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night, towards Utica.
In order to avoid capture or destruction, he was forced to make a wide detour to the south and east, losing hundreds if not thousands of his men by desertion and straggling; but, after several days, he succeeded in making a junction with Johnston near Jackson, having suffered greatly on the road.
One whole division was thus cut off from the garrison of Vicksburg; for this force never was able to rejoin Pemberton.1 Grant estimated Loring's strength, after the battle, and exclusive of desertions, at four thousand men.2 Having been in McClernand's front, it had not been seriously engaged.
The rout of the rebels was complete.
Large numbers of men on Pemberton's left had abandoned the field without orders, even before the battle was over, and made their way to the rear in haste and confusion.3 General Tilghman was killed, Loring cut off, and the separation from Johnston final.
Many of the men threw away their small-arms and gave themselves up as prisoners, unasked.
Two batteries, of six guns each, were left in the swamps, and every step of the pursuit was strewn with the wrecks of the dissolving army.
Pemberton himself fled that night to Smith's ferry, where the railroad bridge
1 Pemberton had the same trouble with Loring that Grant had found with McClernand. He repeatedly ordered Loring to come to the assistance of the left, where the battle raged, but was unable to move him. The consequence was that when the fighting ceased, and Pemberton was driven towards Vicksburg, Loring, unable to join his chief, was cut off by the advancing columns of Grant.
2 May 24th, Loring reported 5,778 men at Jackson.
A part of Stevenson's division broke badly, and fell back in great disorder.
Large numbers of men were abandoning the field on Stevenson's left, deserting their comrades. Although a large number of men had shamefully abandoned their commands, and were making their way to the rear, the main body of the troops retired in good order.Pemberton's Report.
New York Appleton 1885.
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