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the next morning was ordered into the trenches west of the town. On the loth
the enemy appeared in front, drove in the Confederate pickets and began to fortify.

The sections of Moore and Ritter were placed in an angle of the line, on the
Vicksburg road. The enemy constructed their works in a semi-circle about this
point in order to dismount a siege-piece which was situated between Moore's
and Ritter's sections. In their works the enemy planted about thirty-six twenty-
pounder Parrotts and Napoleons. The Confederates had in the threatened angle
the siege-piece, two twenty-pounder Parrotts, two three-inch rifle pieces and three
twelve-pound howitzers. For two days the enemy were occupied in perfecting
their works, and did not often fire a shot.

Sunday morning, July 12, the sun rose in a cloudless sky, and there was
nothing to disturb the unusual stillness, appropriate to the day, except an occasional
picket shot echoing among the hills.

The men sat idly here and there along the parapet, when suddenly a terrific
fire from all the enemy's batteries was opened upon the exposed angle — a fire
that seemed to shake the very earth. To add to the unpleasantness of the situation,
the cotton bales, which formed part of the parapet, were knocked off and inflamed
by the enemy's shell, and had to be rolled to the rear to save the ammunition from
danger. In the midst of the storm of lead and iron, the men were called to action,
and returned the enemy's fire with vigor. Lieutenant Whitney was presently
wounded and Lieutenant Moore was so seriously injured by a falling bale that
he had to be taken to the rear, thus leaving Lieutenant Ritter in command.

The enemy's artillery fire continued with unabated fury for two hours, after
which it slackened for the rest of the day.

Thursday night, the 16th, the Confederate works were evacuated and the
army fell back to Morton, Mississippi.

The losses of the Third Maryland at Jackson during the seven days it was
under fire were as follows :

KILLED—Corporal L. McCurry, Private Henry Gordon.

WOUNDED—Lieutenant Ritter, Sergeant Daniel Toomey, Privates Brown,
Emmett Wells and J. P. Wills.

On the 5th of September the section was ordered to Demopolis, Alabama, for
repairs. On the 19th of October, 1863, by order of General Joseph E. Johnston,
the Third Maryland section was transferred to Decatur, Georgia, where it rejoined
the battery under Captain Rowan.

The number of men in the battery had been much reduced by its losses in
Louisiana and Mississippi, so that Captain Rowan applied to the Secretary of
War for seventy-five conscripts. While at Decatur the guns, horses and equip-
ments of a four-gun battery were received, and Doctor Thomas J. Rogers was
assigned to the battery as surgeon.