Saturday, May 16, 1863

General A. J. Smith's Division, which included the 130th Illinois Infantry, arose early this morning, and started on the march at sunrise.  They turned about again and passed through Raymond and took a road leading in a northwesterly direction.

At 8 o'clock they encountered the enemy at Champion Hill.  The battle began almost immediately, and quickly escalated.  Like most civil war battles, the skirmishers from each side were the first to be engaged, and then the intensity escalated as the opposing forces organized and moved into position.

Smith's division was on the left, while General Osterhaus' division was to their immediate right.  General Hovey was in the center, and General McPherson's 17th Army Corps were on the far right.  Behind these were the reserves, soldiers under the command of Generals Blair, Carr and Crocker.

Smith and Blair's Divisions took the road that ran to the south of the elevation, and they found very little resistance. The country on both sides the road was either cultivated fields or open timber. So the advance was unobstructed by thick underbrush or ravines. The rebels did not seem to be in strong force in their front, and so the advance was orderly.  Every regiment had its flag unfurled and banner flying, and they all moved forward in a stately manner. This was the "pomp and circumstance of war" without its horrors. But heavy firing off to the right indicated others were not fairing so well. That was the battle of Champion's Hill, an elevation that commanded the whole region.

On the roads to the north, Carr, Osterhaus and Hovey's divisions came into heavy action as they met the enemy in force. For two hours the heavy fire of the Union batteries flew towards the Confederate troops in the depths of the forest. The Confederates first tried to turn the Union forces on the right. Failing that, they turned their attention to the center, massing their forces against Hovey's division.  After a desperate, hard-fought battle of four hours, the Confederate army began to retreat.

The Union troops, without waiting to reform, fixed their bayonets and charged into the dense forest after the retreating southerners.  The rebel troops were surprised and went into a panic.  In this charge men were slaughtered without mercy.  The ground was covered with the dead and dying.  The rebels scattered in every direction and hurried to join the main Confederate force retreating towards Vicksburg.

At three o'clock in the afternoon the battle of Champion Hill was over.

The Confederates sustained overwhelming defeat, losing nearly 6,000 in killed, wounded and missing.  The entire Union loss today was 429 killed, 1,842 wounded and 189 missing.  That night the Union force and the men of the 130th Illinois Infantry again slept on their arms.