81st Illinois Infantry

Lieut. Col. Franklin Campbell, Eighty-first Illinois Infantry
HDQRS. EIGHTY-FIRST REGIMENT ILLINOIS VOLUNTEERS,
Vicksburg, Miss., July 9, 1863.

SIR: In compliance with your order directed to me, dated July 7,1863, I have the honor to report that on May 12 we met the enemy in a ravine, about 1 mile south of Raymond. The Third Brigade was thrown out on the right and formed in line of battle, the Eighty-first Regiment being placed on the left of the brigade, and in this position we marched forward through almost impenetrable brushwood and undergrowth. We met the enemy in the bottom of the ravine and drove them, after a short and spirited fight of thirty minutes. The enemy retreated and reformed on the top of the hill in an open field, being protected from our right partly by the intervening timber. My command was marched by the right flank until it came to the opening on the right, where the enemy was discovered to them. Here a sharp fight took place, which lasted some fifty or sixty minutes, and resulted in driving the enemy from the hill, and then commenced the final retreat. My command then marched forward in connection with the remainder of the brigade on the open ground and through the brushwood to the town of Raymond, where we encamped for the night. The utmost coolness and determined bravery was displayed on the occasion of this battle by the men and officers of this regiment, there being but one instance of objectionable conduct---that of Capt. Samuel Pyle, who has since been permitted to resign.

[only excepts from Battle of Raymond are included by the editor]

F. CAMPBELL,
Colonel, Commanding.