Freed and escaped slaves and black freemen joined the Union forces to help defeat the institution of slavery. Their participation in the war was a supreme act of courage, because Confederate troops routinely executed black soldiers they captured or found wounded on the battlefield. This practice was notably demonstrated at the Battle of Poison Springs, Arkansas on 18 April 1864, where the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry sustained heavy losses. Thereafter their battlecry was "Remember Poison Springs."
Eleven known "colored" soldiers once belonged to Fulkerson families and carried the Fulkerson surname into their military service. Their names are also inscribed at the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, DC.
