Milliken's Bend is an extinct settlement that was located along the Mississippi River in Madison Parish, Louisiana, United States [1] for about 100 years. In its heyday, the village had a boat landing, two streets of businesses, residences, churches, a four-room schoolhouse, a ferryman, and roads connecting it to Lake Providence, and Tallulah.
The settlement and the bend in the river were named for Major John Milliken. [2] According to one telling, Milliken was "an early settler supposed to have been a member of the pirate band of Captain Bunch" that gave its name to Bunch's Bend (or Bunches Bend). [3] According to a family history, "He studied surveying when a young man, and going to Kentucky with others of the family found employment under the State government, and was rewarded by a grant of land in Louisiana, where he cleared a large and valuable plantation, which was called Milliken's Bend, it being on a loop of the Mississippi River. He owned many slaves, and acquired wealth." [4] Milliken is believed to have made his settlement slightly after 1813. [5] He eventually owned a vast area between Morancy Plantation and Cabin Teele Plantation. [6] Millikin's Settlement was present on Mississippi River guide books intended for use by boat pilots as early as 1827. [7] There is a record in the Madison Parish registers for a slave sale from L. Hyland to John Milliken on July 13, 1832. [8]
Milliken's Bend had regular packet boat service by 1840. [9] According to a history of Methodism in Mississippi, "Our colored missions were growing in importance and popularity, and about 1842 several wealthy planters in the vicinity of Milliken's Bend, in Madison Parish, La., became anxious to have regular ministerial services among their numerous colored people. Mr. [Robert D.] Smith, who had married Miss Ann Mariah McClure in Vicksburg on the 11th of November, 1833, and who now had his home there, was selected for this important missionary field, as it was within twenty-five miles of his place of residence, so that he was not under the necessity of taking his family to the Swamp." [10] Milliken's Bend hosted an official U.S. post office as of 1846. [11] Epidemic cholera killed six people enslaved by Dr. Parker of Milliken's Bend in 1849. [12] The cotton crop in the vicinity of Milliken's Bend suffered badly from the boll weevil in 1852. [13] In 1855 the clerk of the Cavalier & Rathman store at Milliken's Bend got into a shootout with a local plantation overseer over a shipment of freight; the overseer was killed, the clerk was expected to survive his multiple gunshot wounds. [14]
The local cotton plantations shipped 19,000 bales out of Milliken's Bend in 1857. [15] The settlement supported a dry-goods store in 1857, [16] and a French-language travel guide published 1859 described it as a colony of planters, a similar to the nearby Tompkin's Settlement, but more important. [17] There was a schoolhouse "with four large and commodious rooms, play ground, &c" in Milliken's Bend in 1860. [18] The town also supported a Catholic Church, two streets of businesses, and had several roads connecting it to nearby settlements. [6] According to a history of Milliken's Bend written by a Louisiana Tech student in 1941, Milliken's Bend was also accessible from Eagle Bend by "the ferry, operated by old Ned Thompson, a Negro, that made regular trips across the River." [6]
The town formally incorporated in 1861. [6] During the American Civil War, William T. Sherman used Milliken's Bend as his base for "his ill-fated attempt to storm Chickasaw Bluffs and capture Vicksburg." [19] : 142 John McClernand's XIII Corps camped at Milliken's Bend in March 1863. [20] In 1863 Milliken's Bend was the site of the Battle of Milliken's Bend, [21] when Confederate general Dick Taylor, son of former U.S. president Zachary Taylor, and H. E. McCulloch's Texas Division unsuccessfully attacked the post. [20] There was a U.S. Army hospital there in 1864. [22]
After the end of Reconstruction, Milliken's Bend was a departure point for black families migrating to Kansas. This group of mass migrants are today known as the Exodusters. According to P. B. S. Pinchback:
Before leaving New Orleans I heard of the Kansas fever among the colored people of this section, but did not attach much importance to it. I was, therefore, surprised on nearing the Delta ferrylanding, to find the banks of the river covered with colored people and their little stores of worldly goods. The crowd awaiting transportation at this point was estimated at 300, but I learn it was swollen to 500 yesterday, when the people took their departure on the St. Louis packet Grand Tower for Kansas. A noticeable feature about their departure was the fact that not one of that vast number was permitted to board the steamer until fare was paid to St. Louis. This fact explodes the erroneous idea that these people are having their expenses paid by some outside agency, and that the movement is not a spontaneous one on their part. Numerous reasons are alleged for this remarkable exodus, but so far as I have been able to learn, the real cause is an apprehension of undefined danger in the near future. They religiously believe that the Constitutional Convention bodes them no good; that it has been called for the express purpose of abridging their rights and liberties, and they are fleeing from the wrath to come. They are absolutely panic stricken. Every road leading to the river is filled with wagons loaded with plunder, and families who seem to think anywhere is better than here. On my way yesterday to Milliken's Bend, I saw a large crowd camped on the landing at Duckport. A still larger crowd awaited transportation at Milliken's Bend. There is no doubt in my mind that this movement has assumed formidable shape, and, unless some means are devised to arrest it, this portion of the State will soon be entirely depopulated of its laboring classes." [23] : 311
