 During Reconstruction, Collier was tried by a military tribunal in Vicksburg for the murder of a white man, Captain James King.The accusation may have stemmed from King's advocacy for the use of Freedmens Bureau labor on the Hinds plantation.After his acquittal, Collier left the state upon the advice of William Alexander Percy of Greenville, who was later the last U.S. senator from Mississippi elected by a state legislature.