(Editor's Note: There were numerous battles up and down the line today that deserve volumes of commentary. However, my focus will be on the Union assault on the Railroad Redoubt. That is where the 130th Illinois Infantry was at.)
The Railroad Redoubt was a Confederate earthen fortification built to protect a vital entrance to Vicksburg - the Southern Railroad. The tracks ran east from Vicksburg to Jackson, and then to the rest of the South.
The morning weather was clear and calm. But at
eight o'clock the Union artillery opened all along the lines. Additionally, the gunboats on the river began their barrage of the city. It's estimated that at least 800 Federal cannons were firing non-stop between eight and twelve o'clock.
At ten o'clock the entire line was
ordered to charge the rebel works with bayonets fixed. Landram's brigade, which included the 130th Illinois and 77th Illinois regiments was drawn
up in line of battle just behind the brow of a hill over which their charge was
to be made. On the next hill was the Railroad Redoubt. Between the two hills was a deep ravine filled with fallen timber
and thick undergrowth of brush, brambles and cane.
The two hours of cannonading had breached the point of the Railroad Redoubt and partially filled the ditch in front with earth.
The two hours of cannonading had breached the point of the Railroad Redoubt and partially filled the ditch in front with earth.
(Editor's Note: I visited the Railroad Redoubt in September of 2011 and posted some pictures in this album. The pictures don't do the Railroad Redoubt justice. The terrain was much more severe than it it looks: https://picasaweb.google.com/112427832012627024688/20110918CivilWarSites#)
At ten o'clock the order was given to move forward and the men of the 130th, along with the other regiments, moved up and over the brow of the hill. As they crested the brow of the hill they were greeted with a hail storm of muskets and shells from the left, right and front.
They continued down into the ravine filled with fallen
timber and brush, and started up the other side. Still under a tremendous Confederate fire, the Union troops were falling all around. As one soldier in the 77th noted:
Still up the hill we pressed, through the brambles and brush, over the dead and dying -- up, up we struggled, over logs, into ditches, clinging here to a bush to keep from falling backwards, and there to a thorny bramble -- oh! that was an half hour which may God grant we shall not be called upon to experience its like again.
The 77th and 130th were part of Landram's brigade. They were in reserve, and followed Lawler's brigade toward the Railroad Redoubt. Two regiments of Lawlor's brigade, the 21st and 22nd Iowa, charged up the hill and gained the ditch in front of the fort. Sergeant Joseph Griffith, with a small party, entered the works and engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Nearly all of Griffith's men were killed.
The fort was a double work, with a separate inside chamber. The Confederates fell back to the stronger position, rallied, and attacked. The Iowa troops were unable to hold the fort, though the flag of the 22nd waved over the parapet for the rest of the day.
About this same time, the 77th Illinois reached the fort. They were out of breath and had only a portion of their original numbers from just 30 minutes earlier. A dash was made for the fort and some of the men from the 77th went over into the ditch in front of the fort and a few got through a breach in the works.
As the southerners charged from the rear of the fort, the 77th Illinois regiment planted their flag upon the rampart. Fifteen or twenty minutes after reaching the fort, the 48th Ohio and 130th Illinois came to the support of the 77th Illinois. The flag of the 130th Illinois was planted within about 10 feet of the fort. The battle then raged on the rest of the day.
Nearly half the men of the 77th Illinois were either killed or wounded, and all were exhausted from the day's fight. At about six o'clock, the enemy rallied, made a rush with fixed bayonets, and for a few seconds appeared to have the upper hand. The men of the 77th fell back in confusion, but only about 12 feet. Then Colonel Grier, Lieutenant Colonel Webb and Major Hotchkiss of the 77th, and Colonel Niles of the 130th, waved their swords and rallied their men who opened upon the enemy and by a brilliant charge drove them back.
By nightfall, the Union assault had failed up and down the entire line. In fact, the Railroad Redoubt was the only portion of the Confederate line that was breached and occupied by Union soldiers today. Tonight the the Union troops fell back to their original position and prepared for the siege.
Nine soldiers from the 130th Illinois Infantry were killed in today's assault:
Recruit Henry B. Drake, Company E, Greenville
Private William Jones, Company C, Cairo
Private Charles Beverly, Company D, Blueville
Private David Jessup, Company D, Buckhart
Private Peter P. Peters, Company D, Blueville
Private William H. Balch, Company E, Greenville
Private John W. Davis, Company F, Bond County
Captain William M. Colby, Company F, Greenville
Private Thomas W. Hynes, Jr., Company F, Greenville
