Mar. 5--Entire force moves out at 7-1/2 AM to attack Yazoo City--Genl R[ichardson] ranks Genl Ross but agrees to co-operate & not command--move to within 1M of town & drive in the enemy's pickets. Tex. Brig. dismounts--6th, Legion & R[ichardson]'s battery ord'd on the right & 3rd & 9th on the left of the plank road--3 Regts from R[ichardson]'s Brig. reinforce 6th & Legion--3rd moves up the road--9th moves to the left & drives skirmishers from & takes possession of fortifications within range of the enemy--9th is supported by the 11th Tennessee--Richardson advances on the right driving the enemy Through the streets pressing them back to the cover of some brick warehouses on The _river bank_. Their gunboats which shelled the town furiously killing 1 boy & wounding severral [sic] ladies--11th Ill's [page 114] was in a redoubt on the plank road & well posted--after driving the enemy through town sent a Regt in rear of the redoubt--3rd was within 300 yds on the East, 6th Tex 100 yds north, 9th on South & 14th Tenn. on west--Col. Jones wanted to bring a battery & shell them out but Genl Ross orders firing to cease & demanded surrender--one of the officers in com'd was in favor of it & another against & after a parley they refused. Concluding it would sacrifice too many lives to Charge it Ross withdrew at night and camped. Total loss in Brig.--3 Killed & 25 wounded; in 9th Lt Duncan Co. "C" Thigh--G. W. Pointer Co. "A" Arm--J. W. Winton Co. "B" battery; in Genl Richardson's Com'd 1 major & two men killed & 27 wounded. Total Confed. loss was 8 killed & 52 wounded--Enemy's loss admitted to be 300 killed, wounded & missing--a large amount of Q M stores & held the city 3 hours & at one time held the house where Col. [James A.] Coates, the Fed'l Com'd'r, had his Hdqrs & was upstairs but did not know it--captured one piece of artillery but had to abandon it--

Vicki Betts