regiment passed a field hospital along the roadside. A soldier with his arm in the sling, and bright blood oozing through the bandages over a wound on his breast, came and stood by the road and watched the soldiers marching forward. That was the first blood seen by the soldiers, that was caused by a Confederate bullet.
Further down the road they saw fences thrown down, corn fields tracked over, and everything trampled upon - signs that large bodies of men had been deployed and advanced over that ground earlier in the day. A little further ahead they came across broken wheels and dismounted cannons, and now and then a dead soldier or horse, which showed that the advance of the Federals had met with resistance.
Next the road ran down a hill and into the timber. The 130th was ordered to take a short break, make some coffee and have dinner, and then move to the front. After dinner, the knapsacks were piled up and left in care of a guard, and then the command turned to the left of the main road, passed forward through corn fields, and, at last, halted a little way from the top of, and partly down a hill, in a field of growing corn.
Two hundred yards in front of the regiment was a cane-brake and thick timber. The men were resting quietly, facing the cane-brake, when all at once without warning, a volley of bullets struck the ground all around them. Amazingly, only one man was wounded, and it was a minor hand injury.
The volley came from the woods in front of them, and the brigade battery was brought to the top of the hill and was soon throwing grape and canister over the heads of the regiment and into the dense timber.
After a long day of fighting, the Confederates were driven back with considerable loss. Just before nightfall a small force made a stand just two miles from Port Gibson, while the main army retreated. As the last Confederate troops withdrew beyond Bayou Pierre, they burned the bridge behind them.
The Federal troops were told to sleep on their arms, with orders to renew the conflict early in the morning. When morning came, however, it was found there was no enemy near.
And so the men of the 130th Illinois Infantry experienced their first day in battle. They were thankful it was over, but this night would not be a pleasant one. Their knapsacks and blankets had been left behind. Even in the warmest weather, the nights are cool. The men suffered much discomfort due to their lack of covering.
Charles Johnson remembered that first night...
Under the circumstances sleep was broken, and in wakeful hours my mind naturally dwelt upon the horrible in the previous day's history. Thoughts something as follows had free course through my brain: "Well, our regiment for six months has been wanting to be in a battle, and now it's been in one, and not a hard one either; but there is probably not a man but next time will cheerfully take some other fellow's word for it and stay out himself, if he can do so honorably. Then those dead fellows were lying beside the road just like they were slaughtered hogs or sheep! And besides, how piteously the wounded moaned, and how horrible their poor maimed limbs and gaping wounds looked. There may be lots of glory in war, but it isn't so radiant nor very apparent at about 1 o'clock the next morning after a battle."
