By
Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
“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, Prince Hall Masons.
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 launch 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
