Civil War Battle of Island Mound

It All Started With A Tornado, Wilbur A. Zink:

There was a Civil War battle twenty-five miles west of Appleton City, MO on October 29, 1862. Missouri was a slave state and Kansas was a free state, and the border between them was often the location of many skirmishes.

Fort Toothman was located about five miles southwest of Butler, Missouri on a higher elevated section of land from which you could see the city of Butler on a clear day. The 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers was made up of fugitive slaves that were recruited by U.S. Senator James Henry Lane from Lawrence, Kansas, who was also an abolitionist. The 1st Kansas group garrisoned the Fort. The battle against Missouri Guerillas became known as the Battle of Island Mound.

A reference to Fort Toothman can be found in the 1898 Bates County Old Settlers history book. The site entailed a 40-acre section: where Fort Toothman stood, the battle ground and the location of the unmarked cemetery where the soldiers were buried. This was the first all-black fort and the first location of black Union soldiers being killed in a recognized battle.

-----

Bates County, Missouri History 1821 – 1900:

Old Settlers History, page 187-188
The Battle at Fort Toothman

This fort was situate on the NW quarter, Section 35, Township 40, Range 32, in Charlotte Township.

J.S. Pierce, an old settler, being interviewed, said: “I came to Bates County in the spring of 1853, and have resided here ever since, except a short time during the late unhappy war between the States. Fort Toothman was a regular U.S. fort, and garrisoned by regular U.S. troops, colored; and must have been established there late in 1862. What I know about the battle was gleaned from a soldier whom I met in Little Rock, Arkansas, shortly after the battle, and who had participated in it. He and other Southern men were camped, or rendezvoused on the slough island nearly directly south of the fort, and were taking care of themselves the best they could in the unsettled condition of the country.

“The colored troops to the number of 150 or 200, were foraging upon the country for a living; and in order to punish them these Southern men planned an attack. They sent out a few men to approach the fort and entice the colored troops out. The rest of the force was quietly disposed for action a short distance south on the low land of the Marais de Cygne river. One man had been placed in a cotton wood tree where he could see the colored troops, and at the same time signal a charge. This was not to be made until the colored troops were some distance from the fort, and near the river timber.

“The scheme worked. The colored troops came out in force and pursued the squad nearly to the timber, and at the proper time the man in the cottonwood tree gave the signal, and the Southern men, numbering some 15 to 25 men, charged the colored troops, and the battle raged fast and furious until the few who escaped were inside Fort Toothman. Both sides were mounted, and the Southern men had the advantage of fresh horses, and the colored troops had to retreat with fagged horses and up over the bluffs towards the fort. Hence, they were cut down mercilessly, and only one or two survived to get inside the fort. The Southern men, who had sustained no losses, soon evacuated the island, and went south. The colored troops remaining were soon afterward ordered to some other post.”

James Drysdale, being interviewed on the same matter, said: “I came to this country in 1868, and settled on a farm one mile west of Fort Toothman. I also own the 40 adjoining the earthworks and some of the timber used in the fort were still there. The Toothman house was the center of the works, and the earth works surrounding took in about an acre of ground. This farm has since been known as the Cogill farm. A short distance north of the fort there was fresh dirt thrown up and everything indicated a burial ground. Here, I was informed, was where the men killed in the battle were buried. Recently I had a talk with a woman by the name of Wheeler, whose maiden name was Langferd, and who resided on the Oliver Ellswick place, adjoining the Toothman place on the north, at the time of the battle, and she said she saw the battle and that there were twenty-one colored troops and one white man, commanding, killed; that the colored men were buried there, and the white man taken to Mound City, Kansas for interment. This battle was fought some time prior to General Ewing’s Order No. 11, which was dated August 25, 1863, and from all the information at hand, it was probably on or about the 1st of June.”

This is supposed to have been the only battle fought on Bates County soil in which regular U.S. troops were engaged.