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defense; only two gunboats abreast could approach the fort at one time, and any land attack would require a 600-yard approach over open ground (and through a bayou as well). In addition, each flank of the Confederate line of defense was anchored by a river (Tallahatchie on the right, Yazoo on the left). Seven guns (the largest a 32-pounder rifle) were mounted on platforms behind parapets of cotton bales. Behind the outer earth-and-cotton bale parapet, rifle pits had been dug. Three ammunition magazines, constructed of cotton bales, rawhide, and six feet of earth, lay within the fortifications.
During the afternoon of March 10, one of Loring?s scouts came in with the word that the Federal convoy was only about 30 miles up the Tallahatchie from Fort Pemberton. In the convoy the scout had counted nine gunboats and 27 transports. From this intelligence Loring concluded that there must be about 5,000 Yankee troops aboard and that the task force would come within firing range the next forenoon (both his conclusions proved to be valid ones).
A general alert was ordered and last minute plans put into effect. The raft, though not quite finished, was swung across the channel and anchored by cables to each shore. Star of the West (of Fort Sumter fame) was warped athwart the Tallahatchie immediately behind the log raft, and a work detail prepared to scuttle the fessel. Previously, some 250 holes had been bored into her hull below the water line. They had been plugged with oak bungs which the work party proceeded to knock out. A member of Company H, 20th Mississippi, later recounted his part in sinking the vessel, and it is not unlikely that Baxter could have been aboard that night.
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Next morning, March 11, Everything was ready for the imminent arrival of the Federal boats - guns were loaded, emergency rations cooked, parapets manned, and the river channel blocked. Pvt. Baxter and Company E were in rifle pits near the bank of the Tallahatchie. The Confederates did not have to wait long. A few minutes past 10 a.m. the ironclad Chillicothe rounded a bend less than half-a-mile from Fort Pemberton. The Southerners immediately opened fire with five of their guns. Two hits were scored in the first salvo; one of these, a conical pointed steel shell from the rifled 32-pounder
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