
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_Regiment_Kansas_Volunteer_Infantry_(Colored)
The 2nd Kansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Colored) was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Service
The 2nd Kansas Infantry (Colored) was organized at Fort Scott, Kansas and mustered in for three years. It mustered in by individual companies beginning in August 1863 at Fort Scott and completed muster-in at Fort Smith, Arkansas on November 1, 1863 under the command of Colonel Samuel Johnson Crawford.
The regiment was attached to District of the Frontier, Department of Missouri, to January 1864. Unattached, District of the Frontier, VII Corps, Department of Arkansas, to March 1864. 2nd Brigade, District of the Frontier, VII Corps, to December 1864.
The 2nd Kansas Infantry (Colored) was redesignated as the 83rd U.S. Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.) on December 13, 1864.
Detailed service
Action at Baxter Springs, Arkansas, October 6, 1863 (Company A). Moved from Fort Scott, Kansas, to Fort Smith, Arkansas, October 19, 1863, as escort to train. Duty at Fort Smith until March 1864. Steele's Expedition to Camden March 23-April 30. Prairie D'Ann April 9–13. Jenkins' Ferry April 30, and May 4 and 8. Return to Fort Smith and duty there until December.
Casualties
The regiment lost at least 71 men during service; 1 officer and 70 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded. (These numbers are incomplete because the regiment's records were lost after the action at Jenkins' Ferry.)
Commanders
Colonel Samuel Johnson Crawford
Brief history of Crawford County
Crawford County, county seat Girard, was created by act of the legislature of 1867, out of the northern half of Cherokee. Prior to that year, Cherokee reached north to Bourbon. It was named in honor of Samuel J. Crawford, elected Governor in 1864, serving nearly four years. The Legislature named the county in obedience to a resolution passed at a convention held to petition for its organization. Governor Crawford resigned in October 1868 to become Colonel of the 19th Kansas Cavalry, specially raised for the Indian War of 1868-69. He served as Captain in the 2nd Kansas Infantry and was Colonel of the 2nd Kansas Regiment Colored Volunteer Infantry during the war for the Union.
* Text from History of Kansas, Noble Prentis, (Winfield: E.P. Greer. 1899)
References, Resources, and Links
- Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (Des Moines, IA: Dyer Pub. Co.), 1908.
- Official Military History of Kansas Regiments During the War for the Suppression of the Great Rebellion (Leavenworth: W. S. Burke), 1870.
- Crawford County History, Kansas