When the Cannonballs Fly

On June 28, 1864, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum, district commander at Vicksburg, Mississippi, received orders from Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman to destroy the Pearl River Bridge at Jackson that the Confederates had rebuilt. Slocum complied, marching a column to Jackson, destroying the bridge, and starting back to Vicksburg.

Being outnumbered, the Confederate force under Brig. Gen. William Wirt Adams was unable to effectively defend the bridge, but was determined to ambush the Yankee column near Canton, Mississippi. Adams masked two batteries under lieutenants Frank Johnston and Philip B. Lancaster at the Lee’s House, commanding the Jackson-Clinton road. Holding their fire until the Union infantry was in view and range, the batteries hammered the Federals with shot and shell.[i]

Captain Henry L. Field of the 124th Illinois Infantry, like many of his comrades, quickly took cover in nearby woods. Fields vividly recalled the bombardment:

A few colored gentlemen, cooks, or officers’ servants were with our forces, who were by no means fond of flying cannon shot. One of these darkies was large, awkward, and wore an enormous white linen duster. He was anxious to get through the woods, or at least to some portion farther west, and was watching his chances between shots, seeming to conclude, as well he might, that the rebels were making his great white coat a special mark for target practice, and that the day of final reckoning with him was close at hand. As this interesting gentleman was jumping from tree to tree, trying to dodge the big balls, and had just taken refuge behind an unusually large one, looking out first to one side, and then the other, with a terribly puzzled and distressing looking countenance, a cannon shot, with a horrid noise, came tearing through the limbs and bushes, when the darky sprang out to one side, then, expecting to be hit if he went that way, back to the other, and when about halfway between two large trees, the ball cutting off a large limb over his head, in an instant, as for dear life, he fell flat on his belly, with arms and legs widely spread out, and the white coat covering about a square rod on the ground. But as soon as he decided that he was not killed, he sprang to his astonished feet, and disappeared in far less time than it takes to tell it.[ii]

Slocum’s rear guard held off Adam’s attacks and was able to make his escape to the safety of the Vicksburg defenses. As far as the man in the white linen duster, nothing else is known.

[i] The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, (70 vols., in 128 parts), Washington, 1880-1900. Series I, Vol. 39. Pt. 1, pp. 243-245.

[ii] Howard. R. L., History of the 124th Regiment Illinois Infantry Volunteers, Springfield, Illinois, 1880. p. 234-235.