page_title: Battery "E", 1st Illinois Light Artillery Regiment
section_title: Battle of Jackson
hierarchical_section_title: Battery "E", 1st Illinois Light Artillery Regiment / Vicksburg campaign / Battle of Jackson
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the Siege of Vicksburg.
context_page_description: Battery "E", 1st Regiment Illinois Volunteer Light Artillery was an artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It played a minor but noteworthy role in the Battle of Shiloh, and was mentioned in General William T. Sherman's after-action report on the battle. It also served at Vicksburg, Brice's Crossroads, Nashville and in several other engagements in the Western Theater of the war.
context_section_description: On May 2 the battery went to Grand Gulf, Mississippi; from thence they advanced toward Jackson, Mississippi, the capital of the state.  The heat during this time was reportedly so intense that even "strong men" fell out of the march and "were left with some comrade to die or come on, as the case might be."  Dead horses and mules lay everywhere along the line of march, and Rice reports that Battery E lost six of its own horses to "sunstroke, and drinking poisoned water."  Reaching Jackson on May 10, Battery E and the rest of their corps were appalled to discover that the Confederates had disemboweled numerous mules and hogs, then thrown their carcasses into every pond and well to contaminate the water.  The air, said he, was filled with the stench of dead animals and members of Battery E and others were detailed over the next two days to bury all the carcasses in the area.
  Starting on May 10, Battery E commenced bombardment of the Confederate works at Jackson, beginning at 7am on that Sunday morning.  Private Rice reported a bright sunny day, and said that fire and counter-battery fire continued for three hours "as if the heavens were at war with one another, and about to part."  Rice himself was nicked by an enemy shell, and others in the battery had what he referred to as "close calls," though no one was seriously hurt.
  On May 14, Battery E supported Sherman's final attack on Jackson.  Advancing during a driving rainstorm across Lynch Creek, a rain-swollen stream that ran only two miles from the Mississippi State Capitol, the XV Corps quickly ran into the Third Kentucky Mounted Infantry, the First Georgia Sharpshooter Battalion and Captain Martin's Georgia Battery.  The Federal advance was temporarily halted before Battery E and a companion battery from the 2nd Iowa responded in kind.  One Iowa soldier briefly described Battery E's role in this battle in these terms:
  The "accurate fire" from Battery E and the Iowa artillery, coupled with the overwhelming Federal advantage in manpower, quickly forced the Confederates to retreat into their defensive works; within a matter of a few hours, Sherman's XV Corps had entered Jackson.  The battery remained in Jackson until May 16, taking no part in the Battle of Champion Hill.
  .
caption: Union and Confederate lines at Vicksburg
exif: {}