In the early morning darkness of June 6, 1863, around 2a.m., Col. Hermann Lieb took his regiment of new recruits out for a reconnaissance toward the railroad depot, near Tallulah and Richmond, Louisiana. Two companies of the irritable 10th Illinois Cavalry were part of the mission as well, following Walnut Bayou in a twisted path south of Milliken’s Bend.

Lieb’s advance found Confederate pickets at the depot, and the Federals calmly retired back the way they had come. Meanwhile, the 10th Illinois Cavalry had encountered men of Maj. Isaac F. Harrison’s 15th Louisiana Cavalry Battalion near the same vicinity. Both cavalry units were about the same size, but Harrison must have surprised the Yankees, or otherwise caught them off guard. Harrison sent the bluecoats galloping away, leaving behind 25 of their men as prisoners and five men dead.

The frightened Yankee cavalry crashed through Lieb’s regiment, with the Confederate horsemen right behind them. Lieb quickly ordered his men into line, and they fired off a volley into Harrison’s troopers, sending them scurrying back to Richmond.

This would be all the action Lieb’s men would see this day, but as he returned to the Bend, he had an ominous feeling. The Rebels would attack in force, soon. He knew it. He told Brig. Gen. Elias S. Dennis that he needed reinforcements. Dennis dispatched half of the 23rd Iowa Infantry (about 120 men) from Young’s Point to Milliken’s Bend, and requested support from Navy gunboats, as well.  Both would arrive overnight on the evening of June 6/7.

Meanwhile, Walker’s Division had arrived mid-morning of June 6 at Richmond, and were soon given orders to fix two days’ rations and be ready to march at 6pm. Gen. Richard Taylor wanted to move quickly. He believed that Lieb might think Richmond was held only by a small cavalry force – so he wanted Walker to attack the Federal outpost at dawn.

Walker prepared by giving Brig. Gen. James M. Hawes’ brigade the task of taking Young’s Point, while Brig. Gen. Henry McCulloch’s brigade would attack Milliken’s Bend. Though Taylor knew by this time that Grant’s supplies were coming up the Yazoo, and no longer being transported down the west side of the Mississippi River, he felt the situation in Vicksburg forced him to take some action, even if it did not have much likelihood of actually providing relief for the besieged city.

What no one on either side expected was the extraordinary violence and carnage that came the next day…