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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Colored Regulars in the United States
+Army, by T. G. Steward
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Colored Regulars in the United States Army
+
+Author: T. G. Steward
+
+Release Date: September 25, 2005 [EBook #16750]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COLORED REGULARS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Richard J. Shiffer, and the PG
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE COLORED REGULARS
+
+IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY
+
+
+With a Sketch of the History of the Colored American, and an Account of
+His Services in the Wars of the Country, from the
+Period of the Revolutionary War to 1899.
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY LETTER FROM
+
+Lieutenant-General Nelson A. Miles
+Commanding the Army of the United States.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+By CHAPLAIN T.G. STEWARD, D.D.,
+Twenty-fifth U.S. Infantry.
+
+
+Philadelphia
+A.M.E. Book Concern,
+631 Pine Street.
+
+1904
+
+
+[Illustration: Chaplain T.G. Steward, D.D.]
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+CHAPTER I.--SKETCH OF SOCIAL HISTORY.
+
+The Importation of the Africans. Character of the Colored Population
+in 1860. Colored Population in British West Indian Possessions. Free
+Colored People of the South. Free Colored People of the North. Notes.
+                                                                     21
+
+CHAPTER II.--THE AMERICAN NEGRO AND THE MILITARY SPIRIT.
+
+Early Literature of Negro Soldiers. Negro Soldiers in the War of the
+Revolution. The War of 1812. Negro Insurrections. Negro Troops in the
+Civil War. Notes.                                                    57
+
+CHAPTER III.--THE BLACK REGULARS OF THE ARMY OF INVASION IN THE
+SPANISH WAR.
+
+Organization of Negro Regiments in the Regular Army. First Movement in
+the War. Chickamauga and Tampa. Notes.                               84
+
+CHAPTER IV.--BRIEF SKETCH OF SPANISH HISTORY.                       107
+
+CHAPTER V.--PASSAGE, LANDING, AND FIRST BATTLE IN CUBA.
+
+The Tenth Cavalry at Guasimas. The "Rescue of the Rough Riders." Was
+there an Ambush? Notes.                                             116
+
+CHAPTER VI.--THE BATTLE OF EL CANEY.
+
+The Capture of the Stone Fort by the Twenty-fifth Infantry.         150
+
+CHAPTER VII.--SAN JUAN.
+
+Cavalry Division: The Ninth and Tenth Regiments. Kent's Division: The
+Twenty-fourth Infantry. Forming under fire. A Gallant Charge.       191
+
+CHAPTER VIII.--SAN JUAN (Continued).
+
+Kent's Division. The Twenty-fourth Infantry. Forming Under Fire. A
+Gallant Charge.                                                     208
+
+CHAPTER IX.--THE SURRENDER AND AFTERWARDS.
+
+In the Trenches. The Twenty-fourth in the Fever Camp. Are Negro
+Soldiers Immune? Camp Wikoff.                                       220
+
+CHAPTER X.--REVIEW AND REFLECTIONS.
+
+Gallantry of the Black Regulars. Diary of Sergeant Major E.L. Baker,
+Tenth Cavalry.                                                      236
+
+CHAPTER XI.--THE COLORED VOLUNTEERS.
+
+The Ninth Ohio Battalion. Eighth Illinois. Twenty-third Kansas. Third
+North Carolina. Sixth Virginia. Third Alabama. The Immunes.         282
+
+CHAPTER XII.--COLORED OFFICERS.
+
+By Captain Frank R. Steward, A.B., LL.B., Harvard, 49th U. S.
+Volunteer Infantry.                                                 299
+
+APPENDIX.                                                           328
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The material out of which the story of the COLORED REGULARS has been
+constructed has been collected with great pains, and upon it has been
+expended a serious amount of labor and care. All the movements of the
+Cuban campaign, and particularly of the battles, have been carefully
+studied by the aid of official reports, and conversations and
+correspondence with those who participated in them. The work has been
+performed with an earnest desire to obtain and present the truth,
+hoping that the reader will be inspired by it to a more profound
+respect for the brave and skilled black men who passed through that
+severe baptism of fire and suffering, contributing their full share to
+their country's honor.
+
+It is also becoming in this place to mention with gratitude the
+encouragement given by the War Department both in granting me the time
+in which to do the work, and also in supplying me with documents and
+furnishing other facilities. By this enlightened course on the part of
+the Department great aid has been given to historical science, and,
+incidentally, very important service rendered to the cause of freedom
+and humanity. A struggling people has been helped and further glory
+reflected upon the Government. The President, himself, has manifested
+a kindly interest in the work, and has wished that the story of the
+black soldiers should be told to the world. The interest of the
+Commanding General of the Army is shown in his letter.
+
+Thus encouraged from official sources and receiving the most hearty
+words of cheer from friends, of whom none has been more potent or more
+earnest than Bishop B.W. Arnett, D.D., of the African M.E. Church, I
+have, after five months of severe labor, about completed my task, so
+far as I find it in my power to complete it; and trusting that the
+majesty and interest of the story itself will atone for any defects in
+the style of the narration, the volume is now offered to a sympathetic
+public, affectionately dedicated to the men whose heroic services have
+furnished the theme for my pen.
+
+T.G. STEWARD.
+Wilberforce, Ohio, September, 1899.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER FROM GENERAL MILES.
+
+
+Headquarters of the Army, Washington, August 5, 1899.
+
+Rev. T.G. Steward, Chaplain 25th Infantry, Wilberforce, Ohio.
+
+Dear Sir:--Your letter of the 20th ultimo was duly received, but my
+time has been so much engrossed with official duties, requiring my
+presence part of the time out of the city, that it has not been
+practicable to comply with your request earlier; and even now I can
+only reply very briefly.
+
+You will remember that my acquaintance with negro character commenced
+during the Civil War. The colored race then presented itself to me in
+the character of numerous contrabands of war, and as a people who,
+individually, yearned for the light and life of liberty. Ages of
+slavery had reduced them to the lowest ebb of manhood. From that
+degree of degradation I have been an interested spectator of the
+marvelously rapid evolution of the down-trodden race. From the
+commencement of this evolution to the present time I have been more or
+less in a position to closely observe their progress. At the close of
+the war I was in command of one of the very important military
+districts of the South, and my concern for the welfare of all the
+people of that district, not excluding the people of color, you will
+find evidenced in the measures taken by me, more especially in regard
+to educational matters, at that time. The first regiment which I
+commanded on entering the Regular Army of the United States at the
+close of the war was made up of colored troops. That regiment--the
+40th Infantry--achieved a reputation for military conduct which forms
+a record that may be favorably compared with the best regiments in the
+service. Then, again, refer to my General Order No. 1, issued after
+the fall of Santiago, and you will see that recognition is not
+grudgingly given to the troops who heroically fought there, whether of
+American, of African, or of Latin descent. If so early in the second
+generation of the existence of the race in the glorious light of
+liberty it produces such orators as Douglas, such educators as Booker
+T. Washington, such divines as the Afro-American Bishops, what may we
+not expect of the race when it shall have experienced as many
+generations of growth and development as the Anglo-Saxons who now
+dominate the thought, the inventive genius, the military prowess, and
+the commercial enterprise of the world! Very truly yours,
+
+NELSON A. MILES.
+
+
+[Illustration: Lieutenant-General Nelson A. Miles.]
+
+
+
+
+Headquarters of the Army,
+Siboney, Cuba, July 16, 1898.
+
+General Field Orders No. 1.
+
+The gratifying success of the American arms at Santiago de Cuba and
+some features of a professional character both important and
+instructive, are hereby announced to the army.
+
+The declaration of war found our country with a small army scattered
+over a vast territory. The troops composing this army were speedily
+mobilized at Tampa, Fla. Before it was possible to properly equip a
+volunteer force, strong appeals for aid came from the navy, which had
+inclosed in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba an important part of the
+Spanish fleet. At that time the only efficient fighting force
+available was the United States Army, and in order to organize a
+command of sufficient strength, the cavalry had to be sent dismounted
+to Santiago de Cuba with the infantry and artillery.
+
+The expedition thus formed was placed under command of Major-General
+Shafter. Notwithstanding the limited time to equip and organize an
+expedition of this character, there was never displayed a nobler
+spirit of patriotism and fortitude on the part of officers and men
+going forth to mantain the honor of their country. After encountering
+the vicissitudes of an ocean voyage, they were obliged to disembark on
+a foreign shore and immediately engage in an aggressive campaign.
+Under drenching storms, intense and prostrating heat, within a
+fever-afflicted district, with little comfort or rest, either by day
+or night, they pursued their purpose of finding and conquering the
+enemy. Many of them, trained in the severe experience of the great
+war, and in frequent campaigns on the Western plains, officers and men
+alike exhibited a great skill, fortitude, and tenacity, with results
+which have added a new chapter of glory to their country's history.
+Even when their own generals in several cases were temporarily
+disabled, the troops fought on with the same heroic spirit until
+success was finally achieved. In many instances the officers placed
+themselves in front of their commands, and under their direct and
+skillful leadership the trained troops of a brave army were driven
+from the thickets and jungles of an almost inaccessible country. In
+the open field the troops stormed intrenched infantry, and carried and
+captured fortified works with an unsurpassed daring and disregard of
+death. By gaining commanding ground they made the harbor of Santiago
+untenable for the Spanish fleet, and practically drove it out to a
+speedy destruction by the American Navy.
+
+While enduring the hardships and privations of such campaign, the
+troops generously shared their scanty food with the 5,000 Cuban
+patriots in arms, and the suffering people who had fled from the
+besieged city. With the twenty-four regiments and four batteries, the
+flower of the United States Army, were also three volunteer regiments.
+These though unskilled in warfare, yet, inspired with the same spirit,
+contributed to the victory, suffered hardships, and made sacrifices
+with the rest. Where all did so well, it is impossible, by special
+mention, to do justice to those who bore conspicuous part. But of
+certain unusual features mention cannot be omitted, namely, the
+cavalry dismounted, fighting and storming works as infantry, and a
+regiment of colored troops, who, having shared equally in the heroism
+as well as the sacrifices, is now voluntarily engaged in nursing
+yellow-fever patients and burying the dead. The gallantry, patriotism
+and sacrifices of the American Army, as illustrated in this brief
+campaign, will be fully appreciated by a grateful country, and the
+heroic deeds of those who have fought and fallen in the cause of
+freedom will ever be cherished in sacred memory and be an inspiration
+to the living.
+
+By command of Major-General Miles:
+
+J.C. GILMORE,
+Brigadier-General, United States Volunteers.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+
+To write the history of the Negro race within that part of the western
+world known as the United States of America would be a task to which
+one might devote a life time and still fail in its satisfactory
+accomplishment. The difficulties lying in the way of collecting and
+unifying the material are very great; and that of detecting the inner
+life of the people much greater. Facts and dates are to history what
+color and proportion are to the painting. Employed by genius, color
+and form combine in a language that speaks to the soul, giving
+pleasure and instruction to the beholder; so the facts and dates
+occurring along the pathway of a people, when gathered and arranged by
+labor and care, assume a voice and a power which they have not
+otherwise. As these facts express the thoughts and feelings, and the
+growth, of a people, they become the language in which that people
+writes its history, and the work of the historian is to read and
+interpret this history for the benefit of his fellow men.
+
+Borrowing a second illustration from the work of the artist, it may be
+said, that as nature reveals her secrets only to him whose soul is in
+deepest sympathy with her moods and movements, so a people's history
+can be discovered only by one whose heart throbs in unison with those
+who have made the history. To write the history of any people
+successfully one must read it by the heart; and the best part of
+history, like the best part of the picture, must ever remain
+unexpressed. The artist sees more, and feels more than he is able to
+transfer to his canvas, however entrancing his presentation; and the
+historian sees and feels more than his brightest pages convey to his
+readers. Nothing less than a profound respect and love for humankind
+and a special attraction toward a particular people and age, can fit
+one to engage in so sublime a task as that of translating the history
+of a people into the language of common men.
+
+The history of the American Negro differs very widely from that of any
+people whose life-story has been told; and when it shall come to be
+known and studied will open an entirely new view of experience. In it
+we shall be able to see what has never before been discovered in
+history; to wit: the absolute beginning of a people. Brought to these
+shores by the ship-load as freight, and sold as merchandise; entirely
+broken away from the tribes, races, or nations of their native land;
+recognized only, as African slaves, and forbidden all movement looking
+toward organic life; deprived of even the right of family or of
+marriage, and corrupted in the most shameless manner by their powerful
+and licentious oppressors--it is from this heterogeneous protoplasm
+that the American Negro has been developed. The foundation from which
+he sprang had been laid by piecemeal as the slave ships made their
+annual deposits of cargoes brought from different points on the West
+Coast, and basely corrupted as is only too well known; yet out of it
+has grown, within less than three hundred years, an organic people.
+Grandfathers, and great-grandfathers are among them; and personal
+acquaintance is exceedingly wide. In the face of slavery and against
+its teaching and its power, overcoming the seduction of the master
+class, and the coarse and brutal corruptions of the baser overseer
+class, the African slave persistently strove to clothe himself with
+the habiliments of civilization, and so prepared himself for social
+organization that as soon as the hindrances were removed, this vast
+people almost immediately set themselves in families; and for over
+thirty years they have been busily engaged hunting up the lost roots
+of their family trees. We know the pit whence the Afro-American race
+was dug, the rock whence he was hewn; he was born here on this soil,
+from a people who in the classic language of the Hebrew prophet, could
+be described as, No People.
+
+That there has been a majestic evolution quietly but rapidly going on
+in this mass, growing as it was both by natural development and by
+accretion, is plainly evident. Heterogeneous as were the fragments, by
+the aid of a common language and a common lot, and cruel yet partially
+civilizing control, the whole people were forced into a common outward
+form, and to a remarkable extent, into the same ways of thinking. The
+affinities within were really aided by the repulsions without, and
+when finally freed from slavery, for an ignorant and inexperienced
+people, they presented an astonishing spectacle of unity. Socially,
+politically and religiously, their power to work together showed
+itself little less than marvellous. The Afro-American, developing from
+this slave base, now directs great organizations of a religious
+character, and in comprehensive sweep invites to his co-operation the
+inhabitants of the isles of the sea and of far-off Africa. He is
+joining with the primitive, strong, hopeful and expanding races of
+Southern Africa, and is evidently preparing for a day that has not yet
+come.
+
+The progress made thus far by the people is somewhat like that made by
+the young, man who hires himself to a farmer and takes his pay in
+farming stock and utensils. He is thus acquiring the means to stock a
+farm, and the skill and experience necessary to its successful
+management at the same time. His career will not appear important,
+however, until the day shall arrive when he will set up for himself.
+The time spent on the farm of another was passed in comparative
+obscurity; but without it the more conspicuous period could never have
+followed. So, now, the American colored people are making history, but
+it is not of that kind that gains the attention of writers. Having no
+political organizations, governments or armies they are not performing
+those deeds of splendor in statesmanship and war over which the pen of
+the historian usually delights to linger. The people, living, growing,
+reading, thinking, working, suffering, advancing and dying--these are
+all common-place occurrences, neither warming the heart of the
+observer, nor capable of brightening the page of the chronicler. This,
+however, is, with the insignificant exception of Liberia, all that is
+yet to be found in the brief history of the Afro-American race.
+
+The period for him to set up for himself has not yet come, and he is
+still acquiring means and training within a realm controlled in all
+respects by a people who maintain toward him an attitude of absolute
+social exclusion. His is the history of a people marching from nowhere
+to somewhere, but with no well-defined Canaan before them and no Moses
+to lead. It is indeed, on their part, a walk by faith, for as yet the
+wisest among the race cannot tell even the direction of the journey.
+Before us lie surely three possible destinies, if not four; yet it is
+not clear toward which one of these we are marching. Are we destined
+to see the African element of America's population blend with the
+Euro-American element and be lost in a common people? Will the colored
+American leave this home in which as a race he has been born and
+reared to manhood, and find his stage of action somewhere else on
+God's earth? Will he remain here as a separate and subordinate people
+perpetuating the conditions of to-day only that they may become more
+humiliating and exasperating? Or is there to arise a war of races in
+which the blacks are to be exterminated? Who knows? Fortunately the
+historian is not called upon to perform the duties of prophet. His
+work is to tell what has been; and if others, building upon his
+presentation of facts can deduce what is to be, it is no small tribute
+to the correctness of his interpretations; for all events are parts of
+one vast system ever moving toward some great end. One remark only
+need be made. It is reasonable to presume that this new Afro-American
+will somehow and somewhere be given an opportunity to express that
+particular modification of material life which his spiritual nature
+will demand. Whether that expression will be made here or elsewhere;
+whether it will be higher or lower than what now surrounds us, are
+questions which we may well leave to the future.
+
+No people can win and hold a place, either as a nation among other
+nations, or as an elementary component of a nation, merely by its own
+goodness or by the goodness of others. The struggle for national
+existence is a familiar one, and is always initiated by a display of
+physical force. Those who have the power seize territory and
+government, and those who CAN, keep possession and control. It is in
+some instances the backing up of right by might, and in others the
+substituting of right by might. Too often the greatest of all national
+crimes is to be weak. When the struggle is a quiet one, going on
+within a nation, and is that of an element seeking a place in the
+common social life of the country, much the same principles are
+involved. It is still a question to be settled by force, no matter how
+highly the claim of the weaker may be favored by reason and justice.
+
+The powers by which a special people may emerge from an unhappy
+condition and secure improved social relations, using the word social
+in its broadest sense, are physical, intellectual and material. There
+must be developed manly strength and courage and a power of intellect
+which will manifest itself in organization and attractiveness, and in
+the aptitude of employing appropriate methods for ends in view. To
+these must be added the power that comes through wealth; and thus,
+with the real advancement of condition and character will come,
+tardily and grudgingly perhaps, but nevertheless surely, improved
+social standing. Once filled with the common national spirit,
+partaking of its thoughts, entering heartily into the common
+movements, having the same dress, language and manners as others, and
+being as able and as willing to help as to be helped, and withal being
+in fact the most intensely American element on the continent because
+constructed on this soil, we may hope that the Afro-American will
+ultimately win and hold his proper place.
+
+The history made by the American Negro has been so filled with
+suffering that we have overlooked the active side. The world has heard
+so much of the horrors of the "Middle Passage"; the awful sufferings
+of the slave; the barbarous outrages that have been perpetrated upon
+ex-slaves; the inhuman and senseless prejudices that meet colored
+Americans almost everywhere on their native soil; that it has come to
+look upon this recital as the whole of the story. It needs to be told
+that these records constitute the dark side of the picture, dark and
+horrible enough, to be sure, but this is by no means the whole
+picture. If there are scenes whose representations would serve to
+ornament the infernal regions, pictures over which fiends might gloat,
+there are also others which angels might delight to gaze upon. There
+has been much of worthy action among the colored people of this
+country, wherever the bonds of oppression have been slackened enough
+to allow of free movement. There have been resistance to wrong by way
+of remonstrance and petition, sometimes even by force; laudable
+efforts toward self-education; benevolent and philanthropic movements;
+reform organizations, and commendable business enterprise both in
+individuals and associations. These show a toughness of fibre and
+steadiness of purpose sufficient to make the backbone of a real
+history.
+
+The present work deals with these elements of character as they are
+exhibited in the garb of the soldier. When men are willing to fight
+and die for what they hold dear, they have become a moving force,
+capable of disturbing the currents of history and of making a channel
+for the stream of their own actions. The American Negro has evolved an
+active, aggressive element in the scientific fighting men he has
+produced. Individual pugilists of that race have entered all classes,
+from featherweight to heavyweight, and have remained there; receiving
+blows and dealing blows; showing a sturdy, positive force; mastering
+and employing all the methods of attack and defence allowed in such
+encounters, and supporting themselves with that fortitude and courage
+so necessary to the ring. Such combats are not to be commended, as
+they are usually mere tests of skill and endurance, entered into on
+the principles of the gambler, and they are introduced here for the
+sole purpose of showing the colored man as a positive force, yielding
+only to a superior degree of force of the same kind. The soldier
+stands for something far higher than the pugilist represents, although
+he has need of the same qualities of physical hardihood--contempt for
+suffering and coolness in the presence of danger, united with skill in
+the use of his weapons. The pugilist is his own general and never
+learns the high lessons of obedience; the soldier learns to
+subordinate himself to his commander, and to fight bravely and
+effectively under the direction of another.
+
+The evolution of the Afro-American soldier was the work of a short
+period and suffered many interruptions. When the War of the Revolution
+broke out the colored man was a slave, knowing nothing of the spirit
+or the training of the soldier; before it closed several thousand
+colored men had entered the army and some had won distinction for
+gallantry. Less than forty years later, in the war of 1812, the black
+man again appeared to take his stand under the flag of independence.
+The War of Secession again witnessed the coming forth of the black
+soldier, this time in important numbers and performing heroic services
+on a grand scale, and under most discouraging circumstances, but with
+such success that he won a place in arms for all time. When the Civil
+War closed, the American black man had secured his standing as a
+soldier--the evolution was complete. Henceforth he was to be found an
+integral part of the Army of the United States.
+
+The black man passed through the trying baptism of fire in the Sixties
+and came out of it a full-fledged soldier. His was worse than an
+impartial trial; it was a trial before a jury strongly biased against
+him; in the service of a government willing to allow him but half pay;
+and in the face of a foe denying him the rights belonging to civilized
+warfare. Yet against these odds, denied the dearest right of a
+soldier--the hope of promotion--scorned by his companions in arms, the
+Negro on more than two hundred and fifty battle-fields, demonstrated
+his courage and skill, and wrung from the American nation the right to
+bear arms. The barons were no more successful in their struggle with
+King John when they obtained Magna Charta than were the American
+Negroes with Prejudice, when they secured the national recognition of
+their right and fitness to hold a place in the Standing Army of the
+United States. The Afro-American soldier now takes his rank with
+America's best, and in appearance, skill, physique, manners, conduct
+and courage proves himself worthy of the position he holds. Combining
+in his person the harvested influences of three great continents,
+Europe, Africa and America, he stands up as the typical soldier of the
+Western World, the latest comer in the field of arms, but yielding his
+place in the line to none, and ever ready to defend his country and
+his flag against any and all foes.
+
+The mission of this book is to make clear this evolution, giving the
+historical facts with as much detail as possible, and setting forth
+finally the portrait of this new soldier. That this is a prodigious
+task is too evident to need assertion--a task worthy the most lofty
+talents; and in essaying it I humbly confess to a sense of unfitness;
+yet the work lies before me and duty orders me to enter upon it. A
+Major General writes: "I wish you every success in producing a work
+important both historically and for the credit of a race far more
+deserving than the world has acknowledged." A Brigadier General who
+commanded a colored regiment in Cuba says to me most encouragingly:
+"You must allow me--for our intimate associations justify it--to write
+frankly. Your education, habits of thought, fairness of judgment and
+comprehension of the work you are to undertake, better fit you for
+writing such a history than any person within my acquaintance. Those
+noble men made the history at El Caney and San Juan; I believe you are
+the man to record it. May God help you to so set forth the deeds of
+that memorable first of July in front of Santiago that the world may
+see in its true light what those brave, intelligent colored men did."
+
+Both these men fought through the Civil War and won distinction on
+fields of blood. To the devout prayer offered by one of them I
+heartily echo an Amen, and can only wish that in it all my friends
+might join, and that God would answer it in granting me power to do
+the work in such a way as to bring great good to the race and reflect
+some glory to Himself, in whose name the work is undertaken.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+SKETCH OF SOCIAL HISTORY.
+
+     The Importation of the Africans--Character of the Colored
+     Population in 1860--Colored Population in British West
+     Indian Possessions--Free Colored People of the South--Free
+     Colored People of the North--Notes.
+
+
+Professor DuBois, in his exhaustive work upon the "Suppression of the
+African Slave-Trade," has brought within comparatively narrow limits
+the great mass of facts bearing upon his subject, and in synopses and
+indices has presented all of the more important literature it has
+induced. In his Monograph, published as Volume II of the Harvard
+Historical Series, he has traced the rise of this nefarious traffic,
+especially with reference to the American colonies, exhibited the
+proportions to which it expanded, and the tenacity with which it held
+on to its purpose until it met its death in the fate of the
+ill-starred Southern Confederacy. Every step in his narrative is
+supported by references to unimpeachable authorities; and the
+scholarly Monograph bears high testimony to the author's earnest
+labor, painstaking research and unswerving fidelity. Should the
+present work stimulate inquiry beyond the scope herein set before the
+reader, he is most confidently referred to Professor Du Bois' book as
+containing a complete exposition of the development and overthrow of
+that awful crime.
+
+It is from this work, however, that we shall obtain a nearer and
+clearer view of the African planted upon our shores. Negro slavery
+began at an early day in the North American Colonies; but up until the
+Revolution of 1688 the demand for slaves was mainly supplied from
+England, the slaves being white.[1] "It is probable," says Professor
+DuBois, "that about 25,000 slaves were brought to America each year
+between 1698 and 1707, and after 1713 it rose to perhaps 30,000
+annually. "Before the Revolution the total exportation to America is
+variously estimated as between 40,000 and 100,000 each year."
+Something of the horrors of the "Middle Passage" may be shown by the
+records that out of 60,783 slaves shipped from Africa during the years
+1680-88, 14,387, or nearly one-fourth of the entire number, perished
+at sea. In 1790 there were in the country nearly seven hundred
+thousand Africans, these having been introduced by installments from
+various heathen tribes. The importation of slaves continued with more
+or less success up until 1858, when the "Wanderer" landed her cargo of
+500 in Georgia.
+
+During the period from 1790 to the breaking out of the Civil War,
+shortly after the landing of the last cargo of slaves, the colored
+population, both slave and free, had arisen to about four million, and
+had undergone great modifications. The cargo of the "Wanderer" found
+themselves among strangers, even when trying to associate with those
+who in color and hair were like themselves. The slaves of 1860
+differed greatly from the slaves of a hundred years earlier. They had
+lost the relics of that stern warlike spirit which prompted the Stono
+insurrection, the Denmark Vesey insurrection, and the Nat Turner
+insurrection, and had accepted their lot as slaves, hoping that
+through God, freedom would come to them some time in the happy future.
+Large numbers of them had become Christians through the teaching of
+godly white women, and at length through the evangelistic efforts of
+men and women of their own race. Independent religious organizations
+had been formed in the North, and large local churches with Negro
+pastors were in existence in the South when the "Wanderer" landed her
+cargo. There had been a steady increase in numbers, indicating that
+the physical well-being of the slave was not overlooked, and the
+slaves had greatly improved in character. Sales made in South Carolina
+between 1850 and 1860 show "boys," from 16 to 25 years of age,
+bringing from $900 to $1000; and "large sales" are reported showing an
+"average of $620 each," "Negro men bringing from $800 to $1000," and a
+"blacksmith" bringing $1425. The averages generally obtained were
+above $600. A sale of 109 Negroes in families is reported in the
+"Charleston Courier" in which the writer says: "Two or three families
+averaged from $1000 to $1100 for each individual." The same item
+states also that "C.G. Whitney sold two likely female house servants,
+one for $1000, the other for $1190." These cases are presented to
+illustrate the financial value of the American slave, and
+inferentially the progress he had made in acquiring the arts of modern
+civilization. Slaves had become blacksmiths, wheelwrights,
+carriage-makers, carpenters, bricklayers, tailors, bootmakers,
+founders and moulders, not to mention all the common labor performed
+by them. Slave women had become dressmakers, hairdressers, nurses and
+the best cooks to be found in the world. The slave-holders regarded
+themselves as the favored of mankind because of the competence and
+faithfulness of their slaves. The African spirit and character had
+disappeared, and in their place were coming into being the elements of
+a new character, existing in 1860 purely in a negative form. The slave
+had become an American. He was now a civilized slave, and had received
+his civilization from his masters. He had separated himself very far
+from his brother slave in St. Domingo. The Haytian Negro fought and
+won his freedom before he had been civilized in slavery, and hence has
+never passed over the same ground that his American fellow-servant has
+been compelled to traverse.
+
+Beside the slaves in the South, there were also several thousand "free
+persons of color," as they were called, dwelling in such cities as
+Richmond, Va., Charleston, S.C., and New Orleans, La. Some of these
+had become quite wealthy and well-educated, forming a distinct class
+of the population. They were called Creoles in Louisiana, and were
+accorded certain privileges, although laws were carefully enacted to
+keep alive the distinction between them and the whites. In Charleston
+the so-called colored people set themselves up as a class, prided
+themselves much upon their color and hair and in their sympathies
+joined almost wholly with the master class. Representatives of their
+class became slave-holders and were in full accord with the social
+policy of the country. Nevertheless their presence was an
+encouragement to the slave, and consequently was objected to by the
+slave-holder. The free colored man became more and more disliked in
+the South as the slave became more civilized. He was supposed by his
+example to contribute to the discontent of the slave, and laws were
+passed restricting his priveleges so as to induce him to leave.
+Between 1850 and 1860 this question reached a crisis and free colored
+people from the South were to be seen taking up their homes in the
+Northern States and in Canada. (Many of the people, especially from
+Charleston, carried with them all their belittling prejudices, and
+after years of sojourn under the sway of enlightened and liberal
+ideas, proved themselves still incapable of learning the new way or
+forgetting the old.)
+
+There were, then, three very distinct classes of colored people in the
+country, to wit: The slave in the South, the free colored people of
+the South, and the free colored people of the North. These were also
+sub-divided into several smaller classes. Slaves were divided into
+field hands, house servants and city slaves. The free colored people
+of the South had their classes based usually on color; the free
+colored people of the North had their divisions caused by differences
+in religion, differences as to place of birth, and numerous family
+conceits. So that surveyed as a whole, it is extremely difficult to
+get anything like a complete social map of these four millions as they
+existed at the outbreak of the Civil War.
+
+For a quarter of a century there had been a steady concentration of
+the slave population within the cotton and cane-growing region, the
+grain-growing States of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia having become
+to a considerable extent breeding farms. Particularly was this the
+case with the more intelligent and higher developed individual slaves
+who appeared near the border line. The master felt that such persons
+would soon make their escape by way of the "Underground Railroad" or
+otherwise, and hence in order to prevent a total loss, would follow
+the dictates of business prudence and sell his bright slave man to
+Georgia. The Maryland or Virginia slave who showed suspicious
+aspirations was usually checked by the threat, "I'll sell you to
+Georgia;" and if the threat did not produce the desired reformation it
+was not long before the ambitious slave found himself in the gang of
+that most despised and most despicable of all creatures, the Georgia
+slave-trader. Georgia and Canada were the two extremes of the slave's
+anticipation during the last decade of his experience. These stood as
+his earthly Heaven and Hell, the "Underground Railroad," with its
+agents, conducting to one, and the odious slave-trader, driving men,
+women and children, to the other. No Netherlander ever hated and
+feared the devil more thoroughly than did the slaves of the border
+States hate and fear these outrages on mankind, the kidnapping
+slave-traders of the cotton and cane regions. I say kidnapping, for I
+have myself seen persons in Georgia who had been kidnapped in
+Maryland. If the devil was ever incarnate, I think it safe to look for
+him among those who engaged in the slave-trade, whether in a foreign
+or domestic form.
+
+Nothing is more striking in connection with the history of American
+Slavery than the conduct of Great Britain on the same subject. So
+inconsistent has this conduct been that it can be explained only by
+regarding England as a conglomerate of two elements nearly equal in
+strength, of directly opposite character, ruling alternately the
+affairs of the nation. As a slave-trader and slave-holder England was
+perhaps even worse than the United States. Under her rule the slave
+decreased in numbers, and remained a savage. In Jamaica, in St.
+Vincent, in British Guiana, in Barbadoes, in Trinidad and in Grenada,
+British slavery was far worse than American slavery. In these colonies
+"the slave was generally a barbarian, speaking an unknown tongue, and
+working with men like himself, in gangs with scarcely a chance for
+improvement." An economist says, had the slaves of the British
+colonies been as well fed, clothed, lodged, and otherwise cared for as
+were those of the United States, their number at emancipation would
+have reached from seventeen to twenty millions, whereas the actual
+number emancipated was only 660,000. Had the blacks of the United
+States experienced the same treatment as did those of the British
+colonies, 1860 would have found among us less than 150,000 colored
+persons. In the United States were found ten colored persons for every
+slave imported, while in the British colonies only one was found for
+every three imported. Hence the claim that the American Negro is a new
+race, built up on this soil, rests upon an ample supply of facts. The
+American slave was born in our civilization, fed upon good American
+food, housed and clothed on a civilized plan, taught the arts and
+language of civilization, acquired necessarily ideas of law and
+liberty, and by 1860 was well on the road toward fitness for freedom.
+No lessons therefore drawn from the emancipation of British slaves in
+the West Indies are of any direct value to us, inasmuch as British
+slavery was not like American slavery, the British freedman was in no
+sense the equal of the American freedman, and the circumstances
+surrounding the emancipation of the British slave had nothing of the
+inspiring and ennobling character with those connected with the
+breaking of the American Negro's chains. Yet, superior as the American
+Negro was as a slave, he was very far below the standard of American
+citizenship as subsequent events conclusively proved. The best form of
+slavery, even though it may lead toward fitness for freedom, can never
+be regarded as a fit school in which to graduate citizens of so
+magnificent an empire as the United States.
+
+The slave of 1860 was perhaps, all things considered, the best slave
+the world had ever seen, if we except those who served the Hebrews
+under the Mosaic statutes. While there was no such thing among them as
+legal marriage or legitimate childhood, yet slave "families" were
+recognized even on the auction block, and after emancipation legal
+family life was erected generally upon relationships which had been
+formed in slavery. Bishop Gaines, himself born a slave of slave
+parents, says: "The Negro had no civil rights under the codes of the
+Southern States. It was often the case, it is true, that the marriage
+ceremony was performed, and thousands of couples regarded it, and
+observed it as of binding force, and were as true to each other as if
+they had been lawfully married." * * * "The colored people
+generally," he says, "held their marriage (if such unauthorized union
+may be called marriage) sacred, even while they were slaves. Many
+instances will be recalled by the older people of the life-long
+fidelity which existed between the slave and his concubine" (Wife,
+T.G.S.)" ... the mother of his children. My own father and mother
+lived together over sixty years. I am the fourteenth child of that
+union, and I can truthfully affirm that no marriage, however made
+sacred by the sanction of law, was ever more congenial and beautiful.
+Thousands of like instances might be cited to the same effect. It will
+always be to the credit of the colored people that almost without
+exception, they adhered to their relations, illegal though they had
+been, and accepted gladly the new law which put the stamp of
+legitimacy upon their union and removed the brand of bastardy from the
+brows of their children."
+
+Let us now sum up the qualifications that these people possessed in
+large degree, in order to determine their fitness for freedom, then so
+near at hand. They had acquired the English language, and the
+Christian religion, including the Christian idea of marriage, so
+entirely different in spirit and form from the African marriage. They
+had acquired the civilized methods of cooking their food, making and
+wearing clothes, sleeping in beds, and observing Sunday. They had
+acquired many of the useful arts and trades of civilization and had
+imbibed the tastes and feelings, to some extent, at least, of the
+country in which they lived. Becoming keen observers, shut out from
+books and newspapers, they listened attentively, learned more of law
+and politics than was generally supposed. They knew what the election
+of 1860 meant and were on tiptoe with expectation. Although the days
+of insurrection had passed and the slave of '59 was not ready to rise
+with the immortal John Brown, he had not lost his desire for freedom.
+The steady march of escaping slaves guided by the North star, with the
+refrain:
+
+    "I'm on my way to Canada,
+      That cold but happy land;
+    The dire effects of slavery
+      I can no longer stand,"
+
+proved that the desire to be free was becoming more extensive and
+absorbing as the slave advanced in intelligence.
+
+It is necessary again to emphasize the fact that the American slaves
+were well formed and well developed physically, capable of enduring
+hard labor and of subsisting upon the plainest food. Their diet for
+years had been of the simplest sort, and they had been subjected to a
+system of regulations very much like those which are employed in the
+management of armies. They had an hour to go to bed and an hour to
+rise; left their homes only upon written "passes," and when abroad at
+night were often halted by the wandering patrol. "Run, nigger, run,
+the patrol get you," was a song of the slave children of South
+Carolina.
+
+Strangers who saw for the first time these people as they came out of
+slavery in 1865 were usually impressed with their robust appearance,
+and a conference of ex-slaves, assembled soon after the war,
+introduced a resolution with the following declaration: "Whereas,
+Slavery has left us in possession of strong and healthy bodies." It is
+probable that at least a half-million of men of proper age could then
+have been found among the newly liberated capable of bearing arms.
+They were inured to the plain ration, to labor and fatigue, and to
+subordination, and had long been accustomed to working together under
+the immediate direction of foremen.
+
+Two questions of importance naturally arose at this period: First, did
+the American slave understand the issue that had been before the
+country for more than a half-century and that was now dividing the
+nation in twain and marshalling for deadly strife these two opposing
+armies? Second, had he the courage necessary to take part in the
+struggle and help save the Union? It would be a strange thing to say,
+but nevertheless a thing entirely true, that many of the Negro slaves
+had a clearer perception of the real question at issue than did some
+of our most far-seeing statesmen, and a clearer vision of what would
+be the outcome of the war. While the great men of the North were
+striving to establish the doctrine that the coming war was merely to
+settle the question of Secession, the slave knew better. God had hid
+certain things from the wise and prudent and had revealed them unto
+babes. Lincoln, the wisest of all, was slow to see that the issue he
+himself had predicted was really at hand. As President, he declared
+for the preservation of the Union, with or without slavery, or even
+upon the terms which he had previously declared irreconcilable, "half
+slave and half free." The Negro slave saw in the outbreak of the war
+the death struggle of slavery. He knew that the real issue was
+slavery.
+
+The masters were careful to keep from the knowledge of the slave the
+events as well as the causes of the war, but in spite of these efforts
+the slave's keen perception enabled him to read defeat in the dejected
+mien of his master, and victory in his exultation. To prevent the
+master's knowing what was going on in their thoughts, the slaves
+constructed curious codes among themselves. In one neighborhood
+freedom was always spoken of as "New Rice"; and many a poor slave
+woman sighed for the coming of New Rice in the hearing of those who
+imagined they knew the inmost thoughts of their bondwomen. Gleefully
+at times they would talk of the jollification they would make when the
+New Rice came. It was this clear vision, this strong hope, that
+sustained them during the trying days of the war and kept them back
+from insurrection. Bishop Gaines says: "Their prayers ascended for
+their deliverance, and their hearts yearned for the success of their
+friends. They fondly hoped for the hour of victory, when the night of
+slavery would end and the dawn of freedom appear. They often talked to
+each other of the progress of the war and conferred in secret as to
+what they might do to aid in the struggle. Worn out with long bondage,
+yearning for the boon of freedom, longing for the sun of liberty to
+rise, they kept their peace and left the result to God." Mr. Douglass,
+whom this same Bishop Gaines speaks of very inappropriately as a
+"half-breed," seemed able to grasp the feelings both of the slave and
+the freeman and said: "From the first, I for one, saw in this war the
+end of slavery, and truth requires me to say that my interest in the
+success of the North was largely due to this belief." Mr. Seward, the
+wise Secretary of State, had thought that the war would come and go
+without producing any change in the relation of master and slave; but
+the humble slave on the Georgia cotton plantation, or in the Carolina
+rice fields, knew that the booming of the guns of rebellion in
+Charleston was the opening note of the death knell of slavery. The
+slave undoubtedly understood the issue, and knew on which side liberty
+dwelt. Although thoroughly bred to slavery, and as contented and happy
+as he could be in his lot, he acted according to the injunction of the
+Apostle: "Art thou called being a servant, care not for it; but if
+thou mayest be made free, use it rather." The slaves tried to be
+contented, but they preferred freedom and knew which side to take when
+the time came for them to act.
+
+Enough has been said to show that out of the African slave had been
+developed a thoroughly American slave, so well imbued with modern
+civilization and so well versed in American politics, as to be
+partially ready for citizenship. He had become law-abiding and
+order-loving, and possessed of an intelligent desire to be free.
+Whether he had within him the necessary moral elements to become a
+soldier the pages following will attempt to make known. He had the
+numbers, the physical strength and the intelligence. He could enter
+the strife with a sufficient comprehension of the issues involved to
+enable him to give to his own heart a reason for his action. Fitness
+for the soldier does not necessarily involve fitness for citizenship,
+but the actual discharge of the duties of the soldier in defence of
+the nation, entitles one to all common rights, to the nation's
+gratitude, and to the highest honors for which he is qualified.
+
+In concluding this chapter I shall briefly return to the free colored
+people of the South that the reader may be able to properly estimate
+their importance as a separate element. Their influence upon the slave
+population was very slight, inasmuch as law and custom forbade the
+intercourse of these two classes.
+
+According to the Census of 1860 there were in the slave-holding States
+altogether 261,918 free colored persons, 106,770 being mulattoes. In
+Charleston there were 887 free blacks and 2,554 mulattoes; in Mobile,
+98 free blacks and 617 mulattoes; in New Orleans, 1,727 blacks and
+7,357 mulattoes. As will be seen, nearly one-half of the entire number
+of free colored persons were mulattoes, while in the leading Southern
+cities seventy-five per cent. of the free colored people were put in
+this class. The percentage of mulatto slaves to the total slave
+population at that time was 10.41, and in the same cities which showed
+seventy-five per cent, of all the free colored persons mulattoes, the
+percentage of mulatto slaves was but 16.84. Mulatto in this
+classification includes all colored persons who are not put down as
+black.
+
+In New Orleans the free mulattoes were generally French, having come
+into the Union with the Louisiana purchase, and among them were to be
+found wealthy slave-holders. They much resembled the class of
+mulattoes which obtained in St. Domingo at the beginning of the
+century, and had but little sympathy with the blacks, although they
+were the first to acquiesce in emancipation, some of them actually
+leading their own slaves into the army of liberation. It is possible,
+however, that they had not fully realized the trend of the war,
+inasmuch as New Orleans was excepted from the effects of the
+Proclamation. It is certain that the free colored people of that city
+made a tender of support to the Confederacy, although they were among
+the first to welcome the conquering "Yankees," and afterward fought
+with marked gallantry in the Union cause. The free mulattoes, or
+_browns_, as they called themselves, of Charleston, followed much the
+same course as their fellow classmen of New Orleans. Here, too, they
+had been exclusive and to some extent slave-holders, had tendered
+their services to the Confederacy, and had hastily come forward to
+welcome the conquerors. They were foremost among the colored people in
+wealth and intelligence, but their field of social operations had been
+so circumscribed that they had exerted but little influence in the
+work of Americanizing the slave. Separated from the slave by law and
+custom they did all in their power to separate themselves from him in
+thought and feeling. They drew the line against all blacks as
+mercilessly and senselessly as the most prejudiced of the whites and
+were duplicates of the whites placed on an intermediate plane. It was
+not unusual to find a Charleston brown filled with more prejudice
+toward the blacks than were the whites.
+
+     [Transcriber's Note: This footnote appeared in the text
+     without a footnote anchor: "Census of 1860."]
+
+The colored people of the North in 1860 numbered 237,283,
+Pennsylvania having the largest number, 56,849; then came New York
+with 49,005; Ohio, 36,673; New Jersey, 25,318; Indiana, 11,428;
+Massachusetts, 9,602; Connecticut, 8,627; Illinois, 7,628; Michigan,
+6,799; Rhode Island, 3,952; Maine, 1,327; Wisconsin, 1,171; Iowa,
+1,069; Vermont, 709; Kansas, 625; New Hampshire, 494; Minnesota, 259;
+Oregon, 128.
+
+Considerably more than one-half of this population was located within
+the States along the Atlantic Coast, viz.; Maine, New Hampshire,
+Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York,
+Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Here were to be found 154,883 free
+colored people. Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey took the lead in
+this population, with Massachusetts and Connecticut coming next, while
+Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont had but few. The cities, Boston, New
+York and Philadelphia, were the largest cities of free colored people
+then in the North. In Boston there were 2,261; New York City, 12,574,
+while in Philadelphia there were 22,185
+
+As early as 1787 the free colored people of Philadelphia, through two
+distinguished representatives, Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, "two
+men of the African race," as the chroniclers say, "saw the irreligious
+and uncivilized state" of the "people of their complexion," and
+finally concluded "that a society should be formed without regard to
+religious tenets, provided the persons lived an orderly and sober
+life," the purpose of the society being "to support one another in
+sickness and for the benefit of their widows and fatherless children."
+Accordingly a society was established, known as the Free African
+Society of Philadelphia, and on the 17th, 5th-mo., 1787, articles were
+published, including the following, which is inserted to show the
+breadth of the society's purpose:
+
+"And we apprehend it to be necessary that the children of our
+deceased members be under the care of the Society, so far as to pay
+for the education of their children, if they cannot attend free
+school; also to put them out apprentices to suitable trades or places,
+if required."[2]
+
+Shortly after this we read of "the African School for the free
+instruction of the black people," and in 1796, "The Evening Free
+School, held at the African Methodist Meeting House in Philadelphia"
+was reported as being "kept very orderly, the scholars behaving in a
+becoming manner, and their improvement beyond the teachers'
+expectations, their intellects appearing in every branch of learning
+to be equal to those of the fairest complexion." The name African, as
+the reader will notice, is used with reference to school, church, and
+individuals; although not to the complete exclusion of "colored
+people" and "people of color." These phrases seem to have been coined
+in the West Indies, and were there applied only to persons of mixed
+European and African descent. In the United States they never obtained
+such restricted use except in a very few localities. The practice of
+using African as a descriptive title of the free colored people of the
+North became very extensive and so continued up to the middle of the
+century. There were African societies, churches and schools in all the
+prominent centres of this population.
+
+In 1843 one, Mr. P. Loveridge, Agent for Colored Schools of New York,
+wrote the editor of the African Methodist Magazine as follows:[3] "As
+to the name of your periodical, act as we did with the name of our
+schools--away with Africa. There are no Africans in your connection.
+Substitute colored for African and it will be, in my opinion, as it
+should be." The earnestness of the writer shows that the matter of
+parting with African was then a live question. The cool reply of the
+editor indicates how strong was the conservative element among the
+African people of '43. He says: "We are unable to see the
+reasonableness of the remarks. It is true we are not Africans, or
+natives born upon the soil of Africa, yet, as the descendants of that
+race, how can we better manifest that respect due to our fathers who
+begat us, than by the adoption of the term in our institutions, and
+inscribing it upon our public places of resort?" To this Mr. Loveridge
+rejoins in the following explanatory paragraph: "We who are engaged in
+the Public Schools in this city found upon examination of about 1500
+children who attend our schools from year to year, not one African
+child among them. A suggestion was made that we petition the Public
+School Society to change the name African to Colored Schools. The
+gentlemen of that honorable body, perceiving our petition to be a
+logical one, acquiesced with us. Hence the adjective African (which
+does not apply to us) was blotted out and Colored substituted in its
+place. It is 'Public Schools for Colored Children.' We are Americans
+and expect American sympathies."
+
+In 1816 the colored Methodists conceived the idea of organizing and
+evangelizing their race, and to this end a convention was called and
+assembled in Philadelphia of that year, composed of sixteen delegates,
+coming from Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey. The
+convention adopted a resolution that the people of Philadelphia,
+Baltimore and all other places who should unite with them, should
+become one body under the name and style of the African Methodist
+Episcopal Church. Similar action was taken by two other bodies of
+colored Methodists, one in New York, the other in Wilmington,
+Delaware, about the same time. The people were coming together and
+beginning to understand the value of organization. This was manifested
+in their religious, beneficial and educational associations that were
+springing up among them. In 1841 the African Methodist Magazine
+appeared, the first organ of religious communication and thought
+issued by the American colored people. It was published in Brooklyn,
+N.Y., Rev. George Hogarth being its editor.
+
+There were papers published by the colored people prior to the
+appearance of the African Methodist Magazine, but these were
+individual enterprises. They were, however, indices of the thought of
+the race, and looking back upon them now, we may regard them as
+mile-stones set up along the line of march over which the people have
+come. New York, city and State, appears to have been the home of these
+early harbingers, and it was there that the earliest literary centre
+was established, corresponding to that centre of religious life and
+thought which had been earlier founded in Philadelphia. In 1827 the
+first newspaper published on this continent by colored men issued from
+its office in New York. It was called "Freedom's Journal," and had for
+its motto "Righteousness exalteth a nation." Its editors and
+proprietors were Messrs. Cornish & Russwurm. Its name was subsequently
+changed to the "Rights of All," Mr. Cornish probably retiring, and in
+1830 it suspended, Mr. Russwurm going to Africa. Then followed "The
+Weekly Advocate," "The American," "The Colored American," "The
+Elevator," "The National Watchman," "The Clarion," "The Ram's Horn,"
+"The North Star," "Frederick Douglass' Paper," and finally that
+crowning literary work of the race, "The Anglo-African."
+
+"The Anglo-African" appeared in 1859, under the management of the
+strongest and most brilliant purely literary families the American
+Negro up to that time had produced. It was edited and published by
+Thomas Hamilton, and like all the important literary ventures of the
+race in those days, had its birth in New York. It came out in 1859 and
+continued through the war, and in 1865 went out of existence
+honorably, having its work well done. Its first volume, that of 1859,
+contains the ablest papers ever given to the public by the American
+Negro; and taken as a whole this volume is the proudest literary
+monument the race has as yet erected.
+
+Reviewing the progress of the race in the North, we may say, the
+period of organized benevolence and united religious effort began
+before the close of the past century, Philadelphia being its place of
+origin; that the religious movement reached much broader and clearer
+standing about 1816, and in consequence there sprang up organizations
+comprehending the people of the whole country; that the religious
+movement advanced to a more intellectual stage when in 1841 the
+African Methodist Magazine appeared, since which time the organized
+religion of the American Negro has never been for any considerable
+time without its organs of communication. The journalistic period
+began in 1827, its centre being New York and the work of the journals
+almost wholly directed to two ends: the abolition of slavery, and the
+enfranchisement and political elevation of the free blacks. This work
+had reached its highest form in the Anglo-African, as that epoch of
+our national history came to its close in the slave-holders' war.
+
+The titles of the newspapers indicate the opening and continuance of a
+period of anti-slavery agitation. Their columns were filled with
+arguments and appeals furnished by men who gave their whole souls to
+the work. It was a period of great mental activity on the part of the
+free colored people. They were discussing all probable methods of
+bettering their condition. It was the period that produced both
+writers and orators. In 1830 the first convention called by colored
+men to consider the general condition of the race and devise means to
+improve that condition, met in the city of Philadelphia. The history
+of this convention is so important that I append a full account of it
+as published in the Anglo-African nearly thirty years after the
+convention met. It was called through the efforts of Hezekiah Grice,
+of Baltimore, who afterwards emigrated to Hayti, and for many years
+followed there the occupation of carver and gilder and finally became
+Director of Public Works of the city of Port-au-Prince. While visiting
+that city years ago, I met a descendant of Mr. Grice, a lady of great
+personal beauty, charming manners, accomplished in the French
+language, but incapable of conversing at all in English.
+
+The conventions, begun in 1830, continued to be held annually for a
+brief period, and then dropped into occasional and special gatherings.
+They did much good in the way of giving prominence to the colored
+orators and in stemming the tide of hostile sentiment by appealing to
+the country at large in language that reached many hearts.
+
+The physical condition, so far as the health and strength of the free
+colored people were concerned, was good. Their mean age was the
+greatest of any element of our population, and their increase was
+about normal, or 1.50 per cent. annually. In the twenty years from
+1840 to 1860 it had kept up this rate with hardly the slightest
+variation, while the increase of the free colored people of the South
+during the same period had been 1 per cent, annually.[4] The increase
+of persons of mixed blood in the North did not necessarily imply
+laxity of morals, as the census compilers always delighted to say, but
+could be easily accounted for by the marriages occurring between
+persons of this class. I have seen more than fifty persons, all of
+mixed blood, descend from one couple, and these with the persons
+joined to them by marriages as they have come to marriageable age,
+amounted to over seventy souls--all in about a half century. That the
+slaves had, despite their fearful death rate, the manumissions and the
+escapes, increased twice as fast as the free colored people of the
+North, three times as fast as the free colored people of the South,
+and faster than the white people with all the immigration of that
+period, can be accounted for only by the enormous birth rate of that
+people consequent upon their sad condition. Their increase was
+abnormal, and when properly viewed, proves too much.
+
+There is no way of determining the general wealth of the colored
+people of the North at the period we are describing; but some light
+may be thrown upon their material condition from the consideration
+that they were supporting a few publications and building and
+supporting churches, and were holders of considerable real estate. In
+New York city, the thirteen thousand colored people paid taxes on
+nearly a million and a half in real estate, and had over a quarter
+million of dollars in the savings banks. It is probable that the
+twenty-five thousand in Philadelphia owned more in proportion than
+their brethren in New York, for they were then well represented in
+business in that city. There were the Fortens, Bowers, Casseys,
+Gordons, and later Stephen Smith, William Whipper and Videl, all of
+whom were men of wealth and business. There were nineteen churches
+owned and supported by colored people of Philadelphia, with a seating
+capacity of about 10,000 and valued at about $250,000.
+
+[5]The schools set apart for colored children were very inferior and
+were often kept alive by great sacrifices on the part of the colored
+people themselves. Prior to the war and in many cases for some time
+afterward, the colored public schools were a disgrace to the country.
+A correspondent writing from Hollidaysburg, Pa., says, speaking of the
+school there: "The result of my inquiries here is that here, as in the
+majority of other places, the interest manifested for the colored man
+is more for political effect, and that those who prate the loudest
+about the moral elevation and political advancement of the colored man
+are the first to turn against him when he wants a friend." The
+correspondent then goes on to say that the school directors persist in
+employing teachers "totally incompetent." What the schools were in New
+York the report made by the New York Society for the promotion of
+Education among Colored Children to the Honorable Commissioners for
+examining into the condition of Common Schools in the City and County
+of New York, will show. Reverend Charles B. Ray, who was President of
+this Society, and Philip A. White, its Secretary, both continued to
+labor in the interest of education unto the close of their lives, Mr.
+White dying as a member of the School Board of the city of Brooklyn,
+and Mr. Ray bequeathing his library to Wilberforce University at his
+death.
+
+In summing up the conditions which they have detailed in their report
+they say: "From a comparison of the school houses occupied by the
+colored children with the splendid, almost palatial edifices, with
+manifold comforts, conveniences and elegancies which make up the
+school houses for white children in the city of New York, it is
+clearly evident that the colored children are painfully neglected and
+positively degraded. Pent up in filthy neighborhoods, in old
+dilapidated buildings, they are held down to low associations and
+gloomy surroundings. * * * The undersigned enter their solemn protest
+against this unjust treatment of colored children. They believe with
+the experience of Massachusetts, and especially the recent experience
+of Boston before them, there is no sound reason why colored children
+shall be excluded from any of the common schools supported by taxes
+levied alike on whites and blacks, and governed by officers elected by
+the vote of colored as well as white voters."
+
+This petition and remonstrance had its effect, for mainly through its
+influence within two years very great improvements were made in the
+condition of the New York colored schools.
+
+For the especial benefit of those who erroneously think that the
+purpose of giving industrial education is a new thing in our land, as
+well as for general historical purposes, I call attention to the
+establishment of the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia in
+1842. This Institute was founded by the Society of Friends, and was
+supported in its early days and presumably still "by bequests and
+donations made by members of that Society." The objects of the
+Institute as set forth by its founders, fifty-seven years ago, are:
+"The education and improvement of colored youth of both sexes, to
+qualify them to act as teachers and instructors to their own people,
+either in the various branches of school learning or the mechanic
+arts and agriculture." Two years later the African Methodists
+purchased one hundred and eighty acres of land in eastern Ohio and
+established what was called the Union Seminary, on the manual labor
+plan. It did not succeed, but it lingered along, keeping alive the
+idea, until it was eclipsed by Wilberforce University, into which it
+was finally merged.
+
+The anti-slavery fight carried on in the North, into which the colored
+men entered and became powerful leaders, aroused the race to a deep
+study of the whole subject of liberty and brought them in sympathy
+with all people who had either gained or were struggling for their
+liberties, and prompted them to investigate all countries offering to
+them freedom. No country was so well studied by them as Hayti, and
+from 1824 to 1860 there had been considerable emigration thither.
+Liberia, Central and South America and Canada were all considered
+under the thought of emigration. Thousands went to Hayti and to
+Canada, but the bulk preferred to remain here. They liked America, and
+had become so thoroughly in love with the doctrines of the Republic,
+so imbued with the pride of the nation's history, so inspired with
+hope in the nation's future, that they resolved to live and die on her
+soil. When the troublous times of 1860 came and white men were fleeing
+to Canada, colored men remained at their posts. They were ready to
+stand by the old flag and to take up arms for the Union, trusting that
+before the close of the strife the flag might have to them a new
+meaning. An impassioned colored orator had said of the flag: "Its
+stars were for the white man, and its stripes for the Negro, and it
+was very appropriate that the stripes should be red." The free Negro
+of the North was prepared in 1861 to support Abraham Lincoln with
+40,000 as good American-born champions for universal liberty as the
+country could present.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Slave Trade--Carey.
+
+[2] Outlines--Tanner.
+
+[3] A.M.E. Magazine, 1843.
+
+[4] It is to be noted that in Maryland and Virginia an important
+number of white serving women married Negro slave men in the early
+days of these colonies.
+
+[5] In 1835 there were six high schools, or schools for higher
+education, in the United States that admitted colored students on
+equal footing with others. These were: Oneida Institute, New York;
+Mount Pleasant, Amherst, Mass.; Canaan, N.H.; Western Reserve, Ohio;
+Gettysburg, Pa.; and "one in the city of Philadelphia of which Miss
+Buffam" was "principal." There was also one manual labor school in
+Madison County, N.Y., capable of accommodating eighteen students. It
+was founded by Gerrit Smith.
+
+
+NOTES.
+
+A.
+
+THE FIRST COLORED CONVENTION.
+
+On the fifteenth day of September, 1830, there was held at Bethel
+Church, in the city of Philadelphia, the first convention of the
+colored people of these United States. It was an event of historical
+importance; and, whether we regard the times or the men of whom this
+assemblage was composed, we find matter for interesting and profitable
+consideration.
+
+Emancipation had just taken place in New York, and had just been
+arrested in Virginia by the Nat Turner rebellion and Walker's
+pamphlet. Secret sessions of the legislatures of the several Southern
+States had been held to deliberate upon the production of a colored
+man who had coolly recommended to his fellow blacks the only solution
+to the slave question, which, after twenty-five years of arduous labor
+of the most hopeful and noble-hearted of the abolitionists, seems the
+forlorn hope of freedom to-day--insurrection and bloodshed. Great
+Britain was in the midst of that bloodless revolution which, two years
+afterwards, culminated in the passage of the Reform Bill, and thus
+prepared the joyous and generous state of the British heart which
+dictated the West India Emancipation Act. France was rejoicing in the
+not bloodless _trois jours de Juliet_. Indeed, the whole world seemed
+stirred up with a universal excitement, which, when contrasted with
+the universal panics of 1837 and 1857, leads one to regard as more
+than a philosophical speculation the doctrine of those who hold the
+life of mankind from the creation as but one life, beating with one
+heart, animated with one soul, tending to one destiny, although made
+up of millions upon millions of molecular lives, gifted with their
+infinite variety of attractions and repulsions, which regulate or
+crystallize them into evanescent substructures or organizations, which
+we call nationalities and empires and peoples and tribes, whose minute
+actions and reactions on each other are the histories which absorb our
+attention, whilst the grand universal life moves on beyond our ken,
+or only guessed at, as the astronomers shadow out movements of our
+solar system around or towards some distant unknown centre of
+attraction.
+
+If the times of 1830 were eventful, there were among our people, as
+well as among other peoples, men equal to the occasion. We had giants
+in those days! There were Bishop Allen, the founder of the great
+Bethel connection of Methodists, combining in his person the fiery
+zeal of St. Francis Xavier with the skill and power of organizing of a
+Richelieu; the meek but equally efficient Rush (who yet remains with
+us in fulfilment of the Scripture), the father of the Zion Methodists;
+Paul, whose splendid presence and stately eloquence in the pulpit, and
+whose grand baptisms in the waters of Boston harbor are a living
+tradition in all New England; the saintly and sainted Peter Williams,
+whose views of the best means of our elevation are in triumphant
+activity to-day; William Hamilton, the thinker and actor, whose sparse
+specimens of eloquence we will one day place in gilded frames as rare
+and beautiful specimens of Etruscan art--William Hamilton, who, four
+years afterwards, during the New York riots, when met in the street,
+loaded down with iron missiles, and asked where he was going, replied,
+"To die on my threshold"; Watkins, of Baltimore; Frederick Hinton,
+with his polished eloquence; James Forten, the merchant prince;
+William Whipper, just essaying his youthful powers; Lewis Woodson and
+John Peck, of Pittsburg; Austin Steward, then of Rochester; Samuel E.
+Cornish, who had the distinguished honor of reasoning Gerrit Smith out
+of colonization, and of telling Henry Clay that he would never be
+president of anything higher than the American Colonization Society;
+Philip A. Bell, the born sabreur, who never feared the face of clay,
+and a hundred others, were the worthily leading spirits among the
+colored people.
+
+And yet the idea of the first colored convention did not originate
+with any of these distinguished men; it came from a young man of
+Baltimore; then, and still, unknown to fame. Born in that city in
+1801, he was in 1817 apprenticed to a man some two hundred miles off
+in the Southeast. Arriving at his field of labor, he worked hard
+nearly a week and received poor fare in return. One day, while at work
+near the house, the mistress came out and gave him a furious scolding,
+so furious, indeed, that her husband mildly interfered; she drove the
+latter away, and threatened to take the Baltimore out of the lad with
+cowhide, etc., etc. At this moment, to use his own expression, the
+lad became converted, that is, he determined to be his own master as
+long as he lived. Early nightfall found him on his way to Baltimore
+which he reached after a severe journey which tested his energy and
+ingenuity to the utmost. At the age of twenty-three he was engaged in
+the summer time in supplying Baltimore with ice from his cart, and in
+winter in cutting up pork for Ellicotts' establishment. He must have
+been strong and swift with knife and cleaver, for in one day he cut up
+and dressed some four hundred and fifteen porkers.
+
+In 1824 our young friend fell in with Benjamin Lundy, and in 1828-9,
+with William Lloyd Garrison, editors and publishers of the "Genius of
+Universal Emancipation," a radical anti-slavery paper, whose boldness
+would put the "National Era" to shame, printed and published in the
+slave State of Maryland. In 1829-30 the colored people of the free
+States were much excited on the subject of emigration; there had been
+an emigration to Hayti, and also to Canada, and some had been driven
+to Liberia by the severe laws and brutal conduct of the fermenters of
+colonization in Virginia and Maryland. In some districts of these
+States the disguised whites would enter the houses of free colored men
+at night, and take them out and give them from thirty to fifty lashes,
+to get them to consent to go to Liberia.
+
+It was in the spring of 1830 that the young man we have sketched,
+Hezekiah Grice, conceived the plan of calling together a meeting or
+convention of colored men in some place north of the Potomac, for the
+purpose of comparing views and of adopting a harmonious movement
+either of emigration or of determination to remain in the United
+States; convinced of the hopelessness of contending against the
+oppressions in the United States, living in the very depth of that
+oppression and wrong, his own views looked to Canada; but he held them
+subject to the decision of the majority of the convention which might
+assemble.
+
+On the 2d of April, 1830, he addressed a written circular to prominent
+colored men in the free States, requesting their opinions on the
+necessity and propriety of holding such convention, and stated that if
+the opinions of a sufficient number warranted it, he would give time
+and place at which duly elected delegates might assemble. Four months
+passed away, and his spirit almost died within him, for he had not
+received a line from any one in reply. When he visited Mr. Garrison
+in his office, and stated his project, Mr. Garrison took up a copy of
+Walker's Appeal, and said, although it might be right, yet it was too
+early to have published such a book.
+
+On the 11th of August, however, he received a sudden and peremptory
+order from Bishop Allen to come instantly to Philadelphia, about the
+emigration matter. He went, and found a meeting assembled to consider
+the conflicting reports on Canada of Messrs. Lewis and Dutton; at a
+subsequent meeting, held the next night, and near the adjournment, the
+Bishop called Mr. Grice aside and gave to him to read a printed
+circular, issued from New York City, strongly approving of Mr. Grice's
+plan of a convention, and signed by Peter Williams, Peter Vogelsang
+and Thomas L. Jinnings. The Bishop added, "My dear child, we must take
+some action immediately, or else these New Yorkers will get ahead of
+us." The Bishop left the meeting to attend a lecture on chemistry by
+Dr. Wells, of Baltimore. Mr. Grice introduced the subject of the
+convention; and a committee consisting of Bishop Allen, Benjamin
+Pascal, Cyrus Black, James Cornish and Junius C. Morel, were appointed
+to lay the matter before the colored people of Philadelphia. This
+committee, led, doubtless, by Bishop Allen, at once issued a call for
+a convention of the colored men of the United States, to be held in
+the city of Philadelphia on the 15th of September, 1830.
+
+Mr. Grice returned to Baltimore rejoicing at the success of his
+project; but, in the same boat which bore him down the Chesapeake, he
+was accosted by Mr. Zollickoffer, a member of the Society of Friends,
+a Philadelphian, and a warm and tried friend of the blacks. Mr.
+Zollickoffer used arguments, and even entreaties, to dissuade Mr.
+Grice from holding the convention, pointing out the dangers and
+difficulties of the same should it succeed, and the deep injury it
+would do the cause in case of failure. Of course, it was reason and
+entreaty thrown away.
+
+On the fifteenth of September, Mr. Grice again landed in Philadelphia,
+and in the fulness of his expectation asked every colored man he met
+about the convention; no one knew anything about it; the first man did
+not know the meaning of the word, and another man said, "Who ever
+heard of colored people holding a convention--convention, indeed!"
+Finally, reaching the place of meeting, he found, in solemn conclave,
+the five gentlemen who had constituted themselves delegates: with a
+warm welcome from Bishop Allen, Mr. Grice, who came with credentials
+from the people of Baltimore, was admitted as delegate. A little while
+after, Dr. Burton, of Philadelphia, dropped in, and demanded by what
+right the six gentlemen held their seats as members of the convention.
+On a hint from Bishop Allen, Mr. Pascal moved that Dr. Burton be
+elected an honorary member of the convention, which softened the
+Doctor. In half an hour, five or six grave, stern-looking men, members
+of the Zion Methodist body in Philadelphia, entered, and demanded to
+know by what right the members present held their seats and undertook
+to represent the colored people. Another hint from the Bishop, and it
+was moved that these gentlemen be elected honorary members. But the
+gentlemen would submit to no such thing, and would accept nothing
+short of full membership, which was granted them.
+
+Among the delegates were Abraham Shadd, of Delaware; J.W.C.
+Pennington, of Brooklyn; Austin Steward, of Rochester; Horace Easton,
+of Boston, and ---- Adams, of Utica.
+
+The main subject of discussion was emigration to Canada; Junius C.
+Morel, chairman of a committee on that subject presented a report, on
+which there was a two days' discussion; the point discussed was that
+the report stated that "the lands in Canada were synonymous with those
+of the Northern States." The word synonymous was objected to, and the
+word similar proposed in its stead. Mr. Morel, with great vigor and
+ingenuity, defended the report, but was finally voted down, and the
+word similar adopted. The convention recommended emigration to Canada,
+passed strong resolutions against the American Colonization Society,
+and at its adjournment appointed the next annual convention of the
+people of color to be held in Philadelphia, on the first Monday in
+June, 1831.
+
+At the present day, when colored conventions are almost as frequent as
+church meetings, it is difficult to estimate the bold and daring
+spirit which inaugurated the Colored Convention of 1830. It was the
+right move, originating in the right quarter and at the right time.
+Glorious old Maryland, or, as one speaking in the view that climate
+grows the men, would say,--Maryland-Virginia region,--which has
+produced Benjamin Banneker, Nat. Turner, Frederick Douglass, the
+parents of Ira Aldridge, Henry Highland Garnett and Sam. Ringold Ward,
+also produced the founder of colored conventions, Hezekiah Grice! At
+that time, in the prime of his young manhood, he must have presented
+the front of one equal to any fortune, able to achieve any
+undertaking. Standing six feet high, well-proportioned, of a dark
+bronze complexion, broad brow, and that stamp of features out of which
+the Greek sculptor would have delighted to mould the face of
+Vulcan--he was, to the fullest extent, a working man of such sort and
+magnetism as would lead his fellows where he listed.
+
+In looking to the important results that grew out of this convention,
+the independence of thought and self-assertion of the black man are
+the most remarkable. Then, the union of purpose and union of strength
+which grew out of the acquaintanceship and mutual pledges of colored
+men from different States. Then, the subsequent conventions, where the
+great men we have already named, and others, appeared and took part in
+the discussions with manifestations of zeal, talent and ability, which
+attracted Garrison, the Tappans, Jocelyn and others of that noble
+host, who, drawing no small portion of their inspiration from their
+black brethren in bonds, did manfully fight in the days of
+anti-slavery which tried men's souls, and when, to be an abolitionist,
+was, to a large extent, to be a martyr.
+
+We cannot help adding the thought that had these conventions of the
+colored people of the United States continued their annual sittings
+from 1830 until the present time, the result would doubtless have been
+greater general progress among our people themselves, a more united
+front to meet past and coming exigencies, and a profounder hold upon
+the public attention, and a deeper respect on the part of our enemies,
+than we now can boast of. Looking at public opinion as it is, the
+living law of the land, and yet a malleable, ductile entity, which can
+be moulded, or at least affected, by the thoughts of any masses
+vigorously expressed, we should have become a power on earth, of
+greater strength and influence than in our present scattered and
+dwindled state we dare even dream of. The very announcement,
+"Thirtieth Annual Convention of the Colored People of the United
+States," would bear a majestic front. Our great gathering at Rochester
+in 1853, commanded not only public attention, but respect and
+admiration. Should we have such a gathering even now, once a year, not
+encumbered with elaborate plans of action, with too many wheels within
+wheels, we can yet regain much of the ground lost. The partial
+gathering at Boston, the other day, has already assumed its place in
+the public mind, and won its way into the calculations of the
+politicians.
+
+Our readers will doubtless be glad to learn the subsequent history of
+Mr. Grice. He did not attend the second convention, but in the
+interval between the second and third he formed, in the city of
+Baltimore, a "Legal Rights Association," for the purpose of
+ascertaining the legal status of the colored man in the United States.
+It was entirely composed of colored men, among whom were Mr. Watkins
+(the colored Baltimorean), Mr. Deaver, and others. Mr. Grice called on
+William Wirt, and asked him "what he charged for his opinion on a
+given subject." "Fifty dollars." "Then, sir, I will give you fifty
+dollars if you will give me your opinion on the legal condition of a
+free colored man in these United States."
+
+Mr. Wirt required the questions to be written out in proper form
+before he could answer them. Mr. Grice employed Tyson, who drew up a
+series of questions, based upon the Constitution of the United States,
+and relating to the rights and citizenship of the free black. He
+carried the questions to Mr. Wirt, who, glancing over them, said,
+"Really, sir, my position as an officer under the government renders
+it a delicate matter for me to answer these questions as they should
+be answered, but I'll tell you what to do: they should be answered,
+and by the best legal talent in the land; do you go to Philadelphia,
+and present my name to Horace Binney, and he will give you an answer
+satisfactory to you, and which will command the greatest respect
+throughout the land." Mr. Grice went to Philadelphia, and presented
+the questions and request to Horace Binney. This gentleman pleaded age
+and poor eyesight, but told Mr. Grice that if he would call on John
+Sargent he would get answers of requisite character and weight. He
+called on John Sargent, who promptly agreed to answer the questions if
+Mr. Binney would allow his name to be associated as an authority in
+the replies. Mr. Binney again declined, and so the matter fell
+through. This is what Mr. Grice terms his "Dred Scott case" and so it
+was.
+
+He attended the convention of 1832, but by some informality, or a want
+of credentials, was not permitted to sit as full member!--Saul ejected
+from among the prophets!--Yet he was heard on the subject of rights,
+and the doctrine of "our rights," as well as the first colored
+convention, are due to the same man.
+
+In 1832, chagrined at the colored people of the United States, he
+migrated to Hayti, where, until 1843, he pursued the business of
+carver and gilder. In the latter year he was appointed Director of
+Public Works in Port-au-Prince, which office he held until two years
+ago. He is also engaged in, and has wide knowledge of machinery and
+engineering. Every two or three years he visits New York, and is
+welcomed to the arcana of such men as James J. Mapes, the Bensons,
+Dunhams, and at the various works where steam and iron obey human
+ingenuity in our city. He is at present in this city, lodging at the
+house of the widow of his old friend and coadjutor, Thomas L.
+Jinnings, 133 Reade street. We have availed ourselves of his presence
+among us to glean from him the statements which we have imperfectly
+put together in this article.
+
+We cannot dismiss this subject without the remark, of peculiar
+pertinence at this moment, that it would have been better for our
+people had Mr. Grice never left these United States. The twenty-seven
+years he has passed in Hayti, although not without their mark on the
+fortunes of that island, are yet with out such mark as he would have
+made in the land and upon the institutions among which he was born. So
+early as his thirty-second year, before he had reached his
+intellectual prime, he had inaugurated two of the leading ideas on
+which our people have since acted, conventions to consider and
+alleviate their grievances, and the struggle for legal rights. If he
+did such things in early youth, what might he not have done with the
+full force and bent of his matured intellect? And where, in the wide
+world, in what region, or under what sun, could he so effectually have
+labored to elevate the black man as on this soil and under American
+institutions?
+
+So profoundly are we opposed to the favorite doctrine of the Puritans
+and their co-workers, the colonizationists--Ubi Libertas, ibi
+Patria--that we could almost beseech Divine Providence to reverse some
+past events and to fling back into the heart of Virginia and Maryland
+their Sam Wards, Highland Garnets, J.W. Penningtons, Frederick
+Douglasses, and the twenty thousand who now shout hosannas in
+Canada--and we would soon see some stirring in the direction of Ubi
+Patria, ibi Libertas.--Anglo-African Magazine, October, 1859.
+
+
+B.
+
+COMMUNICATION FROM THE NEW YORK SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF EDUCATION
+AMONG COLORED CHILDREN.
+
+To the Honorable the Commissioners for examining into the condition of
+Common Schools in the City and County of New York.
+
+The following statement in relation to the colored schools in said
+city and county is respectfully presented by the New York Society for
+the Promotion of Education among Colored Children:
+
+  1. The number of colored children in the city and county of
+    New York (estimated in 1855, from the census of 1850), between
+    the ages of 4 and 17 years                                   3,000
+
+    a. Average attendance of colored children at public
+    schools in 1855                                         913
+
+    Average attendance of colored children in
+    corporate schools supported by school funds
+    (Colored Orphan Asylum)                                 240
+                                                           ----  1,153
+
+    b. Proportion of average attendance in public
+    schools of colored children to whole number
+    of same is as 1 to 2.60.
+
+  2. The number of white children in the city of New
+    York in 1855 (estimated as above), between the ages of
+    4 and 17 years                                             159,000
+
+    a. Average attendance of white children in public
+    schools in 1855                                      43,858
+
+    Average attendance of white children in
+    corporate schools supported by public
+    funds                                                 2,826
+                                                         ------ 46,684
+
+    b. Proportion of average attendance of white children
+    in public schools to whole number of same
+    is as 1 to 3.40.
+
+  3. From these facts it appears that colored children attend
+    the public schools (and schools supported by public funds in
+    the city of New York) in the proportion of 1 to 2.60, and that
+    the white children attend similar schools in said city in the
+    proportion of 1 to 3.40; that is to say, nearly 25 per cent. more of
+    colored children than of white children attend the public schools,
+    and schools supported by public funds in the city of New York.
+
+  4. The number of colored children attending private schools
+    in the city of New York, 125.
+
+    a. The number of white children attending private
+    schools in 1850, census gave 10,560, which number has since
+    been increased by the establishment of Catholic parochial
+    schools, estimated in 1856, 17,560.
+
+    b. The proportion of colored children attending private
+    schools to white children attending same, is as 1 to 140.
+
+    c. But the average attendance of colored children in all
+    schools is about the same as that of the white in proportion,
+    that is to say, as many colored children attend the
+    public schools as do whites attend both public and private
+    schools, in proportion to the whole number of each class
+    of children.
+
+  Locality, capability, etc., of colored schools.
+
+  1. The Board of Education, since its organization, has
+    expended in sites and buildings for white schools $1,600,000.
+
+    b. The Board of Education has expended for sites and
+    buildings for colored schools (addition to building leased
+    19 Thomas), $1,000.
+
+    c. The two schoolhouses in possession of the Board
+    now used for colored children were assigned to same by
+    the Old Public School Society.
+
+  2. The proportion of colored children to white children
+    attending public schools is as 1 to 40.
+
+    a. The sum expended on school buildings and sites of
+    colored and white schools by the Board of Education is as
+    1 to 1,600.
+
+  3. a. Schoolhouse No. 1, for colored children, is an old
+    building, erected in 1820 by the New York Manumission Society
+    as a school for colored children, in Mulberry street, in a poor
+    but decent locality. It has two departments, one male and one
+    female; it consists of two stories only, and has two small
+    recitation rooms on each floor, but as primary as well as grammar
+    children attend each department, much difficulty and confusion
+    arises from the want of class room for the respective studies.
+    The building covers only part of the lot, and as it is, the best
+    attended and among the best taught of the colored schools, a
+    new and ample school building, erected in this place, would
+    prove a great attraction, and could be amply filled by children.
+
+    b. Schoolhouse No. 2, erected in Laurens street more
+    than twenty years ago for colored children by the Public
+    School Society, is in one of the lowest and filthiest
+    neighborhoods, and hence, although it has competent teachers
+    in the male and female departments, and a separate primary
+    department, the attendance has always been slender,
+    and will be until the school is removed to a neighborhood
+    where children may be sent without danger to their morals.
+
+    c. School No. 3, for colored children, in Yorkville, is
+    an old building, is well attended, and deserves, in connection
+    with Schoolhouse No. 4, in Harlem, a new building midway
+    between the present localities.
+
+    d. Schoolhouse No. 5, for colored children, is an old
+    building, leased at No. 19 Thomas street, a most degraded
+    neighborhood, full of filth and vice; yet the attendance on
+    this school, and the excellence of its teachers, earn for it the
+    need of a new site and new building.
+
+    e. Schoolhouse No. 6, for colored children, is in Broadway,
+    near 37th street, in a dwelling house leased and fitted
+    up for a school, in which there is always four feet of water
+    in the cellar. The attendance good. Some of the school
+    officers have repeatedly promised a new building.
+
+    f. Primary school for colored children, No. 1, is in the
+    basement of a church on 15th street, near 7th avenue,
+    in a good location, but premises too small for the attendance;
+    no recitation rooms, and is perforce both primary
+    and grammar school, to the injury of the progress of all.
+
+    g. Primary schools for colored children, No. 2 and 3,
+    are in the rear of church, in 2d street, near 6th avenue; the
+    rooms are dark and cheerless, and without the needful
+    facilities of sufficient recitation rooms, etc.
+
+From a comparison of the schoolhouses with the splendid, almost
+palatial edifices, with manifold comforts, conveniences and elegancies
+which make up the schoolhouses for white children in the city of New
+York, it is evident that the colored children are painfully neglected
+and positively degraded. Pent up in filthy neighborhoods, in old and
+dilapidated buildings, they are held down to low associations and
+gloomy surroundings.
+
+Yet Mr. Superintendent Kiddle, at a general examination of colored
+schools held in July last (for silver medals awarded by the society
+now addressing your honorable body) declared the reading and spelling
+equal to that of any schools in the city.
+
+The undersigned enter their solemn protest against this unjust
+treatment of colored children. They believe with the experience of
+Massachusetts, and especially the recent experience of Boston before
+them, there is no sound reason why colored children shall be excluded
+from any of the common schools supported by taxes levied alike on
+whites and blacks, and governed by officers elected by the vote of
+colored as well as white voters.
+
+But if in the judgment of your honorable body common schools are not
+thus common to all, then we earnestly pray you to recommend to the
+Legislature such action as shall cause the Board of Education of this
+city to erect at least two well-appointed modern grammar schools for
+colored children on suitable sites, in respectable localities, so that
+the attendance of colored children may be increased and their minds be
+elevated in like manner as the happy experience of the honorable Board
+of Education has been in the matter of white children.
+
+In addition to the excellent impulse to colored youth which these new
+grammar schools would give, they will have the additional argument of
+actual economy; the children will be taught with far less expense in
+two such schoolhouses than in the half dozen hovels into which they
+are now driven. It is a costly piece of injustice which educates the
+white scholar in a palace at $10 per year and the colored pupil in a
+hovel at $17 or $18 per annum.
+
+Taxes, etc., of colored population of the city.
+
+No proposition can be more reasonable than that they who pay taxes for
+schools and schoolhouses should be provided with schools and
+schoolhouses. The colored population of this city, in proportion to
+their numbers, pay their full share of the general and therefore of
+the school taxes. There are about nine thousand adults of both sexes;
+of these over three thousand are householders, rent-payers, and
+therefore tax-payers, in that sense of the word in which owners make
+tax-payers of their poor tenants. The colored laboring man, with an
+income of $200 a year, who pays $72 per year for a room and bedroom,
+is really in proportion to his means a larger tax-payer than the
+millionaire whose tax rate is thousands of dollars. But directly,
+also, do the colored people pay taxes. From examinations carefully
+made, the undersigned affirm that there are in the city at least
+1,000 colored persons who own and pay taxes on real estate.
+
+     Taxed real estate in the city of New York owned
+       by colored persons                            $1,400,000
+     Untaxed by colored persons (churches)              250,000
+     Personal estate                                    710,000
+     Money in savings banks                           1,121,000
+                                                    -----------
+                                                     $3,481,000
+
+These figures indicate that in proportion to their numbers, the
+colored population of this city pay a fair share of the school taxes,
+and that they have been most unjustly dealt with. Their money has been
+used to purchase sites and erect and fit up schoolhouses for white
+children, whilst their own children are driven into miserable edifices
+in disgraceful localities. Surely, the white population of the city
+are too able, too generous, too just, any longer to suffer this
+miserable robbing of their colored fellow-citizens for the benefit of
+white children.
+
+Praying that your honorable commission will take due notice of these
+facts, and recommend such remedy as shall seem to you best,
+
+We have the honor to be, in behalf of the New York Society for the
+Promotion of Education among Colored Citizens,
+
+Most respectfully yours,
+
+CHARLES B. RAY, President.
+PHILIP A. WHITE, Secretary.
+New York City, December 28, 1857.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+AMERICAN NEGRO AND THE MILITARY SPIRIT.
+
+     Early Literature of Negro Soldiers--Negro Soldiers in the
+     War of the Revolution--The War of 1812--Negro
+     Insurrections--Negro Troops in the Civil War--Notes.
+
+
+"Do you think I'll make a soldier?" is the opening line of one of
+those delightful spirituals, originating among the slaves in the far
+South. I first heard it sung in the Saint James Methodist Church,
+corner of Spring and Coming Streets, Charleston, South Carolina,
+immediately after the close of the war. It was sung by a vast
+congregation to a gentle, swinging air, with nothing of the martial
+about it, and was accompanied by a swaying of the body to the time of
+the music. Occasionally there would be the "curtesys" peculiar to the
+South Carolina slave of the low country, which consists in a stooping
+of the body by bending the knees only, the head remaining erect, a
+movement which takes the place of the bow among equals. The older
+ladies, with heads adorned with the ever-present Madras kerchief,
+often tied in the most becoming and tasteful manner, and faces aglow
+with an enthusiasm that bespoke a life within sustained by visions of
+spiritual things, would often be seen to shake hands and add a word of
+greeting and hope which would impart a charm and meaning to the
+singing far above what the humble words of the song without these
+accessories could convey. As the rich chorus of matchless voices
+poured out in perfect time and tune, "Rise, shine, and give God the
+glory," the thoughts of earthly freedom, of freedom from sin, and
+finally of freedom from the toils, cares and sorrows of earth to be
+baptized into the joys of heaven, all seemed to blend into the many
+colored but harmonious strain. The singing of the simple hearted
+trustful, emancipated slave! Shall we ever hear the like again on
+earth? Alas, that the high hopes and glowing prophecies of that
+auspicious hour have been so deferred that the hearts of millions have
+been made sick!
+
+Of the songs that came out of slavery with these long suffering
+people, Colonel Higginson, who perhaps got nearer to them in sentiment
+than any other literary man not really, of them, says: "Almost all
+their songs were thoroughly religious in their tone, however quaint
+their expression, and were in a minor key both as to words and music.
+The attitude is always the same, and, as a commentary on the life of
+the race, is infinitely pathetic. Nothing but patience for this
+life--nothing but triumph in the next. Sometimes the present
+predominates, sometimes the future; but the combination is always
+implied."
+
+I do not know when this "soldier" song had its birth, but it may have
+sprung out of the perplexity of the slave's mind as he contemplated
+the raging conflict and saw himself drawn nearer and nearer to the
+field of strife. Whether in this song the "present predominates," and
+the query, therefore, has a strong primary reference to carnal weapons
+and to garments dyed in blood; whether the singer invites an opinion
+as to his fitness to engage in the war for Freedom--it may not be
+possible to determine. The "year of Jubilee," coming in the same song
+in connection with the purpose for which the singer is to be made a
+soldier, gives clearer illustration of that combination of the present
+and future which Mr. Higginson says was always present in the
+spirituals of that period, if it shows no more. When it is remembered
+that at that time Charleston was literally trodden under foot by black
+soldiers in bright uniforms, whose coming seemed to the colored people
+of that city like a dream too good to be true, it is not hard to
+believe that this song had much of the present in it, and owed its
+birth to the circumstances of war.
+
+Singularly enough the song makes the Negro ask the exact question
+which had been asked about him from the earliest days of our history
+as a nation, a question which in some form confronts him still. The
+question, as the song has it, is not one of fact, but one of opinion.
+It is not: Will I make a soldier? but: Do you think I will make a
+soldier? It is one thing to "make a soldier," another thing to have
+men think so. The question of fact was settled a century ago; the
+question of opinion is still unsettled. The Negro soldier, hero of
+five hundred battlefields, with medals and honors resting upon his
+breast, with the endorsement of the highest military authority of the
+nation, with Port Hudson, El Caney and San Juan behind him, is still
+expected by too many to stand and await the verdict of thought, from
+persons who never did "think" he would make a soldier, and who never
+will think so. As well expect the excited animal of the ring to
+_think_ in the presence of the red rag of the toreador as to expect
+_them_ to think on the subject of the Negro soldier. They can curse,
+and rant, when they see the stalwart Negro in uniform, but it is too
+much to ask them to think. To them the Negro can be a fiend, a brute,
+but never a soldier.
+
+To John G. Whittier and to William C. Nell are we indebted for the
+earliest recital of the heroic deeds of the colored American in the
+Wars of the Revolution and 1812. Whittier contributed an article on
+this subject to the "National Era" in 1847, and five or six years
+later Nell published his pamphlet on "Colored Patriots," a booklet
+recently reprinted by the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It is a
+useful contribution, showing as it does the rising and spreading
+abroad of that spirit which appreciates military effort and valor; and
+while recognizing the glory that came to American arms in the period
+described, honestly seeks to place some of that glory upon the
+deserving brow of a race then enslaved and despised. The book is
+unpretentious and aims to relate the facts in a straight-forward way,
+unaccompanied by any of the charms of tasteful presentation. Its
+author, however, is deserving our thanks, and the book marks an
+important stage in the development of the colored American. His mind
+was turning toward the creation of the soldier--the formation of
+armies.
+
+There are other evidences that the mind of the colored man was at this
+time turning towards arms. In 1852 Doctor Pennington, one of the most
+learned colored men of his times, having received his Degree in
+Divinity from Heidelberg, delivered an address before a mass
+convention of colored citizens of Ohio, held in Cleveland, in which he
+spoke principally of the colored soldier. During the convention the
+"Cleveland Light Artillery" fired a salute, and on the platform were
+seated several veteran colored men, some of them, particularly Mr.
+John Julius, of Pittsburg, Pa., taking part in the speech-making. Mr.
+Nell says: "Within recent period several companies of colored men in
+New York city have enrolled themselves a la militaire," and quotes
+from the New York Tribune of August, 1852, as follows:
+
+     "COLORED SOLDIERS.--Among the many parades within a few days
+     we noticed yesterday a soldierly-looking company of colored
+     men, on their way homeward from a target or parade drill.
+     They looked like men, handled their arms like men, and
+     should occasion demand, we presume they would fight like
+     men."
+
+In Boston, New Haven, New Bedford and other places efforts were made
+during the decade from 1850 to 1860 to manifest this rising military
+spirit by appropriate organization, but the efforts were not always
+successful. In some cases the prejudices of the whites put every
+possible obstacle in the way of the colored young men who attempted to
+array themselves as soldiers.
+
+The martial spirit is not foreign to the Negro character, as has been
+abundantly proved in both ancient and modern times. Williams, in his
+admirable history of the Negro as well as in his "Negro Troops in the
+Rebellion," has shown at considerable length that the Negro has been a
+soldier from earliest times, serving in large numbers in the Egyptian
+army long before the beginning of the Christian era. We know that
+without any great modification in character, runaway slaves developed
+excellent fighting qualities as Maroons, in Trinidad, British Guiana,
+St. Domingo and in Florida. But it was in Hayti that the unmixed Negro
+rose to the full dignity of a modern soldier, creating and leading
+armies, conducting and carrying on war, treating with enemies and
+receiving surrenders, complying fully with the rules of civilized
+warfare, and evolving finally a Toussaint, whose military genius his
+most bitter enemies were compelled to recognize--Toussaint, who to the
+high qualities of the soldier added also the higher qualities of
+statesmanship. With Napoleon, Cromwell and Washington, the three great
+commanders of modern times who have joined to high military talent
+eminent ability in the art of civil government, we must also class
+Toussaint L'Ouverteur, the black soldier of the Antilles. Thiers, the
+prejudiced attorney of Napoleon, declares nevertheless that Toussaint
+possessed wonderful talent for government, and the fact ever remains
+that under his benign rule all classes were pacified and San Domingo
+was made to blossom as the rose. In the armies of Menelek, in the
+armies of France, in the armies of England, as well as in the
+organization of the Zulu and Kaffir tribes the Negro has shown himself
+a soldier. If the Afro-American should fail in this particular it will
+not be because of any lack of the military element in the African side
+of his character, or for any lack of "remorseless military audacity"
+in the original Negro, as the historian, Williams, expresses it.
+
+In our own Revolutionary War, the Negro, then but partially civilized,
+and classed with "vagabonds," held everywhere as a slave, and
+everywhere distrusted, against protest and enactment, made his way
+into the patriot army, fighting side by side with his white
+compatriots from Lexington to Yorktown. On the morning of April 19th,
+1775, when the British re-enforcements were preparing to leave Boston
+for Lexington, a Negro soldier who had served in the French war,
+commanded a small body of West Cambridge "exempts" and captured Lord
+Percy's supply train with its military escort and the officer in
+command. As a rule the Negro soldiers were distributed among the
+regiments, thirty or forty to a regiment, and did not serve in
+separate organizations. Bishop J.P. Campbell, of the African Methodist
+Church, was accustomed to say "both of my grandfathers served in the
+Revolutionary War." In Varnum's Brigade, however, there was a Negro
+regiment and of it Scribner's history, 1897, says, speaking of the
+battle of Rhode Island: "None behaved better than Greene's colored
+regiment, which three times repulsed the furious charges of veteran
+Hessians." Williams says: "The black regiment was one of three that
+prevented the enemy from turning the flank of the American army. These
+black troops were doubtless regarded as the weak spot of the line, but
+they were not."
+
+The colony of Massachusetts alone furnished 67,907 men for the
+Revolutionary War, while all the colonies together south of
+Pennsylvania furnished but 50,493, hence the sentiment prevailing in
+Massachusetts would naturally be very powerful in determining any
+question pertaining to the army. When the country sprang to arms in
+response to that shot fired at Lexington, the echoes of which,
+poetically speaking, were heard around the world, the free Negroes of
+every Northern colony rallied with their white neighbors. They were in
+the fight at Lexington and at Bunker Hill, but when Washington came to
+take command of the army he soon gave orders that no Negroes should be
+enlisted. He was sustained in this position by a council of war and by
+a committee of conference in which were representatives from Rhode
+Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts, and it was agreed that Negroes
+be rejected altogether. The American Negro's persistency in pressing
+himself where he is not _wanted_ but where he is _eminently needed_
+began right there. Within six weeks so many colored men applied for
+enlistment, and those that had been put out of the army raised such a
+clamor that Washington changed his policy, and the Negro, who of all
+America's population contended for the privilege of shouldering a gun
+to fight for American liberty, was allowed a place in the Continental
+Army, the first national army organized on this soil, ante-dating the
+national flag. The Negro soldier helped to evolve the national
+standard and was in the ranks of the fighting men over whom it first
+unfolded its broad stripes and glittering stars.
+
+     [Transcriber's Note: This footnote appeared in the text
+     without a footnote anchor:
+
+     "To the Honorable General Court of the Massachusetts Bay:
+
+     "The subscribers beg leave to report to your Honorable
+     House, which we do in justice to the character of so brave a
+     man, that, under our own observation, we declare that a
+     Negro man called Salem Poor, of Col. Frye's regiment, Capt.
+     Ames' company, in the late battle at Charlestown, behaved
+     like an experienced officer, as well as an excellent
+     soldier. We would only beg leave to say, in the person of
+     this said Negro centres a brave and gallant soldier. The
+     reward due to so great and distinguished a character we
+     submit to the Congress.
+
+     "Cambridge, Dec. 5, 1775."
+
+     These black soldiers, fresh from heathen lands, not out of
+     slavery, proved themselves as worthy as the best. In the
+     battle of Bunker Hill, where all were brave, two Negro
+     soldiers so distinguished themselves that their names have
+     come down to us garlanded with the tributes of their
+     contemporaries. Peter Salem, until then a slave, a private
+     in Colonel Nixon's regiment of Continentals, without orders
+     fired deliberately upon Major Pitcairn as he was leading the
+     assault of the British to what appeared certain victory.
+     Everet in speaking "of Prescott, Putnam and Warren, the
+     chiefs of the day," mentions in immediate connection "the
+     colored man, Salem, who is reported to have shot the gallant
+     Pitcairn as he mounted the parapet." What Salem Poor did is
+     not set forth, but the following is the wreath of praise
+     that surrounds his name:
+
+     Jona. Brewer, Col.             Eliphalet Bodwell, Sgt.
+     Thomas Nixon, Lt.-Col.         Josiah Foster, Lieut.
+     Wm. Precott, Col.              Ebenr. Varnum, 2d Lieut.
+     Ephm. Corey, Lieut.            Wm. Hudson Ballard, Capt.
+     Joseph Baker, Lieut.           William Smith, Capt.
+     Joshua Row, Lieut.             John Morton, Sergt. (?)
+     Jonas Richardson, Capt.        Richard Welsh, Lieut.]
+
+
+It is in place here to mention a legion of free mulattoes and blacks
+from the Island of St. Domingo, a full account of whose services is
+appended to this section, who fought under D'Estaing with great
+distinction in the siege of Savannah, their bravery at that time
+saving the patriot army from annihilation.
+
+When the Revolutionary War had closed the brave black soldier who had
+fought to give to the world a new flag whose every star should be a
+star of hope to the oppressed, and whose trinity of colors should
+symbolize Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, found his race, and in
+some instances himself personally, encased in a cruel and stubborn
+slavery. For the soldier himself special provision had been made in
+both Northern and Southern colonies, but it was not always hearty or
+effective. In October, 1783, the Virginia Legislature passed an act
+for the relief of certain slaves who had served in the army whose
+"former owners were trying to force to return to a state of servitude,
+contrary to the principles of justice and their solemn promise." The
+act provided that each and every slave who had enlisted "by the
+appointment and direction of his owner" and had "been received as a
+substitute for any free person whose duty or lot it was to serve" and
+who had served faithfully during the term of such enlistment, unless
+lawfully discharged earlier, should be fully and completely
+emancipated and should be held and deemed free in as full and ample
+manner as if each and every one of them were specially named in the
+act. The act, though apparently so fair on its face, and interlarded
+as it is with patriotic and moral phrases, is nevertheless very narrow
+and technical, liberating only those who enlisted by the appointment
+and direction of their owners, and who were accepted as substitutes,
+and who came out of the army with good discharges. It is not hard to
+see that even under this act many an ex-soldier might end his days in
+slavery. The Negro had joined in the fight for freedom and when
+victory is won finds himself a slave. He was both a slave and a
+soldier, too often, during the war; and now at its close may be both a
+veteran and a slave.
+
+The second war with Great Britain broke out with an incident in which
+the Negro in the navy was especially conspicuous. The Chesapeake, an
+American war vessel was hailed, fired upon and forced to strike her
+colors, by the British. She was then boarded and searched and four
+persons taken from her decks, claimed as deserters from the English
+navy. Three of these were Negroes and one white. The Negroes were
+finally dismissed with a reprimand and the white man hanged. Five
+years later hostilities began on land and no opposition was manifested
+toward the employment of Negro soldiers. Laws were passed, especially
+in New York, authorizing the formation of regiments of blacks with
+white officers. It is remarkable that although the successful
+insurrection of St. Domingo was so recent, and many refugees from that
+country at that time were in the United States, and our country had
+also but lately come into possession of a large French element by the
+Louisiana purchase, there was no fear of a servile insurrection in
+this country. The free colored men of New Orleans, under the
+proclamation of the narrow-minded Jackson, rallied to the defence of
+that city and bore themselves with commendable valor in that useless
+battle. The war closed, however, and the glory of the Negro soldier
+who fought in it soon expired in the dismal gloom of a race-slavery
+becoming daily more wide-spread and hopeless.
+
+John Brown's movement was military in character and contemplated the
+creation of an army of liberated slaves; but its early suppression
+prevented any display of Negro valor or genius. Its leader must ever
+receive the homage due those who are so moved by the woes of others as
+to overlook all considerations of policy and personal risk. As a plot
+for the destruction of life it fell far short of the Nat Turner
+insurrection which swept off fifty-seven persons within a few hours.
+In purpose the two episodes agree. They both aim at the liberation of
+the slave; both were led by fanatics, the reflex production of the
+cruelty of slavery, and both ended in the melancholy death of their
+heroic leaders. Turner's was the insurrection of the slave and was not
+free from the mad violence of revenge; Brown's was the insurrection of
+the friend of the slave, and was governed by the high and noble
+purpose of freedom. The insurrections of Denmark Vesey in South
+Carolina, in 1822, and of Nat Turner, in Virginia, in 1831, show
+conclusively that the Negro slave possessed the courage, the cunning,
+the secretiveness and the intelligence to fight for his freedom.
+These two attempts were sufficiently broad and intelligent, when taken
+into consideration with the enforced ignorance of the slave, to prove
+the Negro even in his forlorn condition capable of daring great
+things. Of the probable thousands who were engaged in the Denmark
+Vesey insurrection, only fifteen were convicted, and these died
+heroically without revealing anything connected with the plot.
+Forty-three years later I met the son of Denmark Vesey, who rejoiced
+in the efforts of his noble father, and regarded his death on the
+gallows as a holy sacrifice to the cause of freedom. Turner describes
+his fight as follows: "The white men, eighteen in number, approached
+us to about one hundred yards, when one of them fired, and I
+discovered about half of them retreating. I then ordered my men to
+fire and rush on them. The few remaining stood their ground until we
+approached within fifty yards, when they fired and retreated. We
+pursued and overtook some of them whom we thought we left dead. After
+pursuing them about two hundred yards, and rising a little hill, I
+discovered they were met by another party, and had halted and were
+reloading their guns. Thinking that those who retreated first and the
+party who fired on us at fifty or sixty yards distant had all only
+fallen back to meet others with ammunition, as I saw them reloading
+their guns, and more coming up than I saw at first, and several of my
+bravest men being wounded, the others became panic struck and
+scattered over the field. The white men pursued and fired on us
+several times. Hark had his horse shot under him, and I caught another
+for him that was running by me; five or six of my men were wounded,
+but none left on the field. Finding myself defeated here, I instantly
+determined to go through a private way and cross the Nottoway River at
+Cypress Bridge, three miles below Jerusalem, and attack that place in
+the rear, as I expected they would look for me on the other road, and
+I had a great desire to get there to procure arms and ammunition.
+After going a short distance in this private way, accompanied by about
+twenty men, I overtook two or three who told me the others were
+dispersed in every direction. After trying in vain to collect a
+sufficient force to proceed to Jerusalem, I determined to return, as I
+was sure they would make back to their old neighborhood, where they
+would rejoin me, make new recruits, and come down again. On my way
+back I called on Mrs. Thomas', Mrs. Spencer's and several other
+places. We stopped at Major Ridley's quarters for the night, and being
+joined by four of his men, with the recruits made since my defeat, we
+mustered now about forty strong.
+
+After placing out sentinels, I lay down to sleep, but was quickly
+aroused by a great racket. Starting up I found some mounted and others
+in great confusion, one of the sentinels having given the alarm that
+we were about to be attacked. I ordered some to ride around and
+reconnoitre, and on their return the others being more alarmed, not
+knowing who they were, fled in different ways, so that I was reduced
+to about twenty again. With this I determined to attempt to recruit,
+and proceed on to rally in the neighborhood I had left."[6]
+
+No one can read this account, which is thoroughly supported by
+contemporary testimony, without seeing in this poor misguided slave
+the elements of a vigorous captain. Failing in his efforts he made his
+escape and remained for two months in hiding in the vicinity of his
+pursuers. One concerned in his prosecution says: "It has been said
+that he was ignorant and cowardly and that his object was to murder
+and rob for the purpose of obtaining money to make his escape. It is
+notorious that he was never known to have a dollar in his life, to
+swear an oath, or drink a drop of spirits. As to his ignorance, he
+certainly never had the advantages of education, but he can read and
+write (it was taught him by his parents) and for natural intelligence
+and quickness of apprehension, is surpassed by few men I have ever
+seen. As to his being a coward, his reason as given for not resisting
+Mr. Phipps shows the decision of his character."[7]
+
+The War of the Rebellion, now called the Civil War, effected the last
+and tremendous step in the transition of the American Negro from the
+position of a slave under the Republic to that of a soldier in its
+armies. Both under officers of his own race at Port Hudson and under
+white officers on a hundred battlefields, the Negro in arms proved
+himself a worthy foeman against the bravest and sternest enemies that
+ever assailed our nation's flag, and a worthy comrade of the Union's
+best defenders. Thirty-six thousand eight hundred and forty-seven of
+them gave their lives in that awful conflict. The entire race on this
+continent and those of allied blood throughout the world are indebted
+to the soldier-historian, Honorable George W. Williams, for the
+eloquent story of their service in the Union Army, and for the
+presentation of the high testimonials to the valor and worthiness of
+the colored soldier as given by the highest military authority of the
+century. From Chapter XVI of his book, "Negro Troops in the
+Rebellion," the paragraphs appended at the close of this chapter are
+quoted.
+
+
+A.
+
+HOW THE BLACK ST. DOMINGO LEGION SAVED THE PATRIOT ARMY IN THE SIEGE
+OF SAVANNAH, 1779.
+
+The siege and attempted reduction of Savannah by the combined French
+and American forces is one of the events of our revolutionary war,
+upon which our historians care little to dwell. Because it reflects
+but little glory upon the American arms, and resulted so disastrously
+to the American cause, its important historic character and
+connections have been allowed to fade from general sight; and it
+stands in the ordinary school text-books, much as an affair of shame.
+The following, quoted from Barnes' History, is a fair sample of the
+way in which it is treated:
+
+"French-American Attack on Savannah.--In September, D'Estaing joined
+Lincoln in besieging that city. After a severe bombardment, an
+unsuccessful assault was made, in which a thousand lives were lost.
+Count Pulaski was mortally wounded. The simple-hearted Sergeant Jasper
+died grasping the banner presented to his regiment at Fort Moultrie.
+D'Estaing refused to give further aid; thus again deserting the
+Americans when help was most needed."
+
+From this brief sketch the reader is at liberty to infer that the
+attack was unwise if not fool-hardy; that the battle was unimportant;
+and that the conduct of Count D'Estaing immediately after the battle
+was unkind, if not unjust, to the Americans. While the paragraph does
+not pretend to tell the whole truth, what it does tell ought to be the
+truth; and this ought to be told in such a way as to give correct
+impressions. The attack upon Savannah was well-planned and thoroughly
+well considered; and it failed only because the works were so ably
+defended, chiefly by British regulars, under brave and skillful
+officers. In a remote way, which it is the purpose of this paper to
+trace, that sanguinary struggle had a wider bearing upon the progress
+of liberty in the Western World than any other one battle fought
+during the Revolution.
+
+But first let us listen to the story of the battle itself. Colonel
+Campbell with a force of three thousand men, captured Savannah in
+December, 1778; and in the January following, General Prevost arrived,
+and by March had established a sort of civil government in Georgia,
+Savannah being the capital. In April, the American general, Lincoln,
+feeble in more senses than one, perhaps, began a movement against
+Savannah by way of Augusta; but Prevost, aware of his purpose, crossed
+into South Carolina and attempted an attack upon Charleston. Finding
+the city too well defended, he contented himself with ravaging the
+plantations over a wide extent of adjacent country, and returned to
+Savannah laden with rich spoils, among which were included three
+thousand slaves, of whose labor he made good use later.
+
+The patriots of the South now awaited in hope the coming of the French
+fleet; and on the first of September, Count D'Estaing appeared
+suddenly on the coast of Georgia with thirty-three sail, surprised and
+captured four British warships, and announced to the government of
+South Carolina his readiness to assist in the recapture of Savannah.
+He urged as a condition, however, that his ships should not be
+detained long off so dangerous a coast, as is was now the hurricane
+season, and there was neither harbor, road, nor offing for their
+protection.
+
+By means of small vessels sent from Charleston he effected a landing
+in ten days, and four days thereafter, on the 16th, he summoned the
+garrison to surrender to the arms of France. Although this demand was
+made in the name of France for the plain reason that the American army
+was not yet upon the spot, the loyalists did not fail to make it a
+pretext for the accusation that the French were desirous of making
+conquests in the war on their own account. In the meantime Lincoln
+with the regular troops, was hurrying toward Savannah, and had issued
+orders for the militia to rendezvous at the same place; and the
+militia full of hope of a speedy, if not of a bloodless conquest, were
+entering upon this campaign with more than ordinary enthusiasm.
+
+During the time that the fleet had been off the coast, and especially
+since the landing, the British had been very busy in putting the city
+in a high state of defence, and in making efforts to strengthen the
+garrison. Lieutenant-colonel Cruger, who had a small force at Sunbury,
+the last place in Georgia that had been captured by the British, and
+Lieutenant-colonel Maitland who was commanding a considerable force at
+Beaufort, were ordered to report in haste with their commands at
+Savannah. On the 16th, when the summons to surrender was received by
+Prevost, Maitland had not arrived, but was hourly expected. Prevost
+asked for a delay of twenty-four hours to consider the proposal, which
+delay was granted; and on that very evening, Maitland with his force
+arrived at Dawfuskie. Finding the river in the possession of the
+French, his course for a time seemed effectually cut off. By the
+merest chance he fell in with some Negro fishermen who informed him of
+a passage known as Wall's cut, through Scull's creek, navigable for
+small boats. A favoring tide and a dense fog enabled him to conduct
+his command unperceived by the French, through this route, and thus
+arrive in Savannah on the afternoon of the 17th, before the expiration
+of the twenty-four hours. General Prevost had gained his point; and
+now believing himself able to resist an assault, declined the summons
+to surrender. Two armed ships and four transports were sunk in the
+channel of the river below the city, and a boom in the same place laid
+entirely across the river; while several small boats were sunk above
+the town, thus rendering it impossible for the city to be approached
+by water.
+
+On the day of the summons to surrender, although the works were
+otherwise well advanced, there were not ten cannon mounted in the
+lines of Savannah; but from that time until the day of assault, the
+men of the garrison, with the slaves they had captured, worked day and
+night to get the defences of the city in the highest state of
+excellence. Major Moncrief, chief of the engineers, is credited with
+placing in position more than eighty cannons in a short time after the
+call to surrender had been received.
+
+The city itself at this time was but a mere village of frame buildings
+and unpaved streets. Viewed as facing its assailants, it was protected
+in its rear, or upon its north side, by the Savannah river; and on its
+west side by a thick swamp or morass, which communicated with the
+river above the city. The exposed sides were those of the east and
+south. These faced an open country which for several miles was
+entirely clear of woods. This exposed portion of the city was well
+protected by an unbroken line of defences extending from the river
+back to the swamp, the right and left extremes of the line consisting
+of strong redoubts, while the centre was made up of seamen's batteries
+in front, with impalements and traverses thrown up to protect the
+troops from the fire of the besiegers. The whole extent of the works
+was faced with an ample abattis.
+
+[Illustration: Savannah River.]
+
+To be still more particular: there were three redoubts on the right of
+the line, and on the right of them quite near the swamp, was a
+sailor's battery of nine pounders, covered by a company of the British
+legion. The left redoubt of these three, was known as the Springhill
+redoubt; and proved to be the objective of the final assault. Between
+it and the centre, was another sailor's battery behind which were
+posted the grenadiers of the 60th regiment, with the marines which had
+been landed from the warships. On the left of the line near the river
+were two redoubts, strongly constructed, with a massy frame of green
+spongy wood, filled in with sand, and mounted with heavy cannon. The
+centre, or space between these groups of redoubts, was composed, as
+has been said, of lighter but nevertheless very effective works, and
+was strongly garrisoned.
+
+Having thus scanned the works, let us now take a glance at the men who
+are to defend them. As all of the assaulting forces are not made up of
+Americans, so all of the defenders are not foreigners. The centre
+redoubt of the triplet on the right, was garrisoned by two companies
+of militia, with the North Carolina regiment to support them; Captains
+Roworth and Wylie, with the provincial corps of King's Rangers, were
+posted in the redoubt on the right; and Captain Tawse with his corps
+of provincial dragons, dismounted, in the left or Springhill redoubt,
+supported by the South Caroline regiment. The whole of this force on
+the right of the line, was under the command of the gallant
+Lieutenant-colonel Maitland; and it was this force that made the
+charge that barely failed of annihilating the American army. On the
+left of the line, the Georgia loyalists garrisoned one of those massy
+wooden sand-filled redoubts; while in the centre, cheek by jowl so to
+speak, with two battalions of the seventy-first regiment, and two
+regiments of Hessians, stood the New York Volunteers. All of these
+corps were ready to act as circumstances should require and to support
+any part of the line that might be attacked. The Negroes who worked on
+these defences were under the direction of Major Moncrief.
