Ian Spurgeon, the author of the excellent Soldiers In The Army Of Freedom: The 1st Kansas Colored, The Civil War's First African American Combat Unit, agreed to participate in a question and answer session for my blog. This posting features part I of the interview, and part II will be posted tomorrow. The 1st Kansas Colored Infantry saw
combat in Missouri, the Indian Territory, and in Arkansas losing 188 men killed
or mortally wounded. The 1st Kansas Colored Infantry was a storied
unit but one whose history was challenging to chronicle. Enjoy the interview!
How did you become interested in the
history of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry?
I am a
Kansas native and fell in love with Civil War history in high school. Unfortunately, like most students of the
Civil War, my attention was drawn to the Eastern Theater. I did not fully appreciate the rich and
significant history of “Bleeding Kansas” or the Trans-Mississippi Theater until
after I finished much of my education and had moved away from Kansas. (Even my Master’s Thesis at Kansas State
University was about Confederate newspapers in Virginia and Georgia.)
Shortly
after finishing my Master’s in 2000, I worked in the office of Senator Sam
Brownback of Kansas in Washington, D.C.
He knew of my interest in history and asked me to draw up a list of
inspiring figures of Kansas history for a project. While working on that list, I remembered learning
that the first black regiment to see combat during the Civil War was from
Kansas. I had not looked into the topic
much before, so I did some initial research.
I was very surprised to find that there was no book-length work on the
regiment. It is mentioned in some publications
about overall black Civil War service, but no one had yet done a full narrative
history of the unit.
In 2003,
when I began a PhD program in history at the University of Southern
Mississippi, I initially planned to write my dissertation about the 1st Kansas
Colored Infantry. However, by the time I
finished the coursework and exams, I had decided to take a different
dissertation topic. Professors on my
dissertation committee expected a strong thesis-driven analysis of a historical
topic, something that I was excited to do, but not about the regiment. I envisioned writing a narrative history that
would appeal to a broad audience, not strictly an academic one.
So, I
wrote my dissertation on James Henry Lane, a leading Free State figure in
territorial Kansas, who served as a Republican senator from the state during
the Civil War, and was the person most responsible for the creation of the 1st
Kansas Colored Infantry. My dissertation
was an analysis of Lane’s political views from 1854 to 1865, which included his
attitude toward slavery, African Americans, secession, and black soldiers. It was the perfect project to understand
better the politics, military situation, leadership, and context of the 1st
Kansas Colored Infantry’s creation.
By the
time my dissertation, Man of Douglas, Man
of Lincoln: The Political Odyssey of James Henry Lane, was published in a
slightly revised form in 2008 by the University of Missouri Press, I was hard
at work on this book.
Why was Senator Jim Lane, a racial
conservative, so eager to recruit an African American regiment? What were his
motivations?
It
should be no surprise that I think James Lane is one of the most interesting
figures of the Civil War era and the question above is a key part of the first
couple of chapters of this book (and a section of my first book). Lane was not a traditional abolitionist. He is better described as a pragmatist. Even more, one could say that Lane often took
the approach that the ends justify the means.
Critics during his life, and many historians since, described Lane as an
unprincipled opportunist who sought only personal gain. While he was no saint, I found that he had consistent
dedication to certain principles and an almost fanatical dedication to the
Union. Having engaged in both political
and militia battles over slavery in Kansas Territory, he saw secession as a
continuation of “Bleeding Kansas,” and approached the Civil War as a veteran of
the struggle. His fury increased as he
saw slaveholding interests now threaten his beloved Union. In early 1862, he spoke before a crowd in
Kansas and announced, “When I think who caused this war I feel like a fiend,”
and shouted that “I feel like taking them all by the throat—like throttling and
strangling them all.”
Because of
his absolute opposition to the Confederacy—and to secessionists in
Missouri—Lane embraced a hard hand of war.
He led a brigade into Missouri in 1861 and carried out Sherman-like
tactics there three years before (and at a much smaller scale than) Sherman’s
march to the sea through Georgia. As the
Civil War dragged on, Lane looked for new ways to hurt the secession effort and
he came to see the South’s slave population as a potential weapon against the
Confederacy. Because of his racial
conservatism, he first saw a role for freed blacks as servants to white Union
soldiers. He described them to one
audience as black squires to the Union’s white knights. By early 1862, he also admitted that, “If the
squires get guns I don’t propose to punish the negro if he kills a
traitor.” It was a practical interest in
preserving the Union and punishing secessionists by turning slaves against
their masters. And it was practical in
the sense that as the war took its toll on the white population, Lane expressed
a thought that many other northerners could appreciate: “I believe the negro
may, just as well become food for powder as my son.”
