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The Battle of Champion Hill was fought #OTD in 1863. Having captured the Mississippi capital of Jackson two days earlier, General Ulysses Grant moved his Army of the Tennessee toward the Confederate stronghold at @VicksburgNPS. #CivilWar🧵 
The confederate theater commander, Joseph Johnston, ordered John C. Pemberton, commanding three divisions totaling 23,000 men, to attack Grant's forces near the town of Clinton. Feeling this would be disastrous, Pemberton instead set out to attack the U.S. supply trains.
After receiving a second order to attack Grant's main body, Pemberton reversed his march, placing his own supply train in the lead. They were near Champion Hill at the time, on the Raymond-Edwards Road. He quickly ordered the ground occupied, as Grant’s force approached.
Grant ordered an attack on the hill at 10AM. The left wing, under General John McClernand, and the right, under General James McPherson, swept forward, and captured the crest of the hill by early afternoon. Pemberton counterattacked, and briefly pushed the U.S. troops back.
Grant then called up freshly arrived reinforcements and ordered them forward, an attack the confederates could not withstand. Pemberton ordered a withdrawal behind the Big Black River, having suffered nearly 4,000 casualties, almost 20% of his available strength.
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