Trans-Mississippi Musings Talks

-Fighting for Freedom: The First Kansas Colored Infantry-

In 1860, there were approximately 4.5 million African-Americans living in the United States. Of these four million were slaves and 500,000 were free. By the end of the war, 180,000 blacks had served in 163 units in the U.S. Army and many more thousands in the U.S. Navy. This is the story of one of the units. It was the first African-American unit to see combat in the war. It was the First Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment.

Topics

• Early African-American participation in war effort
• Recruiting in 1862
• Battle of Island Mound
• Formal muster in of regiment
• Baxter Springs, Cabin Creek, Honey Springs, Poison Spring
• Muster out
• Epilogue

Protagonists

• James Henry Lane
• James M. Williams
• Richard J. Hnton
• William D. Matthews
• Patrick H. Minor
• James G. Blunt