+
+The French troops had landed below the city and were formed facing the
+British lines, with the river on their right. On their left, later,
+assembled the American troops. The final dispositions were concluded
+by September 22nd, and were as follows: The American troops under
+Lincoln formed the left of the line, their left resting upon the swamp
+and the entire division facing the Springhill redoubt and her two
+sister defences; then came the division of M. de Noailles, composed of
+nine hundred men. D'Estaing's division of one thousand men beside the
+artillery, came next, and formed the centre of the French army. On
+D'Estaing's right was Count Dillon's division of nine hundred men; on
+the right of Dillon were the powder magazine, cattle depot, and a
+small field hospital; on the right of the depot and a little in
+advance, were Dejean's dragoons, numbering fifty men; upon the same
+alignment and to the right of the dragoons were Rouvrais' Volunteer
+Chasseurs, numbering seven hundred and fifty men; still further on to
+the right and two hundred yards in advance of Rouvrais, was Framais,
+comanding the Grenadier Volunteers, and two hundred men besides, his
+right resting upon the swampy wood that bordered the river, thus
+completely closing in the city on the land side. The frigate, La
+Truite, and two galleys, lay within cannon shot of the town, and with
+the aid of the armed store ship, La Bricole, and the frigate, La
+Chimere, effectually cut off all communication by water.
+
+On the 23rd, both the French and the Americans opened their trenches;
+and on the 24th, a small detachment of the besieged made a sortie
+against the French. The attack was easily repulsed, but the French
+pursuing, approached so near the entrenchments of the enemy that they
+were fired upon and several were killed. On the night of the 27th
+another sortie was made which threw the besiegers into some confusion
+and caused the French and Americans to fire upon each other.
+Cannonading continued with but little result until October 8th.
+
+The engineers were now of the opinion that a speedy reduction of the
+city could not be accomplished by regular approaches; and the naval
+officers were very anxious about the fleet, both because of the
+dangers to which it was exposed from the sea, and also because with so
+many men ashore it was in especial danger of being attacked and
+captured by British men-of-war. These representations agreeing
+altogether with D'Estaing's previously expressed wishes to leave the
+coast as soon as possible, induced that officer and General Lincoln
+to decide upon an attempt to storm the British works at once. It is
+quite probable that this had been the purpose as a last resort from
+the first. The preservation of the fleet was, however, the powerful
+factor in determining the time and character of the assault upon
+Savannah.
+
+On the night of the eighth, Major L'Enfant, with a detachment
+attempted to set fire to the abattis in order to clear the way for the
+assault, but failed to through the dampness of the wood. The plan of
+the assault may be quite accurately obtained from the orders given to
+the American troops on the evening of the 8th by General Lincoln and
+from the inferences to be drawn from the events of the morning of the
+9th as they are recorded in history. At least two of the historians
+who have left us accounts of the seige, Ramsey and McCall, were
+present at the time, and their accounts may be regarded as original
+authority. General Lincoln's orders were as follows:
+
+
+     "Evening Orders. By General Lincoln.
+     Watchword--Lewis.
+
+     "The soldiers will be immediately supplied with 40 rounds of
+     cartridges, a spare flint, and have their arms in good
+     order. The infantry destined for the attack of Savannah will
+     be divided into two bodies; first composed of the light
+     troops under the command of Colonel Laurens; the second, of
+     the continental battalions and the first battalion of the
+     Charleston militia, except the grenadiers, who are to join
+     the light troops. The whole will parade at 1 o'clock, near
+     the left of the line, and march by platoons. The guards of
+     the camp will be formed of the invalids, and be charged to
+     keep the fires as usual in camp.
+
+     "The cavalry under the command of Count Pulaski, will parade
+     at the same time with the infantry and follow the left
+     column of the French troops, precede the column of the
+     American light troops; they will endeavor to penetrate the
+     enemy's lines between the battery on the left of Springhill
+     redoubt, and the next towards the river; having effected
+     this, will pass to the left towards Yamacraw and secure such
+     parties of the enemy as may be lodged in that quarter.
+
+     "The artillery will parade at the same time, follow the
+     French artillery, and remain with the corps de reserve until
+     they receive further orders.
+
+     "The whole will be ready by the time appointed, with the
+     utmost silence and punctuality; and be ready to march the
+     instant Count Dillon and General Lincoln shall order.
+
+     "The light troops who are to follow the cavalry, will
+     attempt to enter the redoubt on the left of the Springhill,
+     by escalade if possible; if not by entrance into it, they
+     are to be supported if necessary by the first South Carolina
+     regiment; in the meantime the column will proceed with the
+     lines to the left of the Springhill battery.
+
+     "The light troops having succeeded against the redoubt will
+     proceed to the left and attempt the several works between
+     that and the river.
+
+     "The column will move to the left of the French troops,
+     taking care not to interfere with them.
+
+     "The light troops having carried the work towards the river
+     will form on the left of the column.
+
+     "It is especially forbidden to fire a single gun before the
+     redoubts are carried; or for any soldier to quit his rank to
+     plunder without an order for that purpose; any who shall
+     presume to transgress in either of these respects shall be
+     reputed a disobeyer of military orders which is punishable
+     with death.
+
+     "The militia of the first and second brigades, General
+     Williamson's and the second battalion of the Charleston
+     militia will parade immediately under the command of General
+     Huger; after draughting five hundred of them the remander of
+     them will go into the trenches and put themselves under the
+     commanding officer there; with the 500 he will march to the
+     left of the enemy's line, remain as near them as he possibly
+     can without being seen, until four o'clock in the morning,
+     at which time the troops in the trenches will begin an
+     attack upon the enemy; he will then advance and make his
+     attack as near the river as possible; though this is only
+     meant as a feint, yet should a favorable opportunity offer,
+     he will improve it and push into the town.
+
+     "In case of a repulse after taking Springhill redoubt, the
+     troops will retreat and rally in the rear of redoubt; if it
+     cannot be effected that way, it must be attempted by the
+     same route at which they entered.
+
+     "The second place of rallying (or the first if the redoubt
+     should not be carried) will be at the Jews' burying-ground,
+     where the reserve will be placed; if these two halts should
+     not be effected, they will retire towards camp.
+
+     "The troops will carry in their hats a piece of white paper
+     by which they will be distinguished."
+
+General Huger with his five hundred militia, covered by the river
+swamp, crept quite close to the enemy's lines and delivered his attack
+as directed. Its purpose was to draw attention to that quarter and if
+possible cause a weakening of the strength in the left centre of the
+line. What its real effect was, there is now no means of knowing.
+
+Count Dillon, who during the siege had been on D'Estaing's right, and
+who appears to have been second in command in the French army, in this
+assault was placed in command of a second attacking column. His
+purpose was to move to the right of General Huger, and keeping in the
+edge of the swamps along the river, steal past the enemy's batteries
+on the left, and attack him in the rear. Bancroft describes the
+results of his efforts as follows: "The column under Count Dillon,
+which was to have attacked the rear of the British lines, became
+entangled in a swamp of which it should only have skirted the edge was
+helplessly exposed to the British batteries and could not even be
+formed." Here were the two strong sand-filled redoubts, mounted with
+heavy cannon, and these may have been the batteries that stopped
+Dillon's column.
+
+Count Pulaski with his two hundred brave cavalrymen, undertook his
+part in the deadly drama with ardor, and began that perilous ride
+which had for its object: "to penetrate the enemy's lines, between the
+battery on the left of the Springhill redoubt, and the next towards
+the river." Balch describes it as an attempt to "penetrate into the
+city by galloping between the redoubts." It was the anticipation of
+the Crimean "Charge of the Light Brigade;" only in this case, no one
+blundered; it was simply a desperate chance. Cannon were to the right,
+left, and front, and the heroic charge proved in vain; the noble Pole
+fell, banner[8] in hand, pierced with a mortal wound--another foreign
+martyr to our dearly bought freedom.
+
+The cavalry dash having failed, that much of the general plan was
+blotted out. The feints may have been understood; it is said a
+sergeant of the Charleston Grenadiers deserted during the night of the
+8th and gave the whole plan of the attack to General Prevost, so that
+he knew just where to strengthen his lines. The feints were
+effectually checked by the garrison on the left, twenty-eight of the
+Americans being killed: while Dillon's column was stopped by the
+batteries near the river. This state of affairs allowed the whole of
+Maitland's force to protect the Springhill redoubt and that part of
+the line which was most threatened. The Springhill redoubt, as has
+been stated, was occupied by the South Carolina regiment and a corps
+of dragoons. This circumstance may account for the fact, that while
+the three hundred and fifty Charleston militia occupied a most exposed
+position in the attacking column, only one man among them was killed
+and but six wounded. The battery on the left of this redoubt was
+garrisoned by grenadiers and marines.
+
+The attacking column now advanced boldly, under the command of
+D'Estaing and Lincoln, the Americans consisting of six hundred
+continental troops and three hundred and fifty Charleston militia,
+being on the left, while the centre and right were made up of the
+French forces. They were met with so severe and steady a fire that the
+head of the column was soon thrown into confusion. They endured this
+fire for fifty-five minutes, returning it as best they could, although
+many of the men had no opportunity to fire at all. Two American
+standards and one French standard, were placed on the British works,
+but their bearers were instantly killed. It being found impossible to
+carry any part of the works, a general retreat was ordered. Of the six
+hundred continental troops, more than one-third had fallen, and about
+one-fifth of the French. The Charleston militia had not suffered,
+although they had bravely borne their part in the assault, and it had
+certainly been no fault of theirs if their brethren behind the
+embankments had not fired upon them. Count D'Estaing had received two
+wounds, one in the thigh, and being unable to move, was saved by the
+young naval lieutenant Truguet. Ramsey gives the losses of the battle
+as follows: French soldiers 760; officers 61; Americans 312; total
+1133.
+
+As the army began its retreat, Lieutenant-colonel Maitland with the
+grenadiers and marines, who were incorporated with the grenadiers,
+charged its rear with the purpose of accomplishing its annihilation.
+It was then that there occurred the most brilliant feat of the day,
+and one of the bravest ever performed by foreign troops in the
+American cause. In the army of D'Estaing was a legion of black and
+mulatto freedmen, known as Fontages Legion, commanded by Vicount de
+Fontages, a brave and experienced officer. The strength of this legion
+is given variously from six hundred to over eight hundred men. This
+legion met the fierce charge of Maitland and saved the retreating
+army.
+
+In an official record prepared in Paris, now before me, are these
+words: "This legion saved the army at Savannah by bravely covering its
+retreat. Among the blacks who rendered signal services at that time
+were: Andre, Beauvais, Rigaud, Villatte, Beauregard, Lambert, who
+latterly became generals under the convention, including Henri
+Christophe, the future king of Haiti." This quotation is taken from a
+paper secured by the Honorable Richard Rush, our minister to Paris in
+1849, and is preserved in the Pennsylvania Historical Society. Henri
+Christophe received a dangerous gunshot wound in Savannah. Balch says
+in speaking of Fontages at Savannah: "He commanded there a legion of
+mulattoes, according to my manuscript, of more than eight hundred men,
+and saved the army after the useless assault on the fortifications, by
+bravely covering the retreat."
+
+It was this legion that formed the connecting link between the siege
+of Savannah and the wide development of republican liberty on the
+Western continent, which followed early in the present century. In
+order to show this connection and the sequences, it will be necessary
+to sketch in brief the history of this remarkable body of men,
+especially that of the prominent individuals who distinguished
+themselves at Savannah.
+
+In 1779 the French colony of Saint Domingo was in a state of peace,
+the population then consisting of white slave-holders, mulatto and
+black freedmen (affranchis), and slaves. Count D'Estaing received
+orders to recruit men from Saint Domingo for the auxiliary army; and
+there being no question of color raised, received into the service a
+legion of colored freedmen. There had been for years a colored militia
+in Saint Domingo, and as early as 1716, the Marquis de Chateau Morant,
+then governor of the colony, made one Vincent the Captain-general of
+all the colored militia in the vicinity of the Cape. This Captain
+Vincent died in 1780 at the reputed age of 120 years. He was certainly
+of great age, for he had been in the siege of Carthegenia in 1697, was
+taken prisoner, afterwards liberated by exchange and presented to
+Louis XIV, and fought in the German war under Villars. Moreau de St.
+Mery, in his description of Vincent, incidentally mentions the
+Savannah expedition. He says: "I saw him (Vincent) the year preceding
+his death, recalling his ancient prowess to the men of color who were
+enrolling themselves for the expedition to Savannah; and showing in
+his descendants who were among the first to offer themselves, that he
+had transmitted his valor. Vincent, the good Captain Vincent, had a
+most pleasing countenance; and the contrast of his black skin with his
+white hair produced an effect that always commanded respect."
+
+[Illustration: Hutchinson Island.]
+
+The Haytian historian, Enclus Robin, says when the call for volunteers
+reached Saint Domingo: "eight hundred young freedmen, blacks and
+mulattoes, offered themselves to take part in the expedition;" that
+they went and "fought valiantly; and returned to Saint Domingo covered
+with glory." Madiou, another Haytian historian of the highest
+respectability says: "A crowd of young men, black and colored,
+enlisted with the French troops and left for the continent. They
+covered themselves with glory in the siege of Savannah, under the
+orders of Count D'Estaing."
+
+What effect this experience had upon these volunteers may be inferred
+from their subsequent history. Robin says: "These men who contributed
+their mite toward American independence, had still their mothers and
+sisters in slavery; and they themselves were subject to humiliating
+discriminations. Should not France have expected from that very
+moment, that they would soon use in their own cause, those very arms
+which they had learned so well to use in the interests of others?"
+Madiou says: "On their return to Saint Domingo they demanded for their
+brothers the enjoyment of political rights." Beauvais went to Europe
+and served in the army of France; but returned to fight for liberty in
+Hayti, and was Captain-general in 1791; Rigaud, Lambert and Christophe
+wrote their names--not in the sand. These are the men who dared to
+stir Saint Domingo, under whose influence Hayti became the first
+country of the New World, after the United States, to throw off
+European rule. The connection between the siege of Savannah and the
+independence of Hayti is traced, both as to its spirit, and
+physically, through the black legion that on that occasion saved the
+American army. How this connection is traced to the republics of South
+America, I will allow a Haytian statesman and man of letters, honored
+both at home and abroad, to relate. I translate from a work published
+in Paris in 1885:
+
+"The illustrious Bolivar, liberator and founder of five republics in
+South America, undertook in 1811 his great work of shaking off the
+yoke of Spain, and of securing the independence of those immense
+countries which swelled the pride of the catholic crown--but failed.
+Stripped of all resources he took flight and repaired to Jamaica,
+where he implored in vain of the governor of that island, the help of
+England. Almost in despair, and without means, he resolved to visit
+Hayti, and appeal to the generosity of the black Republic for the
+help necessary to again undertake that work of liberation which had
+gone to pieces in his hands. Never was there a more solemn hour for
+any man--and that man the representative of the destiny of South
+America! Could he hope for success? After the English, who had every
+interest in the destruction of Spanish colonial power, had treated him
+with so much indifference, could he hope that a new-born nation, weak,
+with microscopic territory, and still guarding anxiously its own
+ill-recognized independence, would risk itself in an enterprise
+hazardous as the one he represented? Full of doubt he came; but Petion
+gave him a most cordial welcome.
+
+"Taking the precautions that a legitimate sentiment of prudence
+dictated at that delicate moment of our national existence, the
+government of Port-au-Prince put to the disposition of the hero of
+Boyaca and Carabobo, all the elements of which he had need--and
+Bolivar needed everything. Men, arms and money were generously given
+him. Petion did not wish to act openly for fear of compromising
+himself with the Spanish government; it was arranged that the men
+should embark secretly as volunteers; and that no mention of Hayti
+should ever be made in any official act of Venezuela."
+
+Bolivar's first expedition with his Haytian volunteers was a failure;
+returning to the island he procured reinforcements and made a second
+descent which was brilliantly successful. Haytian arms, money and men
+turned Bolivar's disasters to victory; and the spirit of Western
+liberty marched on to the redemption of South America. The liberation
+of Mexico and all Central America, followed as a matter of course; and
+the ground was thus cleared for the practical application of that
+Continentalism enunciated in the Monroe doctrine.
+
+The black men of the Antilles who fought in the siege of Savannah,
+enjoy unquestionably the proud historical distinction of being the
+physical conductors that bore away from our altars the sacred fire of
+liberty to rekindle it in their own land; and also of becoming the
+humble but important link that served to unite the Two Americas in the
+bond of enlightened independence.
+
+T.G. STEWARD, U.S.A.
+
+Note:--In the preparation of the above paper I have been greatly
+assisted by the Honorable L.J. Janvier, Charge d'affairs d' Haiti, in
+London; by Right Reverend James Theodore Holly, bishop of Hayti, and
+by Messrs. Charles and Frank Rudolph Steward of Harvard University. To
+all of these gentlemen my thanks are here expressed. T.G.S.
+
+Paper read at the session of the Negro Academy, Washington, D.C.,
+1898.
+
+
+B.
+
+EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER XVI "NEGRO TROOPS IN THE REBELLION"--WILLIAMS.
+
+Adjutant-General Thomas in a letter to Senator Wilson, May 30, 1864,
+says: "Experience proves that they manage heavy guns very well. Their
+fighting qualities have also been fully tested a number of times, and
+I am yet to hear of the first case where they did not fully stand up
+to their work."
+
+Major-General James G. Blunt writing of the battle of Honey Springs,
+Arkansas, said of Negro troops: "The Negroes (First Colored Regiment)
+were too much for the enemy, and let me here say that I never saw such
+fighting as was done by that Negro regiment. They fought like
+veterans, with a coolness and valor that is unsurpassed. They
+preserved their line perfect throughout the whole engagement, and
+although in the hottest of the fight, they never once faltered. Too
+much praise cannot be awarded them for their gallantry. The question
+that Negroes will fight is settled; besides, they make better soldiers
+in every respect than any troops I have ever had under my command."
+
+General Thomas J. Morgan, speaking of the courage of Negro troops in
+the battle of Nashville, and its effect upon Major-General George H.
+Thomas, says: "Those who fell nearest the enemy's works were colored.
+General Thomas spoke very feelingly of the sight which met his eye as
+he rode over the field, and he confessed that the Negro had fully
+vindicated his bravery, and wiped from his mind the last vestige of
+prejudice and doubt."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[6] Confession of Nat Turner, Anglo-African Magazine, Vol. 1, p. 338,
+1859.
+
+[7] Ibid.
+
+[8] The presentation of this banner by the Moravian Nuns of Bethlehem
+forms the text of the poem by Longfellow beginning--
+
+    When the dying flame of day
+    Through the chancel shot its ray,
+    Far the glimmering tapers shed
+    Faint light on the cowled head;
+    And the censer burning swung
+    Where, before the altar, hung
+    The crimson banner, that with prayer
+    Had been consecrated there.
+    And the nuns' sweet hymn was heard the while,
+    Sung low in the dint, mysterious aisle,
+      "Take thy banner! may it wave
+      Proudly o'er the good and brave;
+      When the battle's distant wail
+      Breaks the Sabbath of our vale,
+      When the cannon's music thrills
+      To the hearts of those lone hills.
+      When the spear in conflict shakes,
+      And the strong lance shivering breaks.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+      "Take thy banner! and if e'er
+      Thou should'st press the soldier's bier
+      And the muffled drum shall beat
+      To the tread of mournful feet,
+      Then the crimson flag shall be
+      Martial cloak and shroud for thee."
+    The warrior took that banner proud,
+    And it was his martial cloak and shroud.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE BLACK REGULARS OF THE ARMY OF INVASION IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN
+WAR.
+
+     Organization of Negro Regiments in the Regular Army--First
+     Move in the War--Chickamauga and Tampa--Note.
+
+
+Altogether the colored soldiers in the Civil War took part and
+sustained casualties in two hundred and fifty-one different
+engagements and came out of the prolonged conflict with their
+character so well established that up to the present hour they have
+been able to hold an important place in the Regular Army of the United
+States. No regiment of colored troops in the service was more renowned
+at the close of the war or has secured a more advantageous position in
+the history of that period than the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts
+Regiment of Infantry. Recruited among the free colored people of the
+North, many of them coming from Ohio, it was remarkable for the
+intelligence and character of its men, and for the high purpose and
+noble bearing of its officers. Being granted but half the pay per
+month given to white soldiers, the regiment to a man, for eighteen
+months refused to receive one cent from the Government. This was a
+spectacle that the country could not longer stand. One thousand
+volunteers fighting the country's battles without any compensation
+rather than submit to a discrimination fatal to their manhood, aroused
+such a sentiment that Congress was compelled to put them on the
+pay-roll on equal footing with all other soldiers. By them the
+question of the black soldier's pay and rations was settled in the
+Army of the United States for all time. Every soldier, indeed every
+man in the army, except the chaplain, now draws the pay of his grade
+without regard to color, hair or race. By the time these lines reach
+the public eye it is to be hoped that even the chaplain will be lifted
+from his exceptional position and given the pay belonging to his rank
+as captain.
+
+(February 2, 1901, the bill became a law giving chaplains the full pay
+of their grade.)
+
+More than 185,000 blacks, all told, served in the army of the Union
+during the War of the Rebellion, and the losses from their ranks of
+men killed in battle were as heavy as from the white troops. Their
+bravery was everywhere recognized, and in the short time in which they
+were employed, several rose to commissions.
+
+Perhaps the most notable act performed by a colored American during
+the war was the capture and delivery to the United States forces of
+the rebel steamer Planter, by Robert Smalls, of Charleston. Smalls was
+employed as pilot on the Planter, a rebel transport, and was entirely
+familiar with the harbors and inlets, of which there are many, on the
+South Atlantic coast. On May 13, 1862, the Planter came to her wharf
+in Charleston, and at night all the white officers went ashore,
+leaving a colored crew of eight men on board in charge of Smalls.
+Smalls hastily got his wife and three children on board, and at 2
+o'clock on the morning of the 14th steamed out into the harbor,
+passing the Confederate forts by giving the proper signals, and when
+fairly out of reach, as daylight came, he ran up the Stars and Stripes
+and headed his course directly toward the Union fleet, into whose
+hands he soon surrendered himself and his ship. The act caused much
+favorable comment and Robert Smalls became quite a hero. His
+subsequent career has been in keeping with the high promise indicated
+by this bold dash for liberty, and his name has received additional
+lustre from gallant services performed in the war after, and in
+positions of distinguished honor and responsibility in civil life. The
+Planter, after being accepted by the United States, became a despatch
+boat, and Smalls demonstrating by skill and bravery his fitness for
+the position, was finally, as an act of imperative justice, made her
+commander.
+
+With the close of the Revolutionary War the prejudice against a
+standing army was so great that the army was reduced to scarce six
+hundred men, and the Negro as a soldier dropped out of existence. When
+the War of 1812 closed sentiment with regard to the army had made but
+little advancement, and consequently no place in the service was left
+for Negro soldiers. In the navy the Negro still lingered, doing
+service in the lower grades, and keeping up the succession from the
+black heroes of '76 and 1812. When the War of the Rebellion closed the
+country had advanced so far as to see both the necessity of a standing
+army, and the fitness of the Negro to form a part of the army; and
+from this position it has never receded, and if the lessons of the
+Cuban campaign are rightly heeded, it is not likely to recede
+therefrom. The value of the Regular Army and of the Black Regular were
+both proven to an absolute demonstration in that thin line of blue
+that compelled the surrender of Santiago.
+
+In July, 1866, Congress passed an act adding eight new regiments of
+infantry and four of calvary to the nineteen regiments of infantry and
+six of calvary of which those arms of the Regular Army were at that
+time composed, thus making the permanent establishment to consist of
+five regiments of artillery, twenty-seven of infantry, and ten of
+cavalry. Of the eight new infantry regiments to be formed, four were
+to be composed of colored men; and of the four proposed for the
+calvary arm, two were to be of colored men. The President was
+empowered by the act also to appoint a chaplain for each of the six
+regiments of colored troops. Under this law the Ninth and Tenth
+Cavalry Regiments were organized.
+
+In 1869 the infantry suffered further reduction, and the four colored
+regiments organized under the law of 1866, numbered respectively the
+38th, 39th, 40th and 41st, were consolidated into two regiments, and
+numbered the 24th and 25th--the 38th and 41st becoming the former, and
+the 39th and 40th the latter. Previous to this consolidation the
+numbers between the old 19th and the 38th, which was the lowest number
+borne by the new colored regiments, were filled in by dividing the old
+three batallion regiments in the service, and making of the second and
+third batallions of these regiments new regiments. The whole infantry
+arm, by the law of 1869, was compressed into twenty-five regiments,
+and in that condition the army remains to the present, to wit:[9] Ten
+regiments of cavalry, five of artillery and twenty-five of infantry.
+
+The number of men in a company and the number of companies in a
+regiment have varied greatly within the past few months. Just previous
+to the breaking out of the war a regiment of infantry consisted of
+eight companies of about sixty men each, and two skeletonized
+companies and the band--the whole organization carrying about five
+hundred men; now a regiment of infantry consists of twelve companies
+of 106 men each and with the non-commissioned staff numbers twelve
+hundred and seventy-four men.
+
+Since 1869, or for a period of thirty years, the colored American has
+been represented in the Regular Army by these four regiments and
+during this time these regiments have borne more than their
+proportionate share in hard frontier service, including all sorts of
+Indian campaigning and much severe guard and fatigue duty. The men
+have conducted themselves so worthily as to receive from the highest
+military authority the credit of being among our best troops. General
+Miles and General Merritt,[10] with others who were active leaders in
+the Indian wars of the West, have been unstinting in their praise of
+the valor and skill of colored soldiers. They proved themselves not
+only good individual fighters, but in some instances non-commissioned
+officers exhibited marked coolness and ability in command.[11]
+
+From 1869 to the beginning of the Hispano-American War there were in
+the Regular Army at some time, as commissioned officers, the following
+colored men, all from West Point, all serving with the cavalry, and
+none rising higher than first-lieutenant, viz: John H. Alexander, H.O.
+Flipper and Charles Young. H.O. Flipper was dismissed; Alexander died,
+and Young became major in the volunteer service, and was placed in
+command of the Ninth Battalion of Ohio Volunteers, discharging the
+duties of his position in such a manner as to command general
+satisfaction from his superior officers.[12]
+
+These colored men while cadets at West Point endured hardships
+disgraceful to their country, and when entering the army were not
+given that cordial welcome by their brother officers, becoming an
+"officer and gentleman," both to give and to receive. Of course there
+were some noble exceptions, and this class of officers seems to be
+steadily increasing, so that now it is no longer necessary, even on
+the ground of expediency, to strive to adhere to the rule of only
+white men for army officers. Of Alexander and Young it can be said
+they have acquitted themselves well, the former enjoying the
+confidence and esteem of his associates up to the time of his early
+death--an event which caused deep regret--and the latter so impressing
+the Governor of his State and the President as to secure for himself
+the responsible position which he, at the time of this writing, so
+worthily fills. Besides these line officers, five colored chaplains
+have been appointed, all of whom have served successfully, one,
+however, being dismissed by court-martial after many years of really
+meritorious service, an event to be regretted, but by no means without
+parallel.
+
+Brief sketches of the history of these four colored regiments, as well
+as of the others, have been recently made by members of them and
+published in the Journal of the Military Service Institution and
+subsequently in a large and beautiful volume edited by
+Brigadier-General Theo. F. Rodenbough and Major William L. Haskin,
+published by the Institution and designated "The Army of the United
+States," a most valuable book of reference. From the sketches
+contained therein the following summary is given.
+
+The Twenty-fourth Infantry was organized, as we have seen, from the
+38th and 41st Regiments, these two regiments being at the time
+distributed in New Mexico, Louisiana and Texas, and the regiment
+remained in Texas from the time of its organization in 1869 until
+1880. Its first Lieutenant-Colonel was William R. Shafter. It was
+from this regiment and the Tenth Cavalry that the escort of Paymaster
+Wham was selected which made so brave a stand against a band of
+robbers that attacked the paymaster that several of them were given
+medals for distinguished gallantry, and others certificates of merit.
+The Twenty-fifth Infantry was organized in New Orleans out of the
+39th, that was brought from North Carolina for that purpose, and the
+40th, that was then in Louisiana. It was organized during the month of
+April, 1869, and early in 1870 moved to Texas, where it remained ten
+years. In 1880 it moved to the Department of Dakota and remained in
+the Northwest until it took the road for the Cuban war.
+
+The Ninth Cavalry was organized in New Orleans during the winter of
+1866-67. Its first Colonel was Edward Hatch and its first
+Lieutenant-Colonel Wesley Merritt. From 1867 to 1890 it was in almost
+constant Indian warfare, distinguishing itself by daring and
+hardihood. From 1890 to the opening of the Cuban war it remained in
+Utah and Nebraska, engaging in but one important campaign, that
+against hostile Sioux during the winter of 1890-91, in which, says the
+historian: "The regiment was the first in the field, in November, and
+the last to leave, late in the following March, after spending the
+winter, the latter part of which was terrible in its severity, under
+canvas."
+
+The Tenth Calvary was organized under the same law as was the Ninth,
+and at the same time. Its place of rendezvous was Fort Leavenworth,
+Kansas, and its first Colonel, Benjamin H. Grierson. This regiment was
+the backbone of the Geronimo campaign force, and it finally succeeded
+in the capture of that wily warrior. The regiment remained in the
+Southwest until 1893, when it moved to Montana, and remained there
+until ordered to Chickamauga for the war.
+
+These four regiments were finely officered, well drilled and well
+experienced in camp and field, particularly the cavalry regiments, and
+it was of them that General Merritt said: "I have always found them
+brave in battle." With such training and experience they were well
+fitted to take their place in that selected host of fighting men which
+afterwards became the Fifth Army Corps, placed under command of
+Major-General William R. Shafter, the first Lieutenant-Colonel of the
+Twenty-fourth Infantry.
+
+When the news of the blowing up of our great battleship Maine, in the
+harbor of Havana, with the almost total loss of her crew, flashed over
+the country, carrying sadness to hundreds of homes, and arousing
+feelings of deepest indignation whether justly or unjustly, it was
+easy to predict that we should soon be involved in war with Spain. The
+Cuban question, already chronic, had by speeches of Senators Thurston
+and Proctor been brought to such a stage of aggravation that it needed
+only an incident to set the war element in motion. That incident was
+furnished by the destruction of the Maine. Thenceforth there was no
+power in the land sufficient to curb the rapidly swelling tide of
+popular hate, which manifested itself in the un-Christian but truly
+significant mottoes: "Remember the Maine," "Avenge the Maine," and "To
+hell with Spain." These were the outbreathings of popular fury, and
+they represented a spirit quite like that of the mob, which was not to
+be yielded to implicitly, but which could not be directly opposed.
+
+The President did all in his power to stay this element of our
+population and to lead the country to a more befitting attitude. He
+and his advisers argued that Spain was to be resisted, and fought if
+necessary, not on account of the Maine, not in the spirit of revenge,
+but in the interest of humanity, and upon principles sanctioned even
+by our holy religion. On behalf of the starving reconcentrados, and in
+aid of the noble Cuban patriot, we might justly arm and equip
+ourselves for the purpose of driving Spanish rule from the Western
+Hemisphere.
+
+This view appealed to all lovers of freedom, to all true patriots, and
+to the Christian and philanthropist. It also afforded a superb
+opportunity for the old leaders in the South, who were not entirely
+relieved from the taint of secession, to come out and reconsecrate
+themselves to the country and her flag. Hence, Southern statesmen, who
+were utterly opposed to Negroes or colored men having any share in
+ruling at home, became very enthusiastic over the aspirations of the
+colored Cuban patriots and soldiers. The supporters, followers, and in
+a sense, devotees of Maceo and Gomez, were worthy of our aid. The same
+men, actuated by the same principles, in the Carolinas, in Louisiana
+or in Mississippi, would have been pronounced by the same authorities
+worthy of death.
+
+The nation was, however, led into war simply to liberate Cuba from the
+iniquitous and cruel yoke of Spain, and to save thousands of
+impoverished Cubans from death by starvation. Great care was taken not
+to recognize the Cuban government in any form, and it seemed to be
+understood that we were to do the fighting both with our navy and our
+army, the Cubans being invited to co-operate with us, rather than that
+we should co-operate with them. We were to be the liberators and
+saviors of a people crushed to the very gates of death. Such was the
+platform upon which our nation stood before the world when the first
+orders went forth for the mobilization of its forces for war. It was a
+position worthy our history and character and gave to our national
+flag a prouder meaning than ever. Its character as the emblem of
+freedom shone out with awe-inspiring brilliancy amid the concourse of
+nations.
+
+While there was such a clamor for war in the newspapers and in the
+public speeches of statesmen, both in and out of Congress, it is
+remarkable that the utmost serenity prevailed in the army. Officers
+and men were ready to fight if the stern necessity came, but they were
+not so eager for the death-game as were the numerous editors' whose
+papers were getting out extras every half-hour. It was argued by the
+officers of rank that the Maine incident added nothing whatever to the
+Cuban question; that it did not involve the Spanish Government; that
+the whole subject might well be left to arbitration, and full respect
+should be given to Spain's disclaimer. It was also held that to rush
+into a war in order to prevent a few people from starving, might not
+relieve them, and at the same time would certainly cost the lives of
+many innocent men. Spain was revising her policy, and the benevolence
+of the United States would soon bring bread to the door of every needy
+Cuban. Such remarks and arguments as these were used by men who had
+fought through one war and were ready to fight, through another if
+they must; but who were willing to go to any reasonable length to
+prevent it; and yet the men who used such arguments beforehand and
+manifested such a shrinking from carnage, are among those to whom the
+short Spanish War brought distinction and promotion. To their honor be
+it said that the war which gave them fresh laurels was in no sense
+brought about through their instigation.
+
+As chaplain of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, stationed with the
+headquarters of the regiment at Fort Missoula, where we had been for
+ten years, the call for the war met me in the midst of my preparations
+for Easter service. One young man, then Private Thomas C. Butler, who
+was practicing a difficult solo for the occasion, before the year
+closed became a Second Lieutenant, having distinguished himself in
+battle; the janitor, who cared for my singing books, and who was my
+chief school teacher, Private French Payne, always polite and
+everywhere efficient, met his death from a Spanish bullet while on the
+reserve before bloody El Caney.
+
+It was on a bright day during the latter part of March and near the
+close of the day as I was looking out of the front window of my
+quarters that I saw the trumpeter of the guard come out of the
+Adjutant's office with a dispatch in his hand and start on a brisk run
+toward the quarters of the Commanding Officer. I immediately divined
+what was in the wind, but kept quiet. In a few minutes "officers'
+call" was sounded, and all the officers of the post hastened to the
+administration building to learn the news.
+
+When all were assembled the Commanding Officer desired to know of each
+company officer how much time he would need to have his company ready
+to move from the post to go to a permanent station elsewhere, and from
+all officers how much time they would require to have their families
+ready to quit the station. The answers generally were that all could
+be ready within a week. It was finally agreed, however, to ask for ten
+days.
+
+Immediately the work of preparation began, although none knew where
+the regiment was to go. At this time the order, so far as it was
+understood at the garrison, was, that two companies were to go to Key
+West, Florida, and the other companies of the regiment to Dry
+Tortugas. One officer, Lieutenant V.A. Caldell, early saw through the
+haze and said: "It means that we will all eventually land in Cuba."
+While we were packing, rumors flew through the garrison, as indeed
+through the country, thick and fast, and our destination was changed
+three or four times a day. One hour we would be going to Key West, the
+next to St. Augustine, the next to Tortugas. In this confusion I asked
+an old frontier officer where he thought we would really go.
+Regarding himself as an indicator and always capable of seeing the
+amusing side of a subject, he replied: "I p'int toward Texas." Such
+was the state of uncertainty as to destination, and yet all the time
+the greatest activity prevailed in making ready for departure. Finally
+definite orders came that we were to store our furniture in the large
+gymnasium hall at the post and prepare to go in camp at Chickamauga
+Park, Georgia.
+
+Our regiment was at the time stationed as follows: Headquarters, four
+companies and the band at Fort Missoula; two companies at Fort
+Harrison, near Helena, and two companies at Fort Assinniboine, all in
+Montana. The arrangements contemplated moving the regiment in two
+sections, one composed of the Missoula troops to go over the Northern
+Pacific Railroad, the other of the Fort Harrison and Fort Assinniboine
+troops to go over the Great Northern Railroad, all to arrive in St.
+Paul about the same time.
+
+On the 10th of April, Easter Sunday, the battalion at Fort Missoula
+marched out of post quite early in the morning, and at Bitter Root
+Station took the cars for their long journey. Officers and men were
+all furnished sleeping accommodations on the train. Arriving in the
+city of Missoula, for the gratification of the citizens and perhaps to
+avoid strain on the bridge crossing the Missoula River, the men were
+disembarked from the train and marched through the principal streets
+to the depot, the citizens generally turning out to see them off. Many
+were the compliments paid officers and men by the good people of
+Missoula, none perhaps more pleasing than that furnished by a written
+testimonial to the regret experienced at the departure of the
+regiment, signed by all the ministers of the city.
+
+As the Twenty-fifth was the first regiment to move in the preparation
+for war, its progress from Montana to Chickamauga was a marked event,
+attracting the attention of both the daily and illustrated press. All
+along the route they were greeted with enthusiastic crowds, who fully
+believed the war with Spain had begun. In St. Paul, in Chicago, in
+Terre Haute, in Nashville, and in Chattanooga the crowds assembled to
+greet the black regulars who were first to bear forward the Starry
+Banner of Union and Freedom against a foreign foe. What could be more
+significant, or more fitting, than that these black soldiers, drilled
+up to the highest standard of modern warfare, cool, brave and
+confident, themselves a proof of American liberty, should be called
+first to the front in a war against oppression? Their martial tread
+and fearless bearing proclaimed what the better genius of our great
+government meant for all men dwelling beneath the protection of its
+honored flag.
+
+As the Twenty-fifth Infantry was the first regiment to leave its
+station, so six companies of it were first to go into camp on the
+historic grounds of Chickamauga. Two companies were separated from the
+regiment at Chattanooga and forwarded to Key West where they took
+station under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel A.S. Daggett. The
+remaining six companies, under command of Colonel A.S. Burt, were
+conducted by General Boynton to a choice spot on the grounds, where
+they pitched camp, their tents being the first erected in that
+mobilization of troops which preceded the Cuban invasion, and theirs
+being really the first camp of the war.
+
+Soon came the Ninth Cavalry, the Tenth Cavalry and the Twenty-fourth
+Infantry. While these were assembling there arrived on the ground also
+many white regiments, cavalry, artillery and infantry, and it was
+pleasing to see the fraternity that prevailed among black and white
+regulars. This was especially noticeable between the Twenty-fifth and
+Twelfth. In brigading the regiments no attention whatever was paid to
+the race or color of the men. The black infantry regiments were placed
+in two brigades, and the black cavalry likewise, and they can be
+followed through the fortunes of the war in the official records by
+their regimental numbers. During their stay in Chickamauga, and at Key
+West and Tampa, the Southern newspapers indulged in considerable
+malicious abuse of colored soldiers, and some people of this section
+made complaints of their conduct, but the previous good character of
+the regiments and the violent tone of the accusations, taken together
+with the well-known prejudices of the Southern people, prevented their
+complaints from having very great weight. The black soldiers held
+their place in the army chosen for the invasion of Cuba, and for that
+purpose were soon ordered to assemble in Tampa.
+
+From the 10th of April, when the war movement began with the march of
+the Twenty-fifth Infantry out of its Montana stations, until June
+14th, when the Army of Invasion cleared Tampa for Cuba--not quite two
+months--the whole energy of the War Department had been employed in
+preparing the army for the work before it. The beginning of the war is
+officially given as April 21st, from which time onward it was declared
+a state of war existed between Spain and the United States, but
+warlike movements on our side were begun fully ten days earlier, and
+begun with a grim definiteness that presaged much more than a practice
+march or spring manoeuver.
+
+After arriving at Chickamauga all heavy baggage was shipped away for
+storage, and all officers and men were required to reduce their field
+equipage to the minimum; the object being to have the least possible
+amount of luggage, in order that the greatest possible amount of
+fighting material might be carried. Even with all this preparation
+going on some officers were indulging the hope that the troops might
+remain in camps, perfecting themselves in drill, until September, or
+October, before they should be called upon to embark for Cuba. This,
+however, was not to be, and it is perhaps well that it was not, as the
+suffering and mortality in the home camps were almost equal to that
+endured by the troops in Cuba. The suffering at home, also, seemed
+more disheartening, because it appeared to be useless, and could not
+be charged to any important changes in conditions or climate. It was
+perhaps in the interest of humanity that this war, waged for
+humanity's sake, should have been pushed forward from its first step
+to its last, with the greatest possible dispatch, and that just enough
+men on our side were sent to the front, and no more. It is still a
+good saying that all is well that ends well.
+
+The Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, the place
+where our troops assembled on their march to Cuba, beautiful by
+nature, especially in the full season of spring when the black
+soldiers arrived there, and adorned also by art, has, next to
+Gettysburg, the most prominent place among the historic battle-fields
+of the Civil War. As a park it was established by an act of Congress
+approved August 19, 1890, and contains seven thousand acres of rolling
+land, partly cleared and partly covered with oak and pine timber.
+Beautiful broad roads wind their way to all parts of the ground, along
+which are placed large tablets recording the events of those dreadful
+days in the autumn of 1863, when Americans faced Americans in bloody,
+determined strife. Monuments, judiciously placed, speak with a mute
+eloquence to the passer-by and tell of the valor displayed by some
+regiment or battery, or point to the spot where some lofty hero gave
+up his life. The whole park is a monument, however, and its definite
+purpose is to preserve and suitably mark "for historical and
+professional military study the fields of some of the most remarkable
+manoeuvres and most brilliant fighting in the War of the Rebellion."
+The battles commemorated by this great park are those of Chickamauga,
+fought on September 19-20, and the battles around Chattanooga,
+November 23-25, 1863. The battle of Chickamauga was fought by the Army
+of the Cumberland, commanded by Major-General W.S. Rosecrans, on the
+Union side, and the Army of Tennessee, commanded by General Braxton
+Bragg, on the side of the Confederates. The total effective strength
+of the Union forces in this battle was little less than 60,000 men,
+that of the Confederates about 70,000. The total Union loss was 16,179
+men, a number about equal to the army led by Shatter against Santiago.
+Of the number reported as lost, 1,656 were killed, or as many as were
+lost in killed, wounded and missing in the Cuban campaign. The
+Confederate losses were 17,804, 2,389 being killed, making on both
+sides a total killed of 4,045, equivalent to the entire voting
+population of a city of over twenty thousand inhabitants. General
+Grant, who commanded the Union forces in the battles around
+Chattanooga, thus sums up the results: "In this battle the Union army
+numbered in round figures about 60,000 men; we lost 752 killed, 4,713
+wounded and 350 captured or missing. The rebel loss was much greater
+in the aggregate, as we captured and sent North to be rationed there
+over 6,100 prisoners. Forty pieces of artillery, over seven thousand
+stand of small arms, many caissons, artillery wagons and baggage
+wagons fell into our hands. The probabilities are that our loss in
+killed was the heavier as we were the attacking party. The enemy
+reported his loss in killed at 361, but as he reported his missing at
+4,146, while we held over 6,000 of them as prisoners, and there must
+have been hundreds, if not thousands, who deserted, but little
+reliance can be placed upon this report."
+
+In the battle of Chickamauga, when "four-fifths of the Union Army had
+crumbled into wild confusion," and Rosecrans was intent only on saving
+the fragments, General Thomas, who had commanded the Federal left
+during the two days' conflict, and had borne the brunt of the fight,
+still held his position. To him General James A. Garfield reported.
+General Gordon Granger, without orders, brought up the reserves, and
+Thomas, replacing his lines, held the ground until nightfall, when he
+was joined by Sheridan. Bragg won and held the field, but Thomas
+effectually blocked his way to Chattanooga, securing to himself
+immediately the title of the "Rock of Chickamauga." His wonderful
+resolution stayed the tide of a victory dearly bought and actually
+won, and prevented the victors from grasping the object for which they
+had fought. In honor of this stubborn valor, and in recognition of
+this high expression of American tenacity, the camp established in
+Chickamauga Park by the assembling army was called Camp George H.
+Thomas.
+
+The stay of the colored regulars at Camp George H. Thomas was short,
+but it was long enough for certain newspapers of Chattanooga to give
+expression to their dislike to negro troops in general and to those in
+their proximity especially. The Washington Post, also, ever faithful
+to its unsavory trust, lent its influence to this work of defamation.
+The leading papers, however, both of Chattanooga and the South
+generally, spoke out in rather conciliatory and patronizing tones, and
+"sought to restrain the people of their section from compromising
+their brilliant display of patriotism by contemptuous flings at the
+nation's true and tried soldiers.
+
+The 24th Infantry and the 9th Cavalry soon left for Tampa, Florida,
+whither they were followed by the 10th Cavalry and the 25th Infantry,
+thus bringing the entire colored element of the army together to
+prepare for embarkation. The work done at Tampa is thus described
+officially by Lieutenant-Colonel Daggett in general orders addressed
+to the 25th Infantry, which he at that time commanded. On August 11th,
+with headquarters near Santiago, after the great battles had been
+fought and won, he thus reviewed the work of the regiment: "Gathered
+from three different stations, many of you strangers to each other,
+you assembled as a regiment for the first time in more than
+twenty-eight years, on May 7, 1898, at Tampa, Florida. There you
+endeavored to solidify and prepare yourselves, as far as the
+oppressive weather would permit, for the work that appeared to be
+before you." What is here said of the 25th might have been said with
+equal propriety of all the regular troops assembled at Tampa.
+
+In the meantime events were ripening with great rapidity. The historic
+"first gun" had been fired, and the United States made the first naval
+capture of the war on April 22, the coast trader Buena Ventura having
+surrendered to the American gunboat Nashville. On the same day the
+blockade of Cuban ports was declared and on the day following a call
+was issued for 125,000 volunteers. On May 20th the news that a Spanish
+fleet under command of Admiral Cervera had arrived at Santiago was
+officially confirmed, and a speedy movement to Cuba was determined
+upon.
+
+Almost the entire Regular Army with several volunteer regiments were
+organized into an Army of Invasion and placed under the command of
+Major-General W.R. Shafter with orders to prepare immediately for
+embarkation, and on the 7th and 10th of June this army went on board
+the transports. For seven days the troops lay cooped up on the vessels
+awaiting orders to sail, a rumor having gained circulation that
+certain Spanish gunboats were hovering around in Cuban waters awaiting
+to swoop down upon the crowded transports. While the Army of Invasion
+was sweltering in the ships lying at anchor off Port Tampa, a small
+body of American marines made a landing at Guantanamo, and on June
+12th fought the first battle between Americans and Spaniards on Cuban
+soil. In this first battle four Americans were killed. The next day,
+June 13th, General Shafter's army containing the four colored
+regiments, excepting those left behind to guard property, sailed for
+Cuba.[13]
+
+The whole number of men and officers in the expedition, including
+those that came on transports from Mobile, amounted to about seventeen
+thousand men, loaded on twenty-seven transports. The colored regiments
+were assigned to brigades as follows: The Ninth Cavalry was joined
+with the Third and Sixth Cavalry and placed under command of Colonel
+Carrol; the Tenth Cavalry was joined with the Rough Riders and First
+Regular Cavalry and fell under the command of General Young; the
+Twenty-fourth Infantry was joined with the Ninth and Thirteenth
+Infantry and the brigade placed under command of Colonel Worth and
+assigned to the division commanded by General Kent, who, until his
+promotion as Brigadier-General of Volunteers, had been Colonel of the
+Twenty-fourth; the Twenty-fifth Infantry was joined with the First and
+Fourth Infantry and the brigade placed under command of Colonel Evans
+Miles, who had formerly been Major of the Twenty-fifth. All of the
+colored regiments were thus happily placed so that they should be in
+pleasant soldierly competition with the very best troops the country
+ever put in the field, and this arrangement at the start proves how
+strongly the black regular had entrenched himself in the confidence of
+our great commanders.
+
+Thus sailed from Port Tampa the major part of our little army of
+trained and seasoned soldiers, representative of the skill and daring
+of the nation.[14] In physique, almost every man was an athlete, and
+while but few had seen actual war beyond an occasional skirmish with
+Indians, all excepting the few volunteers, had passed through a long
+process of training in the various details of marching, camping and
+fighting in their annual exercises in minor tactics. For the first
+time in history the nation is going abroad, by its army, to occupy the
+territory of a foreign foe, in a contest with a trans-Atlantic power.
+The unsuccessful invasions of Canada during the Revolutionary War and
+the War of 1812 can hardly be brought in comparison with this movement
+over sea. The departure of Decatur with his nine ships of war to the
+Barbary States had in view only the establishment of proper civil
+relations between those petty, half-civilized countries and the United
+States. The sailing of General Shafter's army was only one movement in
+a comprehensive war against the Kingdom of Spain. More than a month
+earlier Commodore Dewey, acting under orders, had destroyed a fleet of
+eleven war ships in the Philippines. The purpose of the war was to
+relieve the Cubans from an inhumane warfare with their mother country,
+and to restore to that unhappy island a stable government in harmony
+with the ideas of liberty and justice.
+
+Up to the breaking out of the Spanish War the American policy with
+respect to Europe had been one of isolation. Some efforts had been
+made to consolidate the sentiment of the Western world, but it had
+never been successful. The fraternity of the American Republics and
+the attempted construction of a Pan-American policy had been thus far
+unfulfilled dreams. Canada was much nearer to the United States,
+geographically and socially, than even Mexico, although the latter is
+a republic. England, in Europe, was nearer than Brazil. The day came
+in 1898, when the United States could no longer remain in political
+seclusion nor bury herself in an impossible federation. Washington's
+advice against becoming involved in European affairs, as well as the
+direct corrollary of the Monroe Doctrine, were to be laid aside and
+the United States was to speak out to the world. The business of a
+European nation had become our business; in the face of all the world
+we resolved to invade her territory in the interest of humanity; to
+face about upon our own traditions and dare the opinions and arms of
+the trans-Atlantic world by openly launching upon the new policy of
+armed intervention in another's quarrel.
+
+While the troops were mobilizing at Tampa preparatory to embarking for
+Cuba the question came up as to why there were no colored men in the
+artillery arm of the service, and the answer given by a Regular Army
+officer was, that the Negro had not brains enough for the management
+of heavy guns. It was a trifling assertion, of course, but at this
+period of the Negro's history it must not be allowed to pass
+unnoticed. We know that white men of all races and nationalities can
+serve big guns, and if the Negro cannot, it must be because of some
+marked difference between him and them. The officer said it was a
+difference in "brains," i.e., a mental difference. Just how the
+problem of aiming and firing a big gun differs from that of aiming and
+firing small arms is not so easily explained. In both, the questions
+of velocity, gravitation, wind and resistance are to be considered and
+these are largely settled by mechanism, the adjustment of which is
+readily learned; hence the assumption that a Negro cannot learn it is
+purely gratuitous. Several of the best rifle shots known on this
+continent are Negroes; and it was a Negro who summerized the whole
+philosophy of rifle shooting in the statement that it all consists in
+knowing _where_ to aim, and _how_ to pull--in knowing just what value
+to assign to gravitation, drift of the bullet and force of the wind,
+and then in being able to pull the trigger of the piece without
+disturbing the aim thus judiciously determined. This includes all
+there is in the final science and art of firing a rifle. If the Negro
+can thus master the revolver, the carbine and the rifle, why may he
+not master the field piece or siege gun?
+
+But an ounce of fact in such things is worth more than many volumes of
+idle speculation, and it is remarkable that facts so recent, so
+numerous, and so near at hand, should escape the notice of those who
+question the Negro's ability to serve the artillery organizations.
+Negro artillery, both light and heavy, fought in fifteen battles in
+the Civil War with average effectiveness; and some of those who fought
+against them must either admit the value of the Negro artilleryman or
+acknowledge their own inefficiency. General Fitz-Hugh Lee failed to
+capture a Negro battery after making most vigorous attempts to that
+end. This attempt to raise a doubt as to the Negro's ability to serve
+in the artillery arm is akin to, and less excusable, than that other
+groundless assertion, that Negro officers cannot command troops, an
+assertion which in this country amounts to saying that the United
+States cannot command its army. Both of these assertions have been
+emphatically answered in fact, the former as shown above, and the
+latter as will be shown later in this volume. These assertions are
+only temporary covers, behind which discomfitted and retreating
+prejudice is able to make a brief stand, while the black hero of five
+hundred battle-fields, marches proudly by, disdaining to lower his gun
+to fire a shot on a foe so unworthy. When the Second Massachusetts
+Volunteers sent up their hearty cheers of welcome to the gallant old
+Twenty-fifth, as that solid column fresh from El Caney swung past its
+camp, I remarked to Sergeant Harris, of the Twenty-fifth: "Those men
+think you are soldiers." "They know we are soldiers," was his reply.
+When the people of this country, like the members of that
+Massachusetts regiment, come to know that its black men in uniform are
+soldiers, plain soldiers, with the same interests and feelings as
+other soldiers, of as much value to the government and entitled from
+it to the same attention and rewards, then a great step toward the
+solution of the prodigious problem now confronting us will have been
+taken.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Note.--"I had often heard that the physique of the men of
+     our regular army was very remarkable, but the first time I
+     saw any large body of them, which was at Tampa, they
+     surpassed my highest expectations. It is not, however, to be
+     wondered at that, for every recruit who is accepted, on the
+     average thirty-four are rejected, and that, of course, the
+     men who present themselves to the recruiting officer already
+     represent a physical 'elite'; but it was very pleasant to
+     see and be assured, as I was at Tampa, by the evidences of
+     my own eyes and the tape measure, that there is not a guard
+     regiment of either the Russian, German or English army, of
+     whose remarkable physique we have heard so much, that can
+     compare physically, not with the best of our men, but simply
+     with the average of the men of our regular army."--Bonsal.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[9] The army has been reorganized since. See Register.
+
+[10] "My experience in this direction since the war is beyond that of
+any officer of my rank in the army. For ten years I had the honor of
+being lieutenant-colonel of the Ninth Cavalry, and during most of that
+service I commanded garrisons composed in part of the Ninth Cavalry
+and other organizations of cavalry and infantry. I have always found
+the colored race represented in the army obedient, intelligent and
+zealous in the discharge of duty, brave in battle, easily disciplined,
+and most efficient in the care of their horses, arms and equipments.
+The non-commissioned officers have habitually shown the qualities for
+control in their position which marked them as faithful and sensible
+in the discharge of their duties. I take pleasure in bearing witness
+as above in the interest of the race you represent." WESLEY MERRITT.
+
+[11] See chapter on Colored Officers.
+
+[12] Young is now captain in the Ninth Cavalry.--T.G.S.
+
+[13] The colored regulars were embarked on the following named ships:
+The 9th Cavalry on the Miami, in company with the 6th Infantry; the
+10th Cavalry on the Leona, in company with the 1st Cavalry; the 24th
+Infantry on the City of Washington, in company with one battalion of
+the 21st Infantry; the 25th infantry on board the Concho, in company
+with the 4th Infantry.
+
+[14] See Note, at the close of this chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+BRIEF SKETCH OF SPANISH HISTORY.
+
+
+The following brief sketch of Spain, its era of greatness, the causes
+leading thereto, and the reasons for its rapid decline, will be of
+interest to the reader at this point in the narrative, as it will
+bring into view the other side of the impending conflict:
+
+Spain, the first in rank among the second-rate powers of Europe, by
+reason of her possessions in the West Indies, especially Cuba, may be
+regarded as quite a near neighbor, and because of her connection with
+the discovery and settlement of the continent, as well as the
+commanding part she at one time played in the world's politics, her
+history cannot but awaken within the breasts of Americans a most
+lively interest.
+
+As a geographical and political fact, Spain dates from the earliest
+times, and the Spanish people gather within themselves the blood and
+the traditions of the three great continents of the Old World--Europe,
+Asia and Africa--united to produce the mighty Spaniard of the 15th and
+16th centuries. It would be an interesting subject for the
+anthropologist to trace the construction of that people who are so
+often spoken of as possessing the pure blood of Castile, and as the
+facts should be brought to view, another proud fiction would dissipate
+in thin air, as we should see the Spaniard arising to take his place
+among the most mixed of mankind.
+
+The Spain that we are considering now is the Spain that gradually
+emerged from a chaos of conflicting elements into the unity of a
+Christian nation. The dismal war between creeds gave way to the
+greater conflict between religions, when Cross and Crescent contended
+for supremacy, and this too had passed. The four stalwart Christian
+provinces of Leon, Castile, Aragon and Navarre had become the four
+pillars of support to a national throne and Ferdinand and Isabella
+were reigning. Spain has now apparently passed the narrows and is
+crossing the bar with prow set toward the open sea. She ends her war
+with the Moors at the same time that England ends her wars of the
+Roses, and the battle of Bosworth's field may be classed with the
+capitulation of Granada. Both nations confront a future of about equal
+promise and may be rated as on equal footing, as this new era of the
+world opens to view.
+
+What was this new era? Printing had been invented, commerce had
+arisen, gunpowder had come into use, the feudal system was passing,
+royal authority had become paramount, and Spain was giving to the
+world its first lessons in what was early stigmatized as the "knavish
+calling of diplomacy."
+
+Now began the halcyon days of Spain, and what a breed of men she
+produced! Read the story of their conquests in Mexico and Peru, as
+told with so much skill and taste by our own Prescott; or read of the
+grandeur of her national character, and the wonderful valor of her
+troops, and the almost marvelous skill of her Alexander of Parma, and
+her Spinola, as described by our great Motley, and you will see
+something of the moral and national glory of that Spain which under
+Charles V and Philip II awed the world into respectful silence.
+
+Who but men of iron, under a commander of steel, could have conducted
+to a successful issue the awful siege of Antwerp, and by a discipline
+more dreadful than death, kept for so many years, armed control of the
+country of the brave Netherlanders? A Farnese was there, who could
+support and command an army, carry Philip and his puerile
+idiosyncrasies upon his back and meet the fury of an outraged people
+who were fighting on their own soil for all that man holds dear. Never
+was wretched cause so ably led, never were such splendid talents so
+unworthily employed.
+
+Alexander of Parma, Cortez, the Pizarros, were representatives of that
+form of human character that Spain especially developed. Skill and
+daring were brought out in dazzling splendor, and success followed
+their movements. Take a brief survey of the Empire under Charles V:
+Himself Emperor of Germany; his son married to the Queen of England;
+Turkey repulsed; France humbled, and all Europe practically within his
+grasp. And what was Spain outside of Europe? In America she possessed
+territory covering sixty degrees of latitude, owning Mexico, Central
+America, Venezuela, New Granada, Peru and Chili, with vast parts of
+North America, and the islands of Cuba, Jamaica and St. Domingo. In
+Africa and Asia she had large possessions--in a word, the energies of
+the world were at her feet. The silver and gold of America, the
+manufactures and commerce of the Netherlands, combined to make her the
+richest of nations.
+
+The limits of the present purpose do not permit an exhaustive
+presentation of her material strength in detail, nor are the means at
+hand for making such an exhibit. We must be content with a general
+picture, quoted directly from Motley. He says:
+
+"Look at the broad magnificent Spanish Peninsula, stretching across
+eight degrees of latitude and ten of longtitude, commanding the
+Atlantic and the Mediterranean, with a genial climate, warmed in
+winter by the vast furnace of Africa, and protected from the scorching
+heats of summer by shady mountain and forest, and temperate breezes
+from either ocean. A generous southern territory, flowing with oil and
+wine, and all the richest gifts of a bountiful nature--splendid
+cities--the new and daily expanding Madrid, rich in the trophies of
+the most artistic period of the modern world; Cadiz, as populous at
+that day as London, seated by the straits where the ancient and modern
+systems of traffic were blending like the mingling of the two oceans;
+Granada, the ancient, wealthy seat of the fallen Moors; Toledo,
+Valladolid, and Lisbon, chief city of the recently conquered kingdom
+of Portugal, counting with its suburbs a larger population than any
+city excepting Paris, in Europe, the mother of distant colonies, and
+the capital of the rapidly-developing traffic with both the
+Indies--these were some of the treasures of Spain herself. But she
+possessed Sicily also, the better portion of Italy, and important
+dependencies in Africa, while the famous maritime discoveries of the
+age had all enured to her aggrandizement. The world seemed suddenly to
+have expanded its wings from East to West, only to bear the fortunate
+Spanish Empire to the most dizzy heights of wealth and power. The most
+accomplished generals, the most disciplined and daring infantry the
+world has ever known, the best equipped and most extensive navy, royal
+and mercantile, of the age, were at the absolute command of the
+sovereign. Such was Spain."
+
+Such is not Spain to-day. A quite recent writer, speaking of Spain
+before the war, said, that although Spain in extent holds the sixth
+place in the European states, "it really now subsists merely by the
+sufferance of stronger nations." Thus has that nation, which three
+centuries ago dominated the world, lost both its position and its
+energy.
+
+Without attempting to sketch chronologically, either this rise or this
+decline, let us rather direct our efforts to an inquiry into the
+causes of both the one and the other.
+
+In attempting to explain the greatness of Spain we must give first
+place to the vigor of the Spanish race. The great Spaniard was a
+mighty compound. He had the blood of Rome mingled with the awful
+torrent that gave birth to the soulless Goths and Vandals. In him also
+flowed the hot blood of the Moors. He was both sturdy and fiery; he
+had the fervor of the South with the tenacity of the North; the pride
+of the Roman with the passion of the Moor. The Spanish race was
+emphatically a rich race.
+
+And then we must remember that this race had been forged in war.
+Century after century, from the earliest times, they had lived with
+their arms in their hands. First came the long war between the Arian
+Vandals, and the Trinitarian natives; then the seven-hundred-year war
+with the followers of Mahomed. The whole mission of life to them was
+to fight.
+
+Naturally there was developed in the people at large the most complete
+unification and subjection. Individualism gave place almost entirely
+to the common weal, and the spectacle was presented of a nation with
+no political questions. Maccaulay maintains that human nature is such
+that aggregations of men will always show the two principles of
+radicalism and conservatism, and that two parties will exist in
+consequence, one composed of those who are ever looking to a brighter
+future, the other of those who are ever seeking to restore a
+delightful past; but no such phenomena appear in the ascending period
+of Spain's history. The whole nation moved as an organized army,
+steadily forward, until its zenith was reached. This solidity was a
+marked element of its strength.
+
+Mr. Buckle recognizes this, and accounts for the harmonious movements
+of the nation by the influence of two leading principles, which he is
+pleased to call superstition and loyalty. The Arab invasion had
+pressed upon the Christians with such force that it was only by the
+strictest discipline that the latter had managed to survive. To secure
+such discipline, and at the same time supply the people with the
+steady enthusiasm necessary to support a war from century to century,
+all the terrors and all the glories that could be derived from
+religion were employed. The church and the state, the prince and the
+priest, became as one, and loyalty and religion, devotion to the
+standard and to the cross, were but different names for the same
+principles and actions. Hence Spain emerged to greatness without the
+least dream of liberty of either person, conscience or thought. Her
+rallying cry was: For the Prince and the Church; not, For God and
+Liberty. She went up to greatness the most loyal and the most
+religious of nations; but Liberty, Justice and Truth were not upon her
+banners.
+
+Look over the territory settled and conquered by her, and what do we
+see? Columbus, sailing under Spain, names the first land he discovers
+San Salvador; the first settlement made in this country is St.
+Augustine; the second, Sante Fe. Look down over the southern half of
+our continent and such names as Espirito Santo, Corpus Christi, San
+Diego, San Juan, San Jose, San Domingo attest the religious zeal of
+the conquerors. They were missionaries of the Cross, robbing the
+people of their gold and paying them off with religion.
+
+Steadfast in the faith and sturdy in her loyalty, Spain resisted all
+innovations with respect to her religious beliefs, and all
+insurrections against her government. Her Alva and her Torquemada but
+illustrated how strong was her conservatism, while her Isabella and
+her Philip II show how grand and comprehensive and how persistent was
+her aggressiveness, under the idea of spreading and upholding the true
+faith. She not only meant to hold all she had of wealth and power, but
+she aspired to universal dominion; already chief, she desired to be
+sole, and this in the interest and name of the Holy Church.
+
+The Reformation did not disturb Spain; it was crushed out within
+twenty years. The spirit of liberty that had been growing in England
+since Bosworth's Field, and that was manifesting itself in Germany and
+the Netherlands, and that had begun to quiver even in France, did not
+dare stir itself in Spain. Spain was united, or rather, was solidity
+itself, and this solidity was both its strength and its death. England
+was not so united, and England went steadily onward and upward; but
+Spain's unity destroyed her, because it practically destroyed
+individualism and presented the strange paradox of a strong nation of
+weak men.
+
+As a machine Spain in the sixteenth century was a marvel of power; as
+an aggregation of thinking men, it was even then contemptible.
+Ferdinand, Charles V and Philip II were able and illustrious rulers,
+and they appeared at a time when their several characters could tell
+on the immediate fortunes of Spain. They were warriors, and the nation
+was entirely warlike. During this period the Spaniard overran the
+earth, not that he might till the soil, but that he might rob the man
+who did. With one hand he was raking in the gold and silver of Mexico
+and Peru; with the other confiscating the profits of the trade and
+manufactures of the Low Countries--and all in the name of the Great
+God and Saints!
+
+How was Spain overthrown? The answer is a short one. Spain, under
+Philip II staked her all upon a religious war against the awakening
+age. She met the Reformation within her own borders and extinguished
+it; but thought had broken loose from its chains and was abroad in the
+earth. England had turned Protestant, and Elizabeth was on the throne;
+Denmark, Norway and Sweden, indeed all countries except Spain and
+Italy had heard the echoes from Luther's trumpet blast. Italy
+furnished the religion, and Spain the powder, in this unequal fight
+between the Old and the New. Spain was not merely the representative
+of the old, she WAS the old, and she armed her whole strength in its
+behalf.
+
+Here was a religion separated from all moral principle and devoid of
+all softening sentiment--its most appropriate formula being, death to
+all heretics. Death--not to tyrants, not to oppressors, not to robbers
+and men-stealers--but death to _heretics_. It was this that equipped
+her Armada.
+
+The people were too loyal and too pious to THINK, and so were hurled
+in a solid mass against the armed thought of the coming age, and a
+mighty nation crumbled as in a day. With the destruction of her Armada
+her warlike ascendancy passed and she had nothing to put in its place.
+She had not tillers of the soil, mechanics or skilled merchants.
+Business was taking the place of war all over the world, but Spain
+knew only religion and war, hence worsted in her only field, she was
+doomed.
+
+From the days of Philip II her decline was rapid. Her territory
+slipped from her as rapidly as it had been acquired. Her great domains
+on our soil are now the seat of thriving communities of
+English-speaking people. The whole continent of South America has
+thrown off her yoke, though still retaining her language, and our
+troops now embarked from Port Tampa are destined to wrest from her the
+two only remaining colonies subject to her sway in the Western
+World,--Cuba and Porto Rico. With all her losses hitherto, Spain has
+not learned wisdom. Antagonistic to truth and liberty, she seems to
+sit in the shadow of death, hugging the delusions that have betrayed
+her, while all other people of earth are pressing onward toward light
+and liberty.
+
+The struggle in Cuba had been going on for years, and in that colony
+of less than two millions of inhabitants, many of whom were Spaniards,
+there was now an army four times as large as the standing army of the
+United States. Against this army and against the Government of Spain a
+revolt had been carried on previous to the present outbreak for a
+period of ten years, and which had been settled by concessions on the
+part of the home government. The present revolt was of two years'
+standing when our government decided to interfere. The Cubans had
+maintained disorder, if they had not carried on war; and they had
+declined to be pacified. In their army they experienced no color
+difficulties. Gomez, Maceo and Quintin Banderas were generals honored
+and loved, Maceo especially coming to be the hero and idol of the
+insurgents of all classes. And it can truthfully be said that no man
+in either the Cuban or Spanish army, in all the Cuban struggle
+previous to our intervention, has earned a loftier fame as patriot,
+soldier and man of noble mould than ANTONIO MACEO.
+
+Cuba, by far the most advanced of all the West Indian colonies; Cuba,
+essentially Spanish, was destined to be the battle ground between our
+troops and the veterans of Spain. The question to be settled was that
+of Spain's sovereignty. Spain's right to rule over the colonies of
+Cuba and Porto Rico was disputed by the United States, and this
+question, and this alone, is to be settled by force of arms. Further
+than this, the issue does not go. The dictum of America is: Spain
+shall not rule. The questions of Annexation, Expansion and Imperialism
+were not before us as we launched our forces to drive Spain out of the
+West Indies. The Cuban flag was closely associated with our own
+standard popularly, and "Cuba Libre" was a wide-spread sentiment in
+June, 1898. "We are ready to help the Cubans gain their liberty" was
+the honest expression of thousands who felt they were going forward in
+a war for others.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+PASSAGE, LANDING, AND FIRST BATTLE IN CUBA.
+
+     The Tenth Cavalry at Guasimas--The "Rescue of the Rough
+     Riders"--Was There an Ambush?--Notes.
+
+
+"The passage to Santiago was generally smooth and uneventful," says
+General Shafter in his official report. But when the fact is called to
+mind that the men had been on board a week before sailing, and were a
+week more on the passage, and that "the conveniences on many of the
+transports in the nature of sleeping accommodations, space for
+exercise, closet accommodations, etc., were not all that could have
+been desired," and that the opinion was general throughout the army
+that the travel ration was faulty, it cannot be doubted that the trip
+was a sore trial to the enlisted men at least. The monotonous days
+passed in the harbor at Port Tampa, while waiting for orders to sail,
+were unusually trying to the men. They were relieved somewhat by
+bathing, swimming, gaming and chatting on the coming events. A soldier
+who was in one of the colored regiments describes the inside life of
+one of the transports as follows: "After some miles of railroad travel
+and much hustling we were put on board the transport. I say _on
+board_, but it is simply because we cannot use the terms _under
+board_. We were huddled together below two other regiments and under
+the water line, in the dirtiest, closest, most sickening place
+imaginable. For about fifteen days we were on the water in this dirty
+hole, but being soldiers we were compelled to accept this without a
+murmur. We ate corn beef and canned tomatoes with our hard bread
+until we were anything but half way pleased. In the fifth or sixth day
+out to sea the water furnished us became muddy or dirty and well
+flavored with salt, and remained so during the rest of the journey.
+Then, the ship's cooks, knowing well our condition made it convenient
+to themselves to sell us a glass of clean ice water and a small piece
+of bread and tainted meat for the sum of seventy-five cents, or one
+dollar, as the case might be."
+
+A passage from Port Tampa, around the eastern end of Cuba, through the
+Windward Passage, even in June, is ordinarily pleasant. On the deck of
+a clean steamer, protected from the sun's rays by a friendly awning,
+it may be put down as nearly an ideal pleasure trip; but crowded into
+freight ships as these men were, many of them clad in thick and
+uncomfortable clothing, reduced to the uninviting travel ration,
+compelled to spend most of the time below decks, occupied with
+thoughts of home and friends, and beset with forebodings of coming
+events, it was very far from being to them a pastime. Of the thousands
+who are going to Cuba to magnify the American flag, not all will
+return. Occasionally the gay music of the bands would relieve the dull
+routine and cause the spirits to rise under the effects of some
+enlivening waltz or stirring patriotic air; or entering a school of
+flying fish the men would be entertained to see these broad-finned
+creatures dart from the waves like arrows from the bow, and after a
+graceful flight of perhaps near two hundred yards drop again into the
+sea; but taken altogether it was a voyage that furnishes little for
+the historian.
+
+The transports were so arranged as to present an interesting and
+picturesque spectacle as they departed from our shores on their ocean
+march. Forming in three columns, with a distance of about 1,000 yards
+between the columns, and the vessels in the columns being distanced
+from one another about 400 yards, the fleet was convoyed from Port
+Tampa by small naval vessels until it reached a point between the Dry
+Tortugas and Key West. Here it was met by the noble battleship Indiana
+and nine other war vessels, thus making a convoy altogether of fifteen
+fighting craft. Transports and convoy now made an armada of more than
+forty ships, armed and manned by the audacious modern republic whose
+flag waved from every masthead. Thus spreading out over miles of
+smooth sea, moving quietly along by steam, carrying in its arms the
+flower of the American army, every man of which was an athlete, this
+fleet announced to the world the grim purpose of a nation aroused.
+
+The weather from the time of leaving Port Tampa continued fine until
+the fleet entered the passage between the western coast of Hayti and
+the eastern end of Cuba, known as the Windward Passage, when the
+breeze freshened and a rough sea began, continuing more or less up to
+the time of landing. Rounding this eastern coast of Cuba the fleet
+headed its course westerly and on the morning of the 20th was able to
+determine its position as being off Guantanamo Bay, about fifty miles
+east of Santiago. Here, eight days before, the first battle on Cuban
+soil, in which four American marines were killed, had been fought.
+About noon on the same day, the fleet came to a halt off Santiago
+harbor, or a little to the west of the entrance to it, and Admiral
+Sampson came on board. He and General Shafter soon after went ashore
+to consult the Cuban General, Garcia, who was known to be in that
+vicinity with about 4,000 well armed troops.
+
+The voyage over, and the men having been crowded together on
+shipboard for nearly two weeks, it was now expedient to get them on
+shore as soon as possible. But it was necessary to find out beforehand
+what defences were along the coast, and what forces of the enemy were
+likely to be encountered in landing. The fleet lay off from the shore
+about a mile, and it was no small undertaking to convey the 17,000 men
+on board with all their arms and equipments to the shore in small
+boats over a rough sea, especially should the landing be disputed. It
+was to arrange for the landing and also to map out a general plan of
+campaign that the three great leaders, Shafter, Sampson and Garcia met
+at Aserradores on the afternoon of June 20th as the American fleet
+stood guard over the harbor of Santiago.
+
+General Garcia was already aware of the coming of the fleet, having
+received a message from Major-General Miles two weeks previous. The
+letter of General Miles ran as follows:
+
+
+     Headquarters of the Army,
+     In the Field, Tampa, Fla., June 2, 1898.
+
+     Dear General:--I am very glad to have received your
+     officers, General Enrique Collazo and Lieut.-Col. Carlos
+     Hernandez, the latter of whom returns to-night with our best
+     wishes for your success.
+
+     It would be a very great assistance if you could have as
+     large a force as possible in the vicinity of the harbor of
+     Santiago de Cuba, and communicate any information by signals
+     which Colonel Hernandez will explain to you either to our
+     navy or to our army on its arrival, which we hope will be
+     before many days.
+
+     It would also assist us very much if you could drive in and
+     harass any Spanish troops near or in Santiago de Cuba,
+     threatening or attacking them at all points, and preventing,
+     by every means, any possible re-enforcement coming to that
+     garrison. While this is being done, and before the arrival
+     of our army, if you can seize and hold any commanding
+     position to the east or west of Santiago de Cuba, or both,
+     that would be advantageous for the use of our artillery, it
+     will be exceedingly gratifying to us."
+
+To this General Garcia replied that he would "take measures at once to
+carry out your (Miles') recommendation, but concentration of forces
+will require some time. Roads bad and Cubans scattered. Will march
+without delay." Admiral Sampson also cabled the Secretary of the Navy
+that Garcia "regards his (Miles') wishes and suggestions as orders,
+and immediately will take measures to concentrate forces at the points
+indicated, but he is unable to do so as early as desired on account of
+his expedition at Banes Port, Cuba, but will march without delay. All
+of his subordinates are ordered to assist to disembark the United
+States troops and to place themselves under orders." It was in
+compliance with these requests that General Garcia had the five
+thousand troops so near Santiago at the time he welcomed Shafter and
+Sampson to his camp, as mentioned above, and there is every necessary
+evidence that these Cuban troops took part in the fight about
+Santiago. Says General Miles of Garcia: "He had troops in the rear as
+well as on both sides of the garrison at Santiago before the arrival
+of our troops."
+
+It was agreed that the force of five hundred men under General
+Castillo, posted near Daiquiri, should be increased to 1,000, and
+should be prepared to make an attack upon the rear of the Spanish
+garrison at Daiquiri on the morning of the 22nd, at which time the
+debarkation would begin. General Rabi with about 500 men was also to
+attack Cabanas at the same time, in the same manner, the transports
+and war vessels so manoeuvring as to give the impression that a
+landing was to be made at that place. While these attacks in the rear
+were distracting the garrisons, the navy, by order of Admiral Sampson,
+was to start up a vigorous bombardment of all the villages along the
+coast, thus clearing the shore for the landing of the army. Thus did
+the conference unite the hands of Americans and Cubans in the fight
+against Spain on Cuban soil, and each was pledged to the other by the
+expressions of good will. Having accomplished its work the important
+conference closed, Admiral Sampson and General Shafter to return to
+their ships, and General Garcia to carry out the part of the work
+assigned to him, which he did with fidelity and success.[15]
+
+According to orders published on the 20th, General Lawton's Division,
+known as the Second Division, Fifth Army Corps, was to disembark
+first. This Division contained the three following Brigades: The
+First, General Ludlow's, composed of the Eighth and Twenty-second
+Infantry (regulars) and the Second Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry;
+the Second Brigade, General Miles', composed of the Fourth and
+Twenty-fifth Infantry (regulars); the Third Brigade, General
+Chaffee's, containing the Seventh, Twelfth and Seventeenth Infantry
+(regulars). Next to follow was General Bates' Brigade, which was to
+act as reserve to Lawton's Division. This Brigade consisted of the
+Third and Twentieth Infantry (regulars) and one squadron of the Second
+Cavalry, the only mounted troops in Shafter's army. The cavalry,
+however, were not to disembark with the Brigade, but were to be the
+last troops to leave the transports. After Bates' Brigade, was to
+follow Wheeler's Dismounted Cavalry Division, containing the two
+following Brigades: The First, composed of the Third, Sixth and Ninth
+Cavalry (regulars); the Second, composed of the First and Tenth
+Cavalry (regulars) and the First Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders). To
+follow the Cavalry Division was to come the First Division, General
+Kent's, containing the following troops: The First Brigade, General
+Hawkins', consisting of the Sixth and Sixteenth Infantry (regulars)
+and the Seventy-first New York Volunteer Infantry; the Second Brigade,
+General Pearson's, consisting of the Second, Tenth and Twenty-first
+Infantry (regulars); the Third Brigade, Colonel Wikoffs, made up of
+the Ninth, Thirteenth and Twenty-fourth Infantry (regulars). Then,
+lastly, was to depart the squadron of mounted cavalry.
+
+Thus prepared, both on board the ships and on shore, the morning of
+the 22nd dawned to witness the beginning of mighty operations. The war
+vessels, drawn up in proper order, early began to hurl shot and shell
+upon the towns, forts, blockhouses and clumps of trees that could be
+discovered along the shore. The cannonading lasted between two and
+three hours and was furious throughout. Meanwhile General Lawton's
+Division began the work of going ashore. The sea was rough and the
+passage to the shore was made in small boats furnished from the
+transports and from the naval vessels, towed by steam launches
+belonging to the navy. The larger of the boats were capable of
+carrying ten or twelve men each, while the smaller ones could carry
+but six or seven. During the passage to the shore several of the men
+who had escaped thus far, were taken with seasickness, greatly to the
+amusement of their more hardy companions. The landing was made at a
+pier which had been used formerly as a railroad pier, but was now
+abandoned and somewhat dilapidated. To get from the boats to the pier
+in this rough sea was the most perilous part of the whole trip from
+Tampa to Cuba. As the boats would rise on the waves almost level with
+the landing place it was necessary to leap quickly from the boat to
+the shore. In this way two cavalrymen of the Tenth lost their lives,
+falling into the sea with their equipments on and sinking before help
+could reach them. Some of the boats were rowed ashore and made a
+landing on the beach some distance from the pier. By this method some
+men of the Twenty-fifth tried to be the first to land, but failed,
+that regiment landing, however, in the first body of troops to go
+ashore, and being the second in order, in the invasion of the island.
+By night of the 22nd more than one-third of the troops were on shore,
+and by the evening of the 24th the whole army was disembarked
+according to the program announced at the beginning, the squadron of
+cavalry coming in at the close of the march to the shore.
+
+The only national movement on our part deserving to be brought into
+comparison with the expedition against the Spanish power in Cuba, is
+that of fifty years earlier, when General Scott sailed at the head of
+the army of invasion against Mexico. Some of the occurrences of that
+expedition, especially connected with its landing, should be carefully
+studied, and if the reports which have reached the public concerning
+it are truthful, we would do well to consider how far the methods then
+in use could be applied now. Scribner's recent history, published just
+before the outbreak of the Spanish War, tells the story of that
+expedition, so far as it tells it at all, in the following sentence:
+"On the 7th of March, the fleet with Scott's army came to anchor a few
+miles south of Vera Cruz, and two days later he landed his whole
+force--nearly twelve thousand men--by means of surf-boats." A writer
+in a recent number of _The Army and Navy Journal_ says General Worth's
+Division of 4,500 men were landed in one hour, and the whole force was
+landed in six hours, without accident or confusion. In the prosecution
+of that unholy war, which lasted about a year, nearly three thousand
+men were lost in battle and about as many more by disease, peace being
+finally made by the cession of territory on the part of Mexico, the
+United States paying in return much more than the territory was
+worth. The twenty millions paid to Texas probably in great part went
+into the coffers of the patriots who occupied that region, some of
+whom had not been known as desirable citizens in the parts from which
+they came, and had manifested their patriotism by leaving their
+country for their country's good. The fifteen millions handed over to
+Mexico looks like a contribution to a conscience fund, and an
+atonement offered for an assault without provocation. The country
+gained Arizona, New Mexico, California and finally Texas, but it lost
+six thousand good men, the cost of the war, and all told, in
+negotiations, about thirty million dollars, besides. However, it is
+not always profitable to look up the harvests of war. There are always
+two--the harvest of gain, and the harvest of loss. Death and debt are
+reapers, as well as are honor and extent of territory.
+
+The feelings of the six thousand American troops who landed on Cuban
+soil on June 22nd, 1898, may well be imagined. Although they felt the
+effects of the confinement to which they had been subjected while on
+shipboard, there was very little sickness among them. Again possessed
+of the free use of their limbs they swarmed the beach and open space
+near the landing, making themselves at home, and confronting the
+difficulties and perils that lay before them with a courage born of
+national pride. Before them were the mountains with their almost
+impassable roads, the jungles filled with poisonous plants and the
+terrible prickly underbrush and pointed grass, in which skulked the
+land crab and various reptiles whose bite or sting was dangerous;
+twenty miles of this inhospitable country lay between them and
+Santiago, their true objective. And somewhere on the road to that city
+they knew they were destined to meet a well-trained foe, skilled in
+all the arts of modern warfare, who would contest their advance. The
+prospect, however, did not unnerve them, although they could well
+conjecture that all who landed would not re-embark. Some in that six
+thousand were destined never again to set foot on shipboard. Out of
+the Twenty-fifth Infantry and the Tenth Cavalry men were to fall both
+before Spanish bullets and disease ere these organizations should
+assemble to return to their native shores. These thoughts did not
+prevent the men from taking advantage of what nature had to offer
+them.
+
+"We landed in rowboats, amid, and after the cessation of the
+bombardment of the little hamlet and coast by the men-of-war and
+battle-ships," writes a brave soldier of the Twenty-fifth Infantry,
+and adds immediately: "We then helped ourselves to cocoanuts which we
+found in abundance near the landing." Ordinarily this statement, so
+trivial and apparently unimportant, would not merit repetition, but in
+its connection here it is significant as showing the immediate
+tendency of the men to resort to the fruits of the country, despite
+all warnings to the contrary. The two weeks' experience on board the
+transports had made the finding of cocoanuts an event to be noted, and
+the dry pulp and strongly flavored milk of this tropical fruit became
+extremely grateful to the palate, even if not altogether safe for the
+stomach. If ripe, however, the cocoanut could scarcely be more
+ungenial to many, than the raw, canned tomatoes upon which they had in
+part subsisted during the voyage. It is to be added that this report
+of the finding of the cocoanuts is not the report of an old soldier,
+but of a young and intelligent, first enlistment man.
+
+Lawton's Division soon after landing, was ordered to move forward in
+the direction of Santiago, on the road leading past Siboney. A staff
+officer, writing of that movement, says: "General Lawton, with his
+Division, in obedience to this order, pushed forward from Daiquiri
+about five miles, when night overtook him and he bivouacked on the
+road." An old soldier of the Twenty-fifth, writing me from the
+hospital in Tampa, Florida, July 22nd, says of the same event: "After
+the regiment landed we marched about four and a half miles through the
+mountains; then we made camp." The old soldier says nothing of
+cocoanuts, but makes his statement with as much accuracy as possible,
+and with no waste of words. The novice describing the same thing says:
+"A short distance ahead (from the shore) we bivouacked for the night.
+We were soon lying in dreamland, so far from friends and home, indeed,
+on a distant, distant shore." These two extracts show at once the
+difference between the soldier produced by years of trial and training
+on our plains, and the soldier who but yesterday was a civilian. With
+the one the march is a short distance; with the other it is about four
+and a half miles; one reports that they "made camp," the other talks
+of dreamland, friend, home and distant shore; one expresses his
+feelings, the other shows control of feeling and reserve in
+expression.
+
+That first night on Cuban soil, the night following June 22nd, was one
+without events, but one of great concern to the commanders on shore
+and on the fleet. The work of disembarking had gone on successfully,
+and already about six thousand men were on shore. Nearly the whole of
+Lawton's Division, with Bates' independent brigade, were bivouacked,
+as we have seen, about five miles from Daiquiri, exactly where the
+railroad crosses the wagon road leading to Siboney. General Wheeler's
+troops--one brigade--were encamped on the open ground near the
+landing, the remainder of his division being still on the transports.
+The Twenty-fifth Infantry was with Lawton; the Tenth Cavalry was
+ashore with Wheeler's troops. A detachment of the Twenty-fifth was put
+on outpost duty on that night of their landing, and five miles within
+Cuban territory they tramped their solitary beats, establishing and
+guarding the majestic authority of the United States.
+
+Lawton's orders were to seize and hold the town of Siboney at which
+place Kent's Division, containing the Twenty-fourth, was to land. It
+was then intended that the whole army should advance as rapidly as
+would be consistent with supplying the men with rations toward
+Santiago. Siboney was to be the base of supplies, and from this point
+ammunition and food were to be conveyed to the front by wagons and
+pack trains. General Shafter also intended that Lawton with his
+division should lead the advance upon Santiago, but circumstances
+beyond his control brought about a different result. On the morning of
+the 23rd Lawton's division was in motion early, and before half-past
+ten o'clock he was able to report that the Spaniards had evacuated
+Siboney and were in full retreat, pursued by a body of Cubans under
+direction of General Castillo; that the town was in his hands, and he
+had also captured one locomotive and nearly one hundred cars loaded
+with coal.
+
+General Young's brigade of General Wheeler's cavalry division, got on
+shore on the afternoon of the 23rd and after landing received verbal
+orders to move out with three days' rations "to a good camping place
+between Juraguacito and Siboney, on the road leading to Santiago de
+Cuba." In obedience to these orders, at 4.30 in the afternoon Young
+with the Rough Riders and a squadron from each of the First and Tenth
+Regular Cavalry moved from the bivouack near the landing and arrived
+at Siboney at about 7 o'clock. When General Young arrived at Siboney
+he had with him the Rough Riders, the other troops having been delayed
+by the crowded condition of the trail and the difficulty of following
+after nightfall. Although these troops are always spoken of as
+cavalry, the reader must not forget that they were dismounted and in
+marching and fighting were the same as infantry.
+
+General Young on arriving at Siboney reported to General Wheeler, who
+had preceded him to the same place. The statements of the several
+commanders here appear somewhat conflicting, although not
+inexplicable. General Lawton says: "Yesterday afternoon, late, General
+Wheeler and staff arrived and established his headquarters within the
+limits of my command. Saw him after dark. Late last night Colonel
+Wood's regiment of dismounted cavalry (Rough Riders) passed through my
+camp at Division Headquarters, and later General Young, with some of
+the dismounted Cavalry, and early this morning others of the
+dismounted cavalry." Wheeler says that "in obedience to instructions
+from the Major-General Commanding," given to him in person, he
+proceeded, on June 23rd, to Siboney, but does not say at what hour. He
+says he "rode out to the front and found that the enemy had halted and
+established themselves at a point about three miles from Siboney." He
+then informs us that "at 8 o'clock on that evening of the 23rd General
+Young reached Siboney with eight troops of Colonel Wood's regiment (A,
+B, D, E, F, G, K and L), 500 strong; Troops A, B, G and K, of the
+First Cavalry, in all 244, and Troops A, B, E and I, of the Tenth
+Cavalry, in all 220 men, making a total force of 964 men, which
+included nearly all of my command which had disembarked. These troops
+had marched from Daiquiri, 11 miles. With the assistance of General
+Castillo a rough map of the country was prepared and the position of
+the enemy fully explained, and I determined to make an attack."
+Lieutenant Miley says that the whole brigade of Wheeler's troops
+arrived in Siboney about dark and were occupying the same ground as
+General Lawton ("In Cuba With Shafter," p. 76.) General Young says
+that after reporting to General Wheeler he "asked and obtained from
+General Wheeler authority to make a reconnoisance in force" for the
+purpose of obtaining "positive information * * * as to the position
+and movements of the enemy in front."
+
+The distance from Daiquiri to Siboney was but eleven miles, and as the
+troops left the former place at 4.30 it is probable that they were all
+bivouacked near Siboney before 9 o'clock, as they were all together,
+according to General Wheeler's report, at 5.45 on the morning of the
+24th. General Young having discovered that there were two roads or
+trails leading from Siboney northward toward the town of Sevilla
+determined to make his reconnoisance by both these trails. He directed
+Colonel Wood to move by the western trail and to keep a careful
+lookout and to attack any Spaniards he might encounter, being careful
+to join his right in the event of an engagement, with the left of the
+column advancing by the eastern trail. Colonel Wood's column was the
+left column and was composed of the Rough Riders only. The column
+marching by the eastern trail was composed of the First and Tenth
+Cavalry (regulars) and was under the command of General Young. It was
+the intention of General Young by this column to gain the enemy's
+left, and thus attack in front and left. As early as 7.20 a.m. Captain
+Mills discovered the enemy exactly as had been described by General
+Castillo. When this was done word was sent to Colonel Wood, who was
+making his way to the front over a more difficult route than the one
+by which General Young's column had marched. A delay was therefore
+made on the part of General Young in order that the attack should
+begin on both flanks at the same time. During this delay General
+Wheeler arrived and was informed of the plans and dispositions for the
+attack, and after examining the position gave his approval of what
+had been done, whereupon General Young ordered the attack. General
+Wheeler in speaking of the same event says: "General Young and myself
+examined the position of the enemy. The lines were deployed and I
+directed him to open fire with the Hotchkiss gun. The enemy replied
+and the firing immediately became general." There can be no question
+as to the planning of this fight nor as to the direction of the
+American force in the fight so far as any general direction was
+possible. Colonel Wood directed one column and General Young another,
+while the plan of the attack undoubtedly originated with General
+Young. General Wheeler conveys as much when he says: "General Young
+deserves special commendation for his cool deliberate and skillful
+management." General Young, if only the commander of the right column
+consisting of two squadrons of regular cavalry, had not as large a
+command, nor as difficult and important a one as had Colonel Wood, and
+hence is not deserving of special commendation except upon the general
+ground that he had supervision over the whole battle. This position is
+taken by General Shafter in his report, who though admitting the
+presence of the Division Commander, credits the battle to General
+Young, the commander of the brigade. The reconnoissance in force for
+which Young had obtained authority from General Wheeler on the night
+of the 23rd had developed into a battle, and the plan had evolved
+itself from the facts discovered. This plan General Wheeler approved,
+but in no such way as to take the credit from its originator; and it
+is doubtless with reference both to the plan and the execution that he
+bestows on General Young the mead of praise. This statement of fact
+does not in the least detract from either the importance or the
+praiseworthiness of the part played by Colonel Wood. Both he and the
+officers and men commanded by him received both from General Young
+and from the division commander the most generous praise. The advance
+of Wood's column was made with great difficulty owing to the nature of
+the ground, and according to General Young's belief, he was in the
+rear when at 7.20 in the morning Captain Mills discovered the enemy,
+and a Cuban guide was dispatched to warn Wood, and a delay made to
+allow time for him to come up. Colonel Wood, on the other hand, claims
+to have discovered the enemy at 7.10 and to have begun action almost
+immediately, so that it turned out as Young had planned, and "the
+attack of both wings was simultaneous." The Spaniards were posted on a
+range of high hills in the form of a "V," the opening being toward
+Siboney, from which direction the attack came.
+
+From Colonel Wood's report it appears that soon after the firing began
+he found it necessary to deploy five troops to the right, and left,
+leaving three troops in reserve. The enemy's lines being still beyond
+his, both on the right and on the left, he hastily deployed two more
+troops, which made the lines now about equal in length. The firing was
+now "exceedingly heavy," and much of it at short range, but on account
+of the thick underbrush it was not very effective; "comparatively few
+of our men were injured." Captain Capron at this time received his
+mortal wound and the firing became so terrific that the last remaining
+troop of the reserve was absorbed by the firing line, and the whole
+regiment ordered to advance very slowly. The Spanish line yielded and
+the advance soon showed that in falling back the enemy had taken a new
+position, about three hundred yards in front of the advancing
+regiment. Their lines extended from 800 to 1,000 yards, and the firing
+from their front was "exceedingly heavy" and effective. A "good many
+men" were wounded, "and several officers," says Colonel Wood's
+report. Still the advance was kept up, and the Spanish line was
+steadily forced back. "We now began," says Colonel Wood, "to get a
+heavy fire from a ridge on our right, which enfiladed our line." The
+reader can at once see that although the Rough Riders were advancing
+heroically, they were now in a very serious situation, with an
+exceedingly heavy and effective fire striking them in front, and a
+heavy, enfilading fire raking them from the right. Their whole
+strength was on the line, and these two fires must have reduced their
+effectiveness with great rapidity had it kept up, the Spaniards having
+their range and firing by well-directed volleys. It was for the
+regiment a moment of the utmost peril. Had they been alone they must
+have perished.
+
+It was from this perilous situation of Colonel Wood's command that one
+of the most popular stories of the war originated, a story that
+contained some truth, but which was often told in such a way as to
+cause irritation, and in some instances it was so exaggerated or
+mutilated in the telling as to be simply ridiculous. On the day after
+the battle the story was told in Lawton's camp according to the
+testimony of an intelligent soldier of the Twenty-fifth Infantry. His
+words are: "The next day about noon we heard that the Tenth Cavalry
+had met the enemy and that the Tenth Cavalry had rescued the Rough
+Riders. We congratulated ourselves that although not of the same
+branch of service, we were of the same color, and that to the eye of
+the enemy we, troopers and footmen, all looked alike." According to
+artists and cheap newspaper stories this rescuing occurred again and
+again. A picture is extensively advertized as "an actual and
+authoritative presentation of this regiment (the Tenth Cavalry) as it
+participated in that great struggle, and their heroic rescue of the
+Rough Riders on that memorable _July_ day." This especial rescuing
+took place on _San Juan Hill_. The editor of a religious paper
+declares that it was the _Twenty-fifth Infantry_ that rescued the
+Rough Riders and that it was done at _El Caney_![16]
+
+Before we go any farther let us see just what the Tenth Cavalry did do
+in this fight. That their action was highly meritorious admits of no
+doubt, and the laurels they won were never allowed to fade during the
+whole campaign. General Wheeler speaks of them with the First Cavalry.
+He says: "I was immediately with the troops of the First and Tenth
+Regular Cavalry, dismounted, and personally noticed their brave and
+good conduct." There were four troops of the Tenth engaged, composing
+the First Squadron of that regiment, under command of Major Norval.
+Troop A was commanded by Captain W.H. Beck, who was specially
+commended by General Wheeler for good conduct. Second Lieutenant F.R.
+McCoy was Captain Beck's assistant. This troop moved over to the left,
+receiving the fire of the enemy, but making no response, the distance
+being too great for effective carbine firing. This troop reached
+Colonel Wood's right and made the line continuous so that there was
+now a force in front of that ridge where the Spaniards were securely
+entrenched and from which they were pouring their enfilading fire upon
+Colonel Wood's line. Troop A, although coming into the line, did not
+fire. Their presence, however, gave the Rough Riders the assurance
+that their flank was saved. Troop E was commanded by Captain C.G.
+Ayres with Second Lieutenant George Vidmar. This troop was placed by
+General Young in support of Captain Watson's two Hotchkiss guns, and
+also of the troops in their front. The troop was under fire one hour
+and a quarter, during which they were in plain view of the Spaniards,
+who also had their exact range. One man was killed and one wounded.
+Their courage, coolness and discipline in this trying hour and a
+quarter were of the very highest order. The troop commander says:
+"Their coolness and fine discipline were superb." This troop did not
+fire a shot. Thus one-half of the squadron moved to its positions and
+held them without being able to do any damage to the enemy, as they
+were carrying out to the letter their instructions, which were to fire
+only when they could see the enemy. Troop B was commanded by Captain
+J.W. Watson with H.O. Willard as Second Lieutenant. A detachment of
+this troop was placed in charge of four Hotchkiss mountain guns. This
+detachment opened fire upon the enemy, using the ammunition sparingly,
+as they had but fifty rounds with them. Twenty-two shots were fired,
+apparently with effect. The remainder of the troop under Lieutenant
+Williard was ordered to move out to the extreme right, which would
+place it beyond the line of the First Cavalry, thus bringing that
+regiment between Troop A of the Tenth, which connected it with the
+Rough Riders and Troop B, which was to be on its extreme right.
+Lieutenant Williard's report of this movement is as follows:
+
+     "I ordered the troop forward at once, telling them to take
+     advantage of all cover available. In the meantime the
+     volleys from the Spanish were coming in quite frequently and
+     striking the ground on all sides near where we were. I found
+     it very difficult to move the men forward after having found
+     cover, and ran back to a portion of the troop near an old
+     brick wall, and ordered them forward at once. They then made
+     a dash forward, and in doing so three or four men were
+     wounded, Private Russell severely. Who the others were I do
+     not know. We encountered a severe fire directly after this
+     move forward; and Private Wheeler was wounded in the left
+     leg. There was a wire fence on our right, and such thick
+     underbrush that we were unable to get through right there,
+     so had to follow along the fence for some distance before
+     being able to penetrate. Finally, was able to get the
+     greater proportion of my men through, and about this time I
+     met Lieutenants Fleming and Miller, Tenth Cavalry, moving
+     through the thicket at my left. I there heard the order
+     passed on 'not to fire ahead,' as there was danger of firing
+     into our own forces. In the meantime there was shouting from
+     the First Cavalry in our front, 'Don't fire on us in rear.'
+     My troop had not fired a shot to my knowledge, nor the
+     knowledge of any non-commissioned officers in the troop.
+     About this time I found I was unable to keep the troop
+     deployed, as they would huddle up behind one rock or tree,
+     so I gave all sergeants orders to move out on the extreme
+     right and to keep in touch with those on their left. Then,
+     with a squad of about five men, I moved to the right front,
+     and was unfortunate enough to lose the troop, i.e., I could
+     see nothing of them except the men with me.
+
+     "But as I had given explicit instructions to my sergeant, in
+     case I was lost from them, to continue to advance until
+     halted by some one in authority, I moved ahead myself,
+     hoping to find them later on. In making a rush forward three
+     men of my squad were lost from me in some way. I still had
+     two men with me, Privates Combs and Jackson, and in the next
+     advance made I picked up a First Cavalry sergeant who had
+     fallen out from exhaustion. After a terrific climb up the
+     ridge in front of me, and a very regular though ineffective
+     fire from the enemy kept up until we were about sixty yards
+     from the summit of hill, we reached the advance line of the
+     First United States Cavalry, under command of Captain
+     Wainwright. I then reported to him for orders, and moved
+     forward when he next advanced. The firing had ceased, and no
+     more shots were fired, to my knowledge, after this time.
+     With the First Cavalry, Troop G, we followed along the right
+     of the ridge and came down to the right front, encountering
+     no opposition or fire from the enemy, but finding the
+     enemy's breastworks in confusion, ammunition and articles of
+     clothing scattered around; also one dead Spaniard and two
+     Mauser rifles. At the foot of the ridge we met some of the
+     First Volunteer Cavalry, and being utterly exhausted, I was
+     obliged to lie down. Soon after, Captain Mills,
+     adjutant-general of Second Brigade, Cavalry Division, came
+     up to where I was and placed me in command of Troop K, First
+     United States Cavalry, whose officers were wounded. I then
+     marched them forward on the road to where General Wheeler
+     was sitting, and received orders from Colonel Wood, First
+     Volunteer Cavalry, to remain until further orders and make
+     no further advance. Directly afterwards, learning the action
+     was over, I reported back to General Young, and received
+     orders to remain camped with the First Cavalry Squadron,
+     where the action had closed. In the meantime, I should have
+     stated that I found the principal part of my troop and
+     collected them and left them under the first sergeant, when
+     I went back to receive orders. So far as I know, and to the
+     best of my knowledge, the men of my troop acted with the
+     greatest bravery, advancing on an enemy who could not be
+     seen, and subjected to a severe and heavy fire at each step,
+     which was only rendered ineffective to a great degree by the
+     poor marksmanship of the enemy, as many times we were in
+     sight of them (I discovered this by observation after the
+     engagement) while we could see nothing. We were also
+     subjected to a severe reverse fire from the hills in our
+     right rear, several men being wounded by this fire.
+     Throughout the fight the men acted with exceptional
+     coolness, in my judgment. The casualties were: Privates
+     Russell, Braxton and Morris, severely wounded; Privates F.A.
+     Miller, Grice, Wheeler and Gaines, slightly wounded, i.e.,
+     less severely. None killed.
+
+     Very respectfully,
+
+     HENRY O. WILLIARD.
+     June 24, 1898.
+     Troop B, Tenth Cavalry, during action near La Guasima,
+     Second Lieutenant, Tenth United States Cavalry, Commanding.
+
+
+Troop I of the Tenth Cavalry was commanded by First Lieutenant R.J.
+Fleming with Second Lieutenant A.M. Miller. This troop moved to the
+right and wedged in between B Troop and the right of the First
+Cavalry. Lieutenant Fleming discovered the enemy posted on the high
+ridge immediately in front of his troop, and also extending to his
+right, in front of B Troop. Moving his troop a little to the right so
+as to secure room to advance without coming in contact with the First
+Cavalry, he then directed his course straight toward the hill on which
+he had located the enemy. The advance was made with great caution, the
+men seeking cover wherever possible, and dashing across the open
+spaces at full run. Thus they moved until the base of the steep part
+of the hill was reached. This was found very difficult of ascent, not
+only because of the rugged steepness, but also on account of the
+underbrush, and the sharp-leaved grass, the cacti and Spanish bayonet,
+that grow on all these hillsides. Paths had to be cut through these
+prickly obstructions with knives and sabres. Consequently the advance
+up that hill, though free from peril, was very slow and trying. Twice
+during the advance the men obtained a view of their enemies and were
+permitted to fire. The instructions were rigidly adhered to: No firing
+only at the visible foe. Lieutenant Fleming says: "Owing to the
+underbrush it was impossible for me to see but a very few men at a
+time, but as they all arrived on the crest about the time I did, or
+shortly after, they certainly advanced steadily." He says: "The entire
+troop behaved with great coolness and obeyed every order." Farrier
+Sherman Harris, Wagoner John Boland and Private Elsie Jones especially
+distinguished themselves for coolness and gallantry. The aggressive
+work of the Tenth Cavalry, therefore, appears to have been done by
+Troops B and I, a detachment of the former troop serving the Hotchkiss
+gun battery. Troop I was commanded by Lieutenant Fleming and by him
+conducted to the front, although he admits that in their advance up
+the slope of the hill he could see but very few of the men at a time,
+and declares that their advance was certainly steady, because all
+arrived at the crest of the hill simultaneously or nearly so.
+
+Lieutenant Fleming does not show that his troop of excellent men were
+in any sense _peculiarly_ dependent upon their white officers as some
+have asserted. They advanced steadily, just as the regulars always do,
+advanced noiselessly and without any reckless firing, and reached the
+crest of the hill in order, although he could not see them as they
+were making their advance. They kept their line despite all the
+obstructions. Lieutenant Fleming also says that in moving to his
+position he passed Troop B, which then "inclined to the right, and
+during the remainder of the action was on my right." Troop B,
+therefore, went through about the same experience as Troop I, and
+being on the extreme right of the line may have been more directly in
+front of that foe which Fleming says was in his front and to the
+right. Why did not the officer who directed or led B Troop in its
+advance upon the enemy report the action of his troop as vividly and
+generously as did Lieutenant Fleming the men of Troop I? With not the
+slightest reflection upon the gallant officer, he himself has the
+manliness to say he was so unfortunate as to lose the troop. The
+troop, however, did not become demoralized, but went into action under
+command of its First Sergeant, _John Buck,[17] and remained on
+Lieutenant Fleming's right during the action_. It has been proven more
+than once that should the commissioned officers of a company or troop
+of colored regulars be killed or incapacitated, the non-commissioned
+officers can carry on the fight. Speaking of this same regiment it is
+equally true that at San Juan the officers of Troops D and G were all
+shot and the commands of these troops fell to their First Sergeants,
+the first to Sergeant William H. Given, the second to Sergeant Saint
+Foster, and it is generally understood that these two men were
+appointed Lieutenants of Volunteers because of their success in
+handling their troops in battle.
+
+The entire attacking force at this end of the line, if we count only
+those engaged in actual firing, consisted of two troops of the Tenth
+Cavalry and two of the First Cavalry--four troops--while to the left
+the entire eight troops were on the firing line. The action of the
+troops of the First Cavalry was quite similar to that of the troops of
+the Tenth Cavalry, and equally deserving of commendation. Of them all
+General Young says:
+
+     "The ground over which the right column advanced was a mass
+     of jungle growth, with wire fences, not to be seen until
+     encountered, and precipitous heights as the ridge was
+     approached. It was impossible for the troops to keep in
+     touch along the front, and they could only judge of the
+     enemy from the sound and direction of his fire. However, had
+     it not been for this dense jungle, the attack would not have
+     been made against an overwhelming force in such a position.
+     Headway was so difficult that advance and support became
+     merged and moved forward under a continuous volley firing,
+     supplemented by that of two rapid-fire guns. Return firing
+     by my force was only made as here and there a small clear
+     spot gave a sight of the enemy. The fire discipline of these
+     particular troops was almost perfect. The ammunition
+     expended by the two squadrons engaged in an incessant
+     advance for one hour and fifteen minutes averaged less than
+     ten rounds per man. The fine quality of these troops is also
+     shown by the fact that there was not a single straggler, and
+     in not one instance was an attempt made by any soldier to
+     fall out in the advance to assist the wounded or carry back
+     the dead. The fighting on the left flank was equally
+     creditable and was remarkable, and I believe unprecedented,
+     in volunter troops so quickly raised, armed and equipped."
+
+The five hundred men of Colonel Wood's regiment were stretched over a
+space of 800 to 1,000 yards, and were entirely without support or
+reserve, and appear to have advanced to a point where this very strong
+force on the right swept a good part of their line both with rifle
+fire and the fire of their two machine guns. Men and officers were
+falling under both the front and flank fire of the enemy, and had not
+the squadrons of the First and Tenth made their successful assault
+upon that ridge, which, according to General Wood's report, was "very
+strongly held," the situation of the Rough Riders would have been
+extreme. Because this successful assault was participated in by the
+Tenth Cavalry the story arose that the Rough Riders were rescued by
+that regiment. The fair statement would be: That the Regular Cavalry,
+consisting of a squadron of the First and a squadron of the Tenth,
+made their advance on the right at the precise moment to deliver the
+Rough Riders from a fire that threatened their annihilation. The
+marksmanship and coolness of the men of the Tenth have been specially
+commented upon and their fire was described as very effective, but the
+same remarks could be made of the men of the First, who fought side by
+side with them. It is probable that the volunteers advanced more
+rapidly than did the regulars, using more ammunition, and manifesting
+a very high degree of courage and enthusiasm as well as deliberation;
+but the regulars reached their objective at the proper time to turn
+the battle's tide. Each advancing column was worthy to be companion to
+the other.
+
+General Wheeler said the fire was very hot for about an hour, and "at
+8.30 sent a courier to General Lawton informing him that he was
+engaged with a larger force of the enemy than was anticipated, and
+asked that his force be sent forward on the Sevilla road as quickly as
+possible." ("In Cuba With Shafter," p. 83.) General Lawton, however,
+with the true instinct of a soldier had already sent orders to General
+Chaffee to move forward with the First Brigade. The Second Brigade was
+also in readiness to move and the men of the Twenty-fifth were
+expecting to go forward to take a position on the right and if
+possible a little to the rear of the Spanish entrenchments in order to
+cut off their retreat. The rapid movements of the cavalry division,
+however, rendered this unnecessary, and the routing of the foe gave to
+the Americans an open country and cleared the field for the advance on
+Santiago. The first battle had been fought, and the Americans had been
+victorious, but not without cost. Sixteen men had been killed and
+fifty-two wounded. In Colonel Wood's regiment eight had been killed
+and thirty-four wounded; in the First Cavalry, seven killed and eight
+wounded; in the Tenth Cavalry, one killed and ten wounded. The
+percentage of losses to the whole strength of the several
+organizations engaged was as follows: Rough Riders, over 8 per cent.;
+First Cavalry, over 6 per cent.; Tenth Cavalry, 5 per cent. But if we
+take those on the firing line as the base the rate per cent. of losses
+among the regulars would be doubled, while that of the volunteers
+would remain the same.
+
+The strength of the enemy in this battle is given in the Spanish
+official reports, according to Lieutenant Miley, at about five
+hundred, and their losses are put at nine killed and twenty-seven
+wounded. At the time of the fight it was supposed to be much larger.
+General Young's report places the estimates at 2,000, and adds "that
+it has since been learned from Spanish sources to have been 2,500. The
+Cuban military authorities claim the Spanish strength was 4,000."
+These figures are doubtless too high. The force overtaken at Las
+Guasimas was the same force that evacuated Siboney at the approach of
+Lawton and the force with which the Cubans had fought on the morning
+of the 23rd. It may have consisted solely of the garrison from
+Siboney, although it is more probable that it included also those from
+Daiquiri and Jutici, as it is quite certain that all these troops
+proceeded toward Santiago over the same road. The force at Siboney had
+been given by the Cubans at 600, at Daiquiri at 300, and at Jutici at
+150. If these had concentrated and the figures were correct, the
+Spanish force at Guasimas was upwards of 1,000. If, however, it was
+the force from Siboney alone, it was about as the Spanish official
+report gives it. On this latter basis, however, the losses are out of
+proportion, for while the attacking party lost a little less than 7
+per cent. of its entire strength in killed and wounded, the losses of
+the entrenched, defending party, were even a little greater, or over 7
+per cent. of its strength. It is, therefore, probable that the Spanish
+force was greater than officially reported and included the troops
+from the other posts as well as those from Siboney. The engagement was
+classed by General Shafter as unimportant, although its effect upon
+our army was inspiring. It did not cut off the retreat of the Spanish
+force, and the men who faced our army at Guasimas met them again in
+the trenches before Santiago. General Shafter desired to advance with
+his whole force, and cautioned strongly against any further forward
+movement until the troops were well in hand. The two battles between
+the Cubans and Spaniards, fought on the 23rd, in which the Cubans had
+sixteen men wounded and two killed, were engagements of some
+consequence, although we have no reports of them. There is no evidence
+that the Cubans took part in the battle of Guasimas, although they
+arrived on the grounds immediately after the firing ceased.
