Description

The Battle of Jackson was fought on May 14, 1863, outside of Jackson, Mississippi, as part of the Vicksburg campaign during the American Civil War. As part of a campaign to capture the strategic Mississippi River town of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Major General Ulysses S. Grant of the Union Army moved his force east across the Mississippi River beginning on April 30, 1863. This beachhead was protected by a victory at the Battle of Port Gibson on May 1. Moving inland, Grant intended to wheel his army north to strike the railroad between Vicksburg and the Mississippi capital of Jackson. On May 12, the Union XVII Corps of Major General James B. McPherson defeated Confederate troops commanded by Brigadier General John Gregg at the Battle of Raymond. This alerted Grant to the presence of a potentially dangerous Confederate force at Jackson, leading him to change his plans and swing towards Jackson with McPherson's corps and Major General William T. Sherman's XV Corps.