In the spring of 1863, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant moved his Union Army of the Tennessee south along the Mississippi River and through Louisiana in an effort to capture the Confederate bastion at Vicksburg. After defeating the Confederates at Port Gibson, the Federals marched toward Raymond, Mississippi. There on May 12, Maj. Gen. James McPherson's XVII Corps engaged Brig. Gen. John Gregg's Confederate brigade. The engagement is resulted in a Union victory and Grant moved on to Jackson.