+
+The story thus far told is, as the reader cannot fail to see,
+directly from official records, and the conclusions arrived at are
+those which result naturally from the facts as therein detailed. Not
+one word is quoted from any but military men--actors in the affair. We
+may now go briefly over the same ground, giving the views and
+conclusions of able civilian correspondents who followed the army to
+see what was done, and who were trained observers and skilled writers.
+How have these able war journalists told the story of Las Guasimas?
+
+To quote from Stephen Bonsal in substance, not in words, is to
+contradict what General Shafter says officially in one particular, but
+in no such way as to discredit the General, or to weaken Bonsal. It is
+not a case of bringing two universal, antagonistic propositions face
+to face, but a case where two men of different training look upon an
+action from different standpoints and through different field-glasses.
+General Shafter says of the collision of the Rough Riders with the
+Spanish force: "There was no ambush as reported." As a military man,
+he says there was no more concealment on the part of the Spanish force
+than what an attacking party should expect, no more than what is usual
+in modern warfare, hence he does not regard it as an ambush, and does
+not officially take notice of any surprise or unexpected encounter on
+the part of his force. To do so would be to reflect, however slightly,
+upon the professional skill of the commander of the left column.
+General Shafter thus says officially in a manly way: "There was no
+ambush." Beyond this his duty does not call him to go, and he halts
+his expressions exactly at this line, maintaining in his attitude all
+the attributes of the true soldier, placing himself beyond criticism
+by thus securing from attack the character of his subordinate.
+
+Mr. Bonsal is a writer and author, accustomed to view actions in the
+broader light of popular judgment, entirely free from professional
+bias, and having no class-feeling or obligations to serve. His pen is
+not official; his statements are not from the military standpoint; not
+influenced in any way by considerations of personal weal or woe with
+respect to others or himself. He says that one troop of the Rough
+Riders, Troop L, commanded by Captain Capron, was leading the advance
+of the regiment, and was in solid formation and within twenty-five
+yards of its scouting line when it received the enemy's fire. This
+troop was so far in the advance that it took the other troops of the
+regiment more than a half hour to get up to it. The writer speaks of
+the advance of that troop as having been made "in the fool-hardy
+formation of a solid column along a narrow trail, which brought them,
+in the way I have described, within point-blank range of the Spanish
+rifles, and within the unobstructed sweep of their machine guns." He
+sums up as follows: "And if it is to be ambushed when you receive the
+enemy's fire perhaps a quarter of an hour before it was expected, and
+when the troop was in a formation, and the only one in which, in view
+of the nature of the ground it was possible to advance quickly, then
+most certainly L Troop of the Rough Riders was ambushed by the
+Spaniards on the morning of June 24th."
+
+Mr. Bonsal also brings into clear view the part taken in this battle
+by Lawton's Infantry. He shows by means of a simple map the trail by
+which Miles' brigade, in which was the Twenty-fifth Infantry, moved in
+order to flank the Spanish position, while Chaffee's brigade was
+hurrying forward on the Royal Road to reinforce the line in front. A
+letter from a soldier of the Twenty-fifth written soon after these
+events fully confirms Mr. Bonsal in what he says concerning the
+movement of Miles' brigade. The soldier says: "On the morning of the
+24th the Rough Riders, Tenth and First Cavalry were to make an attack
+on a little place where the Spanish were fortified. The Second Brigade
+was to come on the right flank of these troops and a little in rear of
+the fortifications; but by some misunderstanding, the former troops,
+led by the Rough Riders, made an attack before we got our position,
+and the result was a great many lives lost in the First Cavalry and
+Rough Riders--only one in Tenth Cavalry, but many wounded. They
+captured the fortification." This letter by a humble soldier, written
+with no thought of its importance, shows how gallantly Lawton had
+sprung to the rescue of Wheeler's division. According to Bonsal, who
+says he obtained his information from Spanish officers who were
+present in this fight, it was the information of the approach of this
+brigade and of Chaffee's up the main road that caused the Spaniards to
+withdraw rapidly from the position. The whole force was in imminent
+danger of being captured. Another soldier of the Twenty-fifth wrote:
+"The report came that the Twenty-fifth Infantry was to cut off the
+Spanish retreat from a stronghold, toward Santiago." These glimpses
+from soldiers' letters illustrate how clearly they comprehended the
+work upon which they were sent, and show also how hearty and cordial
+was the support which the infantry at that time was hurrying forward
+to the advancing cavalry.
+
+The official reports show that the strength of the Spanish position
+was before the right of our line. Mr. Bonsal says: "Directly in front
+of the Tenth Cavalry rose undoubtedly the strongest point in the
+Spanish position--two lines of shallow trenches, strengthened by heavy
+stone parapets." We must remember that so far as we can get the
+disposition of these troops from official records, Troop A connected
+the Rough Riders with the First Cavalry, and Troops I and B were on
+the right of the First Cavalry. Troop A did not fire a shot; the
+fighting, therefore, was done by Troops I and B on the extreme right
+of the line, and it was on their front that "undoubtedly the strongest
+point in the Spanish position" lay--nor should the reader forget that
+at this very important moment Troop B was commanded by its First
+Sergeant, Buck, Lieutenant Williard having by his own report been
+"unfortunate enough to lose the troop." This is said with no
+disparagement to Lieutenant Williard. It was merely one of the
+accidents of battle.
+
+Says Mr. Bonsal: "The moment the advance was ordered the black
+troopers of the Tenth Cavalry forged ahead. They were no braver
+certainly than any other men in the line, but their better training
+enabled them to render more valuable services than the other troops
+engaged. They had with them and ready for action their machine guns,
+and shoved them right up to the front on the firing line, from where
+they poured very effective fire into the Spanish trenches, which not
+only did considerable execution, but was particularly effective in
+keeping down the return fire of the Spaniards. The machine guns of the
+Rough Riders were mislaid, or the mules upon which they had been
+loaded could not be found at this juncture. It was said they had
+bolted. It is certain, however, that the guns were not brought into
+action, and consequently the Spaniards suffered less, and the Rough
+Riders more, in the gallant charge they made up the hill in front of
+them, after the Tenth Cavalry had advanced and driven the Spaniards
+from their position on the right."
+
+Corporal W.F. Johnson, B Troop, was the non-commissioned officer in
+charge of the machine guns during the brief fight at Las Guasimas, and
+his action was such as to call forth from the troop commander special
+mention "for his efficiency and perfect coolness under fire." Here I
+may be pardoned for calling attention to a notion too prevalent
+concerning the Negro soldier in time of battle. He is too often
+represented as going into action singing like a zany or yelling like a
+demon, rather than as a man calculating the chances for life and
+victory. The official reports from the Black Regulars in Cuba ought to
+correct this notion. Every troop and company commander, who has
+reported upon colored soldiers in that war, speaks of the coolness of
+the men of his command. Captain Beck, of Troop A, Tenth Cavalry, in
+the Guasimas fight, says: "I will add that the enlisted men of Troop
+A, Tenth Cavalry, behaved well, silently and alertly obeying orders,
+and without becoming excited when the fire of the enemy reached them."
+The yell, in the charge of the regulars, is a part of the action, and
+is no more peculiar to Negro troops than to the whites, only as they
+may differ in the general timbre of voice. Black American soldiers
+when not on duty may sing more than white troops, but in quite a long
+experience among them I have not found the difference so very
+noticeable. In all garrisons one will find some men more musically
+inclined than others; some who love to sing and some who do not; some
+who have voices adapted to the production of musical tones, and some
+who have not, and it is doubtless owing to these constitutional
+differences that we find differences in habits and expressions.
+
+Lieutenant Miley, of General Shafter's staff, in his description of
+the departure of General Shatter from General Garcia's tent, gives us
+a glimpse of the character of the men that composed the Cuban army in
+that vicinity.
+
+     "While the interview was going on, the troops were being
+     assembled to do honor to the General on his departure.
+     Several companies were drawn up in front of the tent to
+     present arms as he came out, and a regiment escorted him to
+     the beach down the winding path, which was now lined on both
+     sides by Cuban soldiers standing about a yard apart and
+     presenting arms. The scene made a strong impression on all
+     in the party, there seemed to be such an earnestness and
+     fixedness of purpose displayed that all felt these soldiers
+     to be a power. About fifty per cent. were blacks, and the
+     rest mulattoes, with a small number of whites. They were
+     very poorly clad, many without shirts or shoes, but every
+     man had his gun and a belt full of ammunition."
+
+
+B.
+
+EXTRACT FROM A LETTER FROM A SOLDIER OF THE 10TH CAVALRY, TROOP B,
+CONCERNING THE BATTLE OF LAS GUASIMAS:
+
+     "... The platoon which escaped this ditch got on the right
+     of the 1st Cavalry on the firing line, and pushed steadily
+     forward under First Sergeant Buck, being then in two
+     squads--one under Sergeant Thompson. On account of the
+     nature of the ground and other natural obstacles, there were
+     men not connected with any squads, but who advanced with the
+     line.
+
+     Both squads fired by volley and at will, at the command of
+     the sergeants named; and their shots reached the enemy and
+     were effective, as it is generally believed.
+
+     Private W.M. Bunn, of Sergeant Thompson's squad, is reported
+     to have shot a sharpshooter from a tree just in front of the
+     enemy's work. Private Wheeler was shot twice in the advance.
+     Sergeant Thompson's squad was once stopped from firing by
+     General Wheeler's adjutant-general for fear of hitting the
+     Rough Riders.
+
+     It seems that two distinct battles were fought that day.
+     Colonel Wood's command struck the enemy at about the tame
+     time, or probably a Little before, ours did, and all unknown
+     to the men in our ranks; and got themselves into a pretty
+     tight squeeze. About the same time our force engaged the
+     enemy and drew part of the attention they were giving the
+     Rough Riders. This, the latter claimed, enabled them to
+     continue the movement on the enemy's works.
+
+     But as our command had an equal number of 1st and 10th
+     Cavalrymen, I am of the opinion that the story of our saving
+     the Rough Riders arose from the fact that as soon as the
+     fight was over, the 1st Regular Cavalry was opening its arms
+     to us, declaring that we, especially B Troop, had saved
+     them; for the 1st Regular Cavalry was first in the attack in
+     General Young's command; and when the enemy began to make it
+     pretty warm, he ordered B and I Troops of the 10th forward
+     on the right. Troop B was in the lead; and the alacrity
+     with which these two troops moved to the front has always
+     been praised by the 1st Cavalry; and they declare that that
+     movement helped them wonderfully. In making this movement my
+     troop had three or four men wounded; and later, when
+     Sergeant Thompson's squad was fighting far to the front, it
+     had in it several members of the 1st Cavalry, who are always
+     glad to praise him.
+
+     So, I think that by the Rough Riders first attributing their
+     success, or their rescue from inevitable defeat, to the
+     attack made by our command; and by the 1st Regular Cavalry's
+     very generously, in the heat of success, bestowing upon us
+     the honors of the day, it finally became a settled thing
+     that we saved the whole battle.
+
+     That evening, after the battle, I was met by Lieutenant
+     Shipp, later killed at San Juan Hill, who, on inquiring and
+     being told that I belonged to Troop B, congratulated me on
+     its conduct, and said it had made a name for the regiment.
+     Lieutenant Shipp was not in that fight, but had come up
+     after it was over and had heard of us through the 1st
+     Cavalry."
+
+
+C.
+
+     Sergeant John Buck was born September 10th, 1861, at Chapel
+     Hill, Texas; enlisted in 10th Cavalry, November 6, 1880, and
+     passed over ten years in active Indian service. He is a man
+     of strong character, an experienced horseman and packer, and
+     so commanded a portion of the firing line in the battle of
+     June 24 as to elicit remarks of praise from officers of
+     other troops "for his gallantry, coolness and good judgment
+     under fire." Sergeant Thompson's good conduct in the same
+     battle was noticeable also. Sergeant Buck was made second
+     lieutenant in the 7th U.S. Volunteer Infantry and
+     subsequently captain in the 48th United States Volunteers.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[15] See Note A at the end of this chapter.
+
+[16] THE TWENTY-FIFTH AT EL-CANEY.
+
+American valor never shone with greater luster than when the
+Twenty-fifth Infantry swept up the sizzling hill of El-Caney to the
+rescue of the rough riders. Two other regiments came into view of the
+rough riders. But the bullets were flying like driving hail; the enemy
+were in trees and ambushes with smokeless powder, and the rough riders
+were biting the dust and were threatened with annihilation.
+
+A rough rider described the feelings of his brigade when they saw the
+other regiments appear and retreat. Finally this rough rider, a
+Southerner, heard a well-known yell. And out of the distance moved a
+regiment as if on dress parade, faces set like steel, keeping step
+like a machine, their comrades falling here, there, everywhere, moving
+into the storm of invisible death without one faltering step, passing
+the rough riders, conquering up the hill, and never stopping until
+with the rough riders El-Caney was won. This was the Twenty-fifth
+Regiment (colored), United States Infantry, now quartered at Fort
+Logan, Denver. We have asked the chaplain, T.G. Steward, to recite the
+events at El-Caney. His modesty confines him to the barest recital of
+"semi-official" records. But the charge of the Twenty-fifth is
+deserving of comparison with that of "the Light Brigade" in the
+Crimean War, or of Custer at the massacre of the Big Horn.
+
+(Editorial in religious paper.)
+
+[17] See Note C at the end of this chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE BATTLE OF EL CANEY.
+
+     The Capture of the Stone Fort by the Twenty-fifth Infantry.
+
+
+While the battle of Guasimas was going on, in which the Tenth Cavalry
+took so conspicuous a part, the Twenty-fourth Infantry still remained
+on board the City of Washington awaiting orders to land. During the
+night of the 24th such orders were received by the authorities of the
+transport, and they were directed to land their troops, but the
+General Commanding, Brigadier-General Kent, did not hear of the matter
+until some time the next morning. He relates the following
+circumstances in his official report of the debarkation:
+
+"At 9 a.m. of the 25th Lieutenant Cardin, of the Revenue Marine, came
+aboard with orders for me to proceed to and disembark at Altares
+(Siboney). This officer also handed me a letter from the corps
+commander expressing his astonishment that I had remained away three
+days."
+
+General Kent also states in his report that his travel rations had
+been exhausted seven days before and that but one meal of field
+rations remained, and that the ship's supply both of water and
+provisions was running low, and that in consequence of these facts as
+well as for higher considerations he was very anxious to get on shore.
+The debarkation followed as rapidly as possible, and that afternoon
+General Kent reported in person to Major-General Wheeler, the troops
+bivouacking for the night near the landing. The next day Colonel
+Pearson, who commanded the Second Brigade of Kent's division, took
+the Second Infantry and reconnoitred along the railroad toward the
+Morro, going a distance of about six miles and returning in the
+evening, having found no enemy in that vicinity, although evidences
+were found that a force had recently retreated from a blockhouse
+situated on the railroad about two miles from Aguadores.
+
+On the day following, June 27th, the entire division moved out on the
+road toward Santiago and encamped on the same ground that Lawton had
+occupied the night previous. The Second Brigade took its place near
+Savilla, while the Third Brigade, which included the Twenty-fourth
+Infantry, went into camp at Las Guasimas, where the affair of the 24th
+had occurred. The order of march had now partially fallen back to the
+original plan: Lawton in advance, with whom was the Twenty-Fifth
+Infantry; Wheeler next, with whom was the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, and
+Kent in the rear, who had, as we have just related, the Twenty-fourth
+Infantry in his Third Brigade. In this order the army moved, so far as
+it moved at all, until the morning of the 30th, when dispositions for
+the general attack began.
+
+The story of the great battle, or as it turned out, of the two great
+battles, begins on this day, and the careers of the four colored
+regiments are to be followed through the divisions of Lawton, Kent and
+Wheeler. Let us begin, however, with General Shafter's official report
+and his "Story of Santiago," as told in the "Century" of February,
+1899.
+
+From these sources it is learned that on June 30th General Shafter
+reconnoitered the country about Santiago and determined upon a plan of
+attack. Ascending a hill from which he could obtain a good view of the
+city, and could also see San Juan Hill and the country about El Caney,
+he observed afresh what had impressed itself upon all immediately
+upon landing, to wit: That in all this country there were no good
+roads along which to move troops or transport supplies. The General
+says: "I had never seen a good road in a Spanish country, and Santiago
+did not disappoint my expectations." The roads as he saw them from the
+summit of the hill on June 30th were very poor, and indeed, little
+better than bridle paths, except between El Caney and San Juan River
+and the city. Within this region, a distance of from four to four and
+a half miles, the roads were passable. El Caney lay about four miles
+northeast of Santiago, and was strongly fortified, and, as events
+proved, strongly garrisoned. This position was of great importance to
+the enemy, because from it a force might come to attack the right
+flank and rear of the American Army as it should make its attempt on
+San Juan Hill. El Caney held the road from Guantanamo, at which point
+an important Spanish force was posted. While General Shafter was
+surveying the country from the hill at El Pozo and making what special
+examination he could of the country toward San Juan Hills, Generals
+Lawton and Chaffee were making a reconnoisance around El Caney. From
+General Lawton's report it would appear that the work of
+reconnoitering around El Caney was done chiefly by General Chaffee. He
+says: "To General Adna R. Chaffee I am indebted for a thorough and
+intelligent reconnoissance of the town of El Caney and vicinity prior
+to the battle and the submission of a plan of attack which was
+adopted. I consider General Chaffee one of the best practical soldiers
+in the army and recommend him for special distinction for successfully
+charging the stone fort mentioned in this report, the capture of which
+practically closed the battle."
+
+The general plan of attack as explained by General Shafter himself in
+his "Century" article was "to put a brigade on the road between
+Santiago and El Caney, to keep the Spaniards at the latter place from
+retreating on the city, and then with the rest of Lawton's division
+and the divisions of Wheeler and Kent, and Bates' brigade to attack
+the Spanish position in front of Santiago." Before that he had said
+that he wished to put a division in on the right of El Caney and
+assault the town on that road. To Admiral Sampson on June 26th he
+said: "I shall, if I can, put a large force in Caney, and one perhaps
+still farther west, near the pipe-line conveying water to the city,
+making my main attack from the northeast and east." His desire at this
+time was to "get the enemy in my front and the city at my back." On
+June 30th he had modified this plan so as to decide to place one
+brigade on the road between El Caney and Santiago, with a view merely
+to keeping the El Caney garrison from retreating into Santiago.
+
+As he was explaining his plan to the division officers and others on
+the afternoon of the 30th at his own headquarters, Lawton and Chaffee
+were of the opinion that they could dispose of the Spaniards at El
+Caney in two hours time. "Therefore," says the General, "I modified my
+plan, assigning Lawton's whole division for the attack of El Caney and
+directed Bates' independent brigade to his support." This last
+modification of General Shafter's plan was made in deference to the
+opinion of subordinates, and was based upon observations made
+especially by General Chaffee.
+
+The force assigned for the reduction of El Caney was to begin its work
+early in the morning, and by ten or eleven o'clock at the outside it
+was expected that the task would be accomplished and Lawton would join
+Kent and Sumner in the assault upon San Juan. Early on the morning of
+July 1st Capron's battery was got into position on a line running
+directly north from Marianage on a hill about five hundred yards east
+of Las Guasimas Creek. Lawton's division began its move on the
+afternoon of the 30th, as did in fact the whole army, and bivouacked
+that night near El Pozo. The Twenty-fifth Infantry, which belonged to
+the Second Brigade, commanded by Colonel Miles, a former Major of the
+Twenty-fifth, left El Pozo at daylight by way of the road leading
+almost due north, and marched about one mile to the little town of
+Marianage. Here a halt was made for an hour, from 6.30 to 7.30, during
+which time reconnoitering parties were sent out to examine the ground
+toward the Ducoureau House, which lay about one mile to the northward
+of Marianage, and which had been designated by General Lawton as a
+general rendezvous after the engagement should terminate.
+Reconnoissance was made also to the front for the purpose of
+discovering the enemy, and to ascertain the left of Ludlow's brigade.
+This was the first brigade of Lawton's division and consisted of the
+Eighth and Twenty-second Infantry and the Second Massachusetts, the
+last named regiment being on the right. The Second Brigade was to
+connect with this on its right and succeeded in finding the position
+of the Second Massachusetts during this halt. At 11.30 Miles' brigade
+was ordered to take position on the right of Ludlow's brigade, which
+it did in the following order: The Fourth Infantry on the left,
+joining with the Second Massachusetts on Ludlow's right; the
+Twenty-fifth on the right, with its left joining on the Fourth
+Infantry.
+
+We must now review the progress of the battle so far as it is possible
+to do so, from the firing of the first shot by Capron's battery up to
+11.30, an hour long after the time at which it had been supposed that
+El Caney would fall. Capron's reports are very brief. He says: "July
+1--Fired shell and shrappnel into El Caney (ranged 2,400) 6.15 a.m. to
+11.30 a.m." In another report he says: "Opened fire July 1, with shell
+and shrappnel at 6.15 on Caney; range, 2,400 yards; continued until
+11.30 a.m." He says that the battery "continued its fire against
+specified objectives intermittently throughout the day under the
+personal direction of the division commander." The forces we have so
+far considered, consisting of Ludlow's and Miles' brigades, and of
+Capron's battery, lay to the south of Caney, between it and Santiago,
+Ludlow's brigade having been placed there to "cut off the retreat of
+the garrison should it attempt to escape." Up to 11.30 there had been
+no call for employing it for that purpose. The garrison had made no
+attempt to escape. We must now go around to the east and north of
+Caney. Here the Third Brigade, consisting of the Seventh, Twelfth and
+Seventeenth Infantry, was posted, and early in the morning joined in
+the attack, the brigade getting under fire before eight o'clock.
+Colonel Carpenter, of the Seventh Regiment, says that one company of
+his regiment, by General Chaffee's direction, was detached and sent
+forward to reduce a blockhouse, well up on the hill, which commanded
+the approach of his regiment to the field of action. After several
+ineffectual attempts by the company, the Captain (Van Orsdale) was
+directed to abandon the undertaking and rejoin the regiment, which
+then took up a position on the crest of a hill running nearly parallel
+with the Spanish lines. From this position the men crawled forward
+about fifty yards and opened a deliberate fire upon the enemy, keeping
+it up for about an hour, but as the losses of the regiment at this
+time were considerable and the fire seemed to be without material
+effect, the command was withdrawn to its position on the hill where
+it found protection in a sunken road. In this condition this regiment
+lay when Capron's battery made its lull at 11.30. The fearful fire
+this regiment met can be estimated by the losses it sustained, which
+during the day were as follows: Killed, 1 officer and 33 enlisted men;
+wounded, 4 officers and 95 enlisted men; missing, 3 enlisted men. The
+Seventeenth Regiment went into action on the right of the Seventh,
+doing but little firing, as their orders were not to open fire unless
+they could make the fire effective. Companies C and G fired a few
+volleys; the remainder of the regiment did not fire at all. Four
+enlisted men were killed and two officers severely wounded, one,
+Lieutenant Dickinson, dying from his wounds within a few hours.
+Several enlisted men were also wounded. At 11.30 this regiment was
+lying on the right of the Seventh. The Twelfth Regiment began firing
+between 6 and 7 in the morning and advanced to take its position on
+the left of the Seventh Infantry. This regiment early reached a
+position within 350 yards of the enemy, in which it found shelter in
+the sunken road, "free from the enemy's fire." The regiment remained
+in this position until about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and, hence,
+was there at 11.30 a.m. The losses of this regiment during the day
+were, killed, 7 enlisted men; wounded, 2 officers and 31 enlisted men.
+From these brief sketches the reader will now be able to grasp the
+position of Lawton's entire division. Beginning on the south, from the
+west, with Ludlow's brigade, consisting of the Twenty-second, Eighth
+and Second Massachusetts, the line was continued by Miles' brigade of
+the Fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry; then passing over a considerable
+space, we strike Chaffee's brigade, posted as has just been described.
+General Bates' brigade probably arrived upon the field about noon.
+This brigade consisted of the Third and Twentieth Infantry, and is
+known as "Bates' Independent Brigade." The brigade is reported as
+going into action about 1 o'clock and continuing in action until 4
+o'clock. It took a position on the right, partially filling up the gap
+between Miles and Chaffee. The first battalion of the Twentieth
+Infantry went into action on the left of the Twenty-fifth Infantry's
+firing line, and one company, A, took part in the latter part of the
+charge by which the stone house was taken. Between 11.30, when
+Capron's firing stopped, and when Miles' brigade was moved forward to
+join the right of Ludlow's, and 12.20, when the battery recommenced,
+the troops, including Bates' brigade, were either in the positions
+described above or were moving to them. Noon had arrived and El Caney
+is not taken; the garrison has not attempted to escape, but is sending
+out upon its assailants a continuous and deadly fire. "Throughout the
+heaviest din of our fire," says Colonel Carpenter, "could be heard the
+peculiar high-keyed ring of the defiant enemy's shots."
+
+Twelve o'clock on July 1st, 1898, was a most anxious hour for our army
+in Cuba. The battle at El Caney was at a standstill and the divisions
+of Kent and Sumner were in a most perilous situation. Bonsal's
+description of the state of the battle at that time is pathetic.
+Speaking of the artillery at El Caney--Capron's battery--he says it
+was now apparent that this artillery, firing from its position of
+twenty-four hundred yards, could do very little damage to the great
+stone fort and earthworks north of the village. The shots were too few
+and the metal used too light to be effectual. Three hours of the
+morning had worn away and the advance of our men had been slowly made
+and at great cost; all the approaches were commanded by Spanish
+entrenchments and the fighting was very unequal. A soldier of the
+Twenty-fifth says that when he came in sight of the battle at El
+Caney, "the Americans were gaining no ground, and the flashes of the
+Spanish mausers told us that the forces engaged were unequally
+matched, the difference of position favoring the Spaniards." This view
+was had about noon, or soon after. At that time "a succession of aides
+and staff officers came galloping from headquarters with messages
+which plainly showed that confusion, if not disaster, had befallen the
+two divisions which, by the heavy firing, we had learned to our great
+surprise, had become warmly engaged in the centre. The orders to
+General Lawton from headquarters were at first peremptory in
+character--he was to pull out of his fight and to move his division to
+the support of the centre" (Bonsal). This call for Lawton arose from
+the fact that about noon General Shafter received several dispatches
+from Sumner, of the Cavalry Division, requiring assistance. General
+Sumner felt the need of the assistance of every available man in the
+centre of the line where he was carrying on his fight with the
+Spaniards on Blue House Hill. This situation so impressed the General,
+Shafter, that he finally wrote to Lawton, "You must proceed with the
+remainder of your force and join on immediately upon Sumner's right.
+If you do not the battle is lost." Shafter's idea then was to fall
+back to his original plan of just leaving enough troops at El Caney to
+prevent the garrison from going to the assistance of any other part of
+the line. Shafter himself says: "As the fight progressed I was
+impressed with the fact that we were meeting with a very stubborn
+resistance at El Caney and I began to fear that I had made a mistake
+in making two fights in one day, and sent Major Noble with orders to
+Lawton to hasten with his troops along the Caney road, placing himself
+on the right of Wheeler" (Sumner). Lawton now made a general advance,
+and it is important to see just what troops did advance. The Seventh
+Infantry did not move, for Lieutenant-Colonel Carpenter says that
+after withdrawing "to the partial cover furnished by the road, the
+regiment occupied this position from 8 o'clock a.m. until about 4.30
+p.m." The Seventeenth did not move, for Captain O'Brien, commanding,
+says the regiment took a position joining "its left with the right of
+the Seventh Infantry" and that the regiment "remained in this position
+until the battle was over." The Twelfth Infantry remained in its
+shelter within 350 yards of the stone fort until about 4 p.m. Then we
+have Chaffee's brigade on the north of the fort remaining stationary
+and by their own reports doing but little firing. The Seventeenth
+fired "for about fifty minutes" about noon, with remarkable precision,
+but "it seemingly had no effect upon reducing the Spanish fire
+delivered in our (their) front." The Seventh did not fire to any
+extent. The Twelfth Infantry lay in its refuge "free from the enemy's
+fire" and may have kept up an irregular fire.
+
+About this time Bates' brigade entered the field and one battalion of
+the Twentieth Infantry is reported to have joined the left of the
+firing line of the Twenty-fifth. General Ludlow says there was a lull
+from 12 to 1 p.m., "when the action again became violent, and at 3
+p.m. the Third Brigade captured the stone fort with a rush and hoisted
+the American flag." From Ludlow's brigade, Captain Van Horne,
+commanding the Twenty-second Infantry, after the wounding of
+Lieutenant-Colonel Patterson, says that the First Battalion of his
+regiment took a position about 800 yards from the town and kept up
+firing until the place surrendered. He does not say positively that
+the firing was upon the town, but he had said just before that the
+Second Battalion slowly moved forward, firing into the town from the
+left, so that we may readily conclude from the context as well as from
+the position that the First Battalion fired into the town also. Hence
+it seems fair to exclude from the fort all of Ludlow's brigade, and it
+is observable that Ludlow himself claims no part in the capture of
+that stronghold.
+
+General Bates says his brigade took position to the right of Colonel
+Miles' brigade and pushed rapidly to the front. He then says that
+after remaining sometime in the crossroad to the right of Miles'
+brigade, under a heavy fire from the enemy, the brigade moved farther
+"to the right to the assault of a small hill, occupied upon the top by
+a stone fort and well protected by rifle pits. General Chaffee's
+brigade charged them from the right, and the two brigades joining upon
+the crest, opened fire from this point of vantage, lately occupied by
+the Spanish, upon the village of El Caney." General Chaffee says it
+was in consequence of the fire of General Bates' troops upon the fort
+that the assault by the Twelfth Infantry was postponed.
+
+In General Chaffee's report this statement occurs: "The action lasted
+nearly throughout the day, terminating at about 4.30 p.m., at which
+time the stone blockhouse was assaulted by Captain Haskell's battalion
+of the Twelfth Infantry, under the personal direction of
+Lieutenant-Colonel Comba, commanding the regiment. The resistance at
+this point had been greatly affected by the fire of Capron's battery.
+A few moments after the seizure of this point--the key to the
+situation--my left was joined by General Bates with a portion of his
+command." It is to be noted in connection with all of the above
+statements that Major McCaskey, who commanded the Twentieth Infantry
+(Bates brigade), says: "The First Battalion was moved to the right and
+put into action on the left of the Twenty-fifth Infantry's firing
+line, and one company, A, took part in the latter part of the charge
+by which the stone house was taken." The two points to be noted here
+are (1) that this battalion was on the left of the Twenty-fifth's
+firing line, and (2) that one company took part in the charge upon the
+stone house. When Chaffee's brigade charged the stone house from the
+right some of Bates' troops, at least this Company A, from the
+battalion near the firing line of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, took part
+in the latter part of the charge. The two brigades, Bates' and
+Chaffee's, joined immediately after the capture of the stone fort and
+opened fire upon the town.
+
+We have now traced the actions and the fortunes of the three following
+brigades: Ludlow's Chaffee's and Bates'. But what has become of Miles'
+brigade? Unfortunately, the Second Brigade has not been so well
+reported as were the others engaged in the action at El Caney. We have
+seen that it was ordered to take position on the right of Ludlow's
+brigade at 11.30, when Capron's battery ceased its firing for the
+fifty minutes. "We were detained in reaching our position by troops in
+our front blocking the road," says the brigade commander. "We came
+into action directly in front of the stone blockhouse at 12.30, and
+from that hour until about 4.30, when the command 'cease firing' was
+given, the blockhouse having been captured, my command was
+continuously under fire." The reader will note in this report that the
+brigade went into action at 12.30, several hours before the charge was
+ordered by General Chaffee, and at least an hour and a half before,
+according to the report of the commander of the Third Brigade, "this
+fort was practically in the possession of the Twelfth Infantry." Major
+Baker, who commanded the Fourth Infantry, says: "About 12 m. we
+received orders directing us to take our place in the line of battle,
+and arriving at the proper point the regiment was placed in line in
+the following order: The First Battalion in the fighting line; the
+Second Battalion in support and regimental reserve. In this order the
+First Battalion, under my command, took up the advance toward the
+blockhouse, to our right, south east of Caney." This battalion
+advanced until it reached a position about 200 yards from the village,
+where it remained, assisted by the Second Battalion until the capture
+of the fort. Two companies of this First Battalion "fired into the
+town and also into the blockhouse until its fall." A good part of the
+fire of this regiment was directed upon the fort.
+
+Colonel Miles says: "The brigade advanced steadily, with such scanty
+cover as the ground afforded, maintaining a heavy fire on the stone
+fort from the time the fight began until it ended." The reader is
+asked to note particularly that this fire was continuous throughout
+the fight; that it was characterized by the brigade commander as
+"heavy," and that it was "on the stone fort". He says: "As the brigade
+advanced across a plowed field in front of the enemy's position the
+latter's sharpshooters in the houses in Caney enfiladed the left of
+our line with a murderous fire. To silence it Major Baker, Fourth
+Infantry, in command of the battalion of that regiment on the left of
+our line of battle, directed it to turn its fire upon the town. In so
+doing this battalion lost heavily, but its steady front and accurate
+volleys greatly assisted the advance of the remainder of the brigade
+upon the stone fort."
+
+We have now these facts clearly brought out or suggested: That the
+brigade took its place in line of battle soon after 12 o'clock; that
+the Fourth Infantry was on the left; that the advance of the First
+Battalion of the Fourth Infantry was "toward the blockhouse;" that
+aside from the companies of the Fourth Infantry that fired into town,
+"the remainder of the brigade advanced upon the stone fort." The
+Fourth Infantry, holding the left of the line, however, reached a
+position from which it could not advance, its commander having
+"quickly perceived that an advance meant annihilation, as it would
+involve not only a frontal, but also a flank fire from the town." Here
+the Fourth Infantry remained, but continued to maintain a fire upon
+both the blockhouse and the town.
+
+There is but one more regiment in all of Lawton's division to be
+accounted for, and that is the Twenty-fifth Infantry, holding the
+right of Miles' brigade in this advance. This regiment was in place
+in the line under its gallant and experienced commander,
+Lieutenant-Colonel A.S. Daggett, and contributed its full share of
+that "heavy fire on the stone fort from the time the fight began until
+it ended." Major McCaskey says the First Battalion of his regiment
+took a position on the left of the Twenty-fifth's firing line. The
+statement seems erroneous, and one is inclined to believe that it was
+originally written "on the right," instead of "on the left"; but it is
+enough for our purpose now, that the firing line of the Twenty-fifth
+is recognized well in advance. Major Baker, who commanded on the left
+of the brigade line, and whose advance was stopped by the flank fire
+from the village and a frontal fire from the fort, says: "as a matter
+of fact the village of El Caney was not charged by any troops. Those
+of Bates' brigade and the Twenty-fifth Infantry, after having carried
+the stone fort (on a hill some 75 feet higher, and to the east of the
+town,) fired into the village, and the Fourth Infantry continued its
+fire. Nor was it charged by any of the troops to our left. Such a
+charge would necessarily have been seen by us." Major Baker, who was
+on the field and had the blockhouse in clear view, declares that some
+of Bates' brigade and the Twenty-fifth Infantry carried the stone
+fort. Major McCaskey says that one battalion of the Twentieth Infantry
+(Bates' brigade) was on the left of the Twenty-fifth's firing line,
+and that one company (A) took part in the latter part of the charge by
+which the fort was taken. This battalion may be referred to by Major
+Baker when he says: "Those of Bates' brigade and the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry, after having carried, etc."
+
+As there are some matters of dispute concerning the events which I am
+now going to relate, I will present a soldier's statement before I go
+to the official records. The soldier in writing to me after the battle
+says: "I was left-guide of Company G (25th Infantry), and I received
+orders from Lieutenant McCorkle to guide on Fourth Infantry, which
+held the left flank. 'Forward, march! Guide left. Don't fire until you
+see somebody; then fire to hit!' came the orders. Tramp! tramp! Crash!
+crash! On we walked and stopped. We fired into the underbrush for
+safety; then in another moment we were under Spanish fire. Balls flew
+like bees, humming as they went. Soon we found ourselves up against a
+network of Spanish trickery. Barbed-wire fences, ditches and creeks,
+too numerous to think of. The only thing left was to go ahead or die;
+or else retreat like cowards. We preferred to go ahead. At this first
+fence Lieutenant McCorkle was taken to earth by a Spanish bullet.
+Lieutenant Moss spoke out, 'Come ahead! Let's get at these Spaniards!'
+A few moments more and he, too, was almost dead with exertion, loud
+speaking, running and jumping, as onward we swept toward the Spanish
+stronghold. The sun was exceedingly hot, as on the slope of a little
+mound we rested for a few moments. We lay here about five minutes,
+looking into the Spanish fort or blockhouse; we measured the distance
+by our eyesight, then with our rifles; we began to cheer and storm,
+and in a moment more, up the hill like a bevy of blue birds did the
+Twenty-fifth fly. G and H Companies were the first to reach the summit
+and to make the Spaniards fly into the city of El Caney, which lay
+just behind the hill. When we reached the summit others soon began to
+_mount our ladder_. We fired down into the city until nearly dusk."
+
+The brigade made its advance under fire almost from the beginning. The
+commander says it was continuously under fire from 12.30 to 4.30 p.m.
+"The attack was begun by two companies in each regiment on the firing
+line, strengthened by supports and reserves from the remaining
+companies until the brigade had but two companies in reserve. At one
+time in this hotly engaged contest the commanding officer of the
+Twenty-Fifth Infantry sent me word that he needed troops on his right.
+I then sent forward 40 Cubans, under command of Captains Jose' Varges
+and Avelens Bravo, with Lieutenants Nicholas Franco and Tomas Repelao,
+to form on the right of the Twenty-fifth, which was also the right of
+the brigade. With these Cubans I ordered Private Henry Downey, Company
+H, First Infantry, on duty as interpreter at the headquarters. These
+men advanced on the stone fort with our line, fighting gallantly,
+during which Lieutenant Nicholas Franco was mortally wounded and died
+soon afterwards." (Col. Miles' report.)
+
+From the soldier's story, as well as from the official report of the
+brigade commander, it is conclusive that the real objective of the
+Second Brigade was the stone fort, and that the Twenty-fifth Infantry,
+which occupied the right of the line, had no other objective
+whatever.* [Transcriber's Note: No footnote text present for this
+footnote anchor.] It also appears that Bates' brigade, although
+somewhere on the right, was not so near but that the commanding
+officer of the Twenty-fifth could see the need of troops at his right;
+and to meet this need the brigade commander "sent forward 40 Cubans,
+who advanced on the stone fort with our lines." The fire from this
+fort continued severe during the whole of the advance, and until the
+last halt made by the Twenty-fifth. At the first fence met by the
+Twenty-fifth Lieutenant McCorkle was killed; and, to use the words of
+a soldier, "as the regiment swept toward the Spanish stronghold" to
+reach the slope of a little mound for cover, many more fell. Behind
+this little mound, after resting about five minutes, they began their
+last fire upon the enemy. This must have been as late as 3 o'clock,
+and perhaps considerably later, and the fire from the stone fort was
+vigorous up until their last halt, as their casualties prove. The
+battery had begun to fire on the fort again at 12.30 and continued
+from the same position until 2.10, the range being as has been already
+stated, 2,400 yards. Hence the artillery firing at long range had
+ceased, and it is generally conceded that this long range firing had
+been ineffective. Captain Capron says he moved his battery at 2.10
+p.m. to 1,000 yards from Caney and opened fire on two blockhouses. He
+does not say at what hour he opened fire on these two blockhouses, or
+how long he continued to fire, or what was the effect of his fire upon
+the two block houses. Lieutenant-Colonel Bisbee, who was acting as
+support of Capron's battery, says of himself that he "moved with the
+battery at 3.30 p.m. by the Dubroix (Ducureaux) road." General Lawton
+says the battery was moved to a new position about 2.30, "about 1,000
+yards from certain blockhouses in the town, where a few shots, all
+taking effect, were fired." From these reports it would appear that
+after moving to the second station the battery fired upon two
+blockhouses in the town, and not upon the stone fort. General Ludlow,
+speaking of the battle, says: "In the present case, the artillery fire
+was too distant to reduce the blockhouses or destroy the
+entrenchments, so that the attack was practically by infantry alone."
+On the other hand, General Chaffee says: "The resistance at this
+point," meaning the stone fort at the time of assault, "had been
+greatly affected by the fire of Capron's battery." Colonel Comba, of
+the Twelfth Infantry, says: "The artillery made the breach through
+which our men entered the stone work." Bonsal says that Captain
+Capron, "under the concentrated fire of his four guns at a point blank
+range of a thousand yards, had converted the fort into a shapeless
+ruin," when the infantry charged it.
+
+It is probable that in this case, as in most cases of similar nature,
+the truth divides equally between the apparently opposing views. Of
+General Ludlow, who is the authority for this statement, that the
+stone fort at El Caney was taken by infantry alone, General Lawton
+says: "General Ludlow's professional accomplishments are well known
+and his assignment to command a brigade in my division I consider a
+high compliment to myself." "The fighting was all done with small
+arms" were the words written me by an infantryman soon after the
+battle. The question, whether Capron fired upon the stone fort after
+taking his new position, or fired on two blockhouses, entirely
+distinct from the fort, remains undetermined. The author of this work
+inclines to the conclusion that the fire of Capron after moving to his
+new position was directed for a brief period, at least, upon the stone
+fort.
+
+Inasmuch as we are now to trace the career of the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry through an unfortunate dispute, on both sides of which are
+officers of high rank and unimpeachable honor, it is important to
+note, first, to what extent the several statements, both unofficial
+and official, can be harmonized and made to corroborate one another.
+Major Baker says: "Those of Bates' brigade and the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry, after having carried the stone fort," which he explains was
+some 75 feet higher than the town, then fired _down_ into the village.
+The soldier who acted as left-guide of Company G, Twenty-fifth
+Infantry, says, after getting up on the hill, "we fired _down_ into
+the city until near dusk." The experience of the soldier agrees
+exactly with the report of the officer. The fact that the Twenty-fifth
+went up the hill cannot be questioned, and that up to their last halt,
+they went under fire, no one will deny. Bonsal, in speaking of
+Chaffee's brigade, which was "more immediately charged with the
+reduction of Caney" (Ludlow's report), says: "And it was nearly five
+o'clock when his most advanced regiment, the gallant Twelfth Infantry,
+deployed into the valley and charged up the steep hillside, which was
+lined with Spanish trenches, rising in irregular tiers and crowned
+with a great stone fort." The stone fort at this time, however, was,
+as he says, "a shapeless ruin." Where was the Twenty-fifth Infantry at
+this time? Mr. Bonsal continues: "Almost at the same moment the
+Twenty-fifth Colored Infantry, the leading regiment of Miles' brigade,
+which had been advancing in the centre, started up the hill also."
+General Lawton says that after moving the battery to its new position,
+1,000 yards from certain blockhouses in the town, Capron fired a few
+shots, all of which took effect, and he adds: "This firing terminated
+the action, as the Spanish garrison were attempting to escape."
+Colonel Comba says there was a breach in the stonework large enough
+for his men to enter, and that this had been made by the artillery;
+General Chaffee says resistance had been greatly affected by the
+artillery, and Bonsal adds, the garrison resisted the last advance
+made by the infantry but for a moment.
+
+General Chaffee declares: "The troops arriving at the fort were there
+in the following order: Twelfth Infantry, which took the place; the
+command of General Bates some moments later; the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry."
+
+The facts therefore stand, that the Twenty-fifth Infantry was on the
+ground with the first troops that reached the fort and that there was
+a captain of that regiment who then and there claimed the capture of
+the place, even against the claims of a Major-General. He was told
+that his proposition was absurd, and so it may have been from one
+standpoint; and yet there may be a ground upon which the captain's
+claim was fair and just.
+
+That the Twelfth Infantry arrived on the ground first is not disputed;
+but it is questioned whether the fort was belligerent at that time.
+General Chaffee says the resistance had been greatly reduced by the
+artillery; General Lawton says the action had been finished by
+Capron's shots and the garrison was trying to escape; a soldier from
+the Twenty-fifth says the Spaniards flew out of the fort to the town;
+Bonsal says, they stoutly resisted "for a moment and then fled
+precipitately down the ravine and up the other side, and into the
+town." If first occupancy is the only ground upon which the capture of
+a place can be claimed, then the title to the honor of capturing the
+stone fort lies, according to official report as so far presented,
+with the Twelfth Infantry. But even upon this ground it will be shown
+that the Twenty-fifth's action will relieve the claim of its captain
+from absurdity. We are now prepared to read the official report of the
+commanding officer of the Twenty-fifth Regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel
+Daggett, who was with the regiment all through the fight, and who bore
+himself so well that the division commander said: "Lieutenant-Colonel
+Daggett deserves special mention for skillful handling of his
+regiment, and would have received it before had the fact been reported
+by his brigade commander."
+
+     July 5, 1898.
+
+     Intrenchments Twenty-fifth United States Infantry,
+     Adjutant-General, Second Brigade, Second Division, Fifth
+     Corps.
+
+     Sir:--I have the honor to submit the following report of the
+     part taken by the Twenty-fifth Infantry in the battle of the
+     1st instant. The regiment formed firing line on the right of
+     the Fourth Infantry, facing a Spanish fort or blockhouse
+     about half a mile distant. On moving forward, the battalion,
+     composed of Companies C, D, E, G and H, and commanded by
+     Capt. W.S. Scott, received the fire of the enemy, and after
+     advancing about 400 yards was subjected to a galling fire on
+     their left. Finding cover, the battalion prepared for an
+     advance up the hill to the fort. This advance was made
+     rapidly and conducted with great skill by company officers.
+
+     "On arriving within a short distance of the fort the white
+     flag was waved to our companies, but a cross fire prevented
+     the enemy from advancing with it or our officers from
+     receiving it. About twenty minutes later a battalion of some
+     other regiment advanced to the rear of the fort, completely
+     covered from fire, and received the flag; but the men of the
+     Twenty-fifth Infantry entered the fort at the same time. All
+     officers and men behaved gallantly. One officer was killed
+     and three wounded; eight men were killed and twenty wounded.
+
+     "About 200 men and ten officers were in the firing line. I
+     attribute the comparatively small losses to the skill and
+     bravery of the company officers, viz.: First Lieutenant
+     Caldwell and Second Lieutenants Moss and Hunt. Second
+     Lieutenant French, adjutant of the battalion, was among
+     those who gallantly entered the fort.
+
+     "The battle lasted about two hours and was a hotly contested
+     combat. Very respectfully,
+
+     "A.S. DAGGETT,
+     "Lieutenant-Colonel, Twenty-fifth Infantry, Commanding."
+
+Here it is shown by the testimony of the regimental commander, that a
+battalion of the Twenty-fifth ascended the hill and arrived at a short
+distance from the fort about twenty minutes before any other troops
+are mentioned as coming in sight; and that a white flag was waved to
+the companies of the Twenty-fifth. It was doubtless upon this ground
+that a captain of the Twenty-fifth had the temerity to claim the
+capture of the place, even from a Major-General. I do not know who the
+captain was, but it is evident that he had what he believed ample
+grounds for his claim. Colonel Daggett says, also, that when the men
+of the other regiment advanced to this fort after it had waved the
+white flag to the companies of the Twenty-fifth, the men of the
+Twenty-fifth advanced and entered the fort at the same time. Bonsal
+says: "Almost at the same moment that the Twelfth started up the hill
+the Twenty-fifth started up the hill also;" while according to Colonel
+Daggett's testimony the Twenty-fifth was well up the hill already and
+the fort had waved to it the white flag.
+
+Colonel Daggett makes this further report:
+
+     Headquarters Twenty-fifth Infantry,
+     Near Santiago, Cuba, July 16, 1898.
+
+     The Adjutant-General, Second Division, Fifth Corps, near Santiago,
+     Cuba.
+
+     Sir:--Feeling that the Twenty-fifth Infantry has not
+     received credit for the part it took in the battle of El
+     Caney on the first instant, I have the honor to submit the
+     following facts:
+
+     I was ordered by the brigade commander to put two companies
+     (H, Lieutenant Caldwell, and G, Lieutenant McCorkle) on the
+     firing line in extended order. The right being uncovered and
+     exposed to the enemy, I ordered D Company (Captain Edwards)
+     to deploy as flankers. The battalion was commanded by Capt.
+     W.S. Scott. The battalion advanced about 300 yards under
+     fire, the Fourth Infantry on its left, where the line found
+     cover, halted, and opened fire on the blockhouse and
+     intrenchments in front of it. After the line had been
+     steadied and had delivered an effective fire, I ordered a
+     further advance, which was promptly made. As the Fourth
+     Infantry did not advance, my left was exposed to a very
+     severe fire from the village on the left. I immediately
+     ordered Company C (Lieutenant Murdock), which was in
+     support, to the front, and E. Company (Lieutenant Kinnison)
+     from regimental reserve to take its place. Thus
+     strengthened, the four companies moved up the hill rapidly,
+     being skilfully handled by company officers. On arriving
+     near the fort the white flag was waved toward our men, but
+     the fire from the village on our left was so severe that
+     neither our officers nor Spanish could pass over the
+     intervening ground. After about twenty minutes some of the
+     Twelfth Infantry arrived in rear of the fort, completely
+     sheltered from the fire from the village, and received the
+     white flag; but Privates J.H. Jones, of Company D, and T.C.
+     Butler, H. Company, Twenty-fifth Infantry, entered the fort
+     at the same time and took possession of the Spanish flag.
+     They were ordered to give it up by an officer of the Twelfth
+     United States Infantry, but before doing so they each tore a
+     piece from it, which they now have. So much for the facts.
+
+     I attribute the success attained by our line largely to the
+     bravery and skill of the company officers who conducted the
+     line to the fort. These officers are: First Lieutenants V.A.
+     Caldwell and J.A. Moss, and Second Lieutenant J.E. Hunt. It
+     is my opinion that the two companies first deployed could
+     not have reached the fort alone, and that it was the two
+     companies I ordered to their support that gave them the
+     power to reach it. I further believe that had we failed to
+     move beyond the Fourth Infantry the fort would not have been
+     taken that night.
+
+     The Twenty-fifth Infantry lost one officer killed[18] and
+     three wounded, and seven men killed and twenty-eight
+     wounded.
+
+     Second Lieutenant H.W. French, adjutant of Captain Scott's
+     battalion, arrived at the fort near the same time as the
+     other officers.
+
+     I request that this report be forwarded to corps
+     headquarters.
+
+     Very respectfully,
+
+     A.S. DAGGETT,
+     Lieutenant-Colonel, Twenty-fifth Infantry, Commanding.
+
+General Chaffee's statement is not to be questioned for a moment.
+There is not the least doubt that the troops, as organizations arrived
+at the fort in the order he describes. General Lawton says: "General
+Chaffee's brigade was especially charged with the duty of assaulting
+the stone fort, and successfully executed that duty, after which a
+portion of the Twenty-fifth, and a portion of Bates' brigade, assisted
+in the work, all of which is commendable." He says also, that the
+"Twenty-fifth Infantry did excellent service, as reported, though
+not better than the others engaged.' This seems to confirm
+Lieutenant-Colonel Daggett's report, for he says he is sure the
+regiment did excellent work, "as reported;" and at that time he is
+commenting on Lieutenant-Colonel Daggett's report, the report printed
+above. The broad statements of General Lawton do not touch the exact
+question at issue between the reports of the subordinate commanders;
+nor do they throw any light on the circumstances of the final charge.
+Miles' brigade had been advancing on the stone fort for some hours,
+and the Twenty-fifth was so near when the charge of the Twelfth was
+made that portions of it were on the hill and near the fort at the
+same time. The commander of the Third Brigade saw the fight from one
+side and reported events as he learned them. His official statement
+requires no support. The commanding officer of the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry saw the fight from another standpoint, and his official
+reports are entitled to equal respect. Both the General's and the
+Lieutenant-Colonel's must be accepted as recitals of facts, made with
+all the accuracy that high personal integrity armed with thorough
+military training can command. Happily the statements, which at first
+appear so widely at variance, are entirely reconcilable. The following
+supplementary report of the regimental commander, when taken in
+connection with the final complimentary orders published in the
+regiment before leaving Cuba, will place the whole subject before the
+reader and put the question at rest, and at the same time leave
+undisturbed all the reports of superior officers.
+
+     Headquarters Twenty-fifth Infantry,
+     Montauk Point, Long Island, August 22, 1898.
+
+     The Adjutant-General, U.S. Army, Washington, D.C.
+
+     Sir:--I have the honor to submit a supplementary report to
+     the original one made on the 19th (16th) of July, 1898, of
+     the battle of El Caney de Cuba, so far as relates to the
+     part taken therein by the Twenty-fifth Infantry:
+
+     1. I stated in the original report that the Twenty-fifth
+     Infantry, in advancing, broke away from and left the Fourth
+     Infantry behind. This may inferentially reflect on the
+     latter regiment. It was not so intended, and a subsequent
+     visit to the battle-field convinces me that it would have
+     been impossible for the regiment to advance to the fort,
+     and, although it might have advanced a short distance
+     farther, it would have resulted in a useless slaughter, and
+     that the battalion commander exercised excellent judgment in
+     remaining where he did and by his fire aiding the
+     Twenty-fifth Infantry in its advance.
+
+     2. Colonel Miles, the then brigade commander, informed me
+     that his first report of the battle would be brief and that
+     a later and full report would be made. In his former report
+     I think he failed to give credit to myself and regiment. As
+     he was soon after relieved of the command of the brigade I
+     assume that no further report will be made.
+
+     I have reported what the regiment did, but said nothing
+     about my own action. I must, therefore, report it myself or
+     let it go unrecorded. Distasteful as it is to me, I deem it
+     duty to my children to state the facts and my claims based
+     thereon, as follows:
+
+     1. I was ordered to put two companies in the firing line.
+     Before this line advanced the brigade commander informed me,
+     and personal examination verified, that my right was in the
+     air and exposed. On my own judgment I ordered a company, as
+     flankers, to that part of the line.
+
+     2. As soon as the line had rested and become steadied at its
+     first halt I ordered it to advance, and it continued to
+     advance, although it broke away from the rest of the
+     brigade.
+
+     3. As this exposed the left to a galling and dangerous fire,
+     I ordered, on my own judgment, a company to re-enforce that
+     part of the line and a company from the regimental reserve
+     also to the fighting line.
+
+     These are the facts, and as my orders were to keep my left
+     joined to the right of the Fourth Infantry, and received no
+     further orders, my claims are as follows:
+
+     1. That it was necessary to place a company on the right as
+     flankers.
+
+     2. That the conditions offered an opportunity to advance
+     after the first halt, and I took advantage of it.
+
+     3. That the left being exposed by this advance of the line
+     beyond the rest of the brigade, it was proper and necessary
+     to re-enforce it by two companies.
+
+     4. That the two companies first deployed could not have
+     reached the stone fort.
+
+     5. That the three companies added to the firing line gave it
+     the power to reach the fort.
+
+     6. That the advance beyond the rest of the brigade was a
+     bold and, without support, dangerous movement, but that the
+     result justified the act. Had it failed I would have been
+     held responsible.
+
+     7. That I saw at each stage of the battle what ought to be
+     done, and did it. Results show that it was done at the right
+     moment.
+
+     8. That the Twenty-fifth Infantry caused the surrender of
+     the stone fort.
+
+     I desire to repeat that it is with great reluctance that I
+     make so much of this report as relates to myself, and
+     nothing but a sense of duty would impel me to do it.
+
+     Very respectfully,
+
+     A.S. DAGGETT,
+     Lieutenant-Colonel, Twenty-fifth Infantry, Commanding.
+
+
+LOSSES OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH INFANTRY.
+
+     Killed.--Lieutenant H.L. McCorkle, Company G; Private Albert
+     Strother, H; Private John W. Steele, D; Corporal Benj.
+     Cousins, H; Private John B. Phelps, D; Private French Payne,
+     B; Private Aaron Leftwich, G; Private Tom Howe, D.
+
+     Wounded.--Company A: Private William H. Clarke, Sergeant
+     Stephen A. Browne. Company B: Private Tom Brown. Company C:
+     Lieutenant John S. Murdock, Private Joseph L. Johnson,
+     Private Samuel W. Harley, Private John A. Boyd. Company D;
+     Captain Eaton A. Edwards, Sergeant Hayden Richards, Private
+     Robert Goodwin. Company E: Lieutenant H.L. Kinnison, Private
+     James Howard, Private John Saddler, Private David C. Gillam,
+     Private Hugh Swann. Company F: First Sergeant Frank Coleman.
+     Company G: Corporal James O. Hunter, Private Henry
+     Brightwell, Private David Buckner, Private Alvin Daniels,
+     Private Boney Douglas, Private George P. Cooper, Private
+     John Thomas, Corporal Gov. Staton, Private Eugene Jones.
+     Company H: Private James Bevill, Private Henry Gilbert.
+
+     Wounded July 2.--Private Elwood A. Forman, H; Private Smith,
+     D; Private William Lafayette, F.
+
+COMPLIMENTARY ORDER.
+
+     Headquarters 25th Infantry,
+
+     Near Santiago de Cuba, August 11, 1898.
+     General Orders No. 19.
+
+     The regimental commander congratulates the regiment on the
+     prospect of its speedy return to the United States.
+
+     Gathered from three different stations, many of you
+     strangers to each other, you assembled as a regiment for the
+     first time in more than twenty-eight years on May 7, 1898,
+     at Tampa, Florida. There you endeavored to solidify and
+     prepare yourselves, as far as the oppressive weather would
+     permit, for the work that appeared to be before you; but,
+     who could have fortold the severity of that work?
+
+     You endured the severe hardships of a long sea voyage, which
+     no one who has not experienced it can appreciate. You then
+     disembarked, amidst dangerous surroundings; and on landing
+     were for the first time on hostile ground. You marched,
+     under a tropical sun, carrying blanket-roll, three days'
+     rations, and one hundred rounds of ammunition, through rain
+     and mud, part of the time at night, sleeping on the wet
+     ground without shelter, living part of the time on scant
+     rations, even, of bacon, hard bread and coffee, until on
+     July 1 you arrived at El Caney. Here you took the battle
+     formation and advanced to the stone fort, more like veterans
+     than troops who had never been under fire. You again
+     marched, day and night, halting only to dig four lines of
+     intrenchments, the last being the nearest point to the enemy
+     reached by any organization, when, still holding your
+     rifles, within these intrenchments, notice was received that
+     Santiago and the Spanish army had surrendered.
+
+     But commendable as the record cited may be, the brightest
+     hours of your lives were on the afternoon of July 1. Formed
+     in battle array, you advanced to the stone fort against
+     volleys therefrom, and rifle-pits in front, and against a
+     galling fire from blockhouses, the church tower and the
+     village on your left. You continued to advance, skilfully
+     and bravely directed by the officers in immediate command,
+     halting and delivering such a cool and well-directed fire
+     that the enemy was compelled to wave the white flag in token
+     of surrender.
+
+     Seldom have troops been called upon to face a severer fire,
+     and never have they acquitted themselves better.
+
+     The regimental reserve was called upon to try its nerve, by
+     lying quiet under a galling fire, without the privilege of
+     returning it, where men were killed and wounded. This is a
+     test of nerve which the firing line cannot realize, and
+     requires the highest qualities of bravery and endurance.
+
+     You may well return to the United States proud of your
+     accomplishments; and if any one asks you what you have done,
+     point him to El Caney.
+
+     But in the midst of the joy of going home, we mourn the loss
+     of those we leave behind. The genial, generous-hearted
+     McCorkle fell at his post of duty, bravely directing his men
+     in the advance on the stone fort. He died as the soldier
+     dies, and received a soldier's burial. He was beloved by all
+     who knew him, and his name will always be fondly remembered
+     by his regiment--especially by those who participated in the
+     Santiago campaign. The officers of the regiment will wear
+     the prescribed badge of mourning for Lieutenant McCorkle for
+     thirty days. And Corporal Benjamin Cousins, Privates Payne,
+     Lewis, Strother, Taliaferro, Phelps, Howell, Steel and
+     Leftwitch, sacrificed their lives on their country's altar.
+     Being of a race which only thirty-five years ago emerged
+     through a long and bloody war, from a condition of
+     servitude, they in turn engaged in a war which was
+     officially announced to be in the interest of humanity and
+     gave all they had--their lives--that the oppressed might be
+     free, and enjoy the blessings of liberty guaranteed by a
+     stable government. They also died like true soldiers and
+     received a soldier's burial.
+
+     By order of Lieutenant-Colonel Daggett.
+
+     M.D. CRONIN,
+     First Lieutenant and Adjutant, 25th Infantry.
+
+
+MAJOR GENERAL AARON S. DAGGETT.
+
+General Aaron S. Daggett is a native of Maine, born at Greene Corner,
+in that State, June 14, 1837. He is descended from a paternal ancestry
+which can be traced, with an honorable record, as far back as 1100
+A.D. His mother was Dorcas C., daughter of Simon Dearborn, a
+collateral descendant of General Henry Dearborn. His more immediate
+ancestors came from Old to New England about 1630, and both his
+grandparents served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary
+War. He was educated in his native town, at Monmouth Academy, Maine
+Wesleyan Seminary and Bates College. At the outbreak of the Civil War
+he enlisted as a private, April 27th, 1861, in the 5th Maine Infantry;
+was appointed second lieutenant May 1, and promoted first lieutenant
+May 24, 1861. He commanded his company at the first Bull Run battle,
+and was promoted captain August 14, 1861.
+
+[Illustration: Lieutenant-Colonel A.S. Daggett]
+
+From the first engagement of the regiment to the end of its three
+years' memorable service, Captain Daggett proved a faithful and
+gallant soldier. He was promoted major, January 8th, 1863; on January
+18th, 1865, was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 5th Regiment,
+United States Veteran Volunteers, Hancock Corps, and was brevetted
+colonel and brigadier-general of volunteers, March 13, 1865, for
+"gallant and meritorious services during the war." He also received
+the brevets of major in the United States Army for "gallant and
+meritorious services at the battle of Rappahannock Station, Va.,"
+November 7, 1863, and lieutenant-colonel for "gallant and meritorious
+services in the battle of the Wilderness, Va." Immediately after the
+battle of Rappahannock Station, the captured trophies, flags, cannons,
+etc., were escorted, by those who had been most conspicuous in the
+action, to General Meade's headquarters, Colonel Daggett being in
+command of the battalion of his brigade. General Upton to whom he owed
+this distinction, wrote of him as follows:
+
+     "In the assault at Rappahannock Station, Colonel Daggett's
+     regiment captured over five hundred prisoners. In the
+     assault at Spottsylvania Court House, May 10, his regiment
+     lost six out of seven captains, the seventh being killed on
+     the 12th of May, at the "angle," or the point where the tree
+     was shot down by musketry, on which ground the regiment
+     fought from 9.30 A.M. to 5.30 P.M., when it was relieved. On
+     all these occasions Colonel Daggett was under my immediate
+     command, and fought with distinguished bravery.
+
+     "Throughout his military career in the Army of the Potomac,
+     he maintained the character of a good soldier and an upright
+     man, and his promotion would be commended by all those who
+     desire to see courage rewarded."
+
+General Upton also wrote to the Governor of Maine as follows:
+
+     "I would respectfully recommend to Your Excellency, Major
+     A.S. Daggett, formerly 5th Maine Volunteers, as an officer
+     highly qualified to command a regiment. Major Daggett served
+     his full term in this brigade with honor both to himself and
+     State, and won for himself the reputation of being a brave,
+     reliable and efficient officer. His promotion to a colonelcy
+     would be a great benefit to the service, while the honor of
+     his State could scarcely be entrusted to safer hands."
+
+He was subsequently recommended for promotion by Generals Meade,
+Hancock, Wright and D.A. Russell. He was in every battle and campaign
+in which the Sixth Corps, Army of the Potomac, was engaged, from the
+first Bull Run to Petersburg, and was twice slightly wounded. On July
+28, 1866, without his knowledge or solicitation, he was appointed a
+captain in the U.S. Regular Army, on recommendation of General Grant,
+and has since been promoted colonel in this service. During his
+subsequent career he has won the reputation of being a fine tactician
+and of being thoroughly versed in military law, as is indicated by
+Major Hancock's commendatory words in 1878:
+
+     "I look upon him as by far the best tactician in the
+     regiment, and as for a thorough, clear knowledge of tactics
+     his superior is not in the army. As regards military and
+     civil law, I know of no one so well informed."
+
+His ability and soldierly qualities have also been highly commended by
+General Crook, Colonel Hughes--Inspector-General in 1891--and Colonel
+----, Inspector-General in 1892.
+
+Not only as a soldier, but in many other ways, has General Daggett
+distinguished himself. As a public speaker the following was said of
+him by the Rev. S.S. Cummings, of Boston:
+
+     "It was my privilege and pleasure to listen to an address
+     delivered by General A.S. Daggett on Memorial Day of 1891. I
+     had anticipated something able and instructive, but it far
+     exceeded my fondest expectations. The address was dignified,
+     yet affable, delivered in choice language without
+     manuscript, instructive and impressive, and highly
+     appreciated by an intelligent audience."
+
+General Daggett is noted for his courteous and genial manner, and his
+sterling integrity of character. He is a member of the Presbyterian
+church.
+
+     War Department, Inspector-General's Office,
+     Washington, Jan. 6th, 1899.
+
+     To the Adjutant-General, U.S.A., Washington, D.C.
+
+     Sir:--I desire to recommend to your favorable consideration
+     and for advancement in case of the reorganization of the
+     Regular Army, Lieutenant-Colonel A.S. Daggett, 25th U.S.
+     Infantry.
+
+     I have known Colonel Daggett for a long time; he served in
+     the War of the Rebellion with the 5th Maine Volunteers and
+     acquitted himself with much honor; he served in Cuba in the
+     war with Spain, commanding the 25th U.S. Infantry, and was
+     conspicuous for gallantry at the battle of El Caney. He is
+     an officer of the highest character, intelligent, courageous
+     and energetic.
+
+     I sincerely trust that he may receive all the consideration
+     he deserves.
+
+     Very respectfully,
+
+     (Sd) H.W. LAWTON,
+     Major-General, U.S.V.
+
+     A true copy:
+
+
+     M.D. CRONIN,
+     First Lieutenant and Adjutant 25th Infantry.
+     Headquarters Department of the East,
+     Governor's Island, New York City,
+     December 29, 1898.
+
+     Honorable R.A. Alger, Secretary of War, Washington, D.C.
+
+     Sir:--I recommend to the favorable consideration of the
+     Secretary of War for promotion to Brigadier-General, Colonel
+     A.S. Daggett, 25th Infantry. This officer has an excellent
+     war record; his service has been faithful since then, and in
+     the recent Spanish-American war he distinguished himself by
+     his good judgment and faithful attention to duty, as well as
+     for gallant service in action. An appointment of this
+     character will be very highly appreciated throughout the
+     army as a recognition of faithful, meritorious and gallant
+     service. From my observation of Colonel Daggett he is well
+     qualified for the position.
+
+     Very respectfully,
+
+     (Sd) WM. R. SHAFTER,
+     Major-General, U.S. Volunteers.
+
+     M.D. CRONIN,
+
+     A true copy:
+
+     First Lieutenant and Adjutant 25th Infantry.
+
+To this very brilliant official record it is necessary to add but a
+word personal. Colonel Daggett is a typical New Englander; tall,
+well-formed, nervous and sinewy, a centre of energy, making himself
+felt wherever he may be. Precise and forceful of speech, correct and
+sincere in manners, a safe counsellor and a loyal friend, his
+character approaches the ideal. Stern and commanding as an officer he
+is nevertheless tender and sympathetic. His very sensitiveness
+concerning the feelings of others embarrasses him in giving expression
+to his own feelings on seeing suffering, unless it should be urgent,
+but those who know him best know him to be just, humane and tender. No
+man could have taken more care than he did for his regiment in Cuba.
+Hating oppression and wrong with a vehemency suited to his intense
+nature, he nevertheless deplores war and bloodshed. The President of
+the United States never did a more worthy act than when he gave to
+Lieutenant-Colonel A.S. Daggett of the Twenty-fifth Infantry his
+commission as Brigadier-General of Volunteers in recognition of his
+valor and skill at El Caney and of his general efficiency as an
+officer in our army.
+
+TESTIMONIES CONCERNING THE WORK OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH INFANTRY BEFORE EL
+CANEY.
+
+
+     Headquarters First District, Southern Luzon,
+     El Deposito, P.I., April 20, 1900.
+
+     My Dear General Daggett:--Some time ago I received a letter
+     from you asking me to make an official statement as to where
+     and at what objective the energies and fire of the 25th
+     Infantry were directed during the battle of El Caney, Cuba,
+     July 1, 1898.
+
+     In reply I have the honor to officially state that about
+     noon July 1, 1898, the regiment moved from the mango grove,
+     near the Ducro House, toward a stone fort located on a hill,
+     near the town of El Caney.
+
+     It arrived at about one of the afternoon at a point about
+     eight hundred yards to the south and east of the fort;
+     immediately deployed, and the First Battalion, under command
+     of Captain Walter S. Scott, and of which I was adjutant,
+     designated as the attacking line. Presently, after advancing
+     a few yards, we were subjected to a galling fire from the
+     stone fort, the trenches in its front and from a blockhouse
+     on its right. The line steadily moved forward, directing its
+     fire at the stone fort and the trenches surrounding it. When
+     within about one hundred and fifty yards from the fort the
+     line was halted, and several sharpshooters, directed by
+     their company officers to fire at the loopholes. Finally,
+     when the men had regained their wind, a rush was made, part
+     of the line going through a cornfield. At the foot the line
+     was again halted, and after a few moments' rest charged up
+     the hill, and the fort surrendered.
+
+     I went to the fort and found a Spanish lieutenant and seven
+     enlisted men whom I passed out and were taken charge of by
+     an officer of the 12th Infantry. This was about 3.50 P.M.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+          Note.--Since the above was written, General Daggett
+          served with great distinction in the Philippines and in
+          China, and was retired as a brigadier-general--a hero
+          of four wars. A bill is now before Congress to make him
+          a major-general, an honor to which he is most justly
+          entitled.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     As soon as the line reached the top of the hill it was
+     fired on from the town, which had before been masked by the
+     hill; the fire was of course returned, and this was the
+     first fire from the battalion directed at the town. About
+     five o'clock firing had ceased, the battalion was assembled
+     and marched away.
+
+     (Sd) H.W. FRENCH,
+     First Lieutenant, 17th Infantry (late Second Lieutenant 25th
+     Infantry).
+
+     A true copy:
+
+     H.G. LEARNARD,
+     Capt. and Adj. 14th Infantry.
+     Manila, P.I., March 30, 1900.
+
+     I certify that in the action of El Caney, Cuba, July 1,
+     1898, the company I commanded, i.e., H, 25th Infantry,
+     directed its fire almost exclusively on the stone fort and
+     the trench a few yards from its base. That very little of
+     this company's fire was directed on the town and none before
+     the fort was carried.
+
+     (Sd) VERNON A. CALDWELL,
+     First Lieutenant, 25th Infantry.
+
+     A true copy:
+
+     H.G. LEARNARD,
+     Capt. and Adj. 14th Infantry.
+     Tayug, Luzon, Philippine Islands,
+     April 17th, 1900.
+
+     To Those in Military Authority.
+
+     Regarding the battle of El Caney, Cuba, July 1, 1898, I
+     hereby certify:
+
+     1. From about 1.20 o'clock P.M. to the time of the capture
+     of the town of El Caney, I was in command of two
+     companies--C and G--forming part of the 25th U.S. Infantry
+     firing line.
+
+     2. From about 2.55 o'clock P.M. to the time of the capture
+     of the town, very nearly the entire 25th Infantry firing
+     line was under my observation.
+
+     3. From about 2.55 o'clock P. M. to about 3.20, the time of
+     the surrender of the stone fort to the east of the town, the
+     fire of the entire 25th Infantry firing line within my sight
+     was directed against the fort.
+
+     4. During this period of the battle the 25th Infantry firing
+     line was about 150 yards from the stone fort.
+
+     5. From the time the firing line began firing--about 1
+     o'clock P.M.--to the time of the surrender of the stone
+     fort--about 3.20 P.M.--the companies under my command and
+     all others under my observation concentrated their fire on
+     the fort.
+
+     6. About 3.20 P.M., I was standing about 150 yards from the
+     stone fort, and I plainly and distinctly saw a Spaniard
+     appear in the door of the fort, and, for two or three
+     seconds, wave a white flag at the 25th Infantry firing line,
+     and upon being shot down, another Spaniard picked up the
+     flag and likewise waved it at the 25th Infantry firing line.
+
+     7. After the white flag had twice been presented to the 25th
+     Infantry firing line, and after all fire from the stone fort
+     had ceased, the firing line rushed forward, took up a
+     position facing to their left--that is, facing the town--and
+     began a vigorous fire on a small blockhouse and on the town.
+
+     Respectfully,
+
+     JAMES A. MOSS,
+     First Lieutenant, 24th U.S. Infantry.
+
+
+
+RECOLLECTIONS OF THE SANTIAGO CAMPAIGN, BY CAPTAIN R.H.R.
+LOUGHBOROUGH, 25TH U.S. INFANTRY.
+
+     The 25th U.S. Infantry left its stations in Montana on the
+     10th of April, 1898; six companies (B, C, D, E, F and H)
+     went in camp at Chickamauga National Park; the other two
+     companies (A and G) went to Key West, Fla.
+
+     On May 6th the six companies at the Chickamauga National
+     Park moved by rail to Tampa, Fla., arriving the night of the
+     7th, where they were joined by the two companies from Key
+     West. With the exception of three days in 1870, the regiment
+     had never been together since its organization in 1869. It
+     necessarily followed that many of the officers, as well as
+     men, were strangers to each other.
+
+     Our camp at Tampa was fair; the ground is sandy and flat,
+     but as the rainy season had not set in, it was dry and the
+     health was good. Drills and parades were held daily (Sundays
+     excepted), but on account of the intense heat the hours for
+     it were limited to the early mornings and after sunset. The
+     clothing of the men was the same they had worn in Montana,
+     and did not add to their comfort. Supplies of all kinds
+     (except rations) came by piecemeal, and we finally sailed
+     for the tropics with the same clothing used in the
+     Northwest.
+
+     At 6 o'clock P.M. June 6th the regiment received orders to
+     strike tents and be ready to move within an hour; the order
+     was immediately complied with, though the necessary
+     transportation to move the baggage did not report until the
+     forenoon of the following day; it was not far from noon when
+     the last of it left the camp for the railroad station, en
+     route to Port Tampa, where we were to embark on transports
+     for the seat of war.
+
+     As soon as the camp equipage was started, the regiment was
+     formed and marched to West Tampa (about three miles), where
+     we took a train for Port Tampa, distant nine miles. On
+     arrival, the regiment boarded the steamer "Concho," one of
+     the vessels to carry the expedition to its destination. The
+     4th U.S. Infantry had preceded us, and the next day a
+     battalion of the 2d Massachusetts Volunteers was put on, but
+     owing to the crowded condition of the ship, a few days later
+     they were transferred to another vessel.
+
+     The "Concho" is a large ship, but without the comforts I
+     have seen since then on the U.S. Army transports plying
+     between San Francisco and Manila. The ships used were
+     hastily fitted up for the occasion, and it could not be
+     expected that they would be all that was required, but some
+     of the appointments could and should have been better. After
+     a tedious wait until June 14th, we sailed down Tampa Bay and
+     out on the Gulf of Mexico, still in ignorance of our
+     destination. The evening of the 15th the light at Dry
+     Tortugas was seen to our right. June 16th, 17th and 18th our
+     course was a little south of east, and part of the time the
+     north coast of Cuba was visible. The weather (except the
+     intense heat) was fine. On Sunday morning, June 18th, we
+     entered the Windward Passage, and it seemed certain, from
+     our course, that Santiago was our objective. Early the next
+     morning the high mountains of Santiago de Cuba were in plain
+     sight to our north. June 20th and 21st, remained off the
+     coast; the sea was rough and the vessel rolled considerably,
+     adding to the discomfort of every one, especially those
+     subject to seasickness. During the evening of the 21st,
+     orders were received to be ready to disembark the following
+     morning. About 8 A.M. on the 22d our warships began shelling
+     the coast, and two hours later the troops started in small
+     boats from the transports to the shore. By evening most of
+     the Second Division and part of the Cavalry Division were on
+     Cuban soil. There was no opposition to our landing; I
+     believe that a small force well handled could have made it
+     very difficult, if, indeed, it could not have prevented it.
+
+     As soon as the regiment had landed it was marched out about
+     four miles and bivouacked for the night. The country is
+     rugged and covered with a dense tropical vegetation. A few
+     "Cuban Patriots" had joined us and formed the extreme
+     advance, saving us some disagreeable outpost duty. This was
+     the only service that I know of them doing throughout the
+     campaign, though they were always on hand ration day. Later
+     developments showed that the service rendered was not so
+     important, as any Spanish force had retired to a safe place,
+     something our friends looked out for whenever there was any
+     danger.
+
+     June 23d, the regiment started shortly after daylight
+     towards the city of Santiago. About 9 o'clock there was a
+     report that the enemy were in our front. The regiment was
+     immediately formed for battle, and reconnoitering parties
+     sent forward; after about thirty minutes' delay the supposed
+     enemy proved to be the large leaves of some tropical trees
+     being moved by the wind, giving them the appearance of
+     persons in motion. Our route was over a narrow trail,
+     through a dense wilderness; water was scarce and the heat
+     was intense. About noon we arrived at Siboney, where we
+     bivouacked for the night. Before daylight next morning the
+     troops in our rear were heard passing on the trail by our
+     camp. Shortly after daylight Captain Capron's battery of
+     four guns passed, and the men lined up along the road and
+     cheered lustily. About an hour later, musketry fire and the
+     occasional discharge of a Hotchkiss gun could be plainly
+     heard towards Santiago. About three-quarters of an hour
+     later we received orders to march. By mistake, the wrong
+     trail was taken, and after marching fourteen hours we
+     returned to our camp of the previous night, all fagged out.
+     A great many men of the brigade were overcome with heat
+     during this long, tiresome and fruitless ramble. I cannot
+     say how many of these were of the 25th Infantry, but in my
+     own company (B) there was not a man out of the ranks when
+     the camp was reached. (I have called the above-mentioned
+     place "Siboney." There is probably some other name for it,
+     as the Cubans have one for every hamlet. It is not far from
+     Siboney, and not knowing the name, have called it Siboney.)
+
+     On the morning of the 25th we got rations from the transport
+     and all enjoyed a hearty breakfast. At 1 P.M. we broke camp
+     and marched to Sevilla, about six miles. Here we remained
+     until the morning of the 27th, part of the regiment being
+     out on picket duty. June 27th, the regiment marched three
+     miles towards Santiago and bivouacked on the banks of a
+     small creek. Bathing was forbidden, as the creek was the
+     only water supply for the army. The troops remained at this
+     place until the afternoon of June 30th. The camp was in the
+     valley of the creek, the ground is low and flat, and with
+     the heavy rainfall every one was uncomfortable. Rations had
+     to be brought from Siboney over a trail and did not arrive
+     regularly.
+
+     About 1 o'clock in the afternoon on the 30th, the officers
+     of the regiment were assembled at headquarters and were
+     notified that there would be an attack on the Spanish
+     position the next morning. About 4 o'clock the regiment
+     started for its position, arriving after 10 o'clock, having
+     covered a distance of less than three miles. The route was
+     over an excuse for a road, but was crowded with some of the
+     troops of almost every organization of the army, causing
+     numberless halts, but worse than all, breaking the
+     much-needed rest of the troops. On one part of this route I
+     heard men asking, "What regiment is this?" and heard various
+     responses, as follows: "The W.W.W.'s, the 1st Cavalry, the
+     4th Infantry, the 10th Cavalry," etc. Some one asked, "What
+     are the W.W.W.'s?" and some one replied, "Wood's Weary
+     Walkers." I do not know who is responsible for that
+     condition of affairs. Had we had an enterprising enemy in
+     our front, disaster certainly would have followed. Here were
+     a number of organizations scattered along a narrow, muddy
+     trail, at the mercy of an active foe. All this was only
+     three or four miles from the Spanish works. The men were
+     cheerful, and few if any realized that there might be
+     danger.
+
+     Most of the men were up and moving about before daylight the
+     next morning. Shortly after, the regiment started in the
+     direction of El Caney. At 9 A.M. we halted in a mango grove
+     near the Ducureau mansion. Shortly before noon a mounted
+     orderly appeared with a message for the brigade commander. A
+     few minutes later the march towards El Caney was taken up.
+     Heavy musketry fire had been heard in that direction since
+     shortly before 7 o'clock. A march of little more than a mile
+     and the regiment was formed for battle, Companies G and H in
+     the firing line, C and D in support, the remaining four
+     companies in reserve.
+
+     For two hours or perhaps more the firing was very heavy,
+     especially during the second hour. Attention is called to
+     report of Colonel A.S. Daggett, pages 387 and 388, "Report
+     of the War Department, 1898, Vol. I," and endorsement on
+     same by Major-General A.R. Chaffee. He says: "This stone
+     fort was practically in the possession of the 12th Infantry
+     at about 2 P.M. July 1." I cannot reconcile this statement
+     with the fact that between the hours named some of the
+     heaviest firing was going on, which does not indicate that
+     its defenders were ready to give up. Lord Wellington once
+     said, "At the end of every campaign truth lies at the bottom
+     of a deep well, and it often takes twenty years to get her
+     out." This may not be an exception. About half-past 4
+     o'clock the firing ceased and El Caney was ours.
+
+     The dead were collected near a hedge and the regiment was
+     formed in column of masses to pay a silent tribute of
+     respect to our departed comrades.
+
+     The regiment then started for the mango grove where we had
+     left our blanket rolls and haversacks. Just as we were
+     starting, some men with canteens started for water (about a
+     mile away), when orders were received to be ready to march
+     in twenty minutes. A few rods took us back to the road
+     leading to Santiago. We moved down the road about
+     three-quarters of a mile and halted. Two hours later, the
+     pack train arrived with ammunition and then another with
+     rations. Before the latter were issued orders were issued to
+     move at once to the rear. The regiment marched over the
+     trail it had come on the day before, arriving at El Poso
+     about 8 o'clock A.M. Here we took the road leading to
+     Santiago. About 9 A.M. we passed under San Juan Hill and
+     moved to our right. Our forces held the crest of the hill.
+     In passing along the hill we were sheltered from the fire
+     except a short space, where one or two men were slightly
+     wounded. Arriving at the La Cruz house near the road leading
+     from El Caney to Santiago about 3.30 P.M. and bivouacked for
+     the night. About 10 o'clock the troops on our left were
+     attacked by the Spanish. The firing was very heavy for an
+     hour, when it suddenly ceased, and we retired for the night.
+     During this time we were under the hill and protected from
+     the fire.
+
+     Next morning (Sunday, July 3d) desultory firing began at
+     daylight. About 7 A.M. the regiment left the La Cruz house
+     and moved across the Caney-Santiago road and formed line to
+     the left and moved forward to a ridge overlooking the city.
+     A number of shots fell about us, but no one was struck.
+     Shortly after, we were in possession of the ridge and began
+     intrenching. The firing was kept up and two men were
+     wounded. About noon we were informed that a truce had been
+     established and all work was stopped. This gave all a
+     much-needed rest, though it proved to be of short duration,
+     caused by a false alarm by Major Webb, the inspector of the
+     division staff.
+
+     During the afternoon the regiment was moved to the foot of
+     the ridge, leaving only the pickets on the crest. About 8.30
+     P.M. we were ordered to the picket line and began
+     intrenching. The tall grass was wet from a drenching rain a
+     few hours before. The ground, though wet, was hard, and slow
+     progress was made, having only their bayonets for picks and
+     their bare hands for shovels. All night this work went on.
+     The men were tired, and hungry (as rations had not come up
+     that day), but worked faithfully. During this, and I will
+     add, throughout the campaign, I never heard a murmur nor a
+     complaint; even when almost all the men of the regiment were
+     down with fever and bowel trouble they were cheerful and
+     ready to do any duty they were called on for.
+
+     The morning of July 3d Cervera's fleet sailed down the bay.
+     An officer rode by our part of the line about half-past 9
+     and informed us of it. A few minutes later we heard the roar
+     of the big guns, though at the time I little thought of what
+     was going on. In the afternoon we heard cheering on our line
+     way to the left, and as the good news came along it was
+     taken up, and soon the whole line was shouting.
+
+     On the morning of July 5th the non-combatants left Santiago
+     by two roads, one passing through our line. It was a pitiful
+     sight. During the forenoon of the 5th we moved about a mile
+     to the right and began intrenching. This position was very
+     near the Spanish line, and quite elaborate works were
+     constructed. We remained in this position until the morning
+     of the 11th, when the regiment was ordered to the right of
+     the line, about three miles. Here we intrenched. About 1
+     P.M. a truce was announced.
+
+     At 9.15 P.M. a staff officer came to the regimental
+     commander's tent and informed him that the regiment was to
+     be on the line at 12 o'clock midnight, and as soon as the
+     moon rose to advance through the jungle until fired on, when
+     the line was to halt and intrench. The night was stormy and
+     any moon there might have been was obscured by the clouds.
+     We were up, however, standing until daylight in a drenching
+     rain, for it was so dark that any movement was impossible.
+     Our rest was broken, without accomplishing anything that I
+     know or heard of.
+
+     However, the rain and storm were providential, for I will
+     always believe if the movement had been started we should
+     have met with disaster. The ground was broken, deep ravines
+     and underbrush with wire fences running through it. I have
+     never learned who was "the father" of this order, and
+     possibly never will. He must be ashamed of it.
+
+     The afternoon of the 12th the regiment advanced several
+     hundred yards to the front and dug more intrenchments. They
+     were still on this work the afternoon of the 14th when it
+     was announced that the Spanish army had agreed to surrender.
+     This came none too soon, for our men were coming down with
+     malarial fever. A few days later nearly half the regiment
+     were on the sick list, and the balance could not have done
+     much.
+
+     The regiment was moved the same afternoon to higher ground
+     in rear of the trenches. Strong guards were kept to look out
+     for our prisoners and to prevent "our allies," the Cubans,
+     from going into the city.
+
+     On the morning of the 17th the formal surrender of the city
+     and Spanish army took place. We were some distance away and
+     did not see anything of the ceremony.
+
+     On July 25th the regiment was moved about a mile further
+     back in the hills and made camp, our tents, etc., having
+     been brought up from the transport. Medicines appeared very
+     scarce, resulting in much suffering. The food supplied was
+     totally unfit for our new surroundings, and I believe not a
+     little of the sickness can be traced to this. Our last camp
+     was as good as any to be found in that vicinity.
+
+     The regiment remained in camp until August 13th, when it
+     embarked on the transport "Camanche" for Montauk Point,
+     arriving on the 18th, and landed on the 23d.
+
+     B.H.R. LOUGHBOROUGH,
+     Captain, 25th Infantry.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[18] First Lieutenant McCorkle killed; Captain Edwards and First
+Lieutenants Kinnison and Murdock wounded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+SAN JUAN.
+
+     Cavalry Division: The Ninth and Tenth Regiments.
+
+
+When Lawton's division swung off to the right to engage the enemy at
+El Caney, with the results described in the preceeding chapter, the
+divisions of Wheeler and Kent were ordered to proceed directly along
+the Santiago road toward San Juan. Within a mile from El Pozo, the
+point where they had bivouacked for the night of the 30th, the troops
+arrived at the Aguadores River, which crosses the road here within
+less than a mile from San Juan Heights. Wheeler's division headed the
+column, although that general was not commanding. He had been relieved
+on the afternoon of the 30th and did not resume command until about 4
+o'clock on July 1,[19] long after the heights had been carried,
+although he was on the field shortly after 1 o'clock of that day.
+
+The Dismounted Cavalry Division on the morning of July 1 presented
+2,663 fighting men, including officers. The First Brigade, commanded
+by Colonel Carrol, had 50 officers and 1,054 men, in regiments as
+follows: Third Cavalry, 22 officers, 420 men; Sixth Cavalry, 16
+officers, 427 men; Ninth Cavalry, 12 officers, 207 men, the Ninth
+having hardly one-half the strength of either of the other regiments
+of the brigade. The Second Brigade, commanded by General Wood,
+contained 1,559 persons, distributed as follows: Brigade staff, 9
+officers, 14 men; First Cavalry, 21 officers, 501 men: Tenth Cavalry,
+22 officers, 507 men; First Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders), 25
+officers, 517 men.
+
+Before the troops left El Poso, Grimes' battery had been put in
+position and had fired a few shots at a blockhouse on San Juan Hill,
+distance 2,600 yards. Using black powder, which created a cloud of
+smoke with every shot, the battery was readily located by the foe, and
+the shrapnel from their guns was soon bursting among our forces. The
+second shot from the Spaniards wounded four of the Rough Riders and
+two or three of the regulars, while a third killed and wounded several
+Cubans. As a matter of course there was a rapid movements of the
+troops from that immediate vicinity. The firing soon ceased, and the
+troops took up that general advance movement already noted.
+
+It is no easy task to follow the movements of the Cavalry Division
+from the time it left El Poso that July morning until it finally
+entrenched itself for the night on San Juan Hills. As heretofore we
+will take the official reports first, and from them make up the
+itinerary and the movements of the battle that followed, as far as
+they will enable us to do so. General Sumner says the division
+proceeded toward Santiago, and when about three-fourths of a mile from
+El Poso was halted in a narrow road to await orders and remained there
+for nearly an hour, subject to the effects of heavy artillery fire
+from the enemy's battery. Major Wessells, of the Third Cavalry, says,
+while following the road toward Santiago that morn, "much delay ensued
+from some reason unknown to the undersigned," and that the First
+Brigade of the division arrived at San Juan ford about 10 o'clock.
+This creek was about five hundred yards farther toward Santiago than
+Aguadores River, and ran about parallel with San Juan Heights, from
+which it was about three-fourths of a mile distant.
+
+The orders for which General Sumner had waited nearly an hour under
+fire had come and were "verbal instructions to move to the San Juan
+Creek and hold it." Reaching this creek his advance guard was met by
+the Spaniards who fired one volley and retreated to a position on a
+hill on Sumner's right front, about 1,200 yards distant. Crossing this
+creek with sufficient strength to hold it, Sumner was now ordered to
+move by the right flank and connect with Lawton's left. While his
+troops were in this massed condition prior to deploying to the right
+through a thick jungle, the balloon that was in use for purposes of
+reconnoitering, came up the road and exposed itself to the full view
+of the Spaniards upon the heights. They needed no further invitation
+to direct toward our forces their artillery, for which the balloon
+became a flying target. Many officers and men were wounded here by
+exploding shells and small arms' fire of the enemy (Sumner). Under
+this fire, however, the troops were deployed as ordered.
+
+Colonel Wood, who had charge of the Second Brigade, of which the Rough
+Riders were the leading regiment, says this "regiment was directed to
+change direction to the right, and by moving up the creek to effect a
+junction with General Lawton's division, which was engaged at Caney,
+about one and a-half miles toward the right, but was supposed to be
+working toward our right flank. After proceeding in this direction
+about half a mile the effort to connect with General Lawton was given
+up." This movement to the right took place between ten and eleven
+o'clock, at which time Lawton's forces had made no impression upon El
+Caney, and he was far from making any movement which might be
+described as working toward the right flank of the Cavalry Division.
+Lawton was not found by that half-hour's search to the right; and it
+was evident that something must be done by these troops in front, and
+done quickly. The whole division was under fire, and the battle on the
+Spanish side was in actual progress. True our men were hidden away in
+the jungle that bordered the creek, but their position was known to
+the Spaniards, and leaves and boughs are no cover from shot and shell.
+They were receiving the fire of the enemy and making no reply
+whatever, save by the few ineffective shots from the far away battery
+on El Poso Hill.
+
+Directly in front of the cavalry division was a little hill occupied
+by a Spanish force. This hill is called in General Wood's report East
+Hill, but in the literature of the battle it is usually mentioned as
+Kettle Hill. The fire in part was coming from here. Colonel Wood gives
+another report of the morning's experience in which he says: "The
+brigade moved down the road toward Santiago in rear of the First
+Brigade, with instructions to deploy to the right after crossing the
+San Juan, and continue to extend to the right, reaching out toward
+General Lawton's left and holding ourselves in rear of the First
+Brigade as a support. On reaching the stream the First Volunteer
+Cavalry, which was in the lead, crossed the stream with comparatively
+slight loss and deployed to the right in good order, but at this time
+a captive balloon was led down the road in which the troops were
+massed, and finally anchored at the crossing of the stream. The
+approach and anchoring of this balloon served to indicate the line of
+approach of the troops and to locate the ford, and the result was a
+terrific converging of artillery and rifle fire on the ford, which
+resulted in severe loss of men. Under this fire the First United
+States Cavalry and the Tenth United States Cavalry crossed the stream
+and deployed to the right where they were placed in position in rear
+of the First Brigade. Two regiments of the Second Brigade, to wit.,
+the First and the Tenth Regular Cavalry, were located in the rear of
+the First Brigade. The First Regular Cavalry had begun its day's work
+as support of Grimes' battery, but had later come forward and taken
+its place in the brigade time enough to join in the action that
+followed.
+
+"After completing the deployment," says Sumner, "the command was so
+much committed to battle that it became necessary either to advance or
+else retreat under fire." The troops were already in battle, but were
+not fighting, and could not do so in their present position, simply
+because they could not see the enemy. "Lieutenant Miley, representing
+General Shafter, authorized an advance, which was ordered, Carroll's
+brigade taking the advance, reinforced on the right by Roosevelt's
+regiment, and supported by the First and Tenth Cavalry." (Sumner.)
+Colonel Wood says: "After remaining in this position for about an hour
+(meaning the position held by his brigade previous to the coming of
+the order to advance) the order to advance was given, and the brigade
+advanced in good order as possible, but more or less broken up by the
+masses of brush and heavy grass and cactus; passing through the line
+of the First Brigade, mingling with them and charging the hill in
+conjunction with these troops, as well as some few infantry who had
+extended to the right." It must be remembered that the First Brigade
+consisted wholly of regulars, the Third, Sixth and Ninth Cavalry,
+while the Second Brigade had that remarkable regiment, the Rough
+Riders. This fact may account for their breaking through the lines of
+the First Brigade. Major Wessells, who commanded the Third Cavalry in
+that fight, and was himself wounded at the close of the first charge,
+says his regiment became entangled with other regiments, but,
+nevertheless, was to the crest as soon as any. Of the advance of the
+whole division, General Sumner says: "The advance was made under heavy
+infantry fire, through open flat ground, cut up by wire fences, to the
+creek, distant about 600 yards. The advance was made in good order,
+the enemy's fire being returned only under favorable opportunities. In
+crossing the flat one officer and several men were killed and several
+officers and men wounded. Both sides of the creek were heavily wooded
+for about 200 yards. The creek was swollen, and the crossing through
+this space and the creek was made with great difficulty.
+
+"After passing through the thick woods the ground was entirely open
+and fenced by wire. From this line it was necessary to storm the hill,
+upon the top of which is a house, loop-holed for defense. The slope of
+the hill is very difficult, but the assault was made with great
+gallantry and with much loss to the enemy. In this assault Colonel
+Hamilton, Lieutenants Smith and Shipp were killed; Colonel Carroll,
+Lieutenants Thayer and Myer were wounded. A number of casualties
+occurred among the enlisted men." The heights were carried by the
+whole division.
+
+Lieutenant-Colonel Baldwin's account of the part his regiment took in
+the assault upon San Juan is told about as follows: After the search
+for Lawton had been given up, the First and Tenth Cavalry were formed
+for attack on East Hill. "I was directed," he says, "to take a
+position to the right, behind the river bank, for protection. While
+moving to this position, and while there, the regiment suffered
+considerable loss. After an interval of twenty or thirty minutes I was
+directed to form line of battle in a partially open field facing
+toward the blockhouses and strong intrenchments to the north occupied
+by the enemy. Much difficulty was found on account of the dense
+undergrowth, crossed in several directions by wire fences. As a part
+of the cavalry division under General Sumner, the regiment was formed
+in two lines, the First Squadron under Major S.T. Norvell, consisting
+of Troops A, B, E and I, leading; the second line, under Major T.J.
+Wint, consisting of Troops C, F and G. Troop D having crossed farther
+down the river, attached itself to a command of infantry and moved
+with that command on the second blockhouse. The regiment advanced in
+this formation in a heavy converging fire from the enemy's position,
+proceeding but a short distance when the two lines were united into
+one. The advance was rapidly continued in an irregular line toward the
+blockhouses and intrenchments to the right front. During this advance
+the line passed some troops of the First Cavalry, which I think had
+previously been formed on our right. Several losses occurred before
+reaching the top of the hill, First Lieutenant William H. Smith being
+killed as he arrived on its crest. The enemy having retreated toward
+the northwest to the second and third blockhouses, new lines were
+formed and a rapid advance was made upon these new positions. The
+regiment assisted in capturing these works from the enemy, and with
+the exception of Troops C and I, which in the meantime had joined the
+First Volunteer Cavalry, then took up a position to the north of the
+second blockhouse, remaining there all night."
+
+Major Norvell, who commanded the First Squadron of the Tenth Cavalry,
+which consisted of Troops A, B, E and I, gives the following account
+of the experiences of July 1st:
+
+"The regiment took position in a wood, and here suffered considerable
+loss, due to the fact that the whole of the enemy's fire appeared to
+be directed to this point. In a short time we moved out of the wood by
+the right flank and then deployed to the left, being then directly in
+front of the enemy and one mile distant from his works, marked by
+three houses about half a mile from one another. The enemy was
+strongly entrenched in front of these houses. The line, consisting of
+the cavalry division, under direction of Brigadier-General Sumner,
+moved forward in double time, under a terrific fire of the enemy. We
+had a very heavy jungle to march through, beside the river (San Juan)
+to cross, and during our progress many men were killed and wounded.
+The troops became separated from one another, though the general line
+was pretty well preserved. The works of the enemy were carried in
+succession by the troops; and the Spaniards were steadily driven back
+toward the town to their last ditches. We now found ourselves about
+half a mile from the city, but the troops being by this time nearly
+exhausted, here intrenched themselves for the night under a heavy
+fire. By dark this line was occupied by all the troops engaged during
+the day."
+
+The official reports of the troop commanders of the Tenth Cavalry
+bring out a few more particulars which serve to give us a more vivid
+conception of this moving line. The entire cavalry division advanced
+together, and notwithstanding the roughness of the ground, Major
+Norvell assures us the line was pretty well preserved. Troops A, B, E
+and I were in the First Squadron, which was in the lead; Troops C, F
+and G were in the second line; Troop D made its advance with the
+infantry off to the left. We have now a fair knowledge of the general
+movement of the whole regiment. Let us follow the fortunes of some of
+the Troops, and by that means get nearer to the work done by the
+individual soldier.
+
+Troop A was on the right of the leading squadron as the regiment took
+its place in line on the left of the First Cavalry and moved against
+the Spanish blockhouses in the face of a heavy fire, making a rush
+forward without intermission. A portion of the right platoon, under
+Lieutenant Livermore, became separated in one of the thickets, and
+under instructions received personally from the brigade commander, who
+seems to have been everywhere where he was needed, continued up the
+slope toward his right and toward the first blockhouse. The remainder
+of the troop, commanded by Captain Beck and Lieutenant McCoy, moved in
+the same direction at first, but observing that on account of the
+shorter distance to the slope from that end of the line, a large
+number of troops were arriving there, Captain Beck swung his troop to
+the left and reached the summit of the hill between the second and
+third blockhouses, and on arriving received a message by an aid of the
+brigade commander to hold the ridge. Just then Lieut. Livermore
+arrived, having come by way of Blockhouse No. 1. The troop now being
+together, held the crest for an hour. At times the fire of the enemy
+was so severe and Captain Beck's force so small that there was great
+danger that he would be compelled to abandon the position, but
+fortunately at the most critical juncture Lieutenant Lyon of the
+Twenty-fourth Infantry came up with a few reinforcements, and
+Lieutenant Hughes of the Tenth Cavalry with a Hotchkiss gun.
+Lieutenant Lyon formed his troops to the left of the gun, Troop A of
+the Tenth Cavalry being on the right. With this force the position was
+held until other troops arrived. Soon after, the squadron was reformed
+and the men entrenched themselves under fire. Troop B was next to
+Troop A and advanced as skirmishers by rushes and double time, but
+soon found its front blocked by other troops. Troop I advanced in two
+sections, the left being commanded by Lieutenant Miller, joined in the
+attack on the right of the enemy's position; the right commanded by
+Lieutenant Fleming, advanced on trenches between two blockhouses, and
+in so doing caught up with the rest of the troop. The first half of
+the troop, after attacking the blockhouse on right of the enemy's
+position then crossed the valley and attacked the blockhouse on the
+left of enemy's position, and then moved forward with the First
+Regular Cavalry and First Volunteer Cavalry, until the troop assembled
+as a whole. When it reached the place of intrenchment there were
+altogether about one hundred men at that point of the ridge,
+consisting of men from the Tenth Cavalry and of the Rough Riders. It
+is claimed by Lieutenant Anderson, who commanded Troop C, and who made
+his way to the front on the right of the line, that after coming up on
+the second hill and joining his troop to the left of Troop I, Colonel
+Roosevelt and part of his regiment joined on the right of the Tenth,
+and that he reported to him, placing C Troop in his command. Before
+this time Lieutenant Anderson had reported to Captain Jones, of Troop
+F, while they were on Kettle Hill, and the Two troops, F and C, had
+been formed in skirmish line and moved against the second blockhouse.
+In this movement Troop C got separated from Captain Jones, and
+Anderson, with 18 men of his own troop and several from other
+organizations, moved forward until he connected with Troop I, as
+previously narrated. These troops, C and I, were reported by their
+Colonel as having joined the First Volunteer Cavalry. All of the troop
+commanders who were immediately with the men bear hearty testimony to
+their good conduct. Captain Jones, commanding Troop F, says: "I could
+only do justice to the troop by mentioning by name all who were
+engaged, not only for their bravery, but for their splendid discipline
+under the most demoralizing fire." Lieutenant Fleming, commanding
+Troop I, says: "The entire troop behaved with great gallantry. Private
+Elsie Jones particularly distinguished himself." Captain Beck,
+commanding Troop A, says: "The behaviour of the enlisted men was
+magnificent, paying studious attention to orders while on the firing
+line, and generally exhibiting an intrepidity which marks the
+first-class soldier." Lieutenant Hughes, who commanded the Hotchkiss
+gun detachment, mentions four men for conspicuous bravery and commends
+his entire detachment for "spirit, enterprise and good behavior."
+
+The official story is that the entire cavalry division advanced under
+orders from General Sumner and that the heft of its first blow fell
+upon Kettle Hill, which was soon captured, and on the crest of this
+hill the troops which had ascended it made a temporary halt, reformed
+their lines somewhat and immediately advanced upon the second hill to
+the help of that part of the cavalry division which had swung to the
+left in the advance, and also to the help of the infantry who were
+coming against Fort San Juan at the same time. Meanwhile there was
+left upon Kettle Hill a sufficient garrison or force to prevent its
+being recaptured by the enemy. In the assault on Kettle Hill the
+brigade commander, Colonel Carroll, had been wounded, and
+Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton of the Ninth Cavalry killed. Many troop
+officers also had been either killed or wounded and also in the rush
+forward through the jungle and high grass some troops had been
+separated from their officers, and yet it is remarkable that all were
+ready to move forward to the next assault.
+
+The words of praise to the whole cavalry division contained in the
+following order, published at Camp Wikoff immediately after the
+arrival there of the troops, are claimed by both black and white
+cavalrymen alike:
+
+     Headquarters, Cavalry Division,
+     Camp Wikoff, L.I., September 7th, 1898.
+
+     To the Officers and Soldiers of the Cavalry Division, Army
+     of Santiago.
+
+     The duties for which the troops comprising the Cavalry
+     Division were brought together have been accomplished.
+
+     On June 14th we sailed from Tampa, Fla., to encounter in the
+     sickly season the diseases of the tropical island of Cuba,
+     and to face and attack the historic legions of Spain in
+     positions chosen by them and which for years they had been
+     strengthening by every contrivance and art known to the
+     skillful military engineers of Europe.
+
+     On the 23d, one squadron each of the 1st and 10th Regular
+     Cavalry and two squadrons of the 1st Volunteer Cavalry, in
+     all 964 officers and men, landed on Cuban soil. These troops
+     marched on foot fourteen miles, and, early on the morning of
+     the 24th, attacked and defeated double their number of
+     regular Spanish soldiers under the command of
+     Lieutenant-General Linares. Eagerly and cheerfully you
+     pushed onward, and on July 1st forded San Juan River and
+     gallantly swept over San Juan Hill, driving the enemy from
+     its crest. Without a moment's halt you formed, aligning the
+     division upon the 1st Infantry Division under General Kent,
+     and, together with these troops, you bravely charged and
+     carried the formidable intrenchments of Fort San Juan. The
+     entire force which fought and won this great victory was
+     less than seven thousand men.
+
+     The astonished enemy, though still protected by the strong
+     works to which he had made his retreat, was so stunned by
+     your determined valor that his only thought was to devise
+     the quickest means of saving himself from further battle.
+     The great Spanish fleet hastily sought escape from the
+     harbor and was destroyed by our matchless navy.
+
+     After seizing the fortifications of San Juan Ridge, you, in
+     the darkness of night, strongly intrenched the position
+     your valor had won. Reinforced by Bates' Brigade on your
+     left and Lawton's Division on your right, you continued the
+     combat until the Spanish army of Santiago Province succumbed
+     to the superb prowess and courage of American arms. Peace
+     promptly followed, and you return to receive the plaudits of
+     seventy millions of people.
+
+     The valor displayed by you was not without sacrifice.
+     Eighteen per cent., or nearly one in five, of the Cavalry
+     Division fell on the field either killed or wounded. We
+     mourn the loss of these heroic dead, and a grateful country
+     will always revere their memory.
+
+     Whatever may be my fate, wherever my steps may lead, my
+     heart will always burn with increasing admiration for your
+     courage in action, your fortitude under privation and your
+     constant devotion to duty in its highest sense, whether in
+     battle, in bivouac or upon the march.
+
+     JOSEPH WHEELER,
+     Major-General U.S.V., Commanding.
+
+Aside from that part of the Tenth Cavalry who fought under General
+Wheeler and who are consequently included among those congratulated by
+the General Order just quoted, Troop M of that regiment, under command
+of Lieutenant C.P. Johnson, performed an important part in the war.
+The troop consisted of 50 men and left Port Tampa June 21 on board the
+steamship Florida, the steamship Fanita also making a part of the
+expedition. The troop was mounted and was accompanied by a pack train
+of 65 animals. Both ships were heavily loaded with clothing,
+ammunition and provision, and had on board besides Lieutenant
+Johnson's command, General Nunez and staff and 375 armed Cubans. The
+expedition sailed around the west end of the island and attempted a
+landing at a point chosen by General Nunez on June 29, but failed
+owing to the fact that the place chosen was well guarded by Spaniards,
+who fired upon the landing party. The expedition had with it a small
+gunboat, the Peoria, commanded by Captain Ryan, and on the afternoon
+of June 30th an attack was made upon a blockhouse on the shore by the
+gunboat, and a small force of Cuban and American volunteers landed,
+but were repulsed with the loss of one killed, General Nunez's
+brother, and seven wounded. Two days later Lieutenant Johnson was able
+to land and immediately made connection with General Gomez, unloading
+his stores for the Cuban Army.
+
+Lieutenant G.P. Ahearn, of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, who went on this
+expedition as a volunteer, rendered important service on the night
+after the attack on the blockhouse at Tayabacoa. As the attacking
+party met with repulse and escaped to the ship in the darkness,
+several of their wounded were left on shore. Several boats sent out to
+recover them had returned without the men, their crews fearing to go
+on shore after them. Lieutenant Ahearn volunteered to attempt the
+rescue of the men, and taking a water-logged boat, approached the
+shore noiselessly and succeeded in his undertaking. The crew
+accompanying Lieutenant Ahearn was made up of men from Troop M, Tenth
+Cavalry, and behaved so well that the four were given Medals of Honor
+for their marked gallantry. The action of Lieutenant Ahearn in this
+case was in keeping with his whole military career. He has ever
+manifested a fondness for exceptional service, and has never failed
+when opportunity occurred to display a noble gallantry on the side of
+humanity. Nothing appeals to him so commandingly as an individual
+needing rescue, and in such a cause he immediately rises to the hero's
+plane. The noble colored soldiers who won medals on that occasion were
+all privates and became heroes for humanity's sake. Their names
+deserve a place in this history outside the mere official table. They
+were Dennis Bell, George H. Wanton, Fitz Lee and William H. Tompkins,
+and were the only colored soldiers who, at the time of this writing,
+have won Medals of Honor in the Spanish War. Others, however, may yet
+be given, as doubtless others are deserved. The heroic service
+performed by whole regiments, as in the case of the Twenty-fourth
+Infantry, should entitle every man in it to a medal of some form as a
+souvenir for his posterity.
+
+Losses of the Ninth Cavalry in the battles of San Juan:
+
+OFFICERS--Killed, Lieutenant-Colonel John M. Hamilton.
+
+MEN--Killed, Trumpeter Lewis Fort, Private James Johnson.
+
+OFFICERS--Wounded, Adjutant Winthrop S. Wood, Captain Charles
+W. Taylor.
+
+MEN--Wounded. First Sergeant Charles W. Jefferson, Sergeant
+Adam Moore, Sergeant Henry F. Wall, Sergeant Thomas B. Craig, Corporal
+James W. Ervine, Corporal Horace T. Henry, Corporal John Mason,
+Burwell Bullock, Elijah Crippen, Edward Davis, Hoyle Ervin, James
+Gandy, Edward D. Nelson, Noah Prince, Thomas Sinclair, James R. Spear,
+Jr., Jacob Tull, William H. Turner, George Warren, Alfred Wilson.
+
+Losses of the Tenth Cavalry during the battle of San Juan:
+
+OFFICERS--Killed, First Lieutenant W.E. Shipp, First
+Lieutenant W.H. Smith.
+
+MEN--Killed, John H. Smoot, Corporal W.F. Johnson, John H.
+Dodson, George Stroal, William H. Slaughter.
+
+OFFICERS--Wounded, Major T.J. Wint Captain John Bigelow, Jr.,
+Adjutant and First Lieutenant M.H. Barnum, First Lieutenant R.L.
+Livermore, First Lieutenant E.D. Anderson, Second Lieutenant F.R.
+McCoy, Second Lieutenant H.C. Whitehead, Second Lieutenant T.A.
+Roberts, Second Lieutenant H.O. Willard.
