Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

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Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862–1867
strength at forty-five hundred, an overestimate of 50 percent. Nevertheless, Blunt
moved across the Arkansas River on 16 July with, as he reported, “less than 3,000
men, mostly Indians and negroes.” The next morning, Union cavalry encountered
the enemy pickets and drove them to where the Confederate main force was waiting
near Honey Springs, some twenty miles south of Fort Gibson. 23
Blunt halted his men behind a ridge about half a mile from the enemy position
and allowed them time to eat while he reconnoitered. Afterward, he formed the
force in two columns, the 1st Kansas Colored and a white regiment, the 2d Colorado
Infantry, in one brigade under Colonel Williams’ command, and the 6th Kansas
Cavalry and 3d Indian Home Guards in another brigade. In order to conceal
their strength from the Confederates more effectively, the two brigades advanced
in column—twenty-five or thirty men wide and about twenty ranks deep—rather
than on a broad front. When they had covered about half the distance and were a
quarter-mile from the enemy, they moved from column into line of battle. Blunt
noticed that their front was at least as long as that of the Confederates. 24
Williams’ two regiments advanced until they were about forty paces from the
woods where the enemy waited. So close were the two sides that his command to
fire may have been mistaken by the Confederates as coming from one of their own
officers. The two volleys came at once. Williams fell, wounded in the face, chest,
and hands. The second-in-command, Lt. Col. John Bowles, was at the right of the
brigade line and did not learn of Williams’ wounding for some time. Meanwhile,
the 1st Kansas Colored stood its ground and, when Bowles finally took command,
stopped a Confederate charge with three volleys and chased the survivors through
a cornfield. Union cavalry continued the pursuit past blazing supply warehouses
two miles to the south set alight by the retreating enemy. The federal troops slept
on the battlefield that night. The Confederates withdrew south toward the Canadian
River. 25
The 1st Kansas Colored’s attack at Honey Springs marked the first time in the
war that black soldiers in regimental strength had carried out a successful offensive
operation against Confederate troops. The regiment sustained thirty-two casualties,
half again as many as the 2d Colorado. General Blunt voiced the same sort of approval,
mingled with surprise and relief, that other Union commanders expressed
throughout the war. The difference was that Blunt, unlike General Banks at Port
Hudson a few weeks earlier, had been present and had seen what he described. The
1st Kansas Colored, he reported, had “particularly distinguished itself; they fought
like veterans, and preserved their line unbroken throughout the engagement.” 26
Blunt’s victory at Honey Springs allowed his Army of the Frontier to move
southeast down the Arkansas River. On 1 September, it occupied Fort Smith, an
antebellum military post that had given its name to the westernmost town in Arkansas.
Nine days later, General Steele’s force, operating from Helena, entered Little
Rock. Union armies had gained control of the major towns along the Arkansas
River, but Confederates, uniformed and guerrilla, still moved freely through large
23 OR, ser. 1, vol. 22, pt. 1, pp. 447 (“less than”), 458, and pt. 2, p. 1078 (“much more”).
24 Ibid., pt. 1, pp. 447–48.
25 Ibid., pt. 1, pp. 448, 450; NA M594, roll 213, 79th USCI.
26 OR, ser. 1, vol. 22, pt. 1, pp. 448 (quotation), 449.