Sidney S. Champion, born in Guilford County, North Carolina, in 1824, came to Mississippi and settled on a large tract of land located between Bolton and Edwards.

The night of May 15 found Captain Champion within range of the battle site and serving as a vital member of General Pemberton's staff.

However, he ordered Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton, commanding three divisions totaling about 23,000 men, to leave Edwards Station and attack the Union troops at Clinton.

Pemberton and his generals felt that Johnston's plan was likely to result in disaster and decided instead to attack the Union supply trains moving from Grand Gulf to Raymond.

Pemberton had already started after the supply trains and was on the Raymond-Edwards Road, with his rear at a crossroads one-third mile south of the crest of Champion Hill.

Pemberton's force formed into a three-mile (5 km)-long defensive line that ran southwest to northeast along a crest of a ridge overlooking Jackson Creek.

Pemberton posted Brigadier General Stephen D. Lee's Alabama brigade on Champion Hill where they could watch for a Union column reportedly moving on the crossroads.

The division of John S. Bowen counterattacked in support of Stevenson, pushing the Union troops back beyond the Champion Hill crest before their surge was halted.

Pemberton directed William W. Loring to send forces from the southern area of the line, where they were only lightly engaged with McClernand's ineffective attack, to reinforce the hill.

Pemberton's men could not resist this assault, and he ordered them to use the one escape route still open, the Raymond Road crossing of Bakers Creek.

"[5] Grant criticized the lack of fighting spirit of McClernand, a rival for Union Army leadership, because he had not killed or captured Pemberton's entire force.

Large sections of the battlefield remain well preserved, including original roads, as evidenced by a view of the field from approximately the site of the Davis sketch.

Class A (opportunity for comprehensive preservation, good integrity, low threat) by the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission.

In 1985, the historic property was donated to the Jackson Civil War Roundtable, which later deeded it to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.