Long before the enslaved of Galveston, Texas learned of their freedom through Union General Gordon Granger’s General Orders No. 3, issued on June 19, 1865, now celebrated as “Juneteenth,” the enslaved men, women, and children of northeast Louisiana seized their freedom in the early spring of 1863. Some ran away from the plantations where they had been forced to labor in the cotton and corn fields. Others stayed put, and it was the slaveholders who fled. The Union army under Ulysses S. Grant gathered in force along the western bank of the Mississippi River in Madison and Carroll Parishes.

The white plantation owners in the area – many of them women or elderly men – feared the worst from the Federal army, and took to their heels. Some fled to the interior, such as Monroe, Louisiana, about 70 miles away. Others went farther west, to Shreveport, or even all the way to Texas. Many would not return until the war’s end.

Meanwhile, the newly freed slaves, now known as “Freedmen,” surged in to Union lines in droves. So great was the influx of freedpeople that the Union army was quickly overwhelmed. Preparing for the active campaigning season just months away, when Grant would make a final and successful push on Vicksburg, the Union quartermasters were unprepared to feed, cloth and house literally thousands of unexpected refugees that came in to their lines. It did not take long for this to become a true humanitarian crisis. “Contraband camps” were soon established, in an effort to bring some order to the chaos, and to make some level of provision for the thousands in need. This effort was only marginally successful. There continued to be great suffering and shortages in the camps.

Soon, most of the military-aged men among the Freedmen were impressed in to the Union army, part of what would soon become known as the “U.S. Colored Troops” or USCT. Some men responded with pride and were eager to take up a musket to fight their former enslavers. Others, although sympathetic, feared or mourned to leave behind their families, many of whom had just been reunited. Black women were susceptible to cruelties and assaults at the hands of white Union soldiers. Confederate guerillas roamed the area, occasionally making raids in an effort to evacuate and re-enslave the former bondsmen. Northeastern Louisiana remained a fraught and uncertain place, despite the presence of the Union army.

This was the backdrop, just a few months prior to the battle at Milliken’s Bend, where Black soldiers, just weeks off the plantation, fought with courage and tenacity against their Confederate attackers, despite a lack of training, poor weaponry, and at times, poor leadership. Even the Confederate general praised their courage, finding that they fought “with considerable obstinacy.”

Milliken’s Bend is just one small part in the Freedom Story, but it has been forgotten for too long. It is a story of freedom, courage, and incredible odds. It is a story of freedom promised, seized, restrained, and denied. The men who fought and died at Milliken’s Bend deserve to be remembered, and their story must be told. Learn more: About the battle. About the book.