Reeling from their defeat at Champion Hill approximately 10 miles to the east, the Confederates reached the Big Black River Bridge during the night of May 16-17, 1863, as they fled toward the defenses of Vicksburg. Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton posted Brig. Gen. John S. Bowen's division and Brig. Gen. John Vaughn's East Tennessee Brigade on the east bank of the river to hold the bridges so that Confederate Maj. Gen. William W. Loring could cross, not knowing that Loring could not get through to Edwards. Three divisions of Union Maj. Gen. John A. McClernand's XIII Army Corps moved out from Edwards Station on the morning of May 17. The corps encountered some 5,000 Confederates with their backs to the river, behind a line of rifle pits and breastworks made of cotton bales fronted by a bayou and abatis extending from the river to Gin Lake. The Federals opened fire with their artillery. Union Brig. Gen. Michael K. Lawler massed his regiments into column by battalion on the Union right in a meander scar. In an extraordinary bayonet charge that lasted only three minutes, Lawler's 1,500 troops raced across the open ground through waist-deep water in the bayou and into the Confederate breastworks. The Confederates abandoned 18 cannons and ran toward the bridges. Many of them drowned trying to escape across the river, and nearly 1,700 were captured.

To hinder the Federal pursuit, Pemberton's men burned the railroad bridge and the steamboat, Dot, used as a bridge. Fewer than half of the Confederates who had fought at Champion Hill were able to straggle back into the defenses at Vicksburg later that day. Thus, the battle sealed the fate of Vicksburg; the Confederate forces, disorganized and demoralized, would be bottled up at Vicksburg for 47 days before surrendering to the Federals on July 4. Union forces occupied the positions at Big Black River Bridge throughout the siege of Viclsburg until August 1864.

In 1993, the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission designated the Battle of Big Black River Bridge as one of the Civil War's 384 principal battlefields. The Battle of Big Black River Bridge has regional/state significance, because it was an engagement involving elements of the field armies that had an observable influence on the direction and conduct of the Vicksburg campaign. Reeling from their decisive defeat at Champion Hill approximately 10 miles to the east, the Confederates reached the Big Black River Bridge on the night of May 16-17 as they fled from the pursuing Federals toward the defenses of Vicksburg. As a result of their casualties suffered during this battle, coupled with the losses incurred at Champion Hill, fewer than half of the Confederates who had fought at Champion Hill were able to straggle back, disorgainzed and demoralized, into the defenses at Vicksburg later on May 17.

While the core resource of Big Black River retains a high degree of integrity, interest is beginning to emerge in developing the surrounding area.