work. Under orders, Captain Walker hurriedly withdrew the guns from Fort Whitworth.
The enemy, a full corps of at least 5,000 men, advanced in three lines of battles. Three times the little garrison repulsed them. The fort seemed fringed with fire from the rifles of the Mississippians.
The cannoniers bravely and skilfully used their guns. The enemy fell on the clear field around the fort by scores.
The capture of the work was but a question of time. The blue coats finally jumped into the ditch surrounding the fort, and presently climbed over each others backs to gain the summit of the parapets. There was a weak point on the side of Gregg, where the ditch was incomplete, and over this a body of the enemy rushed. Presently six regimental standards were distinctly seen waving on the parapet.
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The part taken in the defence of Gregg, by the Mississippians, is thus described in the Vicksburg Times:
"Fort Gregg was held by the Twelfth and Sixteenth Mississippi regiments, Harris' brigade, numbering about 150 muskets, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel James H. Duncan, of the Nineteenth Mississippi, who had been assigned by General Harris to the immediate command of that work. The artillery in the fort was a section of Third company Washington artillery, commanded by Lieutenant Frank McElroy. General Harris, with his two other regiments, Nineteenth and Forty-eighth Mississippi, occupied 'Fort Whitworth,' distant about 100 yards, and between that work and the Southside railroad."
General Harris, in a letter designed to be an official report, says, "General Wilcox ordered me to take position in front of the enemy, and detain them as long as possible. With this object in view I advanced about 400 yards, and formed at right angles with the Boydton plank road. The ground being undulating, I threw both flanks behind the crest on which I formed, and exposed my centre, in order that I might induce the enemy to believe that there was a continuous line of battle behind the ridge. I then advanced a line of skirmishers well to the front. The enemy being misled by this device, made the most careful dispositions, two lines of battle, and advancing with the utmost caution, my position was held until the enemy was in close range, when a heavy fire was opened upon both sides.
"The enemy pressing me heavily and out-reaching me on my flanks, I fell back upon Fort Gregg and Whitworth, the Twelfth and Sixteenth under Colonel Duncan, being ordered to Fort Gregg, and to hold it at all hazards.
"The Nineteenth and Forty-eighth were placed in Whitworth. In Gregg there was a section of the Third company Washington artillery, commanded by Lieutenant Frank McElroy. Preparations were now made by the enemy for the assault, and this time Captain
