I had the pleasure to meet Mike Talplacido at the recent Civil War Trust meeting who told me that there were two Confederates buried in Vicksburg National Cemetery from Milliken’s Bend. One of them, he informed me, was Reuben H. White of the 19th Texas Infantry, who was wounded at Milliken’s Bend and died in a Union hospital. During the post-war reburials into the National Cemetery, White’s body was moved. He was assumed to be a Yankee soldier, since he was buried near a Federal hospital.

Sure enough, once I had a chance to check my records, I found Reuben H. White, a private, 19th Texas, Company D, who was wounded in the right ankle, and treated at Van Buren General Hospital at Milliken’s Bend on June 7, the day of the battle. No further information about him, not even his death, is recorded in the hospital ledger. A number appears in the left margin next to his name, 2872. I wonder – is that perhaps a grave number? Perhaps at the hospital cemetery – or could it be a later annotation?  At the National Cemetery, his grave number is #2637. No other men, Federal or Confederate, have similar annotations in the original hospital ledger.

According to his compiled service record, White enlisted on June 27, 1862 in Davis County, Texas. After Milliken’s Bend, he was officially listed as wounded and missing on Confederate rolls. He died on July 23, 1863, though the ultimate cause of his death is not given.

Intriguingly, the other Confederate buried at Vicksburg National Cemetery also died at Van Buren General Hospital. Charles B. (or C.) Brantley served as a sergeant with Company B, 12th Battalion, Arkansas Sharp Shooters. As a regiment, they were not present at the Milliken’s Bend fight, but they had been engaged at Big Black River in Mississippi on  May 17. So it is not clear how or why Brantley came to be at the hospital on June 11, when he was admitted. His wounds, described in his service record as”Gun shot left side fracture” certainly sound like they could have come during the intense hand-to-hand fighting in the early phase of the battle at Milliken’s Bend, but no evidence has been found to indicate he was even temporarily serving with the Texans who were there.  It is possible that Brantley had been evacuated from Mississippi in the aftermath of the Big Black. His service record indicates he died on August 4, and like Reuben White, he was buried at Vicksburg National Cemetery on the mistaken assumption that he was a Federal. His grave is #2673.

Sources: Compiled service records of Reuben H. White and Charles C. Brantley (originals at National Archives, also available digitally via Fold3.com); Van Buren U.S. General Hospital (v. 157), Field Records of Hospitals – Louisiana (entry 544), Records of the Adjutant General’s Office (RG94), National Archives, Washington, DC.