Kansas

First Kansas Colored Infantry unit instrumental in battle | Camden News

Published

2 years ago

February 1, 2024

First Kansas Colored Infantry unit instrumental in battle | Camden News

(Today’s Camden News Black History Moment highlights the First Kansas Colored Infantry – the first black unit to fight alongside white soldiers and a regiment instrumental in the Battle of Poison Springs.)

According to the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, the U.S. War Department created the Bureau of Colored Troops, most commonly known at the United States Colored Troops (USCT), on May 22, 1863. All of the black regiments were led by appointed white officers.

The First Kansas Colored Infantry, made up of ex-slaves from Arkansas and Missouri, was the first black infantry regiment to see combat in the war. It participated in the battle of Island Mound, Missouri on October 28, 1862.

The 1st Kansas Colored Infantry was also the first black unit to fight alongside white soldiers. The regiment suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Poison Spring on April 18, 1864, accounting for 60 percent of the casualties.

Union General Frederick Steele occupied Camden, Arkansas, on April 15. Two days later, he sent 1,100 men to gather 5,000 bushels of corn west of Camden to help feed his men and livestock. They discovered half of the corn had been destroyed, but loaded the rest into 200 wagons. On the way back to Camden, these soldiers were attacked by 3,600 Confederate troops. The 1st Kansas Colored Infantry was placed between the wagon train and the Confederate forces.

The regiment fought off two attacks, but retreated after a third assault. The Union army lost 301 men killed, wounded, and missing at Poison Spring. Of those, 117 of the dead and 65 of the wounded were from the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry. Both Union and Confederate accounts agree many of the black troops were killed after the battle was over. No black troops were captured, and those left wounded on the battlefield were killed.

The Washington Telegraph, the major Confederate newspaper in Arkansas, justified the act by saying “We cannot treat Negroes taken in arms as prisoners of war without a destruction of social system for which we contend.”

During the Battle of Jenkins’ Ferry two weeks later, soldiers from the 2nd Kansas Colored Infantry stabbed several surrendering Confederate soldiers in retaliation for the killing of wounded soldiers from the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment after the Battle of Poison Spring.

Eyewitness accounts show:

“The First Kansas (colored) particularly distinguished itself, they fought like veterans and preserved their line unbroken throughout the engagement. Their coolness and bravery I have never seen surpassed.”

– Major General James G. Blunt–July 26, 1863.

“In conclusion, I feel it but justice and my duty to state that the officers and men throughout the entire regiment behaved nobly, and with the coolness of veterans.

Each seemed to vie with the other in the performance of his duty, and it was with the greatest gratification that I witnessed their gallant and determined resistance under the most galling fire.”

– Lt. Colonel John Bowles–July 20, 1863

“The negro regiment is a triumph of drill and discipline, and reflects great honor on Col. Williams, in command. Few volunteer regiments that I have seen make a better appearance. I regard them as first-rate infantry.”

– Brigadier General John Mc-Neil–Nov. 2, 1863

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Kansas

RESULTS: NE Kansas high schools to play Saturday after Wednesday sub-state wins

Published

4 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

RESULTS: NE Kansas high schools to play Saturday after Wednesday sub-state wins

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Below is a look at the results from Wednesday night’s high school basketball sub-state semifinals in Northeast Kansas.

Editor’s Note: This story will be updated with what schools are hosting when that information becomes readily available.

WIBW Scoreboard

BOYS

6A Boys West Sub-State: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Topeka High 57, Washburn Rural 50 (will play Maize Saturday)
Junction City 70, Dodge City 56 (will play Derby Saturday)
Manhattan 58, Wichita-Northwest 56 (will play Wichita-East Saturday)

4A Boys East Sub-State: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Rock Creek 62, Louisberg 57 (will play Bishop Miege Saturday)
Atchison 74, Wamego 43
Hayden 72, Independence 56 (will play Atchison Saturday)
Eudora 76, Santa Fe Trail 68

