Grant at Vicksburg: The General and the Siege

4. Rampant Racism

64|4{ Rampant Racism Though Grant maintained his obsession with the Mechanicsburg Corridor, he could not ignore other problems. On the Louisiana side of the Mississippi, Confederate Lieutenant General Kirby Smith ordered Major General Richard Taylor to attack two of Grant’s bases, Young’s Point and Milliken’s Bend. Smith had in mind disruption of Grant’s supply line, but Grant had moved his central supply depot to Chickasaw Bayou, and Confederate infantry, artillery, or partisan snipers could not stop Porter’s navy from replenishing Union stores. When Grant crossed his troops into Mississippi, he took steps to firm up his supply line on the Louisiana side of the river. He had depots established at Young’s Point, Milliken’s Bend, and Lake Providence. The transfer of his main supply depot to Chickasaw Bayou landing did not lead to an abandonment of the Louisiana posts. They could be used by Union detachments ordered to fend off Rebel forays in Louisiana. Grant detailed troops to establish camps at Milliken’s Bend and other points to keep track of Rebel activities . Also, the locations could be used for training and recruiting areas for black volunteers who enlisted to become part of the black regiments then on the drawing board. Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas has been called “one of the unsung heroes of the effort to create African American military units.” Whatever Thomas’s personal feelings about black men, he embraced wholeheartedly the concept of black units. Secretary of War Stanton gave Thomas the job of recruiting black men along the lower reaches of the Northeastern Louisiana, March 29, 1863. Map 9, Warren E. Grabau, Ninety-Eight Days (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2000). 66 | rampant racism Mississippi, including, of course, Grant’s district. Grant did nothing to hinder Thomas, and men encouraged by Thomas’s evangelistic approach to convince Union troops that arming black men was a positive idea joined in his efforts. Thus, the establishment of a camp for black troops at Lake Providence came into being.1 On June 3, three days before he departed up the Yazoo, Grant received word from Brigadier General Jeremiah Sullivan that there were rumors of imminent Rebel attacks on the Louisiana side. Sullivan said nothing about what he had done or intended to do to thwart such offensives, nor did he seem to know any particulars about the Confederate presence. Grant sent Brigadier General Elias Dennis to take command.2 On June 7, the day Grant returned to Chickasaw Bayou, Confederate Major General John Walker attacked Milliken’s Bend. June 6 began with a reconnaissance by Union troops, led by Colonel Hermann Lieb, toward the town of Richmond, south of Milliken’s Bend. Along the way, Lieb ran into Walker’s advancing force, and after a brief skirmish, Lieb decided he was outgunned and retreated back to Milliken’s Bend. Lieb’s detachment included the 9th Louisiana regiment of troops of “African Descent,” one of several units of black troops organized in Grant’s district during recent months. Two companies from the 10th Illinois Cavalry rode in advance of the black infantry. On April 22, Grant had issued General Orders No. 25, in which he stated that all commanders must provide facilities for the ongoing organization of Negro regiments currently being organized. Commissaries and quartermasters must furnish whatever was needed in the same amounts as white troops required. All officers must be diligent in carrying out the policy of the Lincoln administration regarding the organization and sufficient training of black troops, and they should do all they could to stifle prejudices. The latter would prove difficult to implement; indifference to slaves and black soldiers during the Vicksburg campaign was rampant. Only time would tell how well the instructions regarding black troops would be carried out. By June, there had been little progress. Yet, with siege operations occupying his attention, Grant did not have time to focus personally on oversight.3 Innate racism among Union soldiers had been obvious throughout the Vicksburg campaign. Soldiers in occupied Memphis grew tired of the “drove of blackbirds” that came to the city. Others laughed about slaves playing banjos and doing the “nigger-dance.” One white soldier hoped for permission to shoot slaves; eradicating blacks would allow white soldiers in the opposing armies to go home. There would be no reason to fight. Many rampant racism | 67 resented the purpose of the war shifting from saving...