The Coker House

"Besides the land, the Coker House is one of the few surviving features associated with the battle of Champion Hill - the decisive engagement in the Vicksburg Campaign."
                                                                                   Edwin C. Bearss

Used as a Union hospital following the Battle of Champion Hill, the Coker House, built around 1852,  is one of the few existing structures associated with the Champion Hill battlefield. Hiawatha, the Confederate hospital was located less than a mile west of the Coker House.

Located on Cotton Hill, three miles southeast of Edwards, Mississippi, the Coker House is known for its role in the Civil War. H. B. Coker, a noted citizen and planter, built the one-story Greek Revival house around 1852. It is typical of the style of house occupied by wealthy people of this area in antebellum days.

The site on which the Coker House stands is adjacent to a south portion of the Champion HIll battlefield, one of the most important battles of the Civil War. Indeed, several military historians have concluded that Champion Hill was the most significant battle of the war. Of the battle, British Maj. Gen. J. F. C. Fuller wrote, "The drums of Champion's Hill sounded the doom of Richmond."  Three Confederate divisions commanded by Lt. General John C. Pemberton met Federal troops led by General Ulysses S. Grant at this site on May 16, 1863. It was a bloody, day-long battle during which tactical advantage shifted numerous times. Ultimately, the Confederate forces retreated while Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman defended their escape route across Baker's Creek. The Coker House was used as a hospital by Federal forces and upon departing, they extensively looted both the house and the plantation stores. Bullet holes in the front door and jamb and cannon ball holes on the west side of the Coker House remain as evidence of the Battle of Champion Hill.

The Coker House, sold to the Gervin Family in 1932, was later purchased by Cal-Main Foods, Fred Adams, president, who in turn donated the historic property to the Jackson Civil War Roundtable in 1985. The house was later deeded to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.  Presently the house is in ruins and its future history on the Champion Hill battlefield is unknown.

Historical sources: Confederate Veteran, Sept. 1910, and a 1907 document presented to the Jackson Civil War Roundtable by Mrs. Louise Gervin Windham, whose family purchased the property in 1932.

The Death of Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman
by
J. G. Spencer
Cowan's Battery, First Mississippi Light Artillery

Photograph circa 1907 at the dedication of the monument to Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman on the Champion Hill Battlefield. The site is located near the Coker House. Kneeling to the right is one of General Tilghman's sons who spearheaded the memorials - both at Champion Hill and the Vicksburg Military Park. Mrs. Sidney Champion, plantation owner, is pictured to the left of the monument.                                                                                                                                               Mississippi Department of Archives and History

 

Vicksburg, Mississippi, November 25th, 1907, I have this day marked the place where General Lloyd Tilghman was killed in the battle of Champion Hill, May 16th, 1863, by driving an iron pipe into the ground. Said pipe was driven on the ridge first west of the one on which the old Coker House stands and about fifty feet north of the center line of the Raymond Road. I know that the location made is accurate for the following reasons, namely: At the time of the battle I was a private in Capt. Cowan's batter (G, First Mississippi Light Artillery). During the forenoon of the day of the battle, my battery had been in position on the Coker House ridge, but not engaged. About 2 or 2:30 o'clock in the afternoon it was ordered to fall back to the next ridge to the west, the first section went into position on the north side of the road. In taking the new position we were under fire of the Union Sharpshooters and by the time our guns were placed, a Union Battery went into position on the Coker House ridge. General Tilghman went to the north side of the road, probably not more than one hundred feet from the gun that stood first on the north of the road, and first to the left of my gun. I saw him when he fell mortally wounded by a shot from one of the enemy's guns, immediately after he had sighted the said gun of my battery that stood first north of the road and first at the left of my gun.

As heretofore stated, I was probably not more than one hundred feet from the General at the time, and today I had no difficulty in locating the place where he was mortally wounded. The pipe that marks the place where the General fell was driven by me in the presence and with the concurrence of Mr. Sid Thomas, Mr. Z. Wardlaw, Capt. W. T. Ratliff and Capt. William T. Rigby. Mr. Wardlaw said to us while on the ground together that the statement made in his letter of October 23, 1907 to Capt. Ratliff was from common report and not from personal knowledge.

Signed by me in triplicate in the office of the Park Commission this 25th day of November, 1907.

J. G. Spencer
Vicksburg National Military Park
Vicksburg, Mississippi 

Historical sources: Confederate Veteran, Sept. 1910, and a 1907 document presented to the Jackson Civil War Roundtable by Mrs. Louise Gervin Windham, whose family purchased the property in 1932. Author, J. G. Spencer, was a private with Cowan's Battery, First Mississippi Light Artillery, in the Battle of Champion Hill. Most likely Spencer was one of the men in the 1907 dedication photograph but he was not identified at the time.