Battle of Milliken's Bend

An illustration of the Milliken's Bend battle from the Harper's Weekly periodical, showing black U.S. soldiers battling Confederates.

Date	June 7, 1863 (1863-06-07)
Location	Madison Parish, Louisiana
Result	Union victory

Belligerents

United States (Union)

Confederate States (Confederacy)

Commanders and leaders

Hermann Lieb

Henry E. McCulloch

Units involved

African Brigade
23rd Iowa Infantry

Walker's Texas Division

Casualties and losses

652

185

The Battle of Milliken's Bend, fought June 7, 1863, was part of the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. Confederate Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton and his army were besieged in Vicksburg, Mississippi, by Union commander Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Tennessee.

In an effort to cut Grant's supply line and relieve the city, the Confederates attacked the Union supply area at Milliken's Bend up the Mississippi. The Milliken's Bend area, 15 miles to the northwest of Vicksburg, had until recently served as a staging area for Grant's Vicksburg Campaign. It was a site of supply depots and hospitals, many of which were manned and guarded by black soldiers, some of whom were recently recruited men who were freed slaves.

Although a relatively small battle, it was distinguished by the prominent role played by the United States Colored Troops who, despite lacking much military training, fought bravely with inferior weaponry and finally drove off the Confederates with help from gunboats.

Confederate President Jefferson Davis was under heavy political pressure to come to the aid of the besieged Pemberton and his 40,000 troops, bottled up in Vicksburg by Grant's 60,000 troops. Under the belief that Grant's supply lines on the west bank of the Mississippi, on the Louisiana side across from Vicksburg, were vulnerable, Davis instructed Trans-Mississippi Department Commander Lt. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith to send troops to break up that supply line. Unknown to either Smith or Davis, Grant had recently shifted his supply lines to the east bank of the Mississippi above Vicksburg.

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Wikipedia