At Milliken's Bend, Louisiana, on August 18, 1862, he won high commendations from Henry Eustace McCulloch for leading a determined charge against Federal troops within artillery range of Union gunboats. McCulloch reported, "not only by a gallant and desperate charge over the levee" but by driving the enemy "to the very brink of the river and within short and direct range of the gunboats of the enemy." After transfer to William R. Scurry's brigade, he fought at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill during the Red River Campaign in spring 1864.