When the Union advance, marching north up the road toward Willows from Grindstone Ford, reached the Buena Vista Plantation about one mile south of Willows, a local farmer told the Union soldiers that there were no Confederates in the area. They had scarcely resumed the march when two cannon shells, fired from guns on the crest of the hill north of them, exploded nearby.

Fred Grant, son of Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, was traveling with his father on May 3, 1863. Because no horses had been brought over with the army because of a shortage of transport, Fred was on foot. He noticed a little Shetland pony belonging to Willie Watson, son of the owner of Buena Vista, and "liberated" it over the furious protests of Willie.

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.