Benton was an important town on the main road between Yazoo City, on the navigable Yazoo River, and Vaughan, on the Mississippi Central Railroad. Thus, it was a way station on the road over which much of the commissary supplies produced in the northern part of the Delta reached Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Relierf, which by May 1863 was gathering in the vicinities of Canton and Jackson. The town drew its water supply from several large and reliable springs forming the headwaters of Cypress Creek, about one mile east of town.

Confederate Brig. Gen. W. H. T. Walker's brigade arrived at Benton after his march from Canton early on May 31. He was supposed to meet Brig. Gen. John Adams' cavalry brigade at the town, but Adams had failed to receive the order. Thus, he was at Mechanicsburg, about 20 miles to the southwest. He sent a courier to find the cavalry, but in the meantime sent out infantry patrols toward Myrtlesville (8 miles to the south) and Pritchard's Crossroad (16 miles to the southwest), but they found nothing. Late on the afternoon of May 31, Lt. Col. Samuel Ferguson's cavalry regiment, which had been operating as an independent command in the Delta until ordered by Johnston to report to Walker, arrived at Benton.

On June 1, Johnston ordered Walker to move his combined command to Yazoo City, some 9-1/2 miles to the west, to protect that vital trans-shipping point from Union raids via the Yazoo River. Walker's force arrived at Yazoo City late that same afternoon.

One June 4, Johnston, who was in Canton, ordered Maj. Gen. William Loring's infantry division to Benton, where it would be available to protect the vital Way's Bluff railroad bridge from any Union forays coming from the direction of Mechanicsburg.

This site has local significance because of its association with military activities and events that achieved or affected important local objectives of the Vicksburg campaign.