Stand Watie's Raid and the Second Battle of Cabin Creek

 

This is the last of a series looking at the battles that involved the 1^st Kansas Colored Regiment. After their participation in the Camden Expedition (read here), they returned to garrison and fatigue duties. With a year still left in the war and their placement in war-torn Indian Territory, it was inevitable that they would experience more violence in some form. This occurred during a major raid of northern Indian Territory, conducted by Cherokee Colonel Stand Watie and the Texan General Richard Gano. This raid climaxed with an assault on a wagon train at Cabin Creek, the sight of a 1^st Kansas victory. Though this blog post is centered around the Second Battle of Cabin Creek, the 1^st Kansas was only present in two smaller, related incidents. The first was a fight and massacre at Flat Rock Creek and the second a brief encounter after the raid in which the infantry did not engage. For the historical background of Cabin Creek, I refer you to my post on the July battle there.

Back in Indian Territory, the men in the 1^st Kansas Colored found themselves working in hay collecting detachments. This hay fed the horses, mules, cows, and other animal essential for transporting supplies or providing food and milk. These detachments were constant targets of raids and many small fights ensued. In these casualty-light skirmishes, either the Federals drove off the mounted raiders with a few volleys or the Confederates got to the hay and set it on fire. Since the assailants came in small bands, the Federals were not prepared for any sizeable raiding force. This is one factor that would lead to disaster in September of 1864.[1]

 

Wagons for Indian Territory

Stand Watie

In three years of war, Indian Territory was in a bad place. Battles, raids, internecine violence, and theft had absolutely devastated the countryside. Most of the Indians still living in the warzone were soldiers themselves. The families of pro-Union soldiers sought refuge in Kansas and those on the other side went to Texas. Neutral Indians either tried to lay low or took refuge with the others. Thousands of pro-Union refugees remained in Indian Territory and clustered around Fort Gibson. This boosted the logistical drain on the Union’s Trans-Mississippi forces and necessitated continual supply runs. In the summer of 1864 the Arkansas River flooded, enabling steamboats to travel in. This was a swifter alternative to long, dragging wagon trains.[2]

Both sides found themselves in straitened circumstances, but the Confederates had the worst of it. Their morale throughout Indian Territory was at an all-time low. Desertions occurred at an alarming rate, and so many of the quitters were going over to join the Union side that one general groused it would be better to simply hunt them down and kill them as soon as they ran off. [3] Desperate to turn things around, Colonel Stand Watie, the head of the pro-Confederate Cherokees, had been pushing for a major raid since the start of the 1864. One officer, reporting the Indian’s request “to create a diversion with the enemy” between Forts Smith and Gibson, commented, “This has been a favorite expedition with Colonel Watie for some time.”[4]

The Poison Spring Massacre (April 18, 1864) part 2

If you have not read the first half, look here.

Below are two images from reenactments of the battle. I doubt they recreate the massacre for family audiences.

Final Push

On the Union left Companies C and I, 1^st Kansas Colored, saw about a hundred men in blue coats pass along their front. They assumed they were from the 2^nd Kansas Cavalry as well as sharpshooters from the 18^th Iowa. They were soon corrected when hundreds of Confederate cavalry appeared alongside them Cabell had ordered Crawford, who to this point had only skirmished, to move all of his available men forward. Gibbons “immediately ordered the men to fire, which was kept up for a few minutes only, but with such effect as to check the enemy’s advance.” Among the men commended in Gibbons’ report was First Sergeant Berry, a black officer who urged his men to think of freedom and hold their place.[1]

Gibbons ordered his men 60 yards back. They fired a volley, but made another withdrawal when they saw the rest of the regiment in retreat. Crawford’s Confederates “moved rapidly and steadily forward, firing volley upon volley” at the black troops. Gibbons attempted to mount his horse. He tripped on his saber halfway up and the horse “became scared and dragged me about 5 yards.” His infantry left him behind and he was left alone against the on-rush of screaming Rebels. “I need not say I mounted quick and rode away quicker.”[2]

The Poison Spring Massacre (April 18, 1864) part 1

 

On April 18, 1864, the 1^st Kansas Colored Regiment faced its worst day. A foraging expedition turned into a desperate battle, and the battle concluded with their heaviest losses. While many of the former slaves and their white officers fell in combat, the worst came after the battle had been lost. The wounded were targeted for a racial and revenge-motivated killing spree at the hands of the victors. The Battle of Poison Spring was not the largest battle of General Frederick Steele’s Camden Expedition in Arkansas, but it gained an infamous place in Civil War history. Arkansas citizens in the area did not call it a battle, but the Poison Spring Massacre. It helped usher in 1864 as perhaps the cruelest year of the Civil War.