By 1880, the Mississippi was eroding the ground on which the town stood, so it was moved wholesale about a mile inland. This new location was reasonably called "New Bend". [2] An Episcopal Church was added to the village. [6] The New Bend, however, was flooded in 1882, and then bypassed by the railroads that were coming through, and 1910 New Bend supported only a small store and a boat landing, and those were gone by the end of the decade. [6] There was a Rosenwald School in the vicinity of Milliken's Bend in the first half of the 20th century. [24]
According to the Friends of the Vicksburg Campaign Trail, the site of Milliken's Bend's can be found at the end of Thomaston Road. [20]
Madison Parish is a parish located on the northeastern border of the U.S. state of Louisiana, in the delta lowlands along the Mississippi River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 10,017. Its parish seat is Tallulah. The parish was formed in 1839. With a history of cotton plantations and pecan farms, the parish economy continues to be primarily agricultural. It has a majority African-American population. For years a ferry connected Delta, Louisiana to Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Vicksburg Bridge now carries U.S. Route 80 and Interstate 20 across the river into Madison Parish.
The Battle of Milliken's Bend was fought on June 7, 1863, as part of the Vicksburg Campaign during the American Civil War. Major General Ulysses S. Grant of the Union Army had placed the strategic Mississippi River city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, under siege in mid-1863. Confederate leadership erroneously believed that Grant's supply line still ran through Milliken's Bend, Louisiana, and Major General Richard Taylor was tasked with disrupting it to aid the defense of Vicksburg. Taylor sent Brigadier General Henry E. McCulloch with a brigade of Texans to attack Milliken's Bend, which was held by a brigade of newly-recruited African American soldiers. McCulloch's attack struck early on the morning of June 7, and was initially successful in close-quarters fighting. Fire from the Union gunboat USS Choctaw halted the Confederate attack, and McCulloch later withdrew after the arrival of a second gunboat. The attempt to relieve Vicksburg was unsuccessful. One of the first actions in which African American soldiers fought, Milliken's Bend demonstrated the value of African American soldiers as part of the Union Army.
The 8th Illinois Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
William Raine Peck was a wealthy American planter, politician, and soldier who served as a general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. The final commander of the famed Louisiana Tigers, Peck was among the largest Civil War generals, standing 6 feet, 6 inches tall and weighing 330 pounds.
The 8th Louisiana Regiment Infantry (African Descent) was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was composed primarily of freed or escaped slaves from Louisiana's plantations and was commanded by white officers.
The Battle of Richmond was fought on June 15, 1863, near Richmond, Louisiana, during the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War. Major General John George Walker's division of Confederate troops, known as Walker's Greyhounds had attacked Union forces in the Battle of Milliken's Bend and the Battle of Lake Providence earlier that month in hopes of relieving some of the pressure on the Confederate troops besieged in Vicksburg, Mississippi. While both of Walker's strikes were failures and the Confederates withdrew to Richmond, Union Major General Ulysses S. Grant still viewed the presence of Walker's men at Richmond to be a threat. On June 14, the Mississippi Marine Brigade and the infantry brigade of Brigadier General Joseph A. Mower were sent to attack the Confederates at Richmond.
The 49th United States Colored Infantry, first established as the 11th Louisiana Infantry (African descent) was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The Battle of Lake Providence was fought on June 9, 1863, during the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War. Confederate troops from the Trans-Mississippi Department were trying to relieve Union pressure during the Siege of Vicksburg. Major General Richard Taylor, primarily using Walker's Greyhounds, prepared a three-pronged attack against Union positions at Milliken's Bend, Young's Point, and Lake Providence, which was scheduled to take place on June 7. The strike against Lake Providence was conducted by 900 men led by Colonel Frank Bartlett.
