Months after Brig. Gen. John D. Stevenson took a division on a short but grueling expedition into Monroe, Louisiana, Maj. John G. Davis of the 1st Mississippi Heavy Artillery, African Descent (the same regiment known as the 9th Louisiana Infantry, A.D. at Milliken’s Bend) testified:

“I being at Monroe, State of Louisiana with the Trans Mississippi expedition on the 28th of August 1863, made it a part of my duty to make inquiry concerning the fate of Captain Coridon Heath of 9th Regiment Louisiana Vols of A. D. who was captured by the Rebels at the Battle of Millikens Bend on the 7th day of June 1863, since which time he had not been heard of.

I first inquired of Citizens who resided at Monroe and they stated that he had been held a prisoner in close confinement at that place, but that a short time before the arrival of the expedition he was taken out of Prison at night and put to Death but could not say in what manner. I next proceeded to the Confederate Hospital and conversed with the Soldiers upon the subject. I found several men who had seen Captain Heath while a Prisoner, and their statements all agreed concerning his Death. Afterwards I conversed with Prisoners who were captured in the vicinity of Monroe, and they informed me positively that said Captain was taken out of Prison by the Rebel authorities at night and hung until Dead.”

Davis’s report, and others, eventually made it to the desk of the Secretary of War in Washington. Late in 1863 and early in 1864, the U.S. Congress began investigating alleged “atrocities” committed by Confederate forces. Davis’s report was among those that were taken as evidence. The fate of Capt. Corydon Heath and 1st Lt. George Conn, officers captured at Milliken’s Bend, thus played a role in contributing to the breakdown of prisoner exchanges between the United States and the Confederacy.

Source: excerpted from: H-391, 1864, Letters Received (entry 360), Colored Troops Division, Records of the Adjutant General’s Office (RG94), National Archives – Washington, DC. This document is reproduced in its entirety in the book, Milliken’s Bend: A Civil War Battle in History and Memory, Appendix D.