I recently discovered on the National Archives website a small set of extremely detailed maps of the area of Milliken’s Bend and the Mississippi River. These are invaluable for learning more about the precise locations of Milliken’s Bend, and the slaveholders and their plantations in the region. Most importantly, this map gives a quite detailed location for the site of the village of Milliken’s Bend – right where Walnut Bayou joins the Mississippi River.

In addition to showing the location of Milliken’s Bend, this map also shows Duckport, Young’s Point, Oak Grove plantation, and Dalkeith plantation. All of these sites figure prominently in the Milliken’s Bend story.

To the south, on the same map, is the location of the town of Carthage, and Perkins plantation, where Brig. Gen. Henry McCulloch’s Texas Brigade sent the Yankees scurrying in a brief raid just a few days before the fight at Milliken’s Bend. Also significant are the plantations in Mississippi where Confederate President Jefferson Davis had his home at Brierfield, and his brother Joseph lived nearby at Hurricane. This area was known as Davis Bend, which has its own fascinating history.

Other maps in this same collection include the region near Lake Providence.

And the area around Goodrich’s Landing – scenes of carnage and destruction documented by the Mississippi Marine Brigade.

This map shows numerous plantations mentioned by Kate Stone in her diary, as well as others that were considered desirable lands for plantation leasing by Northern “plantation commissioners” – individuals who came South to operate plantations to grow cotton, corn, and other crops to help supply the Union army, and to sell at a profit upriver. This map shows Transylvania plantation, owned by Horace Tibbetts, and locations owned by the Morgan and Keene heirs, as well as Albion and Stamboul plantations.

These maps are among the most detailed I have found for areas directly along the river. They are an invaluable resource and aid to historians, researchers, and genealogists, and hold a wealth of information. For further reading, see also: Where is Milliken’s Bend?