[ Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: S Witmer
Date: 17 Dec 2004
Time: 15:42:46
Remote Name: 152.163.100.131
Pardon the lengthy post, but those with an interest in the battle of Milliken's Bend may find these interesting... From my own research, here are two eyewitness accounts from members of the 23rd Iowa who participated in the battle (my own connection with the regiment - my G-G-G-Grandfather, Sergeant James O'Bleness, was killed at Milliken's Bend. Another relative also served in the 23rd and survived the war, but it's unknown if he was present at Milliken's Bend or not). Bear in mind that eyewitness accounts can vary substantially from person to person and are very subjective - what one person saw (or thinks they saw) may be very different from what another saw. The first is a letter by David West (of Co. J - when he refers to "6 dead", he is referring only to his own company) to his father. The original letter is in the archives of the State Historical Society of Iowa. I have kept the spelling, grammar, and puncuation as true to the original as possible: "Young’s Point, LA June 8th Dear Father I have the pleasure of writing you a few lines to inform you that I am still on the land and with the living though since I last wrote you the 23d has been engaged with the Rebellion and suffered again severely we had 6 killed dead and one mortally wounded the names of the killed are as followes Enoch Frazier Jacob B. Moon John Wellock Levy Spruance Daniel Sturgeon Enoch Collin killed and Bob Dewey our 1st Lieut mortal wounded and I hear just now that he is dead The fight tuck place at Milikanes Bend the Rebbles were commanded by young Ben McCullock Six Thousand Strong and we had 2 negro Regt and 120 of the 23d Iowa and it was a race who should reach the Levee first and we got there all at the same time and went to bayoneting and club fiting with the buts of our guns and they the Rebs seemed to be intent on killing us all but we stood as long as we could and then was obliged to fall back under the bank of the river, close to the waters edge and the rebs did not pursue if they had we would have had to surrender being over powerd and already loosing half of our men killed and wounded and I believe out of the 120 there was 62 killed and wounded the old 23d is quite small we have not 100 effective men in the Regt Co J went in with 12 men and had the sad misfortune to loose killed one half of there number at the six that remained buried the six that was killed the froots of war is horrible to behold though when one is in the ingagement he has no fear of Death before him and he can plunge his Bayonet plum through his fellowe man and laff at the sight or knock his Braines out and care not but rather be incouraged at the sight but after the battle is all over I then walk over the field always causes my soul to shudder and my hart grows sick within me I never want to walk over battle field great deal rather do the fiting than walk over and carry off the Dead and wounded I am all right again and with the company we are off of Duty though we Expect to be attacked here Daily and Hourly as there is no force here but a few convalescents and a [illegible] and carry Equippage we have long since formed a resilution to Fight as long as there is a man left to fight our Credit is good down here and as long as there is fiting to do there we Expect to do our Part willingly and Cheerfully this thing [illegible] with the 23d is plaid out I will close for the present as I have nothing more of intrest D[avid] West" The second item is from W.M. Littel, an excerpt of a letter to his wife. A typed transcription of the letter is on microfilm at the State Historical Library of Iowa. The transcription was provided to the Vicksburg Commission by the original author (spelling, grammar, and punctuation are as they were in the typed transcription): "…June 9th. I was stopped rather unceremoniously on the 6th by an order for us to go to Millikens Bend forthwith as they were expecting an attack at that place. We went up that evening, the Regt numbering 130 men and got there just a little after dark. When we arrived the officer in command had about concluded that it was a false alarm, so we lay on the boat all night, or till nearly daylight when the news came that the rebels were coming, but we did not think they were in very heavy force or very near. We went out to within about twenty steps of the levee , and the front halted till the rear would get off the boat. As soon as the front stopped, the Col. rode to the breastworks, and to his surprise saw the rebels 200 yards away, four regiments deep, coming up driving cattle, horses, mules, in front of them for breastworks, carrying the Stars and Stripes and some of them dressed in our army blue. The Col. ordered us to double quick for Gods sake, they are right on us. We done so, but the left of the Regt did not all get into the works until the rebs were on top of them. Both sides used their bayonets with effect. It was a very hot place, the rebs numbering not less than 2500 against 130 of us (except the Negroes, and they had just drawn their guns the evening before and did not know how to use them). They did not know how to load their guns, did not know where their caps were. Three of them came to me for caps. I said “My God men have you no caps” one of them answered “Massa we don’t know where they are” I showed them and each one had his cap pouch full. We had been in the ditch about three minutes when the Negroes gave way on our left and let the Rebels in. They fired a terrible volley right down the ditch and were preparing to give us another when the Col. ordered us to fall back to the next breastworks, that run at right angles with the first, we did so when they flanked us again, and we had to fall back to the river bank. Out of 130 men that went into the fight 27 were killed on the field and 43 wounded making a little more than half of the regiment. When we fell back to the river one of our gunboats shelled the rebels and killed several. I counted besides our killed 50 dead Negroes on our left. The rebel loss is supposed to be not less than 300. Directly in front of our regiment and about 100 feet away there were 33 dead, they carried away all their wounded except one. After the battle we marched down the river to Van Buren hospital about a mile in order to protect that place, as we had quite a number of sick and convalescent there. We stayed there that night and were reinforced by two other regiments, but there was no further fighting. W.M. Littell"