Friday, February 22, 2013

"BATTLE OF ISLAND MOUND" MEMORIALIZATION


BATTLE OF ISLAND MOUND, MISSOURI”: MEMORIALIZING THE FIRST BLACK TROOPS TO FIGHT IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
AUTHOR’S AFFILIATIONS:
Itinerant Elder, African Methodist Episcopal Church; former Pastor, Brooks Chapel A.M.E. Church, Butler, Missouri; former Second Vice President, Civil War Round Table of Kansas City; Founder, The Amen Society; Attorney, Missouri Bar (Inactive); Member, Association for the Study of African American Life and History; first Chaplain, National Bar Association; Founder, former Historian and Guardian, Section on Law and Religion, National Bar Association; Former Assistant United States Attorney; Former Publisher, THE NILE REVIEW newsletter; former instructor, “Black History: The Sacred Secret,” Communiversity Program, University of Missouri at Kansas City; former Parliamentarian, Jackson County Bar Association; Member, Prudence Lodge #6, Kansas Jurisdiction, Prince Hall Masons; Editor-in-Chief, Howard University, “THE HILLTOP”weekly newspaper; Editor, “THE DARK SIDE,” Webster Groves,Missouri High School; Author, THE COLORED GREEN TREE @Amazon.com


On October 28-29, 1862, the First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry fought and won the profoundly historic battle now modestly known to history as the “Skirmish at Island Mound, Missouri.”
These unusual troops dislodged a twice-larger contingent of Confederate irregulars from “Hog Island,” a bivouac in the Osage River, 8 miles southwest of Butler, in Bates County, Missouri. From it, rebels had launched murderous attacks into Kansas, a newly admitted “free” state that had fought a “Border War” with Missouri since 1954, when the Kansas-Nebraska Act was enacted. That Act brought forth many names to the fore like John Brown and U.S. Senator James Lane, who formed this incredible unit of freedom fighters. This mélange of men-- escaped slaves, freed men and one Cherokee Indian and his “slaves” plus their white officers-- routed their enemy in a battle involving cavalry raids, infantry maneuvers, smoke, fire, and hand-to-hand combat, ending in retreat by the defeated rebels, whose leader said “They fought like tigers!”
This was the first battle in which black troops had fought in the American Civil War, albeit under the flag of Kansas. These men were organized and armed by Kansas’ U.S. Senator, James Lane, prior to President Abraham Lincoln’s issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, and prior to Lincoln's desperate war measure finally authorizing the muster of black troops into Union forces later that year. Their battle field success, coupled with embarrassing Union losses elsewhere, as graphically emblazoned on the nation's awareness by Harper's Weekly, validated the need for black troops to fight and to win “The Freedom War,” as slaves termed the so-called “Civil War.” Or, the Union would be no more!
This historic battle banished the white supremacists’ lie that black troops could not fight and would not fight for their own freedom. Indeed blacks' fight for freedom assumed many forms and dated back to their initial importation into Virginia in 1619 as “servents.” Escaping slavery individually was the primary means of obtaining freedom; purchasing one's own freedom was another. Yet, armed revolt was always simmering just beneath the placid veneer of peace.
The bloody “Stono Rebellion” in South Carolina in 1739 led the way! It was led by a literate slave named “Jemmy” from Angola, resulting in the deaths of 22 whites and 44 blacks. Later, free man, Denmark Vesey, who had purchased his freedom from lottery ticket winnings, conceived an African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church-based plot in 1822, in Charleston, using Bible study, and the church's class-leader structure, as cover. Vesey's elaborate plan was betrayed by a fearful slave, who warned his master to get away; he, in turn, alerted the militia who hung dozens of slave, and who shut down the A.M.E. Church there till after the Civil War.
In Virginia, Gabriel Prosser, a 25-year old blacksmith and preacher in 1800, also organized about 1,000 slaves to revolt in Richmond. But, his plan was frustrated by a sudden, violent thunderstorm storm, which washed away bridges and roads delaying its August 30 commencement. But, like the others, it too was betrayed by a slave before it could be reorganized. Then, in 1831, the greater liberator, Nat Turner, a slave and a self-taught preacher, rose up and slew over 60 white slave masters in Southampton Virginia, near New Jerusalem. This bold stroke for freedom sent shock waves across the nation, especially as “Prophet” Nat Turner, who quoted scripture and saw hieroglyphics written in blood, eluded capture for 3 weeks after his rebellion was quelled.
