pontoon bridge over the Pearl River, but the piece was recovered the next day. Encountering Southern cavalry about six miles past the bridge, the battery's "war dogs" (to quote Private Rice) quickly drove them back. Next came a report from Federal scouts that an enemy battery was on a nearby hill. Battery E was ordered to shell the hillside in an effort to find the enemy's position, while their escort watched from a nearby fence: Riding into Brandon, Battery E engaged Confederate scouts in a house there, "knocking out every window" there. They set fire to a storehouse and burned down an entire city block, then turned their attention to the railroad depot and nearby tracks which they equally destroyed. Return to Jackson Following this event, Battery E returned to Jackson (which had been reoccupied by Confederate forces). Though harassed during their march by Southern units, Private Rice reported that they "kept out of range of our brass band. For when we play 'Dixie' on it, it makes them more than dance." Upon arriving at Jackson they assisted in a nine-day siege, after which Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston evacuated the city. Jackson was described as a "doomed city" in the battle's aftermath, with Rice affirming that he and his comrades tore up and burned tracks and ties from five different railroads extending twenty miles out from the city in all directions. Ordered to return to Vicksburg, Battery E and other units crossed the battlefield at Champion Hill, scene of a Federal victory about two months earlier. Rice describes how rain had washed away the soil used to cover the corpses of Confederate dead, who had simply been tossed into ditches on the battlefield by Federal troops and covered with a layer of dirt. He also describes men kicking at skulls, bones and clothing protruding from the half-opened graves. Bear Creek Having returned to Vicksburg, On July 23 Battery E went into camp on Bear Creek on Oak Ridge, where they were exceptionally troubled by chiggers and flies, not to mention the oppressive summer heat. This became their summer camp, and expeditions were made to Mechanicsburg, Miss., Canton, and other places. On November 5 they took boat for Memphis, arriving there the 12th. During that winter they went to Lagrange, Tennessee and also, Corinth, Jack Creek, back again to Corinth, then finally back to Memphis via Lagrange. Meridian expedition On