Near Vicksburg on Sunday, June 7, 1863 Confederate Texans under General Richard Taylor attacked the Federal garrison at Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana. The Confederates overwhelmed the Federal defenses, driving the defenders, including black troops, to the Mississippi riverbank.
One Confederate soldier later recalled, “The enemy gave away and stampeded pell-mell over the levee, in great terror and confusion. Our troops followed after them, bayoneting them by hundreds." A wholesale Union defeat was averted by the Union gunboats Lexington and Choctaw which stemmed the Confederate advance.
The Texans plundered the Federal camp but had to retreat before the two Union gunboats. The attacking Texans suffered 185 total casualties while inflicting some 652 casualties on the Union defenders. Taylor’s successful attack did little, however, to relieve the encircled, sieged city of Vicksburg.