Gallery: African Americans in the War
James H. Lane
James Henry Lane, the notorious U.S. senator and Union general from Kansas, began recruiting African-Americans for service in the Union army in the summer of 1862. On August 6, he issued General Order Number 2, offering freedom to any slave owned by a rebel master. Although Lane’s activities were not sanctioned by President Lincoln, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton did not order Lane to stop his recruiting activities, only warning Lane that he had no authorization to do so.
Filling the ranks of the Kansas “colored” regiments was difficult, and there is some evidence that Kansans forcibly removed Missouri slaves to serve in the ranks. Legally, Lane could not provide weapons to the liberated slaves. During a Senate debate in 1862, however, Lane declared he would tell the blacks, “I have not arms for you, but if it is in your power to obtain arms from rebels, take them, and I will use you as soldiers against traitors.” By October, 500 men had enlisted in the First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry. James Williams was given command of the regiment, and he noted the recruits demonstrated a “willing readiness to link their fate and share their perils with their white brethren in the war of the great rebellion.”
In late October 1862, the five companies from the 1st Kansas Colored successfully engaged a large force of Rebels at the Battle of Island Mound. The engagement marked the first time African-American troops from a northern state engaged Confederate troops as soldiers. Their victory also cost the regiment their first casualties, eight killed and eleven wounded.
Although Lane saw African-American soldiers as a means to relieve the sacrifices of white troops, he also came to genuinely appreciate their valor on the battlefield and service to the nation. He did not favor universal black suffrage, but did support granting the vote to former black soldiers.
Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 31692
