(Kansas State Historical Society)
Okay, so we've looked long and hard and have yet to find an image of 2d Lt. Patrick H. Minor. But he must be one of the individuals in this photgraph of the two-gun section of the Independent Battery, U.S. Colored Light Artillery he commanded.
Born in Louisiana, Patrick Henry Minor was the son of a slave woman and white sugar plantation owner. Minor’s life was unusual in that he received an education. When his father died in 1836, his will provided for Patrick’s manumission. Minor also inherited enough money, so he could travel north to receive a formal education. Minor was only seven years old when his father died and went to Ohio where he was the guardian of prominent attorney Salmon P Chase. Minor attended the preparatory and high schools of Oberlin College. In 1850, Minor relocated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he worked as a steward on steamboats. By 1860, Minor had relocated to New Orleans and was still working as a steward.
Minor may have learned about recruiting African Americans for service during the Civil War from his brother-in-law who lived in Leavenworth, Kansas. By the summer of 1862, Minor had moved to Leavenworth and along with William D. Matthews, began recruiting African Americans for service in what became the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry. Both Minor and Matthews had been promised to be commissioned officers in the regiment. But the US War Department refused to commission Minor and Matthews as officers.
It was not until 1864, when the War Department did authorize Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis to raise a colored battery and commission African Americans as officers of the battery. Although the organization of the Independent Battery, U.S. Colored Light Artillery was not complete by October 1864, there were enough trained recruits to field a section of two 10-pdr Parrott guns. Thus, during Price’s Raid, 2d Lt. Patrick H. Minor was in command of the section and became the first African American officer to command an African American unit in combat during the Civil War. Unfortunately, Lieutenant Minor contracted a respiratory disease as the Union army pursued Price’s retreating troops through Missouri and into Arkansas. Minor finally succumbed to the disease on March 26, 1865.
Smith, Daniel L. “Biographical Notes for Lieut. Patrick Henry Minor (1829-1865): First Black Commissioned Officer to Command Black Troops in Combat,” 2021.
Cunningham, “Douglas’s Battery at Fort Leavenworth: The Issue of Black Officers during the Civil War.” Kansas History, 200–217.