Yesterday I spoke to the Bellevue (Tenn.) History and Genealogy Group about Milliken’s Bend. They were a pleasant and welcoming audience, and asked some good questions. Two of which I will answer here.

1) How do the losses by USCT regiments at Milliken’s Bend compare with losses sustained by USCT’s on Peach Orchard Hill in the Battle of Nashville?

2) How does the situation at Milliken’s Bend compare, if at all, with Fort Pillow?

At Peach Orchard Hill, the 13th U.S. Colored Infantry lost 220 men, about 40% of its starting force, more than any regiment on either side during the entire battle.  They were in the forefront of the assault, and five color bearers were shot down.

By comparison, the 9th Louisiana Infantry, African Descent, at Milliken’s Bend sustained losses of 68% of their starting force or 195 men. Proportionally, their loss was much greater than the 13th USCI, though in actual numbers the losses at Peach Orchard Hill were greater.

Another unit at Milliken’s Bend, the 11th Louisiana Infantry, African Descent, lost 42% of its starting force, or 201 men. Although the 11th Louisana’s losses seem similar to those of the 13th USCI at Nashville, half of the 11th’s casualties were missing – probably most of them captured.

As to Fort Pillow, a few comparisons can be drawn. Both Milliken’s Bend and Fort Pillow held relatively little strategic importance. Their significance had more to do with racial issues as they connected to the larger war. Ultimately the two battles raised two issues: how did Confederate troops treat black Union soldiers and what should the Union response be to such treatment?

At the time of Milliken’s Bend, initial reports claimed that surrendering blacks were shot down, and as late as the 1880s some African American writers, like George Washington Williams, still believed that all of the more than 100 soldiers taken prisoner had been killed. But this proved to be untrue, probably unknown to Williams at the time.

Was Milliken’s Bend a “massacre” in the way Fort Pillow would become, in all of its convoluted history and ever-present debate? No, not in any way. Were casualties high among the black troops at Milliken’s Bend? Certainly. But there was no massacre on the field, and the best evidence so far shows that most black men taken prisoner at the Bend were returned to slavery.

Sources: James L. McDonough, Nashville: The Western Confederacy’s Final Gamble (pp. 228-235); Mark Zimmerman,Guide to Civil War Nashville ; John Cimprich, Fort Pillow, a Civil War Massacre, and Public Memory (p. 85, p. 129).