Milliken's Bend: A Civil War Battle in History and Memory

by Linda Barnickel

Overview

At Milliken's Bend, Louisiana, a Union force composed predominantly of former slaves met their Confederate adversaries in one of the bloodiest small engagements of the war. This important fight received some attention in the North and South but soon drifted into obscurity. In Milliken's Bend, Linda Barnickel uncovers the story of this long-forgotten and highly controversial battle.

The fighting at Milliken's Bend occurred in June 1863, about fifteen miles north of Vicksburg on the west bank of the Mississippi River, where a brigade of Texas Confederates attacked a Federal outpost. Most of the Union defenders had been slaves less than two months before. The new African American recruits fought well, despite their minimal training, and Milliken's Bend helped prove to a skeptical northern public that black men were indeed fit for combat duty. Soon after the battle, accusations swirled that Confederates had executed some prisoners taken from the "Colored Troops." The charges eventually led to a congressional investigation and contributed to the suspension of prisoner exchanges between the North and South.

Barnickel's compelling and comprehensive account of the battle illuminates not only the immense complexity of the events that transpired in northeastern Louisiana during the Vicksburg Campaign but also the implications of Milliken's Bend upon the war as a whole. The battle contributed to southerner's increasing fears of slave insurrection and heightened their anxieties about emancipation. In the North, it helped foster a commitment to allow free blacks and former slaves to take part in the war to end slavery. And for African Americans, both free and enslaved, Milliken's Bend symbolized their never-ending struggle for freedom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807149942
Publisher:	Louisiana State University Press
Publication date:	04/15/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Linda Barnickel is an archivist and freelance writer with master's degrees from the University of Wisconsin—Madison and The Ohio State University. Passionate about discovering the hidden and fascinating stories of history, she is interested in local history, military history, oral history, and the cultural power of archives.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations, Maps, and Tables ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xvii

1 "The Dark Pall of Barbarism": Emancipation as War Crime 11

2 "Eternal Vigilance": The Insurrectionary Menace and Vigilante Response 12

3 "All Is Uncertain": Civilians in Louisiana and Mississippi 26

4 "The Triumph of a Noble Purpose": Emancipation Comes to Northeast Louisiana 48

5 "I Cannot Tell How It Was I Escaped": The Bloody Battle at Milliken's Bend 83

6 "A Disagreeable Dilemma": The Fate of Union Prisoners, Black and White 112

7 "This Battle Has Significance": Milliken's Bend and the Wider War 139

8 "We Intended to Fight for the Country": The Limits of Freedom, 1863-1865 149

9 "A Terrible Aftermath of Injustice": Violence in the Postwar Era 157

10 Forgetting and Remembering Milliken's Bend 165

Appendix A Unit and Biographical Sketches 183

Appendix B Federal Casualties at Milliken's Bend 200

Appendix C Report of Col. Isaac F. Shepard to Adjt. Gen. Lorenzo Thomas 207

Appendix D Reports Investigating the Death of Capt. Corydon Heath 211

Abbreviations 215

Notes 217

Bibliography 247

Index 273