![]() ![]() ![]() General Blunt wrote after the battle, “I never saw such fighting as was done by the Negro regiment.The question that negroes will fight is settled besides they make better solders in every respect than any troops I have ever had under my command.” The 1st Kansas, which had held the center of the Union line, advanced to within fifty paces of the Confederate line and exchanged fire for some twenty minutes until the Confederates broke and ran. After a two-hour bloody engagement, Cooper’s soldiers retreated. Union troops under General James Blunt ran into a strong Confederate force under General Douglas Cooper. On July 17, 1863, at Honey Springs, Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, the 1st Kansas Colored fought with courage again. Although the attack failed, the black soldiers proved their capability to withstand the heat of battle. At the battle of Port Hudson, Louisiana, May 27, 1863, the African American soldiers bravely advanced over open ground in the face of deadly artillery fire. By August 1863, 14 Negro Regiments were in the field and ready for service. In October 1862, African American soldiers of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers silenced their critics by repulsing attacking Confederates at the battle of Island Mound, Missouri. In general, white soldiers and officers believed that black men lacked the courage to fight and fight well. On July 17, 1862, Congress passed two acts allowing the enlistment of African Americans, but official enrollment occurred only after the September 1862 issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation. 1864.Ĭourtesy National Archives and Records Administration Collection Pryor made his way to Federal lines in Chattanooga, where after a few square meals and a day of recuperation, he joined the 44th USCI, ca. ![]()
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