1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment

Union army regiment during the American Civil War 1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment79th United States Colored Infantry Regiment August 4, 1862 – October 1, 1865 United States Union InfantryUnited States Colored Troops Regiment Austrian and Prussian musketsMoore, Frank. The Rebellion Record, v. 6, (G.P. Putnam, 1863), pp. 52-54 American Civil War Skirmish at Island Mound First Battle of Cabin Creek Second Battle of Cabin Creek Battle of Honey Springs Camden Expedition Battle of Poison Spring Battle of Jenkins' Ferry James Monroe Williams The 1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment, later renamed the 79th United States Colored Infantry Regiment was a military unit composed of African-American troops recruited from Kansas that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was the first Black regiment organized in a northern state to see combat. At the Battle of Poison Spring, 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.Urwin Gregory J. W. Gregory J. W. Urwin Bailey Anne J. Sutherland Daniel E. Daniel E. Sutherland "We Cannot Treat Negroes ... as Prisoners of War": Racial Atrocities and Reprisals in Civil War Arkansas Civil War Arkansas: Beyond Battles and Leaders 2000 University of Arkansas Press Fayetteville, Arkansas 1-55728-565-9 214–216 Service overview The 1st Kansas Colored Infantry was organized by Senator James Henry Lane at Fort Scott, Kansas and mustered in as a battalion of six companies on January 13, 1863 for three years.https://www.joplinglobe.com/news/local_news/historian-spotlights-the-story-of-the-st-kansas-colored-infantry/article_19ad1aa7-32d6-5900-96a3-592052115b9f.html Historian spotlights the story of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry in Civil War series Barker Kimberly Joplin Globe 2018-11-08 en 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. thumb|left|James Monroe Williams, Colonel of 1st Kansas Colored Infantry The regiment was recruited without federal authorization and against the wishes of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.June 2026 James H. Lane, recruiting commissioner for Kansan territory north of the Kansas River, 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, in Bates County, Missouri, 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 to June 1863. Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt, commander of the Union forces at the Battle of Honey Springs, 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."Honey Springs, Elk Creek, Shaw's Inn - Civil War Oklahoma American Civil War July 17, 1863." https://web.archive.org/web/20141112065918/http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/ok/ok007.html November 12, 2014 Retrieved August 25, 1863. In April 1864, Union troops including the 1st Kansas were defeated by a Confederate force at the Battle of Poison Spring, Arkansas. Following this battle, a large number of the wounded and captured Black soldiers of the regiment were executed by the Confederates, with some of the Kansas troops scalped by Confederate-allied Choctaws.Dobak William A. Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops 1862-1867 2011 Center of Military History, US Army 243 978-1-5107-2022-0 https://books.google.com/books?id=q2WCDwAAQBAJ 117 men of the regiment were killed at Poison Spring, with 65 wounded. On December 13, 1864, the name of the regiment was changed to the 79th Regiment Infantry U.S. Colored Troops."First to Serve." National Park Service. Fort Scott National Historic Site." Retrieved August 30, 2014.Fox William Freeman https://archive.org/details/regimentallosses00infoxw Regimental losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865 : a treatise on the extent and nature of the mortuary losses in the Union regiments, with full and exhaustive statistics compiled from the official records on file in the state military bureaus and at Washington 1889 Albany, N.Y. : Albany Publishing Co. Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection 53 VI. THE COLORED TROOPS — HISTORY OF THEIR ORGANIZATION — THEIR LOSSES IN BATTLE AND BY DISEASE. ... in August, 1862, recruiting for a colored regiment was commenced in Kansas, and over 600 men were soon mustered in. The regiment, however, was not mustered into the United States service until January 13, 1863. It was then designated the First Kansas Colored Volunteers, but its name was changed, in December, 1864, to the 79th United States Colored Infantry. Under the new name, the regiment continued to serve in Arkansas until October 1865, when it was mustered out of service.79th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry -- New Organization (1st Regiment, Kansas Colored Infantry) https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=UUS0079RI02C National Park Service 23 June 2026 Also attached to the regiment at some point was Armstrong's Battery Light Artillery, a unit for which few details are known.June 2026 Commanders Commanding officers of the 1st Kansas/79th Colored Infantry:8 256 Colonel James Monroe Williams, awarded brevet brigadier general, February 1865. Lieutenant Colonel Richard G. Ward Lieutenant Colonel John Bowles, discharged from the service, December 1864. Commemoration 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 1st Kansas Infantry. The First Colored Troops of Kansas Exhibitions Spencer Museum of Art http://www.spencerart.ku.edu/exhibitions/colored-troops-kansas.shtml www.spencerart.ku.edu 21 July 2011 2016-01-25 2015-12-20 https://web.archive.org/web/20151220161800/http://www.spencerart.ku.edu/exhibitions/colored-troops-kansas.shtml live The quilt, along with several others by Jackson that evoked similar themes, was displayed at the Spencer Museum of Art. See also American Civil War Kansas List of Kansas Civil War Units Skirmish at Island Mound Kansas in the Civil War References Further reading 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 History of the 1st Kansas Infantry (Colored) by the Kansas State Historical Society staff 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 Category:Military units and formations established in 1862 Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1864 Category:Units and formations of the Union army from Kansas Kansas Infantry, 001 Category:1862 establishments in Kansas Category:Artillery units and formations of the American Civil War