In October 1999, tiny Brooks Chapel A.M.E. Church of Butler, Missouri, located in Bates County, Larry Delano Coleman, Pastor, hosted a community-wide celebration to commemorate the memory of the 8 men who died near Butler, during the Battle of Island Mound. The battle's occurrence was unknown to the locals of both races, being lost to history and lore. At that celebration, money was raised for the erection of a monument to those heroic fallen soldiers, which was superintended by the Amen Society, a benevolent corporation created by attorney/pastor Coleman, and run by his church members.
Finally, on October 20, 2008, the bronze statue of a fully armed black soldier, designed by sculptor, Joel Randall, of Edmund, Oklahoma, was unveiled on the north side of the court house square in Butler to citizens amid great public fanfare and political acclaim! Uniformed First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry re-enactors from Oklahoma marched and drilled. Dr. Jimmy Johnson, a descendent of an original First Kansan, and a history teacher, gave background about the unit. A parade was hosted; Pastor Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman preached a sermon entitled “Angels Rolled the Stone Away.” The anointed sculptor, Joel Randall described his involvement in, and inspiration for his beautiful life-like design. A free dinner was hosted by Butler-area churches on the Fairgrounds serving to all comers. Proclamations were read by city, county and local museum officials. Walter Wright, then-President of the Amen Society spoke in tribute to Elnora Burton, the Amen Society's original President, whose name appears on the statue, who had died a few years earlier. Two U.S. Congressmen, Emanuel Cleaver II and Ike Skelton, appropriately framed the national importance of the dedication and complimented the Butler cooperative spirit exhibited throughout the festivities.
More than civic importance, however, the statue's erection and dedication, was of great spiritual and religious importance for the entire region and for country! Pastor Coleman learned about the battle from Noah Andre Trudeau's book, LIKE MEN OF WAR: Black Troops in the Civil War 1862-1865, while visiting Ft. Scott, Kansas' federal bookstore. When he saw Butler, Missouri, on a map in the front of that book, he was shocked, as he was ignorant of anything historic about Butler, notwithstanding its border with Kansas. His “official” church members—all 3 of them—were also ignorant of such. So, they all resolved to acclaim this victory and to erect a notable tribute to these now, apparently, forgotten men, “in Jesus' holy name,”totally undeterred by their laughably small numbers!
It turns out that these fallen men, these heroes were not forgotten.
Unbeknown to Pastor Coleman, or to the members of his flock, Chris Tabor, a white ex-Marine and cartographer, then a resident of Butler, was researching the history of the battle and was writing prolifically about it. Amazingly, a rash of articles written by Tabor, along with illustrations and photographs appeared in the Butler weekly newspaper, The News-Xpress, on the same weekend as the Amen Society's celebration at City Hall, which was attended by over 300 people! That October 1999 event was when and where these two passionately Christian men, Coleman and Tabor, met and became fast friends, neither knowing about the others' efforts or existence.
Eventually, Tabor led Coleman out to the Toothman Farm, where the battle was fought, and where “Fort Africa,” as the sable soldiers' had named their fortifications. Irorically, it was erected, on the abandoned farm of inveterate, Confederate rebel, John Toothman. Tabor doggedly pursued recognition for the site as an historic battleground with state and federal authorities. Coleman, meanwhile, accompanied Realtor Bob Baer on site visits to adjoining properties in the expectation that “the Lord will make a way, somehow” through purchase or otherwise, for the famous battleground to be secured.
Further deepening the mystery, the State of Missouri, which had long resisted according sorely-sought recognition to the “Battle of Island Mound,” purchased 40 acres of the Toothman Farm, including the “Fort Africa” site. The state constructed thereon a visitor's center, and made it a part of its state park system under the Department of Natural Resources. The State's dedication services are October 26-27, 2012, in Butler, and at the site, now deeply hallowed in history.
This paper recounts for posterity the evolutionary process of this observance from the perspective of one, central to its execution.
#30
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman