By: Norman Dasinger, Jr.
Constructed along the major east-west railroad track leading into and out of Vicksburg, Mississippi, the Railroad Redoubt (aka Fort Beauregard) witnessed multiple attacks from both Confederate and Federal soldiers on May 22, 1863.
That day, the four-sided fort—part of a vast network of entrenchments enclosing the town—was manned by soldiers of the 30th and 46th Alabama Infantry Regiments, with Waul’s Texas Legion in close support. Because all the officers of the 46th had been captured May 16th at the battle of Champion’s Hill, Col. Edmund W. Pettus of the 20th Alabama was ordered to take command within the redoubt.
At 10 a.m., “Big” Mike Lawler’s Union Brigade, composed mostly of Iowans, led the assaulting force. Their path had been cleared by hours of artillery fire that had bombarded the sleepless Alabamians trapped within the redoubt.
That concentrated fire had punched a gap in the Confederate line, which Lawler’s men exploited. The Federals scaled the earthen fort’s walls, drove back the Confederates, and within a little over an hour, the flags of the 77th Illinois and 22nd Iowa were flapping in the summer breeze atop the ramparts. Success!
However, the assault stalled, giving the Confederates a chance to plan a bold response.
Andrew Miller, one of the rangers at Vicksburg National Military Park, wrote, “The hours ticked away as the Federals, stuck in the ditch outside the Railroad Redoubt, waited through the day’s sweltering heat for support or relief. Soon the Confederates took to rolling artillery shells with lit fuses down the slope.”
Studio portrait of Brig. Gen. Edmund Winston Pettus, C.S.A., 1863
Collections of the Alabama Department of Archives and History
As the afternoon wore on, the Confederate command decided that Pettus would join forces with the fresh soldiers of Waul’s Texas Legion to retake the position.
In 1907, Pettus wrote, “So, when ordered, I met Colonel Waul and told him what I wanted. He said, ‘I will not order but if any of my companies will volunteer, I will consent … I told him that about thirty was as many as could be used in so small a place. … In a moment, I had my band of thirty.”
Josh Edwards in the March 5, 2015, edition of the Vicksburg Post, wrote, “I [Pettus] was peremptorily ordered … to take the redoubt. Waul’s Legion and three gallant Alabamians did volunteer, but I as their commander was acting in response to orders.”
The handpicked force was assembled, and before the sun could set, they moved into position. Pettus, “musket in hand,” led the assaulting party into the fort, fully securing it and capturing the colors of the 77th Illinois.
The surrender at Vicksburg on July 4, 1863
LOC
Waul reported, “The coolness, courage, and intrepidity manifested deserves the highest praise for ever officer and man engaged in the hazardous enterprise.”
Federal soldiers would never again assault Fort Beauregard. However, all the defenders of Vicksburg would surrender to Union General U.S. Grant on July 4, 1863.
