Most of the men of the First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry were escaped slaves who fled to Kansas from farms and towns in Missouri or Arkansas to find freedom, while others were free men of color who had moved to Kansas hoping for a better life, and all faced prejudice and bigotry from white neighbors. In August 1862, Senator Jim Lane was appointed Commissioner of Recruiting for the Union Army in the Department of Kansas, and Captains James Williams and Henry Seaman began recruiting African Americans almost immediately even though President Lincoln had not yet authorized the recruitment of black soldiers. On August 5, Lane reported to the Secretary of War that recruiting was going well and said he had enlisted enough African Americans to form two regiments. In Leavenworth, William D. Matthews, a prominent African-American businessman, recruited about 100 men for the First Kansas and received a commission as captain of Company D, while Henry Copeland and Patrick Minor were commissioned as lieutenants for that company. Minor later fought at Island Mound and became the first African-American officer to serve in combat during the Civil War. On October 29, 1862, part of the regiment fought Confederate guerillas at Island Mound in Bates County, Missouri, against a force more than twice their number, becoming the first African-American regiment to come under fire in the Civil War; their fighting was so valiant that newspapers in the East reported the battle, and guerilla leader Bill Turman reportedly said they fought like tigers. On January 13, 1863, less than two weeks after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect, the First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry became the fifth African-American regiment mustered into Federal service, three months after winning its first battle. Throughout the war, black soldiers knew they could be killed or returned to slavery if captured, and at Poison Springs, Arkansas, on April 18, 1864, Confederates executed captured and wounded black soldiers in violation of the rules of war, after which Remember Poison Springs became a battle cry of black regiments in the West. From the opening of recruitment in August 1862 until the regiment was mustered out on October 1, 1865, it saw extensive action in 16 battles and numerous small skirmishes, including Island Mound, Sherwood, Cabin Creek, Honey Springs, Lawrence, Horse-Head Creek, Roseville Creek, Prairie D'Ann, Poison Springs, Jenkins' Ferry, Flat Rock Creek, Fort Gibson, Timber Creek, Joy's Ford, Clarksville, and Roseville Creek again, and it was redesignated the 79th United States Colored Infantry on December 13, 1864.