Lastly, I
will add that Lane’s views of black Americans progressed during the war. By 1864 he advocated in the Senate for equal
pay and treatment of black soldiers, and argued that, “When we put the uniform
of the United States upon a person, he should be the peer of any one who wears
the same uniform, without reference to complexion.” I think this comment shows very well how the
Civil War and black military service led to change among the attitudes of many
Americans.
Why is the 1st Kansas
Colored Infantry deserving of a full-length history?
The 1st
Kansas Colored was a ground-breaking regiment.
Namely, it was the first black unit to see combat during the Civil
War. Considering the popularity of the
54th Massachusetts, and some other eastern USCT regiments, the history and
accomplishments of this western unit needed a dedicated book.
Furthermore,
regimental histories, in general, offer a great way of studying and
appreciating history. For one, many
people look at the Civil War through the prism of an ancestor’s story. A connection to the past can best be made by coming
to know a historical person—or a particular group. The best way to understand the men of the 1st
Kansas Colored Infantry and their actions is to follow them from the regiment’s
creation to its end.
Finally, I
found during my work on James Lane that I particularly enjoyed the biography
style of research and writing. Writing
about a large group of men offered some new challenges, but the regiment is
itself an entity and identity, and I saw this as writing the biography of the
1st Kansas Colored Infantry.
Did any other regimental history (or
histories) provide a model for your study of the 1st Kansas Colored?
If so, how did they help you craft the unit history?
Actually,
no, not really. I had two main goals
with the book: to answer the question of why the first black unit to see combat
during the Civil War came from Kansas and to tell the story of the enlisted
black soldiers. It became a blending of
some scholarly-style analysis with simple historical narrative – the how and
why the regiment was formed, as well as the what, where, and when of the unit’s
service.
There are
some really good unit histories in print that also approach their topic with
analysis and narrative, but many of them rely upon sources that were not
available for a book on the 1st Kansas Colored – namely, first person wartime
accounts from the enlisted men. I found
no letters, diaries, or other wartime written material from an enlisted man
during my research. Probably 95% or more
of the enlisted men in the 1st Kansas Colored were illiterate. So, I literally had to ask, “How do I tell
the story of men who did not tell their story?”
I had to look to sources not regularly seen in regimental histories and
let the material lead the way.
As is the case with all of the
African American regiments, there is a dearth of documentation from the
enlisted men. How did you find out more about the men in the ranks?
This was a
particular concern of mine. There are
many written records from white officers of the regiment. But I did not want the book to rely too
heavily upon their experience. Without
any good wartime written sources from the enlisted men, I had to reconstruct their
experience in two ways. First, standard
regimental records, such as rosters, enlistment forms, medical records, and
courts martial, offer great bits of detail.
Rosters and enlistment forms often provide information such as
residency, age, profession, and height.
While on the surface such details seem limited, this regiment differed
from most white units of the Civil War in that the soldiers did not come from
one community. Very, very few were from
Kansas, and those that were had only been in the state a few years, at most. Most men were fugitive slaves or recently
freed from areas far from where the regiment was raised, or recruited as
replacements within the South (particularly Arkansas) while the regiment was in
the area.
The second
method proved to be the most important for learning about the men as
individuals. Living in the Washington,
D.C., area, I was able to spend a great deal of time going through pension
files of veterans from the regiment at the National Archives. These files often give bits and pieces of
information regarding the personal history and service of a soldier. Most importantly, they offered the only
significant source of first person accounts from the veterans. Although most of the veterans were
illiterate, pension officials would occasionally transcribe the applicant’s
oral accounts. Sometimes these accounts
are paraphrases of the veteran’s description.
Other times they appear as direct statements from the veteran. The only indication that they were not
written by the veteran is the “X” in place of a signature at the bottom of the
page. You never know what you will find
inside the file until you open it. A few
pension files had photographs, and many spoke of a veteran’s postwar
activities.
