Outnumbered nearly 2-1, 240 of the first black soldiers to wear the Union blue uniform defended their Fort Africa in Missouri's Bates County on Oct. 29, 1862, against about 400 pro-Confederate guerrillas.
Nine months before the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment engaged in the assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina, which was featured in the movie "Glory," the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers were the first black soldiers to engage the enemy.
The regiment, though victorious, lost eight soldiers, and another 11 were wounded that day.
These troops "were in Kansas service prior to the Emancipation Proclamation's implementation on Jan. 1, 1863, but not in U.S. service because the Lincoln administration was reluctant to enroll black troops and risk tipping Union slave states, including Missouri, toward the Confederacy," according to www.civilwaronthewesternborder.org.
The Missouri-Kansas border had long been filled with conflict between Bushwhackers and Jayhawkers, later pro-Confederate sympathizers versus Union followers.
U.S. Sen. James Lane, from Kansas, was appointed Commissioner for Recruiting for the Department of Kansas by President Abraham Lincoln in May 1862. The Militia Act of 1862 allowed African-Americans to serve in several roles, including the military.
In August 1862, Lane asked for permission to raise a black regiment, but Secretary of War Edwin Stanton said only the president had that authority. However, the reply arrived too late, and Lane already had begun recruiting for what became the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers.
The 1st Kansas was ordered from Bourbon County, Kansas, to Bates County on Oct. 26, 1862, to respond to bushwhacker attacks along the border, specifically a guerrilla camp near Hog Island.
Long-range skirmishes began Oct. 28 as the Kansans built makeshift fortifications, which they called Fort Africa, at the Enoch Toothman farm.
Bushwhackers set prairie fires Oct. 29, trying to draw out the Union troops. The first detachment sent to investigate was overrun by the Confederates. Hand-to-hand combat followed.
By Oct. 30, the guerrillas had abandoned their camp, according to www.civilwarmo.org.
"Although not a major fight, the skirmish at Island Mound proved to be an ominous harbinger for the Confederacy: black soldiers had been bloodied on the battlefield for the Union cause, and they proved to be up to the task," the western border website said.
The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect Jan. 1, 1863. The 1st Kansas entered federal service Jan. 13, 1863; however, two black commissioned officers were forced to give up their commissions upon entering federal service.
The 1st Kansas went on to serve in Missouri, Indian Territory and Arkansas.
Eventually, 166 African-American regiments were raised.
The Missouri State Parks added the 40-acre Battle of Island Mound Historic site to its ranks in 2012. An interpretive trail on the land where Fort Africa was built helps commemorate the significant historical moment which happened there.
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Links:
www.civilwaronthewesternborder.org/content/negro-regiment-action