81st Illinois Infantry

Lieut. Col. Franklin Campbell, Eighty-first Illinois Infantry
HDQRS. EIGHTY-FIRST REGIMENT ILLINOIS VOLUNTEERS,
Vicksburg, Miss.
July 9, 1863.

SIR: In compliance with your order directed to me, dated July 7,1863, I have the honor to report that on May 12 we met the enemy in a ravine, about 1 mile south of Raymond. The Third Brigade was thrown out on the right and formed in line of battle, the Eighty-first Regiment being placed on the left of the brigade, and in this position we marched forward through almost impenetrable brushwood and undergrowth. We met the enemy in the bottom of the ravine and drove them, after a short and spirited fight of thirty minutes. The enemy retreated and reformed on the top of the hill in an open field, being protected from our right partly by the intervening timber. My command was marched by the right flank until it came to the opening on the right, where the enemy was discovered to them. Here a sharp fight took place, which lasted some fifty or sixty minutes, and resulted in driving the enemy from the hill, and then commenced the final retreat. My command then marched forward in connection with the remainder of the brigade on the open ground and through the brushwood to the town of Raymond, where we encamped for the night. The utmost coolness and determined bravery was displayed on the occasion of this battle by the men and officers of this regiment, there being but one instance of objectionable conduct---that of Capt. Samuel Pyle, who has since been permitted to resign.

On May 14, after severe marching, our army met the enemy at Jackson, our brigade being deployed in line of battle on the left. My command marched in this position for several miles through mud and rain and almost impenetrable thickets until we came to the town of Jackson. We did not meet the enemy, he having left the field in time to evade our pursuit. We encamped with the remainder of the brigade in the suburbs of the town.

On May 16, we again met the enemy at Champion's Hill, or Baker's Creek, our regiment being on the right of the brigade. In this position we marched through fields and over ditches, fences, through woods, until we met the enemy, under the protection of their batteries, and, while the Eighth Illinois and Thirty-second Ohio charged and took a battery, my command charged another battery still further to the right, and drove it, together with a strong support not less than double our number. After about an hour's hard fighting, we drove them from the field. We were then ordered to fall back. Our skirmishers, with an additional squad of men under the command of Lieutenant Grammer, Company B. brought the batteries taken by our brigade off the field, but were again put in line of battle and pursued the retreating enemy. On May 19, we marched in front of the enemy's works at Vicksburg, and were ordered to support the Third Ohio Battery, which we did under a galling fire of grape, shell, and canister from the enemy.

On the morning of the 20th, we took position near the enemy's works and in support of Bolton's battery.
On May 22, we were ordered to support the Seventh Missouri in an assault upon the enemy's works, which order was partly executed by deploying into line of battle In shot-range of the enemy's guns, and within full view of the enemy behind his intrenchments. At the order to charge, our regiment did support the gallant old Seventh Missouri until the fire became too galling to bear. Colonel Dollins, then in command, gave the order to about-face and march around a point under the protection of the hill. My command came off the field in good order, and was marched into camp, where it reformed and marched back to the field of battle, and there remained until night as a reserve force.

Since May 22, my command has been continually occupied in the various and arduous duties connected with the siege, participating in all the dangers and labors, being the whole time under the fire of the enemy's batteries and sharpshooters. The alacrity and zeal with which both officers and men of my command have ever been ready and willing to perform their duties cannot be too highly commended, and it would be almost invidious to discriminate between the actions of either men or officers in the zealous performance of duty during the late campaign, with the exception of the case previously mentioned.

F. CAMPBELL,
Colonel, Commanding.

Brig. Gen. JOHN D. STEVENSON,
Comdg. Third Brig., Third Div., Seventeenth Army Corps.