Many African Americans fought with honor for the North during the Civil War. In 1969 The Kansas Commission on Civil Rights published a booklet, "Kansas Negro Regiments in the Civil War," by Dudley Taylor Cornish. The booklet, first appeared as an article in the Kansas Historical Society's "Kansas Historical Quarterly" (Volume XX, No. 6, pages 417-429). It was slightly edited for publication as the 1969 booklet by the Commission.
In the first paragraph the author states:
"Negro soldiers made a substantial contribution to the victory of Union arms in the Civil War. Two Kansas Negro regiments played an active role in the war on the border, from Fort Scott south along the Arkansas frontier to Fort Smith and Camden and Pine Bluff. Although the history of these regiments is fundamentally military, it has important social and political overtones."
The booklet is illustrated and informative as a good beginning to understanding the contribution African Americans made to the making of America over 150 years ago.
You can read this publication online at the State Library of Kansas' KGI Online Library here:
Kansas Negro Regiments in the Civil War
Some other resources avialable online regarding African Americans in Kansas during the Civil War:
(The original article from "Kansas Historical Quarterly)
(Kansapedia - Kansas Historical Society)
(Fort Scott National Park Service staff)
(Museum of the Kansas National Guard)
(Kansas Museum of History, Kansas Historical Society)
(Kansapedia - Kansas Historical Society)
"Kansas History" Volume 2, no. 2 (Summer 1979)
(Kansas Historical Society)
(Kansas Historical Society's Kansas Memory website)