+
+MEN--Wounded, First Sergeant A. Houston, First Sergeant
+Robert Milbrown, Q.M. Sergeant William Payne, Sergeant Smith Johnson,
+Sergeant Ed. Lane, Sergeant Walker Johnson, Sergeant George Dyers,
+Sergeant Willis Hatcher, Sergeant John L. Taylor, Sergeant Amos
+Elliston, Sergeant Frank Rankin, Sergeant E.S. Washington, Sergeant
+U.G. Gunter, Corporal J.G. Mitchell, Corporal Allen Jones, Corporal
+Marcellus Wright, Privates Lewis L. Anderson, John Arnold, Charles
+Arthur, John Brown, Frank D. Bennett, Wade Bledsoe, Hillary Brown,
+Thornton Burkley, John Brooks, W.H. Brown, Wm. A. Cooper, John Chinn,
+J.H. Campbell, Henry Fearn, Benjamin Franklin, Gilmore Givens, B.F.
+Gaskins, William Gregory, Luther D. Gould, Wiley, Hipsher, Thomas
+Hardy, Charles Hopkins, Richard James, Wesley Jones, Robert E. Lee,
+Sprague Lewis, Henry McCormack, Samuel T. Minor, Lewis Marshall,
+William Matthews, Houston Riddill, Charles Robinson, Frank Ridgeley,
+Fred. Shackley, Harry D. Sturgis, Peter Saunderson, John T. Taylor,
+William Tyler, Isom Taylor, John Watson, Benjamin West, Joseph
+Williams, Allen E. White, Nathan Wyatt.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Note.--"While we talked, and the soldiers filled their
+     canteens and drank deep and long, like camels who, after
+     days of travel through the land of 'thirst and emptiness,'
+     have reached the green oasis and the desert spring, a black
+     corporal of the 24th Infantry walked wearily up to the
+     'water hole.' He was muddy and bedraggled. He carried no cup
+     or canteen, and stretched himself out over the
+     stepping-stones in the stream, sipping up the water and the
+     mud together out of the shallow pool. A white cavalryman ran
+     toward him shouting, 'Hold on, bunkie; here's my cup!' The
+     negro looked dazed a moment, and not a few of the spectators
+     showed amazement, for such a thing had rarely if ever
+     happened in the army before. 'Thank you,' said the black
+     corporal. 'Well, we are all fighting under the same flag
+     now.' And so he drank out of the white man's cup. I was glad
+     to see that I was not the only man who had come to recognize
+     the justice of certain Constitutional amendments, in the
+     light of the gallant behaviour of the colored troops
+     throughout the battle, and, indeed, the campaign. The
+     fortune of war had, of course, something to do with it in
+     presenting to the colored troops the opportunities for
+     distinguished service, of which they invariably availed
+     themselves to the fullest extent; but the confidence of the
+     general officers in their superb gallantry, which the event
+     proved to be not misplaced, added still more, and it is a
+     fact that the services of no four white regiments can be
+     compared with those rendered by the four colored
+     regiments--the 9th and 10th Cavalry, and the 24th and 25th
+     Infantry. They were to the front at La Guasima, at Caney,
+     and at San Juan, and what was the severest test of all, that
+     came later, in the yellow-fever hospitals."--Bonsal.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[19] Official Report of General Sumner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+SAN JUAN (Continued).
+
+     Kent's Division: The Twenty-fourth Infantry; Forming Under
+     Fire--A Gallant Charge.
+
+
+Turning now to the centre and left of the American line we follow the
+advance of that division of infantry commanded by General Kent, and
+which met the brunt of Spanish resistance at San Juan. This division,
+known as the First Division, Fifth Army Corps, consisted of three
+brigades, composed as follows:
+
+First Brigade, Brigadier-General Hawkins commanding, made up of the
+Sixth Infantry, the Sixteenth Infantry, and the Seventy-first New York
+Volunteers.
+
+The Second Brigade, Colonel Pearson commanding, made up of the Second
+Infantry, the Tenth Infantry and the Twenty-first Infantry.
+
+The Third Brigade, commanded by Colonel Wikoff, in which were the
+Ninth Infantry, the Thirteenth Infantry and the Twenty-fourth
+Infantry; in all 262 officers and 5,095 men. Thus, in the whole
+division there were eight regiments of regular infantry and one
+volunteer regiment, the Seventy-first New York.
+
+Although our present purpose is to bring into view the special work of
+the Twenty-fourth Infantry, it will be necessary to embrace in our
+scope the work of the entire division, in order to lay before the
+reader the field upon which that particular regiment won such lasting
+credit. General Kent, who commanded the division, a most accomplished
+soldier, gives a lucid account of the whole assault as seen from his
+position, and of the work performed by his division, in his report,
+dated July 8, 1898.
+
+When General Kent's division arrived in the neighborhood of the San
+Juan ford and found itself under fire and the trail so blocked by
+troops of the cavalry division, which had not yet deployed to the
+right, that direct progress toward the front was next to impossible,
+the welcome information was given by the balloon managers that a trail
+branched off to the left from the main trail, only a short distance
+back from the ford. This trail led to a ford some distance lower down
+the stream and nearly facing the works on the enemy's right. General
+Kent on learning of this outlet immediately hastened back to the forks
+and meeting the Seventy-first New York Regiment, the rear regiment of
+the First Brigade, he directed that regiment into this trail toward
+the ford. The regiment was to lead the way through this new trail and
+would consequently arrive at the front first on the left; but meeting
+the fire of the enemy, the First Battalion of the regiment apparently
+became panic stricken and recoiled upon the rest of the regiment; the
+regiment then lay down on the sides of the trail and in the bushes,
+thoroughly demoralized.
+
+Wikoff's brigade was now coming up and it was directed upon the same
+trail. This brigade consisted of the Ninth, Thirteenth and
+Twenty-fourth. Colonel Wikoff was directed by General Kent to move his
+brigade across the creek by the trail (the left fork) and when
+reaching the opposite side, of the creek to put the brigade in line on
+the left of the trail and begin the attack at once. In executing this
+order the entire brigade stumbled through and over hundreds of men of
+the Seventy-first New York Regiment. When a volunteer regiment broke
+through the lines of the Ninth Cavalry from the rear, that regiment
+was in its place on the field in line of battle, with its morale
+perfect. It was under discipline and delivering its fire with
+regularity. It had an absolute right to its place. The Seventy-first
+was in no such attitude, and General Kent directed the advance through
+it in these words: "Tell the brigade to pay no attention to this sort
+of thing; it is highly irregular." The Ninth Cavalry's position was
+exactly _regular_; the position of the Seventh-first was to the eyes
+of General Kent "highly irregular."
+
+The three regiments of this brigade were to take their positions on
+the left of the ford after crossing the stream, in the following
+order: On the extreme left the Twenty-fourth, next to it in the centre
+of the brigade, the Ninth, and on the right of the brigade the
+Thirteenth. In approaching the ford the Ninth and Twenty-fourth became
+mixed and crossed in the following order: First one battalion of the
+Ninth; then a battalion of the Twenty-fourth; then the second
+battalion of the Ninth, followed by the second battalion of the
+Twenty-fourth. The line was formed under fire, and while
+superintending its formation the brigade commander, Colonel Wikoff,
+came under observation and was killed; Lieutenant-Colonel Worth, who
+succeeded him, was seriously wounded within five minutes after having
+taking command, and Lieutenant-Colonel Liscum, who next assumed charge
+of the brigade, had hardly learned that he was in command before he,
+too, was disabled by a Spanish shot By this time, however, the
+formation was about complete and the brigade ready to begin the
+advance.
+
+Leaving Wikoff's brigade in line ready to begin the advance we must
+now return in our narrative to the main ford, where the major portions
+of Hawkins' and Pearson's brigades are massed and follow the various
+regiments as they come to their places in the battle line preparing
+for the onslaught. After crossing the ford with the Sixth Infantry,
+pursuant to the orders given by Lieutenant Miley in the name of
+General Shafter, General Hawkins attempted to flank the enemy by a
+movement to the left, the Sixth Infantry leading and the Sixteenth
+intending to pass beyond it in its rear and join to its left. The
+Sixth in passing to its intended position passed to the left of the
+Sixth Cavalry, which held the left of the line of the cavalry
+division, which had crossed the ford and deployed to the right,
+reaching beyond the Spanish lines in that direction, or at least it
+was able to reach the extreme right of the enemy. The Sixth Infantry
+continued this line southward and it was to be farther extended by the
+Sixteenth. Before this disposition could be effected the fire of the
+enemy became so severe that an advance movement was started and the
+Sixth lined up facing the fort on the hill, with only one company and
+a half of the Sixteenth on its left.
+
+While Hawkins' and Wikoff's brigades were preparing for the advance
+upon the enemy's works, Pearson's brigade was approaching the ford,
+hurrying to the support. The Twenty-first Regiment of this brigade was
+detached from the brigade and sent directly forward on the main trail
+with orders to re-enforce the firing line. This regiment crossed the
+San Juan River to the left of the main ford and rushed forward to
+support Hawkins' left. In the meantime the two other regiments of the
+brigade, the Second and Tenth, which had preceded the Twenty-first in
+their march from El Poso, had been deflected to the left by order of
+the division commander and were passing to the front over the trail
+previously taken by Wikoff's brigade, crossing the San Juan at the
+lower ford. The Tenth crossed in advance and formed in close order on
+the opposite side of the stream, its line facing northwest. It was
+soon after, however, put in battle formation and moved to the right
+until it connected with the Twenty-first. The Second Regiment crossed
+the ford in the rear of the Tenth, having been delayed considerably by
+the Seventh-first New York Volunteers, who still blocked the way
+between the forks and the lower ford. After crossing the ford the
+Second put itself in line on the left of the Tenth, the whole brigade
+being now in position to support the First and Third Brigades in their
+charge.
+
+This movement of Colonel Pearson's brigade had not been made without
+hardship and loss. All of the regiments came under the enemy's fire
+before reaching the San Juan River and many men were killed or wounded
+while the regiments were gaining their positions. The movement was so
+well executed as to call forth from the division commander the
+following enconium: "I observed this movement from the Fort San Juan
+Hill. Colonel E.P. Pearson, Tenth Infantry, commanding the Second
+Brigade, and the officers and troops under his command deserve great
+credit for the soldierly manner in which this movement was executed."
+
+Although we left Wikoff's brigade standing in line on the left of the
+lower ford, we must not imagine that it remained in that position
+until the above movement on the part of the Second Brigade had been
+accomplished. There was no standing still in the fierce fire to which
+the men of that brigade were at that time subjected--a fire which had
+already cut down in rapid succession three brigade commanders. The
+formation was no sooner completed than the rapid advance began. The
+Thirteenth Infantry holding the right of the brigade moved to the
+right and front, while the Ninth and Twenty-fourth moved almost
+directly to the front at first, thus partially gaining the flank of
+the enemy's position. The whole line moved with great rapidity across
+the open field and up the hill, so that when the Second and Tenth
+Infantry came to their position as support, the heroic Third Brigade
+was well up the heights. To the right of the Third Brigade the First
+Brigade, containing the gallant Sixth, under Colonel Egbert, and the
+Sixteenth, was advancing also, and the two brigades arrived at the
+fort almost simultaneously; so that the division commander in speaking
+of the capture says: "Credit is almost equally due the Sixth, Ninth,
+Thirteenth, Sixteenth and Twenty-fourth Regiments of Infantry." To the
+Third Brigade he gives the credit of turning the enemy's right.
+
+Let us now examine more closely that sweep of the Third Brigade from
+the left of the lower ford to San Juan Hill, in order to trace more
+distinctly the pathway of honor made for itself by the Twenty-fourth.
+This regiment formed left front into line under fire and advanced over
+the flat in good order, and then reformed under shelter of the hill
+preparatory to the final charge upon the enemy's intrenchments. The
+experience of the companies in crossing the flat is told by the
+company commanders. One company under the orders of its captain formed
+line of skirmishers and advanced in good order at rapid gait, reaching
+the foot of the hill almost exhausted. This was about the experience
+of all, but this company is mentioned because it was the first company
+of the regiment to reach the top of the hill. In crossing the flat
+there was necessarily some mixing of companies and in some instances
+men were separated from their officers, but those who escaped the
+enemy's bullets made their way across that plain of fire and were
+ready to join in the charge up the hill where only brave men could go.
+
+There was but a moment's pause for breath at the foot of the hill and
+the general charge all along the line began, the Sixth Infantry
+probably taking the initiative, although the gallant Colonel Egbert,
+of that regiment (since killed in the Philippines), makes no such
+claim. In his farewell official report of the Sixth he thus describes
+the final act:
+
+     "We were now unexpectedly re-enforced. Lieutenant Parker,
+     made aware by the heavy fire from the hill that a conflict
+     was going on in his front, opened fire with his Gatlings
+     most effectively on the intrenchments, while from far down
+     on my left I heard cheering and shouts, and saw coming up
+     the slope towards us a multitude of skirmishers. As they
+     drew nearer we distinguished the tall figure of General
+     Hawkins, with his aide, Lieutenant Ord, Sixth Infantry,
+     charging at the head of the skirmishers and waving their
+     hats. When the charge came up nearly abreast of where the
+     Sixth stood in the road I ordered the companies out through
+     the gaps in the wire fence to join it, and they complied
+     with the same alacrity and enthusiasm that they had
+     displayed in entering this bloody field. The Gatlings
+     redoubled their fierce grinding of bullets on the Spanish,
+     despite which there still came a savage fire from the
+     blockhouse and trenches. Here the gallant Captain Wetherell,
+     Sixth Infantry, fell, shot through the forehead, at the head
+     of his company, and I received a Mauser bullet through the
+     left lung, which disabled me. But the blood of the troops
+     was now up, and no loss of officers or men could stop them.
+     They charged up the incline until, coming to a steep ridge
+     near the top, they were brought to a stand by the hail of
+     bullets from the Gatlings against the summit. As soon as
+     this could be stopped by a signal, the mingled troops of the
+     Sixth, Sixteenth, Thirteenth and Twenty-fourth swept up and
+     over the hill and it was won."
+
+From testimony gathered on the evening of the fight it was concluded
+that there were more men of the Twenty-fourth Infantry on the ridge in
+this first occupation than of any other regiment, but all of the
+regiments of the division had done admirably and the brave blacks of
+the Twenty-fourth won on that day a standing in arms with the bravest
+of the brave.
+
+The Spaniards although driven from their first line, by no means gave
+up the fight; but retreating to a line of intrenchments about eight
+hundred yards in the rear they opened upon the new-comers a fire
+almost as hot as before, and the troops found it difficult to hold
+what they had gained. The supporting regiments were coming up and
+strengthening the line, the men meanwhile entrenching themselves under
+fire as rapidly as possible. The Thirteenth Infantry was immediately
+ordered off to the right to assist the cavalry division, especially
+the Rough Riders, who were said to be in danger of having their flank
+turned. Here it remained under fire all night.
+
+The advance and charge of the Twenty-fourth made up only a part of the
+advance and charge of the Third Brigade; and this in turn was part of
+the attack and assault made by the whole infantry division; a movement
+also participated in at the same hour by the cavalry division; so that
+regarded as a whole, it was a mighty blow delivered on the enemy's
+right and centre by two-thirds of the American Army, and its effect
+was stunning, although its full weight had not been realized by the
+foe. The part sustained in the assault by each regiment may be
+estimated by the losses experienced by each in killed and wounded.
+Judged by this standard the brunt fell upon the Sixth, Sixteenth,
+Thirteenth, and Twenty-fourth, all of which regiments lost heavily,
+considering the short time of the action.
+
+The movement by which the Twenty-fourth reached its position on that
+memorable 1st of July has called forth especial mention by the
+regimental commander and by the acting Assistant Adjutant-General of
+the brigade; it was also noted immediately after the battle by all the
+newspaper writers as one of the striking occurrences of the day. The
+regiment on coming under fire marched about one mile by the left
+flank, and then formed left front into line on its leading company,
+Company G, commanded by Captain Brereton. The first man of the
+regiment to take position in the line was the First Sergeant of G
+Company, R.G. Woods. This company when reaching its position formed on
+left into line, under a severe fire in front and a fire in the rear;
+the other companies forming in the same manner, with more or less
+regularity, to its left. As soon as the line was formed the order was
+given to charge. The advance was made across an open meadow, during
+which several officers were wounded, among them the officers of
+Company F, the command of that company devolving upon its First
+Sergeant, William Rainey, who conducted the company successfully to
+the crest of the hill.
+
+The description of the movement of Company D as given by Lieutenant
+Kerwin, who was placed in command of that company after its officers
+had been shot, is a very interesting document. Lieutenant Kerwin
+claims to have made his report from "close inquiries and from personal
+observation." According to this report the company was led across the
+San Juan Creek by its Captain (Ducat), the Second Lieutenant of the
+company (Gurney) following it, and keeping the men well closed up.
+While crossing, the company encountered a terrific fire, and after
+advancing about ten yards beyond the stream went through a wire fence
+to the right, and advanced to an embankment about twenty yards from
+the right bank of the stream. Here Captain Ducat gave the order to
+advance to the attack and the whole company opened out in good order
+in line of skirmishers and moved rapidly across the open plain to the
+foot of San Juan Hill. In making this movement across the plain the
+line was under fire and the brave Lieutenant Gurney was killed, and
+First Sergeant Ellis, Corporal Keys and Privates Robinson and Johnson
+wounded. It was a race with death, but the company arrived at the base
+of the hill in good form, though well-nigh exhausted. After breathing
+a moment the men were ready to follow their intrepid commander,
+Captain Ducat, up the hill, and at twelve o'clock they gained the
+summit, being the first company of the regiment to reach the top of
+the hill. Just as they reached the crest the brave Ducat fell, shot
+through the hip, probably by a Spanish sharpshooter, thus depriving
+the company of its last commissioned officer, and leaving its first
+sergeant also disabled.
+
+The commander of the regiment speaks of its doings in a very modest
+manner, but in a tone to give the reader confidence in what he says.
+He became temporarily separated from the regiment, but made his way to
+the crest of the hill in company with the Adjutant and there found a
+part of his command. He says a creditable number of the men of his
+regiment reached the top of the hill among the first to arrive there.
+The commander of the Second Battalion, Captain Wygant, crossed the
+meadow, or flat, some distance ahead of the battalion, but as the men
+subsequently charged up the hill, he was unable to keep up with them,
+so rapid was their gait It was from this battalion that Captain
+Ducat's company broke away and charged on the right of the battalion,
+arriving, as has been said, first on the top of the hill. As the
+regiment arrived Captain Wygant, finding himself the ranking officer
+on the ground, assembled it and assigned each company its place.
+Captain Dodge, who commanded Company C in this assault, and who
+subsequently died in the yellow fever hospital at Siboney, mentions
+the fact that Captain Wygant led the advance in person, and says that
+in the charge across the open field the three companies, C, B and H,
+became so intermixed that it was impossible for the company commanders
+to distinguish their own men from those of the other companies, yet he
+says he had the names of twenty men of his own company who reached the
+trenches at Fort San Juan in that perilous rush on that fiery mid-day.
+The testimony of all the officers of the regiment is to the effect
+that the men behaved splendidly, and eight of them have been given
+Certificates of Merit for gallantry in the action of July 1.
+
+The losses of the regiment in that advance were numerous, the killed,
+wounded and missing amounted to 96, which number was swelled to 104
+during the next two days. So many men falling in so short a time while
+advancing in open order tells how severe was the fire they were facing
+and serves to modify the opinion which was so often expressed about
+the time the war broke out, to the effect that the Spanish soldiers
+were wanting both in skill and bravery. They contradicted this both at
+El Caney and at San Juan. In the latter conflict they held their
+ground until the last moment and inflicted a loss upon their
+assailants equal to the number engaged in the defence of the heights.
+Since July 1, 1898, expatiation on the cowardice and lack of skill of
+the Spanish soldier has ceased to be a profitable literary occupation.
+Too many journalists and correspondents were permitted to witness the
+work of Spanish sharpshooters, and to see their obstinate resistance
+to the advance of our troops, to allow comments upon the inefficiency
+of the Spanish Army to pass unnoticed. Our army from the beginning was
+well impressed with the character of the foe and nerved itself
+accordingly. The bravery of our own soldiers was fully recognized by
+the men who surrendered to our army and who were capable of
+appreciating it, because they themselves were not wanting in the same
+qualities.
+
+     [Transcriber's Note: This footnote appeared in the text
+     without a footnote anchor:
+
+     "The intrenchments of San Juan were defended by two
+     companies of Spanish infantry, numbering about two hundred
+     and fifty to three hundred men. At about 11 o'clock in the
+     morning reinforcements were sent to them, bringing the
+     number up to about seven hundred and fifty men. There were
+     two pieces of mountain artillery on these hills, the rest of
+     the artillery fire against our troops on that day being from
+     batteries close to the city."--In Cuba with Shafter (Miley),
+     page 117.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE SURRENDER, AND AFTERWARDS.
+
+     In the Trenches--The Twenty-fourth in the Fever Camp--Are
+     Negro Soldiers Immune?--Camp Wikoff.
+
+
+After the battle of El Caney the Twenty-fifth Infantry started for the
+mango grove, where the blanket rolls and haversacks had been left in
+the morning, and on its way passed the Second Massachusetts Volunteers
+standing by the roadside. This regiment had seen the charge of the
+Twenty-fifth up the hillside, and they now manifested their
+appreciation of the gallantry of the black regulars in an ovation of
+applause and cheers. This was the foundation for Sergeant Harris'
+reply when on another occasion seeing the manifest kind feelings of
+this regiment to the Twenty-fifth, I remarked: "Those men think you
+are soldiers." "They know we are soldiers," replied the sergeant. The
+regiment bivouacked in the main road leading from El Caney to
+Santiago, but sleep was out of the question. What with the passing of
+packtrains and artillery, and the issuing of rations and ammunition,
+the first half of the night gave no time for rest; and shortly after
+12 o'clock, apprehensions of a Spanish attack put every one on the
+alert. At 3.30 the march to the rear was commenced and the entire
+division passed around by El Poso and advanced to the front by the
+Aguadores road, finally reaching a position on Wheeler's right about
+noon, July 2.
+
+Subsequently the line of investment was extended to the right, the
+Cuban forces under General Garcia holding the extreme right
+connecting with the water front on that side of the city. Next to them
+came Ludlow's McKibben's and Chaffee's forces. In McKibben's brigade
+was the Twenty-fifth, which dug its last trench on Cuban soil on July
+14th, on the railroad running out from Santiago to the northwest. This
+intrenchment was the nearest to the city made by any American
+organization, and in this the regiment remained until the surrender.
+
+The Twenty-fourth remained entrenched over to the left, in General
+Kent's division, lying to the right of the 21st. This regiment (24th)
+had won great credit in its advance upon the enemy, but it was to win
+still greater in the field of humanity. Capt. Leavel, who commanded
+Company A, said: "It would be hard to particularize in reporting upon
+the men of the company. All--non-commissioned officers, privates, even
+newly joined recruits--showed a desire to do their duty, yea, more
+than their duty, which would have done credit to seasoned veterans.
+Too much cannot be said of their courage, willingness and endurance."
+Captain Wygant, who commanded the Second Battalion of the regiment,
+says: "The gallantry and bearing shown by the officers and soldiers of
+the regiment under this trying ordeal was such that it has every
+reason to be proud of its record. The losses of the regiment, which
+are shown by the official records, show the fire they were subjected
+to. The casualties were greater among the officers than the men, which
+is accounted for by the fact that the enemy had posted in the trees
+sharpshooters, whose principal business was to pick them off." There
+is no countenance given in official literature to the absurd notion
+maintained by some, that it was necessary for the officers of black
+troops to expose themselves unusually in order to lead their troops,
+and that this fact accounts for excessive losses among them. The fact
+is that the regular officer's code is such that he is compelled to
+occupy the place in battle assigned him in the tactics, and no matter
+how great his cowardice of heart may be, he must go forward until
+ordered to halt. The penalty of cowardice is something to be dreaded
+above wounds or even death by some natures. "Colored troops are brave
+men when led by white officers."(?) As a matter of fact there is very
+little leading of any sort by officers in battle. The officer's place
+is in the rear of the firing line, directing, not leading, and it is
+his right and duty to save his own life if possible, and that of every
+man in his command, even while seeking to destroy the enemy, in
+obedience to orders. The record of the Twenty-fourth for bravery was
+established beyond question when it swept across that open flat and up
+San Juan Hill on that hot mid-day of July 1st, 1898.
+
+After lying in the trenches until July 15th, the news reached the camp
+of the Twenty-fourth that yellow fever had broken out in the army, and
+that a large hospital and pest-house had been established at Siboney.
+About 4 o'clock that day an order came to the commanding officer of
+the regiment directing him to proceed with his regiment to Siboney and
+report to the medical officer there. The regiment started on its march
+at 5.30, numbering at that time 8 companies, containing 15 officers
+and 456 men. Marching on in the night, going through thickets and
+across streams, the men were heard singing a fine old hymn:
+
+    When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
+    The rivers of woe shall not thee o'erflow;
+    For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
+    And sanctify to thee they deepest distress.
+
+In view of what was before them, the words were very appropriate. They
+arrived on the hill at Siboney at 3.30 on the morning of July 16th.
+
+Without discussing the graphic story told by correspondents of the
+highest respectability describing the regiment as volunteering, to a
+man, to nurse the sick and dying at Siboney, we will rather follow the
+official records of their doings in that fever-stricken place. On
+arriving at Siboney on the morning of July 16, Sunday, Major Markely,
+then in command of the regiment, met Colonel Greenleaf of the Medical
+Department, and informed him that the Twenty-fourth Infantry was on
+the ground. Colonel Greenleaf was just leaving the post, but Major La
+Garde, his successor, manifested his great pleasure in seeing this
+form of assistance arrive. Such a scene of misery presented itself to
+Major Markely's eyes that he, soldier as he was, was greatly affected,
+and assured Major La Garde that he was prepared personally to sink
+every other consideration and devote himself to giving what assistance
+he could in caring for the sick, and that he believed his whole
+regiment would feel as he did when they came to see the situation. In
+this he was not mistaken. The officers and men of the Twenty-fourth
+Infantry did give themselves up to the care of the sick and dying,
+furnishing all help in their power until their own health and strength
+gave way, in some instances laying down even their lives in this noble
+work.
+
+On the day of arrival seventy men were called for to nurse yellow
+fever patients and do other work about the hospital. More than this
+number immediately volunteered to enter upon a service which they
+could well believe meant death to some of them. The camp was so
+crowded and filthy that the work of cleaning it was begun at once by
+the men of the Twenty-fourth, and day by day they labored as their
+strength would permit, in policing the camp, cooking the food for
+themselves and for the hospital, unloading supplies, taking down and
+removing tents, and numberless other details of necessary labor.
+Despite all the care that could be taken under such conditions as were
+found at Siboney, the yellow fever soon overran the entire camp, and
+of the 16 officers of the regiment, 1 had died, 2 more were expected
+to die; 3 were dangerously ill, and 5 more or less so. Out of the
+whole sixteen there were but three really fit for duty, and often out
+of the whole regiment it would be impossible to get 12 men who could
+go on fatigue duty. Out of the 456 men who marched to Siboney only 24
+escaped sickness, and on one day 241 were down. Those who would
+recover remained weak and unfit for labor. Silently, without
+murmuring, did these noble heroes, officers and men, stand at their
+post ministering to the necessities of their fellowman until the
+welcome news came that the regiment would be sent north and the
+hospital closed as soon as possible. On August 8 Major La Garde, more
+entitled to the honor of being classed among the heroes of Santiago
+than some whose opportunities of brilliant display were vastly
+superior, succumbed to the disease. The fact should be borne in mind
+that all of these men, officers, soldiers and surgeons, went upon this
+pest-house duty after the severe labors of assault of July 1-2, and
+the two weeks of terrible strain and exposure in the trenches before
+Santiago, and with the sick and wounded consequent upon these battles
+and labors--none were strong.
+
+On July 16th, the day after the Twenty-fourth left the trenches, the
+surrender was made and on the next morning the final ceremonies of
+turning over Santiago to the American forces took place, and the
+soldiers were allowed to come out of their ditches and enter into
+more comfortable camps. The hardships of the period after the
+surrender were not much less than those experienced while in the
+lines.
+
+On the 26th of August the Twenty-fourth Infantry, having obtained an
+honorable release from its perilous duty, marched out of Siboney with
+band playing and colors flying to go on board the transport for
+Montauk; but of the 456 men who marched into Siboney, only 198 were
+able to march out, directed by 9 out of the 15 officers that marched
+in with them. Altogether there were 11 officers and 289 men who went
+on board the transport, but all except the number first given were
+unable to take their places in the ranks. They went on board the
+steamer Nueces, and coming from an infected camp, no doubt great care
+was taken that the transport should arrive at its destination in a
+good condition. Although there was sickness on board, there were no
+deaths on the passage, and the Nueces arrived in port "one of the
+cleanest ships that came to that place." The official report states
+that the Nueces arrived at Montauk Point September 2, with 385 troops
+on board; 28 sick, no deaths on the voyage, and not infected. Worn out
+by the hard service the regiment remained a short time at Montauk and
+then returned to its former station, Fort Douglass, Utah, leaving its
+camp at Montauk in such a thoroughly creditable condition as to elicit
+official remark.
+
+While the Twenty-fourth Infantry had without doubt the hardest
+service, after the surrender, of any of the colored regiments, the
+others were not slumbering at ease. Lying in the trenches almost
+constantly for two weeks, drenched with rains, scorched by the burning
+sun at times, and chilled by cool nights, subsisting on food not of
+the best and poorly cooked, cut off from news and kept in suspense,
+when the surrender finally came it found our army generally very
+greatly reduced in vital force. During the period following, from July
+16th to about the same date in August the re-action fell with all its
+weight upon the troops, rendering them an easy prey to the climatic
+influences by which they were surrounded.[20] Pernicious malarial
+fever, bowel troubles and yellow fever were appearing in all the
+regiments; and the colored troops appeared as susceptible as their
+white comrades. The theory had been advanced that they were less
+susceptible to malarial fever, and in a certain sense this appears to
+be true; but the experience of our army in Cuba, as well as army
+statistics published before the Cuban War, do not bear out the popular
+view of the theory. The best that can be said from the experience of
+Cuba is to the effect that the blacks may be less liable to yellow
+fever and may more quickly rally from the effects of malarial fever.
+These conclusions are, however, by no means well established. The
+Twenty-fourth suffered excessively from fevers of both kinds, and in
+the judgment of the commanding officer of the regiment "effectually
+showed that colored soldiers were not more immune from Cuban fever
+than white," but we must remember that the service of the
+Twenty-fourth was exceptional. The Twenty-fifth Infantry lost but one
+man during the whole campaign from climatic disease, John A. Lewis,
+and it is believed that could he have received proper medical care his
+life would have been saved. Yet this regiment suffered severely from
+fever as did also the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry.
+
+Arriving at Montauk[21] early the author had the opportunity to see
+the whole of the Fifth Army Corps disembark on its return from Cuba,
+and was so impressed with its forlorn appearance that he then wrote of
+it as coming home on stretchers. Pale, emaciated, weak and halting,
+they came, with 3,252 sick, and reporting 87 deaths on the voyage.
+But, as General Wheeler said in his report, "the great bulk of the
+troops that were at Santiago were by no means well." Never before had
+the people seen an army of stalwart men so suddenly transformed into
+an army of invalids. And yet while all the regiments arriving showed
+the effects of the hardships they had endured, the black regulars,
+excepting the Twenty-fourth Infantry, appeared to have slightly the
+advantage. The arrival of the Tenth Cavalry in "good condition" was an
+early cheering item in the stream of suffering and debility landing
+from the transports. Seeing all of the troops land and remaining at
+Camp Wikoff until its days were nearly numbered, the writer feels sure
+that the colored troops arrived from the front in as good condition as
+the best, and that they recuperated with marked comparative rapidity.
+
+The chaplain of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, while en route to join his
+regiment at Montauk, thinking seriously over the condition of the men
+returning from such a hard experience, concluded that nothing would be
+more grateful to them than a reasonable supply of ripe fruit, fresh
+from the orchards and fields. He therefore sent a dispatch to the
+Daily Evening News, published in Bridgeton, N.J., asking the citizens
+of that community to contribute a carload of melons and fruits for the
+men of the Twenty-fifth, or for the whole camp, if they so wished.
+Subsequently mentioning the fact to the commanding officer of the
+regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Daggett, he heartily commended the idea,
+believing that the fruit would be very beneficial. The good people of
+Bridgeton took hold of the matter heartily, and in a short time
+forwarded to the regiment more than four hundred of Jersey's finest
+watermelons, fresh from the vines. These were distributed judiciously
+and the health of the men began to improve forthwith. Soon five
+hundred more arrived, sent by a patriotic citizen of Philadelphia.
+These were also distributed. Ladies of Brooklyn forwarded peaches and
+vegetables, and supplies of all sorts now were coming in abundance.
+Our men improved so rapidly as to be the occasion of remark by
+correspondents of the press. They were spoken of as being apparently
+in good condition. While engaged in the work of supplying their
+physical wants the chaplain was taken to task by a correspondent of
+Leslie's for being too much concerned in getting a carload of
+watermelons for his regiment, to go over to a graveyard and pray over
+the dead. The next day the chaplain made haste to go over to that
+particular graveyard to relieve the country from the crying shame that
+the correspondent had pointed out, only to find two men already there
+armed with prayer-books and one of them especially so fearful that he
+would not get a chance to read a prayer over a dead soldier, that the
+chaplain found it necessary to assure him that the opportunity to pray
+should not be taken from him; and thus another popular horror was
+found to be without reality.
+
+The colored ladies of Brooklyn organized a Soldiers' Aid Society, and
+besides contributing in a general way, as already mentioned, also made
+and presented to the soldiers about four hundred home-made pies, which
+were most highly appreciated. They also prepared a tasty souvenir
+commemorative of the heroic work performed by the troops in Cuba, and
+expressive of high appreciation of the gallantry of the colored
+regiments. A beautiful stand of colors was also procured for the
+Twenty-fourth Infantry, which were subsequently presented to the
+regiment with appropriate ceremonies.
+
+At the camp were three colored chaplains and one colored surgeon,
+serving with the Regular Army, and their presence was of great value
+in the way of accustoming the people at large to beholding colored men
+as commissioned officers. To none were more attention shown than to
+these colored men, and there was apparently no desire to infringe upon
+their rights. Occasionally a very petty social movement might be made
+by an insignificant, with a view of humiliating a Negro chaplain, but
+such efforts usually died without harm to those aimed at and
+apparently without special comfort to those who engineered them.
+
+The following paragraphs, written while in camp at the time indicated
+in them, may serve a good purpose by their insertion here, showing as
+they do the reflections of the writer as well as in outlining the more
+important facts associated with that remarkable encampment:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CAMP WIKOFF AND ITS LESSONS.
+
+Now that the days of this camp are drawing to a close it is profitable
+to recall its unique history and gather up some of the lessons it has
+taught us. Despite all the sensationalism, investigations, testings,
+experimentation, and general condemnation, the camp at Montauk
+accomplished what was intended, and was itself a humane and patriotic
+establishment. It is not for me to say whether a better site might not
+have been selected, or whether the camp might not have been better
+managed. I will take it for granted that improvement might have been
+made in both respects, but our concern is rather with what was, than
+with what "might have been."
+
+To appreciate Camp Wikoff we must consider two things specially;
+first, its purpose, and secondly, the short time allowed to prepare
+it; and then go over the whole subject and properly estimate its
+extent and the amount of labor involved.
+
+The intention of the camp was to afford a place where our troops,
+returning from Cuba, prostrated with climatic fever, and probably
+infected with yellow fever, might receive proper medical treatment and
+care, until the diseases were subdued. The site was selected with this
+in view, and the conditions were admirably suited to such a purpose.
+Completely isolated, on dry soil, with dry pure air, cool climate,
+away from mosquitoes, the camp seemed all that was desired for a great
+field hospital.
+
+Here the sick could come and receive the best that nature had to
+bestow in the way of respite from the heat, and pure ocean breezes,
+and, taken altogether, the experiences of August and a good part of
+September, have justified the selection of Montauk. While prostrations
+were occurring elsewhere, the camp was cool and delightful most of the
+time.
+
+As to the preparations, it must be remembered that the recall of the
+whole Army of Invasion from Cuba was made in response to a popular
+demand, and as a measure of humanity. Bring the army home! was the
+call, and, Bring it at once!
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Such urgency naturally leaps ahead of minor preparations. The soldiers
+wanted to come; the people wanted them to come; hence the crowding of
+transports and the lack of comforts on the voyages; hence the lack of
+hospital accommodations when the troops began to arrive. Haste almost
+always brings about such things; but sometimes haste is imperative.
+This was the case in getting the army out of Cuba and into Camp at
+Montauk in August, '98. Haste was pushed to that point when omissions
+had to occur, and inconvenience and suffering resulted.
+
+We must also remember the condition of the men who came to Montauk.
+About 4,000 were reported as sick before they left Cuba; but, roughly
+speaking, there were 10,000 sick men landing in Montauk. Those who
+were classed as well were, with rare exceptions, both mentally and
+physically incapable of high effort. It was an invalid army, with
+nearly one-half of its number seriously sick and suffering.
+
+Ten thousand sick soldiers were never on our hands before, and the
+mighty problem was not realized until the transports began to emit
+their streams of weakness and walking death at Montauk. The
+preparation was altogether inadequate for such a mass of misery, and
+for a time all appeared confusion.
+
+Then came severe, cruel, merciless criticisms; deserved in some cases
+no doubt, but certainly not everywhere. The faults, gaps, failures,
+were everywhere to be seen, and it was easy to see and to say what
+ought to have been done. But the situation at Camp Wikoff from August
+15th to Sep. 15th needed more than censure; it needed help. The men
+who were working for the Government in both the medical and commissary
+departments needed assistance; the former in the way of nurses, and
+the latter in the way of appropriate food. The censure and exposure
+indulged in by the press may have contributed to direct the attention
+of the benevolently disposed to the conditions in the camp.
+
+Then came the era of ample help; from Massachusetts; from New York, in
+a word, from all over the country. The Merchants' Relief Association
+poured in its thousands of dollars worth of supplies, bringing them to
+the camp and distributing them generously and wisely. The Women's
+Patriotic Relief, the Women's War Relief, the International
+Brotherhood League, and the powerful Red Cross Society, all poured in
+food and comforts for the sick thousands. Besides these great
+organizations there were also the spontaneous offerings of the people,
+many of them generously distributed by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle's
+active representatives. The tent of that journal was an excellent
+way-mark and a veritable house of the good shepherd for many a lost
+wanderer, as well as a place of comfort, cheer and rest. The work done
+was very valuable and highly appreciated.
+
+To the medical department came the trained hand of the female nurse.
+No one who saw these calm-faced, white-hooded sisters, or the cheery
+cheeked, white capped nurses from the schools, could fail to see that
+they were in the right place. The sick soldier's lot was brightened
+greatly when the gentle female nurse came to his cot. Woman can never
+be robbed of her right to nurse. This is one of the lessons taught by
+the Hispano-American War.
+
+This vast army has been handled. No yellow fever has been spread. The
+general health has been restored. The disabled are mostly housed in
+hospitals, and many of them are on the road to recovery. Some have
+died; some are on furlough, and many have gone to their homes.
+
+The regulars are repairing to their stations quite invigorated, and
+greatly helped in many ways by the kind treatment they have received.
+Camp Wikoff was not a failure; but a great and successful object
+lesson, as well as a great summer school in nationalism. Here black,
+white and Indian soldiers fraternized; here Northerners and
+Southerners served under the same orders. Ten thousand soldiers and as
+many civilians daily attended the best school of its kind ever held in
+this country, striving to take home to their hearts the lessons that
+God is teaching the nations.
+
+The Rev. Sylvester Malone thus sums up the message of the war to us in
+his letter to the committee to welcome Brooklyn's soldiers:
+
+     "This short war has done so much for America at home and
+     abroad that we must take every soldier to our warmest
+     affection and send him back to peaceful pursuits on the
+     conviction that there is nothing higher in our American life
+     than to have the privilege to cheer and gladden the marine
+     and the soldier that have left to America her brightest and
+     best page of a great history. This past war must kindle in
+     our souls a love of all the brethren, black as well as
+     white, Catholic as well as Protestant, having but one
+     language, one nationality, and it is to be hoped, yet one
+     religion."
+
+These are true words, as full of patriotism as they are of fraternity,
+and these are the two special lessons taught at Montauk--a broad,
+earnest, practical fraternity, and a love of country before which the
+petty prejudices of race and section were compelled to yield ground.
+
+
+THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION IN CAMP WIKOFF.
+
+The Young Men's Christian Association has done an excellent work in
+Camp Wikoff. Their tents have afforded facilities for profitable
+amusements, in the way of quiet games, thus bringing out the use of
+these games distinct from their abuse--gambling.
+
+Their reading tables have also been well supplied with papers and
+magazines, religious and secular, generally very acceptable to the
+soldiers, as attested by the numbers that read them. But perhaps best
+of all, has been the provision made for the soldiers to write. Tables,
+pens, ink, paper and envelopes have been supplied in abundance. These
+were of great advantage to soldiers living in tents, and the work of
+the Association in this respect cannot be too highly commended.
+
+The specially religious work of the Association as I have seen it,
+consists of three divisions: First, the meetings in their tents, held
+nightly and on Sundays. These have been vigorously carried on and well
+attended, the chaplains of the camp often rendering assistance.
+Secondly, I have noticed the Y.M.C.A. men visiting the sick in the
+hospitals and camps, giving the word of exhortation and help to the
+sick. Perhaps, however, in their work of private conversation with the
+well men, they have done as much real service for God as in either of
+the other two fields. They have made the acquaintance of many men and
+have won the respect of the camp. This I have numbered as the third
+division of their work--personal contact with the soldiers of the
+camp, at the same time keeping themselves "unspotted from the world."
+
+B.
+
+     The 24th Infantry was ordered down to Siboney to do guard
+     duty. When the regiment reached the yellow-fever hospital it
+     was found to be in a deplorable condition. Men were dying
+     there every hour for the lack of proper nursing. Major
+     Markley, who had commanded the regiment since July 1st, when
+     Colonel Liscum was wounded, drew his regiment up in line,
+     and Dr. La Garde, in charge of the hospital, explained the
+     needs of the suffering, at the same time clearly setting
+     forth the danger to men who were not immune, of nursing and
+     attending yellow-fever patients. Major Markley then said
+     that any man who wished to volunteer to nurse in the
+     yellow-fever hospital could step forward. The whole regiment
+     stepped forward. Sixty men were selected from the volunteers
+     to nurse, and within forty-eight hours forty-two of these
+     brave fellows were down seriously ill with yellow or
+     pernicious malarial fever. Again the regiment was drawn up
+     in line, and again Major Markley said that nurses were
+     needed, and that any man who wished to do so could
+     volunteer. After the object lesson which the men had
+     received in the last few days of the danger from contagion
+     to which they would be exposed, it was now unnecessary for
+     Dr. La Garde to again warn the brave blacks of the terrible
+     contagion. When the request for volunteers to replace those
+     who had already fallen in the performance of their dangerous
+     and perfectly optional duty was made again, the regiment
+     stepped forward as one man. When sent down from the trenches
+     the regiment consisted of eight companies, averaging about
+     forty men each. Of the officers and men who remained on duty
+     the forty days spent in Siboney, only twenty-four escaped
+     without serious illness, and of this handful not a few
+     succumbed to fevers on the voyage home and after their
+     arrival at Montauk.
+
+     As a result, thirty-six died and about forty were discharged
+     from the regiment owing to disabilities resulting from
+     sickness which began in the yellow-fever hospital.--Bonsal's
+     Fight for Santiago.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[20] "After the surrender, dear Chaplain, the real trouble and
+difficulties began. Such a period, from July 14, 1898 to August 14,
+1898, was never before known to human beings, I hope. The starving
+time was nothing to the fever time, where scores died per day. We were
+not permitted to starve; but had fever, and had it bad; semi-decayed
+beef, both from refrigerators and from cans. We had plenty of fever,
+but no clothing until very late; no medicine save a little quinine
+which was forced into you all the time, intermittent only with bad
+meat."--Extract from a soldier's letter.
+
+[21] While the Twenty-fifth Infantry was in camp at Chickamauga Park I
+was ordered to Xenia, Ohio, on recruiting duty, and on July 5. on
+seeing the reports of the wounded I asked officially to be ordered to
+my regiment. An order to that effect came about a month later,
+directing me to join my regiment by way of Tampa, Florida. Arriving in
+Tampa, my destination was changed by telegraph to Montauk Point, N.Y.,
+whither I arrived a few days before the regiment did.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+REVIEW AND REFLECTIONS.
+
+     Gallantry of the Black Regulars--Diary of Sergeant-Major
+     E.L. Baker, Tenth Cavalry.
+
+
+It is time now to sum up the work of the four regiments whose careers
+we have thus far followed, and to examine the grounds upon which the
+golden opinions they won in battle and siege are based. We have seen
+that in the first fight, that of Las Guasimas, on June 24th, the Tenth
+Cavalry, especially Troops I and B, both with their small arms and
+with the machine guns belonging to Troop B, did most effective work
+against the Spanish right, joining with the First Cavalry in
+overcoming that force which was rapidly destroying Roosevelt's Rough
+Riders. Nor should it be forgotten that in this first fight, Troop B,
+which did its full share, was commanded on the firing line by
+Sergeants John Buck and James Thompson. In the squad commanded by
+Sergeant Thompson several men of the First Regular Cavalry fought and
+it is claimed were highly pleased with him as squad commander.
+
+While this was the first fight of the men of the Tenth Cavalry with
+the Spaniards, it was by no means their first experience under fire.
+From the time of the organization of the regiment in 1866 up to within
+a year of the war, the men had been engaged frequently in conflicts
+with Indians and marauders, often having men killed and wounded in
+their ranks. The fights were participated in by small numbers, and the
+casualties were not numerous, but there were opportunities for the
+acquirement of skill and the display of gallantry. Altogether the men
+of the regiment during their experience on the plains engaged in
+sixty-two battles and skirmishes. This training had transformed the
+older men of the regiment into veterans and enabled them to be cool
+and efficient in their first fight in Cuba.
+
+Sergeant Buck, upon whom the command of Troop B chiefly fell after
+becoming separated from his Lieutenant in the battle at Guasimas,
+joined the regiment in 1880, and had already passed through eighteen
+years of the kind of service above described. He was at the time of
+the Cuban War in the prime of life, a magnificent horseman, an
+experienced scout, and a skilled packer. In 1880, when he joined the
+regiment, the troops were almost constantly in motion, marching that
+one year nearly seventy-seven thousand miles, his own troop covering
+twelve hundred and forty-two miles in one month. This troop with four
+others made a ride of sixty-five miles in less than twenty-one hours,
+arriving at their destination without the loss of a single horse. In
+1893 he was mentioned by the commanding officer of Fort Missoula,
+Montana, for highly meritorious service, skill and energy displayed
+while in charge of pack train of an expedition across the Bitter Root
+Mountains, Idaho, during the most inclement weather, in quest of a
+party of gentlemen lost. (Letter of commanding officer, Fort Missoula,
+Montana, February 12, 1894.) Sergeant Buck has also won the silver
+medal for revolver shooting.
+
+Sergeant James Thompson joined the regiment in 1888, and has passed
+the ten years in the one troop, and proved himself at Las Guasimas a
+soldier worthy his regiment.
+
+The first battle gave the Tenth a reputation in a new field,
+corresponding to that which it had gained in the West, and this was
+not allowed to fade during its stay in Cuba. The fame of this first
+action spread rapidly through the army and inspired the other
+regiments of colored men with a desire to distinguish themselves on
+this new field of honor, and their readiness to be to the front and to
+take prominent part in all service was so marked that opportunity
+could not be withheld from them. As the army advanced toward Santiago
+these regiments became more and more the mark of observation by
+foreign military men who were present, and by the great throng of
+correspondents who were the eyes for the people of the civilized
+world. And hence, when the lines of assault were finally determined
+and the infantry and cavalry of our army deployed for its perilous
+attack upon the Spanish fortifications the black regiments were in
+their places, conspicuous by their vigor and enthusiasm. In them were
+enlisted men whose time of service had expired a few days before, but
+who had promptly re-enlisted. In at least two cases were men who
+served their full thirty years and could have retired with honor at
+the breaking out of the war. They preferred to share the fortunes of
+their comrades in arms, and it is a comfort to be able to record that
+the two spoken of came home from the fight without a wound and with
+health unimpaired. How many others there were in the same case in the
+army is not reported, but the supposition is that there were several
+such in both the white and colored regiments.
+
+Recalling the scenes of that memorable first of July, 1898, we can see
+the Twenty-fifth Infantry advancing steadily on the stone fort at El
+Caney at one time entirely alone, meeting the fire of the fort even up
+to their last rush forward. Captain Loughborough, who commanded
+Company B, of that regiment, and although his company was in the
+reserve, was nevertheless under fire, says: "The hardest fighting of
+the Twenty-fifth was between two and four o'clock," at which time all
+the other troops of the attacking force, except Bates' brigade, were
+under cover and remaining stationary, the Twenty-fifth being the only
+organization that was advancing. The official reports give the
+positions of General Chaffee's brigade during the two hours between
+two o'clock and four of that afternoon as follows:
+
+The Seventh was under partial cover and remained in its position
+"until about 4.30 p.m." The Seventeenth remained with its left joined
+to the right of the Seventh "until the battle was over." The Twelfth
+Infantry was in its shelter within 350 yards of the fort "until about
+4 p.m." Ludlow's brigade was engaged with the town, hence only Miles'
+brigade, consisting of the Fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry, was
+advancing upon the fort. The Fourth Infantry was soon checked in its
+advance, as General Daggett especially notes in his report, and the
+Twenty-fifth was thus thrust forward alone, excepting Bates' brigade,
+which was making its way up the right.
+
+This conspicuous advance of the Twenty-fifth brought that regiment
+into the view of the world, and established for it a brilliant
+reputation for skill and courage. Arriving in the very jaws of the
+fort the sharpshooters and marksmen of that regiment poured such a
+deadly fire into the loopholes of the fort that they actually silenced
+it with their rifles. These men with the sternness of iron and the
+skill acquired by long and careful training, impressed their
+characteristics on the minds of all their beholders. Of the four
+hundred men who went on the field that morning very few were recruits,
+and many had passed over ten years in the service. When they "took the
+battle formation and advanced to the stone fort more like veterans
+than troops who had never been under fire," as their commander
+reports, they gave to the world a striking exhibition of the effect of
+military training. In each breast a spirit of bravery had been
+developed and their skill in the use of their arms did not for a
+moment forsake them. They advanced against volleys from the fort and
+rifle pits in front, and a galling fire from blockhouses, the church
+tower and the village on their left. Before a less severe fire than
+this, on that very day, a regiment of white volunteers had succumbed
+and was lying utterly demoralized by the roadside; before this same
+fire the Second Massachusetts Volunteers were forced to retire--in the
+face of it the Twenty-fifth advanced steadily to its goal.
+
+Lieutenant Moss, who commanded Company H on the firing line on that
+day, has published an account in which he says: "The town was
+protected on the north by three blockhouses and the church; on the
+west by three blockhouses (and partially by the church); on the east
+by the stone fort, one blockhouse, the church, and three rifle pits;
+on the south and southeast by the stone fort, three blockhouses, one
+loop-holed house, the church and eight rifle pits. However, the Second
+Brigade was sent forward against the southeast of the town, thus being
+exposed to fire from fourteen sources, nearly all of which were in
+different planes, forming so many tiers of fire. The cover on the
+south and southeast of the town was no better than, if as good, as
+that on the other sides."
+
+The cavalry regiments were no less conspicuous in their gallantry at
+San Juan than was the Twenty-fifth Infantry at El Caney. The
+brilliancy of that remarkable regiment, the Rough Riders, commanded on
+July 1st by Colonel Roosevelt, was so dazzling that it drew attention
+away from the ordinary regulars, yet the five regiments of regular
+cavalry did their duty as thoroughly on that day as did the regiment
+of volunteers.[22] In this body of cavalry troops, where courage was
+elevated to a degree infringing upon the romantic, the two black
+regiments took their places, and were fit to be associated in valor
+with that highly representative regiment. The Inspector-General turns
+aside from mere routine in his report long enough to say "the courage
+and conduct of the colored troops and First United States Volunteers
+seemed always up to the best." That these black troopers held no
+second place in valor is proven by their deeds, and from the testimony
+of all who observed their conduct, and that they with the other
+regulars were decidedly superior in skill was recognized by the
+volunteer Colonel himself. The Ninth Cavalry, although suffering
+considerably in that advance on East Hill, involved as it was, more or
+less, with Roosevelt's regiment, did not receive so large a share of
+public notice as its sister regiment. The strength of the Ninth was
+but little over one-half that of the Tenth, and its movements were so
+involved with those of the volunteers as to be somewhat obscured by
+them; the loss also of its commander just as the first position of the
+enemy fell into our hands, was a great misfortune to the regiment. The
+Ninth, however, was with the first that mounted the heights, and
+whatever praise is to be bestowed upon the Rough Riders in that
+assault is to be distributed in equal degree to the men of that
+regiment. Being in the leading brigade of the division this regiment
+had been firing steadily upon the Spanish works before the charge was
+ordered, and when the movement began the men of the Ninth advanced so
+rapidly that they were among the first to reach the crest.
+
+The Tenth Regiment, with its Hotchkiss guns, and its trained men, took
+its place in the line that morning to add if possible further lustre
+to the distinction already won. In crossing the flat, in climbing the
+heights, and in holding the ridge these brave men did all that could
+be expected of them. Roosevelt said: "The colored troops did as well
+as any soldiers could possibly do," meaning the colored men of the
+Ninth and Tenth Cavalry. To their officers he bestows a meed of praise
+well deserved, but not on the peculiar ground which he brings forward.
+He would have the reader believe that it has required special ability
+and effort to bring these colored men up to the condition of good
+soldiers and to induce them to do so well in battle; while the
+testimony of the officers themselves and the experience of more than a
+quarter of a century with colored professional troops give no
+countenance to any such theory. The voice of experience is that the
+colored man is specially apt as a soldier, and General Merritt
+declares him always brave in battle. The officers commanding colored
+troops at Santiago honored themselves in their reports of the battles
+by giving full credit to the men in the ranks, who by their resolute
+advance and their cool and accurate firing dislodged an intrenched foe
+and planted the flag of our Union where had floated the ensign of
+Spain.
+
+That rushing line of dismounted cavalry, so ably directed by Sumner,
+did not get to its goal without loss. As it swept across the open to
+reach the heights, it faced a well-directed fire from the Spanish
+works, and men dropped from the ranks, wounded and dying. Of the
+officers directing that advance 35 fell either killed or wounded and
+328 men. These numbers appear small when hastily scanned or when
+brought into comparison with the losses in battle during the Civil
+War, but if we take time to imagine 35 officers lying on the ground
+either killed or wounded and 328 men in the same condition, the
+carnage will not appear insignificant. Woe enough followed even that
+one short conflict. It must be observed also that the whole strength
+of this division was less than 3000 men, so that about one out of
+every eight had been struck by shot or shell.
+
+Several enlisted men among the colored cavalry displayed high
+soldierly qualities in this assault, evidencing a willingness to
+assume the responsibility of command and the ability to lead.
+Color-Sergeant George Berry became conspicuous at once by his
+brilliant achievement of carrying the colors of two regiments, those
+of his own and of the Third Cavalry. The Color-Sergeant of the latter
+regiment had fallen and Berry seized the colors and bore them up the
+hill with his own. The illustrated press gave some attention to this
+exploit at the time, but no proper recognition of it has as yet been
+made. Sergeant Berry's character as a soldier had been formed long
+before this event, and his reputation for daring was already well
+established. He entered the service in 1867 and when he carried that
+flag up San Juan was filling out his thirty-first year in the service.
+All this time he had passed in the cavalry and had engaged in many
+conflicts with hostile Indians and ruffians on our frontiers.
+
+Perhaps the most important parts taken by any enlisted men in the
+cavalry division were those taken by Sergeants Foster and Givens. The
+former was First Sergeant of Troop G and as the troop was making its
+way to the hill by some means the Spaniards were able not only to
+discover them but also the direction in which they were moving and to
+determine their exact range. Sergeant Foster ventured to tell the
+Lieutenant in charge that the course of advance should be changed as
+they were marching directly into the enemy's guns.
+
+"Silence," shouted the Lieutenant. "Come on, men; follow me." "All
+right, sir," said the Sergeant; "we'll go as far as you will." The
+next instant the Lieutenant was shot through the head, leaving
+Sergeant Foster in command. Immediately the troop was deployed out of
+the dangerous range and the Sergeant by the exercise of good judgment
+brought his men to the crest of the hill without losing one from his
+ranks. At the time of this action Sergeant Foster was a man who would
+readily command attention. Born in Texas and a soldier almost
+continuously since 1875, part of which time had been passed in an
+infantry regiment, he had acquired valuable experience. In 1888, while
+serving in the cavalry, he had been complimented in General Orders for
+skill in trailing raiding parties in Arizona. He was a resolute and
+stalwart soldier, an excellent horseman and possessed of superior
+judgment, and with a reputation for valor which none who knew him
+would question. The return of Troop G, Tenth Cavalry, for July, 1898,
+contains the following note: "Lieutenant Roberts was wounded early in
+the engagement; Lieutenant Smith was killed about 10.30 a.m. while
+gallantly leading the troop in the advance line. After Lieutenant
+Smith fell the command of the troop devolved upon First Sergeant Saint
+Foster, who displayed remarkable intelligence and ability in handling
+the troop during the remainder of the day. Sergeant Foster's conduct
+was such as cannot be excelled for valor during the operations around
+Santiago. He commanded the troop up the hills of San Juan."
+
+Sergeant William H. Givens, of Troop D, Tenth Cavalry, also commanded
+in the action against San Juan. His Captain, who was wounded three
+times in the fight, being finally disabled before reaching the hill,
+makes the following report: "Sergeant William H. Givens was with the
+platoon which I commanded; whenever I observed him he was at his post
+exercising a steadying or encouraging influence on the men, and
+conducting himself like the thorough soldier that I have long known
+him to be. I understand to my great satisfaction that he has been
+rewarded by an appointment to a lieutenancy in an immune regiment."
+
+The Descriptive list of Sergeant Givens, made on August 4th, 1898,
+contains these remarks:
+
+     "Commanded his troop with excellent judgment after his
+     captain fell at the battle of San Juan, July 1, 1898,
+     leading it up the hill to the attack of the blockhouse.
+
+     "Character: A most excellent soldier."[23]
+
+Sergeant Givens may also be called an "old-timer." He had enlisted in
+'69, and had passed all that time in hard frontier service. The troop
+in which he enlisted during the years 1876-78 was almost constantly
+engaged with hostile Indians along the Mexican border, and Sergeant
+Givens was called upon to take part in numerous scouts in which there
+were many striking adventures. He was also in that memorable campaign
+against Victoria, conducted by General Grierson. Sergeant Givens was
+an ideal soldier and worthy the commendations bestowed upon him by his
+troop commander and others. Captain Bigelow received his disabling
+wound about seventy-five yards from the blockhouse and was taken to
+the rear under heavy fire by two soldiers of the troop by the name of
+Henderson and Boardman.
+
+Lieutenant Kennington, reporting the work of the troop on that morning
+says that Corporal J. Walker was probably the first soldier to reach
+the top of the hill and is believed to have shot the Spaniard who
+killed Lieutenant Ord. The report containing the above statement is
+dated July 5, 1898. Since that time the matter has been fully
+investigated by Captain Bigelow and the fact ascertained that Corporal
+Walker did arrive first on the hill and did shoot the Spaniard
+referred to and he has been recommended for a Medal of Honor in
+consequence.
+
+The Sergeant-Major of the Tenth Cavalry, Mr. E.L. Baker, who served
+with great credit during the Santiago campaign, is a soldier with an
+excellent record. He was born of French and American parentage in
+Wyoming and enlisted in the Ninth Cavalry as trumpeter in 1882,
+serving five years in that regiment. He then enlisted in the Tenth
+Cavalry, and in 1892 became Sergeant-Major. Being desirous of
+perfecting himself in the cavalry service he applied for an extended
+furlough with permission to leave the country, intending to enter a
+cavalry school in France. In this desire he was heartily endorsed by
+the officers of his regiment, and was specially commended by General
+Miles, who knew him as a soldier and who highly appreciated him as
+such. The breaking out of the Spanish war soon after he had made
+application prevented a full consideration of his case. In 1897
+Sergeant-Major Baker published a specially valuable "Roster of the
+Non-Commissioned Officers of the Tenth U.S. Cavalry, with Some
+Regimental Reminiscences, etc.," which has been of marked service in
+the preparation of the sketches of the enlisted men of his regiment.
+He contributes the interesting sketch of his experiences in Cuba with
+his regiment, which follows this chapter, and which will prove to many
+perhaps the most interesting portion of my book.
+
+The Twenty-fourth Infantry advanced in that line of attack on the
+extreme left and reached the crest of the San Juan Hills in such
+numbers as to lead the press correspondents and others to conclude
+that there were more men of this regiment promptly on the ground than
+of any other one regiment. It is certain they made a record for
+heroism in that assault as bright as any won on the field that day;
+and this record they raised to a magnificent climax by their
+subsequent work in the fever hospital at Siboney. For their
+distinguished service both in the field and in the hospital, the
+colored ladies of New York honored themselves in presenting the
+regiment the beautiful stand of colors already mentioned. As these
+fever-worn veterans arrived at Montauk they presented a spectacle well
+fitted to move strong men to tears. In solemn silence they marched
+from on board the transport Nueces, which had brought them from Cuba,
+and noiselessly they dragged their weary forms over the sandy roads
+and up the hill to the distant "detention camp." Twenty-eight of their
+number were reported sick, but the whole regiment was in ill-health.
+
+These were the men who had risked their lives and wrecked their health
+in service for others. Forty days they had stood face to face with
+death. In their soiled, worn and faded clothing, with arms uncleaned,
+emaciated, and with scarce strength enough to make the march before
+them, as they moved on that hot 2nd of September from the transport to
+the camp, they appeared more like a funeral procession than heroes
+returning from the war; and to the credit of our common humanity it
+may be recorded that they were greeted, not with plaudits and cheers,
+but with expressions of real sympathy. Many handkerchiefs were brought
+into view, not to wave joyous welcome, but to wipe away the tears that
+came from overflowing hearts. At no time did human nature at Montauk
+appear to better advantage than in its silent, sympathetic reception
+of the Twenty-fourth Infantry.
+
+Of these shattered heroes General Miles had but recently spoken in
+words well worthy his lofty position and noble manhood as "a regiment
+of colored troops, who, having shared equally in the heroism, as well
+as the sacrifices, is now voluntarily engaged in nursing yellow fever
+patients and burying the dead." These men came up to Montauk from
+great tribulations which should have washed their robes to a
+resplendent whiteness in the eyes of the whole people. Great
+Twenty-fourth, we thank thee for the glory thou hast given to American
+soldiery, and to the character of the American Negro!
+
+Thus these four colored regiments took their place on the march, in
+camp, in assault and in siege with the flower of the American Army,
+the choice and pick of the American nation, and came off acknowledged
+as having shared equally in heroism and sacrifices with the other
+regular regiments so engaged, and deserving of special mention for the
+exhibition of regard for the welfare of their fellow man. The query
+is now pertinent as to the return which has been made to these brave
+men. The question of Ahasuerus when told of the valuable services of
+the Jew, Mordecai, is the question which the better nature of the
+whole American people should ask on hearing the general report of the
+valuable services of the Negro Regular in the Spanish War. When
+Ahasuerus asked: "What honor and dignity hath been done to Mordecai
+for this?" his servants that ministered unto him were compelled to
+answer: "There is nothing done for him." Looking over these four
+regiments at the time of this writing an answer somewhat similar in
+force must be returned. That the colored soldier is entitled to honor
+and dignity must be admitted by all who admire brave deeds, or regard
+the welfare of the state. The colored soldier, however, was compelled
+to stand by and see a hundred lieutenancies filled in the Regular
+Army, many in his own regiments, only to find himself overlooked and
+to be forced to feel that his services however valuable, could not
+outweigh the demerit of his complexion.
+
+The sum total of permanent advantage secured to the colored regular as
+such, in that bloody ordeal where brave men gave up their lives for
+their country's honor, consists of a few certificates of merit
+entitling the holders to two dollars per month additional pay as long
+as they remain in the service. Nor is this all, or even the worst of
+the matter. Men who served in the war as First Sergeants, and who
+distinguished themselves in that capacity, have been allowed to go
+back to their old companies to serve in inferior positions. Notably is
+this the case with Sergeant William H. Givens, whose history has been
+detailed as commanding Troop D, Tenth Cavalry, after Captain Bigelow
+fell, and who heroically led the troop up the hill. He is now serving
+in his old troop as Corporal, his distinction having actually worked
+his reduction rather than substantial promotion.
+
+It must not be inferred from the foregoing, however, that nothing
+whatever was done in recognition of the gallantry of the colored
+regulars. Something was done. Cases of individual heroism were so
+marked, and so numerous, that they could not be ignored. The men who
+had so distinguished themselves could not be disposed of by special
+mention and compliments in orders. Something more substantial was
+required. Fortunately for such purpose four regiments of colored
+United States Volunteer Infantry were then in course of organization,
+in which the policy had been established that colored men should be
+accepted as officers below the grade of captain. Into these regiments
+the colored men who had won distinction at Santiago were placed, many
+as Second Lieutenants, although some were given First Lieutenancies.
+This action of the Government was hailed with great delight on the
+part of the colored Americans generally, and the honors were accepted
+very gratefully by the soldiers who had won them on the field.
+Fortunately as this opening seemed, it turned out very disappointing.
+It soon became evident that these regiments would be mustered out of
+the service, as they had proven themselves no more immune, so far as
+it could be determined from the facts, than other troops. The
+Lieutenants who had been most fortunate in getting their commissions
+early got about six or seven months' service, and then the dream of
+their glory departed and they fell back to the ranks to stand
+"attention" to any white man who could muster political influence
+sufficient to secure a commission. Their day was short, and when they
+were discharged from the volunteer service, there appeared no future
+for them as commissioned officers. Their occupation was indeed gone.
+It was for them a most disappointing and exasperating promotion,
+resulting in some cases in loss of standing and in financial injury.
+Their honors were too short-lived, and too circumscribed, to be much
+more than a lively tantalization, to be remembered with disgust by
+those who had worn them. Cruel, indeed, was the prejudice that could
+dictate such a policy to the brave black men of San Juan. The black
+heroes, however, were not without sympathy in their misfortune. The
+good people of the country had still a warm place in their hearts for
+the colored soldier, despite the sayings of his maligners.
+
+The people of Washington, D.C., had an opportunity to testify their
+appreciation of the Tenth Cavalry as that regiment passed through
+their city on its way to its station in Alabama, and later a portion
+of it was called to Philadelphia to take part in the Peace Jubilee,
+and no troops received more generous attention. To express in some
+lasting form their regard for the regiment and its officers, some
+patriotic citizens of Philadelphia presented a handsome saber to
+Captain Charles G. Ayres, who had charge of the detachment which took
+part in the Peace Jubilee, "as a token of their appreciation of the
+splendid conduct of the regiment in the campaign of Santiago, and of
+its superb soldierly appearance and good conduct during its attendance
+at the Jubilee Parade in Philadelphia."
+
+Likewise when the Twenty-fifth Infantry arrived at its station at Fort
+Logan, Colorado, the people of Denver gave to both officers and men a
+most cordial reception, and invited them at once to take part in their
+fall carnival. All over the country there was at that time an unusual
+degree of good feeling toward the colored soldier who had fought so
+well, and no one seemed to begrudge him the rest which came to him or
+the honors bestowed upon him.
+
+This state of feeling did not last. Before the year closed assiduous
+efforts were made to poison the public mind toward the black soldier,
+and history can but record that these efforts were too successful. The
+three hundred colored officers became an object at which both
+prejudice and jealousy could strike; but to reach them the reputation
+of the entire colored contingent must be assailed. This was done with
+such vehemence and persistency that by the opening of 1899 the good
+name of the black regular was hidden under the rubbish of reports of
+misconduct. So much had been said and done, even in Denver, which had
+poured out its welcome words to the heroes of El Caney, that the
+Ministerial Alliance of that city, on February 6, 1899, found it
+necessary to take up the subject, and that body expressed itself in
+the unanimous adoption of the following resolutions:
+
+     RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE MINISTERIAL ALLIANCE
+     OF DENVER, FEBRUARY 6, 1899.
+
+     _Resolved_, By the Ministerial Alliance of the City of
+     Denver, that the attempt made in certain quarters to have
+     the Twenty-fifth Regiment, United States Infantry, removed
+     from Fort Logan, appears to this body to rest on no just
+     grounds, to be animated on the contrary by motives unworthy
+     and discreditable to Denver and the State, and that
+     especially in view of the heroic record of the Twenty-fifth
+     Regiment, its presence here is an honor to Denver and
+     Colorado, which this Alliance would regret to have
+     withdrawn.[24]
+
+The mustering out of the volunteers about the time this opposition was
+approaching what appeared to be a climax, causing the removal from the
+service of the colored officers, appeased the wrath of the demon, and
+the waves of the storm gradually sank to a peace, gratifying, indeed,
+to those who shuddered to see a black man with shoulder-straps. As the
+last Negro officer descended from the platform and honorably laid
+aside his sword to take his place as a citizen of the Republic, or a
+private in her armies, that class of our citizenship breathed a sigh
+of relief. What mattered it to them whether justice were done; whether
+the army were weakened; whether individuals were wronged; they were
+relieved from seeing Negroes in officers' uniforms, and that to them
+is a most gracious portion. The discharge of the volunteers was to
+them the triumph of their prejudices, and in it they took great
+comfort, although as a matter of fact it was a plain national movement
+coming about as a logical sequence, entirely independent of their
+whims or wishes. The injustice to the Negro officer does not lie in
+his being mustered out of the volunteer service, but in the failure to
+provide for a recognition of his valor in the nation's permanent
+military establishment.
+
+The departure of the colored man from the volunteer service was the
+consequent disappearance of the colored military officer, with the
+single exception of Lieutenant Charles Young of the Regular Cavalry,
+had a very depressing effect upon the colored people at large, and
+called forth from their press and their associations most earnest
+protests. With a few exceptions, these protests were encouched in
+respectful language toward the President and his advisers, but the
+grounds upon which they were based were so fair and just, that
+right-thinking men could not avoid their force. The following
+resolution, passed by the National Afro-American Council, may be taken
+as representative of the best form of such remonstrance:
+
+     "_Resolved_, That we are heartily grieved that the President
+     of the United States and those in authority have not from
+     time to time used their high station to voice the best
+     conscience of the nation in regard to mob violence and fair
+     treatment of justly deserving men. It is not right that
+     American citizens should be despoiled of life and liberty
+     while the nation looks silently on; or that soldiers who,
+     with conspicuous bravery, offer their lives for the country,
+     should have their promotion result in practical dismissal
+     from the army."
+
+The nation graciously heeded the call of justice and in the
+re-organization of the volunteer army provided for two colored
+regiments, of which all the company officers should be colored men.
+Under this arrangement many of the black heroes of Santiago were
+recalled from the ranks and again restored to the positions they had
+won. Thus did the nation in part remedy the evil which came in
+consequence of the discharge of the volunteers, and prove its
+willingness to do right. Triumphantly did the Administration vindicate
+itself in the eyes of good people, and again did it place its
+withering disapproval upon the conduct of those who were ready to
+shout their applause over the worthy black officer's accidental
+humiliation. The Negro officer disappeared from the United States'
+Regiments as a Lieutenant only; but he returns to the same, or rather,
+to a higher grade of the same form of regiments, both as Lieutenant
+and Captain. How rapid and pronounced has been the evolution! It is
+true the Negro officer is still a volunteer, but his standing is
+measurably improved, both because of the fact of his recall, and also
+because the regiments which he is now entering have some prospect of
+being incorporated into the Regular Army. It does not seem probable
+that the nation can much longer postpone the increase of the standing
+army, and in this increase it is to be hoped the American Negro, both
+as soldier and officer, will receive that full measure of justice of
+which the formation of the present two colored regiments is so
+conspicuous a part.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DIARY OF E.L. BAKER. SERGEANT-MAJOR TENTH U.S. CAVALRY.
+
+     Appointed First Lieutenant Ninth U.S. Volunteer Infantry,
+     and later Captain of the Forty-ninth Volunteer Infantry--Now
+     Lieutenant in Philippine Scouts.
+
+A TRIP FROM MONTANA TO CUBA WITH THE TENTH U.S. CAVALRY.
+
+April 16, 1898, at 10.45 p.m., telegram was received from Department
+Headquarters, St. Paul, Minnesota, ordering the regiment to the
+Department of the Gulf.
+
+As every click of the telegraph instrument was expected to announce a
+rupture in the diplomatic relations between the United States and the
+Kingdom of Spain, all knew that the mobilization of the army South
+meant preparing it for the serious work for which it is maintained.
+
+On April 19 we were off for Chickamauga Park. En route we were
+heartily greeted. Patriotism was at its height. Every little hamlet,
+even, had its offerings. To compare the journey with Cæsar's march of
+triumph would be putting it mildly.
+
+We arrived at the historic point April 25. Every moment of our stay
+there was assiduously devoted to organizing, refitting and otherwise
+preparing for the inevitable. Officers were sent to many parts of the
+country to secure recruits. Many also gave up details and relinquished
+their leaves of absence to take part in the impending crisis.
+
+May 14. We were moved a little nearer the probable theatre of
+operations. On account of some deficiency in water for troops at
+Tampa, the regiment was stopped at Lakeland, 30 miles this side, where
+many recruits were received; Troops increased to war strength, and new
+Troops established. Drills and instructions were also constantly
+followed up.
+
+June 6. Orders were received to prepare headquarters, band and eight
+Troops dismounted, with trained men only, for service in Cuba.
+Recruits to be left in camp with horses and property.
+
+June 7. We were off for Port Tampa, where the regiment embarked on the
+steamship Leona that afternoon.
+
+June 8. She steamed from the dock. When the expedition seemed to be
+forming, news was received that the dreaded Spanish fleet was being
+sighted, evidently lying in wait for army transports. So we steamed
+back to the pier. Many of the men appeared disappointed at the move,
+probably not realizing that there was too much water in the Atlantic
+Ocean for the 5th Army Corps to drink.
+
+To my mind, the Divine Providence surely directed the move, as the
+delay enabled the force to be swelled several thousand, every one of
+whom was needed before Santiago.
+
+June 14. We steamed out of Tampa Bay, amid cheers and music from the
+thirty odd transports, heavily escorted by naval vessels. Among them
+were the much talked-of dynamiter, Vesuvius, and the beautiful little
+cruiser, Helena. Off Dry Tortugas that formidable warship, Indiana,
+joined the fleet.
+
+Splendid weather; nothing unusual transpiring, though our transport,
+which also contained the First U.S. Cavalry, had a seemingly close
+call from being sent to the bottom of the sea, or else being taken in
+as a prisoner, which the enemy could have done with impunity.
+
+Whilst going down the Saint Nicholas Chanel, in Cuban waters, the
+vessel was deliberately stopped about midnight, June 16, and left to
+roll in the trough of the sea until the morning of the 17th, in
+consequence of which we were put 20 hours behind the fleet and without
+escort, almost in sight of the Cuban shores.
+
+Men were indignant at having been placed in such a helpless position,
+and would have thrown the captain of the ship, whom they accused of
+being a Spanish sympathizer and otherwise disloyal, overboard without
+ceremony, but for the strong arm of military discipline. We were
+picked up by the U.S. Cruiser Bancroft, late in the afternoon, she
+having been sent in quest of the Jonah of the fleet. Upon approach of
+the ship there were prolonged cheers from all of Uncle Sam's
+defenders. The only explanation that I have ever heard for this
+unpardonable blunder on the part of the ship's crew was that they
+mistook a signal of a leading vessel.
+
+June 20. Land was sighted.
+
+June 21. Dispatch boats active; transports circling; Morro Castle
+pointed out; three days' rations issued to each man; no extra
+impedimenta to be taken ashore; crew preparing for landing.
+
+June 22. As we neared Daiquiri, the designated place for disembarking,
+flames could be seen reaching almost to the heavens, the town having
+been fired by the fleeing Spaniards upon the approach of war vessels
+of Sampson's fleet, who were assembling to bombard the shore and cover
+our landing. After a fierce fire from these ships, the landing was
+effected with loss of two men of our regiment, who were doubtless
+crushed to death between the lighters. They were buried near the place
+of recovery the next morning.
+
+The few half-clothed and hungry-looking natives on shore seemed
+pleased to see us. Daiquiri, a shipping point of the Spanish-American
+Iron Company, was mostly deserted. The board houses seemed to have
+been spared, while the sun-burned huts thatched with palm were still
+smoking, also the roundhouse in which there were two railroad
+locomotives, warped and twisted from the heat. The Spanish evidently
+fired everything they could before evacuating.
+
+June 23. At 6.00 p.m. Troops A, B, E and I, left with four Troops of
+the First U.S. Cavalry and Rough Riders (First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry)
+as advance guard of the Army of Invasion on the main road to Santiago
+de Cuba; about 800 men all told, three Hotchkiss guns, manned by ten
+cavalrymen, accompanied also by the Brigadier Commander, General
+S.M.B. Young and staff.
+
+NOTE.--These troops marched about 13 miles through a
+drenching rain from 7 to 10 p.m.; bivouacked one hour later. Oh the
+24th, after breakfast, took the trail about 5.15 a.m. The vapor from
+wet clothing rose with the sun, so that you could scarcely recognize a
+man ten feet away. About three and one-half miles above Siboney the
+command was halted; the first U.S. Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders)
+sent to the left; proceeding farther about one mile, the main column
+was split, First U.S. Cavalry going to the right, the Tenth Cavalry
+remaining in the center. General Wheeler joined at this point,
+accompanied by his orderly, Private Queene, Troop A, Tenth Cavalry.
+Disposition of the troops was explained by General Young, who had
+located his headquarters with the Tenth U.S. Cavalry; General Wheeler
+made his the same. Hotchkiss guns were ordered closed up; magazines
+filled. The column had proceeded but a short way when the engagement
+opened in all its fury; troops were deployed and advanced in the
+direction from which the bullets were coming the thickest, as rapidly
+as the formation of the ground would permit, the left of the line
+touching the right of the Rough Riders.
+
+June 24. Headquarters, band and the remainder of the First and Tenth
+U.S. Cavalry were off at 6 A.M. The road was alive with troops (C, D,
+F, G,) colonels and privates alike lugging their rations and bedding
+beneath that ever watchful tropical sun, feeling as though they would
+wilt at every step, the undergrowth being so thick and tall that
+scarcely any breeze could get to you.
+
+On emerging from this thicket, through which we had been marching for
+several hours, the Sampson fleet could be heard firing on the Spanish
+batteries on shore. Marines and other troops could be seen crossing
+the mountains above Altares; this revived the men very much. As we
+approached Verni Jarabo (Altares?), we were met by General Lawton, who
+informed our Colonel that the advance guard was engaged with the
+Spanish at La Guasima, and that it was hard pressed. Our pace was
+quickened; the news appeared to lighten our heavy packs as we toiled
+to the front to assist our comrades. The roar of the artillery became
+plainer; wounded men along the road as well as those played-out from
+the intense heat. Women and children were fleeing to places of safety.
+Our forces were repairing a railroad engine and track; also tearing up
+a piece leading to a Spanish blockhouse. In fact, everything seemed to
+have on an exceedingly warlike tint, but our advance continued as
+swifty as our weary feet would allow, which soon brought us to a
+number of our own comrades conveyed on litters from La Guasima, where
+our advance guard was tussling hard with the Dons for the honors of
+the day.
+
+Upon arrival of reinforcements, victory had been wrested from the Dons
+fairly by the advance guard without assistance. Every one greeted each
+other, as though it had been a year instead of a few hours since
+parting. The First U.S. Cavalry and Rough Riders were unstinted in
+extolling the fighting qualities of their brothers in arms, the Tenth
+U.S. Cavalry.
+
+The enemy was struck early June 24, entrenched on the heights of La
+Guasima, near Sevilla, on the main road from Daiquiri to the city of
+Santiago de Cuba. The advance guard was soon hotly engaged with them;
+after a very desperate fight of over one hour, the enemy was driven in
+confusion from their intrenchments. Our men were too exhausted to
+follow them. The Tenth Cavalry lost 13 killed and wounded. For a while
+it was a terrific fight, as the enemy was strongly intrenched on the
+heights and our men had to climb them subjected to their fire, which
+was very accurate, and much of it doubtless from machine guns in hands
+of experienced men. Our men had also to contend with the thickest
+underbrush, wire fences (the famous military trochas) and Spanish
+daggers jabbing them in side at every step. For a while the situation
+was serious. The decisive blow of the attack seems to have been struck
+at an opportune moment, and the enemy withdrew in confusion.
+
+It has been estimated that about 4,000 Spanish were engaged.
+Everything indicated that they lost heavily; a Santiago paper put it
+at 240. The writer and the Sergeant-Major of the First U.S. Cavalry
+superintended the digging of one large grave where all the dead of the
+two regiments were interred according to the Episcopal service. The
+Rough Riders, being farther to our left, buried their own. If
+advantage of position goes for anything, the Spanish should have
+annihilated the Americans as they approached the stronghold.
+
+The command remained on the battlefield until June 26, when it
+proceeded to Sevilla, an old coffee and sugar plantation, to await the
+assembling of the army and placing of the artillery.
+
+Our camp at Sevilla was an interesting one in many ways. It was
+pitched between the main road and a stream of excellent water. From
+the hill beyond, the Spanish works could be viewed. From the roadside
+many acquaintances were seen, also generals, foreign military
+attaches, troops, artillery and pack trains. Wheeled transportation
+seemed entirely out of its place in Cuba; one piece of artillery was
+noticed with 24 horses tugging away at it.
+
+The Cuban Army, cavalry and infantry, passed us at this point, which
+seemed to consist of every male capable of swelling the crowd. Those
+unable to carry or secure guns had an old knife or machete strapped to
+them.
+
+On June 30, about 4 P.M., shortly after our daily shower, which was a
+little more severe and much longer than usual, the regiment was put in
+motion for the front. We had marched about 1600 yards when the war
+balloon was seen ascending some distance to our right. As the balloon
+question was new, every one almost was stumbling on the man's heels in
+front, trying to get a peep at this wonderful war machine.
+
+After much vexatious delay, narrow road crowded with troops, a pack
+train came along and added its mite to the congestion, as some of the
+mules turned their heels on the advancing column when pushed too much.
+
+We finally merged into a beautiful lawn, site of the Division
+Hospital, where all were as busy as beavers in placing this
+indispensable adjunct in order. Here the work of July 1 was clearly
+suggested. Proceeding, wading and rewading streams, we bivouacked
+beyond the artillery on the heights of El Poso, an old sugar
+plantation, about four miles off, in plain view of the city of
+Santiago. The lights of the city showed so brightly, the enemy
+offering no resistance to our advance, I could not help feeling
+apprehensive of being in a trap. I thought so seriously over the
+matter that I did not unroll my pack, so as to be ready at an instant.
+Simply released my slicker, put it on, and lay down where I halted.
+
+Early July 1 all the brigade was up, getting breakfast and making as
+much noise as if on a practice march. The Tenth Cavalry did not make
+any fire until orders were received to that effect. I remarked to my
+bunky that we were not going to fight evidently, as the smoke would
+surely disclose our presence and enable the enemy's artillery to get
+our range. The whole of Santiago seemed to be decorated with hospital
+flags.
+
+At 6.30 a shell from Capron's battery, U.S. Artillery, directed at a
+blockhouse in El Caney, announced that the battle was on. Then the
+musketry became general. All stood and watched the doomed village
+quite a while as the battle progressed. Soon Grices' battery of the
+U.S. Artillery, which was in support, belched forth destruction at the
+Spanish works of the city, using black powder. The fire was almost
+immediately returned by the enemy's batteries, who had smokeless.
+They were shortly located when a fierce duel took place. The Dons were
+silenced, but not until we had suffered loss. During this fire
+an aide--Lieut. Wm. E. Shipp, Tenth Cavalry, Brigade
+Quartermaster--brought orders for us to take position on the left of
+the First U.S. Cavalry. The line extended nearly north and south on a
+ridge some three or four miles from the city, where the regiment was
+exposed to much of the return fire from the enemy's batteries. The men
+exhibited no special concern and watched the flight of the death
+messenger as eagerly as if at a horse race. Adjutant Barnum here
+divided the band and turned it over to the surgeons to assist in
+caring for the wounded, and directed Saddler Sergeant Smith and myself
+to accompany the Colonel in advance. When Lieut. Shipp delivered his
+orders, some of the officers remarked, "You are having a good time
+riding around here." He replied that it was no picnic riding among
+bullets, and that he would prefer being with his troops.
+
+After the artillery had ceased firing, the regiment moved to the
+right, passed El Poso, where there were additional signs of the
+enemy's havoc among our troops, proceeded down the road leading to
+Santiago. The movement of the regiment was delayed as it approached
+the San Juan River, by an infantry brigade which had halted.
+
+The regiment came within range of musket fire about three-quarters or
+one-half mile from the crossing. Upon reaching the ford the Colonel
+(Baldwin) rode nearly across the stream (closely followed by his
+regiment) when we were greeted by the Dons with a terrific volley of
+musketry, soon followed by artillery, which caused us to realize more
+fully than ever, that "things were coming our way." Orders were given
+to throw off packs and get cover. In removing his, Sergeant Smith,
+on, my immediate left, was assisted by a Spanish bullet, and an
+infantry soldier fell as my pack was thrown off to the right. In
+seeking cover men simply dropped to the right and left of the road in
+a prone position.
+
+The regiment was here subjected to a terrific converging fire from the
+blockhouse and intrenchments in front and the works further to the
+left and nearer the city. The atmosphere seemed perfectly alive with
+flying missiles from bursting shells over head, and rifle bullets
+which seemed to have an explosive effect. Much fire was probably drawn
+by the war balloon, which preceded the regiment to a point on the edge
+of the river, near the ford, where it was held. This balloon
+undoubtedly rendered excellent service in locating positions of the
+Spanish works and developing an ambush which had been laid for us, but
+the poor, ill-fated balloon certainly received many uncomplimentary
+remarks during our stay in its vicinity.
+
+It seemed as though the Spanish regarded the balloon as an evil agent
+of some kind, and as though every gun, both great and small, was
+playing on it. I made several trips under it following the Colonel,
+who repeatedly rode up and down the stream, and I would have been
+fully satisfied to have allowed my mind even to wander back to the
+gaily lighted ball rooms and festivals left behind only a few months
+before.
+
+While on the last trip under the balloon a large naval shell exploded,
+knocking the Colonel's hat off, crippling his horse, and injuring the
+rider slightly in the arm and side, all of course, in addition to a
+good sand bath. I then joined the regiment, some rods beyond, then
+under cover. In crouching down behind a clump of brush, heard some one
+groan; on looking around, saw Private Marshall struggling in the river
+wounded. Immediately rushing to his assistance another of those
+troublesome shells passed so close as to cause me to feel the heat. It
+did not stop the effort, however, and the wounded man was placed in
+safety.
+
+The regiment remained in the road only a few moments when it was
+ordered to take position behind the river bank some yards above the
+balloon for protection; while moving to that position, and while
+there, suffered much loss. Why we did not lose heavier may be
+attributed to the fact that the enemy's musket fire was a trifle high,
+and their shells timed from one-half to one second too long, caused
+them to explode beyond, instead of in front, where the shells would
+have certainly secured the Dons' maximum results, as, after the
+balloon was cut down, you could scarcely hold your hand up without
+getting it hit. During the battle, one trooper fell upon a good-sized
+snake and crushed it to death, and another trooper allowed one of
+these poisonous reptiles to crawl over him while dodging a volley from
+the Spanish Mausers.
+
+The shrapnel and canister shells, with their exceedingly mournful and
+groaning sound, seemed to have a more terrifying effect than the swift
+Mauser bullet, which always rendered the same salutation, "Bi-Yi." The
+midern shrapnel shell is better known as the man-killing projectile,
+and may be regarded as the most dangerous of all projectiles designed
+for taking human life. It is a shell filled with 200 or 300 bullets,
+and having a bursting charge, which is ignited by a time fuse, only
+sufficient to break the base and release the bullets, which then move
+forward with the velocity it had the time of bursting. Each piece is
+capable of dealing death to any living thing in its path. In practice
+firing, it is known where, by one shot, 152 hits were made by a single
+shrapnel. In another, 215 hits are recorded. Imagine then, the havoc
+of a well-directed shrapnel upon a group of men such as is here
+represented. Capron's battery at El Caney cut down 16 cavalrymen with
+one shell.
+
+After a delay of about 30 minutes, during part of the time, the
+writer, assisted by Sergeant Smith and Mr. T.A. Baldwin, cut all the
+wire fences possible. Mr. Baldwin was dangerously wounded while so
+engaged just before the general advance.
+
+The regiment merged into open space in plain view of and under the
+fire of the enemy; and formed line of battle facing toward the
+blockhouses and strong intrenchments to the north, occupied by the
+Spanish, and advanced rapidly in this formation, under a galling,
+converging fire from the enemy's artillery and infantry, on the
+blockhouses and heavy intrenchments to the right front. Many losses
+occurred before reaching the top of the hill, Lieut. W.H. Smith being
+killed while gallantly conducting his troop as it arrived on the
+crest. Lieut. W.E. Shipp was killed about the same instant, shortly
+after leaving Lieutenant Smith, further to the left and near the pond
+on the sunken road leading to Santiago. Lieutenant Smith was struck in
+the head and perished with a single groan. Lieutenant Shipp was hit
+near the heart; death must have been almost instantaneous, though it
+appears he made an effort to make use of his first aid package. Thus
+the careers of two gallant and efficient officers whose lives had been
+so closely associated were ended.
+
+Private Slaughter, who was left in charge of Lieutenant Smith's body,
+was picked off by the Spanish sharpshooters, and Private Jackson,
+Lieutenant Shipp's orderly, was left as deaf as a post from a bursting
+shell.
+
+The enemy having been driven back, northwest, to the second and third
+blockhouses, new lines were formed and a rapid advance made upon them
+to the new positions. The regiment assisted in capturing these works
+from the enemy, and planted two sets of colors on them, then took up a
+position to the north of the second blockhouse. With some changes in
+position of troops, this line, one of the most advanced, about three
+hundred yards of the enemy, was held and intrenchments dug under a
+very heavy and continuous fire from the Spanish intrenchments in
+front, July 2 and 3.
+
+In their retreat from the ridge, the enemy stood not on the order of
+their going, but fled in disorder like so many sheep from the scene,
+abandoning a quantity of ammunition, which was fired at them
+subsequently from our rapid-fire guns. Our men were too exhausted to
+pursue them, footwear and clothing being soaked by wading rivers, they
+had become drenched with rain, and when they reached the crest they
+were about played-out; having fought about 12 hours, most of which was
+under that ever-relentless tropical sun.
+
+Throughout the night, work on the intrenchments was pushed, details
+buried the dead, improvised litters, and conveyed the wounded to
+hospitals, all of which was prosecuted with that vim for which the
+regular soldier is characterized, notwithstanding their water-logged
+condition.
+
+The regiment acted with extraordinary coolness and bravery. It held
+its position at the ford and moved forward unflinchingly after
+deployment, through the dense underbrush, crossed and recrossed by
+barbed wire, under heavy and almost plunging fire from the Spanish
+works, while attacking with small arms an enemy strongly posted in
+intrenchments and blockhouses, supported by artillery, and who
+stubbornly contested every inch of ground gained by the American
+troops.
+
+Officers were exceedingly active and tireless in their efforts to
+inspire and encourage the men. You could hear them call out, "Move
+right along; the Spaniards can't shoot; they are using blanks." One
+officer deliberately stopped and lit his pipe amid a shower of
+bullets, and then moved on as unconcerned as if on target practice.
+
+The rifle pits occupied by the enemy were intrenchments in reality,
+dug almost shoulder deep, and faced with stone, being constructed
+without approaches, leaving the only avenue for escape over the
+parapet, which was equivalent to committing suicide, in face of the
+unerring marksmanship of the United States troops.
+
+We were afterward told by a Spanish soldier how they were held in
+these trenches by an officer stationed at each end with a club; also
+how they depended on their officers for everything. This may account
+for the large percentage of our officers picked off by the Dons. I
+observed during the battle that when spotted by the enemy, delivering
+orders or busying about such duties as usually indicated some one in
+authority, the Spanish would fire whole volleys at an individual, this
+evidently with a view to demoralizing the rank and file by knocking
+off the officers.
+
+The Spanish also tried an old Indian trick to draw our fire, or induce
+the men to expose themselves, by raising their hats on sticks or
+rifles, or placing them upon parapets, so when we went to fire they
+would aim to catch us as we rose with a terrific volley. The Dons
+were, however, soon convinced of their folly in this respect, as we
+always had a volley for the hats and a much stouter one for the enemy
+as he raised to reply to the volley at the hats. The Tenth Cavalry had
+fought Indians too long in the West to be foiled in that manner.
+
+We were annoyed much by the Spanish sharpshooters stationed in tops of
+the beautiful palms and other trees of dense foliage. A number of
+these guerillas were found provided with seats, water and other
+necessaries, and I am told some of them had evidently robbed our dead
+to secure themselves an American uniform, that they might still carry
+on their nefarious work undetected.
+
+Many of the disabled received their second and some their mortal
+wound, while being conveyed from the field by litter-bearers.
+
+Though it was the tendency for a time to give the sharpshooter story
+little or no credence, but to lay the matter to "spent bullets"; it
+seemed almost out of the question that "spent bullets" should annoy
+our Division Hospital, some four or five miles from the Spanish works.
+It would also seem equally as absurd that a bullet could be trained to
+turn angles, as several of our men were hit while assembled for
+transfer to general hospital and receiving temporary treatment at the
+dressing station located in an elbow of the San Juan River.
+
+The Division Hospital was so harassed that it was necessary to order
+four Troops of the 9th U.S. Cavalry there for guard. While en route to
+the hospital on the morning of July 2 with wounded, I saw a squad of
+the 2nd U.S. Cavalry after one of these annoying angels, not 20 feet
+from the road. On arrival at the hospital I was told by a comrade that
+several had been knocked from their stage of action. On July 1, our
+Color-Sergeant was shot from a tree after our line had passed beneath
+the tree where he was located. July 3, three more fell in response to
+a volley through tree tops, and on July 14, while waiting the hand to
+reach the hour for the bombardment of the city, one of the scoundrels
+deliberately ascended a tree in plain view of, and within two hundred
+yards of, our line. It was a good thing that the white flag for
+surrender appeared before the hour to commence firing, otherwise Spain
+would have had at least one less to haggle with on account of back
+pay.
+
+To locate a sharpshooter using smokeless powder among the dense
+tropical growth may be compared with "looking for a needle in a
+haystack."
+
+The killed and wounded in battle present a scene well calculated to
+move the most callous. Men shot and lacerated in every conceivable
+manner; some are expressionless; some just as they appeared in life;
+while others are pinched and drawn and otherwise distorted, portraying
+agony in her most distressful state. Of the wounded, in their anguish,
+some are perfectly quiet; others are heard praying; some are calling
+for their mothers, while others are giving out patriotic utterances,
+urging their comrades on to victory, or bidding them farewell as they
+pass on to the front. July 1, in passing a wounded comrade, he told me
+that he could whip the cowardly Spaniard who shot him, in a fair fist
+fight.
+
+During the first day's battle many interesting sights were witnessed.
+The new calibre 30 Gatling guns were in action. These cruel machines
+were peppering away several hundred shots each per minute and sweeping
+their front from right to left, cutting down shrubbery and Spaniards
+like grain before the reaper. I observed the excellent service of the
+Hotchkiss Mountain gun; they certainly do their work to perfection and
+well did the Dons know it. Many shots fired into the "blind ditches
+and blockhouses" of the enemy caused them to scatter like rats. These
+guns use a percussion shell nearly two inches, and can be packed on
+mules. They were designed for light service with cavalry on the
+frontier. Four of these little beauties were manned by men of the
+Tenth Cavalry. The Spanish made it so hot for the boys that they would
+have to roll the gun under cover to load, and then steal it back to
+fire.
+
+I saw one of our light batteries of artillery go in position under
+fire at the foot of San Juan Hill. The movement was swiftly and
+skillfully executed. A most interesting feature of this was to see the
+Caissons, drawn by six magnificent horses, off for ammunition. Three
+drivers to each outfit, one to each pair of horses; all plying the
+whip at every jump, would remind you of a Roman chariot race coming
+around on their last heat.
+
+Wheeled vehicles of war suffer more than other troops, on account of
+their stationary positions. It is here that the dreaded sharpshooter
+comes in for glory, by picking off the gunners and other individuals.
+
+Pack trains were seen dashing along the line with that always
+absolutely essential--ammunition--thereby gladdening the hearts of the
+boys who were doing their utmost to expend every round in their belts
+to gain another foot of Spanish territory.
+
+During all these stirring events the stomachs of the real heroes were
+not neglected, and most certainly not along our part of the line. Pack
+mules were brought right up to the line under a hot fire, loaded with
+sugar, coffee, bacon and hardtack, all of which was in plenty. Some of
+the mules were killed and wounded, but this did not retard the advance
+of the train. When near the firing line some one called, "Whose
+rations?" A prompt reply, "Hungry soldiers."
+
+The daring horseman was all that was needed to make the situation
+complete. Without participation of cavalry, the ideal warrior
+disappears from the scene, and the battle and-picture of war is robbed
+of its most attractive feature.
+
+Late in the afternoon, July 1, I was directed to take Saddler Sergeant
+Smith and bring to the firing line all the men I could find of the
+regiment. Going to the dressing station, collected those who had
+brought or assisted wounded there, thence across a portion of the
+field passed over a few hours previous. Men were found almost
+exhausted, soaking wet, or a solid mass of mud, resting as comfortably
+as if in the finest of beds; many of them had been on picket duty all
+night before, to which was added the hard day's work not then
+completed. After locating all I could, we went to the crest of the San
+Juan Hill, to the left of the sunken road, where the First U.S.
+Cavalry was reforming, and there picked up a few more who had joined
+that regiment.
+
+The Tenth Cavalry having in the meantime taken another position, I set
+out to find it, going in front, telling Smith to bring up the rear. We
+were detained a short time near Sunken Roads by shells from Cervera's
+fleet, which were falling in it at a lively rate. Barbed wire
+prevented us from "running the gauntlet." Shortly after crossing the
+road an officer passed us, his horse pushed to his utmost, telling us
+to take all the ammunition that we possibly could on the firing line.
+About that instant, the pack train came thundering by, which we
+relieved of a few thousand rounds in short order. I was much amused at
+one of the men who innocently asked, "Where are we to get axes to
+burst these strong boxes?" The job was speedily accomplished before
+the boxes were on the ground good, and most certainly in less time
+than it would have taken to explain matters to the inexperienced. We
+were soon off again, tramping all over the country, through darkness,
+running into wire entanglements, outposts and pickets, and within
+fifty yards of the enemy (subsequently ascertained).
+
+About 11.00 P.M. found Colonel Roosevelt a few hundred yards from the
+Spanish lines with some of my regiment, the First Cavalry, and Rough
+Riders, at work on trenches, where we reported. All seemed glad to
+have my little reinforcement, about 65 men, and ammunition. I never
+felt so relieved at anything as I did to get that herculean task off
+my hands, a job as hard as working a problem in the third book of
+Euclid. The men were so tired that they would lie down at every stop
+to find the right road or the way out of the wire entanglements
+constantly encountered. I have never seen in a book anything to equal
+the Spanish wire entanglements. Barbed wire was stretched in every
+nook and corner, through streams, grass, and from two inches to six
+feet in height, and from a corkscrew to a cable in design. It takes
+the nerve of a circus man to get men along when they are so exhausted
+that every place feels alike to them, and that they would gladly give
+away Mr. Jim Hill's fortune if they possessed it, for a few hours'
+sleep.
+
+On arrival at the front, lunch was about over or just ready.
+Lieutenant E.D. Anderson (10th Cavalry) gave me two and one-half
+hardtacks from his supply, which he carried in his bosom. I was soon
+down for a little rest; all desultory firing had ceased; the pick and
+the shovel were the only things to disturb the quietude of that
+anxious night. Had been down but a short time when aroused by one of
+the Rough Riders, who had some rice and meat in an ammunition box
+which he brought from the captured blockhouse. The meat was
+undoubtedly mule, as the longer I chewed it the larger and more spongy
+it got, and were it not for the fact that I had had some experience
+in the same line many years before in Mexico while in pursuit of
+hostile Indians, I would certainly have accused our best friends
+(Rough Riders) of feeding us rubber. I made another effort for a
+little sleep, and was again aroused by some one passing around
+hardtack, raw bacon, etc., with instructions as to where to go to cook
+it. I thanked him and carefully laid it aside to resume my nap. At
+2.40 A.M. the pickets were having such a lively set to, that I thought
+the general engagement was on. It was at this time I discovered that I
+was shivering cold, and that my teeth were rattling equal to a
+telegraph sounder; so under the circumstances, I concluded not to try
+for any more sleep. The dew was falling thick and heavy; no coat, no
+blanket, top shirt torn in strips from the brush, and undershirt wet
+and in my pack, thrown off on coming into battle.
+
+Early July 22nd the artillery took position on our left. Pickets kept
+up firing from 2.40 A.M. until 5.25, when the engagement became
+general. Shortly after 6.00 A.M. our artillery opened on the Spanish
+works, who promptly returned the compliment. During the firing the
+Dons exploded a shell in the muzzle of one of our pieces. Adjutant
+Barnum fell at 6.30 A.M.; his wound was promptly dressed, when I
+started to the Division Hospital with him. Though seriously hurt, I
+have never seen a better natured man. While en route, we laid him down
+to eat a can of salmon _found in the road_. In response to his query,
+"What's up, Sergeant?" the salmon was passed him; he helped himself,
+no further questions were asked, and the journey was resumed. On
+arrival at the hospital he was quickly examined and placed on a
+comfortable cot. Many of the attendants were completely played-out
+from overwork.
+
+A visit to a field hospital will have a lasting place in your memory.
+Every way you turn, amid the cries and groans, you get a beck or call
+to ease this, or hand me that, and one feels badly because of his
+inability to extend them material aid in their sufferings.
+
+On returning to the front, I found the regiment as hotly engaged as
+when I left it some hours before. As the fighting was from trenches,
+many of our men were wounded by shells. Sharpshooters were on hand as
+usual. I was sent to the Captain of Troop E, under the crest of the
+hill, with orders to dig an approach to one of the enemy's trenches,
+evacuated the day before; also to bury some of their dead. While
+delivering the order, it being necessary to get very close on account
+of the noise, one of those ever vigilant sharpshooters put a bullet
+between our faces. The Captain asked me to cut the wire fence so his
+troops could get through more rapidly; while telling me, another
+bullet passed so close as to disturb the Captain's mustache. He took
+it good-naturedly, only remarking as he smiled, "Pretty close,
+Sergeant-Major!"
+
+Firing ceased about 8 P.M. After all had had supper we changed
+position further to the right, where work on trenches was resumed.
+About 10.30 P.M. the Spaniards made an attack upon our lines, and I
+have never before or since seen such terrific firing; the whole
+American line, which almost encircled the city, was a solid flame of
+fire. The enemy's artillery replied, also their much-praised
+"Mausers," but to no avail; they had opened the ball, but Uncle Sam's
+boys did not feel like yielding one inch of the territory so dearly
+bought.
+
+About midnight all hands were aroused by the dynamite cruiser Vesuvius
+"coughing" for the Dons. The roar was so great that it seemed to shake
+the whole island. To the uninitiated it would appear that some one
+had taken a few mountains several miles up in a balloon and thrown
+them down.
+
+July 3. Firing by pickets commenced very early, and quite heavy, at
+5.40 A.M. Terrific cannonading to the seaward was heard between 9 and
+10 A.M. As there was some talk of the enemy making a sortie, all eyes
+were open. Dirt began falling in the pits from the jar, bells could be
+heard tolling in the city, and steam whistles in the harbor. There was
+much speculation as to what was in progress. I'll say that there were
+many glad hearts when the news reached us that _Sampson's fleet was
+King of the Seas_. At 12 M. all firing was ordered off, for flag of
+truce to enter the Spanish lines. When the order for cease firing was
+given, one of the troopers laid his gun upon the parapet and remarked
+that he "would not take $2000 for his experience, but did not want a
+cent's worth more." Work on bomb-proofs and breast works was continued
+incessantly until news of the surrender reached us.
+
+July 4. Flag of truce all day; national and regimental colors placed
+on parapets. At noon the regiment paraded, and all hearts cheered by
+the patriotic telegram of the Commander-in-Chief--His Excellency,
+President McKinley. Refugees, in droves, could be seen leaving for
+several days, notice of bombardment having been served on the city.
+
+July 5. There was much excitement when Lieutenant Hobson and party
+crossed our lines.
+
+During truce, the monotony was broken occasionally by the presence of
+Spanish soldiers in quest of something to eat or desiring to
+surrender.
+
+Truce was off July 10 at 4 P.M. Bombardment of the city commenced by
+the army and navy combined, which continued until 2 P.M. 11th.
+Gatling, dynamite, rapid-firing and Hotchkiss guns were so well
+trained that the Dons scarcely dared to raise their heads, and their
+firing was soon silenced. During the attack our part of the line
+suffered no loss. While occupying these works, it was discovered that
+the gun of the enemy that _annoyed us most was quite near a large
+building covered with Red Cross flags_.
+
+During the truce all of our dead were located and buried. It was sad,
+indeed, to see the vultures swarming like flies, when we knew so well
+their prey.
+
+Though prepared to, several times, no shots were exchanged after July
+11, and all was quiet until date of capitulation. The hardest rain
+ever witnessed, accompanied by terrific thunder and lightning, was on
+the last day of the engagement. Trenches were flooded and everything
+appeared as a sea.
+
+July 17, at 9 A.M., the regiment, with the remainder of the army, was
+assembled over the trenches to witness the formal surrender of General
+Toral, with the Spanish forces. Owing to the dense tropical growth,
+and its similarity in color to their clothing, little or nothing could
+be seen, beyond the straw hats of the Dons, as they marched through
+the jungles. At 12 M., we were again placed in the same position, to
+salute "Old Glory" as she ascended over the Governor's palace in the
+city, which was told by Capron's battery U.S. Artillery. At the first
+shot, every individual tested his lungs to their fullest capacity,
+bands of music playing national airs.
+
+Spanish soldiers were soon over our lines, trading off swords, wine,
+cigarettes and trinkets for hard tack and bacon. This soon ended, as
+there were positive orders against our fraternizing. The Spaniards
+were a fine looking lot of young men; though generally small in
+stature, and were very neat and clean, considering. The officers were
+an intelligent and dignified looking set. The Dons were away ahead on
+ammunition, and away behind on eatables. A few musty, hard tack,
+thrown in our trenches, were devoured like so much fresh beef, by so
+many hungry wolves.
+
+Campaigning in the tropics entails many hardships, though unavoidable
+and only to be expected, in war. War is horrible in any aspect in
+which it may be viewed. Even those features of it intended to be
+merciful, are full of harshness and rigor; and after all, fighting is
+the easiest part.
+
+As the capitulation was complete, and Santiago was our's, we were
+ordered to change camp to a more healthful locality, with a view to
+allowing the men to recuperate. While en route many refugees were met
+returning to the city, men and women, with the scantiest clothing
+imaginable; large children even worse--in a nude state--all were
+making signs for something to eat.
+
+In passing through El Caney, filth of all descriptions was piled up in
+the streets; stock was seen standing inside dwellings with occupants;
+young and old were emaciated--walking skeletons; children with
+stomachs bloated to thrice their natural size--due to the unsanitary
+condition of the huts, so I was informed.
+
+The bare facts are, that "half has never been told" regarding the true
+condition of the Cubans, and it is truly a Godsend that "Uncle Sam"
+was not delayed another day in letting the Don's breathe a little of
+nature's sweetest fragrance of the nineteenth century--Civilization.
+
+The portion of the island I saw appears to be a beautiful park
+deserted and laid waste by the lavish application of the torch for
+many years. Magnificent mansions, or dwellings, in ruins; habitation
+scant, except near towns.
+
+There were no domestic animals, except a few for saddle purposes, nor
+were there crops to be seen. No use whatever appears to be made of the
+luxuriant pasturage and rich fields. Sugar houses and sheds on
+plantations are in a state of decay, and the huge kettles for boiling
+deeply coated with rust.
+
+The climate of Cuba offers all the essentials, heat, moisture and
+organic matter, for the development of germ life in its most active
+form.
+
+The great heat and moisture, so excellent for the development of
+infected wounds, and for the rapid decomposing of the heavy
+undergrowth cannot, I believe, be exceeded anywhere.
+
+The frequent tropical showers, invariably followed by a hot steam,
+along with which germs seem to float; the consequent exposure of the
+men to that glaring heat and moisture, lowered the general tone of the
+system so that they were especially liable to attacks of miasmatic
+diseases (malarial and typhoid fevers and dysentery.)
+
+Owing to the dense humidity, clothing does not dry so long as it
+remains on the person, but must be removed, a condition that was
+absolutely impossible for many days on the field before Santiago. To
+this alone, much of our sickness may be attributed.
+
+Our new camp, pitched on the eminence of El Caney, about one and
+one-half miles from the village, overlooking the city and bay of
+Santiago, with its excellent water, shade, grass, and increased
+comforts, which were daily shipped from our transports, presented a
+scene far more conciliatory than had been witnessed about the Tenth
+Horse for many days.
+
+
+MEDALS OF HONOR AND CERTIFICATES OF MERIT GRANTED TO COLORED SOLDIERS
+FOR DISTINGUISHED SERVICES IN THE CUBAN CAMPAIGN.
+
+OFFICIAL.
