"Grant's crown of immortality was won, and the jewel that shone most brightly in it was set
there by the blood of the men of Champion Hills ...... Six thousand blue and gray-coated men were lying there in the woods, dead or wounded, when the last gun of Champion Hills was fired.

Major S. H. M. Byers, Fifth Iowa Infantry

Lt. S. E. M. Underhill
Former British Officer, Reports on Champion Hill Battle Vicksburg Siege

By Sue Burns Moore

In her beautiful Vicksburg home located in the heart of the town, next door to Confederate General Pemberton’s Headquarters in the Willis-Cowan House, Mrs. Emma Balfour, wife of Dr. William T. Balfour, began her diary on Saturday, May 16, 1863, the day of the Battle of Champion Hill, with the words, “All has been uncertainty and suspense.”

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Captain William A. Montgomery’s Company of Mississippi Scouts

By Sue Burns Moore

RECORDS OF EVENTS AND MUSTER ROLL OF
CAPT. MONTGOMERY’S COMPANY OF SCOUTS

     Company Report for Oct. 27, 1862 to June 12, 1863, shows station of company, Camp on Bogue Phalia, Bolivar Co., Miss. Record of Events: “On Friday the 20th day of February lost a small portion of the Company under command of Capt. Herndon, had a skirmish with a small party of Federal troops at the house of Col. F. A. Montgomery, near the Mississippi River in Bolivar County. After skirmishing for about one hour the federals reinforced by several companies from their boats, lying about one mile below; when Capt. H. with his command, fell back in good order. No one was hurt on our side. Federal loss one man killed & two wounded.”

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The Struggle at Champion's Hill

A Terrible Day Which Cost the Confederacy Vicksburg

By P. MITCHELL
Corporal 16th Ohio Battery

The National Tribune, Thursday, August 17, 1899

Of all the campaigns made for the preservation of the Union, it certainly was one of the most important and successful; important, indeed, for at that time the Nation, staggering under the calamities of the Fall and Winter before, felt that the very life of the Republic was in mortal peril, and any reverse to our arms then would have been ruinous to our cause. The year before had been one of blunders at the War Department and of great disasters in the field. The Army of the Potomac had been driven from before Richmond, and from the Rapidan, and had finally been shattered into disheartened fragments on the heights of Fredericksburg. Buell had been forced back from Chattanooga to Nashville. Morgan been compelled to evacuate Cumberland Gap. Sherman had but recently been repulsed with great loss at Haines's Bluffs.

Alexander Geddes and his younger brother, Cyrus M. Geddes, enlisted in the Union Army after President Lincoln called for volunteers.

     During the May 16, 1863, Battle of Champion Hill the brothers fought in the Ninth Division (Brig. Gen. Peter Osterhaus), First Brigade (Col. John Fonda.) Two men from the 118th were killed that day - Capt. Alexander Geddes, age 33, and Lt. Thomas White.

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Information provided by Allan M. Geddes,

great-nephew, Mediapolis, IA.

     Champion Hill, Saturday May 16. 11 o'clock, we were ordered into position on that portion of the line parallel with the railroad. Moved round and found General Stevenson's division hotly engaged. Some of the Alabama regiments had already given back, came into position in a field to the left of the division within six hundred yards of a Yankee battery of Napoleon guns. We fired fifteen or twenty rounds from each gun, but it was hot work. Shot, shell and shrapnel flew thick and fast around us. Here fell Hutchens, killed, and Lumpkin and Anthony mortally wounded.

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I Was There: The Battle of Champion Hill

By Bertha Lewis

A Memorial Poem

 
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Commemorative Medallions  

Sesquicentennial Event

Battle of Champion Hill

May 18, 2013

Medallion Honoring
The Soldiers Who Fought

Medallions are now available for purchase by the public.

Plain Medallions ~ $20

Medallions in presentation boxes or on plastic presentation stands ~ $25

Champion Hill Tours
With Sid Champion V