Qualla: Battle of Raymond

Battle of Raymond: Introduction

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GilbertThompson, CC BY-SA 4.0. The women of Raymond, Mississippi, had prepared a feast. Fried chicken and lemonade waited in town for the Confederate soldiers who would surely rout the small Union raiding party reported nearby. What Brigadier General John Gregg did not know on the morning of May 12, 1863, was that the force approaching down the Utica Road was not a brigade of 1,500 men but an entire Union army corps of 10,000 to 12,000 soldiers under Major General James B. McPherson. And what McPherson did not know was that the Confederates in his path, though outnumbered three to one, had no intention of stepping aside. The collision that followed would be chaotic, bloody, and strategically transformative -- the battle that made Ulysses S. Grant change his mind about how to take Vicksburg.

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Image: GilbertThompson | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Raymond: Blind Men Swinging

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pmsyyz, CC BY-SA 3.0. Neither commander entered the fight with an accurate picture of his opponent. Confederate General Pemberton in Vicksburg had ordered Gregg to Raymond expecting him to intercept a lone Union brigade, and Gregg's meager cavalry -- just fifty horsemen who arrived the night before --...

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Image: Pmsyyz | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Raymond: The Creek Runs Red

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GilbertThompson, CC BY-SA 4.0. Fighting erupted when Union cavalry ran into Gregg's skirmishers on the morning of May 12. Bledsoe's Missouri Battery opened with its three cannons, and Union artillery answered. Smoke from the exchange blanketed the field, neutralizing much of the artillery advantage on both sid...

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Image: GilbertThompson | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Raymond: The Weight of Numbers

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0. As the afternoon wore on, McPherson's numerical advantage became irresistible. He massed twenty-two cannons on the field and pushed infantry across Fourteenmile Creek. Colonel Randal William MacGavock of the 10th and 30th Tennessee, knowing his men would be shattered by Union art...

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Image: Michael Barera | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Raymond: A Battle That Changed the Campaign

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Charlie Brenner from Jackson Mississippi, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. Raymond's true significance lay not in its casualty figures but in its effect on Grant's thinking. Before the fight, Grant had planned to swing west toward the Big Black River and approach Vicksburg directly. The unexpected strength of Gregg's resistance at Raymond convinced Gran...

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

Battle of Raymond: Fourteenmile Creek Today

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ken Lund from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Raymond battlefield was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 13, 1972. As of 2010, approximately seventy-nine percent of the battlefield remained intact, including the Union artillery position, Fourteenmile Creek, and portions of the old Utica Road. T...

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Image: Ken Lund from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0