+
+                            MEDALS OF HONOR.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+     Name.       |  Rank  |  Regiment. |  Troop or Co.| Remarks.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+Bell, Dennis     |  Pvt.  |  10th Cav. |  Troop H.    |For gallantry
+Lee, Fitz        |  Pvt.  |  10th Cav. |  Troop M.    |in action at
+Tompkins, Wm. H. |  Pvt.  |  10th Cav. |  Troop M.    |Tayabacoa, Cuba,
+Wanton, Geo. H.  |  Pvt.  |  10th Cav. |  Troop M.    |June 30, 1898.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+                       CERTIFICATES OF MERIT.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+    Name.        |Rank.     | Regiment. | Troop or Co.| Remarks.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+Bates, James     |Pvt.      |  9th Cav. | Troop H.    |
+Crosby, Scott    |Pvt.      | 24th Inf. | Comp. A.    |
+Davis, Edward    |Pvt.      |  9th Cav. | Troop H.    |
+Elliott, J.      |Sergt.    | 10th Cav. | Troop D.    |
+Fasit, Benjamin  |Sergt.    | 10th Cav. | Troop E.    |
+Gaither, O.      |Q.M.Sergt | 10th Cav. | Troop B.    |
+Goff, G.W.       |Sergt.    |  9th Cav. | Troop B.    |
+Graham, J.       |Sergt.    | 10th Cav. | Troop E.    |
+Hagen, Abram     |Corp.     | 24th Inf. | Comp. G.    |
+Herbert, H.T.    |Corp.     | 10th Cav. | Troop E.    |
+Houston, Adam    |1st Sergt.| 10th Cav. | Troop C.    |
+Jackson, J.      |1st Sergt.|  9th Cav. | Troop C.    |
+Jackson, Elisha  |Sergt.    |  9th Cav. | Troop H.    |
+Jackson, Peter   |Corp.     | 24th Inf. | Comp. G.    |
+Jefferson, C.W.  |1st Sergt.|  9th Cav. | Troop B.    |
+McCoun, P.       |1st Sergt.| 10th Cav. | Troop E.    |
+Moore, Loney     |Pvt.      | 24th Inf. | Comp. A.    |
+Oden, Oscar      |Musician  | 10th Cav. | ........    |
+Payne, William   |Sergt.    | 10th Cav. | Troop E.    |
+Pumphrey, Geo. W |Corp.     |  9th Cav. | Troop H.    |
+Satchell, James  |Sergt.    | 24th Inf. | Comp. A.    |
+Smith, L.        |Pvt.      | 10th Cav. | Troop D.    |
+Thornton, William|Corp.     | 24th Inf. | Comp. G.    |
+Walker, J.       |Corp.     | 10th Cav. | Troop D.    |
+Williams, John T.|Sergt.    | 24th Inf. | Comp. G.    |
+Williams, R.     |Corp.     | 24th Inf. | Comp. B.    |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Besides the Certificates of Merit and Medals of Honor, mentioned
+above, and the promotions to commissions in the volunteer services,
+there were some instances of promotion to non-commissioned officers'
+positions of men in the ranks or junior grade for conspicuous
+gallantry. Notably among such were Benjamin F. Sayre, of the
+Twenty-fourth, promoted to Sergeant-Major for gallantry at San Juan,
+and Private James W. Peniston, of the Tenth Cavalry, promoted to
+Squadron Sergeant-Major for conspicuous bravery at Las Guasimas.
+Others there may be whose names are not available at this time.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[22] "The Ninth and Tenth Cavalry regiments fought one on either side
+of mine at Santiago, and I wish no better men beside me in battle than
+these colored troops showed themselves to be. Later on, when I come to
+write of the campaign, I shall have much to say about them."--T.
+Roosevelt.
+
+[23] The major commanding the squadron in which Sergeant Givens'
+troops served, writes to the sergeant the following letter:
+
+     Sergeant William H. Givens, Troop D, 10th Cavalry, Fort
+     Clark, Texas.
+
+     Sergeant:--When making my report as commander of the Second
+     Squadron, 10th U. S. Cavalry, for action of July 1, 1898, at
+     San Juan Hills, I did not mention any enlisted men by name,
+     as I was absent from the regiment at the time of making the
+     report and without access to records, so that I could not
+     positively identify and name certain men who were
+     conspicuous during the fight; but I recollect finding a
+     detachment of Troop D under your command on the firing line
+     during the afternoon of July 1st. Your service and that of
+     your men at that time was most creditable, and you deserve
+     special credit for having brought your detachment promptly
+     to the firing line when left without a commissioned officer.
+
+     THEO. J. WINT,
+     Lieutenant-Colonel, 6th U.S. Cavalry.
+     Second Lieutenant, 10th Cavalry.
+
+     True copy:
+
+[24] Extract from _The Statesman_, Denver, after the departure of the
+25th Infantry, and the arrival of the 34th:
+
+     Two policemen killed, the murderer at large and his comrades
+     of the 34th Regiment busy boasting of their sympathy for
+     him, and extolling his deed to the skies, yet not a single
+     petition has been prepared to have the regiment removed. The
+     25th Infantry, with its honor undimmed by any such wanton
+     crime, with a record unexcelled by any regiment in the
+     service, was the target for all sorts of criticism and
+     persecution as soon as it arrived. The one is a white
+     regiment, composed of the scum of the earth, the other a
+     black regiment composed of men who have yet to do one thing
+     of which they should be ashamed. Yet Denver welcomes the one
+     with open arms and salutes with marked favor, while she
+     barely suffered the other to remain.
+
+     Had it been a negro soldier who committed the dastardly deed
+     of Saturday night the War Department would have been deluged
+     with complaints and requests for removal, but not a word has
+     been said against the 34th. Prejudice and hatred blacker
+     than the wings of night has so envenomed the breasts of the
+     people that fairness is out of the question. Be he black, no
+     matter how noble and good, a man must be despised. Be he
+     white, he may commit the foulest of crimes and yet have his
+     crimes condoned.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+The Colored Volunteers.
+
+     The Ninth Ohio Battalion--Eighth Illinois--Twenty-third
+     Kansas-Third North Carolina--Sixth Virginia--Third
+     Alabama--The Immunes.
+
+
+The return of the army and the repatriation of the Spanish army from
+Cuba, brought before the country for immediate solution the problem of
+garrisoning that island; and in a very short time the question of
+similar nature regarding Porto Rico. Ten regiments of immunes had been
+organized in the volunteer service partly in anticipation of such a
+situation. Four of these regiments were composed of colored enlisted
+men. The regiments were classed as United States Volunteer Infantry,
+and were numbered from one to ten, the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and
+Tenth being colored.
+
+Of these four colored regiments the officers above first lieutenants
+were white men, except the chaplains, and in some cases the surgeons.
+Very little care had been taken in enlisting the men, as it was
+important to get the regiments in the field as soon as possible; yet
+of them as a whole General Breckinridge, Inspector-General, speaks as
+follows: "The colored regiments of immunes, so called, raised for this
+war, have turned out, so far as can be judged from their camp life (as
+none of them have been in any actual campaign), very satisfactory. The
+regular colored regiments won golden opinions in battle. The
+experiment of having so many colored officers has not yet shown its
+full results. Certainly we should have the best obtainable officers
+for our volunteers, and therefore some such men as Colonel Young, who
+is a graduate of the Military Academy at West Point, whether white or
+black, must be sought for."
+
+Besides these four colored regiments of immunes, so-called, there were
+other State organizations composed entirely of colored men, mustered
+into the United States service, as for example the Ninth Battalion of
+the Ohio National Guard. This organization was composed of four
+companies, with colored captains and lieutenants, the staff officers
+also being colored, the commanding officer of the battalion being
+Major Young, who was a first lieutenant in the Regular Army, a
+graduate from the Military Academy, and an officer of experience. He
+is the person referred to as _Colonel_ Young by General Breckinridge,
+cited just above. This battalion, although not permitted to do any
+active campaigning, maintained itself well in that most trying of all
+duties for raw troops--camp duty--winning a good record in the South
+as well as in the North, having been stationed in Virginia,
+Pennsylvania and lastly in South Carolina; from which latter place it
+was mustered out, and the men proceeded to their homes in an orderly
+manner, reflecting credit upon themselves and the officers under whom
+they had served. This organization is mentioned first, because it was
+the only one of its kind commanded by a Regular Army officer, and a
+man who had received scientific military training.[25]
+
+Two of these volunteer regiments, the Eighth Illinois and the
+Twenty-third Kansas, reached Cuba and made history there, in garrison
+service, coming in direct contact with the Ninth Immunes, and in no
+sense suffering in comparison thereto. The Eighth Illinois being the
+first to go to the front, in a sense deserves to be noticed here
+first. This remarkable regiment was developed out of the Ninth
+Battalion, Illinois National Guard, and owes its origin to the
+persistent efforts of Messrs. John R. Marshall, Robert R. Jackson,
+Franklin Dennison, E.H. Wright, Rev. R.C. Ransom, Rev. J.W. Thomas,
+S.B. Turner and doubtless many others whose names do not appear. These
+gentlemen named called upon the Governor of their State the next day
+after the President had issued his call for 175,000 volunteers, and
+received from that official the assurance that if another call should
+be made they should have the opportunity to recruit their battalion to
+a regiment, and that he would "call that regiment first into the
+service," and "that every officer in that regiment will be a colored
+man."
+
+After receiving this encouragement, the leaders began at once the work
+of organizing and recruiting, and when the second call came, May 25th,
+the regiment was well under way, and soon ready to go into camp to
+prepare for service. On June 30th it assembled in Springfield from the
+following places: Seven hundred men from Chicago; one hundred and
+twenty from Cairo; a full company from Quincy, and smaller numbers
+from Mound City, Metropolis and Litchfield, and nearly a company from
+Springfield. The regiment was sworn in during the latter half of July,
+the muster roll showing 1,195 men and 46 officers, every one of whom
+was of African descent except one private in a Chicago company.
+
+Of these forty-six officers, ten had received college education, six
+were lawyers, and the others were educated in the public schools, or
+had served in the Regular Army as non-commissioned officers. Many of
+them were directly from Illinois, that is in the sense of having been
+born and reared in the State, and were fully accustomed to the full
+exercise of their rights as men and citizens. In character and
+intelligence the official element of the Eighth was about up to the
+standard of the volunteer army, as events subsequently proved.
+
+Going into camp with the Ninth, white, this latter regiment, early in
+August, received an order to move to a Southern camp en route for
+Cuba, leaving the Eighth behind, greatly to the chagrin of both
+officers and men. Governor Tanner was evidently disturbed by this
+move, and expressed himself in the following language: "Even from the
+very doors of the White House have I received letters asking and
+advising me not to officer this regiment with colored men, but I
+promised to do so, and I have done it. I shall never rest until I see
+this regiment--my regiment--on the soil of Cuba, battling for the
+right and for its kinsmen."
+
+Later the misfortunes of the First Illinois proved the opportunity of
+the Eighth. This regiment was in Cuba, suffering terribly with the
+fever, the men going down under its effects so rapidly that the
+Colonel in command implored Governor Tanner "to use all influence at
+Washington to secure the immediate recall of the First Illinois." When
+the Governor received this message he sent for Colonel Marshall, of
+the Eighth, and asked him to ascertain the sentiments of the officers
+and men of his regiment in regard to being sent to relieve the First.
+On the 4th day of August Colonel Marshall was able to send to
+Washington the following dispatch:
+
+     "H. C. Corbin, Adjutant-General:--
+
+     "I called the officers of the Eighth Illinois, colored, in
+     conference and they are unanimously and enthusiastically in
+     favor of being sent to relieve the First Illinois at
+     Santiago."
+
+To this hearty dispatch came the following reply:
+
+     "The Secretary of War appreciates very much the offer of the
+     Eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry for duty in Santiago,
+     and has directed that the regiment be sent there by steamer
+     Yale, leaving New York next Tuesday. The main trouble with
+     our troops now in Cuba is that they are suffering from
+     exhaustion and exposure incident to one of the most trying
+     campaigns to which soldiers have ever been subjected."
+
+     "H.C. Corbin,
+     "_Adjutant-General_."
+
+This action on the part of the regiment is said to have so pleased the
+President that on hearing it he declared it was the proudest moment of
+his life.
+
+On the 9th of August the regiment left Springfield, and in passing
+through Illinois and Ohio was greeted with the most generous
+enthusiasm, the people supplying the men with free lunches at every
+station. This was the period when the sympathy of the whole country
+was turned toward the colored soldier in consequence of the reports of
+valor and heroism that had been circulated concerning the black
+regulars. On the afternoon of the 11th the Yale cast off her lines,
+and with the first American Negro regiment that the world has ever
+seen, steamed out of New York harbor amid the ringing of bells and
+shrieks of steam whistles, and four days later, August 15, landed in
+Cuba. The regiment remained in Cuba until March 10, performing
+garrison duty so well that General Breckenridge said it was "as fine a
+volunteer regiment as was ever mustered into the service," and that it
+was "a shame to muster out of service such an excellent regiment."
+
+The Twenty-third Kansas, made up in that State and officered as was
+the Eighth Illinois, by men of the same race, with the enlisted men,
+arrived in Cuba August 30, and in company with the Eighth Illinois
+Regiment, was stationed in the country about San Luis, with
+headquarters at that place, Colonel Marshall, of the Illinois
+Regiment, serving as commander of the post, and also as Governor of
+the Province of San Luis. A detachment of the Illinois Regiment,
+under command of Major Jackson, was sent to Palma Soriana, and did
+excellent work there in the preservation of order between the Cubans
+and Spaniards, who were living together in that place in outward peace
+but in secret resentful hostility. Major Jackson managed affairs so
+well that both parties came to admire him, and when he was called away
+expressed their regret. Captain Roots, who commanded the post after
+the departure of Major Jackson, was equally fortunate, especially with
+the Cubans, and when it was thought his command was to be removed, the
+citizens generally united in a petition to the General commanding,
+asking that both the Captain and his command might remain in the city.
+The fact is also noted by the chroniclers of the regiment that several
+marriages took place in Palma Soriana between soldiers of the Eighth
+Illinois and Cuban maidens.
+
+The Eighth Regiment was finally settled in San Luis, occupying the old
+Spanish barracks and arsenal, and under Colonel Marshall's supervision
+the city was put in fine sanitary condition, streets and yards being
+carefully policed; meanwhile under the reign of order and peace which
+the Colonel's just methods established, confidence prevailed, business
+revived and the stagnation which had so long hung like a fog over the
+little city, departed, and in its stead came an era of bustling
+activity.
+
+All was peaceful and prosperous, both with the citizens and the
+garrison, until the Ninth United States Volunteers came in the
+vicinity. Then a difficulty sprang up in which both regiments became
+involved, although it was in no sense serious, but it afforded a
+pretext for the removal of the Eighth Illinois from the city. The
+event turned out all the better for the Eighth, as it enabled them to
+establish Camp Marshall, about three miles from the city, in a healthy
+neighborhood, where they remained until ordered home to be mustered
+out. The regiment came back to Chicago in fine condition and was
+tendered an enthusiastic welcome by that great city. Thus two entire
+regiments represented the country abroad in this, its first, foreign
+war with a European power.
+
+It should also be recorded that although the Ninth United States
+Volunteers was composed of persons who were classed as immune, and had
+come chiefly from Louisiana, and notwithstanding that the officers of
+the regiment above lieutenants were white men, and the colonel an
+officer of the Regular Army of long experience, and was specially
+praised by so good a sanitarian as General Wood for having been,
+constant and untiring in his efforts to look after the welfare of his
+men, and that the surgeons of the regiment were white men, that deaths
+among the colored men numbered one officer and seventy-three enlisted
+men. In striking contrast with this record of the immune regiment is
+that of the Eighth Illinois, which was made up entirely of residents
+of that State and officered throughout by colored men. Its medical
+officers were men of high character, and its losses by death were just
+twenty, or but little over one-fourth the number that occurred in the
+immune regiment. An efficient auxiliary society to this regiment was
+formed of colored ladies of Chicago who forwarded to the sick in Cuba
+more than six hundred dollars worth of well chosen supplies, which did
+much for the comfort of those in the hospital; but this would not
+account for the great difference in the death rate of the two
+regiments. Though not immune, the Eighth Illinois fared very much
+better than the so-called immune regiment, although the latter had
+the benefit of white officers. The experience of the Twenty-third
+Kansas did not differ in any important respect from that of the Eighth
+Illinois. Both regiments returned to their homes in March, 1899, and
+were mustered out of the service, leaving behind them good records for
+efficiency.
+
+The Sixth Virginia Regiment consisted of eight companies and was under
+command of Lieutenant-Colonel Richard C. Croxton, of the Regular Army,
+white, with Majors J.B. Johnson and W.H. Johnson, colored. It was
+mustered into service during the latter part of the summer and went
+into camp near Knoxville, Tennessee. Here an order came from Corps
+Headquarters, at Lexington, Kentucky, directing that nine of the
+officers, including one major, should appear before a board of
+examiners in order to give evidence of their fitness to command. The
+officers named, regarding this as uncalled for, immediately tendered
+their resignations. The vacancies thus created were filled by the
+Governor of the State, the appointees being white men. These white
+officers on arriving at the camp and finding themselves unwelcome,
+immediately followed in the wake of their colored predecessors, and
+tendered their resignations.
+
+The difficulties arising from this friction were somehow adjusted, but
+in what manner the reports available at this time do not show. Moving
+to Macon, Georgia, the regiment remained in the service until some
+time in the winter, when it was mustered out. Much was said by the
+local papers to the detriment of the men composing this regiment, but
+viewing their action from the standpoint of the civilian and citizen,
+it does not appear reprehensible. They had volunteered with the
+understanding that their own officers, officers with whom they were
+well acquainted, and in whose friendship they held a place, should
+command them, and when they saw these officers displaced and white
+strangers put in their stead, they felt a pardonable indignation, and
+took their own way of expressing it. As soldiers, their conduct in
+resisting authority, cannot be commended.
+
+The Third North Carolina Volunteer Infantry was organized as were the
+regiments of Illinois and Kansas, above described. The officers of the
+North Carolina Regiment were all colored men of that State and were
+men of character and note. Its commanding officer, Colonel Young, had
+held responsible positions under both State and National Governments,
+had been editor of a paper and member of the State Legislature and
+Major in the State militia. In character, he was above reproach, being
+a strict teetotaler and not even using tobacco. The regiment made a
+good record, but did not see any active service.
+
+A peculiar regiment was organized in Alabama, known as the Third
+Alabama Volunteer Infantry, in which the enlisted men were all colored
+and the officers all white. The regiment saw no service and attracted
+no attention outside of its immediate locality.
+
+Two companies of colored men with colored captains were also mustered
+into the United States service from Indiana, and finally attached to
+Colonel Huggins' command, although not becoming a part of his
+regiment, the Eighth Immunes. They were stationed at Fort Thomas, Ky.,
+and at Chickamauga, and were mustered out early. Their officers were
+men of intelligence who had acquired experience by several years'
+service in the militia, and the companies were exceptionally well
+drilled. They were designated Companies A and B and were commanded by
+Captains Porter and Buckner, with Lieutenant Thomas as Quartermaster.
+
+The organization of the four immune regiments, already mentioned, gave
+opportunity for ninety-six colored men to obtain commissions as
+lieutenants. A few of these positions were seized upon by influential
+young white men, who held them, but with no intention of ever serving
+in the regiments, as they found staff positions much more congenial to
+their tastes. The colored men who were appointed lieutenants in these
+regiments were generally either young men of ability and influence who
+had assisted in getting up their companies, and who in many cases had
+received some elementary military instruction as cadets, in school, or
+men who had distinguished themselves by efficiency or gallantry in the
+Regular Army. Some exceptions there were, of course, and a few
+received commissions in consequence of personal friendship and
+political considerations. Before these regiments were mustered out of
+the service about one-half of the lieutenants were men from the
+Regular Army.
+
+I am sure the reader will be pleased to learn that Sergeants Foster,
+Buck and Givens, whose deeds in Cuba have already been related, were
+rewarded with commissions, and that the gallant Thomas C. Butler, who
+rushed forward from his company's line and seized the Spanish standard
+at El Caney, was afterward permitted to serve in Cuba with the rank of
+a commissioned officer. Besides those named above, there were others
+also of marked ability and very respectable attainments who received
+commissions on general merit, as well as for gallantry. Chief among
+the class promoted for efficiency was First Lieutenant James R.
+Gillespie, formerly Post Quartermaster-Sergeant. Gillespie had served
+several years in the Tenth Cavalry and had proved himself an excellent
+soldier. Both in horsemanship and as marksman he was up to the
+standard, while his character and business qualifications were such
+as to secure for him a staff position of responsibility. As
+Quartermaster-Sergeant he held positions of important posts and filled
+them with great satisfaction. Because of his efficiency as a soldier
+he was given a commission as First Lieutenant and executed the duties
+of his office with the same ability that had marked his career as an
+enlisted man. From the Tenth Cavalry also came First Lieutenant Baker,
+whose commission was a tribute to his fidelity and efficiency. A
+soldier of high type he bore his commission and its honors as worthily
+as any son of our Republic. In the same category must be placed First
+Lieutenant Wm. McBryer, formerly Sergeant in the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry. McBryer had served in the Tenth Cavalry and had won a Medal
+of Honor in conflict with the Indians. He was a soldier distinguished
+by strength of character, prompt executiveness, quick decision and
+courage. He was also possessed of considerable literary skill, was a
+good speaker and attractive writer, and a man of fine parts. He was a
+valuable acquisition to the volunteer service and would have made a
+fine captain.
+
+Of the colored sergeants from the Regular Army who were given
+commissions in the volunteer service it would not be extravagant to
+say that all were men of worth, well-tried in the service, and there
+was scarcely one of them but could have successfully commanded a
+company. Lieutenant A.J. Smith, formerly First Sergeant in the
+Twenty-fifth Infantry, was so well informed in the paper work of the
+army and in company administration particularly that he was regarded
+as an authority, and he was so well experienced in the whole life of a
+soldier, in camp, field, garrison and in battle, that it would have
+been difficult to find his superior in the army. To the credit of all
+of the enlisted men of the Regular Army referred to, who received
+commissions in the volunteer service, all served honorably and were
+mustered out without bringing any scandal of any sort upon the
+service.
+
+The colored volunteers in the service acquitted themselves as well as
+the average volunteer, and when mustered out proceeded to their homes
+about as others did. The treatment accorded them in some of the
+Southern cities, especially in Nashville, Tennessee, did not speak
+well for the loyalty of that section, nor was it such as might
+reasonably be expected from a people who had fared so well in the
+offices and honors of the short war. From the best sources available,
+it seems incumbent to say that the many charges alleged against the
+colored volunteers for excessive rioting and disorder were without
+proper foundation, and the assaults made upon them unjustifiable and
+cruel. The spirit of the assailants is best seen from a description of
+the attack made upon the unarmed discharged soldiers of the Eighth
+Immuners in Nashville, already alluded to. This description was made
+by the sheriff who participated in the brutality. An officer who was
+on the train, and who was asleep at the time, when aroused went into
+the car where the men were and found that they had been beaten and
+robbed, and in some instances their discharges taken from them and
+torn up, and their weapons and money taken from them by citizens. It
+was about one o'clock A.M. and the men were generally asleep when
+attacked. The sheriff gloats over it in language which ought not be
+allowed to disappear:
+
+     "It was the best piece of work I ever witnessed. The police
+     went to the depot, not armed with the regulation 'billy,'
+     but carrying stout hickory clubs about two and one-half feet
+     long.
+
+Their idea was that a mahogany or lignum vitae billy was too costly a
+weapon to be broken over a Negro's head. The police were on board the
+train before it stopped even, and the way they went for the Negroes
+was inspiring. The police tolerated no impudence, much less rowdyism,
+from the Negroes, and if a darky even looked mad, it was enough for
+some policeman to bend his club double over his head. In fact after
+the police finished with them they were the meekest, mildest, most
+polite set of colored men I ever saw." This language is respectfully
+dedicated to the memory of the proud city of Nashville, and presents
+to the readers the portrait of her police.
+
+Despite this vile treatment, the colored soldier went on to his home,
+ready again to respond to his country's call, and to rally to the
+defence of his country's flag, and, incidentally, to the preservation
+of the lives and homes of the misguided, heartless beings who can
+delight in his sufferings. The hickory club belongs to one sort of
+warrior; the rifle to quite another. The club and rifle represent
+different grades of civilization. The Negro has left the club; the
+language from Nashville does honor to the club. Billy and bully are
+the theme of this officer of the law, and for a "darkey even to look
+mad" is ample justification for "some policeman to bend his club
+double over his head." Were these policemen rioters? Or were they
+conservaters of the peace? Judge ye!
+
+
+OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE NINTH (SEPARATE) BATTALION, OHIO VOLUNTEER
+INFANTRY.
+
+_By the Battalion Adjutant, Lieutenant Wilson Ballard._
+
+The Ninth Battalion, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, the only colored
+organization from Ohio in the Volunteer Army during the war with
+Spain, was, previous to the date of its muster into the United States
+service, known as the Ninth Battalion, Ohio National Guard. April
+25th, 1898, the battalion, consisting of three companies, A from
+Springfield, under Captain R.R. Rudd; B from Columbus, under Captain
+James Hopkins, and C from Xenia, under Captain Harry H. Robinson, was
+ordered into camp at Columbus, Ohio. The battalion was under the
+command of Major Charles Fillmore.
+
+May 14, 1898, the battalion was mustered into the volunteer service by
+Captain Rockefeller, U.S.A. Lieutenant Charles Young, U.S.A., then on
+duty at Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio, as professor of
+military science and tactics, was commissioned by Governor Bushnell as
+Major commanding the Ninth Battalion, O.V.I., relieving Major
+Fillmore. In order to enable Lieutenant Young to accept his volunteer
+commission, he was granted an indefinite leave of absence by the War
+Department.
+
+May 19, 1898, the command having been ordered to join the Second Army
+Corps at Camp Russell A. Alger, near Falls Church, Va., left Camp
+Bushnell and arrived at Camp Alger May 21, 1898.
+
+When Major-General Graham assumed command of the Second Army Corps and
+organized it into divisions, the battalion was placed in the
+provisional division. In June (exact date not remembered) the
+battalion was placed in the Second Brigade, Second Division, being
+brigaded with the Twelfth Pennsylvania and Seventh Illinois Regiments.
+The battalion was relieved from the Second Brigade, Second Division
+and placed in the Second Brigade, First Division, being brigaded with
+the Eighth Ohio and Sixth Massachusetts.
+
+A New Jersey regiment was relieved from duty as corps headquarters'
+guard late in June and the Ninth Battalion assigned to that duty. The
+battalion performed this duty until it was ordered South from Camp
+Meade, Penn., when it became separated from corps headquarters.
+Important outposts, such as the entrance to Falls Church and the
+guarding of the citizens' gardens and property, were under the charge
+of the command.
+
+When General Garretson's brigade (Second Brigade, First Division,
+consisting of the Eighth Ohio, Ninth Battalion and Sixth
+Massachusetts) was ordered to Cuba, General Graham, thinking that his
+entire Army Corps would soon be ordered to active service, requested
+the War Department, as the battalion was his headquarters guard, to
+let the battalion remain with him. (See telegrams Gen. Graham's report
+to the Secretary of War.) General Graham's request being honored by
+the department, the battalion was deprived of this chance of seeing
+active service in foreign fields. The battalion was then attached to
+the Second Brigade, Second Division, under Brigadier-General Plummer,
+being brigaded with the First New Jersey, Sixty-fifth New York and
+Seventh Ohio.
+
+In July the battalion was relieved from this brigade and attached
+directly to corps headquarters. When the Second Army Corps was ordered
+to Camp Meade, Penna., the battalion was one of the first to break
+camp, going with corps headquarters. The battalion left Camp R.A.
+Alger August 15, 1898, and arrived in camp at Camp George G. Meade,
+near Middletown, Penna., August 16, 1898. In camp the battalion
+occupied a position with the signal and engineer corps and hospital,
+near corps headquarters.
+
+When the Peace Jubilee was held in Philadelphia, the battalion was one
+of the representative commands from the Second Army Corps, being given
+the place of honor in the corps in the parade, following immediately
+General Graham and staff. When the corps was ordered South the
+battalion was assigned to the Second Brigade under Brigadier-General
+Ames. The battalion left Camp Meade November 17. Up to this time it
+had done the guard duty of corps headquarters and was complimented for
+its efficient work by the commanding general. The battalion arrived
+in Summerville, S.C., November 21, 1898. It was brigaded with the
+Fourteenth Pennsylvania and Third Connecticut.
+
+When the battalion arrived in the South the white citizens were not at
+all favorably disposed toward colored soldiers, and it must be said
+that the reception was not cordial. But by their orderly conduct and
+soldierly behavior the men soon won the respect of all, and the
+battalion was well treated before it left. November 28-29 Major Philip
+Reade, Inspector General First Division, Second Army Corps, inspected
+the Ninth Battalion, beginning his duties in that brigade with this
+inspection. He complimented the battalion for its work both from a
+practical and theoretical standpoint. Coming to the Fourteenth
+Pennsylvania he required them to go through certain movements in the
+extended order drill which not being done entirely to his
+satisfaction, he sent his orderly to the commanding officer of the
+Ninth Battalion, requesting him to have his command on the drill
+ground at once. The battalion fell in and marched to the ground and
+when presented to the Inspector orders were given for it to go through
+with certain movements in the extended order drill in the presence of
+the Pennsylvania regiment. This done, the Inspector dismissed the
+battalion, highly complimenting Major Young on the efficiency of his
+command. Just after the visit of the Inspector General, General S.B.M.
+Young, commanding the Second Army Corps, visited Camp Marion. Orders
+were sent to Major Young one morning to have his battalion fall in at
+once, as the General desired to have them drill. By his command the
+battalion went through the setting-up exercises and battalion drill in
+close and extended order. The General was so well pleased with the
+drill that the battalion was exempted from all work during the
+remainder of the day.
+
+The battalion was ordered to be mustered out January 29, 1899.
+Lieutenant Geo. W. Van Deusen, First Artillery, who was detailed to
+muster out the command, hardly spent fifteen minutes in the camp.
+Major Young had been detailed Assistant Commissary of Musters and
+signed all discharges for the Ninth Battalion, except for the field
+and staff, which were signed by Lieutenant Van Deusen. The companies
+left for their respective cities the same night they were paid. Major
+Bullis was the paymaster.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[25] See "Outline History of the Ninth (Separate) Battalion Ohio
+Volunteer Infantry," by the Battalion Adjutant, Lieutenant Nelson
+Ballard, following the close of this chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+COLORED OFFICERS.
+
+     By Captain Frank R. Steward, A.B., LL.B., Harvard,
+     Forty-ninth U.S. Volunteer Infantry--Appendix.
+
+
+Of all the avenues open to American citizenship the commissioned ranks
+of the army and navy have been the stubbornest to yield to the newly
+enfranchised. Colored men have filled almost every kind of public
+office or trust save the Chief Magistracy. They have been members of
+both Houses of Congress, and are employed in all the executive
+branches of the Government, but no Negro has as yet succeeded in
+invading the commissioned force of the navy, and his advance in the
+army has been exceedingly slight. Since the war, as has been related,
+but three Negroes have been graduated from the National Military
+Academy at West Point; of these one was speedily crowded out of the
+service; another reached the grade of First Lieutenant and died
+untimely; the third, First Lieutenant Charles Young, late Major of the
+9th Ohio Battalion, U.S. Volunteers, together with four colored
+Chaplains, constitute the sole colored commissioned force of our
+Regular Army.
+
+Although Negroes fought in large numbers in both the Revolution and
+the War of 1812, there is no instance of any Negro attaining or
+exercising the rank of commissioned officer. It is a curious bit of
+history, however, that in the Civil War those who were fighting to
+keep colored men enslaved were the first to commission colored
+officers. In Louisiana but a few days after the outbreak of the war,
+the free colored population of New Orleans organized a military
+organization, called the "Native Guard," which was accepted into the
+service of the State and its officers were duly commissioned by the
+Governor.[26]
+
+These Negro soldiers were the first to welcome General Butler when he
+entered New Orleans, and the fact of the organization of the "Native
+Guard" by the Confederates was used by General Butler as the basis for
+the organization of three colored regiments of "Native Guards," all
+the line officers of which were colored men. Governor Pinchback, who
+was a captain in one of these regiments, tells the fate of these early
+colored officers.
+
+"There were," he writes, "in New Orleans some colored soldiers known
+as 'Native Guards' before the arrival of the Federal soldiers, but I
+do not know much about them. It was a knowledge of this fact that
+induced General Butler, then in command of the Department of the Gulf,
+to organize three regiments of colored soldiers, viz: The First,
+Second and Third Regiments of Native Guards.
+
+"The First Regiment of Louisiana Native Guards, Colonel Stafford
+commanding, with all the field officers white, and a full complement
+of line officers (30) colored, was mustered into service at New
+Orleans September 27, 1862, for three years. Soon after General Banks
+took command of the department and changed the designation of the
+regiment to First Infantry, Corps d'Afrique. April 4th, 1864, it was
+changed again to Seventy-third United States Colored Infantry.
+
+     [Transcriber's Note: This footnote appeared in the text
+     without a footnote anchor:
+
+     "On the 23d of November, 1861, there was a grand review of
+     the Confederate troops stationed at New Orleans. An
+     Associated Press despatch announced that the line was seven
+     miles long. The feature of the review, however, was one
+     regiment of fourteen hundred free colored men. Another grand
+     review followed the next spring, and on the appearance of
+     rebel negroes a local paper made the following comment:
+
+     "'We must also pay a deserved compliment to the companies of
+     free colored men, all very well drilled and comfortably
+     uniformed. Most of these companies, quite unaided by the
+     administration, have supplied themselves with arms without
+     regard to cost or trouble. On the same day one of these
+     negro companies was presented with a flag, and every
+     evidence of public approbation was manifest.'"
+
+     (Williams's Negro Troops in the Rebellion, pp. 83-4)]
+
+"The Second Louisiana Native Guards, with Colonel N.W. Daniels and
+Lieutenant-Colonel Hall, white, and Major Francis E. Dumas, colored,
+and all the line officers colored except one Second Lieutenant, was
+mustered into service for three years, October 12, 1862. General Banks
+changed its designation to Second Infantry Corps d'Afrique, June 6,
+1863, and April 6, 1864, it was changed to Second United States
+Colored Troops. Finally it was consolidated with the Ninety-first as
+the Seventy-fourth Colored Infantry, and mustered out October 11,
+1865.
+
+"The Third Regiment of Louisiana Native Guards, with Colonel Nelson
+and all field officers white, and all line officers (30) colored, was
+mustered into service at New Orleans for three years, November 24,
+1862. Its designation went through the same changes as the others at
+the same dates, and it was mustered out November 25, 1865, as the
+Seventy-fifth Colored Infantry.
+
+"Soon after the organization of the Third Regiment, trouble for the
+colored officers began, and the department began a systematic effort
+to get rid of them. A board of examiners was appointed and all COLORED
+officers of the Third Regiment were ordered before it. They refused to
+obey the order and tendered their resignations in a body. The
+resignations were accepted and that was the beginning of the end. Like
+action with the same results followed in the First and Second
+Regiments, and colored officers were soon seen no more. All were
+driven out of the service except three or four who were never ordered
+to appear before the examining board. Among these was your humble
+servant. I was then Captain of Company A, Second Regiment, but I soon
+tired of my isolation and resigned."
+
+Later on in the war, with the general enlistment of colored soldiers,
+a number of colored chaplains and some surgeons were commissioned.
+Towards the close of the war several colored line officers and a field
+officer or two were appointed. The State of Massachusetts was foremost
+in according this recognition to colored soldiers. But these later
+appointments came, in most cases, after the fighting was all over, and
+gave few opportunities to command. At the close of the war, with the
+muster out of troops the colored officers disappeared and upon the
+reorganization of the army, despite the brilliant record of the
+colored soldiers, no Negro was given a commission of any sort.
+
+The outbreak of the Spanish War brought the question of colored
+officers prominently to the front. The colored people began at once to
+demand that officers of their own race be commissioned to command
+colored volunteers. They were not to be deluded by any extravagant
+praise of their past heroic services, which veiled a determination to
+ignore their just claims. So firmly did they adhere to their demands
+that but one volunteer regiment of colored troops, the Third Alabama,
+could be induced to enter the service with none of its officers
+colored. But the concessions obtained were always at the expense of
+continuous and persistent effort, and in the teeth of a very active
+and at times extremely violent opposition. We know already the kind of
+opposition the Eighth Illinois, the Twenty-third Kansas, and the Third
+North Carolina Regiments, officered entirely by colored men,
+encountered. It was this opposition, as we have seen, which confined
+colored officers to positions below the grade of captain in the four
+immune regiments. From a like cause, we know also, distinguished
+non-commissioned officers of the four regular regiments of colored
+troops were allowed promotion only to Lieutenantcies in the immune
+regiments, and upon the muster out of those organizations, were
+compelled, if they desired to continue soldiering, to resume their
+places as enlisted men.
+
+There is some explanation for this opposition in the nature of the
+distinction which military rank confers. Military rank and naval rank
+constitute the only real distinction among us. Our officers of the
+army and navy, and of the army more than of the navy, because the
+former officers are more constantly within the country, make up the
+sole separate class of our population. We have no established
+nobility. Wealth confers no privilege which men are bound to observe.
+The respect paid to men who attain eminence in science and learning
+goes only as far as they are known. The titles of the professions are
+matters of courtesy and customs only. Our judges and legislators, our
+governors and mayors, are still our "fellow citizens," and the dignity
+they enjoy is but an honorary one. The highest office within our gift
+offers no exception. At the close of his term, even an ex-President,
+"that melancholy product of our system," must resume his place among
+his fellow citizens, to sink, not infrequently, into obscurity. But
+fifty thousand soldiers must stand attention to the merest second
+lieutenant! His rank is a _fact_. The life tenure, the necessities of
+military discipline and administration, weld army officers into a
+distinct class and make our military system the sole but necessary
+relic of personal government. Any class with special privileges is
+necessarily conservative.
+
+The intimate association of "officer" and "gentleman," a legacy of
+feudal days, is not without significance. An officer must also be a
+gentleman, and "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman" is
+erected into an offence punishable by dismissal from the service. The
+word "gentleman" has got far away from the strict significance of its
+French parent. De Tocqueville has made us see the process of this
+development. Passing over to England, with the changing conditions,
+"gentleman" was used to describe persons lower and lower in the social
+scale, until, when it crossed to this country, its significance became
+lost in an indiscriminate application to all citizens[27]. A flavor of
+its caste significance still remains in the traditional "high sense of
+honor" characteristic of our military service. It was a distant step
+for a slave and freedman to become an officer and gentleman.
+
+While the above reflections may be some explanations _in fact_ for the
+opposition to the commissioning of Negroes, there was no one with
+hardihood enough to bring them forward. Such notions might form the
+groundwork of a prejudice, but they could not become the reason of a
+policy. It is an instinctive tribute to the good sense of the American
+people that the opponents of colored officers were compelled to find
+reasons of another kind for their antagonism.
+
+The one formula heard always in the campaign against colored officers
+was: Negroes cannot command. This formula was sent forth with every
+kind of variation, from the fierce fulminations of the hostile
+Southern press, to the more apologetic and philosophical discussions
+of our Northern secular and religious journals. To be sure, every now
+and then, there were exhibitions of impatience against the doctrine.
+Not a few newspapers had little tolerance for the nonsense. Some
+former commanders of Negro soldiers in the Civil War, notably, General
+T.J. Morgan, spoke out in their behalf. The brilliant career of the
+black regulars in Cuba broke the spell for a time, but the re-action
+speedily set in. In short it became fastened pretty completely in the
+popular mind as a bit of demonstrated truth that Negroes could not
+make officers; that colored soldiers would neither follow nor obey
+officers of their own race.
+
+This formula had of course to ignore an entire epoch of history. It
+could take no account of that lurid program wrought in the Antilles a
+century ago--a rising mob of rebel slaves, transformed into an
+invincible army of tumultuous blacks, under the guidance of the
+immortal Toussaint, overcoming the trained armies of three Continental
+powers, Spain, England and France, and audaciously projecting a black
+republic into the family of nations, a program at once a marvel and a
+terror to the civilized world.
+
+Not alone in Hayti, but throughout the States of Central and South
+America have Negroes exercised military command, both in the struggles
+of these states for independence, and in their national armies
+established after independence. At least one soldier of Negro blood,
+General Dumas, father of the great novelist, arose to the rank of
+General of Division in the French Army and served under Napoleon. In
+our day we have seen General Dodds, another soldier of Negro blood,
+returning from a successful campaign in Africa, acclaimed throughout
+France, his immense popularity threatening Paris with a renewal of the
+hysterical days of Boulanger. Finally, we need not be told that at the
+very head and front of the Cuban Rebellion were Negroes of every hue,
+exercising every kind of command up to the very highest. We need but
+recall the lamented Maceo, the Negro chieftain, whose tragic end
+brought sorrow and dismay to all of Cuba. With an army thronging with
+blacks and mulattoes, these Cuban chieftains, black, mulatto and
+white, prolonged such an harassing warfare as to compel the
+intervention of the United States. At the end of this recital, which
+could well have been extended with greater particularity, if it were
+thought needful, we are bound to conclude that the arbitrary formula
+relied upon by the opponents of colored officers was never constructed
+to fit such an obstinate set of facts.
+
+The prolonged struggle which culminated in permitting the Negro's
+general enlistment in our Civil War had only to be repeated to secure
+for him the full pay of a soldier, the right to be treated as a
+prisoner of war, and to relieve him of the monopoly of fatigue and
+garrison duty. He was too overjoyed with the boon of fighting for the
+liberation of his race to make much contention about who was to lead
+him. With meagre exception, his exclusive business in that war was to
+carry a gun. Yet repeatedly Negro soldiers evinced high capacity for
+command. Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson draws a glowing portrait
+of Sergeant Prince Rivers, Color-Sergeant of the First South Carolina
+Volunteers, a regiment of slaves, organized late in 1862. The
+Color-Sergeant was provost-Sergeant also, and had entire charge of the
+prisoners and of the daily policing of the camp.
+
+"He is a man of distinguished appearance and in old times was the
+crack coachman of Beaufort. * * * They tell me that he was once
+allowed to present a petition to the Governor of South Carolina in
+behalf of slaves, for the redress of certain grievances, and that a
+placard, offering two thousand dollars for his re-capture is still to
+be seen by the wayside between here and Charleston. He was a sergeant
+in the old 'Hunter Regiment,' and was taken by General Hunter to New
+York last spring, where the chevrons on his arm brought a mob upon him
+in Broadway, whom he kept off till the police interfered. There is not
+a white officer in this regiment who has more administrative ability,
+or more absolute authority over the men; they do not love him, but his
+mere presence has controlling power over them. He writes well enough
+to prepare for me a daily report of his duties in the camp; if his
+education reached a higher point I see no reason why he should not
+command the Army of the Potomac. He is jet-black, or rather, I should
+say, wine-black, his complexion, like that of others of my darkest
+men, having a sort of rich, clear depth, without a trace of sootiness,
+and to my eye very handsome. His features are tolerably regular, and
+full of command, and his figure superior to that of any of our white
+officers, being six feet high, perfectly proportioned, and of
+apparently inexhaustable strength and activity. His gait is like a
+panther's; I never saw such a tread. No anti-slavery novel has
+described a man of such marked ability. He makes Toussaint perfectly
+intelligible, and if there should ever be a black monarchy in South
+Carolina he will be its king."[28]
+
+Excepting the Louisiana Native Guards, the First South Carolina
+Volunteers was the first regiment of colored troops to be mustered
+into the service in the Civil War. The regiment was made up entirely
+of slaves, with scarcely a mulatto among them. The first day of
+freedom for these men was passed in uniform and with a gun. Among
+these Negroes, just wrested from slavery, their scholarly commander,
+Colonel Higginson, could find many whom he judged well fitted by
+nature to command.
+
+"Afterwards I had excellent battalion drills," he writes, "without a
+single white officer, by way of experiment, putting each company under
+a sergeant, and going through the most difficult movements, such as
+division columns and oblique squares. And as to actual discipline, it
+is doing no injustice to the line-officers of the regiment to say that
+none of them received from the men more implicit obedience than
+Color-Sergeant Rivers. * * * It always seemed to me an insult to those
+brave men to have novices put over their heads, on the ground of color
+alone, and the men felt it the more keenly as they remained longer in
+the service. There were more than seven hundred enlisted men in the
+regiment, when mustered out after more than three years' service. The
+ranks had been kept full by enlistment, but there were only fourteen
+line-officers instead of the full thirty. The men who should have
+filled these vacancies were doing duty as sergeants in the ranks."[29]
+
+Numerous expeditions were constantly on foot in the Department of the
+South, having for their object the liberation of slaves still held to
+service in neighborhoods remote from the Union camps, or to capture
+supplies and munitions of war. Frequently these expeditions came in
+conflict with armed bodies of rebels and hot engagements would ensue,
+resulting in considerable loss of life. Colored soldiers were
+particularly serviceable for this work because of their intimate
+knowledge of the country and their zeal for the rescue of their
+enslaved brethren.
+
+One of these expeditions, composed of thirty colored soldiers and
+scouts, commanded by Sergeant-Major Henry James, Third United States
+Colored Troops, left Jacksonville, Florida, early in March, 1865, to
+penetrate into the interior through Marion county. They destroyed
+considerable property in the use of the rebel government, burned the
+bridge across the Oclawaha River, and started on their return with
+ninety-one Negroes whom they had rescued from slavery, four white
+prisoners, some wagons and a large number of horses and mules. They
+were attacked by a rebel band of more than fifty cavalry. The colored
+soldiers commanded by one of their own number, defeated and drove off
+the rebels, inflicting upon them the heavy loss of thirty men. After a
+long and rapid march they arrived at St. Augustine, Florida, with a
+loss of but two killed and four wounded, the expedition covering in
+all five days. These colored soldiers and their colored commander were
+thanked in orders by Major-General Q.A. Gilmore, commanding the
+department, who was moved to declare that "this expedition, planned
+and executed by colored men, under the command of a colored
+non-commissioned officer, reflects credit upon the brave participants
+and their leader," and "he holds up their conduct to their comrades in
+arms as an example worthy of emulation."[30]
+
+It was no uncommon occurrence throughout the Civil War for colored
+non-commissioned officers to be thrown into command of their companies
+by the killing or wounding of their superior officers. On many a field
+of battle this happened and these colored non-commissioned officers
+showed the same ability to take the initiative and accept the
+responsibility, and conducted their commands just as bravely and
+unfalteringly as did their successors on the firing line at La Guasima
+and El Caney, or in the charge up San Juan Hill.
+
+In the battle of New Market Heights, fought on the 29th of September,
+1864, as part of a comprehensive effort to turn Lee's left flank, the
+great heroism of the black soldiers, and the terrible slaughter among
+them, impressed their commander, the late Major-General Butler, to his
+dying day, and made him the stout champion of their rights for the
+rest of his life. In that battle, to quote from the orders putting on
+record the "gallant deeds of the officers and soldiers of the Army of
+the James":--
+
+     "Milton M. Holland, Sergeant-Major Fifth United States
+     Colored Troops, commanding Company C; James H. Bronson,
+     First Sergeant, commanding Company D; Robert Pinn, First
+     Sergeant, commanding Company I, wounded; Powhatan Beaty,
+     First Sergeant, commanding Company G, Fifth United States
+     Colored Troops--all these gallant colored soldiers were left
+     in command, all their company officers being killed or
+     wounded, and led them gallantly and meritoriously through
+     the day. For these services they have most honorable
+     mention, and the commanding general will cause a special
+     medal to be struck in honor of these gallant soldiers."
+
+     "First Sergeant Edward Ratcliff, Company C, Thirty-eighth
+     United States Colored Troops, thrown into command of his
+     company by the death of the officer commanding, was the
+     first enlisted man in the enemy's works, leading his company
+     with great gallantry for which he has a medal."
+
+     "Sergeant Samuel Gilchrist, Company K, Thirty-sixth United
+     States Colored Troops, showed great bravery and gallantry in
+     commanding his company after his officers were killed. He
+     has a medal for gallantry."[31]
+
+"Honorable mention" and "medals" were the sole reward open to the
+brave Negro soldiers of that day.
+
+Not alone in camp and garrison, in charge of expeditions, or as
+non-commissioned officers thrown into command of their companies on
+the field of battle have Negro soldiers displayed unquestioned
+capacity for command, but as commissioned officers they commanded in
+camp and in battle, showing marked efficiency and conspicuous
+gallantry. The colored officers of the First and Second Regiments of
+Louisiana Native Guards, whose history has been detailed earlier in
+this chapter,[32] were retained in the service long enough to command
+their troops in bloody combat with the enemy. It will be remembered
+that of the Second Regiment of Louisiana Native Guards only the
+Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel were white, the Major, F.E. Dumas, and
+all the line officers, as in the case of the First Regiment of
+Louisiana Native Guards, being colored. On April 9, 1863, Colonel N.U.
+Daniels, who commanded the Second Regiment of Louisiana Native Guards,
+with a detachment of two hundred men of his regiment, under their
+colored officers, engaged and repulsed a considerable body of rebel
+infantry and cavalry at Pascagoula, Mississippi. The engagement lasted
+from 10 A.M. until 2 P.M. and was remarkable for the steadiness,
+tenacity and bravery of these black troops in this, their first
+battle, where they succeeded in defeating and beating off an enemy
+five times their number. The official report by the Colonel commanding
+declared: "Great credit is due to the troops engaged for their
+unflinching bravery and steadiness under this, their first fire,
+exchanging volley after volley with the coolness of veterans, and for
+their determined tenacity in maintaining their position, and taking
+advantage of every success that their courage and valor gave them; and
+also to their officers, who were cool and determined throughout the
+action, fighting their commands against five times their number, and
+confident throughout of success. * * *
+
+"I would particularly call the attention of the department to Major
+F.E. Dumas, Capt. Villeverd and Lieuts. Jones and Martin, who were
+constantly in the thickest of the fight, and by their unflinching
+bravery and admirable handling of their commands, contributed to the
+success of the attack, and reflected great honor upon the flag for
+which they so nobly struggled."[33]
+
+The battle which settled for all time the bravery of black troops, and
+ought as well to silence all question about the capacity of colored
+officers, was the storming of Port Hudson, May 27, 1863. For months
+the Confederates had had uninterrupted opportunity to strengthen their
+works at Port Hudson at a time when an abundance of slave labor was at
+their disposal. They had constructed defenses of remarkable strength.
+On a bluff, eighty feet above the river, was a series of batteries
+mounting in all twenty siege guns. For land defenses they had a
+continuous line of parapet of strong profile, beginning at a point on
+the river a mile from Port Hudson and extending in a semi-circle for
+three or four miles over a country for the most part rough and broken,
+and ending again at the river, a half mile north of Port Hudson. At
+appropriate positions along this line four bastion works were
+constructed and thirty pieces of field artillery were posted. The
+average thickness of the parapet was twenty feet, and the depth of the
+ditch below the top of the parapet was fifteen feet. The ground behind
+the parapet was well adapted for the prompt movement of troops.[34]
+
+On the 24th of May General Banks reached the immediate vicinity of
+Port Hudson, and proceeded at once to invest the place.
+
+On the 27th the assault was ordered. Two colored regiments of
+Louisiana Native Guards, the First Regiment with all line officers
+colored, and the Third with white officers throughout, were put under
+command of Colonel John A. Nelson, of the Third Regiment, and assigned
+to position on the right of the line, where the assault was begun. The
+right began the assault in the morning; for some reason the left did
+not assault until late in the afternoon. Six companies of the First
+Louisiana and nine companies of the Third, in all 1080 men, were
+formed in column of attack. Even now, one cannot contemplate unmoved
+the desperate valor of these black troops and the terrible slaughter
+among them as they were sent to their impossible task that day in May.
+Moving forward in double quick time the column emerged from the woods,
+and passing over the plain strewn with felled trees and entangled
+brushwood, plunged into a fury of shot and shell as they charged for
+the batteries on the rebel left. Again and again that unsupported
+column of black troops held to their hopeless mission by the
+unrelenting order of the brigade commander, hurled itself literally
+into the jaws of death, many meeting horrible destruction actually at
+the cannon's mouth.
+
+It was a day prodigal with deeds of fanatical bravery. The colors of
+the First Louisiana, torn and shivered in that fearful hail of fire,
+were still borne forward in front of the works by the color-sergeant,
+until a shell from the enemy cut the flag in two and gave the sergeant
+his mortal wound. He fell spattering the flag with blood and brains
+and hugged it to his bosom as he lay in the grasp of death. Two
+corporals sprang forward to seize the colors, contending in generous
+rivalry until a rebel sharpshooter felled one of them across the
+sergeant's lifeless body. The other dashed proudly forward with the
+flag. Sixteen men fell that day defending the colors.
+
+Black officers and white officers commanded side by side, moving among
+the men to prompt their valor by word and example, revealing no
+difference in their equal contempt of death. Captain Quinn, of the
+Third Regiment, with forty reckless followers, bearing their rifles
+and cartridge boxes above their heads, swam the ditch and leaped among
+the guns, when they were ordered back to escape a regiment of rebels
+hastening for their rear. Six of them re-crossed alive, and of these
+only two were unhurt, the brave Quinn and a Lieutenant. The gallant
+Captain Andre Cailloux, who commanded the color company of the First
+Louisiana, a man black as night, but a leader by birth and education,
+moved in eager zeal among his men, cheering them on by words and his
+own noble example, with his left arm already shattered, proudly
+refusing to leave the field. In a last effort of heroism, he sprang to
+the front of his company, commanded his men to follow him, and in the
+face of that murderous fire, gallantly led them forward until a shell
+smote him to death but fifty yards from the works.
+
+Cailloux, a pure Negro in blood, was born a freeman and numbered
+generations of freemen among his ancestry. He had fine presence, was a
+man of culture and possessed wealth. He had raised his company by his
+own efforts, and attached them to him, not only by his ardent pride of
+race, which made him boast his blackness, but also by his undoubted
+talents for command. His heroic death was mourned by thousands of his
+race who had known him. His body, recovered after the surrender, was
+given a soldier's burial in his own native city of New Orleans.
+
+When the day was spent, the bleeding and shattered column was at
+length recalled. The black troops did not take the guns, but the day's
+work had won for them a fame that cannot die. The nation, which had
+received them into the service half-heartedly, and out of necessity,
+was that day made to witness a monotony of gallantry and heroism that
+compelled everywhere awe and admiration. Black soldiers, and led by
+black officers as well as white, assigned a task hopeless and
+impossible at the start, had plunged into that withering storm of shot
+and shell, poured fourth by artillery and infantry, charging over a
+field strewn with obstacles, and in madness of bravery had more than
+once thrown the thin head of their column to the very edge of the
+guns. They recoiled only to reform their broken lines and to start
+again their desperate work. When the day was gone, and they were
+called back, the shattered remnant of the column which had gone forth
+in the morning still burned with passion. With that day's work of
+black soldiers under black officers, a part forever of the military
+glory of the Republic, there are those who yet dare to declare that
+Negroes cannot command.
+
+The assault on Port Hudson had been unsuccessful all along the line. A
+second assault was ordered June 13. It, too, was unsuccessful. The
+fall of Vicksburg brought the garrison to terms. The surrender took
+place July 9, 1863. In the report of the general commanding, the
+colored soldiers were given unstinted praise. General Banks declared
+that "no troops could be more determined or more daring."[35] The
+Northern press described glowingly their part in the fight. The
+prowess of the black soldiers had conquered military prejudice, and
+won for them a place in the army of the Union. And the brave black
+officers who led these black soldiers, they were, all of them, ordered
+forthwith before an examining board with the purpose of driving them
+from the service, and every one of them in self-respect was made to
+resign. In such manner was their bravery rewarded.
+
+In the four regiments of colored troops made a part of the Regular
+Army since the Civil War, colored soldiers, to say nothing of the
+three colored graduates from West Point, referred to earlier in this
+chapter, have repeatedly given evidence of their capacity to command.
+An earlier chapter has already set forth the gallant manner in which
+colored non-commissioned officers, left in command by the killing or
+wounding of their officers, commanded their companies at La Guasima,
+El Caney and in the charge at San Juan. On numerous occasions, with
+none of the heroic setting of the Santiago campaign, have colored
+soldiers time and again command detachments and companies on dangerous
+scouting expeditions, and in skirmishes and fights with hostile
+Indians and marauders. The entire Western country is a witness of
+their prowess. This meritorious work, done in remote regions, has
+seldom come to public notice; the medal which the soldier wears, and
+the official entry in company and regimental record are in most cases
+the sole chronicle. A typical instance is furnished in the career of
+Sergeant Richard Anderson, late of the Ninth Cavalry. The sergeant has
+long ago completed his thirty years of service. He passed through all
+non-commissioned grades in his troop and regiment, and was retired as
+Post Commissary-Sergeant. The story of the engagements in which he
+commanded give ample proof of his ability and bravery. It would be no
+service to the sergeant to disturb his own frank and formal narrative.
+
+The Sergeant's story:--
+
+     "While in sub-camp at Fort Cumming, New Mexico, awaiting
+     orders for campaign duty against hostile Indians (old
+     Naney's band), on the evening of June 5, 1880, my troop
+     commander being absent at Fort Bayard, which left me in
+     command of my troop, there being no other commissioned
+     officer available, a report having come in to the commanding
+     officer about 1 o'clock that a band of Apache Indians were
+     marching toward Cook's Canon, Troops B and L, under general
+     command of Captain Francis, 9th Cavalry, and myself
+     commanding Troop B, were ordered out.
+
+     We came upon the Indians in Cook's Canon and had an
+     engagement which lasted two or three hours. Three or four
+     Indians were killed and several wounded. We had no men
+     killed, but a few wounded in both L and B Troops. We
+     followed the Indians many miles that evening, but having no
+     rations, returned to Fort Cumming late that evening, and
+     went into camp until the following morning, when the two
+     troops took the trail and followed it many days, but being
+     unable to overtake the Indians, returned to Fort Cumming.
+
+     In August, 1881, while my troop was in camp at Fort Cumming,
+     New Mexico, awaiting orders for another campaign against
+     these same Apache Indians, my troop commander having been
+     ordered to Fort Bayard, New Mexico, on general court-martial
+     duty, and during his absence having no commissioned officer
+     available, I was in command of my troop subject to the
+     orders of the post commander. At 12 o'clock at night, August
+     17, 1881, while in my tent asleep, the commanding officer's
+     orderly knocked on my tent and informed me that the
+     commanding officer wanted me to report to him at once. I
+     asked the orderly what was up. He informed me that he
+     supposed a scout was going out, as the commanding officer
+     had sent for Lieutenant Smith, then in command of Troop H,
+     9th Cavalry.
+
+     I dressed myself promptly and reported, and found Lieutenant
+     Smith and the commanding officer at the office on my
+     arrival.
+
+     The commanding officer asked me about how many men I could
+     mount for thirty days' detached duty, leaving so many men
+     to take care of property and horses. I told him about how
+     many. He ordered me to make a ration return for that number
+     of men, and send a sergeant to draw rations for thirty days'
+     scout; and for me to hurry up, and when ready to report to
+     Lieutenant Smith. By 12.45 my troop was ready and mounted,
+     and reported as ordered, and at 1 o'clock Troop's B and H
+     pulled out from Fort Cumming for Lake Valley, New Mexico;
+     and when the sun showed himself over the tops of the
+     mountains we marched down the mountains into Lake Valley,
+     thirty-five miles from Fort Cumming. We went into camp
+     hoping to spend a few hours and take a rest, and feed our
+     horses and men.
+
+     About 9 o'clock a small boy came running through camp crying
+     as if to break his heart, saying that the Indians had killed
+     his mother and their baby. Some of the men said the boy must
+     be crazy; but many of them made for their horses without
+     orders. Soon Lieutenant Smith ordered "Saddle up." In less
+     than five minutes all the command was saddled up and ready
+     to mount. We mounted and pulled out at a gallop, and
+     continued at that gait until we came to a high mountain,
+     when we came down to a walk. And when over the mountain we
+     took up the gallop, and from that time on, nothing but a
+     gallop and a trot, when the country was favorable for such.
+     When we had marched about two miles from Lake Valley we met
+     the father of the boy, with his leg bleeding where the
+     Indians had shot him. We marched about half a mile farther,
+     when we could see the Indians leaving this man's ranch. We
+     had a running fight with them from that time until about 5
+     o'clock that evening, August 18th, 1881. Having no rations,
+     we returned to Lake Valley with the intention of resting
+     that night and taking the trail the next morning; but about
+     9 o'clock that night a ranchman came into camp and reported
+     that the Indians had marched into a milk ranch and burned up
+     the ranch, and had gone into camp near by.
+
+     Lieutenant Smith ordered me to have the command in readiness
+     to march at 12 o'clock sharp, and said we could surprise
+     those Indians and capture many of them and kill a few also.
+     I went and made my detail as ordered, with five days'
+     rations in haversacks, and at 12 o'clock reported as
+     ordered.
+
+     About half-past 12 o'clock the command pulled out and
+     marched within about a mile and a half of the milk ranch and
+     went into camp; and at daylight in the morning saddled up
+     and marched to the ranch. The Indians had pulled out a few
+     minutes before our arrival. We took their trail and came up
+     with them about 10 o'clock, finding the Indians in ambush.
+     Lieutenant Smith was the first man killed, and when I heard
+     his last command, which was "Dismount," then the whole
+     command fell upon your humble servant. We fell back, up a
+     canon and on a hill, and held them until 4 o'clock, when a
+     reinforcement came up of about twenty men from Lake Valey
+     and the Indians pulled off over the mountains. The
+     following-named men were killed in the engagement:
+
+     Lieutenant G.W. Smith; Mr. Daily, a miner; Saddler Thomas
+     Golding; Privates James Brown and Monroe Overstreet.
+     Wounded--Privates Wesley Harris, John W. Williams and
+     William A. Hallins.
+
+     After the Indians ceased firing and fell back over the
+     mountains I cared for the wounded and sent Lieutenant
+     Smith's body to Fort Bayard, New Mexico, where his wife was,
+     which was about sixty miles from the battle-ground, and Mr.
+     Daily's body to Lake Valley, all under a strong detachment
+     of men under a non-commissioned officer; when I marched with
+     the remainder of the command with the dead and wounded for
+     Rodman Mill, where I arrived about 5 o'clock on the morning
+     of August 20 and buried the dead and sent the wounded to
+     Fort Bayard.
+
+     One thing that attracted my attention more than anything
+     else was the suffering of Private John W. Williams, Troop H,
+     who was shot through the kneecap and had to ride all that
+     night from the battle-ground to Brookman's Mill. Poor
+     fellow!
+
+     I buried all my dead, and then marched for Fort Cumming,
+     where we arrived about sunset and reported to General Edward
+     Hatch, then commanding the regiment and also the district of
+     New Mexico, giving him all the details pertaining to the
+     engagement.
+
+     General Hatch asked me about how many men I could mount the
+     next morning, the 21st. I informed him about how many. He
+     ordered me to have my troop in readiness by daylight and
+     report to Lieutenant Demmick, then commanding Troop L, and
+     follow that Indian trail.
+
+     My troop was ready as ordered, and marched. We followed
+     those Indians to the line of Old Mexico, but were unable to
+     overtake them. Such was my last engagement with hostile
+     Indians."
+
+The formula that Negroes cannot command, with the further assertion
+that colored soldiers will neither follow nor obey officers of their
+own race, we have now taken out of the heads of its upholders, and
+away from its secure setting of type on the printed page, and applied
+it to the facts. Negro soldiers have shown their ability to command by
+commanding, not always with shoulder-straps, to be sure, but
+nevertheless commanding. With wearying succession, instance after
+instance, where Negroes have exercised all manner of military command
+and always creditably, have extended for us a recital to the border of
+monotony, and made formidable test of our patience. In France and the
+West Indies, in Central and South America, Negroes have commanded
+armies, in one instance fighting under Napoleon, at other times to
+free themselves from slavery and their countries from the yoke of
+oppression. In our own country, from the days of the Revolution, when
+fourteen American officers declared in a memorial to the Congress,
+that a "Negro man called Salem Poor, of Colonel Frye's regiment,
+Captain Ames' company, in the late battle at Charlestown, behaved like
+an _experienced officer_, as well as an excellent soldier;"[36] from
+the first war of the nation down to its last, Negro soldiers have been
+evincing their capacity to command. In the Civil War, where thousands
+of colored soldiers fought for the Union, their ability to command has
+been evidenced in a hundred ways, on scouts and expeditions, in camp
+and in battle; on two notable occasions, Negro officers gallantly
+fought their commands side by side with white officers, and added
+lustre to the military glory of the nation. Upon the re-organization
+of the Regular Army at the close of the war the theatre shifted to
+our Western frontier, where the Negro soldier continued to display his
+ability to command. Finally, in the Spanish War, just closed, the
+Negro soldier made the nation again bear witness not alone to his
+undaunted bravery, but also to his conspicuous capacity to command.
+Out of this abundant and conclusive array of incontestable facts,
+frankly, is there anything left to the arbitrary formula that Negroes
+cannot command, but a string of ipse dixits hung on a very old, but
+still decidedly robust prejudice? There is no escape from the
+conclusion that as a matter of fact, with opportunity, Negroes differ
+in no wise from other men in capacity to exercise military command.
+
+Undoubtedly substantial progress has been made respecting colored
+officers since 1863, when colored soldiers were first admitted in
+considerable numbers into the army of the Union. At the period of the
+Civil War colored officers for colored soldiers was little more than
+thought of; the sole instance comprised the short-lived colored
+officers of the three regiments of Louisiana Native Guards, and the
+sporadic appointments made near the close of the war, when the
+fighting was over.
+
+More than three hundred colored officers served in the volunteer army
+in the war with Spain. Two Northern States, Illinois and Kansas, and
+one Southern State, North Carolina, put each in the field as part of
+its quota a regiment of colored troops officered throughout by colored
+men. Ohio and Indiana contributed each a separate battalion of colored
+soldiers entirely under colored officers.
+
+In 1863 a regiment of colored troops with colored officers was
+practically impossible. In 1898 a regiment of colored volunteers
+without some colored officers was almost equally impossible. In 1863
+a regiment of colored soldiers commanded by colored officers would
+have been a violation of the sentiment of the period and an outrage
+upon popular feelings, the appearance of which in almost any Northern
+city would hardly fail to provoke an angry and resentful mob. At that
+period, even black recruits in uniforms were frequently assaulted in
+the streets of Northern cities. We have seen already how Sergeant
+Rivers, of the First South Carolina Volunteers, had to beat off a mob
+on Broadway in New York city. In 1898 regiments and battalions of
+colored troops, with colored colonels and majors in command, came out
+of States where the most stringent black laws were formerly in force,
+and were greeted with applause as they passed on their way to their
+camps or to embark for Cuba.
+
+In Baltimore, in 1863, the appearance of a Negro in the uniform of an
+army surgeon started a riot, and the irate mob was not appeased until
+it had stripped the patriotic colored doctor of his shoulder-straps.
+In 1898, when the Sixth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers passed
+through the same city, the colored officers of Company L of that
+regiment were welcomed with the same courtesies as their white
+colleagues--courtesies extended as a memorial of the fateful progress
+of the regiment through the city of Baltimore in 1861. One State which
+went to war in 1861 to keep the Negro a slave, put in the field a
+regiment of colored soldiers, officered by colored men from the
+colonel down. To this extent has prejudice been made to yield either
+to political necessity, or a generous change in sentiment. Thus were
+found States both North and South willing to give the Negro the full
+military recognition to which he is entitled.
+
+With this wider recognition of colored officers the general
+government has not kept pace. In the four regiments of colored
+volunteers recruited by the general government for service in the war
+with Spain, only the lieutenants were colored. Through the extreme
+conservatism of the War Department, in these regiments no colored
+officers, no matter how meritorious, could be appointed or advanced to
+the grade of captain. Such was the announced policy of the department,
+and it was strictly carried out. The commissioning of this large
+number of colored men even to lieutenancies was, without doubt, a
+distinct step in advance; it was an entering wedge. But it was also an
+advance singularly inadequate and embarrassing. In one of these
+colored volunteer, commonly called "immune" regiments, of the twelve
+captains, but five had previous military training, while of the
+twenty-four colored lieutenants, eighteen had previous military
+experience, and three of the remaining six were promoted from the
+ranks, so that at the time of their appointment twenty-one lieutenants
+had previous military training. Of the five captains with previous
+military experience, one, years ago, had been a lieutenant in the
+Regular Army; another was promoted from Post Quartermaster-Sergeant; a
+third at one time had been First Sergeant of Artillery; the remaining
+two had more or less experience in the militia. Of the eighteen
+lieutenants with previous military experience, twelve had served in
+the Regular Army; eight of these, not one with a service less than
+fifteen years, were promoted directly from the ranks of the regulars
+for efficiency and gallantry. At the time of their promotion two were
+Sergeants, five First Sergeants and one a Post Quartermaster-Sergeant.
+The four others from the Regular Army had served five years each. Of
+the six remaining Lieutenants with previous military experience, four
+had received military training in high schools, three of whom were
+subsequently officers in the militia; fifth graduated from a state
+college with a military department; the sixth had been for years an
+officer in the militia. With this advantage at the start, it is no
+extravagance to say that the colored officers practically made the
+companies. To them was due the greater part of the credit for whatever
+efficiency the companies showed. Moreover, these colored officers were
+not behind in intelligence. Among them were four graduates of
+universities and colleges, two lawyers, two teachers, one journalist,
+five graduates of high schools and academies, and the men from the
+Regular Army, as their previous non-commissioned rank indicates, were
+of good average intelligence. There is no reason to believe that this
+one of the four colored volunteer regiments was in any degree
+exceptional.
+
+These are the officers for whom the War Department had erected their
+arbitrary bar at captaincy, and declared that no show of efficiency
+could secure for them the titular rank which they more than once
+actually exercised. For they were repeatedly in command of their
+companies through sickness or absence of their captains. They served
+as officers without the incentive which comes from hope of promotion.
+They were forced to see the credit of their labors go to others, and
+to share more than once in discredit for which they were not
+responsible. They were, and in this lay their chief embarrassment,
+without the security and protection which higher rank would have
+accorded them. In case of trial by court-martial, captains and other
+higher officers filled the court to the exclusion of almost all
+others. These were white men. It is gratifying to record that the War
+Department recognized this special injustice to colored officers, and
+in the two regiments of colored volunteers recruited for service in
+the Philippines all the line-officers are colored men, the field
+officers being white, and appointed from the Regular Army in pursuance
+of a general policy. Thus far has the general government advanced in
+recognition of the military capacity of the Negro. In the swing of the
+pendulum the nation is now at the place where the hardy General Butler
+was thirty-seven years ago, when he organized the three regiments of
+Louisiana Native Guards with all line-officers colored.
+
+The way in which modern armies are organized and perfected leaves
+little necessity for an equipment of exceptional personal gifts in
+order to exercise ordinary military command. The whole thing is
+subordinate, and the field for personal initiative is contracted to
+the minimum. In our own army the President is Commander-in-Chief, and
+the command descends through a multitude of subordinate grades down to
+the lowest commissioned officer in the service. We have "Articles of
+War" and "Regulations," and the entire discipline and government of
+the army is committed to writing. There is no chance to enshroud in
+mystery the ability to command. For ordinary military command, with
+intelligence the chief requisite, little is required beyond courage,
+firmness and good judgment. These qualities are in no respect natural
+barriers for colored men.
+
+This last story of the Negro soldier's efficiency and gallantry, told
+in the pages of this book, teaches its own very simple conclusion. The
+Cuban campaign has forced the nation to recognize the completion of
+the Negro's evolution as a soldier in the Army of the United States.
+The colored American soldier, by his own prowess, has won an
+acknowledged place by the side of the best trained fighters with arms.
+In the fullness of his manhood he has no rejoicing in the patronizing
+paean, "the colored troops fought nobly," nor does he glow at all
+when told of his "faithfulness" and "devotion" to his white officers,
+qualities accentuated to the point where they might well fit an
+affectionate dog. He lays claim to no prerogative other than that of a
+plain citizen of the Republic, trained to the profession of arms. The
+measure of his demand--and it is the demand of ten millions of his
+fellow-citizens allied to him by race--is that the full manhood
+privileges of a soldier be accorded him. On his record in arms, not
+excluding his manifest capacity to command, the colored soldier,
+speaking for the entire body of colored citizens in this country, only
+demands that the door of the nation's military training school be
+freely open to the capable of his race, and the avenue of promotion
+from the ranks be accessible to his tried efficiency; that no
+hindrance prevent competent colored men from taking their places as
+officers as well as soldiers in the nation's permanent military
+establishment.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[26] Headquarters Department of the Gulf,
+     New Orleans, August 22, 1862.
+     General Orders No. 63.
+
+     "Whereas, on the 23d day of April, in the year eighteen
+     hundred and sixty-one, at a public meeting of the free
+     colored population of the city of New Orleans, a military
+     organization, known as the 'Native Guards' (colored), had
+     its existence, which military organization was duly and
+     legally enrolled as a part of the militia of the State, its
+     officers being commissioned by Thomas O. Moore, Governor and
+     Commander-in-Chief of the militia of the State of Louisiana,
+     in the form following, that is to say:
+
+     The State of Louisiana.
+     (Seal of the State.)
+
+     By Thomas Overton Moore, Governor of the State of Louisiana,
+     and commander-in-chief of the militia thereof.
+
+     "'In the name and by the authority of the State of
+     Louisiana: Know ye that ---- ----, having been duly and
+     legally elected captain of the "Native Guards" (colored),
+     first division of the Militia of Louisiana, to serve for the
+     term of the war,
+
+     "'I do hereby appoint and commission him captain as
+     aforesaid, to take rank as such, from the 2d day of May,
+     eighteen hundred and sixty-one.
+
+     "'He is, therefore, carefully and diligently to discharge
+     the duties of his office by doing and performing all manner
+     of things thereto belonging. And I do strictly charge and
+     require all officers, non-commissioned officers and privates
+     under his command to be obedient to his orders as captain;
+     and he is to observe and follow such orders and directions,
+     from time to time, as he shall receive from me, or the
+     future Governor of the State of Louisiana, or other superior
+     officers, according to the Rules and Articles of War, and in
+     conformity to law.
+
+     "'In testimony whereof, I have caused these letters to be
+     made patent, and the seal of the State to be hereunto
+     annexed.
+
+     "'Given under my hand, at the city of Baton Rouge, on the
+     second day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand
+     eight hundred and sixty-one.
+
+     (L.S.)                  (Signed) THOS. O. MOORE.
+     "'By the Governor:
+                             (Signed) P.D. HARDY,
+                                      Secretary of State.
+
+     (Wilson: Black Phalanx, p. 194.)
+
+[27] De Tocqueville: L'Ancien Régime et La Revolution, p. 125-6.
+
+[28] Thomas Westworth Higginson: Army Life in a Black Regiment, pp.
+57-8.
+
+[29] Thomas Wentworth Higginson: Army Life in a Black Regiment, p.
+261.
+
+[30] Williams's Negro Troops in the Rebellion, pp. 339-40, quoting the
+order.
+
+[31] Williams's Negro Troops in the Rebellion, pp. 334-6, original
+order quoted.
+
+[32] See pp. 351-6 MS.
+
+[33] Wilson: Black Phalanx, p. 211, original order quoted.
+
+[34] Campaigns of the Civil War. F.V. Greene. The Mississippi, p. 226
+et seq.
+
+[35] Williams's Negro Troops in the Rebellion, p. 221, original order
+quoted.
+
+[36] MS. Archives of Massachusetts, Vol. 180, p. 241, quoted in
+Williams's Negro Troops in the Rebellion, p. 13.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+The correspondence following shows the progress of the negotiations
+for the surrender of the city of Santiago and the Spanish Army, from
+the morning of July 3d until the final convention was signed on the
+sixteenth of the same month. This surrender virtually closed the war,
+but did not restore the contending nations to a status of peace.
+Twenty-three thousand Spanish soldiers had laid down their arms and
+had been transformed from enemies to friends. On the tenth of August
+following, a protocol was submitted by the President of the United
+States, which was accepted by the Spanish cabinet on the eleventh, and
+on the twelfth the President announced the cessation of hostilities,
+thus closing a war which had lasted one hundred and ten days. On the
+tenth of December a Treaty of Peace between the United States and
+Spain was signed at Paris, which was subsequently ratified by both
+nations, and diplomatic relations fully restored. The war, though
+short, had been costly. One hundred and fifty million dollars had been
+spent in its prosecution, and there were left on our hands the
+unsolved problem of Cuba and the Philippines, which promised much
+future trouble.
+
+Within a month from the signing of the convention, the Army of
+Invasion, known as the Fifth Army Corps, was on its homeward voyage,
+and by the latter part of August the whole command was well out of
+Cuba. Well did the soldiers themselves, as well as their friends,
+realize, as the former returned from that campaign of a hundred days,
+that war in the tropics was neither a pastime nor a practice march.
+The campaign had tested the powers of endurance of the men to its
+utmost limit. The horrors of war were brought directly to the face of
+the people, as the ten thousand invalids dragged their debilitated
+forms from the transports to their detention camps, or to the
+hospitals, some too helpless to walk, and many to die soon after
+greeting their native shores. Those who had been so enthusiastic for
+the war were now quiet, and were eagerly laying the blame for the
+sorrow and suffering before them upon the shoulders of those who had
+conducted the war. Few stopped to think that a good part of this woe
+might be justly charged to those who had constantly resisted the
+establishment of an adequate standing army, and who, with inconsistent
+vehemence, had urged the nation into a war, regardless of its military
+equipment. The emaciated veterans arriving at Montauk were spoken of
+as the evidences of "military incompetency;" they were also evidence
+of that narrow statesmanship which ignores the constant suggestions of
+military experience.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Headquarters United States Forces,
+     Near San Juan River, July 3, 1898--8.30 A.M.
+
+     To the Commanding General of the Spanish Forces, Santiago de Cuba.
+
+     Sir:--I shall be obliged, unless you surrender, to shell
+     Santiago de Cuba. Please inform the citizens of foreign
+     countries, and all the women and children, that they should
+     leave the city before 10 o'clock to-morrow morning.
+
+     Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+     WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,
+     Major-General U.S.V.
+
+Reply.
+
+     Santiago de Cuba, July 3, 1898.
+
+     His Excellency the General Commanding Forces of United States,
+     near San Juan River.
+
+     Sir:--I have the honor to reply to your communication of
+     to-day, written at 8.30 A.M., and received at 1 P.M.,
+     demanding the surrender of this city, or, in contrary case,
+     announcing to me that you will bombard this city, and that I
+     advise the foreigners, women and children that they must
+     leave the city before 10 o'clock to-morrow morning. It is my
+     duty to say to you that this city will not surrender, and
+     that I will inform the foreign consuls and inhabitants of
+     the contents of your message.
+
+     Very respectfully,
+
+     JOSE TORAL,
+     Commander-in-Chief, Fourth Corps,
+
+
+     Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,
+     Camp near San Juan River, Cuba, July 4, 1898.
+
+     The Commanding General, Spanish Forces, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba.
+
+     Sir:--I was officially informed last night that Admiral
+     Cervera is now a captive on board the U.S.S. Gloucester, and
+     is unharmed. He was then in the harbor of Siboney. I regret
+     also to have to announce to you the death of General Vara
+     del Rey at El Caney, who, with two of his sons, was killed
+     in the battle of July 1st. His body will be buried this
+     morning with military honors. His brother,
+     Lieutenant-Colonel Vara del Rey, is wounded and a prisoner
+     in my hands, together with the following officers: Captain
+     Don Antonio Vara del Rey, Captain Isidor Arias, Captain
+     Antonio Mansas, and Captain Manuel Romero, who, though
+     severely wounded, will all probably survive.
+
+     I also have to announce to you that the Spanish fleet, with
+     the exception of one vessel, was destroyed, and this one is
+     being so vigorously pursued that it will be impossible for
+     it to escape. General Pando is opposed by forces sufficient
+     to hold him in check.
+
+     In view of the above, I would suggest that, to save needless
+     effusion of blood and the distress of many people, you may
+     reconsider your determination of yesterday. Your men have
+     certainly shown the gallantry which was expected of them.
+
+     I am, sir, with great respect,
+
+     Your obedient servant,
+
+     WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,
+     Major-General, Commanding United States Forces.
+
+
+     Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,
+     Camp near San Juan River, Cuba, July 4, 1898.
+
+     To the Commanding General, Spanish Forces, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba.
+
+     Sir:--The fortune of war has thrown into my hands quite a
+     number of officers and private soldiers, whom I am now
+     holding as prisoners of war, and I have the honor to propose
+     to you that a cartel of exchange be arranged to-day, by
+     which the prisoners taken by the forces of Spain from on
+     board the Merrimac, and any officers and men of the army who
+     may have fallen into our hands within the past few days, may
+     be returned to their respective governments on the terms
+     usual in such cases, of rank for rank. Trusting that this
+     will meet with your favorable consideration, I remain,
+
+     Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+     WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,
+     Major-General, Commanding United States Forces.
+
+
+     Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,
+     Camp near San Juan River, Cuba, July 4, 1898.
+
+     To the Commanding Officer, Spanish Forces, Santiago.
+
+     Sir:--It will give me great pleasure to return to the city
+     of Santiago at an early hour to-morrow morning all the
+     wounded Spanish officers now at El Caney who are able to be
+     carried and who will give their parole not to serve against
+     the United States until regularly exchanged. I make this
+     proposition, as I am not so situated as to give these
+     officers the care and attention that they can receive at the
+     hands of their military associates and from their own
+     surgeons; though I shall, of course, give them every kind
+     treatment that it is possible to do under such adverse
+     circumstances. Trusting that this will meet with your
+     approbation, and that you will permit me to return to you
+     these persons, I am,
+
+     Your very obedient servant,
+
+     WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,
+     Major-General, Commanding United States Forces.
+
+
+     Army of the Island of Cuba,
+     Fifth Corps, General Staff.
+
+     To His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief of the American Forces.
+
+     Excellency:--I have the honor to reply to the three
+     communications of your Excellency, dated to-day, and I am
+     very grateful for the news you give in regard to the
+     generals, chiefs, officers and troops that are your
+     prisoners, and of the good care that you give to the wounded
+     in your possession. With respect to the wounded, I have no
+     objection to receiving in this place those that your
+     Excellency may willingly deliver me, but I am not authorized
+     by the General-in-Chief to make any exchange, as he has
+     reserved to himself that authority. Yet I have given him
+     notice of the proposition of your Excellency.
+
+     It is useless for me to tell you how grateful I am for the
+     interest that your Excellency has shown for the prisoners
+     and corpse of General Vara del Rey, giving you many thanks
+     for the chivalrous treatment.
+
+     The same reasons that I explained to you yesterday, I have
+     to give again to-day--that this place will not be
+     surrendered.
+
+     I am, yours with great respect and consideration,
+
+     (Signed) JOSE TORAL.
+
+     In Santiago de Cuba, July 4, 1898.
+
+
+     Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,
+     Camp near San Juan River, Cuba, July 6, 1898.
+
+     To the Commander-in-Chief, Spanish Forces, Santiago de Cuba.
+
+     Sir:--In view of the events of the 3d instant, I have the
+     honor to lay before your Excellency certain propositions to
+     which, I trust, your Excellency, will give the consideration
+     which, in my judgment, they deserve.
+
+     I inclose a bulletin of the engagement of Sunday morning
+     which resulted in the complete destruction of Admiral
+     Cervera's fleet, the loss of six hundred of his officers and
+     men, and the capture of the remainder. The Admiral, General
+     Paredes and all others who escaped alive are now prisoners
+     on board the Harvard and St. Louis, and the latter ship, in
+     which are the Admiral, General Paredes and the surviving
+     captains (all except the captain of the Almirante Oquendo,
+     who was slain) has already sailed for the United States. If
+     desired by you, this may be confirmed by your Excellency
+     sending an officer under a flag of truce to Admiral Sampson,
+     and he can arrange to visit the Harvard, which will not sail
+     until to-morrow, and obtain the details from Spanish
+     officers and men on board that ship.
+
+     Our fleet is now perfectly free to act, and I have the honor
+     to state that unless a surrender be arranged by noon of the
+     9th instant, a bombardment will be begun and continued by
+     the heavy guns of our ships. The city is within easy range
+     of these guns, the eight-inch being capable of firing 9,500
+     yards, the thirteen-inch, of course, much farther. The ships
+     can so lie that with a range of 8,000 yards they can reach
+     the centre of the city.
+
+     I make this suggestion of a surrender purely in a
+     humanitarian spirit. I do not wish to cause the slaughter of
+     any more men, either of your Excellency's forces or my own,
+     the final result, under circumstances so disadvantageous to
+     your Excellency being a foregone conclusion.
+
+     As your Excellency may wish to make reference of so
+     momentous a question to your Excellency's home government,
+     it is for this purpose that I have placed the time of the
+     resumption of hostilities sufficiently far in the future to
+     allow a reply being received.
+
+     I beg an early answer from your Excellency.
+
+     I have the honor to be,
+
+     Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+     W. R. SHAFTER,
+     Major-General, Commanding.
+
+
+     Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,
+     Camp near Santiago, July 9, 1898.
+
+     Hon. Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.
+
+     I forwarded General Toral's proposition to evacuate the town
+     this morning without consulting any one. Since then I have
+     seen the general officers commanding divisions, who agree
+     with me in that it should be accepted.
+
+     1st. It releases at once the harbor.
+
+     2d. It permits the return of thousands of women, children
+     and old men, who have left the town, fearing bombardment,
+     and are now suffering fearfully where they are, though I am
+     doing my best to supply them with food.
+
+     3d. It saves the great destruction of property which a
+     bombardment would entail, most of which belongs to Cubans
+     and foreign residents.
+
+     4th. It at once releases this command while it is in good
+     health for operations elsewhere. There are now three cases
+     of yellow fever at Siboney in a Michigan regiment, and if it
+     gets started, no one knows where it will stop.
+
+     We lose by this, simply some prisoners we do not want and
+     the arms they carry. I believe many of them will desert and
+     return to our lines. I was told by a sentinel who deserted
+     last night that two hundred men wanted to come, but were
+     afraid our men would fire upon them.
+
+     W.R. SHAFTER,
+     Major-General, United States Volunteers.
+
+Reply.
+
+     Washington, D.C., July 9, 1898.
+
+     Major-General Shafter, Playa, Cuba.
+
+     In reply to your telegram recommending terms of evacuation
+     as proposed by the Spanish commander, after careful
+     consideration by the President and Secretary of War, I am
+     directed to say that you have repeatedly been advised that
+     you would not be expected to make an assault upon the enemy
+     at Santiago until you were prepared to do the work
+     thoroughly. When you are ready this will be done. Your
+     telegram of this morning said your position was impregnable
+     and that you believed the enemy would yet surrender
+     unconditionally. You have also assured us that you could
+     force their surrender by cutting off their supplies. Under
+     these circumstances, your message recommending that Spanish
+     troops be permitted to evacuate and proceed without
+     molestation to Holguin is a great surprise and is not
+     approved. The responsibility for the destruction and
+     distress to the inhabitants rests entirely with the Spanish
+     commander. The Secretary of War orders that when you are
+     strong enough to destroy the enemy and take Santiago, you do
+     it. If you have not force enough, it will be despatched to
+     you at the earliest moment possible. Reinforcements are on
+     the way of which you have already been apprised. In the
+     meantime, nothing is lost by holding the position you now
+     have, and which you regard as impregnable.
+
+     Acknowledge receipt. By order of the Secretary of War.
+     (Signed) H.C. CORBIN, Adjutant-General.
+
+
+     Headquarters United States Forces,
+     Camp near San Juan River, Cuba, July 11, 1898.
+
+     To His Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish Forces,
+     Santiago de Cuba.
+
+     Sir:--With the largely increased forces which have come to
+     me, and the fact that I have your line of retreat securely
+     within my hands, the time seems fitting that I should again
+     demand of your Excellency the surrender of Santiago and your
+     Excellency's army. I am authorized to state that should your
+     Excellency so desire, the Government of the United States
+     will transport your entire command to Spain. I have the
+     honor to be,
+
+     Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+     WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,
+     Major-General, Commanding.
+
+Reply.
+
+     Army of the Island of Cuba, Fourth Corps,
+     July 11, 1898.
+
+     To His Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces of
+     the United States, in the Camp of the San Juan.
+
+     Esteemed Sir:--I have the honor to advise your Eminence that
+     your communication of this date is received, and in reply
+     desire to confirm that which I said in my former
+     communication, and also to advise you that I have
+     communicated your proposition to the General-in-Chief.
+     Reiterating my sentiments, I am,
+
+     Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+     (Signed) JOSE TORAL,
+     Commander-in-Chief of the Fourth Corps and Military Governor
+     of Santiago.
+
+
+     Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,
+     Camp near Santiago de Cuba, July 12, 1898.
+
+     To His Excellency, Commander-in-Chief of Spanish Forces,
+     Santiago de Cuba.
+
+     Sir:--I have the honor to inform your Excellency that I have
+     already ordered a suspension of hostilities, and I will
+     repeat that order, granting in this manner a reasonable
+     time within which you may receive an answer to the message
+     sent to the Government of Spain, which time will end
+     to-morrow at 12 o'clock noon.
+
+     I think it my duty to inform your Excellency that during
+     this armistice I will not move any of my troops that occupy
+     the advanced line, but the forces that arrived to-day and
+     which are debarking at Siboney require moving to this camp.
+
+     I wish that your Excellency would honor me with a personal
+     interview to-morrow morning at 9 o'clock. I will come
+     accompanied by the Commanding General of the American army,
+     and by an interpreter, which will permit you to be
+     accompanied by two or three persons of your staff who speak
+     English. Hoping for a favorable answer, I have the honor to
+     be,
+
+     Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+     WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,
+     Major-General, Commanding.
+
+
+     Army of the Island of Cuba, Fourth Corps,
+     Santiago de cuba, July 12, 1898--9 P. M.
+
+     To His Excellency, the General of the American Troops.
+
+     Esteemed Sir:--I have the honor to answer your favor of this
+     date, inform your Excellency that in deference to your
+     desires I will be much honored by a conference with his
+     Excellency, the Commanding General of your army, and your
+     Excellency, to-morrow morning at the hour you have seen fit
+     to appoint.
+
+     Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+     (Signed) JOSE TORAL,
+     Commander-in-Chief of the Fourth Army Corps.
+
+     Preliminary agreement for the capitulation of the Spanish
+     forces which constitute the division of Santiago de Cuba,
+     occupying the territory herein set forth, said capitulation
+     authorized by the Commander-in-Chief of the Island of Cuba,
+     agreed to by General Toral and awaiting the approbation of
+     the Government at Madrid, and subject to the following
+     conditions:
+
+     Submitted by the undersigned Commissioners--
+
+     Brigadier-General Don Frederick Escario, Lieutenant-Colonel
+     of Staff Don Ventura Fontan and Mr. Robert Mason, of the
+     city of Santiago de Cuba, representing General Toral,
+     commanding Spanish forces, to Major-General Joseph Wheeler,
+     U.S.V., Major-General H.W. Lawton, U.S.V., and First
+     Lieutenant J.D. Miley, Second Artillery, A.D.C, representing
+     General Shafter, commanding American forces, for the
+     capitulation of the Spanish forces comprised in that portion
+     of the Island of Cuba east of a line passing through
+     Aserradero, Dos Palmas, Palma Soriano, Cauto Abajo,
+     Escondida, Tanamo and Aguilera, said territory being known
+     as the Eastern District of Santiago, commanded by General
+     Jose Toral.
+
+     1. That pending arrangements for capitulation all
+     hostilities between American and Spanish forces in this
+     district shall absolutely and unequivocally cease.
+
+     2. That this capitulation includes all the forces and war
+     material in said territory.
+
+     3. That after the signing of the final capitulation the
+     United States agrees, with as little delay as possible, to
+     transport all the Spanish troops in said district to the
+     Kingdom of Spain, the troops, as near as possible, to embark
+     at the port nearest the garrison they now occupy.
+
+     4. That the officers of the Spanish Army be permitted to
+     retain their side arms, and both officers and enlisted men
+     their personal property.
+
+     5. That after final capitulation the Spanish authorities
+     agree without delay to remove, or assist the American Navy
+     in removing, all mines or other obstructions to navigation
+     now in the harbor of Santiago and its mouth.
+
+     6. That after final capitulation the commander of the
+     Spanish forces deliver without delay a complete inventory of
+     all arms and munitions of war of the Spanish forces and a
+     roster of the said forces now in the above-described
+     district, to the commander of the American forces.
+
+     7. That the commander of the Spanish forces, in leaving said
+     district, is authorized to carry with him all military
+     archives and records pertaining to the Spanish Army now in
+     said district.
+
+     8. That all of that portion of the Spanish forces known as
+     Volunteers, Movilizados and Guerillas, who wish to remain in
+     the Island of Cuba are permitted to do so under parole not
+     to take up arms against the United States during the
+     continuance of the war between Spain and the United States,
+     delivering up their arms.
+
+     9. That the Spanish forces will march out of Santiago de
+     Cuba with honors of war, depositing their arms thereafter at
+     a point mutually agreed upon, to await their disposition by
+     the United States Government, it being understood that the
+     United States Commissioners will recommend that the Spanish
+     soldier return to Spain with the arms he so bravely
+     defended.
+
+     Entered into this fifteenth day of July, eighteen hundred
+     and ninety-eight, by the undersigned Commissioners, acting
+     under instructions from their respecting commanding
+     generals.
+
+     (Signed)
+     JOSEPH WHEELER,
+     _Major-General U.S. Vols._;
+
+     H.W. LAWTON,
+     _Major-General U.S. Vols._;
+
+     J.D. MILEY,
+     _1st Lieut. 2d Art., A.D.C. to General Shafter._
+
+     FREDERICO ESCARIO,
+     VENTURA FONTAN,
+     ROBERT MASON.
+
+
+     Army of the Island of Cuba, Fourth Corps,
+     Santiago de Cuba, July 12, 1898--9 P.M.
+
+     To His Excellency, the General-in-Chief of the American Forces,
+
+     Esteemed Sir:--As I am now authorized by my Government to
+     capitulate, I have the honor to so advise you, requesting
+     you to designate the hour and place where my representatives
+     should appear, to concur with those of your Excellency to
+     edit the articles of capitulation on the basis of what has
+     been agreed upon to this date.
+
+     In due time I wish to manifest to your Excellency my desire
+     to know the resolution of the United States Government
+     respecting the return of the arms, so as to note it in the
+     capitulation; also for their great courtesy and gentlemanly
+     deportment I wish to thank your Grace's representatives, and
+     in return for their generous and noble efforts for the
+     Spanish soldiers, I hope your Government will allow them to
+     return to the Peninsula with the arms that the American army
+     do them the honor to acknowledge as having dutifully
+     defended.
+
+     Reiterating my former sentiments, I remain,
+
+     Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+     JOSE TORAL,
+     Commander-in-Chief of the Fourth Army Corps.
+
+
+     At Neutral Camp, near Santiago, Under a Flag of Truce,
+     July 14, 1898.
+
+     Recognizing the chivalry, courage and gallantry of Generals
+     Linares and Toral, and of the soldiers of Spain who were
+     engaged in the battles recently fought in the vicinity of
+     Santiago de Cuba, as displayed in said battles, we, the
+     undersigned officers of the United States army, who had the
+     honor to be engaged in said battle, and are now a duly
+     organized commission, treating with a like commission of
+     officers of the Spanish army, for the capitulation of
+     Santiago de Cuba, unanimously join in earnestly soliciting
+     the proper authority to accord to these brave and chivalrous
+     soldiers the privilege of returning to their country bearing
+     the arms they have so bravely defended.
+
+     JOSEPH WHEELER,
+     Major-General, U.S. Vols.
+
+     H. W. LAWTON,
+     Major-General, U.S. Vols.
+
+     First Lieut., 2d Art., A.D.C.
+     J. D. MILEY.
+
+
+     Army of the Island of Cuba, Fourth Corps,
+     Santiago de Cuba, July 16, 1898.
+
+     To His Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces of
+     the United States.
+
+     Esteemed Sir:--At half-past 11 I received your communication
+     of this date, and I am sorry to advise you that it is
+     impossible for my representatives to come to the appointed
+     place at midday, as you wish, as I must meet them and give
+     them their instructions.
+
+     If agreeable to you, will you defer the visit until 4 P.M.
+     to-day or until 7 to-morrow morning, and in the meanwhile
+     the obstacles to the entrance of the Red Cross will be
+     removed from the harbor.
+
+     I beg your Honor will make clear what force you wish me to
+     retire from the railroad, as, if it is that in Aguadores, I
+     would authorize the repair of the bridge at once by your
+     engineers; and if it is that on the heights to the left of
+     your lines, I beg you will specify with more precision.
+
+     I have ordered those in charge of the aqueduct to proceed at
+     once to repair it with the means at their command.
+
+     Awaiting your reply, I remain,
+
+     Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+     JOSE TORAL,
+     Commander-in-Chief of the Fourth Army Corps.
+
+
+     Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,
+     Camp, July 16, 1898.
+
+     To His Excellency, General Jose Toral, Commanding Spanish Forces
+     in Eastern Cuba.
+
+     Sir:--I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your
+     Excellency's letter of this date, notifying me that the
+     Government at Madrid approves your action, and requesting
+     that I designate officers to arrange for and receive the
+     surrender of the forces of your Excellency. This I do,
+     nominating Major-General Wheeler, Major-General Lawton, and
+     my aide, Lieutenant Miley. I have to request that your
+     Excellency at once withdraw your troops from along the
+     railway to Aguadores, and from the bluff in rear of my left;
+     also that you at once direct the removal of the obstructions
+     at the entrance to the harbor or assist the navy in doing
+     so, as it is of the utmost importance that I at once get
+     vessels loaded with food into the harbor.
+
+     The repair of the railroad will, I am told, require a week's
+     time. I shall, as I have said to your Excellency, urge my
+     Government that the gallant men your Excellency has so ably
+     commanded have returned to Spain with them the arms they
+     have wielded. With great respect, I remain,
+
+     Your obedient servant and friend,
+
+     WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,
+     General, Commanding.
+
+     Terms of the Military Convention for the capitulation of the
+     Spanish forces occupying the territory which constitutes the
+     Division of Santiago de Cuba and described as follows: All
+     that portion of the Island of Cuba east of a line passing
+     through Aserradero, Dos Palmas, Cauto Abajo, Escondida,
+     Tanamo and Aguilara, said troops being in command of General
+     Jose Toral; agreed upon by the undersigned Commissioners:
+     Brigadier-General Don Federico Escario, Lieutenant-Colonel
+     of Staff Don Ventura Fontan, and as Interpreter, Mr. Robert
+     Mason, of the city of Santiago de Cuba, appointed by General
+     Toral, commanding the Spanish forces, on behalf of the
+     Kingdom of Spain, and Major-General Joseph Wheeler, U.S.V.,
+     Major-General H.W. Lawton, U.S.V., and First Lieutenant J.D.
+     Miley, Second Artillery, A.D.C., appointed by General
+     Shafter, commanding the American forces on behalf of the
+     United States:
+
+     1. That all hostilities between the American and Spanish
+     forces in this district absolutely and unequivocally cease.
+
+     2. That this capitulation includes all the forces and war
+     material in said territory.
+
+     3. That the United States agrees, with as little delay as
+     possible, to transport all the Spanish troops in said
+     district to the Kingdom of Spain, the troops being embarked,
+     as far as possible at the port nearest the garrison they now
+     occupy.
+
+     4. That the officers of the Spanish Army be permitted to
+     retain their side arms, and both officers and private
+     soldiers their personal property.
+
+     5. That the Spanish authorities agree to remove, or assist
+     the American Navy in removing, all mines or other
+     obstructions to navigation now in the harbor of Santiago and
+     its mouth.
+
+     6. That the commander of the Spanish forces deliver without
+     delay a complete inventory of all arms and munitions of war
+     of the Spanish forces in above described district to the
+     commander of the American forces; also a roster of said
+     forces now in said district.
+
+     7. That the commander of the Spanish forces, in leaving said
+     district, is authorized to carry with him all military
+     archives and records pertaining to the Spanish Army now in
+     said district.
+
+     8. That all that portion of the Spanish forces known as
+     Volunteers, Movilizados and Guerillas, who wish to remain in
+     the Island of Cuba, are permitted to do so upon the
+     condition of delivering up their arms and taking a parole
+     not to bear arms against the United States during the
+     continuance of the present war between Spain and the United
+     States.
+
+     9. That the Spanish forces will march out of Santiago de
+     Cuba with the honors of war, depositing their arms
+     thereafter at a point mutually agreed upon, to await their
+     disposition by the United States Government, it being
+     understood that the United States Commissioners will
+     recommend that the Spanish soldier return to Spain with the
+     arms he so bravely defended.
+
+     10. That the provisions of the foregoing instrument become
+     operative immediately upon its being signed.
+
+     Entered into this sixteenth day of July, eighteen hundred
+     and ninety-eight, by the undersigned Commissioners, acting
+     under instructions from their respective commanding generals
+     and with the approbation of their respective governments.
+
+     (Signed)
+     JOSEPH WHEELER,
+       _Major-General U.S. Vols._;
+
+     H.W. LAWTON,
+       _Major-General U.S. Vols._;
+
+     J.D. MILEY,
+       _1st Lieut. 2d Art., A.D.C. to General Shafter._
+
+     FREDERICO ESCARIO,
+     VENTURA FONTAN,
+     ROBERT MASON.
+
+The following dispatch, sent by General Linares, will show how
+desperate were the straits into which he had been driven and how
+earnestly he desired to be granted authority to avoid further fighting
+by the surrender of his forces at Santiago:
+
+     Santiago de Cuba, July 12, 1898.
+
+     The General-in-Chief to the Secretary of War.
+
+     Although prostrated in bed from weakness and pain, my mind
+     is troubled by the situation of our suffering troops, and
+     therefore I think it my duty to address myself to you, Mr.
+     Secretary, and describe the true situation.
+
+     The enemy's forces very near city; ours extended fourteen
+     kilometres (14,000 yards). Our troops exhausted and sickly
+     in an alarming proportion. Cannot be brought to the
+     hospital--needing them in trenches. Cattle without fodder or
+     hay. Fearful storm of rain, which has been pouring
+     continuously for past twenty-four hours. Soldiers without
+     permanent shelter. Their only food rice, and not much of
+     that. They have no way of changing or drying their clothing.
+     Our losses were very heavy--many chiefs and officers among
+     the dead, wounded and sick. Their absence deprives the
+     forces of their leaders in this very critical moment. Under
+     these conditions it is impossible to open a breach on the
+     enemy, because it would take a third of our men who cannot
+     go out, and whom the enemy would decimate. The result would
+     be a terrible disaster, without obtaining, as you desire,
+     the salvation of eleven maimed battalions. To make a sortie
+     protected by the division at Holguin, it is necessary to
+     attack the enemy's lines simultaneously, and the forces of
+     Holguin cannot come here except after many long days'
+     marching. Impossible for them to transport rations.
+     Unfortunately, the situation is desperate. The surrender is
+     imminent, otherwise we will only gain time to prolong our
+     agony. The sacrifice would be sterile, and the men
+     understand this. With his lines so near us, the enemy will
+     annihilate us without exposing his own, as he did yesterday,
+     bombarding by land elevations without our being able to
+     discover their batteries, and by sea the fleet has a perfect
+     knowledge of the place, and bombards with a mathematical
+     accuracy. Santiago is no Gerona, a walled city, part of the
+     mother country, and defended inch by inch by her own people
+     without distinction--old men and women who helped with their
+     lives, moved by the holy idea of freedom, and with the hope
+     of help, which they received. Here I am alone. All the
+     people have fled, even those holding public offices, almost
+     without exception. Only the priests remain, and they wish to
+     leave the city to-day, headed by their archbishop. These
+     defenders do not start now a campaign full of enthusiasm and
+     energy, but for three years they have been fighting the
+     climate, privations and fatigue, and now they have to
+     confront this critical situation when they have no
+     enthusiasm or physical strength. They have no ideals,
+     because they defend the property of people who have deserted
+     them and those who are the allies of the American forces.
+
+     The honor of arms has its limit, and I appeal to the
+     judgment of the Government and of the entire nation whether
+     these patient troops have not repeatedly saved it since May
+     18th--date of first bombardment. If it is necessary that I
+     sacrifice them for reasons unknown to me, or if it is
+     necessary for some one to take responsibility for the issue
+     foreseen and announced by me in several telegrams, I
+     willingly offer myself as a sacrifice to my country, and I
+     will take charge of the command for the act of surrender, as
+     my modest reputation is of small value when the reputation
+     of the nation is at stake.
+
+     (Signed) LINARES.
+
+Thus surrendered to our forces about 23,500 Spanish troops, of whom
+about 11,000 had been in the garrison of Santiago, the others having
+been stationed in garrisons outside of the city, but belonging to the
+Division of Santiago. With them were also surrendered 100 cannon, 18
+machine guns and over 25,000 rifles. The troops were all sent back to
+Spain in vessels of their own nation and flying their own flag. We had
+lost in battles with them before the surrender 23 officers killed and
+237 men; and 100 officers and 1,332 men wounded.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Colored Regulars in the United
+States Army, by T. G. Steward
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Colored Regulars in the United States
+Army, by T. G. Steward
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Colored Regulars in the United States Army
+
+Author: T. G. Steward
+
+Release Date: September 25, 2005 [EBook #16750]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COLORED REGULARS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Richard J. Shiffer, and the PG
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h1>The Colored Regulars</h1>
+<h2>In the United States Army</h2>
+<p class="center sc">with a</p>
+<p class="center">
+Sketch of the History of the Colored American, and an Account of<br />
+His Services in the Wars of the Country, from the<br />
+Period of the Revolutionary War to 1899.</p>
+<br />
+<h4 class="sc">introductory letter from</h4>
+<h2>Lieutenant-General Nelson A. Miles</h2>
+<h4>Commanding the Army of the United States.</h4>
+<hr class="tiny" />
+<h3>BY CHAPLAIN T.G. STEWARD, D.D.,</h3>
+<h4>Twenty-fifth U.S. Infantry.</h4>
+<br />
+<p class="center">Philadelphia<br />
+A.M.E. Book Concern,<br />
+631 Pine Street.<br />
+<br />
+1904<br />
+</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 371px;">
+<img src="images/image01.png" width="371" height="442" alt="Chaplain T.G. Steward, D.D." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Chaplain T.G. Steward, D.D.</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="Contents" id="Contents"></a>TABLE OF CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center"><a href="#INTRODUCTORY">INTRODUCTORY.</a></p>
+
+<p class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.&mdash;SKETCH OF SOCIAL HISTORY.</a></p>
+<p class="toc">The Importation of the Africans. Character of the Colored Population
+in 1860. Colored Population in British West Indian Possessions. Free
+Colored People of the South. Free Colored People of the North. Notes.</p>
+<p class="tocpage"><a href="#page21" id="toc21">21</a></p>
+
+<p class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.&mdash;THE AMERICAN NEGRO AND THE MILITARY SPIRIT.</a></p>
+<p class="toc">Early Literature of Negro Soldiers. Negro Soldiers in the War of the
+Revolution. The War of 1812. Negro Insurrections. Negro Troops in the
+Civil War. Notes.</p>
+<p class="tocpage"><a href="#page57" id="toc57">57</a></p>
+
+<p class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.&mdash;THE BLACK REGULARS OF THE ARMY OF INVASION IN THE
+SPANISH WAR.</a></p>
+<p class="toc">Organization of Negro Regiments in the Regular Army. First Movement in
+the War. Chickamauga and Tampa. Notes.</p>
+<p class="tocpage"><a href="#page84" id="toc84">84</a></p>
+
+<p class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.&mdash;BRIEF SKETCH OF SPANISH HISTORY.</a></p>
+<p class="tocpage"><a href="#page107" id="toc107">107</a></p>
+
+<p class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.&mdash;PASSAGE, LANDING, AND FIRST BATTLE IN CUBA.</a></p>
+<p class="toc">The Tenth Cavalry at Guasimas. The "Rescue of the Rough Riders." Was
+there an Ambush? Notes.</p>
+<p class="tocpage"><a href="#page116" id="toc116">116</a></p>
+
+<p class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.&mdash;THE BATTLE OF EL CANEY.</a></p>
+<p class="toc">The Capture of the Stone Fort by the Twenty-fifth Infantry.</p>
+<p class="tocpage"><a href="#page150" id="toc150">150</a></p>
+
+<p class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.&mdash;SAN JUAN.</a></p>
+<p class="toc">Cavalry Division: The Ninth and Tenth Regiments. Kent's Division: The
+Twenty-fourth Infantry. Forming under fire. A Gallant Charge.</p>
+<p class="tocpage"><a href="#page191" id="toc191">191</a></p>
+
+<p class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.&mdash;SAN JUAN (Continued).</a></p>
+<p class="toc">Kent's Division. The Twenty-fourth Infantry. Forming Under Fire. A
+Gallant Charge.</p>
+<p class="tocpage"><a href="#page208" id="toc208">208</a></p>
+
+<p class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.&mdash;THE SURRENDER AND AFTERWARDS.</a></p>
+<p class="toc">In the Trenches. The Twenty-fourth in the Fever Camp. Are Negro
+Soldiers Immune? Camp Wikoff.</p>
+<p class="tocpage"><a href="#page220" id="toc220">220</a></p>
+
+<p class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.&mdash;REVIEW AND REFLECTIONS.</a></p>
+<p class="toc">Gallantry of the Black Regulars. Diary of Sergeant Major E.L. Baker,
+Tenth Cavalry.</p>
+<p class="tocpage"><a href="#page236" id="toc236">236</a></p>
+
+<p class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.&mdash;THE COLORED VOLUNTEERS.</a></p>
+<p class="toc">The Ninth Ohio Battalion. Eighth Illinois. Twenty-third Kansas. Third
+North Carolina. Sixth Virginia. Third Alabama. The Immunes.</p>
+<p class="tocpage"><a href="#page282" id="toc282">282</a></p>
+
+<p class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.&mdash;COLORED OFFICERS.</a></p>
+<p class="toc">By Captain Frank R. Steward, A.B., LL.B., Harvard, 49th U. S.
