The 1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment was an

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine i ...

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted ...

that served in the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

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

Battle of Poison Spring The Battle of Poison Spring was fought in Ouachita County, Arkansas on April 18, 1864, as part of the Camden Expedition, during the American Civil War. A Union force commanded by Major General Frederick Steele had moved from Little Rock, Arka ...

, the regiment lost nearly half its number, and suffered the highest losses of any Kansas regiment during the war.

Service

The 1st Kansas Infantry (Colored) was organized by the work of Senator James Henry Lane at Fort Scott,

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

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 Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

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 of ...

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

Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...

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 Kansas territory north of the

Kansas River The Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, is a river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is the southwesternmost part of the Missouri River drainage, which is in turn the northwesternmost portion of the extensive Mississippi River dr ...

, 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 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 census, the population was 16,042. Its county se ...

, in October 1862. The regiment's Company D had three black officers,

William D. Matthews William Dominick Matthews (October 25, 1829 – March 2, 1906) was an African-American abolitionist, Civil War Union officer and Freemason. He was leader in Leavenworth, Kansas, as well as nationally. Life in Maryland Matthews was born O ...

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 ...

to June 1863. District of the Frontier,

Department of Missouri The Department of the Missouri was a command echelon of the United States Army in the 19th century and a sub division of the Military Division of the Missouri that functioned through the Indian Wars. History Background Following the successful ...

, to January 1864. Unattached, District of the Frontier,

VII Corps 7th Corps, Seventh Corps, or VII Corps may refer to: * VII Corps (Grande Armée), a corps of the Imperial French army during the Napoleonic Wars * VII Corps (German Empire), a unit of the Imperial German Army prior to and during World War I * VII ...

Department of Arkansas The Department of the Arkansas was a territorial department of the United States Army during the American Civil War. History The Department of the Arkansas was created on January 6, 1864, to consist of Union occupied Arkansas, except Fort Smith. F ...

, to March 1864. 2nd Brigade, District of the Frontier, VII Corps, to December 1864.

Maj. Gen. Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

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 and an important victory for Union forces in their efforts to gain control of the Indian Territory. It was the largest c ...

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 (''sic'') 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 and 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 American Civil War, Civil War. "... in August, 1862, recruiting for a colored regiment was commenced in Kansas, and over 600 men w ...

."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.

Detailed service

Duty in the Department of Kansas October 1862, to June 1863. Action at Island Mound, Missouri, October 27, 1862. Island Mound, Kansas, October 29. Butler, Missouri, November 28. Ordered to Baxter Springs April 1863. Scout from Creek Agency to Jasper County, Missouri, May 16–19 (detachment). Sherwood, Missouri, May 18. Bush Creek May 24. Near Fort Gibson May 28. Shawneetown, Kansas, June 6 (detachment). March to Fort Gibson, Cherokee Nation, June 27-July 5, with supply train. Action at Cabin Creek July 1–2. the

, July 17. At Fort Gibson until September. Lawrence, Kansas, July 27 (detachment). Near Sherwood August 14 Moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas, October, then to Roseville December, and duty there until March 1864. Horse Head Creek February 12, 1864. Roseville Creek March 20. Steele's Camden Expedition March 23-May 3. Prairie D'Ann April 9–12. Poison Springs April 18. Jenkins' Ferry April 30. March to Fort Smith, Arkansas, May 3–16, and duty there until December. Fort Gibson, September 16. Cabin Creek September 19. Timber Hill November 19.

Casualties

The regiment lost at least 344 men during service; 5 officers and 173 enlisted men were killed or mortally wounded, 1 officer and 165 enlisted men died of disease. No other Kansas regiment lost more men than the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry.

Commanders

*Colonel James Monroe Williams

In popular culture

In 2011, quilt artist and educator Marla Jackson worked with junior high students in Lawrence, Kansas, to produce a collaborative and commemorative quilt on the topic of 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. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Spencer Museum seeks to "...present its collection as a living archive that motivates object-c ...

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://web.archive.org/web/20110722040102/http://www.kansasguardmuseum.org/dispunit.php?id=8 History of the 1st Kansas Infantry (Colored) by the Museum of the Kansas National Guardbr>Cool Things - First Kansas Colored Infantry Flag, Kansas Historical SocietyOnline Exhibits - Keep the Flag to the Front, "The Colored Soldiers," Kansas Historical Society1st 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