The Army of the Tennessee secures its beachhead across the Mississippi at the Battle of Port Gibson

Marching on Vicksburg, General U.S. Grant's forces had crossed the Mississippi River at Bruinsburg, Mississippi  the evening before and advanced inland.  Confederate General John S. Bowen, at the head of one reinforced division, made an attempt near Port Gibson to hold back the much larger Union force.  Hit on both flanks, the Confederate forces broke and Grant moved on towards Vicksburg.  Several hundred men, including CSA General Edward Tracy, were killed in heavy fighting and total casualties numbered around sixteen hundred.  (By John Osborne)