Benjamin Marshall Mills joined the 49th U.S. Colored Infantry as a lieutenant in the spring of 1864.  He routinely wrote his father, abolitionist and Indiana educator Caleb Mills. On June 7, 1864, Lt. Mills commented on the significance of the day, the  one year anniversary of the battle at Milliken’s Bend. Though Mills was not even part of the regiment at the time of the battle, he provided his father with the details.

“The Regt. had hardly got organised when one morning as they lay encamped on the river bank the Rebs made an attack upon them at three oclock in the morning. They were repulsed with heavy loss, yet this Regt. lost heavily. Captain [James P.] Hall lost his two Lieuts there – one was killed in the battle [1st Lt. Robert D. Crosby] and the other [2nd Lt. George L. Conn] was taken prisoner, kept 2 or 3 days and then taken to a bridge over some considerable sized stream his hands handcuffed and his feet tied together and then throwed into the water and drowned. The Negroes fought very well considering the circumstances for they had been mustered into the service only a short time previous. We have two men in our company who were wounded in that battle, one in the arm and the other through the cheek. The Officers of this Regt. and those of Col. Liebs had made preparations to celebrate this day and had everything prepared for a supper and a dance this evening but the Quartermaster of Lieb’s Regt. died today so it was postponed. I suppose that they will do now the way we do when Christmas comes on a Sunday celebrate it the next day.”

There’s no indication that the celebration occurred, however. And a close reading of Mills’ language makes it appear that the party may have been for the exclusive enjoyment of the officers – not the black enlisted men.

Source: B. Marshall Mills to Dear Mother and Father, 7 June 1864, Caleb Mills Family Papers, Indiana Historical Society.