Battlefield Dispatches No. 248: 'A Band of Brothers'

Yesterday, Jan. 13, 2011, was the 148th Anniversary of an important date in the history of Fort Scott, the state of Kansas, the U.S. Army and the United States. On that day, in Fort Scott, approximately 500 African American Soldiers joined the "Union" Volunteer Forces of the Unites States Army as the First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment. This was the FIRST BLACK RGIMENT from a NORTHERN STATE to join the Union Army. Five companies (A, B, C, D & E) consisting of 100 men in each company enlisted in the Union Army at Fort Scott on Jan. 13, 1863. Additional companies joined the regiment later in the year and the regiment compiled a proud combat record throughout the Civil War until it was discharged on Oct. 1, 1865.

Of all of the "Companies" in the regiment. Company E has a very interesting characteristic and it can be called "A Band of Brothers."

Now then, any combat unit of any war can be called a "Band of Brothers" because when soldiers, sailors, marines or flight crews train, fight, are wounded and die together a bond of brotherhood develops. This was especially true during the Civil War because many companies and regiments consisted of soldiers from the same town, city and state who very often knew each other and were friends, but were not directly related to each other.

However, Company E of the First Kansas Colored Volunteer included more soldiers who had the same surname than any other company in the regiment. Those soldiers with the same surname who were probably related to each other as brothers, cousins, uncles or father and son. Research on the company's roster and the close or exact same date of enlistment indicates that Privates Moses Holt and Fix Holt were brothers and so probably were Rufus and Jesse Vann.

Other soldiers in Co. E having the same surname are named Anderson, Bean, Brown, Carter, Fisher, Jackson, Johnson, Merrill, Reed, Riley, Ross, Lynch, Smith, Sanders and White. All of these soldiers enlisted at Mound City, Kan., between Aug. 9 and Sept. 1, 1862.

During the war, 11 enlisted soldiers of Company E were Killed-In-Action, 17 Died of Disease, 5 were discharged because of Disability and only 3 soldiers deserted from the regiment, 7 were promoted to Sergeant, 11 were promoted to Corporal and only 2 non-commissioned officers were reduced to the rank of private. It is believed that the majority of the enlisted African American Soldiers in Company E and the balance of the first Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment were former slaves who had escaped from Missouri, Arkansas and the Indian Territory (present Oklahoma).

Therefore, with this common heritage, in addition to some of them being related to each other, they were in deed a "BAND OF BROTHERS" and of course the "War Went On!