Bates County to honor 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry and the Skirmish at Island Mound

Bates County is host to one of the most historic battles in Civil War history and commemorates the first military engagement by Colored Troops with a special monument dedication. The dedication and unveiling of the memorial statue on the Courthouse Square will commemorate the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry. Included within their ranks was Cherokee Indian, John Six-Killer. In October 1862 these men courageously fought and died while engaging the Missouri Confederate guerrillas in the Skirmish at Island Mound in Bates County. The Volunteers lost eight men, one of whom was John Six-Killer.
The Border War between Missouri and Kansas was ignited with the passage of the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act. The cauldron of tensions along the border simmered and by the time the Civil War began, they boiled over. Hog Island, three miles long and one mile wide, was a bushwhacker stronghold. The landscape of the county provided ample coverage for the rebel partisans, and the mission of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry was to clear-out the rebels.
“The Skirmish at Island Mound occurred on October 29, 1862 in Bates County, Missouri.  What gives this skirmish added significance is that it marks the first time that black soldiers engaged in combat in the Civil War.  That black soldiers were fighting Missouri bushwhackers a full two and a half months before the Lincoln administration had authorized the enlistment of black fighting units is typical of warfare along the Missouri-Kansas border where there was seldom a rule book to guide the actions of either side. The Battle of Island Mound received national publicity and shined a bright spotlight on the nation’s first black soldiers and the courage they had shown that October day.   Prior to the battle, many in the North doubted that black soldiers had either the courage or ability to engage in combat against white foes.  The skirmish at Island Mound laid that myth to rest.”