Poison Springs

On April 18, 1864 First Kansas Colored Volunteers fought a superior force at Poison Springs. They smashed through the Confederate lines but sustained heavy casualties.

   "On the 29th, we skirmished in the forenoon.  In the afternoon, the venturing-out of a detachment beyond the distance ordered brought on a severe though short general engagement.  At least one hundred and twenty of the rebel cavalry made a charge upon this detachment of twenty-four men.  Before we could bring up re-enforcements, these fearfully disproportioned parties were engaged in a desperate hand-to-hand encounter.

  I was on the field, doing, with the other officers, the best we could to bring up re-enforcements. There was no flinching, no hesitation, or trembling limbs among the men; but fierce determination flashing in their eyes, and exhibiting an eager, passionate haste to aid their comrades, and vindicate the manhood of their race. The air was rent with their yells, as they rushed on, and the difficulty manifested was in holding them well in rather than in faltering.  Among the detachment cut off; of whom only six escaped unhurt, nothing I have ever seen, read, or heard in the annals of war, surpasses the desperate personal valor exhibited by each and every man.  Bayonets came in bloody, as did the stocks of guns ; and the last charge was found gone from cartridge-boxes."