On August 4, 1862, Senator James Lane issued orders that would raise the one of the first black regiments in the Union, placing them under the command of Captain James M. Williams. It would be months later before they would be organized at Fort Scott, Kansas, as the Kansas 1st Regiment Kansas Volunteer Infantry. The story of the battle of Cabin Creek often gets lost in the retelling of American history, but it is an interesting and pretty powerful moment of the cause at hand.
The 1st battle of Cabin Creek marked a first for the US military. It would be the first time that black men fought alongside white soldiers in order to defeat the rebels. It would also change the way in which the north could operate for the rest of the war.
The south, noticing that union soldiers were free to use Native American lands, had hoped to attack in a way that made this impossible, which they believed would be key to providing them protection on their western front.