 During the siege, the 8th Wisconsin left Vicksburg to participate in an expedition to Mechanicsburg, Mississippi, where Benjamin Hilliker was severely wounded on June 4, 1863.They then returned to Young's Point where they blocked Confederates from escaping westward from Vicksburg.From this encampment, Sherman despatched them as part of a force assigned to drive General John G. Walker's Confederates from Richmond, Louisiana.