Keep the Flag to the Front

"The Colored Soldiers"

In the early days you scorned them,
And with many a flip and flout
Said "These battles are the white man's,
And the whites will fight them out."
Up the hills you fought and faltered,
In the vales you strove and bled,
While the ears still heard the thunder
Of the foes' advancing tread.

Then distress fell on the nation,
And the flag was drooping low;
Should the dust pollute your banner?
No! the nation shouted, No!
So when War, in savage triumph,
Spread abroad his funeral pall-
Then you called the colored soldiers,
And they answered to your call.
-"The Colored Soldiers," stanzas 2 & 3, poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar, ca. 1894

The Kansas Historical Society has six flags from the First and Second Kansas Colored Infantries. This is one of the largest collections of surviving African American Civil War flags. Pictured above is the national flag of the First Kansas Colored Infantry.

In Kansas, U.S. Senator James H. Lane began the recruitment of blacks into a military force during the summer of 1862. This was against the desires of the War Department, but Lane went ahead with his efforts. The result was the First Kansas Colored Infantry, the first African American regiment raised in the Northern states.

Although not accepted into the federal army until January 13, 1863, the First Kansas Colored was the first African American regiment to see fighting. Their first encounter took place on October 29, 1862, at Island Mound in Bates County, Missouri. The flag pictured above is believed to have been present at this skirmish. Read the text printed on the flag.

Later the First fought in several battles in what is now Oklahoma, including the Battle of Honey Springs-where whites, blacks, and Native Americans fought together. View a map of battles fought by the First Kansas Colored Infantry.

Second Kansas Colored Infantry

The Second Kansas Colored Infantry was organized in mid-1863, and saw action mainly in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Its commander was future Kansas governor Colonel Samuel J. Crawford.

At Jenkins Ferry, Arkansas on April 30, 1864, Col. Crawford was told by the commanding general his men would not fight. It is said that Crawford, "in language much more emphatic than Christian, replied that they could and would go as far as it was possible for any others to go." That day they led a successful-although bloody-charge against a Confederate battery.

At Poison Springs, Arkansas, the First Kansas Colored Infantry was caught in a situation where its wounded infantrymen were killed by the Confederates instead of captured. A few days later at Jenkins Ferry the Second Kansas Colored Infantry used the battle cry "Remember Poison Springs."

The map above illustrates the battles and skirmishes of the Second Kansas Colored Infantry. The image below depicts the regimental flag of the Second Kansas Colored Infantry.

Ah, they rallied to the standard
To uphold it by their might;
None were stronger in their labors,
None were braver in the fight.
From the blazing breach of Wagner
To the plains of Olustee,
They were foremost in the fight
Of the battles of the free.

Yes, the Blacks enjoy their freedom,
And they won it dearly, too;
For the life blood of their thousands
Did the southern fields bedew.
In the darkness of their bondage,
In the depths of slavery's night,
Their muskets flashed the dawning ,
And they fought their way to light.
-"The Colored Soldiers," stanzas 5 and 7, poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar, ca. 1894

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