+Volunteer Infantry.</p>
+<p class="tocpage"><a href="#page299" id="toc299">299</a></p>
+
+<p class="center"><a href="#APPENDIX">APPENDIX.</a></p>
+<p class="tocpage"><a href="#page328" id="toc328">328</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+  Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>The material out of which the story of the COLORED REGULARS has been
+constructed has been collected with great pains, and upon it has been
+expended a serious amount of labor and care. All the movements of the
+Cuban campaign, and particularly of the battles, have been carefully
+studied by the aid of official reports, and conversations and
+correspondence with those who participated in them. The work has been
+performed with an earnest desire to obtain and present the truth,
+hoping that the reader will be inspired by it to a more profound
+respect for the brave and skilled black men who passed through that
+severe baptism of fire and suffering, contributing their full share to
+their country's honor.</p>
+
+<p>It is also becoming in this place to mention with gratitude the
+encouragement given by the War Department both in granting me the time
+in which to do the work, and also in supplying me with documents and
+furnishing other facilities. By this enlightened course on the part of
+the Department great aid has been given to historical science, and,
+incidentally, very important service rendered to the cause of freedom
+and humanity. A struggling people has been helped and further glory
+reflected upon the Government. The President, himself, has manifested
+a kindly interest in the work, and has wished that the story of the
+black soldiers should be told to the world. The interest of the
+Commanding General of the Army is shown in his letter.</p>
+
+<p>Thus encouraged from official sources and receiving the most hearty
+words of cheer from friends, of whom none has been more potent or more
+earnest than Bishop B.W. Arnett, D.D., of the African M.E. Church, I
+have, after five months of severe labor, about completed my task, so
+far as I find it in my power to complete it; and trusting that the
+majesty and interest of the story itself will atone for any defects in
+the style of the narration, the volume is now offered to a sympathetic
+public, affectionately dedicated to the men whose heroic services have
+furnished the theme for my pen.</p>
+
+<p class="author">T.G. STEWARD.</p>
+<p class="letterClose5">Wilberforce, Ohio, September, 1899.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="LETTER_FROM_GENERAL_MILES" id="LETTER_FROM_GENERAL_MILES"></a>LETTER FROM GENERAL MILES.</h2>
+
+<p class="letterDate">
+Headquarters of the Army, Washington,<br />
+August 5, 1899.</p>
+<p>Rev. T.G. Steward, Chaplain 25th Infantry,<br />
+Wilberforce, Ohio.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Dear Sir:&mdash;Your letter of the 20th ultimo was duly received, but my
+time has been so much engrossed with official duties, requiring my
+presence part of the time out of the city, that it has not been
+practicable to comply with your request earlier; and even now I can
+only reply very briefly.</p>
+
+<p>You will remember that my acquaintance with negro character commenced
+during the Civil War. The colored race then presented itself to me in
+the character of numerous contrabands of war, and as a people who,
+individually, yearned for the light and life of liberty. Ages of
+slavery had reduced them to the lowest ebb of manhood. From that
+degree of degradation I have been an interested spectator of the
+marvelously rapid evolution of the down-trodden race. From the
+commencement of this evolution to the present time I have been more or
+less in a position to closely observe their progress. At the close of
+the war I was in command of one of the very important military
+districts of the South, and my concern for the welfare of all the
+people of that district, not excluding the people of color, you will
+find evidenced in the measures taken by me, more especially in regard
+to educational matters, at that time. The first regiment which I
+commanded on entering the Regular Army of the United States at the
+close of the war was made up of colored troops. That regiment&mdash;the
+40th Infantry&mdash;achieved a reputation for military conduct which forms
+a record that may be favorably compared with the best regiments in the
+service. Then, again, refer to my General Order No. 1, issued after
+the fall of Santiago, and you will see that recognition is not
+grudgingly given to the troops who heroically fought there, whether of
+American, of African, or of Latin descent. If so early in the second
+generation of the existence of the race in the glorious light of
+liberty it produces such orators as Douglas, such educators as Booker
+T. Washington, such divines as the Afro-American Bishops, what may we
+not expect of the race when it shall have experienced as many
+generations of growth and development as the Anglo-Saxons who now
+dominate the thought, the inventive genius, the military prowess, and
+the commercial enterprise of the world! Very truly yours,</p>
+
+<p class="author">NELSON A. MILES.</p>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/image02.png" alt="Chapter End Graphic" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 299px;">
+<img src="images/image03.png" width="299" height="450" alt="Lieutenant-General Nelson A. Miles." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Lieutenant-General Nelson A. Miles.</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+<p class="letterDate">Headquarters of the Army,<br />
+Siboney, Cuba, July 16, 1898.</p>
+
+<p>General Field Orders No. 1.</p>
+
+<p>The gratifying success of the American arms at Santiago de Cuba and
+some features of a professional character both important and
+instructive, are hereby announced to the army.</p>
+
+<p>The declaration of war found our country with a small army scattered
+over a vast territory. The troops composing this army were speedily
+mobilized at Tampa, Fla. Before it was possible to properly equip a
+volunteer force, strong appeals for aid came from the navy, which had
+inclosed in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba an important part of the
+Spanish fleet. At that time the only efficient fighting force
+available was the United States Army, and in order to organize a
+command of sufficient strength, the cavalry had to be sent dismounted
+to Santiago de Cuba with the infantry and artillery.</p>
+
+<p>The expedition thus formed was placed under command of Major-General
+Shafter. Notwithstanding the limited time to equip and organize an
+expedition of this character, there was never displayed a nobler
+spirit of patriotism and fortitude on the part of officers and men
+going forth to mantain the honor of their country. After encountering
+the vicissitudes of an ocean voyage, they were obliged to disembark on
+a foreign shore and immediately engage in an aggressive campaign.
+Under drenching storms, intense and prostrating heat, within a
+fever-afflicted district, with little comfort or rest, either by day
+or night, they pursued their purpose of finding and conquering the
+enemy. Many of them, trained in the severe experience of the great
+war, and in frequent campaigns on the Western plains, officers and men
+alike exhibited a great skill, fortitude, and tenacity, with results
+which have added a new chapter of glory to their country's history.
+Even when their own generals in several cases were temporarily
+disabled, the troops fought on with the same heroic spirit until
+success was finally achieved. In many instances the officers placed
+themselves in front of their commands, and under their direct and
+skillful leadership the trained troops of a brave army were driven
+from the thickets and jungles of an almost inaccessible country. In
+the open field the troops stormed intrenched infantry, and carried and
+captured fortified works with an unsurpassed daring and disregard of
+death. By gaining commanding ground they made the harbor of Santiago
+untenable for the Spanish fleet, and practically drove it out to a
+speedy destruction by the American Navy.</p>
+
+<p>While enduring the hardships and privations of such campaign, the
+troops generously shared their scanty food with the 5,000 Cuban
+patriots in arms, and the suffering people who had fled from the
+besieged city. With the twenty-four regiments and four batteries, the
+flower of the United States Army, were also three volunteer regiments.
+These though unskilled in warfare, yet, inspired with the same spirit,
+contributed to the victory, suffered hardships, and made sacrifices
+with the rest. Where all did so well, it is impossible, by special
+mention, to do justice to those who bore conspicuous part. But of
+certain unusual features mention cannot be omitted, namely, the
+cavalry dismounted, fighting and storming works as infantry, and a
+regiment of colored troops, who, having shared equally in the heroism
+as well as the sacrifices, is now voluntarily engaged in nursing
+yellow-fever patients and burying the dead. The gallantry, patriotism
+and sacrifices of the American Army, as illustrated in this brief
+campaign, will be fully appreciated by a grateful country, and the
+heroic deeds of those who have fought and fallen in the cause of
+freedom will ever be cherished in sacred memory and be an inspiration
+to the living.</p>
+
+<p>By command of Major-General Miles:</p>
+
+<p class="author">
+J.C. GILMORE,<br />
+Brigadier-General, United States Volunteers.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page11" id="page11"></a>[pg 11]</span>
+</p>
+
+<h2><a name="INTRODUCTORY" id="INTRODUCTORY"></a>INTRODUCTORY.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+  Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>To write the history of the Negro race within that part of the western
+world known as the United States of America would be a task to which
+one might devote a life time and still fail in its satisfactory
+accomplishment. The difficulties lying in the way of collecting and
+unifying the material are very great; and that of detecting the inner
+life of the people much greater. Facts and dates are to history what
+color and proportion are to the painting. Employed by genius, color
+and form combine in a language that speaks to the soul, giving
+pleasure and instruction to the beholder; so the facts and dates
+occurring along the pathway of a people, when gathered and arranged by
+labor and care, assume a voice and a power which they have not
+otherwise. As these facts express the thoughts and feelings, and the
+growth, of a people, they become the language in which that people
+writes its history, and the work of the historian is to read and
+interpret this history for the benefit of his fellow men.</p>
+
+<p>Borrowing a second illustration from the work of the artist, it may be
+said, that as nature reveals her secrets only to him whose soul is in
+deepest sympathy with her moods and movements, so a people's history
+can be discovered only by one whose heart throbs in unison with those
+who have made the history. To write the history of any people
+successfully one must read it by the heart; and the best part of
+history, like the best part of the picture, must ever remain
+unexpressed. The artist sees more, and feels more than he is able to
+transfer to his canvas, however entrancing his presentation; and the
+historian
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page12" id="page12"></a>[pg 12]</span>
+sees and feels more than his brightest pages convey to his
+readers. Nothing less than a profound respect and love for humankind
+and a special attraction toward a particular people and age, can fit
+one to engage in so sublime a task as that of translating the history
+of a people into the language of common men.</p>
+
+<p>The history of the American Negro differs very widely from that of any
+people whose life-story has been told; and when it shall come to be
+known and studied will open an entirely new view of experience. In it
+we shall be able to see what has never before been discovered in
+history; to wit: the absolute beginning of a people. Brought to these
+shores by the ship-load as freight, and sold as merchandise; entirely
+broken away from the tribes, races, or nations of their native land;
+recognized only, as African slaves, and forbidden all movement looking
+toward organic life; deprived of even the right of family or of
+marriage, and corrupted in the most shameless manner by their powerful
+and licentious oppressors&mdash;it is from this heterogeneous protoplasm
+that the American Negro has been developed. The foundation from which
+he sprang had been laid by piecemeal as the slave ships made their
+annual deposits of cargoes brought from different points on the West
+Coast, and basely corrupted as is only too well known; yet out of it
+has grown, within less than three hundred years, an organic people.
+Grandfathers, and great-grandfathers are among them; and personal
+acquaintance is exceedingly wide. In the face of slavery and against
+its teaching and its power, overcoming the seduction of the master
+class, and the coarse and brutal corruptions of the baser overseer
+class, the African slave persistently strove to clothe himself with
+the habiliments of civilization, and so prepared himself for social
+organization that as soon
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page13" id="page13"></a>[pg 13]</span>
+as the hindrances were removed, this vast
+people almost immediately set themselves in families; and for over
+thirty years they have been busily engaged hunting up the lost roots
+of their family trees. We know the pit whence the Afro-American race
+was dug, the rock whence he was hewn; he was born here on this soil,
+from a people who in the classic language of the Hebrew prophet, could
+be described as, No People.</p>
+
+<p>That there has been a majestic evolution quietly but rapidly going on
+in this mass, growing as it was both by natural development and by
+accretion, is plainly evident. Heterogeneous as were the fragments, by
+the aid of a common language and a common lot, and cruel yet partially
+civilizing control, the whole people were forced into a common outward
+form, and to a remarkable extent, into the same ways of thinking. The
+affinities within were really aided by the repulsions without, and
+when finally freed from slavery, for an ignorant and inexperienced
+people, they presented an astonishing spectacle of unity. Socially,
+politically and religiously, their power to work together showed
+itself little less than marvellous. The Afro-American, developing from
+this slave base, now directs great organizations of a religious
+character, and in comprehensive sweep invites to his co-operation the
+inhabitants of the isles of the sea and of far-off Africa. He is
+joining with the primitive, strong, hopeful and expanding races of
+Southern Africa, and is evidently preparing for a day that has not yet
+come.</p>
+
+<p>The progress made thus far by the people is somewhat like that made by
+the young, man who hires himself to a farmer and takes his pay in
+farming stock and utensils. He is thus acquiring the means to stock a
+farm, and the skill and experience necessary to its successful
+management at the same time. His career will not appear important,
+however, until the day
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page14" id="page14"></a>[pg 14]</span>
+shall arrive when he will set up for himself.
+The time spent on the farm of another was passed in comparative
+obscurity; but without it the more conspicuous period could never have
+followed. So, now, the American colored people are making history, but
+it is not of that kind that gains the attention of writers. Having no
+political organizations, governments or armies they are not performing
+those deeds of splendor in statesmanship and war over which the pen of
+the historian usually delights to linger. The people, living, growing,
+reading, thinking, working, suffering, advancing and dying&mdash;these are
+all common-place occurrences, neither warming the heart of the
+observer, nor capable of brightening the page of the chronicler. This,
+however, is, with the insignificant exception of Liberia, all that is
+yet to be found in the brief history of the Afro-American race.</p>
+
+<p>The period for him to set up for himself has not yet come, and he is
+still acquiring means and training within a realm controlled in all
+respects by a people who maintain toward him an attitude of absolute
+social exclusion. His is the history of a people marching from nowhere
+to somewhere, but with no well-defined Canaan before them and no Moses
+to lead. It is indeed, on their part, a walk by faith, for as yet the
+wisest among the race cannot tell even the direction of the journey.
+Before us lie surely three possible destinies, if not four; yet it is
+not clear toward which one of these we are marching. Are we destined
+to see the African element of America's population blend with the
+Euro-American element and be lost in a common people? Will the colored
+American leave this home in which as a race he has been born and
+reared to manhood, and find his stage of action somewhere else on
+God's earth? Will he remain here as a separate and subordinate people
+perpetuating the conditions of to-day only that they may become
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page15" id="page15"></a>[pg 15]</span>
+more
+humiliating and exasperating? Or is there to arise a war of races in
+which the blacks are to be exterminated? Who knows? Fortunately the
+historian is not called upon to perform the duties of prophet. His
+work is to tell what has been; and if others, building upon his
+presentation of facts can deduce what is to be, it is no small tribute
+to the correctness of his interpretations; for all events are parts of
+one vast system ever moving toward some great end. One remark only
+need be made. It is reasonable to presume that this new Afro-American
+will somehow and somewhere be given an opportunity to express that
+particular modification of material life which his spiritual nature
+will demand. Whether that expression will be made here or elsewhere;
+whether it will be higher or lower than what now surrounds us, are
+questions which we may well leave to the future.</p>
+
+<p>No people can win and hold a place, either as a nation among other
+nations, or as an elementary component of a nation, merely by its own
+goodness or by the goodness of others. The struggle for national
+existence is a familiar one, and is always initiated by a display of
+physical force. Those who have the power seize territory and
+government, and those who CAN, keep possession and control. It is in
+some instances the backing up of right by might, and in others the
+substituting of right by might. Too often the greatest of all national
+crimes is to be weak. When the struggle is a quiet one, going on
+within a nation, and is that of an element seeking a place in the
+common social life of the country, much the same principles are
+involved. It is still a question to be settled by force, no matter how
+highly the claim of the weaker may be favored by reason and justice.</p>
+
+<p>The powers by which a special people may emerge from an unhappy
+condition and secure improved social relations, using
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page16" id="page16"></a>[pg 16]</span>
+the word social
+in its broadest sense, are physical, intellectual and material. There
+must be developed manly strength and courage and a power of intellect
+which will manifest itself in organization and attractiveness, and in
+the aptitude of employing appropriate methods for ends in view. To
+these must be added the power that comes through wealth; and thus,
+with the real advancement of condition and character will come,
+tardily and grudgingly perhaps, but nevertheless surely, improved
+social standing. Once filled with the common national spirit,
+partaking of its thoughts, entering heartily into the common
+movements, having the same dress, language and manners as others, and
+being as able and as willing to help as to be helped, and withal being
+in fact the most intensely American element on the continent because
+constructed on this soil, we may hope that the Afro-American will
+ultimately win and hold his proper place.</p>
+
+<p>The history made by the American Negro has been so filled with
+suffering that we have overlooked the active side. The world has heard
+so much of the horrors of the "Middle Passage"; the awful sufferings
+of the slave; the barbarous outrages that have been perpetrated upon
+ex-slaves; the inhuman and senseless prejudices that meet colored
+Americans almost everywhere on their native soil; that it has come to
+look upon this recital as the whole of the story. It needs to be told
+that these records constitute the dark side of the picture, dark and
+horrible enough, to be sure, but this is by no means the whole
+picture. If there are scenes whose representations would serve to
+ornament the infernal regions, pictures over which fiends might gloat,
+there are also others which angels might delight to gaze upon. There
+has been much of worthy action among the colored people of this
+country, wherever the bonds of oppression have been slackened enough
+to allow of free movement.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page17" id="page17"></a>[pg 17]</span>
+ There have been resistance to wrong by way
+of remonstrance and petition, sometimes even by force; laudable
+efforts toward self-education; benevolent and philanthropic movements;
+reform organizations, and commendable business enterprise both in
+individuals and associations. These show a toughness of fibre and
+steadiness of purpose sufficient to make the backbone of a real
+history.</p>
+
+<p>The present work deals with these elements of character as they are
+exhibited in the garb of the soldier. When men are willing to fight
+and die for what they hold dear, they have become a moving force,
+capable of disturbing the currents of history and of making a channel
+for the stream of their own actions. The American Negro has evolved an
+active, aggressive element in the scientific fighting men he has
+produced. Individual pugilists of that race have entered all classes,
+from featherweight to heavyweight, and have remained there; receiving
+blows and dealing blows; showing a sturdy, positive force; mastering
+and employing all the methods of attack and defence allowed in such
+encounters, and supporting themselves with that fortitude and courage
+so necessary to the ring. Such combats are not to be commended, as
+they are usually mere tests of skill and endurance, entered into on
+the principles of the gambler, and they are introduced here for the
+sole purpose of showing the colored man as a positive force, yielding
+only to a superior degree of force of the same kind. The soldier
+stands for something far higher than the pugilist represents, although
+he has need of the same qualities of physical hardihood&mdash;contempt for
+suffering and coolness in the presence of danger, united with skill in
+the use of his weapons. The pugilist is his own general and never
+learns the high lessons of obedience; the soldier learns to
+subordinate himself to his commander, and to fight bravely and
+effectively under the direction of another.</p><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page18" id="page18"></a>[pg 18]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>The evolution of the Afro-American soldier was the work of a short
+period and suffered many interruptions. When the War of the Revolution
+broke out the colored man was a slave, knowing nothing of the spirit
+or the training of the soldier; before it closed several thousand
+colored men had entered the army and some had won distinction for
+gallantry. Less than forty years later, in the war of 1812, the black
+man again appeared to take his stand under the flag of independence.
+The War of Secession again witnessed the coming forth of the black
+soldier, this time in important numbers and performing heroic services
+on a grand scale, and under most discouraging circumstances, but with
+such success that he won a place in arms for all time. When the Civil
+War closed, the American black man had secured his standing as a
+soldier&mdash;the evolution was complete. Henceforth he was to be found an
+integral part of the Army of the United States.</p>
+
+<p>The black man passed through the trying baptism of fire in the Sixties
+and came out of it a full-fledged soldier. His was worse than an
+impartial trial; it was a trial before a jury strongly biased against
+him; in the service of a government willing to allow him but half pay;
+and in the face of a foe denying him the rights belonging to civilized
+warfare. Yet against these odds, denied the dearest right of a
+soldier&mdash;the hope of promotion&mdash;scorned by his companions in arms, the
+Negro on more than two hundred and fifty battle-fields, demonstrated
+his courage and skill, and wrung from the American nation the right to
+bear arms. The barons were no more successful in their struggle with
+King John when they obtained Magna Charta than were the American
+Negroes with Prejudice, when they secured the national recognition of
+their right and fitness to hold a place in the Standing Army of the
+United States. The Afro-American soldier now takes his rank with
+America's best,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page19" id="page19"></a>[pg 19]</span>
+and in appearance, skill, physique, manners, conduct
+and courage proves himself worthy of the position he holds. Combining
+in his person the harvested influences of three great continents,
+Europe, Africa and America, he stands up as the typical soldier of the
+Western World, the latest comer in the field of arms, but yielding his
+place in the line to none, and ever ready to defend his country and
+his flag against any and all foes.</p>
+
+<p>The mission of this book is to make clear this evolution, giving the
+historical facts with as much detail as possible, and setting forth
+finally the portrait of this new soldier. That this is a prodigious
+task is too evident to need assertion&mdash;a task worthy the most lofty
+talents; and in essaying it I humbly confess to a sense of unfitness;
+yet the work lies before me and duty orders me to enter upon it. A
+Major General writes: "I wish you every success in producing a work
+important both historically and for the credit of a race far more
+deserving than the world has acknowledged." A Brigadier General who
+commanded a colored regiment in Cuba says to me most encouragingly:
+"You must allow me&mdash;for our intimate associations justify it&mdash;to write
+frankly. Your education, habits of thought, fairness of judgment and
+comprehension of the work you are to undertake, better fit you for
+writing such a history than any person within my acquaintance. Those
+noble men made the history at El Caney and San Juan; I believe you are
+the man to record it. May God help you to so set forth the deeds of
+that memorable first of July in front of Santiago that the world may
+see in its true light what those brave, intelligent colored men did."</p>
+
+<p>Both these men fought through the Civil War and won distinction on
+fields of blood. To the devout prayer offered by one of them I
+heartily echo an Amen, and can only wish that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page20" id="page20"></a>[pg 20]</span>
+in it all my friends
+might join, and that God would answer it in granting me power to do
+the work in such a way as to bring great good to the race and reflect
+some glory to Himself, in whose name the work is undertaken.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/image02.png" alt="Chapter End Graphic" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page21" id="page21"></a>[pg 21]</span>
+</p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>SKETCH OF SOCIAL HISTORY.</h3>
+
+<p class="hang">The Importation of the Africans&mdash;Character of the Colored
+Population in 1860&mdash;Colored Population in British West
+Indian Possessions&mdash;Free Colored People of the South&mdash;Free
+Colored People of the North&mdash;Notes.</p>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+  Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>Professor DuBois, in his exhaustive work upon the "Suppression of the
+African Slave-Trade," has brought within comparatively narrow limits
+the great mass of facts bearing upon his subject, and in synopses and
+indices has presented all of the more important literature it has
+induced. In his Monograph, published as Volume II of the Harvard
+Historical Series, he has traced the rise of this nefarious traffic,
+especially with reference to the American colonies, exhibited the
+proportions to which it expanded, and the tenacity with which it held
+on to its purpose until it met its death in the fate of the
+ill-starred Southern Confederacy. Every step in his narrative is
+supported by references to unimpeachable authorities; and the
+scholarly Monograph bears high testimony to the author's earnest
+labor, painstaking research and unswerving fidelity. Should the
+present work stimulate inquiry beyond the scope herein set before the
+reader, he is most confidently referred to Professor Du Bois' book as
+containing a complete exposition of the development and overthrow of
+that awful crime.</p>
+
+<p>It is from this work, however, that we shall obtain a nearer and
+clearer view of the African planted upon our shores. Negro slavery
+began at an early day in the North American Colonies; but up until the
+Revolution of 1688 the demand for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page22" id="page22"></a>[pg 22]</span>
+slaves was mainly supplied from
+England, the slaves being white.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> "It is probable," says Professor
+DuBois, "that about 25,000 slaves were brought to America each year
+between 1698 and 1707, and after 1713 it rose to perhaps 30,000
+annually. "Before the Revolution the total exportation to America is
+variously estimated as between 40,000 and 100,000 each year."
+Something of the horrors of the "Middle Passage" may be shown by the
+records that out of 60,783 slaves shipped from Africa during the years
+1680-88, 14,387, or nearly one-fourth of the entire number, perished
+at sea. In 1790 there were in the country nearly seven hundred
+thousand Africans, these having been introduced by installments from
+various heathen tribes. The importation of slaves continued with more
+or less success up until 1858, when the "Wanderer" landed her cargo of
+500 in Georgia.</p>
+
+<p>During the period from 1790 to the breaking out of the Civil War,
+shortly after the landing of the last cargo of slaves, the colored
+population, both slave and free, had arisen to about four million, and
+had undergone great modifications. The cargo of the "Wanderer" found
+themselves among strangers, even when trying to associate with those
+who in color and hair were like themselves. The slaves of 1860
+differed greatly from the slaves of a hundred years earlier. They had
+lost the relics of that stern warlike spirit which prompted the Stono
+insurrection, the Denmark Vesey insurrection, and the Nat Turner
+insurrection, and had accepted their lot as slaves, hoping that
+through God, freedom would come to them some time in the happy future.
+Large numbers of them had become Christians through the teaching of
+godly white women, and at length through the evangelistic efforts of
+men and women of their
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page23" id="page23"></a>[pg 23]</span>
+own race. Independent religious organizations
+had been formed in the North, and large local churches with Negro
+pastors were in existence in the South when the "Wanderer" landed her
+cargo. There had been a steady increase in numbers, indicating that
+the physical well-being of the slave was not overlooked, and the
+slaves had greatly improved in character. Sales made in South Carolina
+between 1850 and 1860 show "boys," from 16 to 25 years of age,
+bringing from $900 to $1000; and "large sales" are reported showing an
+"average of $620 each," "Negro men bringing from $800 to $1000," and a
+"blacksmith" bringing $1425. The averages generally obtained were
+above $600. A sale of 109 Negroes in families is reported in the
+"Charleston Courier" in which the writer says: "Two or three families
+averaged from $1000 to $1100 for each individual." The same item
+states also that "C.G. Whitney sold two likely female house servants,
+one for $1000, the other for $1190." These cases are presented to
+illustrate the financial value of the American slave, and
+inferentially the progress he had made in acquiring the arts of modern
+civilization. Slaves had become blacksmiths, wheelwrights,
+carriage-makers, carpenters, bricklayers, tailors, bootmakers,
+founders and moulders, not to mention all the common labor performed
+by them. Slave women had become dressmakers, hairdressers, nurses and
+the best cooks to be found in the world. The slave-holders regarded
+themselves as the favored of mankind because of the competence and
+faithfulness of their slaves. The African spirit and character had
+disappeared, and in their place were coming into being the elements of
+a new character, existing in 1860 purely in a negative form. The slave
+had become an American. He was now a civilized slave, and had received
+his civilization from his masters. He had separated himself very far
+from his
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page24" id="page24"></a>[pg 24]</span>
+brother slave in St. Domingo. The Haytian Negro fought and
+won his freedom before he had been civilized in slavery, and hence has
+never passed over the same ground that his American fellow-servant has
+been compelled to traverse.</p>
+
+<p>Beside the slaves in the South, there were also several thousand "free
+persons of color," as they were called, dwelling in such cities as
+Richmond, Va., Charleston, S.C., and New Orleans, La. Some of these
+had become quite wealthy and well-educated, forming a distinct class
+of the population. They were called Creoles in Louisiana, and were
+accorded certain privileges, although laws were carefully enacted to
+keep alive the distinction between them and the whites. In Charleston
+the so-called colored people set themselves up as a class, prided
+themselves much upon their color and hair and in their sympathies
+joined almost wholly with the master class. Representatives of their
+class became slave-holders and were in full accord with the social
+policy of the country. Nevertheless their presence was an
+encouragement to the slave, and consequently was objected to by the
+slave-holder. The free colored man became more and more disliked in
+the South as the slave became more civilized. He was supposed by his
+example to contribute to the discontent of the slave, and laws were
+passed restricting his priveleges so as to induce him to leave.
+Between 1850 and 1860 this question reached a crisis and free colored
+people from the South were to be seen taking up their homes in the
+Northern States and in Canada. (Many of the people, especially from
+Charleston, carried with them all their belittling prejudices, and
+after years of sojourn under the sway of enlightened and liberal
+ideas, proved themselves still incapable of learning the new way or
+forgetting the old.)</p>
+
+<p>There were, then, three very distinct classes of colored people in the
+country, to wit: The slave in the South, the free colored
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page25" id="page25"></a>[pg 25]</span>
+people of
+the South, and the free colored people of the North. These were also
+sub-divided into several smaller classes. Slaves were divided into
+field hands, house servants and city slaves. The free colored people
+of the South had their classes based usually on color; the free
+colored people of the North had their divisions caused by differences
+in religion, differences as to place of birth, and numerous family
+conceits. So that surveyed as a whole, it is extremely difficult to
+get anything like a complete social map of these four millions as they
+existed at the outbreak of the Civil War.</p>
+
+<p>For a quarter of a century there had been a steady concentration of
+the slave population within the cotton and cane-growing region, the
+grain-growing States of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia having become
+to a considerable extent breeding farms. Particularly was this the
+case with the more intelligent and higher developed individual slaves
+who appeared near the border line. The master felt that such persons
+would soon make their escape by way of the "Underground Railroad" or
+otherwise, and hence in order to prevent a total loss, would follow
+the dictates of business prudence and sell his bright slave man to
+Georgia. The Maryland or Virginia slave who showed suspicious
+aspirations was usually checked by the threat, "I'll sell you to
+Georgia;" and if the threat did not produce the desired reformation it
+was not long before the ambitious slave found himself in the gang of
+that most despised and most despicable of all creatures, the Georgia
+slave-trader. Georgia and Canada were the two extremes of the slave's
+anticipation during the last decade of his experience. These stood as
+his earthly Heaven and Hell, the "Underground Railroad," with its
+agents, conducting to one, and the odious slave-trader, driving men,
+women and children, to the other. No Netherlander ever hated and
+feared the devil more thoroughly
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page26" id="page26"></a>[pg 26]</span>
+than did the slaves of the border
+States hate and fear these outrages on mankind, the kidnapping
+slave-traders of the cotton and cane regions. I say kidnapping, for I
+have myself seen persons in Georgia who had been kidnapped in
+Maryland. If the devil was ever incarnate, I think it safe to look for
+him among those who engaged in the slave-trade, whether in a foreign
+or domestic form.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing is more striking in connection with the history of American
+Slavery than the conduct of Great Britain on the same subject. So
+inconsistent has this conduct been that it can be explained only by
+regarding England as a conglomerate of two elements nearly equal in
+strength, of directly opposite character, ruling alternately the
+affairs of the nation. As a slave-trader and slave-holder England was
+perhaps even worse than the United States. Under her rule the slave
+decreased in numbers, and remained a savage. In Jamaica, in St.
+Vincent, in British Guiana, in Barbadoes, in Trinidad and in Grenada,
+British slavery was far worse than American slavery. In these colonies
+"the slave was generally a barbarian, speaking an unknown tongue, and
+working with men like himself, in gangs with scarcely a chance for
+improvement." An economist says, had the slaves of the British
+colonies been as well fed, clothed, lodged, and otherwise cared for as
+were those of the United States, their number at emancipation would
+have reached from seventeen to twenty millions, whereas the actual
+number emancipated was only 660,000. Had the blacks of the United
+States experienced the same treatment as did those of the British
+colonies, 1860 would have found among us less than 150,000 colored
+persons. In the United States were found ten colored persons for every
+slave imported, while in the British colonies only one was found for
+every three imported. Hence the claim that the American Negro is a new
+race, built up on this soil,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page27" id="page27"></a>[pg 27]</span>
+rests upon an ample supply of facts. The
+American slave was born in our civilization, fed upon good American
+food, housed and clothed on a civilized plan, taught the arts and
+language of civilization, acquired necessarily ideas of law and
+liberty, and by 1860 was well on the road toward fitness for freedom.
+No lessons therefore drawn from the emancipation of British slaves in
+the West Indies are of any direct value to us, inasmuch as British
+slavery was not like American slavery, the British freedman was in no
+sense the equal of the American freedman, and the circumstances
+surrounding the emancipation of the British slave had nothing of the
+inspiring and ennobling character with those connected with the
+breaking of the American Negro's chains. Yet, superior as the American
+Negro was as a slave, he was very far below the standard of American
+citizenship as subsequent events conclusively proved. The best form of
+slavery, even though it may lead toward fitness for freedom, can never
+be regarded as a fit school in which to graduate citizens of so
+magnificent an empire as the United States.</p>
+
+<p>The slave of 1860 was perhaps, all things considered, the best slave
+the world had ever seen, if we except those who served the Hebrews
+under the Mosaic statutes. While there was no such thing among them as
+legal marriage or legitimate childhood, yet slave "families" were
+recognized even on the auction block, and after emancipation legal
+family life was erected generally upon relationships which had been
+formed in slavery. Bishop Gaines, himself born a slave of slave
+parents, says: "The Negro had no civil rights under the codes of the
+Southern States. It was often the case, it is true, that the marriage
+ceremony was performed, and thousands of couples regarded it, and
+observed it as of binding force, and were as true to each other as if
+they had been lawfully married." * * *
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page28" id="page28"></a>[pg 28]</span>
+ "The colored people
+generally," he says, "held their marriage (if such unauthorized union
+may be called marriage) sacred, even while they were slaves. Many
+instances will be recalled by the older people of the life-long
+fidelity which existed between the slave and his concubine" (Wife,
+T.G.S.)" ... the mother of his children. My own father and mother
+lived together over sixty years. I am the fourteenth child of that
+union, and I can truthfully affirm that no marriage, however made
+sacred by the sanction of law, was ever more congenial and beautiful.
+Thousands of like instances might be cited to the same effect. It will
+always be to the credit of the colored people that almost without
+exception, they adhered to their relations, illegal though they had
+been, and accepted gladly the new law which put the stamp of
+legitimacy upon their union and removed the brand of bastardy from the
+brows of their children."</p>
+
+<p>Let us now sum up the qualifications that these people possessed in
+large degree, in order to determine their fitness for freedom, then so
+near at hand. They had acquired the English language, and the
+Christian religion, including the Christian idea of marriage, so
+entirely different in spirit and form from the African marriage. They
+had acquired the civilized methods of cooking their food, making and
+wearing clothes, sleeping in beds, and observing Sunday. They had
+acquired many of the useful arts and trades of civilization and had
+imbibed the tastes and feelings, to some extent, at least, of the
+country in which they lived. Becoming keen observers, shut out from
+books and newspapers, they listened attentively, learned more of law
+and politics than was generally supposed. They knew what the election
+of 1860 meant and were on tiptoe with expectation. Although the days
+of insurrection had passed and the slave of '59 was not ready to rise
+with the immortal John
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page29" id="page29"></a>[pg 29]</span>
+ Brown, he had not lost his desire for freedom.
+The steady march of escaping slaves guided by the North star, with the
+refrain:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I'm on my way to Canada,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That cold but happy land;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The dire effects of slavery<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">I can no longer stand,"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>proved that the desire to be free was becoming more extensive and
+absorbing as the slave advanced in intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>It is necessary again to emphasize the fact that the American slaves
+were well formed and well developed physically, capable of enduring
+hard labor and of subsisting upon the plainest food. Their diet for
+years had been of the simplest sort, and they had been subjected to a
+system of regulations very much like those which are employed in the
+management of armies. They had an hour to go to bed and an hour to
+rise; left their homes only upon written "passes," and when abroad at
+night were often halted by the wandering patrol. "Run, nigger, run,
+the patrol get you," was a song of the slave children of South
+Carolina.</p>
+
+<p>Strangers who saw for the first time these people as they came out of
+slavery in 1865 were usually impressed with their robust appearance,
+and a conference of ex-slaves, assembled soon after the war,
+introduced a resolution with the following declaration: "Whereas,
+Slavery has left us in possession of strong and healthy bodies." It is
+probable that at least a half-million of men of proper age could then
+have been found among the newly liberated capable of bearing arms.
+They were inured to the plain ration, to labor and fatigue, and to
+subordination, and had long been accustomed to working together under
+the immediate direction of foremen.</p>
+
+<p>Two questions of importance naturally arose at this period: First, did
+the American slave understand the issue that had
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page30" id="page30"></a>[pg 30]</span>
+been before the
+country for more than a half-century and that was now dividing the
+nation in twain and marshalling for deadly strife these two opposing
+armies? Second, had he the courage necessary to take part in the
+struggle and help save the Union? It would be a strange thing to say,
+but nevertheless a thing entirely true, that many of the Negro slaves
+had a clearer perception of the real question at issue than did some
+of our most far-seeing statesmen, and a clearer vision of what would
+be the outcome of the war. While the great men of the North were
+striving to establish the doctrine that the coming war was merely to
+settle the question of Secession, the slave knew better. God had hid
+certain things from the wise and prudent and had revealed them unto
+babes. Lincoln, the wisest of all, was slow to see that the issue he
+himself had predicted was really at hand. As President, he declared
+for the preservation of the Union, with or without slavery, or even
+upon the terms which he had previously declared irreconcilable, "half
+slave and half free." The Negro slave saw in the outbreak of the war
+the death struggle of slavery. He knew that the real issue was
+slavery.</p>
+
+<p>The masters were careful to keep from the knowledge of the slave the
+events as well as the causes of the war, but in spite of these efforts
+the slave's keen perception enabled him to read defeat in the dejected
+mien of his master, and victory in his exultation. To prevent the
+master's knowing what was going on in their thoughts, the slaves
+constructed curious codes among themselves. In one neighborhood
+freedom was always spoken of as "New Rice"; and many a poor slave
+woman sighed for the coming of New Rice in the hearing of those who
+imagined they knew the inmost thoughts of their bondwomen. Gleefully
+at times they would talk of the jollification they would make when the
+New Rice came. It was this clear vision,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page31" id="page31"></a>[pg 31]</span>
+this strong hope, that
+sustained them during the trying days of the war and kept them back
+from insurrection. Bishop Gaines says: "Their prayers ascended for
+their deliverance, and their hearts yearned for the success of their
+friends. They fondly hoped for the hour of victory, when the night of
+slavery would end and the dawn of freedom appear. They often talked to
+each other of the progress of the war and conferred in secret as to
+what they might do to aid in the struggle. Worn out with long bondage,
+yearning for the boon of freedom, longing for the sun of liberty to
+rise, they kept their peace and left the result to God." Mr. Douglass,
+whom this same Bishop Gaines speaks of very inappropriately as a
+"half-breed," seemed able to grasp the feelings both of the slave and
+the freeman and said: "From the first, I for one, saw in this war the
+end of slavery, and truth requires me to say that my interest in the
+success of the North was largely due to this belief." Mr. Seward, the
+wise Secretary of State, had thought that the war would come and go
+without producing any change in the relation of master and slave; but
+the humble slave on the Georgia cotton plantation, or in the Carolina
+rice fields, knew that the booming of the guns of rebellion in
+Charleston was the opening note of the death knell of slavery. The
+slave undoubtedly understood the issue, and knew on which side liberty
+dwelt. Although thoroughly bred to slavery, and as contented and happy
+as he could be in his lot, he acted according to the injunction of the
+Apostle: "Art thou called being a servant, care not for it; but if
+thou mayest be made free, use it rather." The slaves tried to be
+contented, but they preferred freedom and knew which side to take when
+the time came for them to act.</p>
+
+<p>Enough has been said to show that out of the African slave had been
+developed a thoroughly American slave, so well imbued
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page32" id="page32"></a>[pg 32]</span>
+with modern
+civilization and so well versed in American politics, as to be
+partially ready for citizenship. He had become law-abiding and
+order-loving, and possessed of an intelligent desire to be free.
+Whether he had within him the necessary moral elements to become a
+soldier the pages following will attempt to make known. He had the
+numbers, the physical strength and the intelligence. He could enter
+the strife with a sufficient comprehension of the issues involved to
+enable him to give to his own heart a reason for his action. Fitness
+for the soldier does not necessarily involve fitness for citizenship,
+but the actual discharge of the duties of the soldier in defence of
+the nation, entitles one to all common rights, to the nation's
+gratitude, and to the highest honors for which he is qualified.</p>
+
+<p>In concluding this chapter I shall briefly return to the free colored
+people of the South that the reader may be able to properly estimate
+their importance as a separate element. Their influence upon the slave
+population was very slight, inasmuch as law and custom forbade the
+intercourse of these two classes.</p>
+
+<p>According to the Census of 1860 there were in the slave-holding States
+altogether 261,918 free colored persons, 106,770 being mulattoes. In
+Charleston there were 887 free blacks and 2,554 mulattoes; in Mobile,
+98 free blacks and 617 mulattoes; in New Orleans, 1,727 blacks and
+7,357 mulattoes. As will be seen, nearly one-half of the entire number
+of free colored persons were mulattoes, while in the leading Southern
+cities seventy-five per cent. of the free colored people were put in
+this class. The percentage of mulatto slaves to the total slave
+population at that time was 10.41, and in the same cities which showed
+seventy-five per cent, of all the free colored persons mulattoes, the
+percentage of mulatto slaves was but 16.84. Mulatto in this
+classification includes all colored persons who are not put down as
+black.</p><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page33" id="page33"></a>[pg 33]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>In New Orleans the free mulattoes were generally French, having come
+into the Union with the Louisiana purchase, and among them were to be
+found wealthy slave-holders. They much resembled the class of
+mulattoes which obtained in St. Domingo at the beginning of the
+century, and had but little sympathy with the blacks, although they
+were the first to acquiesce in emancipation, some of them actually
+leading their own slaves into the army of liberation. It is possible,
+however, that they had not fully realized the trend of the war,
+inasmuch as New Orleans was excepted from the effects of the
+Proclamation. It is certain that the free colored people of that city
+made a tender of support to the Confederacy, although they were among
+the first to welcome the conquering "Yankees," and afterward fought
+with marked gallantry in the Union cause. The free mulattoes, or
+<i>browns</i>, as they called themselves, of Charleston, followed much the
+same course as their fellow classmen of New Orleans. Here, too, they
+had been exclusive and to some extent slave-holders, had tendered
+their services to the Confederacy, and had hastily come forward to
+welcome the conquerors. They were foremost among the colored people in
+wealth and intelligence, but their field of social operations had been
+so circumscribed that they had exerted but little influence in the
+work of Americanizing the slave. Separated from the slave by law and
+custom they did all in their power to separate themselves from him in
+thought and feeling. They drew the line against all blacks as
+mercilessly and senselessly as the most prejudiced of the whites and
+were duplicates of the whites placed on an intermediate plane. It was
+not unusual to find a Charleston brown filled with more prejudice
+toward the blacks than were the whites.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>[Transcriber's Note: This footnote text appeared without a
+footnote anchor: "Census of 1860."]</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The colored people of the North in 1860 numbered 237,283,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page34" id="page34"></a>[pg 34]</span>
+
+Pennsylvania having the largest number, 56,849; then came New York
+with 49,005; Ohio, 36,673; New Jersey, 25,318; Indiana, 11,428;
+Massachusetts, 9,602; Connecticut, 8,627; Illinois, 7,628; Michigan,
+6,799; Rhode Island, 3,952; Maine, 1,327; Wisconsin, 1,171; Iowa,
+1,069; Vermont, 709; Kansas, 625; New Hampshire, 494; Minnesota, 259;
+Oregon, 128.</p>
+
+<p>Considerably more than one-half of this population was located within
+the States along the Atlantic Coast, viz.; Maine, New Hampshire,
+Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York,
+Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Here were to be found 154,883 free
+colored people. Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey took the lead in
+this population, with Massachusetts and Connecticut coming next, while
+Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont had but few. The cities, Boston, New
+York and Philadelphia, were the largest cities of free colored people
+then in the North. In Boston there were 2,261; New York City, 12,574,
+while in Philadelphia there were 22,185</p>
+
+<p>As early as 1787 the free colored people of Philadelphia, through two
+distinguished representatives, Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, "two
+men of the African race," as the chroniclers say, "saw the irreligious
+and uncivilized state" of the "people of their complexion," and
+finally concluded "that a society should be formed without regard to
+religious tenets, provided the persons lived an orderly and sober
+life," the purpose of the society being "to support one another in
+sickness and for the benefit of their widows and fatherless children."
+Accordingly a society was established, known as the Free African
+Society of Philadelphia, and on the 17th, 5th-mo., 1787, articles were
+published, including the following, which is inserted to show the
+breadth of the society's purpose:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page35" id="page35"></a>[pg 35]</span>
+"And we apprehend it to be necessary that the children of our
+deceased members be under the care of the Society, so far as to pay
+for the education of their children, if they cannot attend free
+school; also to put them out apprentices to suitable trades or places,
+if required."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>Shortly after this we read of "the African School for the free
+instruction of the black people," and in 1796, "The Evening Free
+School, held at the African Methodist Meeting House in Philadelphia"
+was reported as being "kept very orderly, the scholars behaving in a
+becoming manner, and their improvement beyond the teachers'
+expectations, their intellects appearing in every branch of learning
+to be equal to those of the fairest complexion." The name African, as
+the reader will notice, is used with reference to school, church, and
+individuals; although not to the complete exclusion of "colored
+people" and "people of color." These phrases seem to have been coined
+in the West Indies, and were there applied only to persons of mixed
+European and African descent. In the United States they never obtained
+such restricted use except in a very few localities. The practice of
+using African as a descriptive title of the free colored people of the
+North became very extensive and so continued up to the middle of the
+century. There were African societies, churches and schools in all the
+prominent centres of this population.</p>
+
+<p>In 1843 one, Mr. P. Loveridge, Agent for Colored Schools of New York,
+wrote the editor of the African Methodist Magazine as follows:<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> "As
+to the name of your periodical, act as we did with the name of our
+schools&mdash;away with Africa. There are no Africans in your connection.
+Substitute colored for African
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page36" id="page36"></a>[pg 36]</span>
+and it will be, in my opinion, as it
+should be." The earnestness of the writer shows that the matter of
+parting with African was then a live question. The cool reply of the
+editor indicates how strong was the conservative element among the
+African people of '43. He says: "We are unable to see the
+reasonableness of the remarks. It is true we are not Africans, or
+natives born upon the soil of Africa, yet, as the descendants of that
+race, how can we better manifest that respect due to our fathers who
+begat us, than by the adoption of the term in our institutions, and
+inscribing it upon our public places of resort?" To this Mr. Loveridge
+rejoins in the following explanatory paragraph: "We who are engaged in
+the Public Schools in this city found upon examination of about 1500
+children who attend our schools from year to year, not one African
+child among them. A suggestion was made that we petition the Public
+School Society to change the name African to Colored Schools. The
+gentlemen of that honorable body, perceiving our petition to be a
+logical one, acquiesced with us. Hence the adjective African (which
+does not apply to us) was blotted out and Colored substituted in its
+place. It is 'Public Schools for Colored Children.' We are Americans
+and expect American sympathies."</p>
+
+<p>In 1816 the colored Methodists conceived the idea of organizing and
+evangelizing their race, and to this end a convention was called and
+assembled in Philadelphia of that year, composed of sixteen delegates,
+coming from Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey. The
+convention adopted a resolution that the people of Philadelphia,
+Baltimore and all other places who should unite with them, should
+become one body under the name and style of the African Methodist
+Episcopal Church. Similar action was taken by two other bodies of
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page37" id="page37"></a>[pg 37]</span>
+colored Methodists, one in New York, the other in Wilmington,
+Delaware, about the same time. The people were coming together and
+beginning to understand the value of organization. This was manifested
+in their religious, beneficial and educational associations that were
+springing up among them. In 1841 the African Methodist Magazine
+appeared, the first organ of religious communication and thought
+issued by the American colored people. It was published in Brooklyn,
+N.Y., Rev. George Hogarth being its editor.</p>
+
+<p>There were papers published by the colored people prior to the
+appearance of the African Methodist Magazine, but these were
+individual enterprises. They were, however, indices of the thought of
+the race, and looking back upon them now, we may regard them as
+mile-stones set up along the line of march over which the people have
+come. New York, city and State, appears to have been the home of these
+early harbingers, and it was there that the earliest literary centre
+was established, corresponding to that centre of religious life and
+thought which had been earlier founded in Philadelphia. In 1827 the
+first newspaper published on this continent by colored men issued from
+its office in New York. It was called "Freedom's Journal," and had for
+its motto "Righteousness exalteth a nation." Its editors and
+proprietors were Messrs. Cornish &amp; Russwurm. Its name was subsequently
+changed to the "Rights of All," Mr. Cornish probably retiring, and in
+1830 it suspended, Mr. Russwurm going to Africa. Then followed "The
+Weekly Advocate," "The American," "The Colored American," "The
+Elevator," "The National Watchman," "The Clarion," "The Ram's Horn,"
+"The North Star," "Frederick Douglass' Paper," and finally that
+crowning literary work of the race, "The Anglo-African."</p><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page38" id="page38"></a>[pg 38]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>"The Anglo-African" appeared in 1859, under the management of the
+strongest and most brilliant purely literary families the American
+Negro up to that time had produced. It was edited and published by
+Thomas Hamilton, and like all the important literary ventures of the
+race in those days, had its birth in New York. It came out in 1859 and
+continued through the war, and in 1865 went out of existence
+honorably, having its work well done. Its first volume, that of 1859,
+contains the ablest papers ever given to the public by the American
+Negro; and taken as a whole this volume is the proudest literary
+monument the race has as yet erected.</p>
+
+<p>Reviewing the progress of the race in the North, we may say, the
+period of organized benevolence and united religious effort began
+before the close of the past century, Philadelphia being its place of
+origin; that the religious movement reached much broader and clearer
+standing about 1816, and in consequence there sprang up organizations
+comprehending the people of the whole country; that the religious
+movement advanced to a more intellectual stage when in 1841 the
+African Methodist Magazine appeared, since which time the organized
+religion of the American Negro has never been for any considerable
+time without its organs of communication. The journalistic period
+began in 1827, its centre being New York and the work of the journals
+almost wholly directed to two ends: the abolition of slavery, and the
+enfranchisement and political elevation of the free blacks. This work
+had reached its highest form in the Anglo-African, as that epoch of
+our national history came to its close in the slave-holders' war.</p>
+
+<p>The titles of the newspapers indicate the opening and continuance of a
+period of anti-slavery agitation. Their columns were filled with
+arguments and appeals furnished by men who
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page39" id="page39"></a>[pg 39]</span>
+gave their whole souls to
+the work. It was a period of great mental activity on the part of the
+free colored people. They were discussing all probable methods of
+bettering their condition. It was the period that produced both
+writers and orators. In 1830 the first convention called by colored
+men to consider the general condition of the race and devise means to
+improve that condition, met in the city of Philadelphia. The history
+of this convention is so important that I append a full account of it
+as published in the Anglo-African nearly thirty years after the
+convention met. It was called through the efforts of Hezekiah Grice,
+of Baltimore, who afterwards emigrated to Hayti, and for many years
+followed there the occupation of carver and gilder and finally became
+Director of Public Works of the city of Port-au-Prince. While visiting
+that city years ago, I met a descendant of Mr. Grice, a lady of great
+personal beauty, charming manners, accomplished in the French
+language, but incapable of conversing at all in English.</p>
+
+<p>The conventions, begun in 1830, continued to be held annually for a
+brief period, and then dropped into occasional and special gatherings.
+They did much good in the way of giving prominence to the colored
+orators and in stemming the tide of hostile sentiment by appealing to
+the country at large in language that reached many hearts.</p>
+
+<p>The physical condition, so far as the health and strength of the free
+colored people were concerned, was good. Their mean age was the
+greatest of any element of our population, and their increase was
+about normal, or 1.50 per cent. annually. In the twenty years from
+1840 to 1860 it had kept up this rate with hardly the slightest
+variation, while the increase of the free colored people of the South
+during the same period had been 1 per cent, annually.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> The increase
+of persons of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page40" id="page40"></a>[pg 40]</span>
+mixed blood in the North did not necessarily imply
+laxity of morals, as the census compilers always delighted to say, but
+could be easily accounted for by the marriages occurring between
+persons of this class. I have seen more than fifty persons, all of
+mixed blood, descend from one couple, and these with the persons
+joined to them by marriages as they have come to marriageable age,
+amounted to over seventy souls&mdash;all in about a half century. That the
+slaves had, despite their fearful death rate, the manumissions and the
+escapes, increased twice as fast as the free colored people of the
+North, three times as fast as the free colored people of the South,
+and faster than the white people with all the immigration of that
+period, can be accounted for only by the enormous birth rate of that
+people consequent upon their sad condition. Their increase was
+abnormal, and when properly viewed, proves too much.</p>
+
+<p>There is no way of determining the general wealth of the colored
+people of the North at the period we are describing; but some light
+may be thrown upon their material condition from the consideration
+that they were supporting a few publications and building and
+supporting churches, and were holders of considerable real estate. In
+New York city, the thirteen thousand colored people paid taxes on
+nearly a million and a half in real estate, and had over a quarter
+million of dollars in the savings banks. It is probable that the
+twenty-five thousand in Philadelphia owned more in proportion than
+their brethren in New York, for they were then well represented in
+business in that city. There were the Fortens, Bowers, Casseys,
+Gordons, and later Stephen Smith, William Whipper and Videl, all of
+whom were men of wealth and business. There were nineteen churches
+owned and supported by colored
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page41" id="page41"></a>[pg 41]</span>
+people of Philadelphia, with a seating
+capacity of about 10,000 and valued at about $250,000.</p>
+
+<p><a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>The schools set apart for colored children were very inferior and
+were often kept alive by great sacrifices on the part of the colored
+people themselves. Prior to the war and in many cases for some time
+afterward, the colored public schools were a disgrace to the country.
+A correspondent writing from Hollidaysburg, Pa., says, speaking of the
+school there: "The result of my inquiries here is that here, as in the
+majority of other places, the interest manifested for the colored man
+is more for political effect, and that those who prate the loudest
+about the moral elevation and political advancement of the colored man
+are the first to turn against him when he wants a friend." The
+correspondent then goes on to say that the school directors persist in
+employing teachers "totally incompetent." What the schools were in New
+York the report made by the New York Society for the promotion of
+Education among Colored Children to the Honorable Commissioners for
+examining into the condition of Common Schools in the City and County
+of New York, will show. Reverend Charles B. Ray, who was President of
+this Society, and Philip A. White, its Secretary, both continued to
+labor in the interest of education unto the close of their lives, Mr.
+White dying as a member of the School Board of the city of Brooklyn,
+and Mr. Ray bequeathing his library to Wilberforce University at his
+death.</p>
+
+<p>In summing up the conditions which they have detailed in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page42" id="page42"></a>[pg 42]</span>
+their report
+they say: "From a comparison of the school houses occupied by the
+colored children with the splendid, almost palatial edifices, with
+manifold comforts, conveniences and elegancies which make up the
+school houses for white children in the city of New York, it is
+clearly evident that the colored children are painfully neglected and
+positively degraded. Pent up in filthy neighborhoods, in old
+dilapidated buildings, they are held down to low associations and
+gloomy surroundings. * * * The undersigned enter their solemn protest
+against this unjust treatment of colored children. They believe with
+the experience of Massachusetts, and especially the recent experience
+of Boston before them, there is no sound reason why colored children
+shall be excluded from any of the common schools supported by taxes
+levied alike on whites and blacks, and governed by officers elected by
+the vote of colored as well as white voters."</p>
+
+<p>This petition and remonstrance had its effect, for mainly through its
+influence within two years very great improvements were made in the
+condition of the New York colored schools.</p>
+
+<p>For the especial benefit of those who erroneously think that the
+purpose of giving industrial education is a new thing in our land, as
+well as for general historical purposes, I call attention to the
+establishment of the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia in
+1842. This Institute was founded by the Society of Friends, and was
+supported in its early days and presumably still "by bequests and
+donations made by members of that Society." The objects of the
+Institute as set forth by its founders, fifty-seven years ago, are:
+"The education and improvement of colored youth of both sexes, to
+qualify them to act as teachers and instructors to their own people,
+either in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page43" id="page43"></a>[pg 43]</span>
+the various branches of school learning or the mechanic
+arts and agriculture." Two years later the African Methodists
+purchased one hundred and eighty acres of land in eastern Ohio and
+established what was called the Union Seminary, on the manual labor
+plan. It did not succeed, but it lingered along, keeping alive the
+idea, until it was eclipsed by Wilberforce University, into which it
+was finally merged.</p>
+
+<p>The anti-slavery fight carried on in the North, into which the colored
+men entered and became powerful leaders, aroused the race to a deep
+study of the whole subject of liberty and brought them in sympathy
+with all people who had either gained or were struggling for their
+liberties, and prompted them to investigate all countries offering to
+them freedom. No country was so well studied by them as Hayti, and
+from 1824 to 1860 there had been considerable emigration thither.
+Liberia, Central and South America and Canada were all considered
+under the thought of emigration. Thousands went to Hayti and to
+Canada, but the bulk preferred to remain here. They liked America, and
+had become so thoroughly in love with the doctrines of the Republic,
+so imbued with the pride of the nation's history, so inspired with
+hope in the nation's future, that they resolved to live and die on her
+soil. When the troublous times of 1860 came and white men were fleeing
+to Canada, colored men remained at their posts. They were ready to
+stand by the old flag and to take up arms for the Union, trusting that
+before the close of the strife the flag might have to them a new
+meaning. An impassioned colored orator had said of the flag: "Its
+stars were for the white man, and its stripes for the Negro, and it
+was very appropriate that the stripes should be red." The free Negro
+of the North was prepared in 1861 to support Abraham Lincoln with
+40,000 as good American-born champions for universal liberty as the
+country could present.</p><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page44" id="page44"></a>[pg 44]</span>
+</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Slave Trade&mdash;Carey.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Outlines&mdash;Tanner.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> A.M.E. Magazine, 1843.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> It is to be noted that in Maryland and Virginia an
+important number of white serving women married Negro slave men in the
+early days of these colonies.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> In 1835 there were six high schools, or schools for
+higher education, in the United States that admitted colored students
+on equal footing with others. These were: Oneida Institute, New York;
+Mount Pleasant, Amherst, Mass.; Canaan, N.H.; Western Reserve, Ohio;
+Gettysburg, Pa.; and "one in the city of Philadelphia of which Miss
+Buffam" was "principal." There was also one manual labor school in
+Madison County, N.Y., capable of accommodating eighteen students. It
+was founded by Gerrit Smith.</p></div></div>
+
+
+<p class="heading">NOTES.</p>
+
+<p><b>A.</b></p>
+
+<p class="heading">THE FIRST COLORED CONVENTION.</p>
+
+
+<p>On the fifteenth day of September, 1830, there was held at Bethel
+Church, in the city of Philadelphia, the first convention of the
+colored people of these United States. It was an event of historical
+importance; and, whether we regard the times or the men of whom this
+assemblage was composed, we find matter for interesting and profitable
+consideration.</p>
+
+<p>Emancipation had just taken place in New York, and had just been
+arrested in Virginia by the Nat Turner rebellion and Walker's
+pamphlet. Secret sessions of the legislatures of the several Southern
+States had been held to deliberate upon the production of a colored
+man who had coolly recommended to his fellow blacks the only solution
+to the slave question, which, after twenty-five years of arduous labor
+of the most hopeful and noble-hearted of the abolitionists, seems the
+forlorn hope of freedom to-day&mdash;insurrection and bloodshed. Great
+Britain was in the midst of that bloodless revolution which, two years
+afterwards, culminated in the passage of the Reform Bill, and thus
+prepared the joyous and generous state of the British heart which
+dictated the West India Emancipation Act. France was rejoicing in the
+not bloodless <i>trois jours de Juliet</i>. Indeed, the whole world seemed
+stirred up with a universal excitement, which, when contrasted with
+the universal panics of 1837 and 1857, leads one to regard as more
+than a philosophical speculation the doctrine of those who hold the
+life of mankind from the creation as but one life, beating with one
+heart, animated with one soul, tending to one destiny, although made
+up of millions upon millions of molecular lives, gifted with their
+infinite variety of attractions and repulsions, which regulate or
+crystallize them into evanescent substructures or organizations, which
+we call nationalities and empires and peoples and tribes, whose minute
+actions and reactions on each other are the histories which absorb our
+attention, whilst the grand universal life moves on beyond
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page45" id="page45"></a>[pg 45]</span>
+our ken,
+or only guessed at, as the astronomers shadow out movements of our
+solar system around or towards some distant unknown centre of
+attraction.</p>
+
+<p>If the times of 1830 were eventful, there were among our people, as
+well as among other peoples, men equal to the occasion. We had giants
+in those days! There were Bishop Allen, the founder of the great
+Bethel connection of Methodists, combining in his person the fiery
+zeal of St. Francis Xavier with the skill and power of organizing of a
+Richelieu; the meek but equally efficient Rush (who yet remains with
+us in fulfilment of the Scripture), the father of the Zion Methodists;
+Paul, whose splendid presence and stately eloquence in the pulpit, and
+whose grand baptisms in the waters of Boston harbor are a living
+tradition in all New England; the saintly and sainted Peter Williams,
+whose views of the best means of our elevation are in triumphant
+activity to-day; William Hamilton, the thinker and actor, whose sparse
+specimens of eloquence we will one day place in gilded frames as rare
+and beautiful specimens of Etruscan art&mdash;William Hamilton, who, four
+years afterwards, during the New York riots, when met in the street,
+loaded down with iron missiles, and asked where he was going, replied,
+"To die on my threshold"; Watkins, of Baltimore; Frederick Hinton,
+with his polished eloquence; James Forten, the merchant prince;
+William Whipper, just essaying his youthful powers; Lewis Woodson and
+John Peck, of Pittsburg; Austin Steward, then of Rochester; Samuel E.
+Cornish, who had the distinguished honor of reasoning Gerrit Smith out
+of colonization, and of telling Henry Clay that he would never be
+president of anything higher than the American Colonization Society;
+Philip A. Bell, the born sabreur, who never feared the face of clay,
+and a hundred others, were the worthily leading spirits among the
+colored people.</p>
+
+<p>And yet the idea of the first colored convention did not originate
+with any of these distinguished men; it came from a young man of
+Baltimore; then, and still, unknown to fame. Born in that city in
+1801, he was in 1817 apprenticed to a man some two hundred miles off
+in the Southeast. Arriving at his field of labor, he worked hard
+nearly a week and received poor fare in return. One day, while at work
+near the house, the mistress came out and gave him a furious scolding,
+so furious, indeed, that her husband mildly interfered; she drove the
+latter away, and threatened to take the Baltimore out of the lad with
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page46" id="page46"></a>[pg 46]</span>
+cowhide, etc., etc. At this moment, to use his own expression, the
+lad became converted, that is, he determined to be his own master as
+long as he lived. Early nightfall found him on his way to Baltimore
+which he reached after a severe journey which tested his energy and
+ingenuity to the utmost. At the age of twenty-three he was engaged in
+the summer time in supplying Baltimore with ice from his cart, and in
+winter in cutting up pork for Ellicotts' establishment. He must have
+been strong and swift with knife and cleaver, for in one day he cut up
+and dressed some four hundred and fifteen porkers.</p>
+
+<p>In 1824 our young friend fell in with Benjamin Lundy, and in 1828-9,
+with William Lloyd Garrison, editors and publishers of the "Genius of
+Universal Emancipation," a radical anti-slavery paper, whose boldness
+would put the "National Era" to shame, printed and published in the
+slave State of Maryland. In 1829-30 the colored people of the free
+States were much excited on the subject of emigration; there had been
+an emigration to Hayti, and also to Canada, and some had been driven
+to Liberia by the severe laws and brutal conduct of the fermenters of
+colonization in Virginia and Maryland. In some districts of these
+States the disguised whites would enter the houses of free colored men
+at night, and take them out and give them from thirty to fifty lashes,
+to get them to consent to go to Liberia.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the spring of 1830 that the young man we have sketched,
+Hezekiah Grice, conceived the plan of calling together a meeting or
+convention of colored men in some place north of the Potomac, for the
+purpose of comparing views and of adopting a harmonious movement
+either of emigration or of determination to remain in the United
+States; convinced of the hopelessness of contending against the
+oppressions in the United States, living in the very depth of that
+oppression and wrong, his own views looked to Canada; but he held them
+subject to the decision of the majority of the convention which might
+assemble.</p>
+
+<p>On the 2d of April, 1830, he addressed a written circular to prominent
+colored men in the free States, requesting their opinions on the
+necessity and propriety of holding such convention, and stated that if
+the opinions of a sufficient number warranted it, he would give time
+and place at which duly elected delegates might assemble. Four months
+passed away, and his spirit almost died within him, for he had not
+received a line from any
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page47" id="page47"></a>[pg 47]</span>
+one in reply. When he visited Mr. Garrison
+in his office, and stated his project, Mr. Garrison took up a copy of
+Walker's Appeal, and said, although it might be right, yet it was too
+early to have published such a book.</p>
+
+<p>On the 11th of August, however, he received a sudden and peremptory
+order from Bishop Allen to come instantly to Philadelphia, about the
+emigration matter. He went, and found a meeting assembled to consider
+the conflicting reports on Canada of Messrs. Lewis and Dutton; at a
+subsequent meeting, held the next night, and near the adjournment, the
+Bishop called Mr. Grice aside and gave to him to read a printed
+circular, issued from New York City, strongly approving of Mr. Grice's
+plan of a convention, and signed by Peter Williams, Peter Vogelsang
+and Thomas L. Jinnings. The Bishop added, "My dear child, we must take
+some action immediately, or else these New Yorkers will get ahead of
+us." The Bishop left the meeting to attend a lecture on chemistry by
+Dr. Wells, of Baltimore. Mr. Grice introduced the subject of the
+convention; and a committee consisting of Bishop Allen, Benjamin
+Pascal, Cyrus Black, James Cornish and Junius C. Morel, were appointed
+to lay the matter before the colored people of Philadelphia. This
+committee, led, doubtless, by Bishop Allen, at once issued a call for
+a convention of the colored men of the United States, to be held in
+the city of Philadelphia on the 15th of September, 1830.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Grice returned to Baltimore rejoicing at the success of his
+project; but, in the same boat which bore him down the Chesapeake, he
+was accosted by Mr. Zollickoffer, a member of the Society of Friends,
+a Philadelphian, and a warm and tried friend of the blacks. Mr.
+Zollickoffer used arguments, and even entreaties, to dissuade Mr.
+Grice from holding the convention, pointing out the dangers and
+difficulties of the same should it succeed, and the deep injury it
+would do the cause in case of failure. Of course, it was reason and
+entreaty thrown away.</p>
+
+<p>On the fifteenth of September, Mr. Grice again landed in Philadelphia,
+and in the fulness of his expectation asked every colored man he met
+about the convention; no one knew anything about it; the first man did
+not know the meaning of the word, and another man said, "Who ever
+heard of colored people holding a convention&mdash;convention, indeed!"
+Finally, reaching the place of meeting, he found, in solemn conclave,
+the five
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page48" id="page48"></a>[pg 48]</span>
+gentlemen who had constituted themselves delegates: with a
+warm welcome from Bishop Allen, Mr. Grice, who came with credentials
+from the people of Baltimore, was admitted as delegate. A little while
+after, Dr. Burton, of Philadelphia, dropped in, and demanded by what
+right the six gentlemen held their seats as members of the convention.
+On a hint from Bishop Allen, Mr. Pascal moved that Dr. Burton be
+elected an honorary member of the convention, which softened the
+Doctor. In half an hour, five or six grave, stern-looking men, members
+of the Zion Methodist body in Philadelphia, entered, and demanded to
+know by what right the members present held their seats and undertook
+to represent the colored people. Another hint from the Bishop, and it
+was moved that these gentlemen be elected honorary members. But the
+gentlemen would submit to no such thing, and would accept nothing
+short of full membership, which was granted them.</p>
+
+<p>Among the delegates were Abraham Shadd, of Delaware; J.W.C.
+Pennington, of Brooklyn; Austin Steward, of Rochester; Horace Easton,
+of Boston, and &mdash;&mdash; Adams, of Utica.</p>
+
+<p>The main subject of discussion was emigration to Canada; Junius C.
+Morel, chairman of a committee on that subject presented a report, on
+which there was a two days' discussion; the point discussed was that
+the report stated that "the lands in Canada were synonymous with those
+of the Northern States." The word synonymous was objected to, and the
+word similar proposed in its stead. Mr. Morel, with great vigor and
+ingenuity, defended the report, but was finally voted down, and the
+word similar adopted. The convention recommended emigration to Canada,
+passed strong resolutions against the American Colonization Society,
+and at its adjournment appointed the next annual convention of the
+people of color to be held in Philadelphia, on the first Monday in
+June, 1831.</p>
+
+<p>At the present day, when colored conventions are almost as frequent as
+church meetings, it is difficult to estimate the bold and daring
+spirit which inaugurated the Colored Convention of 1830. It was the
+right move, originating in the right quarter and at the right time.
+Glorious old Maryland, or, as one speaking in the view that climate
+grows the men, would say,&mdash;Maryland-Virginia region,&mdash;which has
+produced Benjamin Banneker, Nat. Turner, Frederick Douglass, the
+parents of Ira Aldridge, Henry Highland Garnett and Sam. Ringold Ward,
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page49" id="page49"></a>[pg 49]</span>
+also produced the founder of colored conventions, Hezekiah Grice! At
+that time, in the prime of his young manhood, he must have presented
+the front of one equal to any fortune, able to achieve any
+undertaking. Standing six feet high, well-proportioned, of a dark
+bronze complexion, broad brow, and that stamp of features out of which
+the Greek sculptor would have delighted to mould the face of
+Vulcan&mdash;he was, to the fullest extent, a working man of such sort and
+magnetism as would lead his fellows where he listed.</p>
+
+<p>In looking to the important results that grew out of this convention,
+the independence of thought and self-assertion of the black man are
+the most remarkable. Then, the union of purpose and union of strength
+which grew out of the acquaintanceship and mutual pledges of colored
+men from different States. Then, the subsequent conventions, where the
+great men we have already named, and others, appeared and took part in
+the discussions with manifestations of zeal, talent and ability, which
+attracted Garrison, the Tappans, Jocelyn and others of that noble
+host, who, drawing no small portion of their inspiration from their
+black brethren in bonds, did manfully fight in the days of
+anti-slavery which tried men's souls, and when, to be an abolitionist,
+was, to a large extent, to be a martyr.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot help adding the thought that had these conventions of the
+colored people of the United States continued their annual sittings
+from 1830 until the present time, the result would doubtless have been
+greater general progress among our people themselves, a more united
+front to meet past and coming exigencies, and a profounder hold upon
+the public attention, and a deeper respect on the part of our enemies,
+than we now can boast of. Looking at public opinion as it is, the
+living law of the land, and yet a malleable, ductile entity, which can
+be moulded, or at least affected, by the thoughts of any masses
+vigorously expressed, we should have become a power on earth, of
+greater strength and influence than in our present scattered and
+dwindled state we dare even dream of. The very announcement,
+"Thirtieth Annual Convention of the Colored People of the United
+States," would bear a majestic front. Our great gathering at Rochester
+in 1853, commanded not only public attention, but respect and
+admiration. Should we have such a gathering even now, once a year, not
+encumbered with elaborate plans of action, with too many wheels within
+wheels,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page50" id="page50"></a>[pg 50]</span>
+we can yet regain much of the ground lost. The partial
+gathering at Boston, the other day, has already assumed its place in
+the public mind, and won its way into the calculations of the
+politicians.</p>
+
+<p>Our readers will doubtless be glad to learn the subsequent history of
+Mr. Grice. He did not attend the second convention, but in the
+interval between the second and third he formed, in the city of
+Baltimore, a "Legal Rights Association," for the purpose of
+ascertaining the legal status of the colored man in the United States.
+It was entirely composed of colored men, among whom were Mr. Watkins
+(the colored Baltimorean), Mr. Deaver, and others. Mr. Grice called on
+William Wirt, and asked him "what he charged for his opinion on a
+given subject." "Fifty dollars." "Then, sir, I will give you fifty
+dollars if you will give me your opinion on the legal condition of a
+free colored man in these United States."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wirt required the questions to be written out in proper form
+before he could answer them. Mr. Grice employed Tyson, who drew up a
+series of questions, based upon the Constitution of the United States,
+and relating to the rights and citizenship of the free black. He
+carried the questions to Mr. Wirt, who, glancing over them, said,
+"Really, sir, my position as an officer under the government renders
+it a delicate matter for me to answer these questions as they should
+be answered, but I'll tell you what to do: they should be answered,
+and by the best legal talent in the land; do you go to Philadelphia,
+and present my name to Horace Binney, and he will give you an answer
+satisfactory to you, and which will command the greatest respect
+throughout the land." Mr. Grice went to Philadelphia, and presented
+the questions and request to Horace Binney. This gentleman pleaded age
+and poor eyesight, but told Mr. Grice that if he would call on John
+Sargent he would get answers of requisite character and weight. He
+called on John Sargent, who promptly agreed to answer the questions if
+Mr. Binney would allow his name to be associated as an authority in
+the replies. Mr. Binney again declined, and so the matter fell
+through. This is what Mr. Grice terms his "Dred Scott case" and so it
+was.</p>
+
+<p>He attended the convention of 1832, but by some informality, or a want
+of credentials, was not permitted to sit as full member!&mdash;Saul ejected
+from among the prophets!&mdash;Yet he was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page51" id="page51"></a>[pg 51]</span>
+heard on the subject of rights,
+and the doctrine of "our rights," as well as the first colored
+convention, are due to the same man.</p>
+
+<p>In 1832, chagrined at the colored people of the United States, he
+migrated to Hayti, where, until 1843, he pursued the business of
+carver and gilder. In the latter year he was appointed Director of
+Public Works in Port-au-Prince, which office he held until two years
+ago. He is also engaged in, and has wide knowledge of machinery and
+engineering. Every two or three years he visits New York, and is
+welcomed to the arcana of such men as James J. Mapes, the Bensons,
+Dunhams, and at the various works where steam and iron obey human
+ingenuity in our city. He is at present in this city, lodging at the
+house of the widow of his old friend and coadjutor, Thomas L.
+Jinnings, 133 Reade street. We have availed ourselves of his presence
+among us to glean from him the statements which we have imperfectly
+put together in this article.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot dismiss this subject without the remark, of peculiar
+pertinence at this moment, that it would have been better for our
+people had Mr. Grice never left these United States. The twenty-seven
+years he has passed in Hayti, although not without their mark on the
+fortunes of that island, are yet with out such mark as he would have
+made in the land and upon the institutions among which he was born. So
+early as his thirty-second year, before he had reached his
+intellectual prime, he had inaugurated two of the leading ideas on
+which our people have since acted, conventions to consider and
+alleviate their grievances, and the struggle for legal rights. If he
+did such things in early youth, what might he not have done with the
+full force and bent of his matured intellect? And where, in the wide
+world, in what region, or under what sun, could he so effectually have
+labored to elevate the black man as on this soil and under American
+institutions?</p>
+
+<p>So profoundly are we opposed to the favorite doctrine of the Puritans
+and their co-workers, the colonizationists&mdash;Ubi Libertas, ibi
+Patria&mdash;that we could almost beseech Divine Providence to reverse some
+past events and to fling back into the heart of Virginia and Maryland
+their Sam Wards, Highland Garnets, J.W. Penningtons, Frederick
+Douglasses, and the twenty thousand who now shout hosannas in
+Canada&mdash;and we would soon see some stirring in the direction of Ubi
+Patria, ibi Libertas.&mdash;Anglo-African Magazine, October, 1859.</p><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page52" id="page52"></a>[pg 52]</span>
+</p>
+
+
+<p><b>B.</b></p>
+
+<p class="heading">COMMUNICATION FROM THE NEW YORK SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF EDUCATION
+AMONG COLORED CHILDREN.</p>
+
+
+<p>To the Honorable the Commissioners for examining into the condition of
+Common Schools in the City and County of New York.</p>
+
+<p>The following statement in relation to the colored schools in said
+city and county is respectfully presented by the New York Society for
+the Promotion of Education among Colored Children:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<table summary="Promotion of Education among Colored Children"
+       style="border-spacing: 0 0">
+<tr>
+<td>
+1. The number of colored children in the city and county of
+New York (estimated in 1855, from the census of 1850), between
+the ages of 4 and 17 years</td>
+<td></td>
+<td class="right">3,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>a. Average attendance of colored children at public
+schools in 1855</td>
+<td class="right">913</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Average attendance of colored children in
+corporate schools supported by school funds
+(Colored Orphan Asylum)</td>
+<td class="right">240</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td><td class="right">----</td>
+<td class="right">1,153</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>
+b. Proportion of average attendance in public
+schools of colored children to whole number
+of same is as 1 to 2.60.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td>2. The number of white children in the city of New
+York in 1855 (estimated as above), between the ages of
+4 and 17 years</td>
+<td></td>
+<td class="right">159,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>a. Average attendance of white children in public
+schools in 1855</td>
+<td class="right">43,858</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Average attendance of white children in
+corporate schools supported by public
+funds</td>
+<td class="right">2,826</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td><td class="right">-----</td>
+<td class="right">46,684</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>
+b. Proportion of average attendance of white children
+in public schools to whole number of same
+is as 1 to 3.40.</p>
+
+<p>
+3. From these facts it appears that colored children attend
+the public schools (and schools supported by public funds in
+the city of New York) in the proportion of 1 to 2.60, and that
+the white children attend similar schools in said city in the
+proportion of 1 to 3.40; that is to say, nearly 25 per cent. more of
+colored children than of white children attend the public schools,
+and schools supported by public funds in the city of New York.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page53" id="page53"></a>[pg 53]</span></p>
+
+<p>4. The number of colored children attending private schools
+in the city of New York, 125.</p>
+
+<p>a. The number of white children attending private
+schools in 1850, census gave 10,560, which number has since
+been increased by the establishment of Catholic parochial
+schools, estimated in 1856, 17,560.</p>
+
+<p>b. The proportion of colored children attending private
+schools to white children attending same, is as 1 to 140.</p>
+
+<p>c. But the average attendance of colored children in all
+schools is about the same as that of the white in proportion,
+that is to say, as many colored children attend the
+public schools as do whites attend both public and private
+schools, in proportion to the whole number of each class
+of children.</p>
+
+<p>Locality, capability, etc., of colored schools.</p>
+
+<p>1. The Board of Education, since its organization, has
+expended in sites and buildings for white schools $1,600,000.</p>
+
+<p>b. The Board of Education has expended for sites and
+buildings for colored schools (addition to building leased
+19 Thomas), $1,000.</p>
+
+<p>c. The two schoolhouses in possession of the Board
+now used for colored children were assigned to same by
+the Old Public School Society.</p>
+
+<p>2. The proportion of colored children to white children
+attending public schools is as 1 to 40.</p>
+
+<p>a. The sum expended on school buildings and sites of
+colored and white schools by the Board of Education is as
+1 to 1,600.</p>
+
+<p>3. a. Schoolhouse No. 1, for colored children, is an old
+building, erected in 1820 by the New York Manumission Society
+as a school for colored children, in Mulberry street, in a poor
+but decent locality. It has two departments, one male and one
+female; it consists of two stories only, and has two small
+recitation rooms on each floor, but as primary as well as grammar
+children attend each department, much difficulty and confusion
+arises from the want of class room for the respective studies.
+The building covers only part of the lot, and as it is, the best
+attended and among the best taught of the colored schools, a
+new and ample school building, erected in this place, would
+prove a great attraction, and could be amply filled by children.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page54" id="page54"></a>[pg 54]</span></p>
+
+<p>b. Schoolhouse No. 2, erected in Laurens street more
+than twenty years ago for colored children by the Public
+School Society, is in one of the lowest and filthiest
+neighborhoods, and hence, although it has competent teachers
+in the male and female departments, and a separate primary
+department, the attendance has always been slender,
+and will be until the school is removed to a neighborhood
+where children may be sent without danger to their morals.</p>
+
+<p>c. School No. 3, for colored children, in Yorkville, is
+an old building, is well attended, and deserves, in connection
+with Schoolhouse No. 4, in Harlem, a new building midway
+between the present localities.</p>
+
+<p>d. Schoolhouse No. 5, for colored children, is an old
+building, leased at No. 19 Thomas street, a most degraded
+neighborhood, full of filth and vice; yet the attendance on
+this school, and the excellence of its teachers, earn for it the
+need of a new site and new building.</p>
+
+<p>e. Schoolhouse No. 6, for colored children, is in Broadway,
+near 37th street, in a dwelling house leased and fitted
+up for a school, in which there is always four feet of water
+in the cellar. The attendance good. Some of the school
+officers have repeatedly promised a new building.</p>
+
+<p>f. Primary school for colored children, No. 1, is in the
+basement of a church on 15th street, near 7th avenue,
+in a good location, but premises too small for the attendance;
+no recitation rooms, and is perforce both primary
+and grammar school, to the injury of the progress of all.</p>
+
+<p>g. Primary schools for colored children, No. 2 and 3,
+are in the rear of church, in 2d street, near 6th avenue; the
+rooms are dark and cheerless, and without the needful
+facilities of sufficient recitation rooms, etc.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>From a comparison of the schoolhouses with the splendid, almost
+palatial edifices, with manifold comforts, conveniences and elegancies
+which make up the schoolhouses for white children in the city of New
+York, it is evident that the colored children are painfully neglected
+and positively degraded. Pent up in filthy neighborhoods, in old and
+dilapidated buildings, they are held down to low associations and
+gloomy surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Mr. Superintendent Kiddle, at a general examination of colored
+schools held in July last (for silver medals awarded by
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page55" id="page55"></a>[pg 55]</span>
+the society
+now addressing your honorable body) declared the reading and spelling
+equal to that of any schools in the city.</p>
+
+<p>The undersigned enter their solemn protest against this unjust
+treatment of colored children. They believe with the experience of
+Massachusetts, and especially the recent experience of Boston before
+them, there is no sound reason why colored children shall be excluded
+from any of the common schools supported by taxes levied alike on
+whites and blacks, and governed by officers elected by the vote of
+colored as well as white voters.</p>
+
+<p>But if in the judgment of your honorable body common schools are not
+thus common to all, then we earnestly pray you to recommend to the
+Legislature such action as shall cause the Board of Education of this
+city to erect at least two well-appointed modern grammar schools for
+colored children on suitable sites, in respectable localities, so that
+the attendance of colored children may be increased and their minds be
+elevated in like manner as the happy experience of the honorable Board
+of Education has been in the matter of white children.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the excellent impulse to colored youth which these new
+grammar schools would give, they will have the additional argument of
+actual economy; the children will be taught with far less expense in
+two such schoolhouses than in the half dozen hovels into which they
+are now driven. It is a costly piece of injustice which educates the
+white scholar in a palace at $10 per year and the colored pupil in a
+hovel at $17 or $18 per annum.</p>
+
+<p>Taxes, etc., of colored population of the city.</p>
+
+<p>No proposition can be more reasonable than that they who pay taxes for
+schools and schoolhouses should be provided with schools and
+schoolhouses. The colored population of this city, in proportion to
+their numbers, pay their full share of the general and therefore of
+the school taxes. There are about nine thousand adults of both sexes;
+of these over three thousand are householders, rent-payers, and
+therefore tax-payers, in that sense of the word in which owners make
+tax-payers of their poor tenants. The colored laboring man, with an
+income of $200 a year, who pays $72 per year for a room and bedroom,
+is really in proportion to his means a larger tax-payer than the
+millionaire whose tax rate is thousands of dollars. But directly,
+also, do the colored people pay taxes. From examinations carefully
+made, the undersigned affirm that there
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page56" id="page56"></a>[pg 56]</span>
+are in the city at least
+1,000 colored persons who own and pay taxes on real estate.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<table summary="Real Estate Tax">
+<tr>
+<td>Taxed real estate in the city of New York owned by colored persons</td>
+<td class="right">$1,400,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Untaxed by colored persons (churches)</td>
+<td class="right">250,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Personal estate</td>
+<td class="right">710,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Money in savings banks</td>
+<td class="right">1,121,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td class="right">------------</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td class="right">$3,481,000</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>These figures indicate that in proportion to their numbers, the
+colored population of this city pay a fair share of the school taxes,
+and that they have been most unjustly dealt with. Their money has been
+used to purchase sites and erect and fit up schoolhouses for white
+children, whilst their own children are driven into miserable edifices
+in disgraceful localities. Surely, the white population of the city
+are too able, too generous, too just, any longer to suffer this
+miserable robbing of their colored fellow-citizens for the benefit of
+white children.</p>
+
+<p>Praying that your honorable commission will take due notice of these
+facts, and recommend such remedy as shall seem to you best,</p>
+
+<p>We have the honor to be, in behalf of the New York Society for the
+Promotion of Education among Colored Citizens,</p>
+
+<p class="letterClose3 close">Most respectfully yours,</p>
+
+<p class="author-up">CHARLES B. RAY, President.</p>
+<p>PHILIP A. WHITE, Secretary.</p>
+<p class="letterClose5">New York City, December 28, 1857</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/image04.png" alt="Chapter End Graphic" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr  />
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page57" id="page57"></a>[pg 57]</span>
+</p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>AMERICAN NEGRO AND THE MILITARY SPIRIT.</h3>
+
+<p class="hang">Early Literature of Negro Soldiers&mdash;Negro Soldiers in the
+War of the Revolution&mdash;The War of 1812&mdash;Negro
+Insurrections&mdash;Negro Troops in the Civil War&mdash;Notes.</p>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+  Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>"Do you think I'll make a soldier?" is the opening line of one of
+those delightful spirituals, originating among the slaves in the far
+South. I first heard it sung in the Saint James Methodist Church,
+corner of Spring and Coming Streets, Charleston, South Carolina,
+immediately after the close of the war. It was sung by a vast
+congregation to a gentle, swinging air, with nothing of the martial
+about it, and was accompanied by a swaying of the body to the time of
+the music. Occasionally there would be the "curtesys" peculiar to the
+South Carolina slave of the low country, which consists in a stooping
+of the body by bending the knees only, the head remaining erect, a
+movement which takes the place of the bow among equals. The older
+ladies, with heads adorned with the ever-present Madras kerchief,
+often tied in the most becoming and tasteful manner, and faces aglow
+with an enthusiasm that bespoke a life within sustained by visions of
+spiritual things, would often be seen to shake hands and add a word of
+greeting and hope which would impart a charm and meaning to the
+singing far above what the humble words of the song without these
+accessories could convey. As the rich chorus of matchless voices
+poured out in perfect time and tune, "Rise, shine, and give God the
+glory," the thoughts of earthly freedom, of freedom
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page58" id="page58"></a>[pg 58]</span>
+from sin, and
+finally of freedom from the toils, cares and sorrows of earth to be
+baptized into the joys of heaven, all seemed to blend into the many
+colored but harmonious strain. The singing of the simple hearted
+trustful, emancipated slave! Shall we ever hear the like again on
+earth? Alas, that the high hopes and glowing prophecies of that
+auspicious hour have been so deferred that the hearts of millions have
+been made sick!</p>
+
+<p>Of the songs that came out of slavery with these long suffering
+people, Colonel Higginson, who perhaps got nearer to them in sentiment
+than any other literary man not really, of them, says: "Almost all
+their songs were thoroughly religious in their tone, however quaint
+their expression, and were in a minor key both as to words and music.
+The attitude is always the same, and, as a commentary on the life of
+the race, is infinitely pathetic. Nothing but patience for this
+life&mdash;nothing but triumph in the next. Sometimes the present
+predominates, sometimes the future; but the combination is always
+implied."</p>
+
+<p>I do not know when this "soldier" song had its birth, but it may have
+sprung out of the perplexity of the slave's mind as he contemplated
+the raging conflict and saw himself drawn nearer and nearer to the
+field of strife. Whether in this song the "present predominates," and
+the query, therefore, has a strong primary reference to carnal weapons
+and to garments dyed in blood; whether the singer invites an opinion
+as to his fitness to engage in the war for Freedom&mdash;it may not be
+possible to determine. The "year of Jubilee," coming in the same song
+in connection with the purpose for which the singer is to be made a
+soldier, gives clearer illustration of that combination of the present
+and future which Mr. Higginson says was always present in the
+spirituals of that period, if it shows no
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page59" id="page59"></a>[pg 59]</span>
+more. When it is remembered
+that at that time Charleston was literally trodden under foot by black
+soldiers in bright uniforms, whose coming seemed to the colored people
+of that city like a dream too good to be true, it is not hard to
+believe that this song had much of the present in it, and owed its
+birth to the circumstances of war.</p>
+
+<p>Singularly enough the song makes the Negro ask the exact question
+which had been asked about him from the earliest days of our history
+as a nation, a question which in some form confronts him still. The
+question, as the song has it, is not one of fact, but one of opinion.
+It is not: Will I make a soldier? but: Do you think I will make a
+soldier? It is one thing to "make a soldier," another thing to have
+men think so. The question of fact was settled a century ago; the
+question of opinion is still unsettled. The Negro soldier, hero of
+five hundred battlefields, with medals and honors resting upon his
+breast, with the endorsement of the highest military authority of the
+nation, with Port Hudson, El Caney and San Juan behind him, is still
+expected by too many to stand and await the verdict of thought, from
+persons who never did "think" he would make a soldier, and who never
+will think so. As well expect the excited animal of the ring to
+<i>think</i> in the presence of the red rag of the toreador as to expect
+<i>them</i> to think on the subject of the Negro soldier. They can curse,
+and rant, when they see the stalwart Negro in uniform, but it is too
+much to ask them to think. To them the Negro can be a fiend, a brute,
+but never a soldier.</p>
+
+<p>To John G. Whittier and to William C. Nell are we indebted for the
+earliest recital of the heroic deeds of the colored American in the
+Wars of the Revolution and 1812. Whittier contributed an article on
+this subject to the "National Era" in 1847, and five or six years
+later Nell published his
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page60" id="page60"></a>[pg 60]</span>
+pamphlet on "Colored Patriots," a booklet
+recently reprinted by the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It is a
+useful contribution, showing as it does the rising and spreading
+abroad of that spirit which appreciates military effort and valor; and
+while recognizing the glory that came to American arms in the period
+described, honestly seeks to place some of that glory upon the
+deserving brow of a race then enslaved and despised. The book is
+unpretentious and aims to relate the facts in a straight-forward way,
+unaccompanied by any of the charms of tasteful presentation. Its
+author, however, is deserving our thanks, and the book marks an
+important stage in the development of the colored American. His mind
+was turning toward the creation of the soldier&mdash;the formation of
+armies.</p>
+
+<p>There are other evidences that the mind of the colored man was at this
+time turning towards arms. In 1852 Doctor Pennington, one of the most
+learned colored men of his times, having received his Degree in
+Divinity from Heidelberg, delivered an address before a mass
+convention of colored citizens of Ohio, held in Cleveland, in which he
+spoke principally of the colored soldier. During the convention the
+"Cleveland Light Artillery" fired a salute, and on the platform were
+seated several veteran colored men, some of them, particularly Mr.
+John Julius, of Pittsburg, Pa., taking part in the speech-making. Mr.
+Nell says: "Within recent period several companies of colored men in
+New York city have enrolled themselves a la militaire," and quotes
+from the New York Tribune of August, 1852, as follows:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"COLORED SOLDIERS.&mdash;Among the many parades within a few days
+we noticed yesterday a soldierly-looking company of colored
+men, on their way homeward from a target or parade drill.
+They looked like men, handled their arms like men, and
+should occasion demand, we presume they would fight like
+men."</p></blockquote><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page61" id="page61"></a>[pg 61]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>In Boston, New Haven, New Bedford and other places efforts were made
+during the decade from 1850 to 1860 to manifest this rising military
+spirit by appropriate organization, but the efforts were not always
+successful. In some cases the prejudices of the whites put every
+possible obstacle in the way of the colored young men who attempted to
+array themselves as soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>The martial spirit is not foreign to the Negro character, as has been
+abundantly proved in both ancient and modern times. Williams, in his
+admirable history of the Negro as well as in his "Negro Troops in the
+Rebellion," has shown at considerable length that the Negro has been a
+soldier from earliest times, serving in large numbers in the Egyptian
+army long before the beginning of the Christian era. We know that
+without any great modification in character, runaway slaves developed
+excellent fighting qualities as Maroons, in Trinidad, British Guiana,
+St. Domingo and in Florida. But it was in Hayti that the unmixed Negro
+rose to the full dignity of a modern soldier, creating and leading
+armies, conducting and carrying on war, treating with enemies and
+receiving surrenders, complying fully with the rules of civilized
+warfare, and evolving finally a Toussaint, whose military genius his
+most bitter enemies were compelled to recognize&mdash;Toussaint, who to the
+high qualities of the soldier added also the higher qualities of
+statesmanship. With Napoleon, Cromwell and Washington, the three great
+commanders of modern times who have joined to high military talent
+eminent ability in the art of civil government, we must also class
+Toussaint L'Ouverteur, the black soldier of the Antilles. Thiers, the
+prejudiced attorney of Napoleon, declares nevertheless that Toussaint
+possessed wonderful talent for government, and the fact ever remains
+that under his benign rule all classes were pacified and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page62" id="page62"></a>[pg 62]</span>
+ San Domingo
+was made to blossom as the rose. In the armies of Menelek, in the
+armies of France, in the armies of England, as well as in the
+organization of the Zulu and Kaffir tribes the Negro has shown himself
+a soldier. If the Afro-American should fail in this particular it will
+not be because of any lack of the military element in the African side
+of his character, or for any lack of "remorseless military audacity"
+in the original Negro, as the historian, Williams, expresses it.</p>
+
+<p>In our own Revolutionary War, the Negro, then but partially civilized,
+and classed with "vagabonds," held everywhere as a slave, and
+everywhere distrusted, against protest and enactment, made his way
+into the patriot army, fighting side by side with his white
+compatriots from Lexington to Yorktown. On the morning of April 19th,
+1775, when the British re-enforcements were preparing to leave Boston
+for Lexington, a Negro soldier who had served in the French war,
+commanded a small body of West Cambridge "exempts" and captured Lord
+Percy's supply train with its military escort and the officer in
+command. As a rule the Negro soldiers were distributed among the
+regiments, thirty or forty to a regiment, and did not serve in
+separate organizations. Bishop J.P. Campbell, of the African Methodist
+Church, was accustomed to say "both of my grandfathers served in the
+Revolutionary War." In Varnum's Brigade, however, there was a Negro
+regiment and of it Scribner's history, 1897, says, speaking of the
+battle of Rhode Island: "None behaved better than Greene's colored
+regiment, which three times repulsed the furious charges of veteran
+Hessians." Williams says: "The black regiment was one of three that
+prevented the enemy from turning the flank of the American army. These
+black troops were doubtless regarded as the weak spot of the line, but
+they were not."</p><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page63" id="page63"></a>[pg 63]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>The colony of Massachusetts alone furnished 67,907 men for the
+Revolutionary War, while all the colonies together south of
+Pennsylvania furnished but 50,493, hence the sentiment prevailing in
+Massachusetts would naturally be very powerful in determining any
+question pertaining to the army. When the country sprang to arms in
+response to that shot fired at Lexington, the echoes of which,
+poetically speaking, were heard around the world, the free Negroes of
+every Northern colony rallied with their white neighbors. They were in
+the fight at Lexington and at Bunker Hill, but when Washington came to
+take command of the army he soon gave orders that no Negroes should be
+enlisted. He was sustained in this position by a council of war and by
+a committee of conference in which were representatives from Rhode
+Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts, and it was agreed that Negroes
+be rejected altogether. The American Negro's persistency in pressing
+himself where he is not <i>wanted</i> but where he is <i>eminently needed</i>
+began right there. Within six weeks so many colored men applied for
+enlistment, and those that had been put out of the army raised such a
+clamor that Washington changed his policy, and the Negro, who of all
+America's population contended for the privilege of shouldering a gun
+to fight for American liberty, was allowed a place in the Continental
+Army, the first national army organized on this soil, ante-dating the
+national flag. The Negro soldier helped to evolve the national
+standard and was in the ranks of the fighting men over whom it first
+unfolded its broad stripes and glittering stars.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>[Transcriber's Note: This footnote appeared in the text
+without a footnote anchor:</p>
+
+<p>"To the Honorable General Court of the Massachusetts Bay:</p>
+
+<p>"The subscribers beg leave to report to your Honorable
+House, which we do in justice to the character of so brave a
+man, that, under our own observation, we declare that a
+Negro man called Salem Poor, of Col. Frye's regiment, Capt.
+Ames' company, in the late battle at Charlestown, behaved
+like an experienced officer, as well as an excellent
+soldier. We would only beg leave to say, in the person of
+this said Negro centres a brave and gallant soldier. The
+reward due to so great and distinguished a character we
+submit to the Congress.</p>
+
+<p>"Cambridge, Dec. 5, 1775."</p>
+
+<p>These black soldiers, fresh from heathen lands, not out of
+slavery, proved themselves as worthy as the best. In the
+battle of Bunker Hill, where all were brave, two Negro
+soldiers so distinguished themselves that their names have
+come down to us garlanded with the tributes of their
+contemporaries. Peter Salem, until then a slave, a private
+in Colonel Nixon's regiment of Continentals, without orders
+fired deliberately upon Major Pitcairn as he was leading the
+assault of the British to what appeared certain victory.
+Everet in speaking "of Prescott, Putnam and Warren, the
+chiefs of the day," mentions in immediate connection "the
+colored man, Salem, who is reported to have shot the gallant
+Pitcairn as he mounted the parapet." What Salem Poor did is
+not set forth, but the following is the wreath of praise
+that surrounds his name:</p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table summary="Signers">
+<tr>
+<td>Jona. Brewer, Col.</td>
+<td>Eliphalet Bodwell, Sgt.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Thomas Nixon, Lt.-Col.</td>
+<td>Josiah Foster, Lieut.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Wm. Precott, Col.</td>
+<td>Ebenr. Varnum, 2d Lieut.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Ephm. Corey, Lieut.</td>
+<td>Wm. Hudson Ballard, Capt.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Joseph Baker, Lieut.</td>
+<td>William Smith, Capt.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Joshua Row, Lieut.</td>
+<td>John Morton, Sergt. (?)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Jonas Richardson, Capt.</td>
+<td>Richard Welsh, Lieut.]</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page64" id="page64"></a>[pg 64]</span>
+</p>
+<p>It is in place here to mention a legion of free mulattoes and blacks
+from the Island of St. Domingo, a full account of whose services is
+appended to this section, who fought under D'Estaing with great
+distinction in the siege of Savannah, their bravery at that time
+saving the patriot army from annihilation.</p>
+
+<p>When the Revolutionary War had closed the brave black soldier who had
+fought to give to the world a new flag whose every star should be a
+star of hope to the oppressed, and whose trinity of colors should
+symbolize Liberty,
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'Equalty'">Equality</ins> and Fraternity, found his race, and in
+some instances himself personally, encased in a cruel and stubborn
+slavery. For the soldier himself special provision had been made in
+both Northern and Southern colonies, but it was not always hearty or
+effective. In October, 1783, the Virginia Legislature passed an act
+for the relief of certain slaves who had served in the army
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page65" id="page65"></a>[pg 65]</span>
+whose
+"former owners were trying to force to return to a state of servitude,
+contrary to the principles of justice and their solemn promise." The
+act provided that each and every slave who had enlisted "by the
+appointment and direction of his owner" and had "been received as a
+substitute for any free person whose duty or lot it was to serve" and
+who had served faithfully during the term of such enlistment, unless
+lawfully discharged earlier, should be fully and completely
+emancipated and should be held and deemed free in as full and ample
+manner as if each and every one of them were specially named in the
+act. The act, though apparently so fair on its face, and interlarded
+as it is with patriotic and moral phrases, is nevertheless very narrow
+and technical, liberating only those who enlisted by the appointment
+and direction of their owners, and who were accepted as substitutes,
+and who came out of the army with good discharges. It is not hard to
+see that even under this act many an ex-soldier might end his days in
+slavery. The Negro had joined in the fight for freedom and when
+victory is won finds himself a slave. He was both a slave and a
+soldier, too often, during the war; and now at its close may be both a
+veteran and a slave.</p>
+
+<p>The second war with Great Britain broke out with an incident in which
+the Negro in the navy was especially conspicuous. The Chesapeake, an
+American war vessel was hailed, fired upon and forced to strike her
+colors, by the British. She was then boarded and searched and four
+persons taken from her decks, claimed as deserters from the English
+navy. Three of these were Negroes and one white. The Negroes were
+finally dismissed with a reprimand and the white man hanged. Five
+years later hostilities began on land and no opposition was manifested
+toward the employment of Negro soldiers. Laws were passed, especially
+in New York, authorizing the formation of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page66" id="page66"></a>[pg 66]</span>
+regiments of blacks with
+white officers. It is remarkable that although the successful
+insurrection of St. Domingo was so recent, and many refugees from that
+country at that time were in the United States, and our country had
+also but lately come into possession of a large French element by the
+Louisiana purchase, there was no fear of a servile insurrection in
+this country. The free colored men of New Orleans, under the
+proclamation of the narrow-minded Jackson, rallied to the defence of
+that city and bore themselves with commendable valor in that useless
+battle. The war closed, however, and the glory of the Negro soldier
+who fought in it soon expired in the dismal gloom of a race-slavery
+becoming daily more wide-spread and hopeless.</p>
+
+<p>John Brown's movement was military in character and contemplated the
+creation of an army of liberated slaves; but its early suppression
+prevented any display of Negro valor or genius. Its leader must ever
+receive the homage due those who are so moved by the woes of others as
+to overlook all considerations of policy and personal risk. As a plot
+for the destruction of life it fell far short of the Nat Turner
+insurrection which swept off fifty-seven persons within a few hours.
+In purpose the two episodes agree. They both aim at the liberation of
+the slave; both were led by fanatics, the reflex production of the
+cruelty of slavery, and both ended in the melancholy death of their
+heroic leaders. Turner's was the insurrection of the slave and was not
+free from the mad violence of revenge; Brown's was the insurrection of
+the friend of the slave, and was governed by the high and noble
+purpose of freedom. The insurrections of Denmark Vesey in South
+Carolina, in 1822, and of Nat Turner, in Virginia, in 1831, show
+conclusively that the Negro slave possessed the courage, the cunning,
+the secretiveness and the intelligence to fight for his freedom.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page67" id="page67"></a>[pg 67]</span>
+
+These two attempts were sufficiently broad and intelligent, when taken
+into consideration with the enforced ignorance of the slave, to prove
+the Negro even in his forlorn condition capable of daring great
+things. Of the probable thousands who were engaged in the Denmark
+Vesey insurrection, only fifteen were convicted, and these died
+heroically without revealing anything connected with the plot.
+Forty-three years later I met the son of Denmark Vesey, who rejoiced
+in the efforts of his noble father, and regarded his death on the
+gallows as a holy sacrifice to the cause of freedom. Turner describes
+his fight as follows: "The white men, eighteen in number, approached
+us to about one hundred yards, when one of them fired, and I
+discovered about half of them retreating. I then ordered my men to
+fire and rush on them. The few remaining stood their ground until we
+approached within fifty yards, when they fired and retreated. We
+pursued and overtook some of them whom we thought we left dead. After
+pursuing them about two hundred yards, and rising a little hill, I
+discovered they were met by another party, and had halted and were
+reloading their guns. Thinking that those who retreated first and the
+party who fired on us at fifty or sixty yards distant had all only
+fallen back to meet others with ammunition, as I saw them reloading
+their guns, and more coming up than I saw at first, and several of my
+bravest men being wounded, the others became panic struck and
+scattered over the field. The white men pursued and fired on us
+several times. Hark had his horse shot under him, and I caught another
+for him that was running by me; five or six of my men were wounded,
+but none left on the field. Finding myself defeated here, I instantly
+determined to go through a private way and cross the Nottoway River at
+Cypress Bridge, three miles below Jerusalem, and attack that place in
+the rear, as I expected
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page68" id="page68"></a>[pg 68]</span>
+they would look for me on the other road, and
+I had a great desire to get there to procure arms and ammunition.
+After going a short distance in this private way, accompanied by about
+twenty men, I overtook two or three who told me the others were
+dispersed in every direction. After trying in vain to collect a
+sufficient force to proceed to Jerusalem, I determined to return, as I
+was sure they would make back to their old neighborhood, where they
+would rejoin me, make new recruits, and come down again. On my way
+back I called on Mrs. Thomas', Mrs. Spencer's and several other
+places. We stopped at Major Ridley's quarters for the night, and being
+joined by four of his men, with the recruits made since my defeat, we
+mustered now about forty strong.</p>
+
+<p>After placing out sentinels, I lay down to sleep, but was quickly
+aroused by a great racket. Starting up I found some mounted and others
+in great confusion, one of the sentinels having given the alarm that
+we were about to be attacked. I ordered some to ride around and
+reconnoitre, and on their return the others being more alarmed, not
+knowing who they were, fled in different ways, so that I was reduced
+to about twenty again. With this I determined to attempt to recruit,
+and proceed on to rally in the neighborhood I had left."<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>No one can read this account, which is thoroughly supported by
+contemporary testimony, without seeing in this poor misguided slave
+the elements of a vigorous captain. Failing in his efforts he made his
+escape and remained for two months in hiding in the vicinity of his
+pursuers. One concerned in his prosecution says: "It has been said
+that he was ignorant and cowardly and that his object was to murder
+and rob for the purpose of obtaining money to make his escape. It is
+notorious
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page69" id="page69"></a>[pg 69]</span>
+that he was never known to have a dollar in his life, to
+swear an oath, or drink a drop of spirits. As to his ignorance, he
+certainly never had the advantages of education, but he can read and
+write (it was taught him by his parents) and for natural intelligence
+and quickness of apprehension, is surpassed by few men I have ever
+seen. As to his being a coward, his reason as given for not resisting
+Mr. Phipps shows the decision of his character."<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>The War of the Rebellion, now called the Civil War, effected the last
+and tremendous step in the transition of the American Negro from the
+position of a slave under the Republic to that of a soldier in its
+armies. Both under officers of his own race at Port Hudson and under
+white officers on a hundred battlefields, the Negro in arms proved
+himself a worthy foeman against the bravest and sternest enemies that
+ever assailed our nation's flag, and a worthy comrade of the Union's
+best defenders. Thirty-six thousand eight hundred and forty-seven of
+them gave their lives in that awful conflict. The entire race on this
+continent and those of allied blood throughout the world are indebted
+to the soldier-historian, Honorable George W. Williams, for the
+eloquent story of their service in the Union Army, and for the
+presentation of the high testimonials to the valor and worthiness of
+the colored soldier as given by the highest military authority of the
+century. From Chapter XVI of his book, "Negro Troops in the
+Rebellion," the paragraphs appended at the close of this chapter are
+quoted.</p><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page70" id="page70"></a>[pg 70]</span>
+</p>
+
+
+<p><b>A.</b></p>
+
+<p class="heading">HOW THE BLACK ST. DOMINGO LEGION SAVED THE PATRIOT ARMY IN THE SIEGE
+OF SAVANNAH, 1779.</p>
+
+<p>The siege and attempted reduction of Savannah by the combined French
+and American forces is one of the events of our revolutionary war,
+upon which our historians care little to dwell. Because it reflects
+but little glory upon the American arms, and resulted so disastrously
+to the American cause, its important historic character and
+connections have been allowed to fade from general sight; and it
+stands in the ordinary school text-books, much as an affair of shame.
+The following, quoted from Barnes' History, is a fair sample of the
+way in which it is treated:</p>
+
+<p>"French-American Attack on Savannah.&mdash;In September, D'Estaing joined
+Lincoln in besieging that city. After a severe bombardment, an
+unsuccessful assault was made, in which a thousand lives were lost.
+Count Pulaski was mortally wounded. The simple-hearted Sergeant Jasper
+died grasping the banner presented to his regiment at Fort Moultrie.
+D'Estaing refused to give further aid; thus again deserting the
+Americans when help was most needed."</p>
+
+<p>From this brief sketch the reader is at liberty to infer that the
+attack was unwise if not fool-hardy; that the battle was unimportant;
+and that the conduct of Count D'Estaing immediately after the battle
+was unkind, if not unjust, to the Americans. While the paragraph does
+not pretend to tell the whole truth, what it does tell ought to be the
+truth; and this ought to be told in such a way as to give correct
+impressions. The attack upon Savannah was well-planned and thoroughly
+well considered; and it failed only because the works were so ably
+defended, chiefly by British regulars, under brave and skillful
+officers. In a remote way, which it is the purpose of this paper to
+trace, that sanguinary struggle had a wider bearing upon the progress
+of liberty in the Western World than any other one battle fought
+during the Revolution.</p>
+
+<p>But first let us listen to the story of the battle itself. Colonel
+Campbell with a force of three thousand men, captured Savannah in
+December, 1778; and in the January following, General Prevost arrived,
+and by March had established a sort of civil government in Georgia,
+Savannah being the capital. In
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page71" id="page71"></a>[pg 71]</span>
+ April, the American general, Lincoln,
+feeble in more senses than one, perhaps, began a movement against
+Savannah by way of Augusta; but Prevost, aware of his purpose, crossed
+into South Carolina and attempted an attack upon Charleston. Finding
+the city too well defended, he contented himself with ravaging the
+plantations over a wide extent of adjacent country, and returned to
+Savannah laden with rich spoils, among which were included three
+thousand slaves, of whose labor he made good use later.</p>
+
+<p>The patriots of the South now awaited in hope the coming of the French
+fleet; and on the first of September, Count D'Estaing appeared
+suddenly on the coast of Georgia with thirty-three sail, surprised and
+captured four British warships, and announced to the government of
+South Carolina his readiness to assist in the recapture of Savannah.
+He urged as a condition, however, that his ships should not be
+detained long off so dangerous a coast, as is was now the hurricane
+season, and there was neither harbor, road, nor offing for their
+protection.</p>
+
+<p>By means of small vessels sent from Charleston he effected a landing
+in ten days, and four days thereafter, on the 16th, he summoned the
+garrison to surrender to the arms of France. Although this demand was
+made in the name of France for the plain reason that the American army
+was not yet upon the spot, the loyalists did not fail to make it a
+pretext for the accusation that the French were desirous of making
+conquests in the war on their own account. In the meantime Lincoln
+with the regular troops, was hurrying toward Savannah, and had issued
+orders for the militia to rendezvous at the same place; and the
+militia full of hope of a speedy, if not of a bloodless conquest, were
+entering upon this campaign with more than ordinary enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>During the time that the fleet had been off the coast, and especially
+since the landing, the British had been very busy in putting the city
+in a high state of defence, and in making efforts to strengthen the
+garrison. Lieutenant-colonel Cruger, who had a small force at Sunbury,
+the last place in Georgia that had been captured by the British, and
+Lieutenant-colonel Maitland who was commanding a considerable force at
+Beaufort, were ordered to report in haste with their commands at
+Savannah. On the 16th, when the summons to surrender was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page72" id="page72"></a>[pg 72]</span>
+received by
+Prevost, Maitland had not arrived, but was hourly expected. Prevost
+asked for a delay of twenty-four hours to consider the proposal, which
+delay was granted; and on that very evening, Maitland with his force
+arrived at Dawfuskie. Finding the river in the possession of the
+French, his course for a time seemed effectually cut off. By the
+merest chance he fell in with some Negro fishermen who informed him of
+a passage known as Wall's cut, through Scull's creek, navigable for
+small boats. A favoring tide and a dense fog enabled him to conduct
+his command unperceived by the French, through this route, and thus
+arrive in Savannah on the afternoon of the 17th, before the expiration
+of the twenty-four hours. General Prevost had gained his point; and
+now believing himself able to resist an assault, declined the summons
+to surrender. Two armed ships and four transports were sunk in the
+channel of the river below the city, and a boom in the same place laid
+entirely across the river; while several small boats were sunk above
+the town, thus rendering it impossible for the city to be approached
+by water.</p>
+
+<p>On the day of the summons to surrender, although the works were
+otherwise well advanced, there were not ten cannon mounted in the
+lines of Savannah; but from that time until the day of assault, the
+men of the garrison, with the slaves they had captured, worked day and
+night to get the defences of the city in the highest state of
+excellence. Major Moncrief, chief of the engineers, is credited with
+placing in position more than eighty cannons in a short time after the
+call to surrender had been received.</p>
+
+<p>The city itself at this time was but a mere village of frame buildings
+and unpaved streets. Viewed as facing its assailants, it was protected
+in its rear, or upon its north side, by the Savannah river; and on its
+west side by a thick swamp or morass, which communicated with the
+river above the city. The exposed sides were those of the east and
+south. These faced an open country which for several miles was
+entirely clear of woods. This exposed portion of the city was well
+protected by an unbroken line of defences extending from the river
+back to the swamp, the right and left extremes of the line consisting
+of strong redoubts, while the centre was made up of seamen's batteries
+in front, with impalements and traverses thrown up to protect the
+troops from the fire of the besiegers. The whole extent of the works
+was faced with an ample abattis.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/image07.png" width="450" height="253" alt="Savannah River." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Savannah River.</span>
+</div><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page73" id="page73"></a>[pg 73]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>To be still more particular: there were three redoubts on the right of
+the line, and on the right of them quite near the swamp, was a
+sailor's battery of nine pounders, covered by a company of the British
+legion. The left redoubt of these three, was known as the Springhill
+redoubt; and proved to be the objective of the final assault. Between
+it and the centre, was another sailor's battery behind which were
+posted the grenadiers of the 60th regiment, with the marines which had
+been landed from the warships. On the left of the line near the river
+were two redoubts, strongly constructed, with a massy frame of green
+spongy wood, filled in with sand, and mounted with heavy cannon. The
+centre, or space between these groups of redoubts, was composed, as
+has been said, of lighter but nevertheless very effective works, and
+was strongly garrisoned.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus scanned the works, let us now take a glance at the men who
+are to defend them. As all of the assaulting forces are not made up of
+Americans, so all of the defenders are not foreigners. The centre
+redoubt of the triplet on the right, was garrisoned by two companies
+of militia, with the North Carolina regiment to support them; Captains
+Roworth and Wylie, with the provincial corps of King's Rangers, were
+posted in the redoubt on the right; and Captain Tawse with his corps
+of provincial dragons, dismounted, in the left or Springhill redoubt,
+supported by the South Caroline regiment. The whole of this force on
+the right of the line, was under the command of the gallant
+Lieutenant-colonel Maitland; and it was this force that made the
+charge that barely failed of annihilating the American army. On the
+left of the line, the Georgia loyalists garrisoned one of those massy
+wooden sand-filled redoubts; while in the centre, cheek by jowl so to
+speak, with two battalions of the seventy-first regiment, and two
+regiments of Hessians, stood the New York Volunteers. All of these
+corps were ready to act as circumstances should require and to support
+any part of the line that might be attacked. The Negroes who worked on
+these defences were under the direction of Major Moncrief.</p>
+
+<p>The French troops had landed below the city and were formed facing the
+British lines, with the river on their right.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page74" id="page74"></a>[pg 74]</span>
+ On their left, later,
+assembled the American troops. The final dispositions were concluded
+by September 22nd, and were as follows: The American troops under
+Lincoln formed the left of the line, their left resting upon the swamp
+and the entire division facing the Springhill redoubt and her two
+sister defences; then came the division of M. de Noailles, composed of
+nine hundred men. D'Estaing's division of one thousand men beside the
+artillery, came next, and formed the centre of the French army. On
+D'Estaing's right was Count Dillon's division of nine hundred men; on
+the right of Dillon were the powder magazine, cattle depot, and a
+small field hospital; on the right of the depot and a little in
+advance, were Dejean's dragoons, numbering fifty men; upon the same
+alignment and to the right of the dragoons were Rouvrais' Volunteer
+Chasseurs, numbering seven hundred and fifty men; still further on to
+the right and two hundred yards in advance of Rouvrais, was Framais,
+comanding the Grenadier Volunteers, and two hundred men besides, his
+right resting upon the swampy wood that bordered the river, thus
+completely closing in the city on the land side. The frigate, La
+Truite, and two galleys, lay within cannon shot of the town, and with
+the aid of the armed store ship, La Bricole, and the frigate, La
+Chimere, effectually cut off all communication by water.</p>
+
+<p>On the 23rd, both the French and the Americans opened their trenches;
+and on the 24th, a small detachment of the besieged made a sortie
+against the French. The attack was easily repulsed, but the French
+pursuing, approached so near the entrenchments of the enemy that they
+were fired upon and several were killed. On the night of the 27th
+another sortie was made which threw the besiegers into some confusion
+and caused the French and Americans to fire upon each other.
