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The October 29, 1862, Battle of Island Mound didn’t amount to much as Civil War battles go, but had enormous effects on the Union Army and society itself.
Here on the plains of Western Missouri, 60 miles south of Kansas City, the first shots were exchanged between organized freed or runaway black Union soldiers and white pro Confederate guerrillas.
The 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment was recruited by Jim Lane before he had proper authority to do so. Lane asked Washington for authorization but didn’t get a response, therefore, he viewed the non-answer as a yes. The Emancipation Proclamation had been announced and was Lincoln’s ultimate “free the slaves” strategy, but not yet law.
Union leaders were cautious about the reaction of some border states and frankly whether black soldiers had the discipline, ability and courage to fight?
Pro Confederate raiders had been terrorizing Union enclaves and recruiting along the border of Kansas and Missouri for years. The 1st Kansas Infantry and the 5th Kansas Cavalry were sent to find and confront any of the active bands of Confederate hostiles.
On October 28, 1862, the 1st was informed a large group of bushwhackers were camped along the Marais des Cygnes River, seven miles west of Butler, Missouri, in Bates County.
The Confederate troops knew the black soldiers in blue were coming. In the gradual hills above the River the 1st Kansas built a fortification, dubbing it, Fort Africa.
Rebel strategy was to set the prairie on fire, drawing out a small detachment from the Fort to extinguish the blaze or fight. Once a smaller contingent came forth, they would attack.
As a squad deployed from the Fort, the order was to stay within eyesight of the command. They went too far; once out of vision and over the hill, the Confederate cavalry charged. Hand-to-hand combat ensued as the rest of the 1st from the Fort scrambled, fighting through the now flaming grasses to join the fray.
The Yankees were aware there would be no quarter for black soldiers. Battle etiquette or white flag understanding didn’t apply for a black man. As the reserves joined the fight, the Confederates backed away, leaving the field of battle to the emancipated novice soldiers...they had won!
There was a correspondent from the New York Times with the 1st Kansas; he reported to the world what he saw. The black soldiers fought “like tigers,” with “desperate bravery.” As word spread throughout the East of the close quarter combat between races, opinions changed. No longer would there be a question of willingness, determination or ability.
The 1st Kansas with 250 soldiers lost eight men where the 400 strong Confederates on horseback had a casualty count of 30.
Following a later battle, Union Major General James Blunt included this note about the black troops in his report, “The First Kansas (colored) particularly distinguished itself...Their coolness and bravery I have never seen surpassed, they were in the hottest of the fight, and opposed a Texas troop twice their number, whom they completely routed.”
Harper’s Weekly, the preeminent journal of the day, ran an illustration of the fighting at the Battle of Island Mound depicting the savagery and bravery shown by the 1st.
The journal was one of the first to use illustrations and cartoons to make political points. Harpers enlisted some of the best known writers and artists of the day: Winslow Homer, Grandville Perkins and others but the man that caused the greatest stir was their cartoonist, Thomas Nast.
You think cartoons can be mean now, back then they were brutal.
Harpers tried to stay in the middle of the road concerning slavery, stating that the institution was ingrained into the culture of the South. This rankled Abolitionists and Unionists alike, renaming the journal Harper's Weakly. The rag supported Steven Douglas of Illinois for President in the 1860 election leaving Thomas Nast to do his worst on in-state rival Abe Lincoln.
Every other year I try to visit the Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Illinois. It’s a must if you're a fan. In the Museum there is an entire exhibit on cartoons depicting the honorable Abraham Lincoln in many cruel and demeaning ways. Nast’s work is front and center. In his Museum Lincoln is drawn as an ape, puppeteer and barbaric slave owner, nothing was sacrosanct.
The exhibit also holds war cartoons from Southern papers, ridiculing the North and their leaders. If you are in an all-out war, your enemy is fair game for every type of insult.
Harper’s Weekly became too powerful for its own good. Infighting over politics and policy caused the demise of the popular publication in the early 1900s.
The Battle of Island Mound and the coverage the skirmish received allowed Lincoln to finagle the Militia Act of 1862 through Congress. This Act permitted for one thing the freed black man to join, separated from white troops, of course, the Union Army in fighting against the rebellion.
In the years to come 188,000 former slaves volunteered for the Union cause, providing fresh troops just when needed the most.
These brave Civil War soldiers are a precursor to the Buffalo Soldiers in winning the West, courageously fought with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders at the Battle of San Juan Hill, fighting the Nazis as the Tuskegee Airmen and the all black 761st Tank Battalion in World War II.
When asked, if there was one thing you could point to that helped the Allies win World War II, General Dwight Eisenhower didn’t hesitate, “The Red Ball Express!” The ability to get the material and supplies to the front, needed to fight the fight and win the war. Most of the “Express” trucks delivering vital supplies were driven by dedicated and segregated black soldiers.
The Battle of Island Mound is a blip on the screen compared to the battles at the time raging in the Eastern theater. However, the implications were immense; subtly but now recognized, the skirmish is a foundational block in the assimilation of black Americans becoming Americans.
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You can find more of Bob’s work including his Bob Ford’s History, Mystery and Lore podcast on his website and on YouTube.
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