In August 1862, Kansas territory army recruiter James Lane authorized the recruitment of black men for raising a regiment. This went against the wishes of the Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Nevertheless, many freed black men and escaped slaves volunteered. The newly formed regiment had three black officers, William D. Matthews, Henry Copeland, and Patrick Minor.
They were the first black regiment to be organized in a northern state and the first black unit to see combat during the Civil War. In the skirmish at Island Mound in Missouri, African-American soldiers showed they could fight and they could lead.
At the Battle of Poison Spring in Ouachita County, Arkansas in April 1864, the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry lost more men than any other unit during the Civil War.
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