Major General John George Walker's division of Confederate troops, known as Walker's Greyhounds had attacked Union forces in the Battle of Milliken's Bend and the Battle of Lake Providence earlier that month in hopes of relieving some of the pressure on the Confederate troops besieged in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

An attack by the 18th Texas Infantry drove in the Union skirmishers, but the Confederates were eventually forced to withdraw behind Roundaway Bayou.

After Walker learned that his supply wagons and ambulances were safely out of the area, he ordered his men to burn the bridge and withdraw.

This supply line was cut by Union troops commanded by Major General Ulysses S. Grant during the Vicksburg campaign.

[3] Confederate president Jefferson Davis urged Lieutenant General E. Kirby Smith, the commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department (which was in charge of the territory west of the Mississippi River), to use some of his troops to attack Union positions in Louisiana and reduce the pressure on Vicksburg.

Walker responded by deploying the 18th Texas Infantry Regiment and Edgar's Texas Battery 1 mile (1.6 km) closer to the Union advance, sending the divisional supply wagons and ambulances towards Monroe, Louisiana, and positioned the rest of his force behind Roundaway Bayou, where it covered the sole bridge across the bayou to the town of Richmond.

[18] The Union infantry was halted at the burned bridge, but a cavalry force waded the bayou[17] and while pursuing captured roughly 25 Confederate stragglers.

[18] Walker's men withdrew to Delhi, Louisiana, and were joined by the brigade of Brigadier General James Camp Tappan along the way.

[14] After recuperating at Delhi for several days, Walker's men undertook a campaign against a series of cotton plantations leased by Union businessmen.

[19] Other Confederate troops captured a small Union camp in the Battle of Goodrich's Landing on June 29, but were driven off the next day.