Historical Marker
1st Kansas Colored Infantry
Chidester, Ouachita County · Arkansas
Erected 2011
The regiment's war went on after Poison Spring. On December 13, 1864, it was redesignated the 79th United States Colored Troops (New), fought at Ivey's Ford in January 1865, served at Little Rock and Pine Bluff, and mustered out on October 1, 1865. In all, 188 of its men were killed or mortally wounded and 166 died of disease. Its sister regiment, the 2nd Kansas Colored Infantry, overran a Confederate battery at Jenkins' Ferry shouting "Remember Poison Spring!", and bayoneted several men trying to surrender. The marker stands on private property.
Where it stands
33.65263, -92.97068 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Poison Spring Battleground State Park — 2.2 miAn 85-acre roadside battlefield west of Camden, where Confederates routed a Union foraging column on April 18, 1864, and many Black soldiers of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry were killed after surrendering.
- White Oak Lake State Park — 7.7 miA 725-acre park on the lower of two 1961 lakes, where white sand marks an ancient shoreline and the visitor center carries a Poison Spring display eight miles from the battlefield.
- McCollum-Chidester House Museum — 8.8 miAn 1847 Greek Revival house in Camden that served as a stagecoach headquarters and, in April 1864, as General Steele's headquarters, with bullet holes still visible upstairs.
- Logoly State Park — 24 miArkansas's first environmental education state park, built on the Magnesia Springs resort and a Boy Scout camp, with about 200 acres of mature forest kept as a natural area.