BGA Raymond- Vicksburg Texas Lunette Battle

[Phil McBride]

My outfit was the Red River Battalion which bivouaced Saturday night at the lunette as the 2nd Texas Infantry, worked with pioneering tools to improve the works on Sunday morning and defended its center during Sunday's battle. For those who were there as other Rebs, Yanks, or spectators, how was the attack on the lunette?

Personally, I was hot, dirty, and lovin' every minute of it, especially watching and firing from an awkward leaning, kneeling position at the Yanks carrying rough cut timber ladders to use to cross the ditch and climb the wall of dirt.

But I will say, someone blew Taps on a bugle while there seemed to us to be plenty of fight left in both sides. None of us quite understood the early stoppage after so much effort went into construction of the lunette and the scenario.

Phil McBride
The Alamo Rifles

[S.D.Swart]

Just a question? I have never understood why they play taps in the 1st place.

[David Worsham]

I was one of the Federals that brought up the ladders to storm the works. We were the Federal Campaigner Company, made up of the 16th LA and friends. It was quite a moment to be rushing forward with the ladders under fire from the rebel defenders, traverse the ditch, and then plant the ladders to climb onto the ramparts. I was able to view the improvements on the works you guys did and the Civilian Caves on the backside of the hill before the Sunday battle and it was all quite impressive. Bully!

[savhmustang80]

Well, I am certainly happy you got to enjoy those works... I personally only got to experience them for all of about 180 seconds before our particular battalion was ordered out of the works by some expert generalship and into the fields- in front of the works. I mean, why would you use a nice expertly dug bit of terrain that could stop bullets when you can actually get out in front of it and use your own body!

Listen, those works looked awesome, and the Federal attack that advanced on the works looked pretty darn good, and the company I fell in with was outstanding. All that being said, and I would have to consider the Vicksburg event to be the worst run event that I have ever participated in. I left town Sunday severely dissappointed having flown from one state to another and then carpooled across another 3 to get there.

Perhaps it was fighting as a Federal in Confederate uniform for the Raymond engagement(mind you- the battalion I was with was explicitly told they would be CS the entire weekend- so I only packed one uniform (already got nailed with overweight luggage fee's)) along with a Confederate (Yankee???) battalion, perhaps it was the fact that the Federals were outnumbered 5-1 with not even an attempt to manage force ratio's, perhaps its was that during the Champion's Hill engagement the Confederates were attacking uphill (wasn't that the Fed's that actually attacked uphill???), or perhaps it was the fact that rather than allowing the Federals to enter and take the Lunette AND THEN using your large surplus battalion to RETAKE the lunette rather than stand in the middle of the unentrenched no man's land on the flank or the ditch in front of the lunette and look like idiots.

Well I can certainly tell you that I will not be travelling that way anytime in the near or far future for another engagement or to another engagement managed (read generalled) by this group. I was very disappointed in the way that event was managed and generalled. Glad you enjoyed the entrenchments. Perhaps your facing in the line kept the fiasco in the field to your front out of your line of sight. A counterattack to retake the works would have been great and allowed everyone a fight in there. And just maybe would have been an inkling closer to historical accuracy to boot... what a concept.

Brad Norwood
2nd GA Sharpshooters