+Cannonading continued with but little result until October 8th.</p>
+
+<p>The engineers were now of the opinion that a speedy reduction of the
+city could not be accomplished by regular approaches; and the naval
+officers were very anxious about the fleet, both because of the
+dangers to which it was exposed from the sea, and also because with so
+many men ashore it was in especial danger of being attacked and
+captured by British men-of-war. These representations agreeing
+altogether with D'Estaing's previously expressed wishes to leave the
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page75" id="page75"></a>[pg 75]</span>
+coast as soon as possible, induced that officer and General Lincoln
+to decide upon an attempt to storm the British works at once. It is
+quite probable that this had been the purpose as a last resort from
+the first. The preservation of the fleet was, however, the powerful
+factor in determining the time and character of the assault upon
+Savannah.</p>
+
+<p>On the night of the eighth, Major L'Enfant, with a detachment
+attempted to set fire to the abattis in order to clear the way for the
+assault, but failed to through the dampness of the wood. The plan of
+the assault may be quite accurately obtained from the orders given to
+the American troops on the evening of the 8th by General Lincoln and
+from the inferences to be drawn from the events of the morning of the
+9th as they are recorded in history. At least two of the historians
+who have left us accounts of the seige, Ramsey and McCall, were
+present at the time, and their accounts may be regarded as original
+authority. General Lincoln's orders were as follows:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+"Evening Orders. By General Lincoln.<br />
+Watchword&mdash;Lewis.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"The soldiers will be immediately supplied with 40 rounds of
+cartridges, a spare flint, and have their arms in good
+order. The infantry destined for the attack of Savannah will
+be divided into two bodies; first composed of the light
+troops under the command of Colonel Laurens; the second, of
+the continental battalions and the first battalion of the
+Charleston militia, except the grenadiers, who are to join
+the light troops. The whole will parade at 1 o'clock, near
+the left of the line, and march by platoons. The guards of
+the camp will be formed of the invalids, and be charged to
+keep the fires as usual in camp.</p>
+
+<p>"The cavalry under the command of Count Pulaski, will parade
+at the same time with the infantry and follow the left
+column of the French troops, precede the column of the
+American light troops; they will endeavor to penetrate the
+enemy's lines between the battery on the left of Springhill
+redoubt, and the next towards the river; having effected
+this, will pass to the left towards Yamacraw and secure such
+parties of the enemy as may be lodged in that quarter.</p>
+
+<p>"The artillery will parade at the same time, follow the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page76" id="page76"></a>[pg 76]</span>
+
+French artillery, and remain with the corps de reserve until
+they receive further orders.</p>
+
+<p>"The whole will be ready by the time appointed, with the
+utmost silence and punctuality; and be ready to march the
+instant Count Dillon and General Lincoln shall order.</p>
+
+<p>"The light troops who are to follow the cavalry, will
+attempt to enter the redoubt on the left of the Springhill,
+by escalade if possible; if not by entrance into it, they
+are to be supported if necessary by the first South Carolina
+regiment; in the meantime the column will proceed with the
+lines to the left of the Springhill battery.</p>
+
+<p>"The light troops having succeeded against the redoubt will
+proceed to the left and attempt the several works between
+that and the river.</p>
+
+<p>"The column will move to the left of the French troops,
+taking care not to interfere with them.</p>
+
+<p>"The light troops having carried the work towards the river
+will form on the left of the column.</p>
+
+<p>"It is especially forbidden to fire a single gun before the
+redoubts are carried; or for any soldier to quit his rank to
+plunder without an order for that purpose; any who shall
+presume to transgress in either of these respects shall be
+reputed a disobeyer of military orders which is punishable
+with death.</p>
+
+<p>"The militia of the first and second brigades, General
+Williamson's and the second battalion of the Charleston
+militia will parade immediately under the command of General
+Huger; after draughting five hundred of them the remander of
+them will go into the trenches and put themselves under the
+commanding officer there; with the 500 he will march to the
+left of the enemy's line, remain as near them as he possibly
+can without being seen, until four o'clock in the morning,
+at which time the troops in the trenches will begin an
+attack upon the enemy; he will then advance and make his
+attack as near the river as possible; though this is only
+meant as a feint, yet should a favorable opportunity offer,
+he will improve it and push into the town.</p>
+
+<p>"In case of a repulse after taking Springhill redoubt, the
+troops will retreat and rally in the rear of redoubt; if it
+cannot be effected that way, it must be attempted by the
+same route at which they entered.</p><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page77" id="page77"></a>[pg 77]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>"The second place of rallying (or the first if the redoubt
+should not be carried) will be at the Jews' burying-ground,
+where the reserve will be placed; if these two halts should
+not be effected, they will retire towards camp.</p>
+
+<p>"The troops will carry in their hats a piece of white paper
+by which they will be distinguished."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>General Huger with his five hundred militia, covered by the river
+swamp, crept quite close to the enemy's lines and delivered his attack
+as directed. Its purpose was to draw attention to that quarter and if
+possible cause a weakening of the strength in the left centre of the
+line. What its real effect was, there is now no means of knowing.</p>
+
+<p>Count Dillon, who during the siege had been on D'Estaing's right, and
+who appears to have been second in command in the French army, in this
+assault was placed in command of a second attacking column. His
+purpose was to move to the right of General Huger, and keeping in the
+edge of the swamps along the river, steal past the enemy's batteries
+on the left, and attack him in the rear. Bancroft describes the
+results of his efforts as follows: "The column under Count Dillon,
+which was to have attacked the rear of the British lines, became
+entangled in a swamp of which it should only have skirted the edge was
+helplessly exposed to the British batteries and could not even be
+formed." Here were the two strong sand-filled redoubts, mounted with
+heavy cannon, and these may have been the batteries that stopped
+Dillon's column.</p>
+
+<p>Count Pulaski with his two hundred brave cavalrymen, undertook his
+part in the deadly drama with ardor, and began that perilous ride
+which had for its object: "to penetrate the enemy's lines, between the
+battery on the left of the Springhill redoubt, and the next towards
+the river." Balch describes it as an attempt to "penetrate into the
+city by galloping between the redoubts." It was the anticipation of
+the Crimean "Charge of the Light Brigade;" only in this case, no one
+blundered; it was simply a desperate chance. Cannon were to the right,
+left, and front, and the heroic charge proved in vain; the noble Pole
+fell, banner<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> in hand, pierced with a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page78" id="page78"></a>[pg 78]</span>
+mortal wound&mdash;another foreign
+martyr to our dearly bought freedom.</p>
+
+<p>The cavalry dash having failed, that much of the general plan was
+blotted out. The feints may have been understood; it is said a
+sergeant of the Charleston Grenadiers deserted during the night of the
+8th and gave the whole plan of the attack to General Prevost, so that
+he knew just where to strengthen his lines. The feints were
+effectually checked by the garrison on the left, twenty-eight of the
+Americans being killed: while Dillon's column was stopped by the
+batteries near the river. This state of affairs allowed the whole of
+Maitland's force to protect the Springhill redoubt and that part of
+the line which was most threatened. The Springhill redoubt, as has
+been stated, was occupied by the South Carolina regiment and a corps
+of dragoons. This circumstance may account for the fact, that while
+the three hundred and fifty Charleston militia occupied a most exposed
+position in the attacking column, only one man among them was killed
+and but six wounded. The battery on the left of this redoubt was
+garrisoned by grenadiers and marines.</p>
+
+<p>The attacking column now advanced boldly, under the command
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page79" id="page79"></a>[pg 79]</span>
+of
+D'Estaing and Lincoln, the Americans consisting of six hundred
+continental troops and three hundred and fifty Charleston militia,
+being on the left, while the centre and right were made up of the
+French forces. They were met with so severe and steady a fire that the
+head of the column was soon thrown into confusion. They endured this
+fire for fifty-five minutes, returning it as best they could, although
+many of the men had no opportunity to fire at all. Two American
+standards and one French standard, were placed on the British works,
+but their bearers were instantly killed. It being found impossible to
+carry any part of the works, a general retreat was ordered. Of the six
+hundred continental troops, more than one-third had fallen, and about
+one-fifth of the French. The Charleston militia had not suffered,
+although they had bravely borne their part in the assault, and it had
+certainly been no fault of theirs if their brethren behind the
+embankments had not fired upon them. Count D'Estaing had received two
+wounds, one in the thigh, and being unable to move, was saved by the
+young naval lieutenant Truguet. Ramsey gives the losses of the battle
+as follows: French soldiers 760; officers 61; Americans 312; total
+1133.</p>
+
+<p>As the army began its retreat, Lieutenant-colonel Maitland with the
+grenadiers and marines, who were incorporated with the grenadiers,
+charged its rear with the purpose of accomplishing its annihilation.
+It was then that there occurred the most brilliant feat of the day,
+and one of the bravest ever performed by foreign troops in the
+American cause. In the army of D'Estaing was a legion of black and
+mulatto freedmen, known as Fontages Legion, commanded by Vicount de
+Fontages, a brave and experienced officer. The strength of this legion
+is given variously from six hundred to over eight hundred men. This
+legion met the fierce charge of Maitland and saved the retreating
+army.</p>
+
+<p>In an official record prepared in Paris, now before me, are these
+words: "This legion saved the army at Savannah by bravely covering its
+retreat. Among the blacks who rendered signal services at that time
+were: Andre, Beauvais, Rigaud, Villatte, Beauregard, Lambert, who
+latterly became generals under the convention, including Henri
+Christophe, the future king of Haiti." This quotation is taken from a
+paper secured by the Honorable Richard Rush, our minister to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page80" id="page80"></a>[pg 80]</span>
+Paris in
+1849, and is preserved in the Pennsylvania Historical Society. Henri
+Christophe received a dangerous gunshot wound in Savannah. Balch says
+in speaking of Fontages at Savannah: "He commanded there a legion of
+mulattoes, according to my manuscript, of more than eight hundred men,
+and saved the army after the useless assault on the fortifications, by
+bravely covering the retreat."</p>
+
+<p>It was this legion that formed the connecting link between the siege
+of Savannah and the wide development of republican liberty on the
+Western continent, which followed early in the present century. In
+order to show this connection and the sequences, it will be necessary
+to sketch in brief the
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'histor'">history</ins>
+of this remarkable body of men,
+especially that of the prominent individuals who distinguished
+themselves at Savannah.</p>
+
+<p>In 1779 the French colony of Saint Domingo was in a state of peace,
+the population then consisting of white slave-holders, mulatto and
+black freedmen (affranchis), and slaves. Count D'Estaing received
+orders to recruit men from Saint Domingo for the auxiliary army; and
+there being no question of color raised, received into the service a
+legion of colored freedmen. There had been for years a colored militia
+in Saint Domingo, and as early as 1716, the Marquis de Chateau Morant,
+then governor of the colony, made one Vincent the Captain-general of
+all the colored militia in the vicinity of the Cape. This Captain
+Vincent died in 1780 at the reputed age of 120 years. He was certainly
+of great age, for he had been in the siege of Carthegenia in 1697, was
+taken prisoner, afterwards liberated by exchange and presented to
+Louis XIV, and fought in the German war under Villars. Moreau de St.
+Mery, in his description of Vincent, incidentally mentions the
+Savannah expedition. He says: "I saw him (Vincent) the year preceding
+his death, recalling his ancient prowess to the men of color who were
+enrolling themselves for the expedition to Savannah; and showing in
+his descendants who were among the first to offer themselves, that he
+had transmitted his valor. Vincent, the good Captain Vincent, had a
+most pleasing countenance; and the contrast of his black skin with his
+white hair produced an effect that always commanded respect."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/image08.png" width="450" height="337" alt="Hutchinson Island." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Hutchinson Island.</span>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page81" id="page81"></a>[pg 81]</span></p>
+
+<p>The Haytian historian, Enclus Robin, says when the call for volunteers
+reached Saint Domingo: "eight hundred young freedmen, blacks and
+mulattoes, offered themselves to take part in the expedition;" that
+they went and "fought valiantly; and returned to Saint Domingo covered
+with glory." Madiou, another Haytian historian of the highest
+respectability says: "A crowd of young men, black and colored,
+enlisted with the French troops and left for the continent. They
+covered themselves with glory in the siege of Savannah, under the
+orders of Count D'Estaing."</p>
+
+<p>What effect this experience had upon these volunteers may be inferred
+from their subsequent history. Robin says: "These men who contributed
+their mite toward American independence, had still their mothers and
+sisters in slavery; and they themselves were subject to humiliating
+discriminations. Should not France have expected from that very
+moment, that they would soon use in their own cause, those very arms
+which they had learned so well to use in the interests of others?"
+Madiou says: "On their return to Saint Domingo they demanded for their
+brothers the enjoyment of political rights." Beauvais went to Europe
+and served in the army of France; but returned to fight for liberty in
+Hayti, and was Captain-general in 1791; Rigaud, Lambert and Christophe
+wrote their names&mdash;not in the sand. These are the men who dared to
+stir Saint Domingo, under whose
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'infleunce'">influence</ins>
+Hayti became the first
+country of the New World, after the United States, to throw off
+European rule. The connection between the siege of Savannah and the
+independence of Hayti is traced, both as to its spirit, and
+physically, through the black legion that on that occasion saved the
+American army. How this connection is traced to the republics of South
+America, I will allow a Haytian statesman and man of letters, honored
+both at home and abroad, to relate. I translate from a work published
+in Paris in 1885:</p>
+
+<p>"The illustrious Bolivar, liberator and founder of five republics in
+South America, undertook in 1811 his great work of shaking off the
+yoke of Spain, and of securing the independence of those immense
+countries which swelled the pride of the catholic crown&mdash;but failed.
+Stripped of all resources he took flight and repaired to Jamaica,
+where he implored in vain of the governor of that island, the help of
+England. Almost in despair, and without means, he resolved to visit
+Hayti, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page82" id="page82"></a>[pg 82]</span>
+appeal to the generosity of the black Republic for the
+help necessary to again undertake that work of liberation which had
+gone to pieces in his hands. Never was there a more solemn hour for
+any man&mdash;and that man the representative of the destiny of South
+America! Could he hope for success? After the English, who had every
+interest in the destruction of Spanish colonial power, had treated him
+with so much indifference, could he hope that a new-born nation, weak,
+with microscopic territory, and still guarding anxiously its own
+ill-recognized independence, would risk itself in an enterprise
+hazardous as the one he represented? Full of doubt he came; but Petion
+gave him a most cordial welcome.</p>
+
+<p>"Taking the precautions that a legitimate sentiment of prudence
+dictated at that delicate moment of our national existence, the
+government of Port-au-Prince put to the disposition of the hero of
+Boyaca and Carabobo, all the elements of which he had need&mdash;and
+Bolivar needed everything. Men, arms and money were generously given
+him. Petion did not wish to act openly for fear of compromising
+himself with the Spanish government; it was arranged that the men
+should embark secretly as volunteers; and that no mention of Hayti
+should ever be made in any official act of Venezuela."</p>
+
+<p>Bolivar's first expedition with his Haytian volunteers was a failure;
+returning to the island he procured reinforcements and made a second
+descent which was brilliantly successful. Haytian arms, money and men
+turned Bolivar's disasters to victory; and the spirit of Western
+liberty marched on to the redemption of South America. The liberation
+of Mexico and all Central America, followed as a matter of course; and
+the ground was thus cleared for the practical application of that
+Continentalism enunciated in the Monroe doctrine.</p>
+
+<p>The black men of the Antilles who fought in the siege of Savannah,
+enjoy unquestionably the proud historical distinction of being the
+physical conductors that bore away from our altars the sacred fire of
+liberty to rekindle it in their own land; and also of becoming the
+humble but important link that served to unite the Two Americas in the
+bond of enlightened independence.</p>
+
+<p class="author">T.G. STEWARD, U.S.A.</p>
+
+<p>Note:&mdash;In the preparation of the above paper I have been greatly
+assisted by the Honorable L.J. Janvier, Charge d'affairs
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page83" id="page83"></a>[pg 83]</span>
+d' Haiti, in
+London; by Right Reverend James Theodore Holly, bishop of Hayti, and
+by Messrs. Charles and Frank Rudolph Steward of Harvard University. To
+all of these gentlemen my thanks are here expressed. T.G.S.</p>
+
+<p>Paper read at the session of the Negro Academy, Washington, D.C.,
+1898.</p>
+
+
+<p><b>B.</b></p>
+
+<p class="heading">EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER XVI "NEGRO TROOPS IN THE REBELLION"&mdash;WILLIAMS.</p>
+
+<p>Adjutant-General Thomas in a letter to Senator Wilson, May 30, 1864,
+says: "Experience proves that they manage heavy guns very well. Their
+fighting qualities have also been fully tested a number of times, and
+I am yet to hear of the first case where they did not fully stand up
+to their work."</p>
+
+<p>Major-General James G. Blunt writing of the battle of Honey Springs,
+Arkansas, said of Negro troops: "The Negroes (First Colored Regiment)
+were too much for the enemy, and let me here say that I never saw such
+fighting as was done by that Negro regiment. They fought like
+veterans, with a coolness and valor that is unsurpassed. They
+preserved their line perfect throughout the whole engagement, and
+although in the hottest of the fight, they never once faltered. Too
+much praise cannot be awarded them for their gallantry. The question
+that Negroes will fight is settled; besides, they make better soldiers
+in every respect than any troops I have ever had under my command."</p>
+
+<p>General Thomas J. Morgan, speaking of the courage of Negro troops in
+the battle of Nashville, and its effect upon Major-General George H.
+Thomas, says: "Those who fell nearest the enemy's works were colored.
+General Thomas spoke very feelingly of the sight which met his eye as
+he rode over the field, and he confessed that the Negro had fully
+vindicated his bravery, and wiped from his mind the last vestige of
+prejudice and doubt."</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Confession of Nat Turner, Anglo-African Magazine, Vol. 1,
+p. 338, 1859.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Ibid.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> The presentation of this banner by the Moravian Nuns of
+Bethlehem forms the text of the poem by Longfellow beginning&mdash;
+</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">When the dying flame of day<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Through the chancel shot its ray,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Far the glimmering tapers shed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Faint light on the cowled head;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the censer burning swung<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where, before the altar, hung<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The crimson banner, that with prayer<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Had been consecrated there.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the nuns' sweet hymn was heard the while,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sung low in the dint, mysterious aisle,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">"Take thy banner! may it wave<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Proudly o'er the good and brave;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">When the battle's distant wail<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Breaks the Sabbath of our vale,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">When the cannon's music thrills<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To the hearts of those lone hills.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">When the spear in conflict shakes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And the strong lance shivering breaks.<br /></span>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' /><br />
+<span class="i2">"Take thy banner! and if e'er<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Thou should'st press the soldier's bier<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And the muffled drum shall beat<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To the tread of mournful feet,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Then the crimson flag shall be<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Martial cloak and shroud for thee."<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The warrior took that banner proud,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And it was his martial cloak and shroud.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page84" id="page84"></a>[pg 84]</span>
+</p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BLACK REGULARS OF THE ARMY OF INVASION IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN
+WAR.</h3>
+
+<p class="hang">Organization of Negro Regiments in the Regular Army&mdash;First
+Move in the War&mdash;Chickamauga and Tampa&mdash;Note.</p>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+  Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>Altogether the colored soldiers in the Civil War took part and
+sustained casualties in two hundred and fifty-one different
+engagements and came out of the prolonged conflict with their
+character so well established that up to the present hour they have
+been able to hold an important place in the Regular Army of the United
+States. No regiment of colored troops in the service was more renowned
+at the close of the war or has secured a more advantageous position in
+the history of that period than the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts
+Regiment of Infantry. Recruited among the free colored people of the
+North, many of them coming from Ohio, it was remarkable for the
+intelligence and character of its men, and for the high purpose and
+noble bearing of its officers. Being granted but half the pay per
+month given to white soldiers, the regiment to a man, for eighteen
+months refused to receive one cent from the Government. This was a
+spectacle that the country could not longer stand. One thousand
+volunteers fighting the country's battles without any compensation
+rather than submit to a discrimination fatal to their manhood, aroused
+such a sentiment that Congress was compelled to put them on the
+pay-roll on equal footing with all other soldiers. By them the
+question of the black soldier's pay and rations was settled in the
+Army of the United States
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page85" id="page85"></a>[pg 85]</span>
+for all time. Every soldier, indeed every
+man in the army, except the chaplain, now draws the pay of his grade
+without regard to color, hair or race. By the time these lines reach
+the public eye it is to be hoped that even the chaplain will be lifted
+from his exceptional position and given the pay belonging to his rank
+as captain.</p>
+
+<p>(February 2, 1901, the bill became a law giving chaplains the full pay
+of their grade.)</p>
+
+<p>More than 185,000 blacks, all told, served in the army of the Union
+during the War of the Rebellion, and the losses from their ranks of
+men killed in battle were as heavy as from the white troops. Their
+bravery was everywhere recognized, and in the short time in which they
+were employed, several rose to commissions.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the most notable act performed by a colored American during
+the war was the capture and delivery to the United States forces of
+the rebel steamer Planter, by Robert Smalls, of Charleston. Smalls was
+employed as pilot on the Planter, a rebel transport, and was entirely
+familiar with the harbors and inlets, of which there are many, on the
+South Atlantic coast. On May 13, 1862, the Planter came to her wharf
+in Charleston, and at night all the white officers went ashore,
+leaving a colored crew of eight men on board in charge of Smalls.
+Smalls hastily got his wife and three children on board, and at 2
+o'clock on the morning of the 14th steamed out into the harbor,
+passing the Confederate forts by giving the proper signals, and when
+fairly out of reach, as daylight came, he ran up the Stars and Stripes
+and headed his course directly toward the Union fleet, into whose
+hands he soon surrendered himself and his ship. The act caused much
+favorable comment and Robert Smalls became quite a hero. His
+subsequent career has been in keeping with the high promise indicated
+by this bold dash for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page86" id="page86"></a>[pg 86]</span>
+liberty, and his name has received additional
+lustre from gallant services performed in the war after, and in
+positions of distinguished honor and responsibility in civil life. The
+Planter, after being accepted by the United States, became a despatch
+boat, and Smalls demonstrating by skill and bravery his fitness for
+the position, was finally, as an act of imperative justice, made her
+commander.</p>
+
+<p>With the close of the Revolutionary War the prejudice against a
+standing army was so great that the army was reduced to scarce six
+hundred men, and the Negro as a soldier dropped out of existence. When
+the War of 1812 closed sentiment with regard to the army had made but
+little advancement, and consequently no place in the service was left
+for Negro soldiers. In the navy the Negro still lingered, doing
+service in the lower grades, and keeping up the succession from the
+black heroes of '76 and 1812. When the War of the Rebellion closed the
+country had advanced so far as to see both the necessity of a standing
+army, and the fitness of the Negro to form a part of the army; and
+from this position it has never receded, and if the lessons of the
+Cuban campaign are rightly heeded, it is not likely to recede
+therefrom. The value of the Regular Army and of the Black Regular were
+both proven to an absolute demonstration in that thin line of blue
+that compelled the surrender of Santiago.</p>
+
+<p>In July, 1866, Congress passed an act adding eight new regiments of
+infantry and four of calvary to the nineteen regiments of infantry and
+six of calvary of which those arms of the Regular Army were at that
+time composed, thus making the permanent establishment to consist of
+five regiments of artillery, twenty-seven of infantry, and ten of
+cavalry. Of the eight new infantry regiments to be formed, four were
+to be composed of colored men; and of the four proposed for the
+calvary arm,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page87" id="page87"></a>[pg 87]</span>
+two were to be of colored men. The President was
+empowered by the act also to appoint a chaplain for each of the six
+regiments of colored troops. Under this law the Ninth and Tenth
+Cavalry Regiments were organized.</p>
+
+<p>In 1869 the infantry suffered further reduction, and the four colored
+regiments organized under the law of 1866, numbered respectively the
+38th, 39th, 40th and 41st, were consolidated into two regiments, and
+numbered the 24th and 25th&mdash;the 38th and 41st becoming the former, and
+the 39th and 40th the latter. Previous to this consolidation the
+numbers between the old 19th and the 38th, which was the lowest number
+borne by the new colored regiments, were filled in by dividing the old
+three batallion regiments in the service, and making of the second and
+third batallions of these regiments new regiments. The whole infantry
+arm, by the law of 1869, was compressed into twenty-five regiments,
+and in that condition the army remains to the present, to wit:<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Ten
+regiments of cavalry, five of artillery and twenty-five of infantry.</p>
+
+<p>The number of men in a company and the number of companies in a
+regiment have varied greatly within the past few months. Just previous
+to the breaking out of the war a regiment of infantry consisted of
+eight companies of about sixty men each, and two skeletonized
+companies and the band&mdash;the whole organization carrying about five
+hundred men; now a regiment of infantry consists of twelve companies
+of 106 men each and with the non-commissioned staff numbers twelve
+hundred and seventy-four men.</p>
+
+<p>Since 1869, or for a period of thirty years, the colored American has
+been represented in the Regular Army by these four regiments and
+during this time these regiments have borne
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page88" id="page88"></a>[pg 88]</span>
+more than their
+proportionate share in hard frontier service, including all sorts of
+Indian campaigning and much severe guard and fatigue duty. The men
+have conducted themselves so worthily as to receive from the highest
+military authority the credit of being among our best troops. General
+Miles and General Merritt,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> with others who were active leaders in
+the Indian wars of the West, have been unstinting in their praise of
+the valor and skill of colored soldiers. They proved themselves not
+only good individual fighters, but in some instances non-commissioned
+officers exhibited marked coolness and ability in command.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
+
+<p>From 1869 to the beginning of the Hispano-American War there were in
+the Regular Army at some time, as commissioned officers, the following
+colored men, all from West Point, all serving with the cavalry, and
+none rising higher than first-lieutenant, viz: John H. Alexander, H.O.
+Flipper and Charles Young. H.O. Flipper was dismissed; Alexander died,
+and Young became major in the volunteer service, and was placed in
+command of the Ninth Battalion of Ohio Volunteers, discharging the
+duties of his position in such a manner as to command general
+satisfaction from his superior officers.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page89" id="page89"></a>[pg 89]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>These colored men while cadets at West Point endured hardships
+disgraceful to their country, and when entering the army were not
+given that cordial welcome by their brother officers, becoming an
+"officer and gentleman," both to give and to receive. Of course there
+were some noble exceptions, and this class of officers seems to be
+steadily increasing, so that now it is no longer necessary, even on
+the ground of expediency, to strive to adhere to the rule of only
+white men for army officers. Of Alexander and Young it can be said
+they have acquitted themselves well, the former enjoying the
+confidence and esteem of his associates up to the time of his early
+death&mdash;an event which caused deep regret&mdash;and the latter so impressing
+the Governor of his State and the President as to secure for himself
+the responsible position which he, at the time of this writing, so
+worthily fills. Besides these line officers, five colored chaplains
+have been appointed, all of whom have served successfully, one,
+however, being dismissed by court-martial after many years of really
+meritorious service, an event to be regretted, but by no means without
+parallel.</p>
+
+<p>Brief sketches of the history of these four colored regiments, as well
+as of the others, have been recently made by members of them and
+published in the Journal of the Military Service Institution and
+subsequently in a large and beautiful volume edited by
+Brigadier-General Theo. F. Rodenbough and Major William L. Haskin,
+published by the Institution and designated "The Army of the United
+States," a most valuable book of reference. From the sketches
+contained therein the following summary is given.</p>
+
+<p>The Twenty-fourth Infantry was organized, as we have seen, from the
+38th and 41st Regiments, these two regiments being at the time
+distributed in New Mexico, Louisiana and Texas, and the regiment
+remained in Texas from the time of its organization in 1869 until
+1880. Its first Lieutenant-Colonel was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page90" id="page90"></a>[pg 90]</span>
+ William R. Shafter. It was
+from this regiment and the Tenth Cavalry that the escort of Paymaster
+Wham was selected which made so brave a stand against a band of
+robbers that attacked the paymaster that several of them were given
+medals for distinguished gallantry, and others certificates of merit.
+The Twenty-fifth Infantry was organized in New Orleans out of the
+39th, that was brought from North Carolina for that purpose, and the
+40th, that was then in Louisiana. It was organized during the month of
+April, 1869, and early in 1870 moved to Texas, where it remained ten
+years. In 1880 it moved to the Department of Dakota and remained in
+the Northwest until it took the road for the Cuban war.</p>
+
+<p>The Ninth Cavalry was organized in New Orleans during the winter of
+1866-67. Its first Colonel was Edward Hatch and its first
+Lieutenant-Colonel Wesley Merritt. From 1867 to 1890 it was in almost
+constant Indian warfare, distinguishing itself by daring and
+hardihood. From 1890 to the opening of the Cuban war it remained in
+Utah and Nebraska, engaging in but one important campaign, that
+against hostile Sioux during the winter of 1890-91, in which, says the
+historian: "The regiment was the first in the field, in November, and
+the last to leave, late in the following March, after spending the
+winter, the latter part of which was terrible in its severity, under
+canvas."</p>
+
+<p>The Tenth Calvary was organized under the same law as was the Ninth,
+and at the same time. Its place of rendezvous was Fort Leavenworth,
+Kansas, and its first Colonel, Benjamin H. Grierson. This regiment was
+the backbone of the Geronimo campaign force, and it finally succeeded
+in the capture of that wily warrior. The regiment remained in the
+Southwest until 1893, when it moved to Montana, and remained there
+until ordered to Chickamauga for the war.</p><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page91" id="page91"></a>[pg 91]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>These four regiments were finely officered, well drilled and well
+experienced in camp and field, particularly the cavalry regiments, and
+it was of them that General Merritt said: "I have always found them
+brave in battle." With such training and experience they were well
+fitted to take their place in that selected host of fighting men which
+afterwards became the Fifth Army Corps, placed under command of
+Major-General William R. Shafter, the first Lieutenant-Colonel of the
+Twenty-fourth Infantry.</p>
+
+<p>When the news of the blowing up of our great battleship Maine, in the
+harbor of Havana, with the almost total loss of her crew, flashed over
+the country, carrying sadness to hundreds of homes, and arousing
+feelings of deepest indignation whether justly or unjustly, it was
+easy to predict that we should soon be involved in war with Spain. The
+Cuban question, already chronic, had by speeches of Senators Thurston
+and Proctor been brought to such a stage of aggravation that it needed
+only an incident to set the war element in motion. That incident was
+furnished by the destruction of the Maine. Thenceforth there was no
+power in the land sufficient to curb the rapidly swelling tide of
+popular hate, which manifested itself in the un-Christian but truly
+significant mottoes: "Remember the Maine," "Avenge the Maine," and "To
+hell with Spain." These were the outbreathings of popular fury, and
+they represented a spirit quite like that of the mob, which was not to
+be yielded to implicitly, but which could not be directly opposed.</p>
+
+<p>The President did all in his power to stay this element of our
+population and to lead the country to a more befitting attitude. He
+and his advisers argued that Spain was to be resisted, and fought if
+necessary, not on account of the Maine, not in the spirit of revenge,
+but in the interest of humanity,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page92" id="page92"></a>[pg 92]</span>
+and upon principles sanctioned even
+by our holy religion. On behalf of the starving reconcentrados, and in
+aid of the noble Cuban patriot, we might justly arm and equip
+ourselves for the purpose of driving Spanish rule from the Western
+Hemisphere.</p>
+
+<p>This view appealed to all lovers of freedom, to all true patriots, and
+to the Christian and philanthropist. It also afforded a superb
+opportunity for the old leaders in the South, who were not entirely
+relieved from the taint of secession, to come out and reconsecrate
+themselves to the country and her flag. Hence, Southern statesmen, who
+were utterly opposed to Negroes or colored men having any share in
+ruling at home, became very enthusiastic over the aspirations of the
+colored Cuban patriots and soldiers. The supporters, followers, and in
+a sense, devotees of Maceo and Gomez, were worthy of our aid. The same
+men, actuated by the same principles, in the Carolinas, in Louisiana
+or in Mississippi, would have been pronounced by the same authorities
+worthy of death.</p>
+
+<p>The nation was, however, led into war simply to liberate Cuba from the
+iniquitous and cruel yoke of Spain, and to save thousands of
+impoverished Cubans from death by starvation. Great care was taken not
+to recognize the Cuban government in any form, and it seemed to be
+understood that we were to do the fighting both with our navy and our
+army, the Cubans being invited to co-operate with us, rather than that
+we should co-operate with them. We were to be the liberators and
+saviors of a people crushed to the very gates of death. Such was the
+platform upon which our nation stood before the world when the first
+orders went forth for the mobilization of its forces for war. It was a
+position worthy our history and character and gave to our national
+flag a prouder meaning than ever. Its character as the emblem of
+freedom shone out with awe-inspiring brilliancy amid the concourse of
+nations.</p><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page93" id="page93"></a>[pg 93]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>While there was such a clamor for war in the newspapers and in the
+public speeches of statesmen, both in and out of Congress, it is
+remarkable that the utmost serenity prevailed in the army. Officers
+and men were ready to fight if the stern necessity came, but they were
+not so eager for the death-game as were the numerous editors' whose
+papers were getting out extras every half-hour. It was argued by the
+officers of rank that the Maine incident added nothing whatever to the
+Cuban question; that it did not involve the Spanish Government; that
+the whole subject might well be left to arbitration, and full respect
+should be given to Spain's disclaimer. It was also held that to rush
+into a war in order to prevent a few people from starving, might not
+relieve them, and at the same time would certainly cost the lives of
+many innocent men. Spain was revising her policy, and the benevolence
+of the United States would soon bring bread to the door of every needy
+Cuban. Such remarks and arguments as these were used by men who had
+fought through one war and were ready to fight, through another if
+they must; but who were willing to go to any reasonable length to
+prevent it; and yet the men who used such arguments beforehand and
+manifested such a shrinking from carnage, are among those to whom the
+short Spanish War brought distinction and promotion. To their honor be
+it said that the war which gave them fresh laurels was in no sense
+brought about through their instigation.</p>
+
+<p>As chaplain of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, stationed with the
+headquarters of the regiment at Fort Missoula, where we had been for
+ten years, the call for the war met me in the midst of my preparations
+for Easter service. One young man, then Private Thomas C. Butler, who
+was practicing a difficult solo for the occasion, before the year
+closed became a Second Lieutenant, having distinguished himself in
+battle; the janitor, who
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page94" id="page94"></a>[pg 94]</span>
+cared for my singing books, and who was my
+chief school teacher, Private French Payne, always polite and
+everywhere efficient, met his death from a Spanish bullet while on the
+reserve before bloody El Caney.</p>
+
+<p>It was on a bright day during the latter part of March and near the
+close of the day as I was looking out of the front window of my
+quarters that I saw the trumpeter of the guard come out of the
+Adjutant's office with a dispatch in his hand and start on a brisk run
+toward the quarters of the Commanding Officer. I immediately divined
+what was in the wind, but kept quiet. In a few minutes "officers'
+call" was sounded, and all the officers of the post hastened to the
+administration building to learn the news.</p>
+
+<p>When all were assembled the Commanding Officer desired to know of each
+company officer how much time he would need to have his company ready
+to move from the post to go to a
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'pemanet'">permanent</ins>
+station elsewhere, and from
+all officers how much time they would require to have their families
+ready to quit the station. The answers generally were that all could
+be ready within a week. It was finally agreed, however, to ask for ten
+days.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately the work of preparation began, although none knew where
+the regiment was to go. At this time the order, so far as it was
+understood at the garrison, was, that two companies were to go to Key
+West, Florida, and the other companies of the regiment to Dry
+Tortugas. One officer, Lieutenant V.A. Caldell, early saw through the
+haze and said: "It means that we will all eventually land in Cuba."
+While we were packing, rumors flew through the garrison, as indeed
+through the country, thick and fast, and our destination was changed
+three or four times a day. One hour we would be going to Key West, the
+next to St. Augustine, the next to Tortugas. In this confusion I asked
+an old frontier officer where
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page95" id="page95"></a>[pg 95]</span>
+he thought we would really go.
+Regarding himself as an indicator and always capable of seeing the
+amusing side of a subject, he replied: "I p'int toward Texas." Such
+was the state of uncertainty as to destination, and yet all the time
+the greatest activity prevailed in making ready for departure. Finally
+definite orders came that we were to store our furniture in the large
+gymnasium hall at the post and prepare to go in camp at Chickamauga
+Park, Georgia.</p>
+
+<p>Our regiment was at the time stationed as follows: Headquarters, four
+companies and the band at Fort Missoula; two companies at Fort
+Harrison, near Helena, and two companies at Fort Assinniboine, all in
+Montana. The arrangements contemplated moving the regiment in two
+sections, one composed of the Missoula troops to go over the Northern
+Pacific Railroad, the other of the Fort Harrison and Fort Assinniboine
+troops to go over the Great Northern Railroad, all to arrive in St.
+Paul about the same time.</p>
+
+<p>On the 10th of April, Easter Sunday, the battalion at Fort Missoula
+marched out of post quite early in the morning, and at Bitter Root
+Station took the cars for their long journey. Officers and men were
+all furnished sleeping accommodations on the train. Arriving in the
+city of Missoula, for the gratification of the citizens and perhaps to
+avoid strain on the bridge crossing the Missoula River, the men were
+disembarked from the train and marched through the principal streets
+to the depot, the citizens generally turning out to see them off. Many
+were the compliments paid officers and men by the good people of
+Missoula, none perhaps more pleasing than that furnished by a written
+testimonial to the regret experienced at the departure of the
+regiment, signed by all the ministers of the city.</p>
+
+<p>As the Twenty-fifth was the first regiment to move in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page96" id="page96"></a>[pg 96]</span>
+preparation
+for war, its progress from Montana to Chickamauga was a marked event,
+attracting the attention of both the daily and illustrated press. All
+along the route they were greeted with enthusiastic crowds, who fully
+believed the war with Spain had begun. In St. Paul, in Chicago, in
+Terre Haute, in Nashville, and in Chattanooga the crowds assembled to
+greet the black regulars who were first to bear forward the Starry
+Banner of Union and Freedom against a foreign foe. What could be more
+significant, or more fitting, than that these black soldiers, drilled
+up to the highest standard of modern warfare, cool, brave and
+confident, themselves a proof of American liberty, should be called
+first to the front in a war against oppression? Their martial tread
+and fearless bearing proclaimed what the better genius of our great
+government meant for all men dwelling beneath the protection of its
+honored flag.</p>
+
+<p>As the Twenty-fifth Infantry was the first regiment to leave its
+station, so six companies of it were first to go into camp on the
+historic grounds of Chickamauga. Two companies were separated from the
+regiment at Chattanooga and forwarded to Key West where they took
+station under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel A.S. Daggett. The
+remaining six companies, under command of Colonel A.S. Burt, were
+conducted by General Boynton to a choice spot on the grounds, where
+they pitched camp, their tents being the first erected in that
+mobilization of troops which preceded the Cuban invasion, and theirs
+being really the first camp of the war.</p>
+
+<p>Soon came the Ninth Cavalry, the Tenth Cavalry and the Twenty-fourth
+Infantry. While these were assembling there arrived on the ground also
+many white regiments, cavalry, artillery and infantry, and it was
+pleasing to see the fraternity that prevailed among black and white
+regulars. This was especially
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page97" id="page97"></a>[pg 97]</span>
+noticeable between the Twenty-fifth and
+Twelfth. In brigading the regiments no attention whatever was paid to
+the race or color of the men. The black infantry regiments were placed
+in two brigades, and the black cavalry likewise, and they can be
+followed through the fortunes of the war in the official records by
+their regimental numbers. During their stay in Chickamauga, and at Key
+West and Tampa, the Southern newspapers indulged in considerable
+malicious abuse of colored soldiers, and some people of this section
+made complaints of their conduct, but the previous good character of
+the regiments and the violent tone of the accusations, taken together
+with the well-known prejudices of the Southern people, prevented their
+complaints from having very great weight. The black soldiers held
+their place in the army chosen for the invasion of Cuba, and for that
+purpose were soon ordered to assemble in Tampa.</p>
+
+<p>From the 10th of April, when the war movement began with the march of
+the Twenty-fifth Infantry out of its Montana stations, until June
+14th, when the Army of Invasion cleared Tampa for Cuba&mdash;not quite two
+months&mdash;the whole energy of the War Department had been employed in
+preparing the army for the work before it. The beginning of the war is
+officially given as April 21st, from which time onward it was declared
+a state of war existed between Spain and the United States, but
+warlike movements on our side were begun fully ten days earlier, and
+begun with a grim definiteness that presaged much more than a practice
+march or spring man&oelig;uver.</p>
+
+<p>After arriving at Chickamauga all heavy baggage was shipped away for
+storage, and all officers and men were required to reduce their field
+equipage to the minimum; the object being to have the least possible
+amount of luggage, in order that the greatest possible amount of
+fighting material might be carried.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page98" id="page98"></a>[pg 98]</span>
+ Even with all this preparation
+going on some officers were indulging the hope that the troops might
+remain in camps, perfecting themselves in drill, until September, or
+October, before they should be called upon to embark for Cuba. This,
+however, was not to be, and it is perhaps well that it was not, as the
+suffering and mortality in the home camps were almost equal to that
+endured by the troops in Cuba. The suffering at home, also, seemed
+more disheartening, because it appeared to be useless, and could not
+be charged to any important changes in conditions or climate. It was
+perhaps in the interest of humanity that this war, waged for
+humanity's sake, should have been pushed forward from its first step
+to its last, with the greatest possible dispatch, and that just enough
+men on our side were sent to the front, and no more. It is still a
+good saying that all is well that ends well.</p>
+
+<p>The Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, the place
+where our troops assembled on their march to Cuba, beautiful by
+nature, especially in the full season of spring when the black
+soldiers arrived there, and adorned also by art, has, next to
+Gettysburg, the most prominent place among the historic battle-fields
+of the Civil War. As a park it was established by an act of Congress
+approved August 19, 1890, and contains seven thousand acres of rolling
+land, partly cleared and partly covered with oak and pine timber.
+Beautiful broad roads wind their way to all parts of the ground, along
+which are placed large tablets recording the events of those dreadful
+days in the autumn of 1863, when Americans faced Americans in bloody,
+determined strife. Monuments, judiciously placed, speak with a mute
+eloquence to the passer-by and tell of the valor displayed by some
+regiment or battery, or point to the spot where some lofty hero gave
+up his life. The whole park is a monument, however, and its definite
+purpose is to preserve
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page99" id="page99"></a>[pg 99]</span>
+and suitably mark "for historical and
+professional military study the fields of some of the most remarkable
+man&oelig;uvres and most brilliant fighting in the War of the Rebellion."
+The battles commemorated by this great park are those of Chickamauga,
+fought on September 19-20, and the battles around Chattanooga,
+November 23-25, 1863. The battle of Chickamauga was fought by the Army
+of the Cumberland, commanded by Major-General W.S. Rosecrans, on the
+Union side, and the Army of Tennessee, commanded by General Braxton
+Bragg, on the side of the Confederates. The total effective strength
+of the Union forces in this battle was little less than 60,000 men,
+that of the Confederates about 70,000. The total Union loss was 16,179
+men, a number about equal to the army led by Shatter against Santiago.
+Of the number reported as lost, 1,656 were killed, or as many as were
+lost in killed, wounded and missing in the Cuban campaign. The
+Confederate losses were 17,804, 2,389 being killed, making on both
+sides a total killed of 4,045, equivalent to the entire voting
+population of a city of over twenty thousand inhabitants. General
+Grant, who commanded the Union forces in the battles around
+Chattanooga, thus sums up the results: "In this battle the Union army
+numbered in round figures about 60,000 men; we lost 752 killed, 4,713
+wounded and 350 captured or missing. The rebel loss was much greater
+in the aggregate, as we captured and sent North to be rationed there
+over 6,100 prisoners. Forty pieces of artillery, over seven thousand
+stand of small arms, many caissons, artillery wagons and baggage
+wagons fell into our hands. The probabilities are that our loss in
+killed was the heavier as we were the attacking party. The enemy
+reported his loss in killed at 361, but as he reported his missing at
+4,146, while we held over 6,000 of them as prisoners, and there must
+have been hundreds, if not thousands,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page100" id="page100"></a>[pg 100]</span>
+who deserted, but little
+reliance can be placed upon this report."</p>
+
+<p>In the battle of Chickamauga, when "four-fifths of the Union Army had
+crumbled into wild confusion," and Rosecrans was intent only on saving
+the fragments, General Thomas, who had commanded the Federal left
+during the two days' conflict, and had borne the brunt of the fight,
+still held his position. To him General James A. Garfield reported.
+General Gordon Granger, without orders, brought up the reserves, and
+Thomas, replacing his lines, held the ground until nightfall, when he
+was joined by Sheridan. Bragg won and held the field, but Thomas
+effectually blocked his way to Chattanooga, securing to himself
+immediately the title of the "Rock of Chickamauga." His wonderful
+resolution stayed the tide of a victory dearly bought and actually
+won, and prevented the victors from grasping the object for which they
+had fought. In honor of this
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'stubbborn'">stubborn</ins>
+valor, and in recognition of
+this high expression of American tenacity, the camp established in
+Chickamauga Park by the assembling army was called Camp George H.
+Thomas.</p>
+
+<p>The stay of the colored regulars at Camp George H. Thomas was short,
+but it was long enough for certain newspapers of Chattanooga to give
+expression to their dislike to negro troops in general and to those in
+their proximity especially. The Washington Post, also, ever faithful
+to its unsavory trust, lent its influence to this work of defamation.
+The leading papers, however, both of Chattanooga and the South
+generally, spoke out in rather conciliatory and patronizing tones, and
+"sought to restrain the people of their section from compromising
+their brilliant display of patriotism by contemptuous flings at the
+nation's true and tried soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>The 24th Infantry and the 9th Cavalry soon left for Tampa,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page101" id="page101"></a>[pg 101]</span>
+ Florida,
+whither they were followed by the 10th Cavalry and the 25th Infantry,
+thus bringing the entire colored element of the army together to
+prepare for embarkation. The work done at Tampa is thus described
+officially by Lieutenant-Colonel Daggett in general orders addressed
+to the 25th Infantry, which he at that time commanded. On August 11th,
+with headquarters near Santiago, after the great battles had been
+fought and won, he thus reviewed the work of the regiment: "Gathered
+from three different stations, many of you strangers to each other,
+you assembled as a regiment for the first time in more than
+twenty-eight years, on May 7, 1898, at Tampa, Florida. There you
+endeavored to solidify and prepare yourselves, as far as the
+oppressive weather would permit, for the work that appeared to be
+before you." What is here said of the 25th might have been said with
+equal propriety of all the regular troops assembled at Tampa.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime events were ripening with great rapidity. The historic
+"first gun" had been fired, and the United States made the first naval
+capture of the war on April 22, the coast trader Buena Ventura having
+surrendered to the American gunboat Nashville. On the same day the
+blockade of Cuban ports was declared and on the day following a call
+was issued for 125,000 volunteers. On May 20th the news that a Spanish
+fleet under command of Admiral Cervera had arrived at Santiago was
+officially confirmed, and a speedy movement to Cuba was determined
+upon.</p>
+
+<p>Almost the entire Regular Army with several volunteer regiments were
+organized into an Army of Invasion and placed under the command of
+Major-General W.R. Shafter with orders to prepare immediately for
+embarkation, and on the 7th and 10th of June this army went on board
+the transports. For seven days the troops lay cooped up on the vessels
+awaiting
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page102" id="page102"></a>[pg 102]</span>
+orders to sail, a rumor having gained circulation that
+certain Spanish gunboats were hovering around in Cuban waters awaiting
+to swoop down upon the crowded transports. While the Army of Invasion
+was sweltering in the ships lying at anchor off Port Tampa, a small
+body of American marines made a landing at Guantanamo, and on June
+12th fought the first battle between Americans and Spaniards on Cuban
+soil. In this first battle four Americans were killed. The next day,
+June 13th, General Shafter's army containing the four colored
+regiments, excepting those left behind to guard property, sailed for
+Cuba.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
+
+<p>The whole number of men and officers in the expedition, including
+those that came on transports from Mobile, amounted to about seventeen
+thousand men, loaded on twenty-seven transports. The colored regiments
+were assigned to brigades as follows: The Ninth Cavalry was joined
+with the Third and Sixth Cavalry and placed under command of Colonel
+Carrol; the Tenth Cavalry was joined with the Rough Riders and First
+Regular Cavalry and fell under the command of General Young; the
+Twenty-fourth Infantry was joined with the Ninth and Thirteenth
+Infantry and the brigade placed under command of Colonel Worth and
+assigned to the division commanded by General Kent, who, until his
+promotion as Brigadier-General of Volunteers, had been Colonel of the
+Twenty-fourth; the Twenty-fifth Infantry was joined with the First and
+Fourth Infantry and the brigade placed under command of Colonel Evans
+Miles, who had formerly been Major of the Twenty-fifth. All of the
+colored regiments were thus happily placed so that they should be in
+pleasant soldierly competition
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page103" id="page103"></a>[pg 103]</span>
+with the very best troops the country
+ever put in the field, and this arrangement at the start proves how
+strongly the black regular had entrenched himself in the confidence of
+our great commanders.</p>
+
+<p>Thus sailed from Port Tampa the major part of our little army of
+trained and seasoned soldiers, representative of the skill and daring
+of the nation.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> In physique, almost every man was an athlete, and
+while but few had seen actual war beyond an occasional skirmish with
+Indians, all excepting the few volunteers, had passed through a long
+process of training in the various details of marching, camping and
+fighting in their annual exercises in minor tactics. For the first
+time in history the nation is going abroad, by its army, to occupy the
+territory of a foreign foe, in a contest with a trans-Atlantic power.
+The unsuccessful invasions of Canada during the Revolutionary War and
+the War of 1812 can hardly be brought in comparison with this movement
+over sea. The departure of Decatur with his nine ships of war to the
+Barbary States had in view only the establishment of proper civil
+relations between those petty, half-civilized countries and the United
+States. The sailing of General Shafter's army was only one movement in
+a comprehensive war against the Kingdom of Spain. More than a month
+earlier Commodore Dewey, acting under orders, had destroyed a fleet of
+eleven war ships in the Philippines. The purpose of the war was to
+relieve the Cubans from an inhumane warfare with their mother country,
+and to restore to that unhappy island a stable government in harmony
+with the ideas of liberty and justice.</p>
+
+<p>Up to the breaking out of the Spanish War the American policy with
+respect to Europe had been one of isolation. Some efforts had been
+made to consolidate the sentiment of the Western
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page104" id="page104"></a>[pg 104]</span>
+world, but it had
+never been successful. The fraternity of the American Republics and
+the attempted construction of a Pan-American policy had been thus far
+unfulfilled dreams. Canada was much nearer to the United States,
+geographically and socially, than even Mexico, although the latter is
+a republic. England, in Europe, was nearer than Brazil. The day came
+in 1898, when the United States could no longer remain in political
+seclusion nor bury herself in an impossible federation. Washington's
+advice against becoming involved in European affairs, as well as the
+direct corrollary of the Monroe Doctrine, were to be laid aside and
+the United States was to speak out to the world. The business of a
+European nation had become our business; in the face of all the world
+we resolved to invade her territory in the interest of humanity; to
+face about upon our own traditions and dare the opinions and arms of
+the trans-Atlantic world by openly launching upon the new policy of
+armed intervention in another's quarrel.</p>
+
+<p>While the troops were mobilizing at Tampa preparatory to embarking for
+Cuba the question came up as to why there were no colored men in the
+artillery arm of the service, and the answer given by a Regular Army
+officer was, that the Negro had not brains enough for the management
+of heavy guns. It was a trifling assertion, of course, but at this
+period of the Negro's history it must not be allowed to pass
+unnoticed. We know that white men of all races and nationalities can
+serve big guns, and if the Negro cannot, it must be because of some
+marked difference between him and them. The officer said it was a
+difference in "brains," i.e., a mental difference. Just how the
+problem of aiming and firing a big gun differs from that of aiming and
+firing small arms is not so easily explained. In both, the questions
+of velocity, gravitation, wind and resistance are to be considered and
+these are largely settled by mechanism,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page105" id="page105"></a>[pg 105]</span>
+the adjustment of which is
+readily learned; hence the assumption that a Negro cannot learn it is
+purely gratuitous. Several of the best rifle shots known on this
+continent are Negroes; and it was a Negro who summerized the whole
+philosophy of rifle shooting in the statement that it all consists in
+knowing <i>where</i> to aim, and <i>how</i> to pull&mdash;in knowing just what value
+to assign to gravitation, drift of the bullet and force of the wind,
+and then in being able to pull the trigger of the piece without
+disturbing the aim thus judiciously determined. This includes all
+there is in the final science and art of firing a rifle. If the Negro
+can thus master the revolver, the carbine and the rifle, why may he
+not master the field piece or siege gun?</p>
+
+<p>But an ounce of fact in such things is worth more than many volumes of
+idle speculation, and it is remarkable that facts so recent, so
+numerous, and so near at hand, should escape the notice of those who
+question the Negro's ability to serve the artillery organizations.
+Negro artillery, both light and heavy, fought in fifteen battles in
+the Civil War with average effectiveness; and some of those who fought
+against them must either admit the value of the Negro artilleryman or
+acknowledge their own inefficiency. General Fitz-Hugh Lee failed to
+capture a Negro battery after making most vigorous attempts to that
+end. This attempt to raise a doubt as to the Negro's ability to serve
+in the artillery arm is akin to, and less excusable, than that other
+groundless assertion, that Negro officers cannot command troops, an
+assertion which in this country amounts to saying that the United
+States cannot command its army. Both of these assertions have been
+emphatically answered in fact, the former as shown above, and the
+latter as will be shown later in this volume. These assertions are
+only temporary covers, behind which discomfitted and retreating
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page106" id="page106"></a>[pg 106]</span>
+prejudice is able to make a brief stand, while the black hero of five
+hundred battle-fields, marches proudly by, disdaining to lower his gun
+to fire a shot on a foe so unworthy. When the Second Massachusetts
+Volunteers sent up their hearty cheers of welcome to the gallant old
+Twenty-fifth, as that solid column fresh from El Caney swung past its
+camp, I remarked to Sergeant Harris, of the Twenty-fifth: "Those men
+think you are soldiers." "They know we are soldiers," was his reply.
+When the people of this country, like the members of that
+Massachusetts regiment, come to know that its black men in uniform are
+soldiers, plain soldiers, with the same interests and feelings as
+other soldiers, of as much value to the government and entitled from
+it to the same attention and rewards, then a great step toward the
+solution of the prodigious problem now confronting us will have been
+taken.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<blockquote><p>Note.&mdash;"I had often heard that the physique of the men of
+our regular army was very remarkable, but the first time I
+saw any large body of them, which was at Tampa, they
+surpassed my highest expectations. It is not, however, to be
+wondered at that, for every recruit who is accepted, on the
+average thirty-four are rejected, and that, of course, the
+men who present themselves to the recruiting officer already
+represent a physical 'elite'; but it was very pleasant to
+see and be assured, as I was at Tampa, by the evidences of
+my own eyes and the tape measure, that there is not a guard
+regiment of either the Russian, German or English army, of
+whose remarkable physique we have heard so much, that can
+compare physically, not with the best of our men, but simply
+with the average of the men of our regular army."&mdash;Bonsal.</p></blockquote>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The army has been reorganized since. See Register.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> "My experience in this direction since the war is beyond
+that of any officer of my rank in the army. For ten years I had the
+honor of being lieutenant-colonel of the Ninth Cavalry, and during
+most of that service I commanded garrisons composed in part of the
+Ninth Cavalry and other organizations of cavalry and infantry. I have
+always found the colored race represented in the army obedient,
+intelligent and zealous in the discharge of duty, brave in battle,
+easily disciplined, and most efficient in the care of their horses,
+arms and equipments. The non-commissioned officers have habitually
+shown the qualities for control in their position which marked them as
+faithful and sensible in the discharge of their duties. I take
+pleasure in bearing witness as above in the interest of the race you
+represent." WESLEY MERRITT.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> See chapter on Colored Officers.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Young is now captain in the Ninth Cavalry.&mdash;T.G.S.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> The colored regulars were embarked on the following
+named ships: The 9th Cavalry on the Miami, in company with the 6th
+Infantry; the 10th Cavalry on the Leona, in company with the 1st
+Cavalry; the 24th Infantry on the City of Washington, in company with
+one battalion of the 21st Infantry; the 25th infantry on board the
+Concho, in company with the 4th Infantry.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> See Note, at the close of this chapter.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page107" id="page107"></a>[pg 107]</span>
+</p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>BRIEF SKETCH OF SPANISH HISTORY.</h3>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+  Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>The following brief sketch of Spain, its era of greatness, the causes
+leading thereto, and the reasons for its rapid decline, will be of
+interest to the reader at this point in the narrative, as it will
+bring into view the other side of the impending conflict:</p>
+
+<p>Spain, the first in rank among the second-rate powers of Europe, by
+reason of her possessions in the West Indies, especially Cuba, may be
+regarded as quite a near neighbor, and because of her connection with
+the discovery and settlement of the continent, as well as the
+commanding part she at one time played in the world's politics, her
+history cannot but awaken within the breasts of Americans a most
+lively interest.</p>
+
+<p>As a geographical and political fact, Spain dates from the earliest
+times, and the Spanish people gather within themselves the blood and
+the traditions of the three great continents of the Old World&mdash;Europe,
+Asia and Africa&mdash;united to produce the mighty Spaniard of the 15th and
+16th centuries. It would be an interesting subject for the
+anthropologist to trace the construction of that people who are so
+often spoken of as possessing the pure blood of Castile, and as the
+facts should be brought to view, another proud fiction would dissipate
+in thin air, as we should see the Spaniard arising to take his place
+among the most mixed of mankind.</p>
+
+<p>The Spain that we are considering now is the Spain that gradually
+emerged from a chaos of conflicting elements into
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page108" id="page108"></a>[pg 108]</span>
+the unity of a
+Christian nation. The dismal war between creeds gave way to the
+greater conflict between religions, when Cross and Crescent contended
+for supremacy, and this too had passed. The four stalwart Christian
+provinces of Leon, Castile, Aragon and Navarre had become the four
+pillars of support to a national throne and Ferdinand and Isabella
+were reigning. Spain has now apparently passed the narrows and is
+crossing the bar with prow set toward the open sea. She ends her war
+with the Moors at the same time that England ends her wars of the
+Roses, and the battle of Bosworth's field may be classed with the
+capitulation of Granada. Both nations confront a future of about equal
+promise and may be rated as on equal footing, as this new era of the
+world opens to view.</p>
+
+<p>What was this new era? Printing had been invented, commerce had
+arisen, gunpowder had come into use, the feudal system was passing,
+royal authority had become paramount, and Spain was giving to the
+world its first lessons in what was early stigmatized as the "knavish
+calling of diplomacy."</p>
+
+<p>Now began the halcyon days of Spain, and what a breed of men she
+produced! Read the story of their conquests in Mexico and Peru, as
+told with so much skill and taste by our own Prescott; or read of the
+grandeur of her national character, and the wonderful valor of her
+troops, and the almost marvelous skill of her Alexander of Parma, and
+her Spinola, as described by our great Motley, and you will see
+something of the moral and national glory of that Spain which under
+Charles V and Philip II awed the world into respectful silence.</p>
+
+<p>Who but men of iron, under a commander of steel, could have conducted
+to a successful issue the awful siege of Antwerp, and by a discipline
+more dreadful than death, kept for so many years, armed control of the
+country of the brave
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page109" id="page109"></a>[pg 109]</span>
+ Netherlanders? A Farnese was there, who could
+support and command an army, carry Philip and his puerile
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'idosyncrasies'">idiosyncrasies</ins>
+upon his back and meet the fury of an outraged people
+who were fighting on their own soil for all that man holds dear. Never
+was wretched cause so ably led, never were such splendid talents so
+unworthily employed.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander of Parma, Cortez, the Pizarros, were representatives of that
+form of human character that Spain especially developed. Skill and
+daring were brought out in dazzling splendor, and success followed
+their movements. Take a brief survey of the Empire under Charles V:
+Himself Emperor of Germany; his son married to the Queen of England;
+Turkey repulsed; France humbled, and all Europe practically within his
+grasp. And what was Spain outside of Europe? In America she possessed
+territory covering sixty degrees of latitude, owning Mexico, Central
+America, Venezuela, New Granada, Peru and Chili, with vast parts of
+North America, and the islands of Cuba, Jamaica and St. Domingo. In
+Africa and Asia she had large possessions&mdash;in a word, the energies of
+the world were at her feet. The silver and gold of America, the
+manufactures and commerce of the Netherlands, combined to make her the
+richest of nations.</p>
+
+<p>The limits of the present purpose do not permit an exhaustive
+presentation of her material strength in detail, nor are the means at
+hand for making such an exhibit. We must be content with a general
+picture, quoted directly from Motley. He says:</p>
+
+<p>"Look at the broad magnificent Spanish Peninsula, stretching across
+eight degrees of latitude and ten of longtitude, commanding the
+Atlantic and the Mediterranean, with a genial climate, warmed in
+winter by the vast furnace of Africa, and protected from the scorching
+heats of summer by shady mountain
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page110" id="page110"></a>[pg 110]</span>
+and forest, and temperate breezes
+from either ocean. A generous southern territory, flowing with oil and
+wine, and all the richest gifts of a bountiful nature&mdash;splendid
+cities&mdash;the new and daily expanding Madrid, rich in the trophies of
+the most artistic period of the modern world; Cadiz, as populous at
+that day as London, seated by the straits where the ancient and modern
+systems of traffic were blending like the mingling of the two oceans;
+Granada, the ancient, wealthy seat of the fallen Moors; Toledo,
+Valladolid, and Lisbon, chief city of the recently conquered kingdom
+of Portugal, counting with its suburbs a larger population than any
+city excepting Paris, in Europe, the mother of distant colonies, and
+the capital of the rapidly-developing traffic with both the
+Indies&mdash;these were some of the treasures of Spain herself. But she
+possessed Sicily also, the better portion of Italy, and important
+dependencies in Africa, while the famous maritime discoveries of the
+age had all enured to her aggrandizement. The world seemed suddenly to
+have expanded its wings from East to West, only to bear the fortunate
+Spanish Empire to the most dizzy heights of wealth and power. The most
+accomplished generals, the most disciplined and daring infantry the
+world has ever known, the best equipped and most extensive navy, royal
+and mercantile, of the age, were at the absolute command of the
+sovereign. Such was Spain."</p>
+
+<p>Such is not Spain to-day. A quite recent writer, speaking of Spain
+before the war, said, that although Spain in extent holds the sixth
+place in the European states, "it really now subsists merely by the
+sufferance of stronger nations." Thus has that nation, which three
+centuries ago dominated the world, lost both its position and its
+energy.</p>
+
+<p>Without attempting to sketch chronologically, either this rise or this
+decline, let us rather direct our efforts to an inquiry
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page111" id="page111"></a>[pg 111]</span>
+into the
+causes of both the one and the other.</p>
+
+<p>In attempting to explain the greatness of Spain we must give first
+place to the vigor of the Spanish race. The great Spaniard was a
+mighty compound. He had the blood of Rome mingled with the awful
+torrent that gave birth to the soulless Goths and Vandals. In him also
+flowed the hot blood of the Moors. He was both sturdy and fiery; he
+had the fervor of the South with the tenacity of the North; the pride
+of the Roman with the passion of the Moor. The Spanish race was
+emphatically a rich race.</p>
+
+<p>And then we must remember that this race had been forged in war.
+Century after century, from the earliest times, they had lived with
+their arms in their hands. First came the long war between the Arian
+Vandals, and the Trinitarian natives; then the seven-hundred-year war
+with the followers of Mahomed. The whole mission of life to them was
+to fight.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally there was developed in the people at large the most complete
+unification and subjection. Individualism gave place almost entirely
+to the common weal, and the spectacle was presented of a nation with
+no political questions. Maccaulay maintains that human nature is such
+that aggregations of men will always show the two principles of
+radicalism and conservatism, and that two parties will exist in
+consequence, one composed of those who are ever looking to a brighter
+future, the other of those who are ever seeking to restore a
+delightful past; but no such phenomena appear in the ascending period
+of Spain's history. The whole nation moved as an organized army,
+steadily forward, until its zenith was reached. This solidity was a
+marked element of its strength.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Buckle recognizes this, and accounts for the harmonious movements
+of the nation by the influence of two leading principles, which he is
+pleased to call superstition and loyalty.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page112" id="page112"></a>[pg 112]</span>
+ The Arab invasion had
+pressed upon the Christians with such force that it was only by the
+strictest discipline that the latter had managed to survive. To secure
+such discipline, and at the same time supply the people with the
+steady enthusiasm necessary to support a war from century to century,
+all the terrors and all the glories that could be derived from
+religion were employed. The church and the state, the prince and the
+priest, became as one, and loyalty and religion, devotion to the
+standard and to the cross, were but different names for the same
+principles and actions. Hence Spain emerged to greatness without the
+least dream of liberty of either person, conscience or thought. Her
+rallying cry was: For the Prince and the Church; not, For God and
+Liberty. She went up to greatness the most loyal and the most
+religious of nations; but Liberty, Justice and Truth were not upon her
+banners.</p>
+
+<p>Look over the territory settled and conquered by her, and what do we
+see? Columbus, sailing under Spain, names the first land he discovers
+San Salvador; the first settlement made in this country is St.
+Augustine; the second, Sante Fe. Look down over the southern half of
+our continent and such names as Espirito Santo, Corpus Christi, San
+Diego, San Juan, San Jose, San Domingo attest the religious zeal of
+the conquerors. They were missionaries of the Cross, robbing the
+people of their gold and paying them off with religion.</p>
+
+<p>Steadfast in the faith and sturdy in her loyalty, Spain resisted all
+innovations with respect to her religious beliefs, and all
+insurrections against her government. Her Alva and her Torquemada but
+illustrated how strong was her conservatism, while her Isabella and
+her Philip II show how grand and comprehensive and how persistent was
+her aggressiveness, under the idea of spreading and upholding the true
+faith. She not only meant to hold all she had of wealth and power, but
+she aspired
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page113" id="page113"></a>[pg 113]</span>
+to universal dominion; already chief, she desired to be
+sole, and this in the interest and name of the Holy Church.</p>
+
+<p>The Reformation did not disturb Spain; it was crushed out within
+twenty years. The spirit of liberty that had been growing in England
+since Bosworth's Field, and that was manifesting itself in Germany and
+the Netherlands, and that had begun to quiver even in France, did not
+dare stir itself in Spain. Spain was united, or rather, was solidity
+itself, and this solidity was both its strength and its death. England
+was not so united, and England went steadily onward and upward; but
+Spain's unity destroyed her, because it practically destroyed
+individualism and presented the strange paradox of a strong nation of
+weak men.</p>
+
+<p>As a machine Spain in the sixteenth century was a marvel of power; as
+an aggregation of thinking men, it was even then contemptible.
+Ferdinand, Charles V and Philip II were able and illustrious rulers,
+and they appeared at a time when their several characters could tell
+on the immediate fortunes of Spain. They were warriors, and the nation
+was entirely warlike. During this period the Spaniard overran the
+earth, not that he might till the soil, but that he might rob the man
+who did. With one hand he was raking in the gold and silver of Mexico
+and Peru; with the other confiscating the profits of the trade and
+manufactures of the Low Countries&mdash;and all in the name of the Great
+God and Saints!</p>
+
+<p>How was Spain overthrown? The answer is a short one. Spain, under
+Philip II staked her all upon a religious war against the awakening
+age. She met the Reformation within her own borders and extinguished
+it; but thought had broken loose from its chains and was abroad in the
+earth. England had turned Protestant, and Elizabeth was on the throne;
+Denmark, Norway and Sweden, indeed all countries except Spain
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page114" id="page114"></a>[pg 114]</span>
+and
+Italy had heard the echoes from Luther's trumpet blast. Italy
+furnished the religion, and Spain the powder, in this unequal fight
+between the Old and the New. Spain was not merely the representative
+of the old, she WAS the old, and she armed her whole strength in its
+behalf.</p>
+
+<p>Here was a religion separated from all moral principle and devoid of
+all softening sentiment&mdash;its most appropriate formula being, death to
+all heretics. Death&mdash;not to tyrants, not to oppressors, not to robbers
+and men-stealers&mdash;but death to <i>heretics</i>. It was this that equipped
+her Armada.</p>
+
+<p>The people were too loyal and too pious to THINK, and so were hurled
+in a solid mass against the armed thought of the coming age, and a
+mighty nation crumbled as in a day. With the destruction of her Armada
+her warlike ascendancy passed and she had nothing to put in its place.
+She had not tillers of the soil, mechanics or skilled merchants.
+Business was taking the place of war all over the world, but Spain
+knew only religion and war, hence worsted in her only field, she was
+doomed.</p>
+
+<p>From the days of Philip II her decline was rapid. Her territory
+slipped from her as rapidly as it had been acquired. Her great domains
+on our soil are now the seat of thriving communities of
+English-speaking people. The whole continent of South America has
+thrown off her yoke, though still retaining her language, and our
+troops now embarked from Port Tampa are destined to wrest from her the
+two only remaining colonies subject to her sway in the Western
+World,&mdash;Cuba and Porto Rico. With all her losses hitherto, Spain has
+not learned wisdom. Antagonistic to truth and liberty, she seems to
+sit in the shadow of death, hugging the delusions that have betrayed
+her, while all other people of earth are pressing onward toward light
+and liberty.</p><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page115" id="page115"></a>[pg 115]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>The struggle in Cuba had been going on for years, and in that colony
+of less than two millions of inhabitants, many of whom were Spaniards,
+there was now an army four times as large as the standing army of the
+United States. Against this army and against the Government of Spain a
+revolt had been carried on previous to the present outbreak for a
+period of ten years, and which had been settled by concessions on the
+part of the home government. The present revolt was of two years'
+standing when our government decided to interfere. The Cubans had
+maintained disorder, if they had not carried on war; and they had
+declined to be pacified. In their army they experienced no color
+difficulties. Gomez, Maceo and Quintin Banderas were generals honored
+and loved, Maceo especially coming to be the hero and idol of the
+insurgents of all classes. And it can truthfully be said that no man
+in either the Cuban or Spanish army, in all the Cuban struggle
+previous to our intervention, has earned a loftier fame as patriot,
+soldier and man of noble mould than ANTONIO MACEO.</p>
+
+<p>Cuba, by far the most advanced of all the West Indian colonies; Cuba,
+essentially Spanish, was destined to be the battle ground between our
+troops and the veterans of Spain. The question to be settled was that
+of Spain's sovereignty. Spain's right to rule over the colonies of
+Cuba and Porto Rico was disputed by the United States, and this
+question, and this alone, is to be settled by force of arms. Further
+than this, the issue does not go. The dictum of America is: Spain
+shall not rule. The questions of Annexation, Expansion and Imperialism
+were not before us as we launched our forces to drive Spain out of the
+West Indies. The Cuban flag was closely associated with our own
+standard popularly, and "Cuba Libre" was a wide-spread sentiment in
+June, 1898. "We are ready to help the Cubans gain their liberty" was
+the honest expression of thousands who felt they were going forward in
+a war for others.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page116" id="page116"></a>[pg 116]</span>
+</p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3>PASSAGE, LANDING, AND FIRST BATTLE IN CUBA.</h3>
+
+<p class="hang center">The Tenth Cavalry at Guasimas&mdash;The "Rescue of the Rough
+Riders"&mdash;Was There an Ambush?&mdash;Notes.</p>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+  Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>"The passage to Santiago was generally smooth and uneventful," says
+General Shafter in his official report. But when the fact is called to
+mind that the men had been on board a week before sailing, and were a
+week more on the passage, and that "the conveniences on many of the
+transports in the nature of sleeping accommodations, space for
+exercise, closet accommodations, etc., were not all that could have
+been desired," and that the opinion was general throughout the army
+that the travel ration was faulty, it cannot be doubted that the trip
+was a sore trial to the enlisted men at least. The monotonous days
+passed in the harbor at Port Tampa, while waiting for orders to sail,
+were unusually trying to the men. They were relieved somewhat by
+bathing, swimming, gaming and chatting on the coming events. A soldier
+who was in one of the colored regiments describes the inside life of
+one of the transports as follows: "After some miles of railroad travel
+and much hustling we were put on board the transport. I say <i>on
+board</i>, but it is simply because we cannot use the terms <i>under
+board</i>. We were huddled together below two other regiments and under
+the water line, in the dirtiest, closest, most sickening place
+imaginable. For about fifteen days we were on the water in this dirty
+hole, but being soldiers we were compelled to accept this without a
+murmur. We ate corn beef and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page117" id="page117"></a>[pg 117]</span>
+canned tomatoes with our hard bread
+until we were anything but half way pleased. In the fifth or sixth day
+out to sea the water furnished us became muddy or dirty and well
+flavored with salt, and remained so during the rest of the journey.
+Then, the ship's cooks, knowing well our condition made it convenient
+to themselves to sell us a glass of clean ice water and a small piece
+of bread and tainted meat for the sum of seventy-five cents, or one
+dollar, as the case might be."</p>
+
+<p>A passage from Port Tampa, around the eastern end of Cuba, through the
+Windward Passage, even in June, is ordinarily pleasant. On the deck of
+a clean steamer, protected from the sun's rays by a friendly awning,
+it may be put down as nearly an ideal pleasure trip; but crowded into
+freight ships as these men were, many of them clad in thick and
+uncomfortable clothing, reduced to the uninviting travel ration,
+compelled to spend most of the time below decks, occupied with
+thoughts of home and friends, and beset with forebodings of coming
+events, it was very far from being to them a pastime. Of the thousands
+who are going to Cuba to magnify the American flag, not all will
+return. Occasionally the gay music of the bands would relieve the dull
+routine and cause the spirits to rise under the effects of some
+enlivening waltz or stirring patriotic air; or entering a school of
+flying fish the men would be entertained to see these broad-finned
+creatures dart from the waves like arrows from the bow, and after a
+graceful flight of perhaps near two hundred yards drop again into the
+sea; but taken altogether it was a voyage that furnishes little for
+the historian.</p>
+
+<p>The transports were so arranged as to present an interesting and
+picturesque spectacle as they departed from our shores on their ocean
+march. Forming in three columns, with a distance
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page118" id="page118"></a>[pg 118]</span>
+of about 1,000 yards
+between the columns, and the vessels in the columns being distanced
+from one another about 400 yards, the fleet was convoyed from Port
+Tampa by small naval vessels until it reached a point between the Dry
+Tortugas and Key West. Here it was met by the noble battleship Indiana
+and nine other war vessels, thus making a convoy altogether of fifteen
+fighting craft. Transports and convoy now made an armada of more than
+forty ships, armed and manned by the audacious modern republic whose
+flag waved from every masthead. Thus spreading out over miles of
+smooth sea, moving quietly along by steam, carrying in its arms the
+flower of the American army, every man of which was an athlete, this
+fleet announced to the world the grim purpose of a nation aroused.</p>
+
+<p>The weather from the time of leaving Port Tampa continued fine until
+the fleet entered the passage between the western coast of Hayti and
+the eastern end of Cuba, known as the Windward Passage, when the
+breeze freshened and a rough sea began, continuing more or less up to
+the time of landing. Rounding this eastern coast of Cuba the fleet
+headed its course westerly and on the morning of the 20th was able to
+determine its position as being off Guantanamo Bay, about fifty miles
+east of Santiago. Here, eight days before, the first battle on Cuban
+soil, in which four American marines were killed, had been fought.
+About noon on the same day, the fleet came to a halt off Santiago
+harbor, or a little to the west of the entrance to it, and Admiral
+Sampson came on board. He and General Shafter soon after went ashore
+to consult the Cuban General, Garcia, who was known to be in that
+vicinity with about 4,000 well armed troops.</p>
+
+<p>The voyage over, and the men having been crowded together
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page119" id="page119"></a>[pg 119]</span>
+on
+shipboard for nearly two weeks, it was now expedient to get them on
+shore as soon as possible. But it was necessary to find out beforehand
+what defences were along the coast, and what forces of the enemy were
+likely to be encountered in landing. The fleet lay off from the shore
+about a mile, and it was no small undertaking to convey the 17,000 men
+on board with all their arms and equipments to the shore in small
+boats over a rough sea, especially should the landing be disputed. It
+was to arrange for the landing and also to map out a general plan of
+campaign that the three great leaders, Shafter, Sampson and Garcia met
+at Aserradores on the afternoon of June 20th as the American fleet
+stood guard over the harbor of Santiago.</p>
+
+<p>General Garcia was already aware of the coming of the fleet, having
+received a message from Major-General Miles two weeks previous. The
+letter of General Miles ran as follows:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">
+Headquarters of the Army,<br />
+In the Field, Tampa, Fla., June 2, 1898.</p>
+
+<p>Dear General:&mdash;I am very glad to have received your
+officers, General Enrique Collazo and Lieut.-Col. Carlos
+Hernandez, the latter of whom returns to-night with our best
+wishes for your success.</p>
+
+<p>It would be a very great assistance if you could have as
+large a force as possible in the vicinity of the harbor of
+Santiago de Cuba, and communicate any information by signals
+which Colonel Hernandez will explain to you either to our
+navy or to our army on its arrival, which we hope will be
+before many days.</p>
+
+<p>It would also assist us very much if you could drive in and
+harass any Spanish troops near or in Santiago de Cuba,
+threatening or attacking them at all points, and preventing,
+by every means, any possible re-enforcement coming to that
+garrison. While this is being done, and before the arrival
+of our army, if you can seize and hold any commanding
+position to the east or west of Santiago de Cuba, or both,
+that would be advantageous
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page120" id="page120"></a>[pg 120]</span>
+for the use of our artillery, it
+will be exceedingly gratifying to us."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>To this General Garcia replied that he would "take measures at once to
+carry out your (Miles') recommendation, but concentration of forces
+will require some time. Roads bad and Cubans scattered. Will march
+without delay." Admiral Sampson also cabled the Secretary of the Navy
+that Garcia "regards his (Miles') wishes and suggestions as orders,
+and immediately will take measures to concentrate forces at the points
+indicated, but he is unable to do so as early as desired on account of
+his expedition at Banes Port, Cuba, but will march without delay. All
+of his subordinates are ordered to assist to disembark the United
+States troops and to place themselves under orders." It was in
+compliance with these requests that General Garcia had the five
+thousand troops so near Santiago at the time he welcomed Shafter and
+Sampson to his camp, as mentioned above, and there is every necessary
+evidence that these Cuban troops took part in the fight about
+Santiago. Says General Miles of Garcia: "He had troops in the rear as
+well as on both sides of the garrison at Santiago before the arrival
+of our troops."</p>
+
+<p>It was agreed that the force of five hundred men under General
+Castillo, posted near Daiquiri, should be increased to 1,000, and
+should be prepared to make an attack upon the rear of the Spanish
+garrison at Daiquiri on the morning of the 22nd, at which time the
+debarkation would begin. General Rabi with about 500 men was also to
+attack Cabanas at the same time, in the same manner, the transports
+and war vessels so man&oelig;uvring as to give the impression that a
+landing was to be made at that place. While these attacks in the rear
+were distracting the garrisons, the navy, by order of Admiral Sampson,
+was to start up a vigorous bombardment of all the villages
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page121" id="page121"></a>[pg 121]</span>
+along the
+coast, thus clearing the shore for the landing of the army. Thus did
+the conference unite the hands of Americans and Cubans in the fight
+against Spain on Cuban soil, and each was pledged to the other by the
+expressions of good will. Having accomplished its work the important
+conference closed, Admiral Sampson and General Shafter to return to
+their ships, and General Garcia to carry out the part of the work
+assigned to him, which he did with fidelity and success.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p>
+
+<p>According to orders published on the 20th, General Lawton's Division,
+known as the Second Division, Fifth Army Corps, was to disembark
+first. This Division contained the three following Brigades: The
+First, General Ludlow's, composed of the Eighth and Twenty-second
+Infantry (regulars) and the Second Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry;
+the Second Brigade, General Miles', composed of the Fourth and
+Twenty-fifth Infantry (regulars); the Third Brigade, General
+Chaffee's, containing the Seventh, Twelfth and Seventeenth Infantry
+(regulars). Next to follow was General Bates' Brigade, which was to
+act as reserve to Lawton's Division. This Brigade consisted of the
+Third and Twentieth Infantry (regulars) and one squadron of the Second
+Cavalry, the only mounted troops in Shafter's army. The cavalry,
+however, were not to disembark with the Brigade, but were to be the
+last troops to leave the transports. After Bates' Brigade, was to
+follow Wheeler's Dismounted Cavalry Division, containing the two
+following Brigades: The First, composed of the Third, Sixth and Ninth
+Cavalry (regulars); the Second, composed of the First and Tenth
+Cavalry (regulars) and the First Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders). To
+follow the Cavalry Division was to come the First Division, General
+Kent's, containing the following troops: The First Brigade, General
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page122" id="page122"></a>[pg 122]</span>
+
+Hawkins', consisting of the Sixth and Sixteenth Infantry (regulars)
+and the Seventy-first New York Volunteer Infantry; the Second Brigade,
+General Pearson's, consisting of the Second, Tenth and Twenty-first
+Infantry (regulars); the Third Brigade, Colonel Wikoffs, made up of
+the Ninth, Thirteenth and Twenty-fourth Infantry (regulars). Then,
+lastly, was to depart the squadron of mounted cavalry.</p>
+
+<p>Thus prepared, both on board the ships and on shore, the morning of
+the 22nd dawned to witness the beginning of mighty operations. The war
+vessels, drawn up in proper order, early began to hurl shot and shell
+upon the towns, forts, blockhouses and clumps of trees that could be
+discovered along the shore. The cannonading lasted between two and
+three hours and was furious throughout. Meanwhile General Lawton's
+Division began the work of going ashore. The sea was rough and the
+passage to the shore was made in small boats furnished from the
+transports and from the naval vessels, towed by steam launches
+belonging to the navy. The larger of the boats were capable of
+carrying ten or twelve men each, while the smaller ones could carry
+but six or seven. During the passage to the shore several of the men
+who had escaped thus far, were taken with seasickness, greatly to the
+amusement of their more hardy companions. The landing was made at a
+pier which had been used formerly as a railroad pier, but was now
+abandoned and somewhat dilapidated. To get from the boats to the pier
+in this rough sea was the most perilous part of the whole trip from
+Tampa to Cuba. As the boats would rise on the waves almost level with
+the landing place it was necessary to leap quickly from the boat to
+the shore. In this way two cavalrymen of the Tenth lost their lives,
+falling into the sea with their equipments on and sinking before help
+could reach them. Some of the boats were rowed ashore and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page123" id="page123"></a>[pg 123]</span>
+made a
+landing on the beach some distance from the pier. By this method some
+men of the Twenty-fifth tried to be the first to land, but failed,
+that regiment landing, however, in the first body of troops to go
+ashore, and being the second in order, in the invasion of the island.
+By night of the 22nd more than one-third of the troops were on shore,
+and by the evening of the 24th the whole army was disembarked
+according to the program announced at the beginning, the squadron of
+cavalry coming in at the close of the march to the shore.</p>
+
+<p>The only national movement on our part deserving to be brought into
+comparison with the expedition against the Spanish power in Cuba, is
+that of fifty years earlier, when General Scott sailed at the head of
+the army of invasion against Mexico. Some of the occurrences of that
+expedition, especially connected with its landing, should be carefully
+studied, and if the reports which have reached the public concerning
+it are truthful, we would do well to consider how far the methods then
+in use could be applied now. Scribner's recent history, published just
+before the outbreak of the Spanish War, tells the story of that
+expedition, so far as it tells it at all, in the following sentence:
+"On the 7th of March, the fleet with Scott's army came to anchor a few
+miles south of Vera Cruz, and two days later he landed his whole
+force&mdash;nearly twelve thousand men&mdash;by means of surf-boats." A writer
+in a recent number of <i>The Army and Navy Journal</i> says General Worth's
+Division of 4,500 men were landed in one hour, and the whole force was
+landed in six hours, without accident or confusion. In the prosecution
+of that unholy war, which lasted about a year, nearly three thousand
+men were lost in battle and about as many more by disease, peace being
+finally made by the cession of territory on the part of Mexico, the
+United States paying in return much more than the territory was
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page124" id="page124"></a>[pg 124]</span>
+worth. The twenty millions paid to Texas probably in great part went
+into the coffers of the patriots who occupied that region, some of
+whom had not been known as desirable citizens in the parts from which
+they came, and had manifested their patriotism by leaving their
+country for their country's good. The fifteen millions handed over to
+Mexico looks like a contribution to a conscience fund, and an
+atonement offered for an assault without provocation. The country
+gained Arizona, New Mexico, California and finally Texas, but it lost
+six thousand good men, the cost of the war, and all told, in
+negotiations, about thirty million dollars, besides. However, it is
+not always profitable to look up the harvests of war. There are always
+two&mdash;the harvest of gain, and the harvest of loss. Death and debt are
+reapers, as well as are honor and extent of territory.</p>
+
+<p>The feelings of the six thousand American troops who landed on Cuban
+soil on June 22nd, 1898, may well be imagined. Although they felt the
+effects of the confinement to which they had been subjected while on
+shipboard, there was very little sickness among them. Again possessed
+of the free use of their limbs they swarmed the beach and open space
+near the landing, making themselves at home, and confronting the
+difficulties and perils that lay before them with a courage born of
+national pride. Before them were the mountains with their almost
+impassable roads, the jungles filled with poisonous plants and the
+terrible prickly underbrush and pointed grass, in which skulked the
+land crab and various reptiles whose bite or sting was dangerous;
+twenty miles of this inhospitable country lay between them and
+Santiago, their true objective. And somewhere on the road to that city
+they knew they were destined to meet a well-trained foe, skilled in
+all the arts of modern warfare, who would contest their advance. The
+prospect,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page125" id="page125"></a>[pg 125]</span>
+however, did not unnerve them, although they could well
+conjecture that all who landed would not re-embark. Some in that six
+thousand were destined never again to set foot on shipboard. Out of
+the Twenty-fifth Infantry and the Tenth Cavalry men were to fall both
+before Spanish bullets and disease ere these organizations should
+assemble to return to their native shores. These thoughts did not
+prevent the men from taking advantage of what nature had to offer
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"We landed in rowboats, amid, and after the cessation of the
+bombardment of the little hamlet and coast by the men-of-war and
+battle-ships," writes a brave soldier of the Twenty-fifth Infantry,
+and adds immediately: "We then helped ourselves to cocoanuts which we
+found in abundance near the landing." Ordinarily this statement, so
+trivial and apparently unimportant, would not merit repetition, but in
+its connection here it is significant as showing the immediate
+tendency of the men to resort to the fruits of the country, despite
+all warnings to the contrary. The two weeks' experience on board the
+transports had made the finding of cocoanuts an event to be noted, and
+the dry pulp and strongly flavored milk of this tropical fruit became
+extremely grateful to the palate, even if not altogether safe for the
+stomach. If ripe, however, the cocoanut could scarcely be more
+ungenial to many, than the raw, canned tomatoes upon which they had in
+part subsisted during the voyage. It is to be added that this report
+of the finding of the cocoanuts is not the report of an old soldier,
+but of a young and intelligent, first enlistment man.</p>
+
+<p>Lawton's Division soon after landing, was ordered to move forward in
+the direction of Santiago, on the road leading past Siboney. A staff
+officer, writing of that movement, says: "General Lawton, with his
+Division, in obedience to this order, pushed forward from Daiquiri
+about five miles, when night
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page126" id="page126"></a>[pg 126]</span>
+overtook him and he bivouacked on the
+road." An old soldier of the Twenty-fifth, writing me from the
+hospital in Tampa, Florida, July 22nd, says of the same event: "After
+the regiment landed we marched about four and a half miles through the
+mountains; then we made camp." The old soldier says nothing of
+cocoanuts, but makes his statement with as much accuracy as possible,
+and with no waste of words. The novice describing the same thing says:
+"A short distance ahead (from the shore) we bivouacked for the night.
+We were soon lying in dreamland, so far from friends and home, indeed,
+on a distant, distant shore." These two extracts show at once the
+difference between the soldier produced by years of trial and training
+on our plains, and the soldier who but yesterday was a civilian. With
+the one the march is a short distance; with the other it is about four
+and a half miles; one reports that they "made camp," the other talks
+of dreamland, friend, home and distant shore; one expresses his
+feelings, the other shows control of feeling and reserve in
+expression.</p>
+
+<p>That first night on Cuban soil, the night following June 22nd, was one
+without events, but one of great concern to the commanders on shore
+and on the fleet. The work of disembarking had gone on successfully,
+and already about six thousand men were on shore. Nearly the whole of
+Lawton's Division, with Bates' independent brigade, were bivouacked,
+as we have seen, about five miles from Daiquiri, exactly where the
+railroad crosses the wagon road leading to Siboney. General Wheeler's
+troops&mdash;one brigade&mdash;were encamped on the open ground near the
+landing, the remainder of his division being still on the transports.
+The Twenty-fifth Infantry was with Lawton; the Tenth Cavalry was
+ashore with Wheeler's troops. A detachment of the Twenty-fifth was put
+on outpost duty on that night of their landing, and five miles within
+Cuban territory
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page127" id="page127"></a>[pg 127]</span>
+they tramped their solitary beats, establishing and
+guarding the majestic authority of the United States.</p>
+
+<p>Lawton's orders were to seize and hold the town of Siboney at which
+place Kent's Division, containing the Twenty-fourth, was to land. It
+was then intended that the whole army should advance as rapidly as
+would be consistent with supplying the men with rations toward
+Santiago. Siboney was to be the base of supplies, and from this point
+ammunition and food were to be conveyed to the front by wagons and
+pack trains. General Shafter also intended that Lawton with his
+division should lead the advance upon Santiago, but circumstances
+beyond his control brought about a different result. On the morning of
+the 23rd Lawton's division was in motion early, and before half-past
+ten o'clock he was able to report that the Spaniards had evacuated
+Siboney and were in full retreat, pursued by a body of Cubans under
+direction of General Castillo; that the town was in his hands, and he
+had also captured one locomotive and nearly one hundred cars loaded
+with coal.</p>
+
+<p>General Young's brigade of General Wheeler's cavalry division, got on
+shore on the afternoon of the 23rd and after landing received verbal
+orders to move out with three days' rations "to a good camping place
+between Juraguacito and Siboney, on the road leading to Santiago de
+Cuba." In obedience to these orders, at 4.30 in the afternoon Young
+with the Rough Riders and a squadron from each of the First and Tenth
+Regular Cavalry moved from the bivouack near the landing and arrived
+at Siboney at about 7 o'clock. When General Young arrived at Siboney
+he had with him the Rough Riders, the other troops having been delayed
+by the crowded condition of the trail and the difficulty of following
+after nightfall. Although these troops are always spoken of as
+cavalry, the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page128" id="page128"></a>[pg 128]</span>
+reader must not forget that they were dismounted and in
+marching and fighting were the same as infantry.</p>
+
+<p>General Young on arriving at Siboney reported to General Wheeler, who
+had preceded him to the same place. The statements of the several
+commanders here appear somewhat conflicting, although not
+inexplicable. General Lawton says: "Yesterday afternoon, late, General
+Wheeler and staff arrived and established his headquarters within the
+limits of my command. Saw him after dark. Late last night Colonel
+Wood's regiment of dismounted cavalry (Rough Riders) passed through my
+camp at Division Headquarters, and later General Young, with some of
+the dismounted Cavalry, and early this morning others of the
+dismounted cavalry." Wheeler says that "in obedience to instructions
+from the Major-General Commanding," given to him in person, he
+proceeded, on June 23rd, to Siboney, but does not say at what hour. He
+says he "rode out to the front and found that the enemy had halted and
+established themselves at a point about three miles from Siboney." He
+then informs us that "at 8 o'clock on that evening of the 23rd General
+Young reached Siboney with eight troops of Colonel Wood's regiment (A,
+B, D, E, F, G, K and L), 500 strong; Troops A, B, G and K, of the
+First Cavalry, in all 244, and Troops A, B, E and I, of the Tenth
+Cavalry, in all 220 men, making a total force of 964 men, which
+included nearly all of my command which had disembarked. These troops
+had marched from Daiquiri, 11 miles. With the assistance of General
+Castillo a rough map of the country was prepared and the position of
+the enemy fully explained, and I determined to make an attack."
+Lieutenant Miley says that the whole brigade of Wheeler's troops
+arrived in Siboney about dark and were occupying the same ground as
+General Lawton ("In Cuba With Shafter," p. 76.) General Young
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page129" id="page129"></a>[pg 129]</span>
+says
+that after reporting to General Wheeler he "asked and obtained from
+General Wheeler authority to make a reconnoisance in force" for the
+purpose of obtaining "positive information * * * as to the position
+and movements of the enemy in front."</p>
+
+<p>The distance from Daiquiri to Siboney was but eleven miles, and as the
+troops left the former place at 4.30 it is probable that they were all
+bivouacked near Siboney before 9 o'clock, as they were all together,
+according to General Wheeler's report, at 5.45 on the morning of the
+24th. General Young having discovered that there were two roads or
+trails leading from Siboney northward toward the town of Sevilla
+determined to make his reconnoisance by both these trails. He directed
+Colonel Wood to move by the western trail and to keep a careful
+lookout and to attack any Spaniards he might encounter, being careful
+to join his right in the event of an engagement, with the left of the
+column advancing by the eastern trail. Colonel Wood's column was the
+left column and was composed of the Rough Riders only. The column
+marching by the eastern trail was composed of the First and Tenth
+Cavalry (regulars) and was under the command of General Young. It was
+the intention of General Young by this column to gain the enemy's
+left, and thus attack in front and left. As early as 7.20 a.m. Captain
+Mills discovered the enemy exactly as had been described by General
+Castillo. When this was done word was sent to Colonel Wood, who was
+making his way to the front over a more difficult route than the one
+by which General Young's column had marched. A delay was therefore
+made on the part of General Young in order that the attack should
+begin on both flanks at the same time. During this delay General
+Wheeler arrived and was informed of the plans and dispositions for the
+attack, and after examining the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page130" id="page130"></a>[pg 130]</span>
+position gave his approval of what
+had been done, whereupon General Young ordered the attack. General
+Wheeler in speaking of the same event says: "General Young and myself
+examined the position of the enemy. The lines were deployed and I
+directed him to open fire with the
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'Hotckiss'">Hotchkiss</ins>
+gun. The enemy replied
+and the firing immediately became general." There can be no question
+as to the planning of this fight nor as to the direction of the
+American force in the fight so far as any general direction was
+possible. Colonel Wood directed one column and General Young another,
+while the plan of the attack undoubtedly originated with General
+Young. General Wheeler conveys as much when he says: "General Young
+deserves special commendation for his cool deliberate and skillful
+management." General Young, if only the commander of the right column
+consisting of two squadrons of regular cavalry, had not as large a
+command, nor as difficult and important a one as had Colonel Wood, and
+hence is not deserving of special commendation except upon the general
+ground that he had supervision over the whole battle. This position is
+taken by General Shafter in his report, who though admitting the
+presence of the Division Commander, credits the battle to General
+Young, the commander of the brigade. The reconnoissance in force for
+which Young had obtained authority from General Wheeler on the night
+of the 23rd had developed into a battle, and the plan had evolved
+itself from the facts discovered. This plan General Wheeler approved,
+but in no such way as to take the credit from its originator; and it
+is doubtless with reference both to the plan and the execution that he
+bestows on General Young the mead of praise. This statement of fact
+does not in the least detract from either the importance or the
+praiseworthiness of the part played by Colonel Wood. Both he and the
+officers and men commanded by him
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page131" id="page131"></a>[pg 131]</span>
+received both from General Young
+and from the division commander the most generous praise. The advance
+of Wood's column was made with great difficulty owing to the nature of
+the ground, and according to General Young's belief, he was in the
+rear when at 7.20 in the morning Captain Mills discovered the enemy,
+and a Cuban guide was dispatched to warn Wood, and a delay made to
+allow time for him to come up. Colonel Wood, on the other hand, claims
+to have discovered the enemy at 7.10 and to have begun action almost
+immediately, so that it turned out as Young had planned, and "the
+attack of both wings was simultaneous." The Spaniards were posted on a
+range of high hills in the form of a "V," the opening being toward
+Siboney, from which direction the attack came.</p>
+
+<p>From Colonel Wood's report it appears that soon after the firing began
+he found it necessary to deploy five troops to the right, and left,
+leaving three troops in reserve. The enemy's lines being still beyond
+his, both on the right and on the left, he hastily deployed two more
+troops, which made the lines now about equal in length. The firing was
+now "exceedingly heavy," and much of it at short range, but on account
+of the thick underbrush it was not very effective; "comparatively few
+of our men were injured." Captain Capron at this time received his
+mortal wound and the firing became so terrific that the last remaining
+troop of the reserve was absorbed by the firing line, and the whole
+regiment ordered to advance very slowly. The Spanish line yielded and
+the advance soon showed that in falling back the enemy had taken a new
+position, about three hundred yards in front of the advancing
+regiment. Their lines extended from 800 to 1,000 yards, and the firing
+from their front was "exceedingly heavy" and effective. A "good many
+men" were wounded, "and several officers," says Colonel
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page132" id="page132"></a>[pg 132]</span>
+ Wood's
+report. Still the advance was kept up, and the Spanish line was
+steadily forced back. "We now began," says Colonel Wood, "to get a
+heavy fire from a ridge on our right, which enfiladed our line." The
+reader can at once see that although the Rough Riders were advancing
+heroically, they were now in a very serious situation, with an
+exceedingly heavy and effective fire striking them in front, and a
+heavy, enfilading fire raking them from the right. Their whole
+strength was on the line, and these two fires must have reduced their
+effectiveness with great rapidity had it kept up, the Spaniards having
+their range and firing by well-directed volleys. It was for the
+regiment a moment of the utmost peril. Had they been alone they must
+have perished.</p>
+
+<p>It was from this perilous situation of Colonel Wood's command that one
+of the most popular stories of the war originated, a story that
+contained some truth, but which was often told in such a way as to
+cause irritation, and in some instances it was so exaggerated or
+mutilated in the telling as to be simply ridiculous. On the day after
+the battle the story was told in Lawton's camp according to the
+testimony of an intelligent soldier of the Twenty-fifth Infantry. His
+words are: "The next day about noon we heard that the Tenth Cavalry
+had met the enemy and that the Tenth Cavalry had rescued the Rough
+Riders. We congratulated ourselves that although not of the same
+branch of service, we were of the same color, and that to the eye of
+the enemy we, troopers and footmen, all looked alike." According to
+artists and cheap newspaper stories this rescuing occurred again and
+again. A picture is extensively advertized as "an actual and
+authoritative presentation of this regiment (the Tenth Cavalry) as it
+participated in that great struggle, and their heroic rescue of the
+Rough Riders on that memorable <i>July</i> day." This especial rescuing
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page133" id="page133"></a>[pg 133]</span>
+took place on <i>San Juan Hill</i>. The editor of a religious paper
+declares that it was the <i>Twenty-fifth Infantry</i> that rescued the
+Rough Riders and that it was done at <i>El Caney</i>!<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
+
+<p>Before we go any farther let us see just what the Tenth Cavalry did do
+in this fight. That their action was highly meritorious admits of no
+doubt, and the laurels they won were never allowed to fade during the
+whole campaign. General Wheeler speaks of them with the First Cavalry.
+He says: "I was immediately with the troops of the First and Tenth
+Regular Cavalry, dismounted, and personally noticed their brave and
+good conduct." There were four troops of the Tenth engaged, composing
+the First Squadron of that regiment, under command of Major Norval.
+Troop A was commanded by Captain W.H. Beck, who was specially
+commended by General Wheeler for good conduct. Second Lieutenant F.R.
+McCoy was Captain Beck's assistant. This troop moved over to the left,
+receiving the fire of the enemy, but making no response, the distance
+being too great for effective carbine firing.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page134" id="page134"></a>[pg 134]</span>
+ This troop reached
+Colonel Wood's right and made the line continuous so that there was
+now a force in front of that ridge where the Spaniards were securely
+entrenched and from which they were pouring their enfilading fire upon
+Colonel Wood's line. Troop A, although coming into the line, did not
+fire. Their presence, however, gave the Rough Riders the assurance
+that their flank was saved. Troop E was commanded by Captain C.G.
+Ayres with Second Lieutenant George Vidmar. This troop was placed by
+General Young in support of Captain Watson's two Hotchkiss guns, and
+also of the troops in their front. The troop was under fire one hour
+and a quarter, during which they were in plain view of the Spaniards,
+who also had their exact range. One man was killed and one wounded.
+Their courage, coolness and discipline in this trying hour and a
+quarter were of the very highest order. The troop commander says:
+"Their coolness and fine discipline were superb." This troop did not
+fire a shot. Thus one-half of the squadron moved to its positions and
+held them without being able to do any damage to the enemy, as they
+were carrying out to the letter their instructions, which were to fire
+only when they could see the enemy. Troop B was commanded by Captain
+J.W. Watson with H.O. Willard as Second Lieutenant. A detachment of
+this troop was placed in charge of four Hotchkiss mountain guns. This
+detachment opened fire upon the enemy, using the ammunition sparingly,
+as they had but fifty rounds with them. Twenty-two shots were fired,
+apparently with effect. The remainder of the troop under Lieutenant
+Williard was ordered to move out to the extreme right, which would
+place it beyond the line of the First Cavalry, thus bringing that
+regiment between Troop A of the Tenth, which connected it with the
+Rough Riders and Troop B, which was to be on its extreme right.
+Lieutenant Williard's report of this movement is as follows:</p><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page135" id="page135"></a>[pg 135]</span>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I ordered the troop forward at once, telling them to take
+advantage of all cover available. In the meantime the
+volleys from the Spanish were coming in quite frequently and
+striking the ground on all sides near where we were. I found
+it very difficult to move the men forward after having found
+cover, and ran back to a portion of the troop near an old
+brick wall, and ordered them forward at once. They then made
+a dash forward, and in doing so three or four men were
+wounded, Private Russell severely. Who the others were I do
+not know. We encountered a severe fire directly after this
+move forward; and Private Wheeler was wounded in the left
+leg. There was a wire fence on our right, and such thick
+underbrush that we were unable to get through right there,
+so had to follow along the fence for some distance before
+being able to penetrate. Finally, was able to get the
+greater proportion of my men through, and about this time I
+met Lieutenants Fleming and Miller, Tenth Cavalry, moving
+through the thicket at my left. I there heard the order
+passed on 'not to fire ahead,' as there was danger of firing
+into our own forces. In the meantime there was shouting from
+the First Cavalry in our front, 'Don't fire on us in rear.'
+My troop had not fired a shot to my knowledge, nor the
+knowledge of any non-commissioned officers in the troop.
+About this time I found I was unable to keep the troop
+deployed, as they would huddle up behind one rock or tree,
+so I gave all sergeants orders to move out on the extreme
+right and to keep in touch with those on their left. Then,
+with a squad of about five men, I moved to the right front,
+and was unfortunate enough to lose the troop, i.e., I could
+see nothing of them except the men with me.</p>
+
+<p>"But as I had given explicit instructions to my sergeant, in
+case I was lost from them, to continue to advance until
+halted by some one in authority, I moved ahead myself,
+hoping to find them later on. In making a rush forward three
+men of my squad were lost from me in some way. I still had
+two men with me, Privates Combs and Jackson, and in the next
+advance made I picked up a First Cavalry sergeant who had
+fallen out from exhaustion. After a terrific climb up the
+ridge in front of me, and a very regular though ineffective
+fire from the enemy kept up until we were about sixty yards
+from the summit of hill, we reached the advance line of the
+First United States Cavalry, under command of Captain
+Wainwright. I then reported
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page136" id="page136"></a>[pg 136]</span>
+to him for orders, and moved
+forward when he next advanced. The firing had ceased, and no
+more shots were fired, to my knowledge, after this time.
+With the First Cavalry, Troop G, we followed along the right
+of the ridge and came down to the right front, encountering
+no opposition or fire from the enemy, but finding the
+enemy's breastworks in confusion, ammunition and articles of
+clothing scattered around; also one dead Spaniard and two
+Mauser rifles. At the foot of the ridge we met some of the
+First Volunteer Cavalry, and being utterly exhausted, I was
+obliged to lie down. Soon after, Captain Mills,
+adjutant-general of Second Brigade, Cavalry Division, came
+up to where I was and placed me in command of Troop K, First
+United States Cavalry, whose officers were wounded. I then
+marched them forward on the road to where General Wheeler
+was sitting, and received orders from Colonel Wood, First
+Volunteer Cavalry, to remain until further orders and make
+no further advance. Directly afterwards, learning the action
+was over, I reported back to General Young, and received
+orders to remain camped with the First Cavalry Squadron,
+where the action had closed. In the meantime, I should have
+stated that I found the principal part of my troop and
+collected them and left them under the first sergeant, when
+I went back to receive orders. So far as I know, and to the
+best of my knowledge, the men of my troop acted with the
+greatest bravery, advancing on an enemy who could not be
+seen, and subjected to a severe and heavy fire at each step,
+which was only rendered ineffective to a great degree by the
+poor marksmanship of the enemy, as many times we were in
+sight of them (I discovered this by observation after the
+engagement) while we could see nothing. We were also
+subjected to a severe reverse fire from the hills in our
+right rear, several men being wounded by this fire.
+Throughout the fight the men acted with exceptional
+coolness, in my judgment. The casualties were: Privates
+Russell, Braxton and Morris, severely wounded; Privates F.A.
+Miller, Grice, Wheeler and Gaines, slightly wounded, i.e.,
+less severely. None killed.</p>
+
+<p class="letterClose3 close">Very respectfully,</p>
+
+<p class="author-up">HENRY O. WILLIARD.</p>
+<p class="letterClose5">June 24, 1898.</p>
+<p class="letterClose5">Troop B, Tenth Cavalry, during action near La Guasima,</p>
+<p class="letterClose5">Second Lieutenant, Tenth United States Cavalry, Commanding.</p>
+</blockquote><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page137" id="page137"></a>[pg 137]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>Troop I of the Tenth Cavalry was commanded by First Lieutenant R.J.
