Now, Boys, You Must Do Your Duty
On the Seventeenth Corps sector the main effort was launched by John A. Logan’s division along the Jackson Road. John E. Smith’s brigade advanced in column formation and struck the 3rd Louisiana Redan. It deployed into line before reaching the redan and all of its regiments managed to lodge at the foot of the parapet. They found it impossible to scale the slope, however, and remained there for the rest of the day. John D. Stevenson’s brigade, to the south of Smith, advanced out of a protective ravine toward the Great Redoubt. Some regiments made it to the foot of the slope but could not enter the work while others, especially the 81st Illinois, got stuck part way to the fort and suffered heavy losses. Thomas Ransom’s brigade of John McArthur’s division, north of Logan, spent the morning and the early afternoon making contact with the rest of Blair’s division to the north so the combined force might launch a coordinated attack. Meanwhile, James B. McPherson’s other division, commanded by Isaac F. Quinby, advanced to the south of Logan to demonstrate against the Confederates but did not launch an attack.