Thanks to some incredibly detailed detective work by my colleague Isaiah Tadlock, we now know where some of the men killed at Milliken’s Bend lie buried. Tadlock used original burial registers, service records, and other resources to identify the present-day burial sites in the National Cemetery of over 100 enlisted men and four officers of the 9th Louisiana Infantry, African Descent. Although who lies in which individual grave may never be known, we now at least have a place to pay our respects, knowing we are near those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

Read more of Tadlock’s fascinating and extraordinary journey to identify these graves in his post, “Grave Matters: Recovering the Lost Battle Dead of Milliken’s Bend.”