In the opening days of the Civil War, the “Kansas Brigade” led by Col. James H. Lane burned and looted farms and towns in an effort to “clear out” southern sympathizers in the border counties east of Kansas.

Sixty-five miles east of Fort Scott they reached Osceola, a town of 3,000 citizens, on Sept. 23, 1861. The town was put to the torch. An estimated 15 to 20 civilians were killed. Two hundred slaves were liberated, and a great amount of plunder was carried back to Kansas.

Lane was criticized for the action against civilians. Politically, Missouri was considered a Union state, even though it was also a slave-holding state. Union loyalties were eroding, and the sack of Osceola turned many thousands of former Union men to the Confederate cause. Confederate support had begun to grow weeks earlier with the successful invasion of Union territory led by Gen. Sterling Price. In August Maj. John C. Fremont, commander of the Department of the West, declared martial law across Missouri.

Against Union policy successionist slaves were subject to confiscation, freeing them from the slave-holders. President Lincoln feared the loss of support in border states and ordered Fremont to “modify” the proclamation, in effect nullifying the confiscation clause.

Meanwhile, Fremont led more than 20,000 troops to southwest Missouri to repel the Confederate invasion into western Missouri. On Oct. 25, 1861, about 1,000 Rebel troops were driven from Springfield under the war cry, “Fremont and the Union.”

At Washington, President Lincoln had already given the order on the 22nd to terminate Fremont’s command.

Meanwhile, liberated Osceola slaves remained with Col. Lane. Believing that the war was about slavery, Lane became the champion of fugitive slaves.

Fremont did not receive word of his removal from command of the Department of the West until Nov. 2, 1861. Four days later, on Nov. 6, Jim Lane “The Liberator,” spoke before the 24th Indiana Regiment. They had gathered at his Springfield headquarters to honor their native son.

In his introduction he spoke fondly of Indiana. “She has nursed me as a mother nurses her child, and may my heart grow cold if I ever cease to be grateful to my benefactor.”

Lane continued, “But the home of my adoption, toils and strife is Kansas. She was an unbroken prairie when first I set foot upon her soil. Against desperate odds, she has fought her way up to the sisterhood of States, and already her little army has become famous throughout the nation for its brave and patriotic deeds.”

Lane noted that slavery was “the cause of all difference — the Pandora’s box from which have issued all our national troubles.”

Lane spoke of the slaves “stampeding” from their rebel masters. He urged “Let us be bold and inscribe upon our banners — FREEDOM TO ALL.”

The speech was picked up by newspapers and apparently the slaves in and around Springfield. Two nights later 150 slaves showed up in “a great stampede” to Lane’s Kansas Brigade camp. When slaveholders came to the camp to retrieve their “property” according to the Fugitive Slave Law, Lane refused to release the slaves. The Rev. H. D. Fisher, chaplain of one of Lane’s regiments, was sent as escort for 220 liberated slaves to Fort Scott, Kan. The “Black Brigade” was well-received and homes were found for all of them in the surrounding area.

Lane spoke before an audience of 300 at a war meeting in Leavenworth, Kan. was threatened by troops from Arkansas and Texas. Lane was also a U. S. senator and as such had asked for Kansas troops serving in the east to be returned home in defense of their homeland. He was told they could return “as soon as their places were supplied by new levies.” He assured the audience “It is too long. The danger is imminent.”

His solution was black troops. Black men had fought in the American Revolution and the War of 1812, why not now in the hour of need? Furthermore, Lane proclaimed, “One negro regiment in the South will create more terror than the whole of Buel’s army ... This is the army I am here to aid you in forming.”

Lane followed through with an order to raise a full regiment of black troops, the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers, under the command of Capt. James M. Williams. A detachment of 225 soldiers were ordered to the Rebel hotbed of Bates County, Mo. Their camp was dubbed “Fort Africa.” They were attacked and besieged by the Missouri State Guard and Rebel guerillas on Oct. 27. The Confederates were eventually forced to withdraw under a volley of withering fire. The battle at Island Mound, Mo., drew national attention for the heroic action of Americas’ first African American troops in the Civil War. By freeing slaves against government policy Jim Lane led the way, making Kansas the true “Home of the Free” on the Way West.

“The Cowboy,” Jim Gray is author of the book Desperate Seed: Ellsworth Kansas on the Violent Frontier, Ellsworth, KS. Contact Kansas Cowboy, 220 21st Road, Geneseo, Kan. Phone: (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.