(continued from previous post)

In early November 1863, Benjamin Sims traveled to Vicksburg to try to plead his case to Union authorities in person, but was turned away. He was told that his brother, M.W. Sims, was already steaming north to Memphis. Benjamin thought he would never hear from his brother again, and he returned home in grief and despair.

His sadness soon turned to joy, however, as he found a letter from his brother waiting for him. M.W. Sims had made his escape!

M.W. had jumped overboard, swam to shore, and hid out in the swamplands. He headed westward, eating what food he could find along the way, mostly berries and roots. One kindly woman gave him a new suit of clothes, made out of some flamboyant calico curtains. When he at last returned to General Hebert’s camp, probably after a few weeks on the trail, no one recognized him. He was gaunt and haggard, and his showy clothes caused a great deal of laughter. Finally, he was welcomed back, and regaled his colleagues with his exploits, something he would continue to do in the pages of the Confederate Veteran magazine years later.

Gen. Hebert had been waiting anxiously for Sims, growing increasingly concerned since the exchange of Judge Dent in early August. Hebert had been patient enough, awaiting Sims’ return from a northern prison camp, but by early November, he worried that Sims had met some misfortune, or that the Yankees had broken the agreement. Hebert sent a message across the lines to Dent, asking him to investigate. Dent, after all, was Union general U.S. Grant’s brother-in-law.

Not long thereafter, Sims returned to Hebert’s camp, and all was well. By escaping, Sims had avoided formal charges at Yankee hands, and his role in any executions associated with Milliken’s Bend remains unclear to this day.