Peter Kiolbassa

Peter Kiolbassa

Peter Kiolbassa, who had taught in Panna Maria’s first school and played organ for the parish, became a bugler in the Panna Maria Greys. Kiolbassa, along with other soldiers, was captured in January 1863 at the Battle of Arkansas Post. Foreign-born prisoners were offered the opportunity to swear allegiance to the United States, and at least a dozen of the prisoners exchanged grey uniforms for blue. Kiolbassa joined the Union forces and quickly advanced to the rank of captain and commander of an African-American cavalry unit. When the men returned to their families in Texas, they found a desperate situation. The defeat of the Confederacy led to a breakdown of law and order. Anglos were hostile to the “foreigners,” whom they suspected had always harbored pro-Union sympathies, and they bore a special animus for soldiers who had changed sides. After being discharged, Kiolbassa returned briefly to Panna Maria before relocating to Chicago, where he became a major political figure.