I’m often asked, why has Milliken’s Bend been so forgotten?
There are a number of factors:

1. Even at the time the fight at Milliken’s Bend occurred, June 7, 1863, it was quickly overshadowed by other larger and momentous events. Most notably, the great clashes at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. The Confederate High Tide had been turned back on the Pennsylvania hills on July 3, and the Confederate forces surrendered Vicksburg to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on July 4. Even prior to these dates, the press was full of news about the progress of the siege (U.S.) or defense (C.S.) of Vicksburg, and the rapid invasion north by Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Milliken’s Bend quickly faded from the headlines.
2. The engagement at Milliken’s Bend was a small fight. Just about 1500 men on each side, a total of two brigades. When the enormous armies were locked in deadly conflict elsewhere, the struggles of a mere brigade were almost beneath notice.
3. Milliken’s Bend had virtually no immediate strategic military significance. To be sure, what took place there was important in different ways, but militarily, the outcome of the fight had little import to either side. Had the Confederates been able to take and hold the position, the gain would have been minimal. Other Union forces were still in the area, and McCulloch could not have successfully provided support to the Confederates across the river at Vicksburg on his own. Yankee supplies for Grant’s army were going up the Yazoo, in Mississippi, thus neutralizing the importance of the outpost at Milliken’s Bend, which had been a major supply depot weeks earlier. In that sense, it had become of minor importance to both sides.
4. Yet another reason Milliken’s Bend has been forgotten is that it simply no longer exists. There had been a small town there, at the time of the Civil War, and it persisted until the turn of the century. But not long thereafter, the site of the battlefield, as well as the town, was washed away when the Mississippi River changed its course. It is difficult to preserve the memory of a site, when the site itself no longer exists.
5. I believe racism can also be partially to blame for its omission. The courage of black troops was not something that the whites of the area would have been fond of remembering, especially in the years of violence and retribution that followed the Civil War, during Reconstruction and Jim Crow. Times were hard, all around, for blacks and whites, and eking out a living for their families was far more important than recalling the Civil War. As the twentieth century opened, the myth of the “contented slave” took root and prospered, with scholars like Archibald Dunning being one of its strongest advocates. With the imprimatur of the title “professor,” he and others of the “Dunning school” spread their version of Southern history throughout the United States. There was no room in such a history for brave black soldiers, especially former slaves.
6. Finally, and not to be understated, the actions of Vicksburg National Military Park must be considered. When the Park was first established, its mission was very focused: to interpret the battle and siege of Vicksburg on the ground where it took place. This remained its mission until 1990, when the scope of the Park was broadened to include all aspects of the Vicksburg campaign, and extended further to encompass the Union occupation and even Reconstruction. Suddenly, with a broader mission, and a changed political, social, and scholarly climate, where African American’s stories and history had become more valued within society at large, the story of Milliken’s Bend could at last be told. The fact remains, however, that only within the past 25 years has this been the case. Ninety years of history had passed in which Milliken’s Bend had been omitted from the formal narrative at the Park.