Battle of Big Black River Bridge

Battle context

The Battle of Big Black River Bridge was fought on May 17, 1863, as a direct consequence of the Confederate defeat at Champion Hill the previous day. After that decisive engagement, Pemberton's army retreated westward toward Vicksburg, and Pemberton established a bridgehead on the east bank of the Big Black River to cover the anticipated withdrawal of Loring's division, which had been cut off during the Champion Hill retreat. Union forces under McClernand engaged the Confederate defenders, inflicting 1,751 casualties on a force of roughly 5,000 men. The loss of the bridgehead denied Pemberton's army any realistic ability to consolidate east of the river, compressing Confederate forces into the Vicksburg defenses. The battle effectively closed off the open campaign phase of the Vicksburg operation and set the conditions for the siege that followed, which would end with the surrender of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863—a result that gave Union forces control of the Mississippi River and split the Confederacy along that axis.