to the awarding of 78 Medals of Honor to attacking soldiers. A photo of the exact location of Battery E's position at Vicksburg may be seen here. The larger page from which this photo was taken may be viewed here. On May 30, the battery was given a 30-pound Parrott rifle, which it retained until 3 June, when that gun was moved to a more advanced position at "Battery Jenny." On 5 June, Battery E was ordered to trade its old artillery pieces in for six new 12-pound guns. The battery was divided into three two-gun sections; two, under Lieutenants John Fitch and Orrin Cram, remained on the line. The third was moved up to an advanced battery. By 7 June, Private Rice reported to his wife that the battery had been split between five different places, and only counted 96 men as fit for duty. In contrast to the starving Confederates inside Vicksburg—whose lack of food ultimately doomed their defense of the city, rather than the unsuccessful Federal assaults on their defenses—Battery E and the rest of the Union Army fared well with regard to victuals during the siege. Rice reported that he had to eat here: "flour, tea, coffee, sugar, hardtack, pork, dried apples, rice, beans and fresh beef every other day." He said that his favorite food was "flour and water mixed together as you would make batter, fry it in grease with meat, a cup of coffee, a hardtack and sugar; I make out a hearty meal." Artillerists as infantry Members of Battery E sometimes fought as sharpshooters and even infantry during the siege. Private Rice relates his own experience: On 22 June Battery E relocated with two infantry brigades from the 3rd Division to Bear Creek on the exterior line, where it remained until Vicksburg was surrendered by General Pemberton on July 4, 1863. Throughout the siege, the Battery lost two killed and six wounded. Later operations in Mississippi Expedition to Brandon, Mississippi On July 5, 1863, the day after Vicksburg's surrender, a detachment from Battery E was ordered with elements of the 72nd Ohio Infantry, the 114th Illinois, the 8th Iowa and the 9th Iowa to proceed under the command of General Frederick Steele to Brandon, Mississippi. Here they were directed to locate and burn Confederate military stores and destroy the local railroad. The battery lost one of its three guns while crossing a