Qualla: Battle of Jackson

Battle of Jackson: Introduction

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Julian Rankin, CC BY-SA 3.0. "I am too late." With those four words, telegraphed to Richmond on the night of May 13, 1863, General Joseph E. Johnston sealed the fate of Jackson, Mississippi -- and, many historians argue, of Vicksburg itself. Johnston had just arrived in the state capital to take command of a growing Confederate force, but after a single assessment of the situation, he ordered the city abandoned. By the following afternoon, Union troops from two directions would sweep through Jackson's half-finished earthworks, raise the Stars and Stripes over the state capitol, and proceed to methodically dismantle the rail hub that kept Vicksburg supplied. It was the third Confederate state capital to fall, and it fell almost without a real fight.

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Image: Julian Rankin | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Jackson: A General Who Would Not Stay

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0. Johnston's reluctance began before he even reached Mississippi. Ordered from Tennessee on May 9, he protested that Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee needed supervision more than Pemberton's forces at Vicksburg, and claimed old wounds made him unfit for field command -- claims his...

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Image: Michael Barera | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Jackson: Two Columns in the Rain

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bubba73 (Jud McCranie), CC BY-SA 4.0. Grant sent McPherson's XVII Corps from Clinton to the northwest and Sherman's XV Corps from Mississippi Springs to the southwest, coordinating their approach by messengers riding between the two roads. A heavy rainstorm turned both routes to mud. Grant, riding with Sherman's colu...

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Image: Bubba73 (Jud McCranie) | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Jackson: Paper Cartridges and a Flanking Move

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GilbertThompson, CC BY-SA 4.0. When the rain slackened around 11:00 a.m. on May 14, McPherson attacked. Crocker's division drove Colquitt's defenders from the Wright farm in a charge that saw the 10th Missouri clash hand-to-hand with the 24th South Carolina, wounding the latter's commander, Lieutenant Colonel ...

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Image: GilbertThompson | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Jackson: Chimneyville

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Charlie Brenner from Jackson Mississippi, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. What followed the battle earned Jackson its grim wartime nickname. Sherman's troops stayed behind on May 15 while the rest of Grant's army turned west to confront Pemberton. Their orders: destroy everything of military value. Railroad ties were burned, and the heated rails bent i...

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Image: Charlie Brenner from Jackson Mississippi, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0

Battle of Jackson: What Remains of the Battlefield

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. The landscape of the May 1863 battle has largely vanished beneath the modern city. Jackson preserves two small parcels of battleground: Battlefield Park, where a stretch of earthworks survives among the trees, and a site on the campus of the University of Mississippi Medical Cent...

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Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain