unknown member has printed out a tour map from a state website, so now we go in search of the Battle of Champion Hill.
Unfortunately, not all of the battle-related sites are accessible. Over a fence and between the trees, we get a glimpse of what we believe to be Coker House (#7 on the tour map) - used as a hospital by Federal forces, now in ruins.
Further down the road, we find the marker (map #6) where CSA Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman was killed during the close of the battle.
General Tilghman went to the north side of the road, probably not more than one hundred feet from the gun that stood first on the north of the road, and first to the left of my gun. I saw him when he fell mortally wounded by a shot from one of the enemy's guns, immediately after he had sighted the said gun of my battery that stood first north of the road and first at the left of my gun.
Next on the tour map (#5) is Hiawatha, another plantation home that was used as a hospital during the battle. However, we're unable to locate it. (And now I know why... a footnote on the historical website mentions that the home has been relocated for restoration!)
Here we are at the site of the Baker's Creek bridge (#4 on the map) on the Raymond-Edwards road.
Map locations 1, 2 and 3 prove quite elusive (then again, I wasn't used to the heat, and hadn't had much sleep the night before...). Then suddenly, a glimpse of something among the trees - it's the tombstone we're looking for!
unknown member charges into the woods (while I bravely fend off a stray dog that's come wandering along!). We've found the Roberts family cemetery.
While some of the tombstones date from after the battle (above), others were here during the Civil War (below).
As you may have gathered from the photos, the battlefield is now heavily overgrown with trees, and much of it is on private ground and not open to the public. Map site #2 is the sunken road - we find a sunken area off the road, but we're not sure if it's the right place. As darkness begins to fall, we finally give up on locating site #1 (a memorial to the battle).