1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment

It was the first black regiment to be organized in a northern state to see combat during the Civil War.

The regiment was recruited without federal authorization and against the wishes of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.

Recruiting officials enlisted black men across eastern Kansas, most of whom were formerly enslaved in Missouri.

It was the first African-American regiment to see combat during the Civil War, in the skirmish at Island Mound, in Bates County, Missouri, in October 1862.

Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt, commander of the Union forces at the Battle of Honey Springs, was particularly impressed by the performance of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry at that engagement.

They repulsed a Confederate charge, inflicting many casualties, and, after Colonel Williams was badly wounded, continued to fight and made an orderly withdrawal.

[4][5] Also attached to the regiment at some point was Armstrong's Battery Light Artillery, a unit for which few details are known.

Near Sherwood August 14 Moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas, October, then to Roseville December, and duty there until March 1864.

[citation needed] In 2011, quilt artist and educator Marla Jackson worked with junior high students in Lawrence, Kansas, to produce a collaborative and commemorative quilt on the topic of the 1st Kansas Infantry.

[6] The quilt, along with several others by Jackson that evoked similar themes, was displayed at the Spencer Museum of Art.