The 1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment was an

infantry Infantry, or infantryman are a type of soldier who specialize in ground combat, typically fighting dismounted. Historically the term was used to describe foot soldiers, i.e. those who march and fight on foot. In modern usage, the term broadl ...

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, military service, service, or administrative corps, specialisation. In Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of l ...

that served in the Union Army during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. It was the first black regiment organized in a northern state to see combat during the Civil War. At the

Battle of Poison Spring The Battle of Poison Spring, also known as the Poison Spring massacre, was fought in Ouachita County, Arkansas, on April 18, 1864, as part of the Camden Expedition, during the American Civil War. A Union (American Civil War), Union force comma ...

, wounded and surrendering soldiers from the regiment were massacred. As a result, the regiment lost nearly half its number and suffered the highest losses of any Kansas regiment during the war.

Service overview

The 1st Kansas Colored Infantry was organized by Senator James Henry Lane at Fort Scott,

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

and mustered in as a battalion of six companies on January 13, 1863 for three years. Four additional companies were recruited and mustered in between January 13 and May 2, 1863. It mustered in under the command of Colonel

James Monroe Williams James Monroe Williams (September 12, 1833 – February 15, 1907) was an American lawyer, soldier, and merchant. He served both as a cavalry and as an infantry Officer (armed forces), officer in the Union Army within the Trans-Mississippi Theater ...

. The regiment was recruited without federal authorization and against the wishes of Secretary of War

Edwin M. Stanton Edwin McMasters Stanton (December 19, 1814December 24, 1869) was an American lawyer and politician who served as U.S. secretary of war under the Lincoln Administration during most of the American Civil War. Stanton's management helped organize ...

. James H. Lane, recruiting commissioner for Kansan territory north of the

Kansas River The Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, is a meandering river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is potentially the southwestern most part of the Missouri River drainage, which is sometimes in turn the northwesternmost portion of ...

, on August 4, 1862, authorized raising the regiment. Recruiting officials enlisted black men across eastern Kansas, most of whom were formerly enslaved in Missouri. Some were emancipated, and many had escaped to freedom. It was the first African-American regiment to see combat during the Civil War, in the

skirmish at Island Mound The Skirmish at Island Mound was a skirmish of the American Civil War, occurring on October 29, 1862, in Bates County, Missouri. The Union victory is notable as the first known event in which an African-American regiment engaged in combat again ...

, in

Bates County, Missouri Bates County is a County (United States), county located in the west central part of the U.S. state of Missouri, two counties south of the Missouri River and is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, 202 ...

, in October 1862. The regiment's Company D had three black officers, William D. Matthews and his two lieutenants, Henry Copeland and Patrick Minor, who were not allowed commissions as officers when the regiment was formally mustered into the Union army. The regiment was attached to

Department of Kansas The Department of Kansas was a Union Army command department in the Trans-Mississippi Theater during the American Civil War. This department existed in three different forms during the war. 1861 The first "Department of Kansas" was created on N ...

to June 1863. Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt, commander of the Union forces at the

Battle of Honey Springs The Battle of Honey Springs, also known as the Affair at Elk Creek, on July 17, 1863, was an American Civil War Engagement (military), engagement and an important victory for Union forces in their efforts to gain control of the Indian Territory ...

, was particularly impressed by the performance of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry at that engagement. They repulsed a Confederate charge, inflicting many casualties, and, after Colonel Williams was badly wounded, continued to fight and made an orderly withdrawal. Afterwards, he wrote: "I never saw such fighting as was done by the Negro regiment....The question that negroes will fight is settled; besides they make better soldiers in every respect than any troops I have ever had under my command." The 1st Kansas Colored Infantry ceased to exist on December 13, 1864, when it became a U.S. Army unit. Its designation was changed to the

79th Regiment Infantry U.S. Colored Troops The 79th United States Colored Infantry was an all-black infantry regiment which fought for the Union Army during the Civil War. "... in August, 1862, recruiting for a colored regiment was commenced in Kansas, and over 600 men were soon mustered ...

."First to Serve."
National Park Service. Fort Scott National Historic Site." Retrieved August 30, 2014. Also attached to the regiment at some point was Armstrong's Battery Light Artillery, a unit for which few details are known.

In popular culture

In 2011, quilt artist and educator Marla Jackson worked with junior high students in

Lawrence, Kansas Lawrence is a city in and the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70 in Kansas, Interstate 70, between the Kansas River ...

to produce a collaborative and commemorative quilt on the 1st Kansas Infantry. The quilt, along with several others by Jackson that evoked similar themes, was displayed at the

Spencer Museum of Art The Spencer Museum of Art is an art museum operated by the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. History In 1917, the Kansas City art collector Sallie Casey Thayer donated her collection of over seven thousand works of art, ...

Notes

References

* Dyer, Frederick H. ''A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion'' (Des Moines, IA: Dyer Pub. Co.), 1908. * ''Official Military History of Kansas Regiments During the War for the Suppression of the Great Rebellion'' (Leavenworth: W. S. Burke), 1870. * Spurgeon, Ian Michael. ''Soldiers in the Army of Freedom: The 1st Kansas Colored, the Civil War's First African American Combat Unit'' (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press), 2014. ;Attribution *

External links

History of the 1st Kansas Infantry (Colored) by the Fort Scott National Park Service staff

* ttps://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=UUS0079RI02C/ 79th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry -- New Organization (1st Regiment, Kansas Colored Infantry)The National Park Service
History of the 1st Kansas Infantry (Colored) by the Museum of the Kansas National Guard

Cool Things - First Kansas Colored Infantry Flag, Kansas Historical Society

Online Exhibits - Keep the Flag to the Front, "The Colored Soldiers," Kansas Historical Society

1st Kansas Colored Infantry (1862-1865) by Semhar Negassa
{{Kansas in the Civil War Military units and formations established in 1862 Military units and formations disestablished in 1864 Units and formations of the Union army from Kansas Kansas Infantry, 001 1862 establishments in Kansas Artillery units and formations of the American Civil War

Service overview

In popular culture

See also

Notes

References

External links