The Battle of Island Mound, Butler MO

The Battle of Island Mound,  October 28 & 29, 1862,  marked the first time that Colored troops were engaged in Civil War combat. However, it was not until January 1, 1863, with  the Emancipation Proclamation that colored units were taken into the federal government.   The First Kansas Colored began to form in August 1862 and not without controversy. They would be the first Negroes recruited in the Northern states for service in the Civil War. 

The recruiter of the First Kansas Colored was US Senator James Henry Lane. His efforts to raise black troops were not shared by many on either the state or federal level. As Kansas joined the Union in 1861, Lane recruited blacks to fight against the Confederacy as “The First Kansas Colored Infantry of the Liberating Army."  With a little coercion and some threats, by 1862,  600 enlistees were organized in Bourbon County near Fort Lincoln, 15 miles NW of Fort Scott.

Major Benjamin Henning, the commanding officer at Fort Scott, ordered the 1st Kansas into Bates County MO on Sunday, October 26, 1862, in response to bushwhacker attacks along the border, operating from “Hog Island.” Captain Henry Seaman commanded the expedition with 11 officers and approximately 240 men and 6 scouts from the 5th Kansas Cavalry. 

The following day, October 27, the 1st Kansas crossed into Missouri at Dickey’s Crossing and occupied the Enoch Toothman farm, a suspected Southern sympathizer and guerrilla. After questioning the family, they found there were about 400  guerrillas in the area. The 1st Kansas dug makeshift fortifications and turned the Toothman property into a blockhouse they called "Fort Africa." 

Oct 27 - 29, 1862, they repelled several skirmishes with the guerrillas. Each side attempted to gauge the opposition’s strength with long-range skirmishing on Tuesday, October 28.  The 1st Kansas sent for reinforcements. 

The fighting intensified the 29th with hand-to-hand fighting, when guerrillas attacked Fort Africa. Although outnumbered, they drove the enemy back. 

The bushwhackers decided to attempt to draw out a portion of the 1st Kansas by setting prairie fires on Wednesday, October 29. Their hope was that the troops would come out to investigate and then the bushwhackers could destroy the isolated detachment. Several detachments were sent out with strict orders to stay within eyesight of Fort Africa. Unfortunately, none of the detachments stayed within eyesight. The bushwhackers attacked, overrunning the initial detachment.

Fortunately, the majority of the men survived the charge and hand-to-hand combat until reinforcements led by Captain Andrew Armstrong rescued the separate detachments of the 1st Kansas; the guerrillas  retreated. Armstrong’s men collected the dead and wounded and returned to Fort Africa. The 1st Kansas suffered eight killed and 11 wounded.

On Thursday, October 30, they found that the guerillas’ camp had been abandoned. These skirmishes became known as the Battle of Island Mound. 

Black soldiers had been blooded on the battlefield for the Union cause, and they proved to be up to the task.