The Northern Hook

The Camden Expedition was in fact part of the Red River Campaign. Major-General Henry W. Halleck, Chief-of-Staff of the Army, was determined to see the conquest of Texas and its cotton bundles. General Ulysses Grant, recently promoted to Lieutenant-General over all Federal forces, had wanted Major-General Nathaniel Banks (one of several notoriously incompetent political generals), to descend upon Mobile, Alabama, one of the last functioning major ports in the South. Halleck, however, won his case for Banks to advance on Texas instead. There were legitimate military objectives. Texas, largely untouched beyond its Gulf coastline, contained vast amounts of cattle and other supplies that it could still slip east past the Union-occupied Mississippi River. Also, the Lincoln Administration still feared that the French, waging their war in Mexico just to the south, might still potentially form an alliance with the Confederacy. A large Federal presence in Texas could dissuade this. More controversially there were political and economic motives as well. Lincoln hoped to install a pro-Union government in conquered Texan territory that would of course in turn hold pro-Lincoln voters. Above all the Federals coveted Texas’ vast amounts of cotton. Since Texas had a land border with Mexico, it could bypass the Union naval blockade and send cotton directly to French and Mexican middlemen.

The Battle of Honey Springs (July 17, 1863)

Honey Springs is the third significant battle of the 1^st Kansas Colored Regiment. It was a direct and much larger follow-up to the Battle at Cabin Creek. In fact it has gone down in history as the largest battle in Indian Territory with at least 6,000 participants. Some have also called it the “Gettysburg of Indian Territory.” Not only did it take place shortly after that famed battle, it effectively ended any Confederate dominance in the region, save for a few major raids in the future. Finally the battle has been noted for its ethnic diversity. In addition to the black troops in the 1^st Kansas both sides sported various Indian units. It was truly a polyglot fight in which whites fought for the future of the American vision, blacks fought for freedom and equality, and Indians fought for self-determination.

Quick Action Required

The 1^st Kansas’ entry into Indian Territory at the Battle of Cabin Creek gave them ample opportunities to prove themselves in further battle. However, Indian Territory was rarely covered in the wider national press, so their contributions would go unnoticed by most Northerners. Also, despite having fought in two sizeable engagements since their inception, they still drew the racial prejudice of their fellow white soldiers. Captain Nicholas Earle of Company F remembered that the 2^nd Colorado Infantry, made up of rough-hewn white westerners, “treated us with contempt.”[1]

James G. Blunt

Major General James Blunt, recently arrived in Indian Territory, began his campaign with a halved department. Major General John M. Schofield, his superior, placed his eastern half along the Missouri border under General Thomas Ewing. Blunt and his Kansan political ally James Lane were angry and saw the need to boost the former’s standing with a quick victory. As luck would have it, military events necessitated speedy action. William Phillips’ scouts (from his Union Indian Brigade) saw that Confederate General William Cabell, having missed his rendezvous with Brigadier General Douglas Cooper for the Battle of Cabin Creek, was still approaching with 3,000 troops from Arkansas. Cherokee women came to Fort Gibson on ponies and passed on further observations about the movements and size of the Arkansan force.[2]

The First Battle of Cabin Creek (June 30-July 2, 1863)

 

This is something of a follow-up to my post on the Battle of Island Mound. This covers the next significant battle of the 1^st Kansas at Cabin Creek. Though I am going through the regiment’s battles, this post is not primarily focused on them outside the opening. While the Battle of Cabin Creek saw more men and had more significance in a strategic sense, I actually found even less information on the fighting itself then I did on Island Mound.  Thus this is more of a prelude on a planned future post covering the Battle of Honey Springs.

 

The 1^st Kansas Joins the U.S. Army

After Island Mound, the 1^st Kansas Colored Regiment saw no action for a long while. It still experienced a major event at the start of 1863. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect. This proclamation declared all slaves in rebellious territories free and further authorized the use of black soldiers in the armed services. The 1^st Kansas Colored Regiment was now officially recognized as part of the US Army and would also receive Federal pay. On January 8 Brigadier-General General James G. Blunt, who was assigned command of the Department of Kansas and was expected to deal with the mostly Confederate-held Indian Territory, personally inspected the regiment at Fort Scott. The order and discipline of the soldiers impressed him and Blunt determined to utilize them when for his major 1863 campaign.

The Battle of Island Mound (October 29, 1862)

Well before the 54^th Massachusetts stormed Fort Wagner and well before contrabands-turned-soldiers repulsed a Confederate assault at Milliken’s Bend, a regiment of black soldiers, many of them only recently escaped from slavery, fought and bled against Rebel forces, near the Kansas-Missouri border. Far from the central command in Washington D.C., Unionists in the Trans-Mississippi were able to act somewhat independently. This unfortunately resulted in violent guerilla bands called Jayhawkers, who entered into a mutual war of terror with Rebel Bushwhackers. There was a positive, however, the first regiment of black soldiers. This unit, the 1^st Kansas Colored, was hastily formed and entered into battle before Lincoln even authorized the creation of black regiments. Their trial of fire was the Battle of Island Mound, a furious skirmish with Confederate partisans in western Missouri.

This battle is mostly known simply for being the first use of a full black regiment in a Civil War battle. There are scant sources on it and actual primary sources can be counted on one hand. I plan to make this an ongoing series that covers the battle history of the 1^st Kansas. Not only was it the first true, if unauthorized, black regiment to fight for the Union, it fought in the Trans-Mississippi theatre (my area of focus), and in contrast to the more famous 54^th Massachusetts actually had a good win-loss record.