Excerpt from the web site and an added note:

"On July 2, 1864, "Captain" William D. Matthews, a black man who had been appointed by the interracial Kansas Emancipation League as superintendent of contraband (escaped and freed former
slaves), and Lt. Patrick H. Minor, began enlisting individuals to serve in a colored artillery battery based at Fort Leavenworth. The battery was not mustered into service until December 1865, but it saw action long before then."

Captain William D. Matthews and Lieutenant Patrick H. Minor were commissioned and served in the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment up until the time the unit was officially mustered into the Union Army during January 1863.

Lieutenant Minor was in command of a Company that engaged the enemy on October 28, 1862 at Island Mound, Page County, Missouri which was the first engagement by Black soldiers in the Civil War.

Captain Matthews was recruiting in the Fort Leavenworth area at the time.

Bennie