The Journey Begins...

My awareness of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers began in 1996, when I came across a reference to a battle that was said to have been fought in Bates County, Missouri in 1862, involving black troops. Needless to say, I was very skeptical that such an event had occurred due to the following:

1. I knew that the Emancipation Proclamation was not enacted by President Lincoln until January 1, 1863. I thought that black units were only raised after emancipation.
2. I was familiar with the movie "Glory" and accepted as fact that the 54th Massachusetts Regiment represented the first black unit to fight during the Civil War in the storming of Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863.
3. The reference was in a collection of remembrances gathered as part of a book titled "The Old Settlers' History of Bates County, Missouri" that was published at the end of the 19th century. Given the passage of nearly 40 years from the supposed fight, I suspected that the memory of the author had faded sufficiently to make the information not reliable.

I didn't think much about the reference until a subsequent trip to the Missouri State Capital in Jefferson City, where I saw a diorama depicting a fight between black troops and Missouri bushwhackers in Bates County... at a place called Island Mound. I was able to get in contact with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources historian behind the diorama and he was kind enough to provide me with the report of the "Skirmish at Island Mound" from the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, and was referred to Arnold Schofield who was at that time the chief historian at the Fort Scott National Historic Site.

It was true and I was hooked! 

Black troops did fight in Bates County, Missouri in late October 1862 - 2 months before the Emancipation Proclamation was enacted and seven full months before the 54th Mass. stormed Fort Wagner.

Why wasn't this more widely known? What actually happened at Island Mound? Who was involved in the fight? Where exactly did the fight take place?

Arnold took me under his wing and pointed me in the right direction to begin my journey that continues to this day.

Over the past 17 years I have met and been helped by many great people, to whom I will always be grateful. The journey has been incredible and has allowed me to discover, collect and amass a wealth of information on this historic unit, and the brave officers and men that formed the vanguard of  black soldiers in the Union army.

Through this blog I intend to share what I have learned.


Next post: Discovering Island Mound