As early as June, 1863, General Grant was compelled, in order to show a bold front to Gens. Pemberton and Johnston at the same time, while besieging Vicksburg, to draw nearly all the troops from Milliken's Bend to his support, leaving three infantry regiments of the black Phalanx and a small force of white cavalry to hold this, to him an all important post. Milliken's Bend was well fortified, and with a proper garrison was in condition to stand a siege. Brigadier-General Dennis was in command, and the troops consisted of the 9th and 11th Louisiana Regiments, the 1st Mississippi and a small detachment of white cavalry, in all about 1,400 men, raw recruits. General Dennis looking upon the place more as a station for organizing and drilling the Phalanx, had made no particular arrangements in anticipation of an attack. He was surprised, therefore, when a force of 3,000 men, under General Henry McCulloch, from the interior of Louisiana, attacked and drove his pickets and two companies of the 23d Iowa Cavalry, (white) up to the breastworks of the Bend. The movement was successful, however, and the confederates, holding the ground, rested for the night, with the expectation of marching into the fortifications in the morning, to begin a massacre, whether a resistance should be shown them or not. The knowledge this little garrison had of what the morrow would bring it, doubtless kept the soldiers awake, preparing to meet the enemy and their own fate. About 3 o'clock, in the early grey of the morning, the confederate line was formed just outside of the intrenchments; suddenly with fixed bayonets the men came rushing over the works, driving everything before them and shouting, "No quarter! No quarter to negroes or their officers!" In a moment the blacks formed and met them, and now the battle began in earnest, hand to hand. The gunboats "Choctaw" and "Lexington" also came up as the confederates were receiving the bayonets and the bullets of the Unionists, and lent material assistance. The attacking force had flanked the works and was pouring in a deadly, enfilading musketry fire. The defenders fell back out of the way of the gunboat's shells, but finally went forward again with what was left of their 150 white allies, and drove the enemy before them and out of the captured works. One division of the enemy's troops hesitated to leave a redoubt, when a company of brave black men dashed forward at double-quick time and engaged them. The enemy stood his ground, and soon the rattling bayonets rang out amid the thunders of the gunboats and the shouts of enraged men; but they were finally driven out, and their ranks thinned by the "Choctaw" as they went over the works. The news reached General Grant and he immediately dispatched General Mower's brigade with orders to re-enforce Dennis and drive the confederates beyond the Tensas river.
A battle can be best described by one who observed it. Captain Miller, who not only was an eye-witness, but participated in the Milliken's Bend fight, writes as follows:
"We were attacked here on June 7, about three o'clock in the morning, by a brigade of Texas troops, about two thousand five hundred in number. We had about six hundred men to withstand them, five hundred of them negroes. I commanded Company I, Ninth Louisiana. We went into the fight with thirty-three men. I had sixteen killed, eleven badly wounded, and four slightly. I was wounded slightly on the head, near the right eye, with a bayonet, and had a bayonet run through my right hand, near the forefinger; that will account for this miserable style of penmanship.
"Our regiments had about three hundred men in the fight. We had one colonel wounded, four captains wounded, two first and two second lieutenants killed, five lieutenants wounded, and three white orderlies killed, and one wounded in the hand, and two fingers taken off. The list of killed and wounded officers comprised nearly all the officers present with the regiment, a majority of the rest being absent recruiting."
BATTLE OF MILLIKEN'S BEND
"We had about fifty men killed in the regiment and eighty wounded; so you can judge of what part of the fight my company sustained. I never felt more grieved and sick at heart, than when I saw how my brave soldiers had been slaughtered,—one with six wounds, all the rest with two or three, none less than two wounds. Two of my colored sergeants were killed; both brave, noble men, always prompt, vigilant, and ready for the fray. I never more wish to hear the expression, 'The niggers won't fight.' Come with me, a hundred yards from where I sit, and I can show you the wounds that cover the bodies of sixteen as brave, loyal, and patriotic soldiers as ever drew bead on a rebel.
"The enemy charged us so close that we fought with our bayonets, hand to hand. I have six broken bayonets to show how bravely my men fought. The Twenty-third Iowa joined my company on the right; and I declare truthfully that they had all fled before our regiment fell back, as we were all compelled to do.