Tour Stop #1 - DeGolyer's Battery

DeGolyer's Battery

NPS Photo/ C. Fields

Quick Facts

Location:

Vicksburg, Mississippi

Amenities

5 listed

Audio Description, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto, Parking - Bus/RV, Wheelchair Accessible

From this position, the guns of the 8th Battery, Michigan Light Artillery, commanded by Captain Samuel De Golyer, bombarded the Confederates’ Great Redoubt 700 yards to the west.

During the siege as many as twenty two Federal artillery pieces, representing several batteries, were mounted here. Captain DeGolyer was mortally wounded by a Confederate sharpshooter on May 28, 1863 and this location was named after him. 

• Tour Stop #1 - Battery De Golyer

  
  

  This track teaches you about the origins of Battery De Golyer during the Siege of Vicksburg and how Union artillery was organized during the Civil War.

  Date created:

  12/31/2021

  Audio Transcript

  After Federal forces failed to take the Confederate defenses by storm on May 22nd 1863, General Grant's army began conducting siege operations, digging trenches and placing cannons in strategic locations. Captain Samuel De Golyer established this battery on May 25th 1863, putting his 8th Battery, Michigan Light Artillery on this ridge. During the siege, upwards of 22 cannons on this ridge bombarded the Confederate defenders both day and night. Civil War artillery was organized into groups of up to six cannon called batteries which allowed Federal artillerymen to constantly bombard the nine major Confederate forts guarding the roads into the city. Among the cannon mounted here are smoothbore and rifled models. By looking at the front of the cannon muzzle, you can tell them apart by looking at the interior of the barrel. Rifled guns will have a series or ridges that spiral toward the back of the barrel, while smoothbores are, well, smoothe.Another major difference in the guns was the metal used to make the barrels. All of the green guns you see in the park are made of bronze or iron. To tell the difference, just remember that bronze turns green with age. And if there is any doubt about the ability of the Federal gunners positioned here during the siege to hit the Great Redoubt (a Confederate fortification marked by a tall granite monument some 650 in front of you), most of the guns of De Golyer’s battery could hit targets from 1600 to 1800 yards away. Sadly, De Golyer, who had earned a reputation during the Vicksburg campaign as one of the most capable artillery officers in Grant's army, only served here for a few days before a Confederate sharpshooter severely wounded him which proved mortal.