The 1st Louisiana Battery Light Artillery (African Descent) was organized at Hebron's Plantation, Missouri, November 6, 1863. Attached to 1st Brigade, U.S. Colored Troops, District of Vicksburg, to April, 1864. On duty at Goodrich Landing and Vicksburg till April, 1864. Designation of Battery changed to Battery "C", 2nd U.S. Colored Light Artillery, April 26, 1864.
Tallula is an unincorporated community in Issaquena County, Mississippi, United States. Tallula was the county seat from 1848 to 1871.
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The 51st United States Colored Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment composed of African-American troops recruited from Mississippi that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Initially formed in the spring of 1863 as the 1st Regiment Mississippi Volunteer Infantry (African Descent), the Regiment took part in fierce fighting at the Battle of Milliken's Bend, served on garrison duty in Louisiana, and then took part in the Battle of Fort Blakeley, the last major battle of the war.
Skipwith's Landing was a 19th-century boat landing and human settlement on the east bank of the Mississippi River, located in the county of Issaquena in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Skipwith's Landing was situated about 55 mi (89 km) to 100 mi (160 km) north of Vicksburg, Mississippi, depending on mode of travel. Circa 1866, a witness at a U.S. Congressional hearing described Skipwith's Landing as being among the most sparsely populated sections of the state with no village or town in proximity. Circa 1867, there were no roads leading to or from Skipwith's Landing; the only access was by the river. For a time there was a cut made by the river that was known as Skipwith's Chute. Another related placename was Skipwith Crevasse. There was a U.S. post office at Skipwith's in 1870.
Pierre Michel La Pice de Bergondy, generally known as P. M. Lapice, sometimes Peter Lapice, was a merchant, sugar planter, and owner of a large number of slaves in 19th-century Mississippi and Louisiana in the United States. He was credited with Louisiana sugar-industry firsts, including producing the first white sugar, erecting the first cane-mill with five rollers, and building the first successful bagasse burner.
Petit Gulf was a location on the Mississippi River in North America. The gulf was an eddy or whirlpool that was smaller than the nearby Grand Gulf. The eddy lent its name to the nearby Petit Gulf Hills and Petit Gulf Creek. There was a settlement there prior to the 1828 organization of Rodney, Mississippi, and the Petit Gulf cotton cultivar, which was widely planted in the U.S. South before the American Civil War, was named for the landing and town.
Calvin Smith was an American plantation owner. He arrived in the Natchez District of British West Florida with his Loyalist parents in 1776. He was the 10th of 12 children. He received a land grant in 1791, and was one of three Smith brothers to marry one of three Cobb sisters of Wilkinson County. He eventually owned a 22-room house on a plantation called Retirement in the Second Creek neighborhood, about 10 miles below Natchez, Mississippi. He also owned or leased Springfield plantation for a time. He owned Monmouth from 1820 to 1826. He and his brothers had "founded large and influential families," and he became one of richest and most important planters in the region. He was suggested as a candidate for the U.S. Congress in 1820.
Goodrich's Landing, earlier known as Pecan Grove and later known as Illawara, was a placename connected to a steamboat landing and plantation in Carroll Parish, Louisiana, United States. Goodrich's Landing was the site of the American Civil War battle of Goodrich's Landing in 1863.
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New Carthage, Louisiana, also known as Carthage Landing, was a 19th-century Mississippi River boat landing and village surrounded by cotton-producing agricultural land and undeveloped wetlands. New Carthage was located in, successively, Concordia Parish, Madison Parish, and Tensas Parish in Louisiana, United States. Destroyed by a combination of the American Civil War and the power of the Mississippi River, nothing remains of New Carthage today.
Duckport was a plantation and boat landing in Madison Parish, Louisiana, United States, best known today as one of the endpoints of the unsuccessful Duckport Canal project during the American Civil War. An alternate name for the Duckport Landing was Sparta or Sparta Landing. As of 1890 two placenames were about 300 yards (270 m) apart on the Mississippi River, with Sparta preferred in high water and Duckport preferred in low.
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