Illustration of African American Soldiers Repelling the Confederate Troops
at Milliken's Bend
(Source: Harper's Weekly, public domain)
Last
weekend, as my father, oldest sister, nephew, and I toured the new Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in
Jackson, we conversed about the participation of my father’s great-grandfather,
John “Jack” Bass of Warren County (Vicksburg), Mississippi, in the Civil War. I
had confirmed that he served with the 49th Regiment, formerly the 11th
Louisiana Infantry, of the United States Colored Troops (USCT). According to
his service record, he enlisted on May 16, 1863, at Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana.
He was promoted from Private to Corporal on February 1, 1865, by order of Lieutenant
Colonel Cyrus Sears.
Just
three weeks after his enlistment, Grandpa Jack Bass, who was born into slavery
in 1844 in Northampton County, North Carolina, and who descended from the Igbo
people of present-day Nigeria on his mother’s side, fought in a significant battle
– the Battle of Milliken's Bend, fought on June 7, 1863. Colonel Hermann Lieb
situated his men into a battle line at Milliken’s Bend on the Mississippi River,
the opposite side to Vicksburg, and prepared them to meet the pursuing Confederate
troops. His units comprised of the 8th, 9th, 11th, and 13th Louisiana Infantry
Regiments (African Descent), 1st Mississippi Infantry (African Descent), and
the 23rd Iowa Infantry that totaled 1,061 men. The Battle of Milliken’s Bend
became one of the first Civil War battles to involve African-American Union
Army troops.
With two
gunboats docked in the river to assist, Lieb strategically positioned his recently-recruited
and poorly-trained men on the levee behind bales of cotton. When the Confederates
troops arrived, hand-to-hand combat ensued. The Confederates pushed over the
cotton bale barricades with their clubbed muskets and bayonets. Adrenalin undoubtedly
kicked in, and Grandpa Jack and his USCT comrades bravely fought for their
freedom. One soldier, Joseph Blessington,
reported in his 1875 memoir, "The enemy gave away and stampeded pell-mell
over the levee, in great terror and confusion. Our troops followed after them,
bayoneting them by the hundreds." (Source)
Grandpa Jack’s
service record described him as being a short 5 ft. 3 inches in height. I don’t
have to wonder why my late great-aunt Pearlie Spicer, his granddaughter, was
very short. So in my mind, I envision a short, brave man, probably resembling
the comedian Kevin Hart, in fierce battle alongside his many USCT comrades who
were being brutally slayed around him. They successfully scared away the
attacking Confederates. Although Grandpa Jack luckily survived the ferocious
battle, the casualties at Milliken’s Bend were severe on both sides.
According
to Linda Barnickel, author of Milliken’s
Bend: A Civil War Battle in History and Memory, the 9th Louisiana lost a
whopping 68% of their men, which was the highest total of any of the Black
regiments during the Civil War. Sixty-six (66) of their men died, and it was
the highest loss in a single engagement by any Union unit during the entire
Vicksburg campaign. The 23rd Iowa Infantry lost 54% of their unit, which had comprised
of only 120 men. Numerous officers on both sides reported that their companies
sustained nearly 50% casualties.
Despite the
numerous casualties, the bravery and tenacity of the African-American soldiers showed
the nation that African-American men could fight as well as the best white
soldiers. Being regarded as outsiders, they made the great Vicksburg victory
possible for the Union, and they earned the official praise of Major General
Ulysses S. Grant. Also, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton wrote the following in a
letter to President Abraham Lincoln on Dec. 5, 1863:
“Many persons believed, or pretended
to believe, and confidentially asserted, that freed slaves would not make good
soldiers; they would lack courage and could not be subjected to military
discipline. Facts have shown how groundless were these apprehensions. The slave
has proved his manhood, and his capacity as an infantry soldier, at Milliken's
Bend, at the assault upon Port Hudson, and the storming of Fort Wagner."
(Source: The
War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union.
Washington, D.C.: United States Department of War. 1899. p. 1,132.)
Afterwards,
the Union pushed to enlist thousands of African Americans into newly-formed
regiments. When the Civil War ended in 1865, nearly 180,000 African-American men
had served as soldiers in the U.S. Army. Close to 10,000 of them died in battle.
Another 30,000 African-American men died as a result from illness or infection.
They are not forgotten.
Pointing to Grandpa Jack Bass’ name at the African American Civil War Memorial, Washington, D.C.
Sources:
“Milliken's
Bend: A Civil War Battle in History and Memory,” Link: www.millikensbend.com, accessed 25 May
2018.
Barnickel,
Linda. Milliken’s Bend: A Civil War
Battle in History and Memory. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State Univ. Press,
2013.
National
Park Service. “The Battle of Milliken's Bend, June 7, 1863.” Link: https://www.nps.gov/vick/learn/historyculture/battle-of-millikens-bend-june-7-1863.htm,
accessed 26 May 2018.
The War of the
Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union. Washington, D.C.:
United States Department of War, 1899.