GIRLS

5A West Girls: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Hays 80, Topeka West 18
Eisenhower 55, Seaman 41
Kapaun Mt. Carmel 71, Emporia 41

5A East Girls: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Shawnee Heights 89, Sumner 15 (will play Pittsburg Saturday)
Basehor-Linwood 74, Highland Park 28 (will play Piper Saturday)

3A Pomona-West Franklin Girls: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Osage City 75, Columbus 31 (will play Frontenac Saturday)

3A Sabetha Girls: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Silver Lake 48, Nemaha Central 26 (will play Riley County Saturday)
Riley County 51, Jeff West 40 (will play Silver Lake)

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Kansas

RESULTS: NE Kansas high schools to play Friday after Tuesday sub-state wins

Published

1 day ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

RESULTS: NE Kansas high schools to play Friday after Tuesday sub-state wins

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Below is a look at the results from Tuesday night’s high school basketball sub-state semifinals in Northeast Kansas.

Editor’s Note: This story will be updated with what schools are hosting when that information becomes readily available.

WIBW Scoreboard

BOYS

5A East Boys: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

KC Washington 68, Highland Park 38
Shawnee Heights 49, De Soto 37 (will play Leavenworth Friday)

5A West Boys: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Topeka West 55, Hutchinson 32 (will play Bishop Carroll Friday)
Emporia 61, Great Bend 41 (will play Maize South Friday)
Seaman 73, Valley Center 51 (will play Hays Friday)

3A West Franklin Boys: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Burlington 60, Osage City 35 (will play Baxter Springs Friday)

3A Sabetha Boys: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Hiawatha 73, Oskaloosa 48 (will play Heritage Christian Friday)
Silver Lake 58, Sabetha 39 (will play Perry-Lecompton Friday 7:30 p.m.)

GIRLS

6A West Girls: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Washburn Rural 60, Wichita South 32 (will play Derby)
Topeka High 69, Maize 45 (will play Liberal)
Manhattan 67, Free State 21 (will play Wichita East)

4A East Girls: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Rock Creek 71, Parsons 23 (will play Tonganoxie)
Wamego 54, Labette County 33 (will play Bishop Miege)
Hayden 2, Athison 0 (will play Baldwin)

2A Eskridge/Mission Valley Girls: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Rossville 71, KC Christian 49 (will play Maur Hill-Mount Academy)
Lyndon 61, Jeff. Co. North 31 (will play Valley Heights)
Valley Heights 65, Doniphan West 41 (will play Lyndon)

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Kansas

Doe v. State of Kansas | American Civil Liberties Union

Published

2 days ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

Doe v. State of Kansas | American Civil Liberties Union

In early 2026, the Kansas state legislature passed SB 244, a law which prohibits transgender people from using public restrooms on government property that align with their gender identity and establishes a private right of action that allows anyone who suspects someone is transgender and in violation of the law to sue that person for “damages” totaling $1,000.

The law also invalidates state-issued driver’s licenses with updated gender markers that reflect the carrier’s gender identity. In February 2026, transgender people across the state received letters from the state Department of Revenue’s Division of Vehicles informing them that their driver’s licenses “will no longer be valid,” effective immediately. SB 244 also prohibits transgender Kansans – or those born in Kansas – from updating the gender marker on state-issued birth certificates and driver’s licenses in the future.

The same day SB 244 went into effect, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Kansas, and Ballard Spahr LLP filed a lawsuit challenging SB 244 in the District Court of Douglas County on behalf of two transgender men who had their driver’s licenses invalidated under the law. The lawsuit charges that SB 244 violates the Kansas Constitution’s protections for personal autonomy, privacy, equality under the law, due process, and freedom of speech.

“The invalidation of state-issued IDs threatens to out transgender people against their will every time they apply for a job, rent an apartment, or interact with police,” said Harper Seldin, Senior Staff Attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Rights Project. “Taken as a whole, SB 244 is a transparent attempt to deny transgender people autonomy over their own identities and push them out of public life altogether.”

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