SIEGE OF JACKSON BEGINS

On this day, the 16th Ohio marched eight miles and arrived at the Rebel fortifications around the city of Jackson, Mississippi. Pvt. Peter Perrine states:

Marched 8 miles and drove the Enemy into their works around Jackson and invested the place.

As the regiment approached the Rebel fortifications, they began to receive cannon and musket fire as they took up positions around the city. Illustrating the intensity of the action, Cpl Wolbach, Company E, describes the scene:

Behind a slight ridge, thinly covered with large trees, we stacked arms in line of battle. Our skirmishers went over the ridge out of sight, and immediately attracted a brisk musketry fire from the line of works a few hundred yards away. Two of Foster's twenty-pounders were run into position on the elevation ahead, and at once attracted a terrific fire from numerous entrenched cannon, that seemed to have accurate range of the ground. In the midst of flying dirt and exploding shell, our brave gunners worked their pieces a few minutes, unwilling to be whipped out even by such fearful odds. The patient horses standing in their regular position, showed little excitement in those moments of suspense. One of the faithful animals was struck fatally and sank to the earth without a struggle. An artilleryman, by the name of Murphy, temporarily assigned from Co. A, 16th, had a leg fearfully lacerated by a piece of shell. A cannon ball struck under one of the guns, bounded upward, and tore the heavy iron sheeting on the under side of the trail as if it had been pasteboard. Shells came so thick and close that we laid low. One shell struck a stack of guns in Co. D, and ruined several of the pieces. Our cannon were pulled back by hand and the fury of the fire ceased.

Union troops took positions outside the Confederate fortifications and the Siege of Jackson had begun.

---

Period map showing the approximate position of the 16th Ohio at Jackson, Mississippi, July 10, 1863, when Union troops began the siege of that city:

---

Modern day map showing the approximate position of the 16th Ohio in position outside Rebel works at Jackson, Mississippi, on July 10, 1863:

Blue pin - approximate position of 16th Ohio with Gen. Osterhaus' Ninth Division from June 24 to July 6, 1863, while guarding Grant's siege at Vicksburg from attack by Confederate General Joe Johnston.
Red pin - approximate campsite of 16th Ohio the night of July 6, 1863, after marching east from Bovina Station.
Green pin - Near Bolton Station, Mississippi, approximate campsite of 16th Ohio the night of July 7, 1863, after marching east from Edwards Depot.
Yellow pin - a point about four miles past Bolton, Mississippi, where the 16th Ohio camped the night of July 8, 1863.
Purple pin - a point about four miles east of Jackson, Mississippi, where the 16th Ohio camped the night of July 9, 1863.
Aqua pin - the approximate position of the 16th Ohio after taking up positions outside the Confederate fortifications at Jackson, Mississippi, on July 10, 1863.
Red pushpin - site of Mississippi State Capitol during the Civil War; Gen. Osterhaus' division and the 16th Ohio were positioned 1 1/2 miles due west of here.