Dale Vaughn, author of a novel about the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the first black regiment to fight in the Civil War, is the first to tell you he is a storyteller, not a historian.
But while the characters in his just-released novel, "The Chance," are fictional, what is true are the 1st Kansas Colored; Gen. James Lane, the state's first U.S. senator and raider into pro-slavery Missouri; abolitionist John Brown; and the battles listed in Vaughn's book.
Vaughn chose to write about the 1st Kansas Colored because the regiment hadn't been a book topic before and he wanted to promote something that was a first for Kansas. He learned about the 1st Kansas Colored while a member of the Civil War Roundtable of Eastern Kansas, a group that studies Civil War topics, especially the war's ties to Kansas.
The 1st Kansas Colored fought and won its first battle on Oct. 28, 1862, at Toothman's Mound in west-central Missouri. According to several sources, black troops totaled 186,000 to 235,000, accounting for about 10 percent of the Union army. There were about 30,000 black sailors in the Navy.
Thad Allton/The Capital-Journal
Dale E. Vaughn, of Topeka, is the author of "The Chance," the first story of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
About 200 members of the 1st Kansas Colored were massacred by Confederate troops during the Battle of Poison Springs, Ark., as payback for two earlier victories by the 1st Kansas Colored, Vaughn said.
Working in an office in his southeast Topeka home, surrounded by photographs, books and memorabilia focused on the Civil War, Vaughn started writing three years ago because it was fun. He did research for about a year, visiting battlefields and other historic sites in the story -- Fort Smith and Poison Springs near Camden in Arkansas; Fort Gibson, Cabin Creek and Honey Springs in Oklahoma; and Fort Scott, Fort Leavenworth, Mound City and Baxter Springs in Kansas.
From the research emerged "The Chance," a novel focusing on Elias Mothers, a slave who escaped as a child in 1854 with his mother and infant brother from a plantation in southern Virginia. In the summer of 1862, Mothers enlisted in the 1st Kansas Colored with other black men.
To learn about the time period, Vaughn studied journals, diaries, letters and even bills of lading, which were a good source of information about the economy at the time.
History came alive for Vaughn in the 1960s when he took an early European history class at Washburn University in which the instructor was a storyteller.
It "was the first class where history meant anything," Vaughn said. "Before that, I was almost afraid of history. When (the teacher) talked, these names turned into real people."
Likewise, a freshman composition class turned him on to writing.
"The Chance" is historical fiction in which Vaughn has taken the facts of an event, then put meat on its bones to give readers a feeling of what the men of the 1st Kansas Colored went through, he said.
Elias Mothers and other soldiers in the regiment became close friends because they had a good understanding of why they were fighting, Vaughn said.
"Almost without exception, they were escaped slaves," Vaughn said.
Vaughn feels a kinship to the soldiers in his novel.
"These characters have become such good, close friends. I miss them," Vaughn said.
When that happens, he opens "The Chance" to read two or three chapters just to reacquaint himself with them.
In future book projects, Vaughn wants to write about the Battle of Black Jack in Douglas County, one of the early skirmishes before the war, and a children's book about Cheat, the younger brother of the main character in "The Chance."
Steve Fry can be reached at (785) 295-1206 or firstname.lastname@example.org.
DALE E. VAUGHN
Age: 72 years old.
Birthplace: Kansas City, Kan.
Schooling: Attended Lincoln Grade School and Roosevelt Junior High School in Topeka; graduated from Topeka High School in 1950.
Military service: Enlisted in the Air Force in January 1951 during the Korean War; became a drill instructor and was promoted to sergeant; served in Germany and Africa; discharged in 1954.
Employment: Starting in 1954, worked at Ray Anderson Co., an overhead door company, as a draftsman, salesman, manager and president; retired in 1998 after 44 years.
Author Dale Vaughn will be one of several speakers Monday at the Brown v. Board of Education Truce Festival at Cushinberry Park, S.E. 15th and Jefferson.
The talk at the bandstand starts at 6 p.m.
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