Bates County, formed in 1841 and settled largely by people from Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee, had a population of 6,765 in 1860, including 442 enslaved people, though the enslaved population had dropped greatly by 1862. Most residents supported the Confederacy, and several groups of guerrilla fighters operated in the area. From Hog Island, about nine miles from Butler, Missouri, local guerrillas terrorized pro-Union families and launched raids into eastern Kansas; reports on the Battle of Island Mound identified forces under Cockrell and other guerrilla bands moving through the Osage bottoms toward Arkansas. On October 26, 1862, the First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry was ordered to drive bushwhackers from Hog Island. Marching from Fort Lincoln, Kansas, with about 240 men and 12 officers, they used the Fort Scott Road and reached the vicinity of Hog Island in Bates County, Missouri, on October 27. This road linked the Western Military Road and Butler and was part of a route begun in 1836 that connected forts from Minnesota Territory to Louisiana along the eastern boundary of Indian Territory; it was known in Kansas as the Butler Road and in Butler as the Fort Scott Road, a name preserved by Fort Scott Street. Near this road stood the Toothman farmhouse, where the First Kansas camped in the yard, built breastworks from fence rails, and named the position Fort Africa.