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The Union army built the artillery parapets in 1862 for seven guns and infantry trenches flanked these. A two-gun position about 150 yards to the north completed the Union artillery positions.
Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson had headquarters and a main camp in an open field north of the two-gun battery position. It is thought that only nine pieces of artillery cannon were mounted behind the parapets. Others may have been mounted with cotton bale fortifications. The road from Holly Springs to Oxford was moved east when Highway 7 was built, leaving the old roadbed (Old Oxford Road) in its original state.
In December 1862, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant launched an offensive against Vicksburg after a naval assault on the city had failed. Grant established a supply depot for his movements over land toward Vicksburg in Holly Springs, stockpiling over a million dollars in war material,
On December 2, 1862, Gen. William Sherman was moving forces down the Mississippi River toward Vicksburg while Grant launched a Federal offensive inland toward Vicksburg from Holly Springs to Oxford. Grant attempted to use the Mississippi Central Railroad to block Confederate war material from reaching Vicksburg.
McPherson was to secure the 30-mile stretch from Holly Springs to Oxford. He had secured his headquarters on the north bank of the Tallahatchie. He was to protect engineers with his forces while they rebuilt the river bridge. He had 20 field pieces of artillery and four heavy pieces of artillery.
Union Brig. Gen. John A. Loglan with 9,575 men were encamped on the north bank of the Tallahatchie.
On December 20, 1862, Confederate cavalry led by Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn stormed the Union stockpile in Holly Springs, capturing the garrison and burning all Grant’s supplies. Grant abandoned his hold on the Tallahatchie because it was no longer useful.
Action did not come at the crossing until 1863 when Brig. Gen. James R. Chalmers led Confederate and State troops across the Tallahatchie in an unsuccessful attempt to rout Federal troops from northwest Mississippi. Final action came on August 7, 1864, when Federal troops clashed with Confederates on the north side of the Tallahatchie. A three-day skirmish ended with final resolution on the south side of Hurricane Creek, four miles south of Abbeville, when Confederate troops pulled back to Oxford.
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