+Fleming with Second Lieutenant A.M. Miller. This troop moved to the
+right and wedged in between B Troop and the right of the First
+Cavalry. Lieutenant Fleming discovered the enemy posted on the high
+ridge immediately in front of his troop, and also extending to his
+right, in front of B Troop. Moving his troop a little to the right so
+as to secure room to advance without coming in contact with the First
+Cavalry, he then directed his course straight toward the hill on which
+he had located the enemy. The advance was made with great caution, the
+men seeking cover wherever possible, and dashing across the open
+spaces at full run. Thus they moved until the base of the steep part
+of the hill was reached. This was found very difficult of ascent, not
+only because of the rugged steepness, but also on account of the
+underbrush, and the sharp-leaved grass, the cacti and Spanish bayonet,
+that grow on all these hillsides. Paths had to be cut through these
+prickly obstructions with knives and sabres. Consequently the advance
+up that hill, though free from peril, was very slow and trying. Twice
+during the advance the men obtained a view of their enemies and were
+permitted to fire. The instructions were rigidly adhered to: No firing
+only at the visible foe. Lieutenant Fleming says: "Owing to the
+underbrush it was impossible for me to see but a very few men at a
+time, but as they all arrived on the crest about the time I did, or
+shortly after, they certainly advanced steadily." He says: "The entire
+troop behaved with great coolness and obeyed every order." Farrier
+Sherman Harris, Wagoner John Boland and Private Elsie Jones especially
+distinguished themselves for coolness and gallantry. The aggressive
+work of the Tenth Cavalry, therefore, appears to have been done by
+Troops B and I, a detachment of the former troop serving the Hotchkiss
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page138" id="page138"></a>[pg 138]</span>
+gun battery. Troop I was commanded by Lieutenant Fleming and by him
+conducted to the front, although he admits that in their advance up
+the slope of the hill he could see but very few of the men at a time,
+and declares that their advance was certainly steady, because all
+arrived at the crest of the hill simultaneously or nearly so.</p>
+
+<p>Lieutenant Fleming does not show that his troop of excellent men were
+in any sense <i>peculiarly</i> dependent upon their white officers as some
+have asserted. They advanced steadily, just as the regulars always do,
+advanced noiselessly and without any reckless firing, and reached the
+crest of the hill in order, although he could not see them as they
+were making their advance. They kept their line despite all the
+obstructions. Lieutenant Fleming also says that in moving to his
+position he passed Troop B, which then "inclined to the right, and
+during the remainder of the action was on my right." Troop B,
+therefore, went through about the same experience as Troop I, and
+being on the extreme right of the line may have been more directly in
+front of that foe which Fleming says was in his front and to the
+right. Why did not the officer who directed or led B Troop in its
+advance upon the enemy report the action of his troop as vividly and
+generously as did Lieutenant Fleming the men of Troop I? With not the
+slightest reflection upon the gallant officer, he himself has the
+manliness to say he was so unfortunate as to lose the troop. The
+troop, however, did not become demoralized, but went into action under
+command of its First Sergeant, <i>John Buck,<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> and remained on
+Lieutenant Fleming's right during the action</i>. It has been proven more
+than once that should the commissioned officers of a company or troop
+of colored regulars be killed or incapacitated, the non-commissioned
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page139" id="page139"></a>[pg 139]</span>
+officers can carry on the fight. Speaking of this same regiment it is
+equally true that at San Juan the officers of Troops D and G were all
+shot and the commands of these troops fell to their First Sergeants,
+the first to Sergeant William H. Given, the second to Sergeant Saint
+Foster, and it is generally understood that these two men were
+appointed Lieutenants of Volunteers because of their success in
+handling their troops in battle.</p>
+
+<p>The entire attacking force at this end of the line, if we count only
+those engaged in actual firing, consisted of two troops of the Tenth
+Cavalry and two of the First Cavalry&mdash;four troops&mdash;while to the left
+the entire eight troops were on the firing line. The action of the
+troops of the First Cavalry was quite similar to that of the troops of
+the Tenth Cavalry, and equally deserving of commendation. Of them all
+General Young says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The ground over which the right column advanced was a mass
+of jungle growth, with wire fences, not to be seen until
+encountered, and precipitous heights as the ridge was
+approached. It was impossible for the troops to keep in
+touch along the front, and they could only judge of the
+enemy from the sound and direction of his fire. However, had
+it not been for this dense jungle, the attack would not have
+been made against an overwhelming force in such a position.
+Headway was so difficult that advance and support became
+merged and moved forward under a continuous volley firing,
+supplemented by that of two rapid-fire guns. Return firing
+by my force was only made as here and there a small clear
+spot gave a sight of the enemy. The fire discipline of these
+particular troops was almost perfect. The ammunition
+expended by the two squadrons engaged in an incessant
+advance for one hour and fifteen minutes averaged less than
+ten rounds per man. The fine quality of these troops is also
+shown by the fact that there was not a single straggler, and
+in not one instance was an attempt made by any soldier to
+fall out in the advance to assist the wounded or carry back
+the dead. The fighting on the left flank was equally
+creditable and was remarkable, and I believe unprecedented,
+in volunter troops so quickly raised, armed and equipped."</p></blockquote><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page140" id="page140"></a>[pg 140]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>The five hundred men of Colonel Wood's regiment were stretched over a
+space of 800 to 1,000 yards, and were entirely without support or
+reserve, and appear to have advanced to a point where this very strong
+force on the right swept a good part of their line both with rifle
+fire and the fire of their two machine guns. Men and officers were
+falling under both the front and flank fire of the enemy, and had not
+the squadrons of the First and Tenth made their successful assault
+upon that ridge, which, according to General Wood's report, was "very
+strongly held," the situation of the Rough Riders would have been
+extreme. Because this successful assault was participated in by the
+Tenth Cavalry the story arose that the Rough Riders were rescued by
+that regiment. The fair statement would be: That the Regular Cavalry,
+consisting of a squadron of the First and a squadron of the Tenth,
+made their advance on the right at the precise moment to deliver the
+Rough Riders from a fire that threatened their annihilation. The
+marksmanship and coolness of the men of the Tenth have been specially
+commented upon and their fire was described as very effective, but the
+same remarks could be made of the men of the First, who fought side by
+side with them. It is probable that the volunteers advanced more
+rapidly than did the regulars, using more ammunition, and manifesting
+a very high degree of courage and enthusiasm as well as deliberation;
+but the regulars reached their objective at the proper time to turn
+the battle's tide. Each advancing column was worthy to be companion to
+the other.</p>
+
+<p>General Wheeler said the fire was very hot for about an hour, and "at
+8.30 sent a courier to General Lawton informing him that he was
+engaged with a larger force of the enemy than was anticipated, and
+asked that his force be sent forward on the Sevilla road as quickly as
+possible." ("In Cuba With
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page141" id="page141"></a>[pg 141]</span>
+ Shafter," p. 83.) General Lawton, however,
+with the true instinct of a soldier had already sent orders to General
+Chaffee to move forward with the First Brigade. The Second Brigade was
+also in readiness to move and the men of the Twenty-fifth were
+expecting to go forward to take a position on the right and if
+possible a little to the rear of the Spanish entrenchments in order to
+cut off their retreat. The rapid movements of the cavalry division,
+however, rendered this unnecessary, and the routing of the foe gave to
+the Americans an open country and cleared the field for the advance on
+Santiago. The first battle had been fought, and the Americans had been
+victorious, but not without cost. Sixteen men had been killed and
+fifty-two wounded. In Colonel Wood's regiment eight had been killed
+and thirty-four wounded; in the First Cavalry, seven killed and eight
+wounded; in the Tenth Cavalry, one killed and ten wounded. The
+percentage of losses to the whole strength of the several
+organizations engaged was as follows: Rough Riders, over 8 per cent.;
+First Cavalry, over 6 per cent.; Tenth Cavalry, 5 per cent. But if we
+take those on the firing line as the base the rate per cent. of losses
+among the regulars would be doubled, while that of the volunteers
+would remain the same.</p>
+
+<p>The strength of the enemy in this battle is given in the Spanish
+official reports, according to Lieutenant Miley, at about five
+hundred, and their losses are put at nine killed and twenty-seven
+wounded. At the time of the fight it was supposed to be much larger.
+General Young's report places the estimates at 2,000, and adds "that
+it has since been learned from Spanish sources to have been 2,500. The
+Cuban military authorities claim the Spanish strength was 4,000."
+These figures are doubtless too high. The force overtaken at Las
+Guasimas was the same force that evacuated Siboney at the approach of
+Lawton
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page142" id="page142"></a>[pg 142]</span>
+and the force with which the Cubans had fought on the morning
+of the 23rd. It may have consisted solely of the garrison from
+Siboney, although it is more probable that it included also those from
+Daiquiri and Jutici, as it is quite certain that all these troops
+proceeded toward Santiago over the same road. The force at Siboney had
+been given by the Cubans at 600, at Daiquiri at 300, and at Jutici at
+150. If these had concentrated and the figures were correct, the
+Spanish force at Guasimas was upwards of 1,000. If, however, it was
+the force from Siboney alone, it was about as the Spanish official
+report gives it. On this latter basis, however, the losses are out of
+proportion, for while the attacking party lost a little less than 7
+per cent. of its entire strength in killed and wounded, the losses of
+the entrenched, defending party, were even a little greater, or over 7
+per cent. of its strength. It is, therefore, probable that the Spanish
+force was greater than officially reported and included the troops
+from the other posts as well as those from Siboney. The engagement was
+classed by General Shafter as unimportant, although its effect upon
+our army was inspiring. It did not cut off the retreat of the Spanish
+force, and the men who faced our army at Guasimas met them again in
+the trenches before Santiago. General Shafter desired to advance with
+his whole force, and cautioned strongly against any further forward
+movement until the troops were well in hand. The two battles between
+the Cubans and Spaniards, fought on the 23rd, in which the Cubans had
+sixteen men wounded and two killed, were engagements of some
+consequence, although we have no reports of them. There is no evidence
+that the Cubans took part in the battle of Guasimas, although they
+arrived on the grounds immediately after the firing ceased.</p>
+
+<p>The story thus far told is, as the reader cannot fail to see,
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page143" id="page143"></a>[pg 143]</span>
+directly from official records, and the conclusions arrived at are
+those which result naturally from the facts as therein detailed. Not
+one word is quoted from any but military men&mdash;actors in the affair. We
+may now go briefly over the same ground, giving the views and
+conclusions of able civilian correspondents who followed the army to
+see what was done, and who were trained observers and skilled writers.
+How have these able war journalists told the story of Las Guasimas?</p>
+
+<p>To quote from Stephen Bonsal in substance, not in words, is to
+contradict what General Shafter says officially in one particular, but
+in no such way as to discredit the General, or to weaken Bonsal. It is
+not a case of bringing two universal, antagonistic propositions face
+to face, but a case where two men of different training look upon an
+action from different standpoints and through different field-glasses.
+General Shafter says of the collision of the Rough Riders with the
+Spanish force: "There was no ambush as reported." As a military man,
+he says there was no more concealment on the part of the Spanish force
+than what an attacking party should expect, no more than what is usual
+in modern warfare, hence he does not regard it as an ambush, and does
+not officially take notice of any surprise or unexpected encounter on
+the part of his force. To do so would be to reflect, however slightly,
+upon the professional skill of the commander of the left column.
+General Shafter thus says officially in a manly way: "There was no
+ambush." Beyond this his duty does not call him to go, and he halts
+his expressions exactly at this line, maintaining in his attitude all
+the attributes of the true soldier, placing himself beyond criticism
+by thus securing from attack the character of his subordinate.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bonsal is a writer and author, accustomed to view actions in the
+broader light of popular judgment, entirely free
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page144" id="page144"></a>[pg 144]</span>
+from professional
+bias, and having no class-feeling or obligations to serve. His pen is
+not official; his statements are not from the military standpoint; not
+influenced in any way by considerations of personal weal or woe with
+respect to others or himself. He says that one troop of the Rough
+Riders, Troop L, commanded by Captain Capron, was leading the advance
+of the regiment, and was in solid formation and within twenty-five
+yards of its scouting line when it received the enemy's fire. This
+troop was so far in the advance that it took the other troops of the
+regiment more than a half hour to get up to it. The writer speaks of
+the advance of that troop as having been made "in the fool-hardy
+formation of a solid column along a narrow trail, which brought them,
+in the way I have described, within point-blank range of the Spanish
+rifles, and within the unobstructed sweep of their machine guns." He
+sums up as follows: "And if it is to be ambushed when you receive the
+enemy's fire perhaps a quarter of an hour before it was expected, and
+when the troop was in a formation, and the only one in which, in view
+of the nature of the ground it was possible to advance quickly, then
+most certainly L Troop of the Rough Riders was ambushed by the
+Spaniards on the morning of June 24th."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bonsal also brings into clear view the part taken in this battle
+by Lawton's Infantry. He shows by means of a simple map the trail by
+which Miles' brigade, in which was the Twenty-fifth Infantry, moved in
+order to flank the Spanish position, while Chaffee's brigade was
+hurrying forward on the Royal Road to reinforce the line in front. A
+letter from a soldier of the Twenty-fifth written soon after these
+events fully confirms Mr. Bonsal in what he says concerning the
+movement of Miles' brigade. The soldier says: "On the morning of the
+24th the Rough Riders, Tenth and First Cavalry were to make
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page145" id="page145"></a>[pg 145]</span>
+an attack
+on a little place where the Spanish were fortified. The Second Brigade
+was to come on the right flank of these troops and a little in rear of
+the fortifications; but by some misunderstanding, the former troops,
+led by the Rough Riders, made an attack before we got our position,
+and the result was a great many lives lost in the First Cavalry and
+Rough Riders&mdash;only one in Tenth Cavalry, but many wounded. They
+captured the fortification." This letter by a humble soldier, written
+with no thought of its importance, shows how gallantly Lawton had
+sprung to the rescue of Wheeler's division. According to Bonsal, who
+says he obtained his information from Spanish officers who were
+present in this fight, it was the information of the approach of this
+brigade and of Chaffee's up the main road that caused the Spaniards to
+withdraw rapidly from the position. The whole force was in imminent
+danger of being captured. Another soldier of the Twenty-fifth wrote:
+"The report came that the Twenty-fifth Infantry was to cut off the
+Spanish retreat from a stronghold, toward Santiago." These glimpses
+from soldiers' letters illustrate how clearly they comprehended the
+work upon which they were sent, and show also how hearty and cordial
+was the support which the infantry at that time was hurrying forward
+to the advancing cavalry.</p>
+
+<p>The official reports show that the strength of the Spanish position
+was before the right of our line. Mr. Bonsal says: "Directly in front
+of the Tenth Cavalry rose undoubtedly the strongest point in the
+Spanish position&mdash;two lines of shallow trenches, strengthened by heavy
+stone parapets." We must remember that so far as we can get the
+disposition of these troops from official records, Troop A connected
+the Rough Riders with the First Cavalry, and Troops I and B were on
+the right of the First Cavalry. Troop A did not fire a shot; the
+fighting,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page146" id="page146"></a>[pg 146]</span>
+therefore, was done by Troops I and B on the extreme right
+of the line, and it was on their front that "undoubtedly the strongest
+point in the Spanish position" lay&mdash;nor should the reader forget that
+at this very important moment Troop B was commanded by its First
+Sergeant, Buck, Lieutenant Williard having by his own report been
+"unfortunate enough to lose the troop." This is said with no
+disparagement to Lieutenant Williard. It was merely one of the
+accidents of battle.</p>
+
+<p>Says Mr. Bonsal: "The moment the advance was ordered the black
+troopers of the Tenth Cavalry forged ahead. They were no braver
+certainly than any other men in the line, but their better training
+enabled them to render more valuable services than the other troops
+engaged. They had with them and ready for action their machine guns,
+and shoved them right up to the front on the firing line, from where
+they poured very effective fire into the Spanish trenches, which not
+only did considerable execution, but was particularly effective in
+keeping down the return fire of the Spaniards. The machine guns of the
+Rough Riders were mislaid, or the mules upon which they had been
+loaded could not be found at this juncture. It was said they had
+bolted. It is certain, however, that the guns were not brought into
+action, and consequently the Spaniards suffered less, and the Rough
+Riders more, in the gallant charge they made up the hill in front of
+them, after the Tenth Cavalry had advanced and driven the Spaniards
+from their position on the right."</p>
+
+<p>Corporal W.F. Johnson, B Troop, was the non-commissioned officer in
+charge of the machine guns during the brief fight at Las Guasimas, and
+his action was such as to call forth from the troop commander special
+mention "for his efficiency and perfect coolness under fire." Here I
+may be pardoned
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page147" id="page147"></a>[pg 147]</span>
+for calling attention to a notion too prevalent
+concerning the Negro soldier in time of battle. He is too often
+represented as going into action singing like a zany or yelling like a
+demon, rather than as a man calculating the chances for life and
+victory. The official reports from the Black Regulars in Cuba ought to
+correct this notion. Every troop and company commander, who has
+reported upon colored soldiers in that war, speaks of the coolness of
+the men of his command. Captain Beck, of Troop A, Tenth Cavalry, in
+the Guasimas fight, says: "I will add that the enlisted men of Troop
+A, Tenth Cavalry, behaved well, silently and alertly obeying orders,
+and without becoming excited when the fire of the enemy reached them."
+The yell, in the charge of the regulars, is a part of the action, and
+is no more peculiar to Negro troops than to the whites, only as they
+may differ in the general timbre of voice. Black American soldiers
+when not on duty may sing more than white troops, but in quite a long
+experience among them I have not found the difference so very
+noticeable. In all garrisons one will find some men more musically
+inclined than others; some who love to sing and some who do not; some
+who have voices adapted to the production of musical tones, and some
+who have not, and it is doubtless owing to these constitutional
+differences that we find differences in habits and expressions.</p>
+
+<p>Lieutenant Miley, of General Shafter's staff, in his description of
+the departure of General Shatter from General Garcia's tent, gives us
+a glimpse of the character of the men that composed the Cuban army in
+that vicinity.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"While the interview was going on, the troops were being
+assembled to do honor to the General on his departure.
+Several companies were drawn up in front of the tent to
+present arms as he came out, and a regiment escorted him to
+the beach down the winding path, which was now lined on both
+sides by Cuban soldiers standing about a yard apart and
+presenting arms. The scene made a strong impression on all
+in the party, there seemed to be such an earnestness and
+fixedness of purpose
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page148" id="page148"></a>[pg 148]</span>
+displayed that all felt these soldiers
+to be a power. About fifty per cent. were blacks, and the
+rest mulattoes, with a small number of whites. They were
+very poorly clad, many without shirts or shoes, but every
+man had his gun and a belt full of ammunition."</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p><b>B.</b></p>
+
+<p class="heading">EXTRACT FROM A LETTER FROM A SOLDIER OF THE 10TH CAVALRY, TROOP B,
+CONCERNING THE BATTLE OF LAS GUASIMAS:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"... The platoon which escaped this ditch got on the right
+of the 1st Cavalry on the firing line, and pushed steadily
+forward under First Sergeant Buck, being then in two
+squads&mdash;one under Sergeant Thompson. On account of the
+nature of the ground and other natural obstacles, there were
+men not connected with any squads, but who advanced with the
+line.</p>
+
+<p>Both squads fired by volley and at will, at the command of
+the sergeants named; and their shots reached the enemy and
+were effective, as it is generally believed.</p>
+
+<p>Private W.M. Bunn, of Sergeant Thompson's squad, is reported
+to have shot a sharpshooter from a tree just in front of the
+enemy's work. Private Wheeler was shot twice in the advance.
+Sergeant Thompson's squad was once stopped from firing by
+General Wheeler's adjutant-general for fear of hitting the
+Rough Riders.</p>
+
+<p>It seems that two distinct battles were fought that day.
+Colonel Wood's command struck the enemy at about the tame
+time, or probably a Little before, ours did, and all unknown
+to the men in our ranks; and got themselves into a pretty
+tight squeeze. About the same time our force engaged the
+enemy and drew part of the attention they were giving the
+Rough Riders. This, the latter claimed, enabled them to
+continue the movement on the enemy's works.</p>
+
+<p>But as our command had an equal number of 1st and 10th
+Cavalrymen, I am of the opinion that the story of our saving
+the Rough Riders arose from the fact that as soon as the
+fight was over, the 1st Regular Cavalry was opening its arms
+to us, declaring that we, especially B Troop, had saved
+them; for the 1st Regular Cavalry was first in the attack in
+General Young's command; and when the enemy began to make it
+pretty warm, he ordered B and I Troops of the 10th forward
+on the right.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page149" id="page149"></a>[pg 149]</span>
+ Troop B was in the lead; and the alacrity
+with which these two troops moved to the front has always
+been praised by the 1st Cavalry; and they declare that that
+movement helped them wonderfully. In making this movement my
+troop had three or four men wounded; and later, when
+Sergeant Thompson's squad was fighting far to the front, it
+had in it several members of the 1st Cavalry, who are always
+glad to praise him.</p>
+
+<p>So, I think that by the Rough Riders first attributing their
+success, or their rescue from inevitable defeat, to the
+attack made by our command; and by the 1st Regular Cavalry's
+very generously, in the heat of success, bestowing upon us
+the honors of the day, it finally became a settled thing
+that we saved the whole battle.</p>
+
+<p>That evening, after the battle, I was met by Lieutenant
+Shipp, later killed at San Juan Hill, who, on inquiring and
+being told that I belonged to Troop B, congratulated me on
+its conduct, and said it had made a name for the regiment.
+Lieutenant Shipp was not in that fight, but had come up
+after it was over and had heard of us through the 1st
+Cavalry."</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p><b>C.</b></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Sergeant John Buck was born September 10th, 1861, at Chapel
+Hill, Texas; enlisted in 10th Cavalry, November 6, 1880, and
+passed over ten years in active Indian service. He is a man
+of strong character, an experienced horseman and packer, and
+so commanded a portion of the firing line in the battle of
+June 24 as to elicit remarks of praise from officers of
+other troops "for his gallantry, coolness and good judgment
+under fire." Sergeant Thompson's good conduct in the same
+battle was noticeable also. Sergeant Buck was made second
+lieutenant in the 7th U.S. Volunteer Infantry and
+subsequently captain in the 48th United States Volunteers.</p></blockquote>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> See Note A at the end of this chapter.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a></p>
+<p class="center">THE TWENTY-FIFTH AT EL-CANEY.</p>
+<p>
+American valor never shone with greater luster than when the
+Twenty-fifth Infantry swept up the sizzling hill of El-Caney to the
+rescue of the rough riders. Two other regiments came into view of the
+rough riders. But the bullets were flying like driving hail; the enemy
+were in trees and ambushes with smokeless powder, and the rough riders
+were biting the dust and were threatened with annihilation.
+</p><p>
+A rough rider described the feelings of his brigade when they saw the
+other regiments appear and retreat. Finally this rough rider, a
+Southerner, heard a well-known yell. And out of the distance moved a
+regiment as if on dress parade, faces set like steel, keeping step
+like a machine, their comrades falling here, there, everywhere, moving
+into the storm of invisible death without one faltering step, passing
+the rough riders, conquering up the hill, and never stopping until
+with the rough riders El-Caney was won. This was the Twenty-fifth
+Regiment (colored), United States Infantry, now quartered at Fort
+Logan, Denver. We have asked the chaplain, T.G. Steward, to recite the
+events at El-Caney. His modesty confines him to the barest recital of
+"semi-official" records. But the charge of the Twenty-fifth is
+deserving of comparison with that of "the Light Brigade" in the
+Crimean War, or of Custer at the massacre of the Big Horn.
+</p><p>
+(Editorial in religious paper.)</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> See Note C at the end of this chapter.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page150" id="page150"></a>[pg 150]</span>
+</p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BATTLE OF EL CANEY.</h3>
+
+<p class="hang center">The Capture of the Stone Fort by the Twenty-fifth Infantry.</p>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+  Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>While the battle of Guasimas was going on, in which the Tenth
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'Cavlary'">Cavalry</ins>
+took so conspicuous a part, the Twenty-fourth Infantry still remained
+on board the City of Washington awaiting orders to land. During the
+night of the 24th such orders were received by the authorities of the
+transport, and they were directed to land their troops, but the
+General Commanding, Brigadier-General Kent, did not hear of the matter
+until some time the next morning. He relates the following
+circumstances in his official report of the debarkation:</p>
+
+<p>"At 9 a.m. of the 25th Lieutenant Cardin, of the Revenue Marine, came
+aboard with orders for me to proceed to and disembark at Altares
+(Siboney). This officer also handed me a letter from the corps
+commander expressing his astonishment that I had remained away three
+days."</p>
+
+<p>General Kent also states in his report that his travel rations had
+been exhausted seven days before and that but one meal of field
+rations remained, and that the ship's supply both of water and
+provisions was running low, and that in consequence of these facts as
+well as for higher considerations he was very anxious to get on shore.
+The debarkation followed as rapidly as possible, and that afternoon
+General Kent reported in person to Major-General Wheeler, the troops
+bivouacking for the night near the landing. The next day Colonel
+Pearson, who commanded the Second Brigade of Kent's division, took
+the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page151" id="page151"></a>[pg 151]</span>
+ Second Infantry and reconnoitred along the railroad toward the
+Morro, going a distance of about six miles and returning in the
+evening, having found no enemy in that vicinity, although evidences
+were found that a force had recently retreated from a blockhouse
+situated on the railroad about two miles from Aguadores.</p>
+
+<p>On the day following, June 27th, the entire division moved out on the
+road toward Santiago and encamped on the same ground that Lawton had
+occupied the night previous. The Second Brigade took its place near
+Savilla, while the Third Brigade, which included the Twenty-fourth
+Infantry, went into camp at Las Guasimas, where the affair of the 24th
+had occurred. The order of march had now partially fallen back to the
+original plan: Lawton in advance, with whom was the Twenty-Fifth
+Infantry; Wheeler next, with whom was the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, and
+Kent in the rear, who had, as we have just related, the Twenty-fourth
+Infantry in his Third Brigade. In this order the army moved, so far as
+it moved at all, until the morning of the 30th, when dispositions for
+the general attack began.</p>
+
+<p>The story of the great battle, or as it turned out, of the two great
+battles, begins on this day, and the careers of the four colored
+regiments are to be followed through the divisions of Lawton, Kent and
+Wheeler. Let us begin, however, with General Shafter's official report
+and his "Story of Santiago," as told in the "Century" of February,
+1899.</p>
+
+<p>From these sources it is learned that on June 30th General Shafter
+reconnoitered the country about Santiago and determined upon a plan of
+attack. Ascending a hill from which he could obtain a good view of the
+city, and could also see San Juan Hill and the country about El Caney,
+he observed afresh
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page152" id="page152"></a>[pg 152]</span>
+what had impressed itself upon all immediately
+upon landing, to wit: That in all this country there were no good
+roads along which to move troops or transport supplies. The General
+says: "I had never seen a good road in a Spanish country, and Santiago
+did not disappoint my expectations." The roads as he saw them from the
+summit of the hill on June 30th were very poor, and indeed, little
+better than bridle paths, except between El Caney and San Juan River
+and the city. Within this region, a distance of from four to four and
+a half miles, the roads were passable. El Caney lay about four miles
+northeast of Santiago, and was strongly fortified, and, as events
+proved, strongly garrisoned. This position was of great importance to
+the enemy, because from it a force might come to attack the right
+flank and rear of the American Army as it should make its attempt on
+San Juan Hill. El Caney held the road from Guantanamo, at which point
+an important Spanish force was posted. While General Shafter was
+surveying the country from the hill at El Pozo and making what special
+examination he could of the country toward San Juan Hills, Generals
+Lawton and Chaffee were making a reconnoisance around El Caney. From
+General Lawton's report it would appear that the work of
+reconnoitering around El Caney was done chiefly by General Chaffee. He
+says: "To General Adna R. Chaffee I am indebted for a thorough and
+intelligent reconnoissance of the town of El Caney and vicinity prior
+to the battle and the submission of a plan of attack which was
+adopted. I consider General Chaffee one of the best practical soldiers
+in the army and recommend him for special distinction for successfully
+charging the stone fort mentioned in this report, the capture of which
+practically closed the battle."</p>
+
+<p>The general plan of attack as explained by General Shafter
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page153" id="page153"></a>[pg 153]</span>
+himself in
+his "Century" article was "to put a brigade on the road between
+Santiago and El Caney, to keep the Spaniards at the latter place from
+retreating on the city, and then with the rest of Lawton's division
+and the divisions of Wheeler and Kent, and Bates' brigade to attack
+the Spanish position in front of Santiago." Before that he had said
+that he wished to put a division in on the right of El Caney and
+assault the town on that road. To Admiral Sampson on June 26th he
+said: "I shall, if I can, put a large force in Caney, and one perhaps
+still farther west, near the pipe-line conveying water to the city,
+making my main attack from the northeast and east." His desire at this
+time was to "get the enemy in my front and the city at my back." On
+June 30th he had modified this plan so as to decide to place one
+brigade on the road between El Caney and Santiago, with a view merely
+to keeping the El Caney garrison from retreating into Santiago.</p>
+
+<p>As he was explaining his plan to the division officers and others on
+the afternoon of the 30th at his own headquarters, Lawton and Chaffee
+were of the opinion that they could dispose of the Spaniards at El
+Caney in two hours time. "Therefore," says the General, "I modified my
+plan, assigning Lawton's whole division for the attack of El Caney and
+directed Bates' independent brigade to his support." This last
+modification of General Shafter's plan was made in deference to the
+opinion of subordinates, and was based upon observations made
+especially by General Chaffee.</p>
+
+<p>The force assigned for the reduction of El Caney was to begin its work
+early in the morning, and by ten or eleven o'clock at the outside it
+was expected that the task would be accomplished and Lawton would join
+Kent and Sumner in the assault upon San Juan. Early on the morning of
+July 1st Capron's
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page154" id="page154"></a>[pg 154]</span>
+battery was got into position on a line running
+directly north from Marianage on a hill about five hundred yards east
+of Las Guasimas Creek. Lawton's division began its move on the
+afternoon of the 30th, as did in fact the whole army, and bivouacked
+that night near El Pozo. The Twenty-fifth Infantry, which belonged to
+the Second Brigade, commanded by Colonel Miles, a former Major of the
+Twenty-fifth, left El Pozo at daylight by way of the road leading
+almost due north, and marched about one mile to the little town of
+Marianage. Here a halt was made for an hour, from 6.30 to 7.30, during
+which time reconnoitering parties were sent out to examine the ground
+toward the Ducoureau House, which lay about one mile to the northward
+of Marianage, and which had been designated by General Lawton as a
+general rendezvous after the engagement should terminate.
+Reconnoissance was made also to the front for the purpose of
+discovering the enemy, and to ascertain the left of Ludlow's brigade.
+This was the first brigade of Lawton's division and consisted of the
+Eighth and Twenty-second Infantry and the Second Massachusetts, the
+last named regiment being on the right. The Second Brigade was to
+connect with this on its right and succeeded in finding the position
+of the Second Massachusetts during this halt. At 11.30 Miles' brigade
+was ordered to take position on the right of Ludlow's brigade, which
+it did in the following order: The Fourth Infantry on the left,
+joining with the Second Massachusetts on Ludlow's right; the
+Twenty-fifth on the right, with its left joining on the Fourth
+Infantry.</p>
+
+<p>We must now review the progress of the battle so far as it is possible
+to do so, from the firing of the first shot by Capron's battery up to
+11.30, an hour long after the time at which it had been supposed that
+El Caney would fall. Capron's
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page155" id="page155"></a>[pg 155]</span>
+reports are very brief. He says: "July
+1&mdash;Fired shell and shrappnel into El Caney (ranged 2,400) 6.15 a.m. to
+11.30 a.m." In another report he says: "Opened fire July 1, with shell
+and shrappnel at 6.15 on Caney; range, 2,400 yards; continued until
+11.30 a.m." He says that the battery "continued its fire against
+specified objectives intermittently throughout the day under the
+personal direction of the division commander." The forces we have so
+far considered, consisting of Ludlow's and Miles' brigades, and of
+Capron's battery, lay to the south of Caney, between it and Santiago,
+Ludlow's brigade having been placed there to "cut off the retreat of
+the garrison should it attempt to escape." Up to 11.30 there had been
+no call for employing it for that purpose. The garrison had made no
+attempt to escape. We must now go around to the east and north of
+Caney. Here the Third Brigade, consisting of the Seventh, Twelfth and
+Seventeenth Infantry, was posted, and early in the morning joined in
+the attack, the brigade getting under fire before eight o'clock.
+Colonel Carpenter, of the Seventh Regiment, says that one company of
+his regiment, by General Chaffee's direction, was detached and sent
+forward to reduce a blockhouse, well up on the hill, which commanded
+the approach of his regiment to the field of action. After several
+ineffectual attempts by the company, the Captain (Van Orsdale) was
+directed to abandon the undertaking and rejoin the regiment, which
+then took up a position on the crest of a hill running nearly parallel
+with the Spanish lines. From this position the men crawled forward
+about fifty yards and opened a deliberate fire upon the enemy, keeping
+it up for about an hour, but as the losses of the regiment at this
+time were considerable and the fire seemed to be without material
+effect, the command was withdrawn to its
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page156" id="page156"></a>[pg 156]</span>
+position on the hill where
+it found protection in a sunken road. In this condition this regiment
+lay when Capron's battery made its lull at 11.30. The fearful fire
+this regiment met can be estimated by the losses it sustained, which
+during the day were as follows: Killed, 1 officer and 33 enlisted men;
+wounded, 4 officers and 95 enlisted men; missing, 3 enlisted men. The
+Seventeenth Regiment went into action on the right of the Seventh,
+doing but little firing, as their orders were not to open fire unless
+they could make the fire effective. Companies C and G fired a few
+volleys; the remainder of the regiment did not fire at all. Four
+enlisted men were killed and two officers severely wounded, one,
+Lieutenant Dickinson, dying from his wounds within a few hours.
+Several enlisted men were also wounded. At 11.30 this regiment was
+lying on the right of the Seventh. The Twelfth Regiment began firing
+between 6 and 7 in the morning and advanced to take its position on
+the left of the Seventh Infantry. This regiment early reached a
+position within 350 yards of the enemy, in which it found shelter in
+the sunken road, "free from the enemy's fire." The regiment remained
+in this position until about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and, hence,
+was there at 11.30 a.m. The losses of this regiment during the day
+were, killed, 7 enlisted men; wounded, 2 officers and 31 enlisted men.
+From these brief sketches the reader will now be able to grasp the
+position of Lawton's entire division. Beginning on the south, from the
+west, with Ludlow's brigade, consisting of the Twenty-second, Eighth
+and Second Massachusetts, the line was continued by Miles' brigade of
+the Fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry; then passing over a considerable
+space, we strike Chaffee's brigade, posted as has just been described.
+General Bates' brigade probably arrived upon the field about noon.
+This brigade consisted
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page157" id="page157"></a>[pg 157]</span>
+of the Third and Twentieth Infantry, and is
+known as "Bates' Independent Brigade." The brigade is reported as
+going into action about 1 o'clock and continuing in action until 4
+o'clock. It took a position on the right, partially filling up the gap
+between Miles and Chaffee. The first battalion of the Twentieth
+Infantry went into action on the left of the Twenty-fifth Infantry's
+firing line, and one company, A, took part in the latter part of the
+charge by which the stone house was taken. Between 11.30, when
+Capron's firing stopped, and when Miles' brigade was moved forward to
+join the right of Ludlow's, and 12.20, when the battery recommenced,
+the troops, including Bates' brigade, were either in the positions
+described above or were moving to them. Noon had arrived and El Caney
+is not taken; the garrison has not attempted to escape, but is sending
+out upon its assailants a continuous and deadly fire. "Throughout the
+heaviest din of our fire," says Colonel Carpenter, "could be heard the
+peculiar high-keyed ring of the defiant enemy's shots."</p>
+
+<p>Twelve o'clock on July 1st, 1898, was a most anxious hour for our army
+in Cuba. The battle at El Caney was at a standstill and the divisions
+of Kent and Sumner were in a most perilous situation. Bonsal's
+description of the state of the battle at that time is pathetic.
+Speaking of the artillery at El Caney&mdash;Capron's battery&mdash;he says it
+was now apparent that this artillery, firing from its position of
+twenty-four hundred yards, could do very little damage to the great
+stone fort and earthworks north of the village. The shots were too few
+and the metal used too light to be effectual. Three hours of the
+morning had worn away and the advance of our men had been slowly made
+and at great cost; all the approaches were commanded by Spanish
+entrenchments and the fighting was very
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page158" id="page158"></a>[pg 158]</span>
+unequal. A soldier of the
+Twenty-fifth says that when he came in sight of the battle at El
+Caney, "the Americans were gaining no ground, and the flashes of the
+Spanish mausers told us that the forces engaged were unequally
+matched, the difference of position favoring the Spaniards." This view
+was had about noon, or soon after. At that time "a succession of aides
+and staff officers came galloping from headquarters with messages
+which plainly showed that confusion, if not disaster, had befallen the
+two divisions which, by the heavy firing, we had learned to our great
+surprise, had become warmly engaged in the centre. The orders to
+General Lawton from headquarters were at first peremptory in
+character&mdash;he was to pull out of his fight and to move his division to
+the support of the centre" (Bonsal). This call for Lawton arose from
+the fact that about noon General Shafter received several dispatches
+from Sumner, of the Cavalry Division, requiring assistance. General
+Sumner felt the need of the assistance of every available man in the
+centre of the line where he was carrying on his fight with the
+Spaniards on Blue House Hill. This situation so impressed the General,
+Shafter, that he finally wrote to Lawton, "You must proceed with the
+remainder of your force and join on immediately upon Sumner's right.
+If you do not the battle is lost." Shafter's idea then was to fall
+back to his original plan of just leaving enough troops at El Caney to
+prevent the garrison from going to the assistance of any other part of
+the line. Shafter himself says: "As the fight progressed I was
+impressed with the fact that we were meeting with a very stubborn
+resistance at El Caney and I began to fear that I had made a mistake
+in making two fights in one day, and sent Major Noble with orders to
+Lawton to hasten with his troops along the Caney road, placing himself
+on the right of Wheeler"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page159" id="page159"></a>[pg 159]</span>
+ (Sumner). Lawton now made a general advance,
+and it is important to see just what troops did advance. The Seventh
+Infantry did not move, for Lieutenant-Colonel Carpenter says that
+after withdrawing "to the partial cover furnished by the road, the
+regiment occupied this position from 8 o'clock a.m. until about 4.30
+p.m." The Seventeenth did not move, for Captain O'Brien, commanding,
+says the regiment took a position joining "its left with the right of
+the Seventh Infantry" and that the regiment "remained in this position
+until the battle was over." The Twelfth Infantry remained in its
+shelter within 350 yards of the stone fort until about 4 p.m. Then we
+have Chaffee's brigade on the north of the fort remaining stationary
+and by their own reports doing but little firing. The Seventeenth
+fired "for about fifty minutes" about noon, with remarkable precision,
+but "it seemingly had no effect upon reducing the Spanish fire
+delivered in our (their) front." The Seventh did not fire to any
+extent. The Twelfth Infantry lay in its refuge "free from the enemy's
+fire" and may have kept up an irregular fire.</p>
+
+<p>About this time Bates' brigade entered the field and one battalion of
+the Twentieth Infantry is reported to have joined the left of the
+firing line of the Twenty-fifth. General Ludlow says there was a lull
+from 12 to 1 p.m., "when the action again became violent, and at 3
+p.m. the Third Brigade captured the stone fort with a rush and hoisted
+the American flag." From Ludlow's brigade, Captain Van Horne,
+commanding the Twenty-second Infantry, after the wounding of
+Lieutenant-Colonel Patterson, says that the First Battalion of his
+regiment took a position about 800 yards from the town and kept up
+firing until the place surrendered. He does not say positively that
+the firing was upon the town, but he had said just before
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page160" id="page160"></a>[pg 160]</span>
+that the
+Second Battalion slowly moved forward, firing into the town from the
+left, so that we may readily conclude from the context as well as from
+the position that the First Battalion fired into the town also. Hence
+it seems fair to exclude from the fort all of Ludlow's brigade, and it
+is observable that Ludlow himself claims no part in the capture of
+that stronghold.</p>
+
+<p>General Bates says his brigade took position to the right of Colonel
+Miles' brigade and pushed rapidly to the front. He then says that
+after remaining sometime in the crossroad to the right of Miles'
+brigade, under a heavy fire from the enemy, the brigade moved farther
+"to the right to the assault of a small hill, occupied upon the top by
+a stone fort and well protected by rifle pits. General Chaffee's
+brigade charged them from the right, and the two brigades joining upon
+the crest, opened fire from this point of vantage, lately occupied by
+the Spanish, upon the village of El Caney." General Chaffee says it
+was in consequence of the fire of General Bates' troops upon the fort
+that the assault by the Twelfth Infantry was postponed.</p>
+
+<p>In General Chaffee's report this statement occurs: "The action lasted
+nearly throughout the day, terminating at about 4.30 p.m., at which
+time the stone blockhouse was assaulted by Captain Haskell's battalion
+of the Twelfth Infantry, under the personal direction of
+Lieutenant-Colonel Comba, commanding the regiment. The resistance at
+this point had been greatly affected by the fire of Capron's battery.
+A few moments after the seizure of this point&mdash;the key to the
+situation&mdash;my left was joined by General Bates with a portion of his
+command." It is to be noted in connection with all of the above
+statements that Major McCaskey, who commanded the Twentieth Infantry
+(Bates brigade), says: "The First Battalion was moved to the right and
+put into action on the left of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page161" id="page161"></a>[pg 161]</span>
+ Twenty-fifth Infantry's firing
+line, and one company, A, took part in the latter part of the charge
+by which the stone house was taken." The two points to be noted here
+are (1) that this battalion was on the left of the Twenty-fifth's
+firing line, and (2) that one company took part in the charge upon the
+stone house. When Chaffee's brigade charged the stone house from the
+right some of Bates' troops, at least this Company A, from the
+battalion near the firing line of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, took part
+in the latter part of the charge. The two brigades, Bates' and
+Chaffee's, joined immediately after the capture of the stone fort and
+opened fire upon the town.</p>
+
+<p>We have now traced the actions and the fortunes of the three following
+brigades: Ludlow's Chaffee's and Bates'. But what has become of Miles'
+brigade? Unfortunately, the Second Brigade has not been so well
+reported as were the others engaged in the action at El Caney. We have
+seen that it was ordered to take position on the right of Ludlow's
+brigade at 11.30, when Capron's battery ceased its firing for the
+fifty minutes. "We were detained in reaching our position by troops in
+our front blocking the road," says the brigade commander. "We came
+into action directly in front of the stone blockhouse at 12.30, and
+from that hour until about 4.30, when the command 'cease firing' was
+given, the blockhouse having been captured, my command was
+continuously under fire." The reader will note in this report that the
+brigade went into action at 12.30, several hours before the charge was
+ordered by General Chaffee, and at least an hour and a half before,
+according to the report of the commander of the Third Brigade, "this
+fort was practically in the possession of the Twelfth Infantry." Major
+Baker, who commanded the Fourth Infantry, says: "About 12 m. we
+received orders directing us to take our place
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page162" id="page162"></a>[pg 162]</span>
+in the line of battle,
+and arriving at the proper point the regiment was placed in line in
+the following order: The First Battalion in the fighting line; the
+Second Battalion in support and regimental reserve. In this order the
+First Battalion, under my command, took up the advance toward the
+blockhouse, to our right, south east of Caney." This battalion
+advanced until it reached a position about 200 yards from the village,
+where it remained, assisted by the Second Battalion until the capture
+of the fort. Two companies of this First Battalion "fired into the
+town and also into the blockhouse until its fall." A good part of the
+fire of this regiment was directed upon the fort.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Miles says: "The brigade advanced steadily, with such scanty
+cover as the ground afforded, maintaining a heavy fire on the stone
+fort from the time the fight began until it ended." The reader is
+asked to note particularly that this fire was continuous throughout
+the fight; that it was characterized by the brigade commander as
+"heavy," and that it was "on the stone fort". He says: "As the brigade
+advanced across a plowed field in front of the enemy's position the
+latter's sharpshooters in the houses in Caney enfiladed the left of
+our line with a murderous fire. To silence it Major Baker, Fourth
+Infantry, in command of the battalion of that regiment on the left of
+our line of battle, directed it to turn its fire upon the town. In so
+doing this battalion lost heavily, but its steady front and accurate
+volleys greatly assisted the advance of the remainder of the brigade
+upon the stone fort."</p>
+
+<p>We have now these facts clearly brought out or suggested: That the
+brigade took its place in line of battle soon after 12 o'clock; that
+the Fourth Infantry was on the left; that the advance of the First
+Battalion of the Fourth Infantry was "toward the blockhouse;" that
+aside from the companies of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page163" id="page163"></a>[pg 163]</span>
+ Fourth Infantry that fired into town,
+"the remainder of the brigade advanced upon the stone fort." The
+Fourth Infantry, holding the left of the line, however, reached a
+position from which it could not advance, its commander having
+"quickly perceived that an advance meant annihilation, as it would
+involve not only a frontal, but also a flank fire from the town." Here
+the Fourth Infantry remained, but continued to maintain a fire upon
+both the blockhouse and the town.</p>
+
+<p>There is but one more regiment in all of Lawton's division to be
+accounted for, and that is the Twenty-fifth Infantry, holding the
+right of Miles' brigade in this advance. This regiment was in place in
+the line under its gallant and experienced commander,
+Lieutenant-Colonel A.S. Daggett, and contributed its full share of
+that "heavy fire on the stone fort from the time the fight began until
+it ended." Major McCaskey says the First Battalion of his regiment
+took a position on the left of the Twenty-fifth's firing line. The
+statement seems erroneous, and one is inclined to believe that it was
+originally written "on the right," instead of "on the left"; but it is
+enough for our purpose now, that the firing line of the Twenty-fifth
+is recognized well in advance. Major Baker, who commanded on the left
+of the brigade line, and whose advance was stopped by the flank fire
+from the village and a frontal fire from the fort, says: "as a matter
+of fact the village of El Caney was not charged by any troops. Those
+of Bates' brigade and the Twenty-fifth Infantry, after having carried
+the stone fort (on a hill some 75 feet higher, and to the east of the
+town,) fired into the village, and the Fourth Infantry continued its
+fire. Nor was it charged by any of the troops to our left. Such a
+charge would necessarily have been seen by us." Major Baker, who was
+on the field and had the blockhouse in clear view, declares that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page164" id="page164"></a>[pg 164]</span>
+some
+of Bates' brigade and the Twenty-fifth Infantry carried the stone
+fort. Major McCaskey says that one battalion of the Twentieth Infantry
+(Bates' brigade) was on the left of the Twenty-fifth's firing line,
+and that one company (A) took part in the latter part of the charge by
+which the fort was taken. This battalion may be referred to by Major
+Baker when he says: "Those of Bates' brigade and the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry, after having carried, etc."</p>
+
+<p>As there are some matters of dispute concerning the events which I am
+now going to relate, I will present a soldier's statement before I go
+to the official records. The soldier in writing to me after the battle
+says: "I was left-guide of Company G (25th Infantry), and I received
+orders from Lieutenant McCorkle to guide on Fourth Infantry, which
+held the left flank. 'Forward, march! Guide left. Don't fire until you
+see somebody; then fire to hit!' came the orders. Tramp! tramp! Crash!
+crash! On we walked and stopped. We fired into the underbrush for
+safety; then in another moment we were under Spanish fire. Balls flew
+like bees, humming as they went. Soon we found ourselves up against a
+network of Spanish trickery. Barbed-wire fences, ditches and creeks,
+too numerous to think of. The only thing left was to go ahead or die;
+or else retreat like cowards. We preferred to go ahead. At this first
+fence Lieutenant McCorkle was taken to earth by a Spanish bullet.
+Lieutenant Moss spoke out, 'Come ahead! Let's get at these Spaniards!'
+A few moments more and he, too, was almost dead with exertion, loud
+speaking, running and jumping, as onward we swept toward the Spanish
+stronghold. The sun was exceedingly hot, as on the slope of a little
+mound we rested for a few moments. We lay here about five minutes,
+looking into the Spanish fort or blockhouse; we measured the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page165" id="page165"></a>[pg 165]</span>
+distance
+by our eyesight, then with our rifles; we began to cheer and storm,
+and in a moment more, up the hill like a bevy of blue birds did the
+Twenty-fifth fly. G and H Companies were the first to reach the summit
+and to make the Spaniards fly into the city of El Caney, which lay
+just behind the hill. When we reached the summit others soon began to
+<i>mount our ladder</i>. We fired down into the city until nearly dusk."</p>
+
+<p>The brigade made its advance under fire almost from the beginning. The
+commander says it was continuously under fire from 12.30 to 4.30 p.m.
+"The attack was begun by two companies in each regiment on the firing
+line, strengthened by supports and reserves from the remaining
+companies until the brigade had but two companies in reserve. At one
+time in this hotly engaged contest the commanding officer of the
+Twenty-Fifth Infantry sent me word that he needed troops on his right.
+I then sent forward 40 Cubans, under command of Captains Jose' Varges
+and Avelens Bravo, with Lieutenants Nicholas Franco and Tomas Repelao,
+to form on the right of the Twenty-fifth, which was also the right of
+the brigade. With these Cubans I ordered Private Henry Downey, Company
+H, First Infantry, on duty as interpreter at the headquarters. These
+men advanced on the stone fort with our line, fighting gallantly,
+during which Lieutenant Nicholas Franco was mortally wounded and died
+soon afterwards." (Col. Miles' report.)</p>
+
+<p>From the soldier's story, as well as from the official report of the
+brigade commander, it is conclusive that the real objective of the
+Second Brigade was the stone fort, and that the Twenty-fifth Infantry,
+which occupied the right of the line, had no other objective
+whatever.* [Transcriber's Note: No footnote text present for this
+footnote anchor.] It also appears that Bates' brigade, although
+somewhere on the right, was not so near
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page166" id="page166"></a>[pg 166]</span>
+ but that the commanding
+officer of the Twenty-fifth could see the need of troops at his right;
+and to meet this need the brigade commander "sent forward 40 Cubans,
+who advanced on the stone fort with our lines." The fire from this
+fort continued severe during the whole of the advance, and until the
+last halt made by the Twenty-fifth. At the first fence met by the
+Twenty-fifth Lieutenant McCorkle was killed; and, to use the words of
+a soldier, "as the regiment swept toward the Spanish stronghold" to
+reach the slope of a little mound for cover, many more fell. Behind
+this little mound, after resting about five minutes, they began their
+last fire upon the enemy. This must have been as late as 3 o'clock,
+and perhaps considerably later, and the fire from the stone fort was
+vigorous up until their last halt, as their casualties prove. The
+battery had begun to fire on the fort again at 12.30 and continued
+from the same position until 2.10, the range being as has been already
+stated, 2,400 yards. Hence the artillery firing at long range had
+ceased, and it is generally conceded that this long range firing had
+been ineffective. Captain Capron says he moved his battery at 2.10
+p.m. to 1,000 yards from Caney and opened fire on two blockhouses. He
+does not say at what hour he opened fire on these two blockhouses, or
+how long he continued to fire, or what was the effect of his fire upon
+the two block houses. Lieutenant-Colonel Bisbee, who was acting as
+support of Capron's battery, says of himself that he "moved with the
+battery at 3.30 p.m. by the Dubroix (Ducureaux) road." General Lawton
+says the battery was moved to a new position about 2.30, "about 1,000
+yards from certain blockhouses in the town, where a few shots, all
+taking effect, were fired." From these reports it would appear that
+after moving to the second station the battery fired upon two
+blockhouses
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page167" id="page167"></a>[pg 167]</span>
+in the town, and not upon the stone fort. General Ludlow,
+speaking of the battle, says: "In the present case, the artillery fire
+was too distant to reduce the blockhouses or destroy the
+entrenchments, so that the attack was practically by infantry alone."
+On the other hand, General Chaffee says: "The resistance at this
+point," meaning the stone fort at the time of assault, "had been
+greatly affected by the fire of Capron's battery." Colonel Comba, of
+the Twelfth Infantry, says: "The artillery made the breach through
+which our men entered the stone work." Bonsal says that Captain
+Capron, "under the concentrated fire of his four guns at a point blank
+range of a thousand yards, had converted the fort into a shapeless
+ruin," when the infantry charged it.</p>
+
+<p>It is probable that in this case, as in most cases of similar nature,
+the truth divides equally between the apparently opposing views. Of
+General Ludlow, who is the authority for this statement, that the
+stone fort at El Caney was taken by infantry alone, General Lawton
+says: "General Ludlow's professional accomplishments are well known
+and his assignment to command a brigade in my division I consider a
+high compliment to myself." "The fighting was all done with small
+arms" were the words written me by an infantryman soon after the
+battle. The question, whether Capron fired upon the stone fort after
+taking his new position, or fired on two blockhouses, entirely
+distinct from the fort, remains undetermined. The author of this work
+inclines to the conclusion that the fire of Capron after moving to his
+new position was directed for a brief period, at least, upon the stone
+fort.</p>
+
+<p>Inasmuch as we are now to trace the career of the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry through an unfortunate dispute, on both sides
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page168" id="page168"></a>[pg 168]</span>
+of which are
+officers of high rank and unimpeachable honor, it is important to
+note, first, to what extent the several statements, both unofficial
+and official, can be harmonized and made to corroborate one another.
+Major Baker says: "Those of Bates' brigade and the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry, after having carried the stone fort," which he explains was
+some 75 feet higher than the town, then fired <i>down</i> into the village.
+The soldier who acted as left-guide of Company G, Twenty-fifth
+Infantry, says, after getting up on the hill, "we fired <i>down</i> into
+the city until near dusk." The experience of the soldier agrees
+exactly with the report of the officer. The fact that the Twenty-fifth
+went up the hill cannot be questioned, and that up to their last halt,
+they went under fire, no one will deny. Bonsal, in speaking of
+Chaffee's brigade, which was "more immediately charged with the
+reduction of Caney" (Ludlow's report), says: "And it was nearly five
+o'clock when his most advanced regiment, the gallant Twelfth Infantry,
+deployed into the valley and charged up the steep hillside, which was
+lined with Spanish trenches, rising in irregular tiers and crowned
+with a great stone fort." The stone fort at this time, however, was,
+as he says, "a shapeless ruin." Where was the Twenty-fifth Infantry at
+this time? Mr. Bonsal continues: "Almost at the same moment the
+Twenty-fifth Colored Infantry, the leading regiment of Miles' brigade,
+which had been advancing in the centre, started up the hill also."
+General Lawton says that after moving the battery to its new position,
+1,000 yards from certain blockhouses in the town, Capron fired a few
+shots, all of which took effect, and he adds: "This firing terminated
+the action, as the Spanish garrison were attempting to escape."
+Colonel Comba says there was a breach in the stonework large enough
+for his men to enter, and that this had been made by
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page169" id="page169"></a>[pg 169]</span>
+the artillery;
+General Chaffee says resistance had been greatly affected by the
+artillery, and Bonsal adds, the garrison resisted the last advance
+made by the infantry but for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>General Chaffee declares: "The troops arriving at the fort were there
+in the following order: Twelfth Infantry, which took the place; the
+command of General Bates some moments later; the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry."</p>
+
+<p>The facts therefore stand, that the Twenty-fifth Infantry was on the
+ground with the first troops that reached the fort and that there was
+a captain of that regiment who then and there claimed the capture of
+the place, even against the claims of a Major-General. He was told
+that his proposition was absurd, and so it may have been from one
+standpoint; and yet there may be a ground upon which the captain's
+claim was fair and just.</p>
+
+<p>That the Twelfth Infantry arrived on the ground first is not disputed;
+but it is questioned whether the fort was belligerent at that time.
+General Chaffee says the resistance had been greatly reduced by the
+artillery; General Lawton says the action had been finished by
+Capron's shots and the garrison was trying to escape; a soldier from
+the Twenty-fifth says the Spaniards flew out of the fort to the town;
+Bonsal says, they stoutly resisted "for a moment and then fled
+precipitately down the ravine and up the other side, and into the
+town." If first occupancy is the only ground upon which the capture of
+a place can be claimed, then the title to the honor of capturing the
+stone fort lies, according to official report as so far presented,
+with the Twelfth Infantry. But even upon this ground it will be shown
+that the Twenty-fifth's action will relieve the claim of its captain
+from absurdity. We are now prepared to read the official report of the
+commanding officer of the Twenty-fifth
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page170" id="page170"></a>[pg 170]</span>
+ Regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel
+Daggett, who was with the regiment all through the fight, and who bore
+himself so well that the division commander said: "Lieutenant-Colonel
+Daggett deserves special mention for skillful handling of his
+regiment, and would have received it before had the fact been reported
+by his brigade commander."</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">July 5, 1898.<br />
+Intrenchments Twenty-fifth United States Infantry,</p>
+<p>Adjutant-General, Second Brigade, Second Division, Fifth
+Corps.</p>
+
+<p>Sir:&mdash;I have the honor to submit the following report of the
+part taken by the Twenty-fifth Infantry in the battle of the
+1st instant. The regiment formed firing line on the right of
+the Fourth Infantry, facing a Spanish fort or blockhouse
+about half a mile distant. On moving forward, the battalion,
+composed of Companies C, D, E, G and H, and commanded by
+Capt. W.S. Scott, received the fire of the enemy, and after
+advancing about 400 yards was subjected to a galling fire on
+their left. Finding cover, the battalion prepared for an
+advance up the hill to the fort. This advance was made
+rapidly and conducted with great skill by company officers.</p>
+
+<p>"On arriving within a short distance of the fort the white
+flag was waved to our companies, but a cross fire prevented
+the enemy from advancing with it or our officers from
+receiving it. About twenty minutes later a battalion of some
+other regiment advanced to the rear of the fort, completely
+covered from fire, and received the flag; but the men of the
+Twenty-fifth Infantry entered the fort at the same time. All
+officers and men behaved gallantly. One officer was killed
+and three wounded; eight men were killed and twenty wounded.</p>
+
+<p>"About 200 men and ten officers were in the firing line. I
+attribute the comparatively small losses to the skill and
+bravery of the company officers, viz.: First Lieutenant
+Caldwell and Second Lieutenants Moss and Hunt. Second
+Lieutenant French, adjutant of the battalion, was among
+those who gallantly entered the fort.</p>
+
+<p>"The battle lasted about two hours and was a hotly contested
+combat.</p>
+<p class="letterClose3 close">Very respectfully,</p>
+
+<p class="author-up">"A.S. DAGGETT,<br />
+"Lieutenant-Colonel, Twenty-fifth Infantry, Commanding."</p>
+</blockquote><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page171" id="page171"></a>[pg 171]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>Here it is shown by the testimony of the regimental commander, that a
+battalion of the Twenty-fifth ascended the hill and arrived at a short
+distance from the fort about twenty minutes before any other troops
+are mentioned as coming in sight; and that a white flag was waved to
+the companies of the Twenty-fifth. It was doubtless upon this ground
+that a captain of the Twenty-fifth had the temerity to claim the
+capture of the place, even from a Major-General. I do not know who the
+captain was, but it is evident that he had what he believed ample
+grounds for his claim. Colonel Daggett says, also, that when the men
+of the other regiment advanced to this fort after it had waved the
+white flag to the companies of the Twenty-fifth, the men of the
+Twenty-fifth advanced and entered the fort at the same time. Bonsal
+says: "Almost at the same moment that the Twelfth started up the hill
+the Twenty-fifth started up the hill also;" while according to Colonel
+Daggett's testimony the Twenty-fifth was well up the hill already and
+the fort had waved to it the white flag.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Daggett makes this further report:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">Headquarters Twenty-fifth Infantry,<br />
+Near Santiago, Cuba, July 16, 1898.</p>
+<p>The Adjutant-General, Second Division, Fifth Corps, near Santiago, Cuba.
+</p>
+
+<p>Sir:&mdash;Feeling that the Twenty-fifth Infantry has not
+received credit for the part it took in the battle of El
+Caney on the first instant, I have the honor to submit the
+following facts:</p>
+
+<p>I was ordered by the brigade commander to put two companies
+(H, Lieutenant Caldwell, and G, Lieutenant McCorkle) on the
+firing line in extended order. The right being uncovered and
+exposed to the enemy, I ordered D Company (Captain Edwards)
+to deploy as flankers. The battalion was commanded by Capt.
+W.S. Scott. The battalion advanced about 300 yards under
+fire, the Fourth Infantry on its left, where the line found
+cover, halted, and opened fire on the blockhouse and
+intrenchments
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page172" id="page172"></a>[pg 172]</span>
+in front of it. After the line had been
+steadied and had delivered an effective fire, I ordered a
+further advance, which was promptly made. As the Fourth
+Infantry did not advance, my left was exposed to a very
+severe fire from the village on the left. I immediately
+ordered Company C (Lieutenant Murdock), which was in
+support, to the front, and E. Company (Lieutenant Kinnison)
+from regimental reserve to take its place. Thus
+strengthened, the four companies moved up the hill rapidly,
+being skilfully handled by company officers. On arriving
+near the fort the white flag was waved toward our men, but
+the fire from the village on our left was so severe that
+neither our officers nor Spanish could pass over the
+intervening ground. After about twenty minutes some of the
+Twelfth Infantry arrived in rear of the fort, completely
+sheltered from the fire from the village, and received the
+white flag; but Privates J.H. Jones, of Company D, and T.C.
+Butler, H. Company, Twenty-fifth Infantry, entered the fort
+at the same time and took possession of the Spanish flag.
+They were ordered to give it up by an officer of the Twelfth
+United States Infantry, but before doing so they each tore a
+piece from it, which they now have. So much for the facts.</p>
+
+<p>I attribute the success attained by our line largely to the
+bravery and skill of the company officers who conducted the
+line to the fort. These officers are: First Lieutenants V.A.
+Caldwell and J.A. Moss, and Second Lieutenant J.E. Hunt. It
+is my opinion that the two companies first deployed could
+not have reached the fort alone, and that it was the two
+companies I ordered to their support that gave them the
+power to reach it. I further believe that had we failed to
+move beyond the Fourth Infantry the fort would not have been
+taken that night.</p>
+
+<p>The Twenty-fifth Infantry lost one officer killed<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> and
+three wounded, and seven men killed and twenty-eight
+wounded.</p>
+
+<p>Second Lieutenant H.W. French, adjutant of Captain Scott's
+battalion, arrived at the fort near the same time as the
+other officers.</p>
+
+<p>I request that this report be forwarded to corps
+headquarters.</p>
+
+<p class="letterClose3">Very respectfully,</p>
+<p class="author-up">A.S. DAGGETT,<br />
+Lieutenant-Colonel, Twenty-fifth Infantry, Commanding.</p>
+</blockquote><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page173" id="page173"></a>[pg 173]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>General Chaffee's statement is not to be questioned for a moment.
+There is not the least doubt that the troops, as organizations arrived
+at the fort in the order he describes. General Lawton says: "General
+Chaffee's brigade was especially charged with the duty of assaulting
+the stone fort, and successfully executed that duty, after which a
+portion of the Twenty-fifth, and a portion of Bates' brigade, assisted
+in the work, all of which is commendable." He says also, that the
+"Twenty-fifth Infantry did excellent service, as reported, though not
+better than the others engaged.' This seems to confirm
+Lieutenant-Colonel Daggett's report, for he says he is sure the
+regiment did excellent work, "as reported;" and at that time he is
+commenting on Lieutenant-Colonel Daggett's report, the report printed
+above. The broad statements of General Lawton do not touch the exact
+question at issue between the reports of the subordinate commanders;
+nor do they throw any light on the circumstances of the final charge.
+Miles' brigade had been advancing on the stone fort for some hours,
+and the Twenty-fifth was so near when the charge of the Twelfth was
+made that portions of it were on the hill and near the fort at the
+same time. The commander of the Third Brigade saw the fight from one
+side and reported events as he learned them. His official statement
+requires no support. The commanding officer of the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry saw the fight from another standpoint, and his official
+reports are entitled to equal respect. Both the General's and the
+Lieutenant-Colonel's must be accepted as recitals of facts, made with
+all the accuracy that high personal integrity armed with thorough
+military training can command. Happily the statements, which at first
+appear so widely at variance, are entirely reconcilable. The following
+supplementary report of the regimental
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page174" id="page174"></a>[pg 174]</span>
+commander, when taken in
+connection with the final complimentary orders published in the
+regiment before leaving Cuba, will place the whole subject before the
+reader and put the question at rest, and at the same time leave
+undisturbed all the reports of superior officers.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">
+Headquarters Twenty-fifth Infantry,<br />
+Montauk Point, Long Island, August 22, 1898.<br />
+</p>
+<p>The Adjutant-General, U.S. Army, Washington, D.C.</p>
+
+<p>Sir:&mdash;I have the honor to submit a supplementary report to
+the original one made on the 19th (16th) of July, 1898, of
+the battle of El Caney de Cuba, so far as relates to the
+part taken therein by the Twenty-fifth Infantry:</p>
+
+<p>1. I stated in the original report that the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry, in advancing, broke away from and left the Fourth
+Infantry behind. This may inferentially reflect on the
+latter regiment. It was not so intended, and a subsequent
+visit to the battle-field convinces me that it would have
+been impossible for the regiment to advance to the fort,
+and, although it might have advanced a short distance
+farther, it would have resulted in a useless slaughter, and
+that the battalion commander exercised excellent judgment in
+remaining where he did and by his fire aiding the
+Twenty-fifth Infantry in its advance.</p>
+
+<p>2. Colonel Miles, the then brigade commander, informed me
+that his first report of the battle would be brief and that
+a later and full report would be made. In his former report
+I think he failed to give credit to myself and regiment. As
+he was soon after relieved of the command of the brigade I
+assume that no further report will be made.</p>
+
+<p>I have reported what the regiment did, but said nothing
+about my own action. I must, therefore, report it myself or
+let it go unrecorded. Distasteful as it is to me, I deem it
+duty to my children to state the facts and my claims based
+thereon, as follows:</p>
+
+<p>1. I was ordered to put two companies in the firing line.
+Before this line advanced the brigade commander informed me,
+and personal examination verified, that my right was in the
+air and exposed. On my own judgment I ordered a company, as
+flankers, to that part of the line.</p><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page175" id="page175"></a>[pg 175]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>2. As soon as the line had rested and become steadied at its
+first halt I ordered it to advance, and it continued to
+advance, although it broke away from the rest of the
+brigade.</p>
+
+<p>3. As this exposed the left to a galling and dangerous fire,
+I ordered, on my own judgment, a company to re-enforce that
+part of the line and a company from the regimental reserve
+also to the fighting line.</p>
+
+<p>These are the facts, and as my orders were to keep my left
+joined to the right of the Fourth Infantry, and received no
+further orders, my claims are as follows:</p>
+
+<p>1. That it was necessary to place a company on the right as
+flankers.</p>
+
+<p>2. That the conditions offered an opportunity to advance
+after the first halt, and I took advantage of it.</p>
+
+<p>3. That the left being exposed by this advance of the line
+beyond the rest of the brigade, it was proper and necessary
+to re-enforce it by two companies.</p>
+
+<p>4. That the two companies first deployed could not have
+reached the stone fort.</p>
+
+<p>5. That the three companies added to the firing line gave it
+the power to reach the fort.</p>
+
+<p>6. That the advance beyond the rest of the brigade was a
+bold and, without support, dangerous movement, but that the
+result justified the act. Had it failed I would have been
+held responsible.</p>
+
+<p>7. That I saw at each stage of the battle what ought to be
+done, and did it. Results show that it was done at the right
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>8. That the Twenty-fifth Infantry caused the surrender of
+the stone fort.</p>
+
+<p>I desire to repeat that it is with great reluctance that I
+make so much of this report as relates to myself, and
+nothing but a sense of duty would impel me to do it.</p>
+
+<p class="letterClose3">Very respectfully,</p>
+<p class="author-up">A.S. DAGGETT,<br />
+Lieutenant-Colonel, Twenty-fifth Infantry, Commanding.</p>
+</blockquote><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page176" id="page176"></a>[pg 176]</span>
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="heading">LOSSES OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH INFANTRY.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Killed.&mdash;Lieutenant H.L. McCorkle, Company G; Private Albert
+Strother, H; Private John W. Steele, D; Corporal Benj.
+Cousins, H; Private John B. Phelps, D; Private French Payne,
+B; Private Aaron Leftwich, G; Private Tom Howe, D.</p>
+
+<p>Wounded.&mdash;Company A: Private William H. Clarke, Sergeant
+Stephen A. Browne. Company B: Private Tom Brown. Company C:
+Lieutenant John S. Murdock, Private Joseph L. Johnson,
+Private Samuel W. Harley, Private John A. Boyd. Company D;
+Captain Eaton A. Edwards, Sergeant Hayden Richards, Private
+Robert Goodwin. Company E: Lieutenant H.L. Kinnison, Private
+James Howard, Private John Saddler, Private David C. Gillam,
+Private Hugh Swann. Company F: First Sergeant Frank Coleman.
+Company G: Corporal James O. Hunter, Private Henry
+Brightwell, Private David Buckner, Private Alvin Daniels,
+Private Boney Douglas, Private George P. Cooper, Private
+John Thomas, Corporal Gov. Staton, Private Eugene Jones.
+Company H: Private James Bevill, Private Henry Gilbert.</p>
+
+<p>Wounded July 2.&mdash;Private Elwood A. Forman, H; Private Smith,
+D; Private William Lafayette, F.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p class="heading">COMPLIMENTARY ORDER.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">Headquarters 25th Infantry,<br />
+Near Santiago de Cuba, August 11, 1898.</p>
+<p>General Orders No. 19.</p>
+
+<p>The regimental commander congratulates the regiment on the
+prospect of its speedy return to the United States.</p>
+
+<p>Gathered from three different stations, many of you
+strangers to each other, you assembled as a regiment for the
+first time in more than twenty-eight years on May 7, 1898,
+at Tampa, Florida. There you endeavored to solidify and
+prepare yourselves, as far as the oppressive weather would
+permit, for the work that appeared to be before you; but,
+who could have fortold the severity of that work?</p>
+
+<p>You endured the severe hardships of a long sea voyage, which
+no one who has not experienced it can appreciate. You then
+disembarked, amidst dangerous surroundings; and on landing
+were for the first time on hostile ground. You marched,
+under a tropical sun, carrying blanket-roll, three days'
+rations, and one hundred rounds of ammunition, through rain
+and mud, part of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page177" id="page177"></a>[pg 177]</span>
+the time at night, sleeping on the wet
+ground without shelter, living part of the time on scant
+rations, even, of bacon, hard bread and coffee, until on
+July 1 you arrived at El Caney. Here you took the battle
+formation and advanced to the stone fort, more like veterans
+than troops who had never been under fire. You again
+marched, day and night, halting only to dig four lines of
+intrenchments, the last being the nearest point to the enemy
+reached by any organization, when, still holding your
+rifles, within these intrenchments, notice was received that
+Santiago and the Spanish army had surrendered.</p>
+
+<p>But commendable as the record cited may be, the brightest
+hours of your lives were on the afternoon of July 1. Formed
+in battle array, you advanced to the stone fort against
+volleys therefrom, and rifle-pits in front, and against a
+galling fire from blockhouses, the church tower and the
+village on your left. You continued to advance, skilfully
+and bravely directed by the officers in immediate command,
+halting and delivering such a cool and well-directed fire
+that the enemy was compelled to wave the white flag in token
+of surrender.</p>
+
+<p>Seldom have troops been called upon to face a severer fire,
+and never have they acquitted themselves better.</p>
+
+<p>The regimental reserve was called upon to try its nerve, by
+lying quiet under a galling fire, without the privilege of
+returning it, where men were killed and wounded. This is a
+test of nerve which the firing line cannot realize, and
+requires the highest qualities of bravery and endurance.</p>
+
+<p>You may well return to the United States proud of your
+accomplishments; and if any one asks you what you have done,
+point him to El Caney.</p>
+
+<p>But in the midst of the joy of going home, we mourn the loss
+of those we leave behind. The genial, generous-hearted
+McCorkle fell at his post of duty, bravely directing his men
+in the advance on the stone fort. He died as the soldier
+dies, and received a soldier's burial. He was beloved by all
+who knew him, and his name will always be fondly remembered
+by his regiment&mdash;especially by those who participated in the
+Santiago campaign. The officers of the regiment will wear
+the prescribed badge of mourning for Lieutenant McCorkle for
+thirty days. And Corporal Benjamin Cousins, Privates Payne,
+Lewis, Strother, Taliaferro, Phelps, Howell, Steel and
+Leftwitch, sacrificed their lives on their country's altar.
+Being of a race which
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page178" id="page178"></a>[pg 178]</span>
+only thirty-five years ago emerged
+through a long and bloody war, from a condition of
+servitude, they in turn engaged in a war which was
+officially announced to be in the interest of humanity and
+gave all they had&mdash;their lives&mdash;that the oppressed might be
+free, and enjoy the blessings of liberty guaranteed by a
+stable government. They also died like true soldiers and
+received a soldier's burial.</p>
+
+<p>By order of Lieutenant-Colonel Daggett.</p>
+
+<p class="author-up">M.D. CRONIN,<br />
+First Lieutenant and Adjutant, 25th Infantry.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="heading">MAJOR GENERAL AARON S. DAGGETT.</p>
+
+<p>General Aaron S. Daggett is a native of Maine, born at Greene Corner,
+in that State, June 14, 1837. He is descended from a paternal ancestry
+which can be traced, with an honorable record, as far back as 1100
+A.D. His mother was Dorcas C., daughter of Simon Dearborn, a
+collateral descendant of General Henry Dearborn. His more immediate
+ancestors came from Old to New England about 1630, and both his
+grandparents served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary
+War. He was educated in his native town, at Monmouth Academy, Maine
+Wesleyan Seminary and Bates College. At the outbreak of the Civil War
+he enlisted as a private, April 27th, 1861, in the 5th Maine Infantry;
+was appointed second lieutenant May 1, and promoted first lieutenant
+May 24, 1861. He commanded his company at the first Bull Run battle,
+and was promoted captain August 14, 1861.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 365px;">
+<img src="images/image05.png" width="365" height="450" alt="Lieutenant-Colonel A.S. Daggett" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Lieutenant-Colonel A.S. Daggett.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>From the first engagement of the regiment to the end of its three
+years' memorable service, Captain Daggett proved a faithful and
+gallant soldier. He was promoted major, January 8th, 1863; on January
+18th, 1865, was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 5th Regiment,
+United States Veteran Volunteers, Hancock Corps, and was brevetted
+colonel and brigadier-general of volunteers, March 13, 1865, for
+"gallant and meritorious services during the war." He also received
+the brevets of major in the United States Army for "gallant and
+meritorious services at the battle of Rappahannock Station, Va.,"
+November 7, 1863, and lieutenant-colonel for "gallant and meritorious
+services in the battle of the Wilderness, Va." Immediately after the
+battle of Rappahannock Station, the captured trophies, flags, cannons,
+etc., were escorted, by those who had been most conspicuous
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page179" id="page179"></a>[pg 179]</span>
+in the action, to General Meade's headquarters, Colonel Daggett being in
+command of the battalion of his brigade. General Upton to whom he owed
+this distinction, wrote of him as follows:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"In the assault at Rappahannock Station, Colonel Daggett's
+regiment captured over five hundred prisoners. In the
+assault at Spottsylvania Court House, May 10, his regiment
+lost six out of seven captains, the seventh being killed on
+the 12th of May, at the "angle," or the point where the tree
+was shot down by musketry, on which ground the regiment
+fought from 9.30 A.M. to 5.30 P.M., when it was relieved. On
+all these occasions Colonel Daggett was under my immediate
+command, and fought with distinguished bravery.</p>
+
+<p>"Throughout his military career in the Army of the Potomac,
+he maintained the character of a good soldier and an upright
+man, and his promotion would be commended by all those who
+desire to see courage rewarded."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>General Upton also wrote to the Governor of Maine as follows:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I would respectfully recommend to Your Excellency, Major
+A.S. Daggett, formerly 5th Maine Volunteers, as an officer
+highly qualified to command a regiment. Major Daggett served
+his full term in this brigade with honor both to himself and
+State, and won for himself the reputation of being a brave,
+reliable and efficient officer. His promotion to a colonelcy
+would be a great benefit to the service, while the honor of
+his State could scarcely be entrusted to safer hands."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>He was subsequently recommended for promotion by Generals Meade,
+Hancock, Wright and D.A. Russell. He was in every battle and campaign
+in which the Sixth Corps, Army of the Potomac, was engaged, from the
+first Bull Run to Petersburg, and was twice slightly wounded. On July
+28, 1866, without his knowledge or solicitation, he was appointed a
+captain in the U.S. Regular Army, on recommendation of General Grant,
+and has since been promoted colonel in this service. During his
+subsequent career he has won the reputation of being a fine tactician
+and of being thoroughly versed in military law, as is indicated by
+Major Hancock's commendatory words in 1878:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I look upon him as by far the best tactician in the
+regiment, and as for a thorough, clear knowledge of tactics
+his superior is not in the army. As regards military and
+civil law, I know of no one so well informed."</p></blockquote><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page180" id="page180"></a>[pg 180]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>His ability and soldierly qualities have also been highly commended by
+General Crook, Colonel Hughes&mdash;Inspector-General in 1891&mdash;and Colonel
+----, Inspector-General in 1892.</p>
+
+<p>Not only as a soldier, but in many other ways, has General Daggett
+distinguished himself. As a public speaker the following was said of
+him by the Rev. S.S. Cummings, of Boston:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"It was my privilege and pleasure to listen to an address
+delivered by General A.S. Daggett on Memorial Day of 1891. I
+had anticipated something able and instructive, but it far
+exceeded my fondest expectations. The address was dignified,
+yet affable, delivered in choice language without
+manuscript, instructive and impressive, and highly
+appreciated by an intelligent audience."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>General Daggett is noted for his courteous and genial manner, and his
+sterling integrity of character. He is a member of the Presbyterian
+church.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">War Department, Inspector-General's Office,<br />
+Washington, Jan. 6th, 1899.</p>
+<p>To the Adjutant-General, U.S.A., Washington, D.C.
+</p>
+
+<p>Sir:&mdash;I desire to recommend to your favorable consideration
+and for advancement in case of the reorganization of the
+Regular Army, Lieutenant-Colonel A.S. Daggett, 25th U.S.
+Infantry.</p>
+
+<p>I have known Colonel Daggett for a long time; he served in
+the War of the Rebellion with the 5th Maine Volunteers and
+acquitted himself with much honor; he served in Cuba in the
+war with Spain, commanding the 25th U.S. Infantry, and was
+conspicuous for gallantry at the battle of El Caney. He is
+an officer of the highest character, intelligent, courageous
+and energetic.</p>
+
+<p>I sincerely trust that he may receive all the consideration
+he deserves.</p>
+
+<p class="letterClose3">Very respectfully,</p>
+<p class="author-up">
+(Sd) H.W. LAWTON,<br />
+Major-General, U.S.V.<br />
+</p>
+</blockquote><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page181" id="page181"></a>[pg 181]</span>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+A true copy:<br />
+<br />
+M.D. CRONIN,<br />
+First Lieutenant and Adjutant 25th Infantry.<br />
+Headquarters Department of the East,<br />
+Governor's Island, New York City,</p>
+<p class="letterDate up">December 29, 1898.</p>
+<p>Honorable R.A. Alger, Secretary of War, Washington, D.C.</p>
+
+<p>Sir:&mdash;I recommend to the favorable consideration of the
+Secretary of War for promotion to Brigadier-General, Colonel
+A.S. Daggett, 25th Infantry. This officer has an excellent
+war record; his service has been faithful since then, and in
+the recent Spanish-American war he distinguished himself by
+his good judgment and faithful attention to duty, as well as
+for gallant service in action. An appointment of this
+character will be very highly appreciated throughout the
+army as a recognition of faithful, meritorious and gallant
+service. From my observation of Colonel Daggett he is well
+qualified for the position.</p>
+
+<p class="letterClose3">Very respectfully,</p>
+<p class="author-up">(Sd) WM. R. SHAFTER,<br />
+Major-General, U.S. Volunteers.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>M.D. CRONIN,</p>
+
+<p>A true copy:</p>
+
+<p>First Lieutenant and Adjutant 25th Infantry.</p></blockquote>
+
+To this very brilliant official record it is necessary to
+add but a word personal. Colonel Daggett is a typical New
+Englander; tall, well-formed, nervous and sinewy, a centre
+of energy, making himself felt wherever he may be. Precise
+and forceful of speech, correct and sincere in manners, a
+safe counsellor and a loyal friend, his character approaches
+the ideal. Stern and commanding as an officer he is
+nevertheless tender and sympathetic. His very sensitiveness
+concerning the feelings of others embarrasses him in giving
+expression to his own feelings on seeing suffering, unless
+it should be urgent, but those who know him best know him to
+be just, humane and tender. No man could have taken more
+care than he did for his regiment in Cuba. Hating oppression
+and wrong with a vehemency suited to his intense nature, he
+nevertheless deplores war and bloodshed. The President of
+the United States never did a more worthy act than when he
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page182" id="page182"></a>[pg 182]</span>
+gave to Lieutenant-Colonel A.S. Daggett of the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry his commission as Brigadier-General of Volunteers
+in recognition of his valor and skill at El Caney and of his
+general efficiency as an officer in our army.
+
+
+<p class="heading">TESTIMONIES CONCERNING THE WORK OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH INFANTRY BEFORE EL
+CANEY.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">
+Headquarters First District, Southern Luzon,<br />
+El Deposito, P.I., April 20, 1900.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>My Dear General Daggett:&mdash;Some time ago I received a letter
+from you asking me to make an official statement as to where
+and at what objective the energies and fire of the 25th
+Infantry were directed during the battle of El Caney, Cuba,
+July 1, 1898.</p>
+
+<p>In reply I have the honor to officially state that about
+noon July 1, 1898, the regiment moved from the mango grove,
+near the Ducro House, toward a stone fort located on a hill,
+near the town of El Caney.</p>
+
+<p>It arrived at about one of the afternoon at a point about
+eight hundred yards to the south and east of the fort;
+immediately deployed, and the First Battalion, under command
+of Captain Walter S. Scott, and of which I was adjutant,
+designated as the attacking line. Presently, after advancing
+a few yards, we were subjected to a galling fire from the
+stone fort, the trenches in its front and from a blockhouse
+on its right. The line steadily moved forward, directing its
+fire at the stone fort and the trenches surrounding it. When
+within about one hundred and fifty yards from the fort the
+line was halted, and several sharpshooters, directed by
+their company officers to fire at the loopholes. Finally,
+when the men had regained their wind, a rush was made, part
+of the line going through a cornfield. At the foot the line
+was again halted, and after a few moments' rest charged up
+the hill, and the fort surrendered.</p>
+
+<p>I went to the fort and found a Spanish lieutenant and seven
+enlisted men whom I passed out and were taken charge of by
+an officer of the 12th Infantry. This was about 3.50 P.M.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page183" id="page183"></a>[pg 183]</span>
+</p>
+<p>As soon as the line reached the top of the hill it was
+fired on from the town, which had before been masked by the
+hill; the fire was of course returned, and this was the
+first fire from the battalion directed at the town. About
+five o'clock firing had ceased, the battalion was assembled
+and marched away.</p>
+
+<p class="author-up">
+(Sd) H.W. FRENCH,<br />
+First Lieutenant, 17th Infantry (late Second Lieutenant 25th Infantry).<br />
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>Note.&mdash;Since the above was written, General Daggett served
+with great distinction in the Philippines and in China, and
+was retired as a brigadier-general&mdash;a hero of four wars. A
+bill is now before Congress to make him a major-general, an
+honor to which he is most justly entitled.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p><br />
+A true copy:<br />
+<br />
+H.G. LEARNARD,<br />
+Capt. and Adj. 14th Infantry.</p>
+<p class="letterDate up">Manila, P.I., March 30, 1900.
+</p>
+
+<p>I certify that in the action of El Caney, Cuba, July 1,
+1898, the company I commanded, i.e., H, 25th Infantry,
+directed its fire almost exclusively on the stone fort and
+the trench a few yards from its base. That very little of
+this company's fire was directed on the town and none before
+the fort was carried.</p>
+
+<p class="author-up">
+(Sd) VERNON A. CALDWELL,<br />
+First Lieutenant, 25th Infantry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A true copy:<br />
+<br />
+H.G. LEARNARD,<br />
+Capt. and Adj. 14th Infantry.<br />
+Tayug, Luzon, Philippine Islands,</p>
+<p class="letterDate up">April 17th, 1900.</p>
+
+<p>To Those in Military Authority.</p>
+
+<p>Regarding the battle of El Caney, Cuba, July 1, 1898, I
+hereby certify:</p>
+
+<p>1. From about 1.20 o'clock P.M. to the time of the capture
+of the town of El Caney, I was in command of two
+companies&mdash;C and G&mdash;forming part of the 25th U.S. Infantry
+firing line.</p>
+
+<p>2. From about 2.55 o'clock P.M. to the time of the capture
+of the town, very nearly the entire 25th Infantry firing
+line was under my observation.</p>
+
+<p>3. From about 2.55 o'clock P. M. to about 3.20, the time of
+the surrender of the stone fort to the east of the town, the
+fire of the entire 25th Infantry firing line within my sight
+was directed against the fort.</p>
+
+<p>4. During this period of the battle the 25th Infantry firing
+line was about 150 yards from the stone fort.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page184" id="page184"></a>[pg 184]</span>
+5. From the time the firing line began firing&mdash;about 1
+o'clock P.M.&mdash;to the time of the surrender of the stone
+fort&mdash;about 3.20 P.M.&mdash;the companies under my command and
+all others under my observation concentrated their fire on
+the fort.</p>
+
+<p>6. About 3.20 P.M., I was standing about 150 yards from the
+stone fort, and I plainly and distinctly saw a Spaniard
+appear in the door of the fort, and, for two or three
+seconds, wave a white flag at the 25th Infantry firing line,
+and upon being shot down, another Spaniard picked up the
+flag and likewise waved it at the 25th Infantry firing line.</p>
+
+<p>7. After the white flag had twice been presented to the 25th
+Infantry firing line, and after all fire from the stone fort
+had ceased, the firing line rushed forward, took up a
+position facing to their left&mdash;that is, facing the town&mdash;and
+began a vigorous fire on a small blockhouse and on the town.</p>
+
+<p class="letterClose3 close">Respectfully,</p>
+<p class="author-up">JAMES A. MOSS,</p>
+<p class="author-up">First Lieutenant, 24th U.S. Infantry.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="heading">RECOLLECTIONS OF THE SANTIAGO CAMPAIGN, BY CAPTAIN R.H.R.
+LOUGHBOROUGH, 25TH U.S. INFANTRY.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>The 25th U.S. Infantry left its stations in Montana on the
+10th of April, 1898; six companies (B, C, D, E, F and H)
+went in camp at Chickamauga National Park; the other two
+companies (A and G) went to Key West, Fla.</p>
+
+<p>On May 6th the six companies at the Chickamauga National
+Park moved by rail to Tampa, Fla., arriving the night of the
+7th, where they were joined by the two companies from Key
+West. With the exception of three days in 1870, the regiment
+had never been together since its organization in 1869. It
+necessarily followed that many of the officers, as well as
+men, were strangers to each other.</p>
+
+<p>Our camp at Tampa was fair; the ground is sandy and flat,
+but as the rainy season had not set in, it was dry and the
+health was good. Drills and parades were held daily (Sundays
+excepted), but on account of the intense heat the hours for
+it were limited to the early mornings and after sunset. The
+clothing of the men was the same they had worn in Montana,
+and did not add to their comfort. Supplies of all kinds
+(except rations) came by piecemeal, and we finally sailed
+for the tropics with the same clothing used in the
+Northwest.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page185" id="page185"></a>[pg 185]</span>
+At 6 o'clock P.M. June 6th the regiment received orders to
+strike tents and be ready to move within an hour; the order
+was immediately complied with, though the necessary
+transportation to move the baggage did not report until the
+forenoon of the following day; it was not far from noon when
+the last of it left the camp for the railroad station, en
+route to Port Tampa, where we were to embark on transports
+for the seat of war.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the camp equipage was started, the regiment was
+formed and marched to West Tampa (about three miles), where
+we took a train for Port Tampa, distant nine miles. On
+arrival, the regiment boarded the steamer "Concho," one of
+the vessels to carry the expedition to its destination. The
+4th U.S. Infantry had preceded us, and the next day a
+battalion of the 2d Massachusetts Volunteers was put on, but
+owing to the crowded condition of the ship, a few days later
+they were transferred to another vessel.</p>
+
+<p>The "Concho" is a large ship, but without the comforts I
+have seen since then on the U.S. Army transports plying
+between San Francisco and Manila. The ships used were
+hastily fitted up for the occasion, and it could not be
+expected that they would be all that was required, but some
+of the appointments could and should have been better. After
+a tedious wait until June 14th, we sailed down Tampa Bay and
+out on the Gulf of Mexico, still in ignorance of our
+destination. The evening of the 15th the light at Dry
+Tortugas was seen to our right. June 16th, 17th and 18th our
+course was a little south of east, and part of the time the
+north coast of Cuba was visible. The weather (except the
+intense heat) was fine. On Sunday morning, June 18th, we
+entered the Windward Passage, and it seemed certain, from
+our course, that Santiago was our objective. Early the next
+morning the high mountains of Santiago de Cuba were in plain
+sight to our north. June 20th and 21st, remained off the
+coast; the sea was rough and the vessel rolled considerably,
+adding to the discomfort of every one, especially those
+subject to seasickness. During the evening of the 21st,
+orders were received to be ready to disembark the following
+morning. About 8 A.M. on the 22d our warships began shelling
+the coast, and two hours later the troops started in small
+boats from the transports to the shore. By evening most of
+the Second Division and part of the Cavalry Division were on
+Cuban soil. There was no opposition to our landing; I
+believe that a small force well handled could have made it
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page186" id="page186"></a>[pg 186]</span>
+
+very difficult, if, indeed, it could not have prevented it.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the regiment had landed it was marched out about
+four miles and bivouacked for the night. The country is
+rugged and covered with a dense tropical vegetation. A few
+"Cuban Patriots" had joined us and formed the extreme
+advance, saving us some disagreeable outpost duty. This was
+the only service that I know of them doing throughout the
+campaign, though they were always on hand ration day. Later
+developments showed that the service rendered was not so
+important, as any Spanish force had retired to a safe place,
+something our friends looked out for whenever there was any
+danger.</p>
+
+<p>June 23d, the regiment started shortly after daylight
+towards the city of Santiago. About 9 o'clock there was a
+report that the enemy were in our front. The regiment was
+immediately formed for battle, and reconnoitering parties
+sent forward; after about thirty minutes' delay the supposed
+enemy proved to be the large leaves of some tropical trees
+being moved by the wind, giving them the appearance of
+persons in motion. Our route was over a narrow trail,
+through a dense wilderness; water was scarce and the heat
+was intense. About noon we arrived at Siboney, where we
+bivouacked for the night. Before daylight next morning the
+troops in our rear were heard passing on the trail by our
+camp. Shortly after daylight Captain Capron's battery of
+four guns passed, and the men lined up along the road and
+cheered lustily. About an hour later, musketry fire and the
+occasional discharge of a Hotchkiss gun could be plainly
+heard towards Santiago. About three-quarters of an hour
+later we received orders to march. By mistake, the wrong
+trail was taken, and after marching fourteen hours we
+returned to our camp of the previous night, all fagged out.
+A great many men of the brigade were overcome with heat
+during this long, tiresome and fruitless ramble. I cannot
+say how many of these were of the 25th Infantry, but in my
+own company (B) there was not a man out of the ranks when
+the camp was reached. (I have called the above-mentioned
+place "Siboney." There is probably some other name for it,
+as the Cubans have one for every hamlet. It is not far from
+Siboney, and not knowing the name, have called it Siboney.)</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the 25th we got rations from the transport
+and all enjoyed a hearty breakfast. At 1 P.M. we broke camp
+and marched to Sevilla, about six miles. Here we remained
+until the morning of the 27th, part of the regiment being
+out on
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page187" id="page187"></a>[pg 187]</span>
+ picket duty. June 27th, the regiment marched three
+miles towards Santiago and bivouacked on the banks of a
+small creek. Bathing was forbidden, as the creek was the
+only water supply for the army. The troops remained at this
+place until the afternoon of June 30th. The camp was in the
+valley of the creek, the ground is low and flat, and with
+the heavy rainfall every one was uncomfortable. Rations had
+to be brought from Siboney over a trail and did not arrive
+regularly.</p>
+
+<p>About 1 o'clock in the afternoon on the 30th, the officers
+of the regiment were assembled at headquarters and were
+notified that there would be an attack on the Spanish
+position the next morning. About 4 o'clock the regiment
+started for its position, arriving after 10 o'clock, having
+covered a distance of less than three miles. The route was
+over an excuse for a road, but was crowded with some of the
+troops of almost every organization of the army, causing
+numberless halts, but worse than all, breaking the
+much-needed rest of the troops. On one part of this route I
+heard men asking, "What regiment is this?" and heard various
+responses, as follows: "The W.W.W.'s, the 1st Cavalry, the
+4th Infantry, the 10th Cavalry," etc. Some one asked, "What
+are the W.W.W.'s?" and some one replied, "Wood's Weary
+Walkers." I do not know who is responsible for that
+condition of affairs. Had we had an enterprising enemy in
+our front, disaster certainly would have followed. Here were
+a number of organizations scattered along a narrow, muddy
+trail, at the mercy of an active foe. All this was only
+three or four miles from the Spanish works. The men were
+cheerful, and few if any realized that there might be
+danger.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the men were up and moving about before daylight the
+next morning. Shortly after, the regiment started in the
+direction of El Caney. At 9 A.M. we halted in a mango grove
+near the Ducureau mansion. Shortly before noon a mounted
+orderly appeared with a message for the brigade commander. A
+few minutes later the march towards El Caney was taken up.
+Heavy musketry fire had been heard in that direction since
+shortly before 7 o'clock. A march of little more than a mile
+and the regiment was formed for battle, Companies G and H in
+the firing line, C and D in support, the remaining four
+companies in reserve.</p>
+
+<p>For two hours or perhaps more the firing was very heavy,
+especially during the second hour. Attention is called to
+report of Colonel A.S. Daggett, pages 387 and 388, "Report
+of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page188" id="page188"></a>[pg 188]</span>
+War Department, 1898, Vol. I," and endorsement on
+same by Major-General A.R. Chaffee. He says: "This stone
+fort was practically in the possession of the 12th Infantry
+at about 2 P.M. July 1." I cannot reconcile this statement
+with the fact that between the hours named some of the
+heaviest firing was going on, which does not indicate that
+its defenders were ready to give up. Lord Wellington once
+said, "At the end of every campaign truth lies at the bottom
+of a deep well, and it often takes twenty years to get her
+out." This may not be an exception. About half-past 4
+o'clock the firing ceased and El Caney was ours.</p>
+
+<p>The dead were collected near a hedge and the regiment was
+formed in column of masses to pay a silent tribute of
+respect to our departed comrades.</p>
+
+<p>The regiment then started for the mango grove where we had
+left our blanket rolls and haversacks. Just as we were
+starting, some men with canteens started for water (about a
+mile away), when orders were received to be ready to march
+in twenty minutes. A few rods took us back to the road
+leading to Santiago. We moved down the road about
+three-quarters of a mile and halted. Two hours later, the
+pack train arrived with ammunition and then another with
+rations. Before the latter were issued orders were issued to
+move at once to the rear. The regiment marched over the
+trail it had come on the day before, arriving at El Poso
+about 8 o'clock A.M. Here we took the road leading to
+Santiago. About 9 A.M. we passed under San Juan Hill and
+moved to our right. Our forces held the crest of the hill.
+In passing along the hill we were sheltered from the fire
+except a short space, where one or two men were slightly
+wounded. Arriving at the La Cruz house near the road leading
+from El Caney to Santiago about 3.30 P.M. and bivouacked for
+the night. About 10 o'clock the troops on our left were
+attacked by the Spanish. The firing was very heavy for an
+hour, when it suddenly ceased, and we retired for the night.
+During this time we were under the hill and protected from
+the fire.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning (Sunday, July 3d) desultory firing began at
+daylight. About 7 A.M. the regiment left the La Cruz house
+and moved across the Caney-Santiago road and formed line to
+the left and moved forward to a ridge overlooking the city.
+A number of shots fell about us, but no one was struck.
+Shortly after, we were in possession of the ridge and began
+intrenching. The firing was kept up and two men were
+wounded. About n
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page189" id="page189"></a>[pg 189]</span>
+oon we were informed that a truce had been
+established and all work was stopped. This gave all a
+much-needed rest, though it proved to be of short duration,
+caused by a false alarm by Major Webb, the inspector of the
+division staff.</p>
+
+<p>During the afternoon the regiment was moved to the foot of
+the ridge, leaving only the pickets on the crest. About 8.30
+P.M. we were ordered to the picket line and began
+intrenching. The tall grass was wet from a drenching rain a
+few hours before. The ground, though wet, was hard, and slow
+progress was made, having only their bayonets for picks and
+their bare hands for shovels. All night this work went on.
+The men were tired, and hungry (as rations had not come up
+that day), but worked faithfully. During this, and I will
+add, throughout the campaign, I never heard a murmur nor a
+complaint; even when almost all the men of the regiment were
+down with fever and bowel trouble they were cheerful and
+ready to do any duty they were called on for.</p>
+
+<p>The morning of July 3d Cervera's fleet sailed down the bay.
+An officer rode by our part of the line about half-past 9
+and informed us of it. A few minutes later we heard the roar
+of the big guns, though at the time I little thought of what
+was going on. In the afternoon we heard cheering on our line
+way to the left, and as the good news came along it was
+taken up, and soon the whole line was shouting.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of July 5th the non-combatants left Santiago
+by two roads, one passing through our line. It was a pitiful
+sight. During the forenoon of the 5th we moved about a mile
+to the right and began intrenching. This position was very
+near the Spanish line, and quite elaborate works were
+constructed. We remained in this position until the morning
+of the 11th, when the regiment was ordered to the right of
+the line, about three miles. Here we intrenched. About 1
+P.M. a truce was announced.</p>
+
+<p>At 9.15 P.M. a staff officer came to the regimental
+commander's tent and informed him that the regiment was to
+be on the line at 12 o'clock midnight, and as soon as the
+moon rose to advance through the jungle until fired on, when
+the line was to halt and intrench. The night was stormy and
+any moon there might have been was obscured by the clouds.
+We were up, however, standing until daylight in a drenching
+rain, for it was so dark that any movement was impossible.
+Our rest was brok
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page190" id="page190"></a>[pg 190]</span>
+en, without accomplishing anything that I
+know or heard of.</p>
+
+<p>However, the rain and storm were providential, for I will
+always believe if the movement had been started we should
+have met with disaster. The ground was broken, deep ravines
+and underbrush with wire fences running through it. I have
+never learned who was "the father" of this order, and
+possibly never will. He must be ashamed of it.</p>
+
+<p>The afternoon of the 12th the regiment advanced several
+hundred yards to the front and dug more intrenchments. They
+were still on this work the afternoon of the 14th when it
+was announced that the Spanish army had agreed to surrender.
+This came none too soon, for our men were coming down with
+malarial fever. A few days later nearly half the regiment
+were on the sick list, and the balance could not have done
+much.</p>
+
+<p>The regiment was moved the same afternoon to higher ground
+in rear of the trenches. Strong guards were kept to look out
+for our prisoners and to prevent "our allies," the Cubans,
+from going into the city.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the 17th the formal surrender of the city
+and Spanish army took place. We were some distance away and
+did not see anything of the ceremony.</p>
+
+<p>On July 25th the regiment was moved about a mile further
+back in the hills and made camp, our tents, etc., having
+been brought up from the transport. Medicines appeared very
+scarce, resulting in much suffering. The food supplied was
+totally unfit for our new surroundings, and I believe not a
+little of the sickness can be traced to this. Our last camp
+was as good as any to be found in that vicinity.</p>
+
+<p>The regiment remained in camp until August 13th, when it
+embarked on the transport "Camanche" for Montauk Point,
+arriving on the 18th, and landed on the 23d.</p>
+
+<p class="author">
+B.H.R. LOUGHBOROUGH,<br />
+Captain, 25th Infantry.<br />
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> First Lieutenant McCorkle killed;
+Captain Edwards and
+First Lieutenants Kinnison and Murdock wounded.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/image02.png" alt="Chapter End Graphic" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page191" id="page191"></a>[pg 191]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>SAN JUAN.</h3>
+
+<p class="hang center">Cavalry Division: The Ninth and Tenth Regiments.</p>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+  Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>When Lawton's division swung off to the right to engage the enemy at
+El Caney, with the results described in the preceeding chapter, the
+divisions of Wheeler and Kent were ordered to proceed directly along
+the Santiago road toward San Juan. Within a mile from El Pozo, the
+point where they had bivouacked for the night of the 30th, the troops
+arrived at the Aguadores River, which crosses the road here within
+less than a mile from San Juan Heights. Wheeler's division headed the
+column, although that general was not commanding. He had been relieved
+on the afternoon of the 30th and did not resume command until about 4
+o'clock on July 1,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> long after the heights had been carried,
+although he was on the field shortly after 1 o'clock of that day.</p>
+
+<p>The Dismounted Cavalry Division on the morning of July 1 presented
+2,663 fighting men, including officers. The First Brigade, commanded
+by Colonel Carrol, had 50 officers and 1,054 men, in regiments as
+follows: Third Cavalry, 22 officers, 420 men; Sixth Cavalry, 16
+officers, 427 men; Ninth Cavalry, 12 officers, 207 men, the Ninth
+having hardly one-half the strength of either of the other regiments
+of the brigade. The Second Brigade, commanded by General Wood,
+contained 1,559 persons, distributed as follows: Brigade sta
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page192" id="page192"></a>[pg 192]</span>
+ff, 9
+officers, 14 men; First Cavalry, 21 officers, 501 men: Tenth Cavalry,
+22 officers, 507 men; First Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders), 25
+officers, 517 men.</p>
+
+<p>Before the troops left El Poso, Grimes' battery had been put in
+position and had fired a few shots at a blockhouse on San Juan Hill,
+distance 2,600 yards. Using black powder, which created a cloud of
+smoke with every shot, the battery was readily located by the foe, and
+the shrapnel from their guns was soon bursting among our forces. The
+second shot from the Spaniards wounded four of the Rough Riders and
+two or three of the regulars, while a third killed and wounded several
+Cubans. As a matter of course there was a rapid movements of the
+troops from that immediate vicinity. The firing soon ceased, and the
+troops took up that general advance movement already noted.</p>
+
+<p>It is no easy task to follow the movements of the Cavalry Division
+from the time it left El Poso that July morning until it finally
+entrenched itself for the night on San Juan Hills. As heretofore we
+will take the official reports first, and from them make up the
+itinerary and the movements of the battle that followed, as far as
+they will enable us to do so. General Sumner says the division
+proceeded toward Santiago, and when about three-fourths of a mile from
+El Poso was halted in a narrow road to await orders and remained there
+for nearly an hour, subject to the effects of heavy artillery fire
+from the enemy's battery. Major Wessells, of the Third Cavalry, says,
+while following the road toward Santiago that morn, "much delay ensued
+from some reason unknown to the undersigned," and that the First
+Brigade of the division arrived at San Juan ford about 10 o'clock.
+This creek was about five hundred yards farther toward Santiago than
+Aguadores River, and ran about parallel with San Ju
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page193" id="page193"></a>[pg 193]</span>
+an Heights, from
+which it was about three-fourths of a mile distant.</p>
+
+<p>The orders for which General Sumner had waited nearly an hour under
+fire had come and were "verbal instructions to move to the San Juan
+Creek and hold it." Reaching this creek his advance guard was met by
+the Spaniards who fired one volley and retreated to a position on a
+hill on Sumner's right front, about 1,200 yards distant. Crossing this
+creek with sufficient strength to hold it, Sumner was now ordered to
+move by the right flank and connect with Lawton's left. While his
+troops were in this massed condition prior to deploying to the right
+through a thick jungle, the balloon that was in use for purposes of
+reconnoitering, came up the road and exposed itself to the full view
+of the Spaniards upon the heights. They needed no further invitation
+to direct toward our forces their artillery, for which the balloon
+became a flying target. Many officers and men were wounded here by
+exploding shells and small arms' fire of the enemy (Sumner). Under
+this fire, however, the troops were deployed as ordered.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Wood, who had charge of the Second Brigade, of which the Rough
+Riders were the leading regiment, says this "regiment was directed to
+change direction to the right, and by moving up the creek to effect a
+junction with General Lawton's division, which was engaged at Caney,
+about one and a-half miles toward the right, but was supposed to be
+working toward our right flank. After proceeding in this direction
+about half a mile the effort to connect with General Lawton was given
+up." This movement to the right took place between ten and eleven
+o'clock, at which time Lawton's forces had made no impression upon El
+Caney, and he was far from making any movement which might be
+described as working toward the right flank of the Cavalry Divisio
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page194" id="page194"></a>[pg 194]</span>
+n.
+Lawton was not found by that half-hour's search to the right; and it
+was evident that something must be done by these troops in front, and
+done quickly. The whole division was under fire, and the battle on the
+Spanish side was in actual progress. True our men were hidden away in
+the jungle that bordered the creek, but their position was known to
+the Spaniards, and leaves and boughs are no cover from shot and shell.
+They were receiving the fire of the enemy and making no reply
+whatever, save by the few ineffective shots from the far away battery
+on El Poso Hill.</p>
+
+<p>Directly in front of the cavalry division was a little hill occupied
+by a Spanish force. This hill is called in General Wood's report East
+Hill, but in the literature of the battle it is usually mentioned as
+Kettle Hill. The fire in part was coming from here. Colonel Wood gives
+another report of the morning's experience in which he says: "The
+brigade moved down the road toward Santiago in rear of the First
+Brigade, with instructions to deploy to the right after crossing the
+San Juan, and continue to extend to the right, reaching out toward
+General Lawton's left and holding ourselves in rear of the First
+Brigade as a support. On reaching the stream the First Volunteer
+Cavalry, which was in the lead, crossed the stream with comparatively
+slight loss and deployed to the right in good order, but at this time
+a captive balloon was led down the road in which the troops were
+massed, and finally anchored at the crossing of the stream. The
+approach and anchoring of this balloon served to indicate the line of
+approach of the troops and to locate the ford, and the result was a
+terrific converging of artillery and rifle fire on the ford, which
+resulted in severe loss of men. Under this fire the First United
+States Cavalry and the Ten
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page195" id="page195"></a>[pg 195]</span>
+th United States Cavalry crossed the stream
+and deployed to the right where they were placed in position in rear
+of the First Brigade. Two regiments of the Second Brigade, to wit.,
+the First and the Tenth Regular Cavalry, were located in the rear of
+the First Brigade. The First Regular Cavalry had begun its day's work
+as support of Grimes' battery, but had later come forward and taken
+its place in the brigade time enough to join in the action that
+followed.</p>
+
+<p>"After completing the deployment," says Sumner, "the command was so
+much committed to battle that it became necessary either to advance or
+else retreat under fire." The troops were already in battle, but were
+not fighting, and could not do so in their present position, simply
+because they could not see the enemy. "Lieutenant Miley, representing
+General Shafter, authorized an advance, which was ordered, Carroll's
+brigade taking the advance, reinforced on the right by Roosevelt's
+regiment, and supported by the First and Tenth Cavalry." (Sumner.)
+Colonel Wood says: "After remaining in this position for about an hour
+(meaning the position held by his brigade previous to the coming of
+the order to advance) the order to advance was given, and the brigade
+advanced in good order as possible, but more or less broken up by the
+masses of brush and heavy grass and cactus; passing through the line
+of the First Brigade, mingling with them and charging the hill in
+conjunction with these troops, as well as some few infantry who had
+extended to the right." It must be remembered that the First Brigade
+consisted wholly of regulars, the Third, Sixth and Ninth Cavalry,
+while the Second Brigade had that remarkable regiment, the Rough
+Riders. This fact may account for their breaking through the lines of
+the First Brigade. Major Wes
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page196" id="page196"></a>[pg 196]</span>
+sells, who commanded the Third Cavalry in
+that fight, and was himself wounded at the close of the first charge,
+says his regiment became entangled with other regiments, but,
+nevertheless, was to the crest as soon as any. Of the advance of the
+whole division, General Sumner says: "The advance was made under heavy
+infantry fire, through open flat ground, cut up by wire fences, to the
+creek, distant about 600 yards. The advance was made in good order,
+the enemy's fire being returned only under favorable opportunities. In
+crossing the flat one officer and several men were killed and several
+officers and men wounded. Both sides of the creek were heavily wooded
+for about 200 yards. The creek was swollen, and the crossing through
+this space and the creek was made with great difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>"After passing through the thick woods the ground was entirely open
+and fenced by wire. From this line it was necessary to storm the hill,
+upon the top of which is a house, loop-holed for defense. The slope of
+the hill is very difficult, but the assault was made with great
+gallantry and with much loss to the enemy. In this assault Colonel
+Hamilton, Lieutenants Smith and Shipp were killed; Colonel Carroll,
+Lieutenants Thayer and Myer were wounded. A number of casualties
+occurred among the enlisted men." The heights were carried by the
+whole division.</p>
+
+<p>Lieutenant-Colonel Baldwin's account of the part his regiment took in
+the assault upon San Juan is told about as follows: After the search
+for Lawton had been given up, the First and Tenth Cavalry were formed
+for attack on East Hill. "I was directed," he says, "to take a
+position to the right, behind the river bank, for protection. While
+moving to this position, and while there, the regiment suffered
+considera
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page197" id="page197"></a>[pg 197]</span>
+ble loss. After an interval of twenty or thirty minutes I was
+directed to form line of battle in a partially open field facing
+toward the blockhouses and strong intrenchments to the north occupied
+by the enemy. Much difficulty was found on account of the dense
+undergrowth, crossed in several directions by wire fences. As a part
+of the cavalry division under General Sumner, the regiment was formed
+in two lines, the First Squadron under Major S.T. Norvell, consisting
+of Troops A, B, E and I, leading; the second line, under Major T.J.
+Wint, consisting of Troops C, F and G. Troop D having crossed farther
+down the river, attached itself to a command of infantry and moved
+with that command on the second blockhouse. The regiment advanced in
+this formation in a heavy converging fire from the enemy's position,
+proceeding but a short distance when the two lines were united into
+one. The advance was rapidly continued in an irregular line toward the
+blockhouses and intrenchments to the right front. During this advance
+the line passed some troops of the First Cavalry, which I think had
+previously been formed on our right. Several losses occurred before
+reaching the top of the hill, First Lieutenant William H. Smith being
+killed as he arrived on its crest. The enemy having retreated toward
+the northwest to the second and third blockhouses, new lines were
+formed and a rapid advance was made upon these new positions. The
+regiment assisted in capturing these works from the enemy, and with
+the exception of Troops C and I, which in the meantime had joined the
+First Volunteer Cavalry, then took up a position to the north of the
+second blockhouse, remaining there all night."</p>
+
+<p>Major Norvell, who commanded the First Squadron of the Tenth
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'Cavelry'">Cavalry,</ins>
+which consisted of Troops A, B,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page198" id="page198"></a>[pg 198]</span>
+ E and I, gives the following account
+of the experiences of July 1st:</p>
+
+<p>"The regiment took position in a wood, and here suffered considerable
+loss, due to the fact that the whole of the enemy's fire appeared to
+be directed to this point. In a short time we moved out of the wood by
+the right flank and then deployed to the left, being then directly in
+front of the enemy and one mile distant from his works, marked by
+three houses about half a mile from one another. The enemy was
+strongly entrenched in front of these houses. The line, consisting of
+the cavalry division, under direction of Brigadier-General Sumner,
+moved forward in double time, under a terrific fire of the enemy. We
+had a very heavy jungle to march through, beside the river (San Juan)
+to cross, and during our progress many men were killed and wounded.
+The troops became separated from one another, though the general line
+was pretty well preserved. The works of the enemy were carried in
+succession by the troops; and the Spaniards were steadily driven back
+toward the town to their last ditches. We now found ourselves about
+half a mile from the city, but the troops being by this time nearly
+exhausted, here intrenched themselves for the night under a heavy
+fire. By dark this line was occupied by all the troops engaged during
+the day."</p>
+
+<p>The official reports of the troop commanders of the Tenth Cavalry
+bring out a few more particulars which serve to give us a more vivid
+conception of this moving line. The entire cavalry division advanced
+together, and notwithstanding the roughness of the ground, Major
+Norvell assures us the line was pretty well preserved. Troops A, B, E
+and I were in the First Squadron, which was in the lead; Troops C, F
+and G were in the second line; Troop D made its advance with the
+infantry off to the left. We have now a fair k
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page199" id="page199"></a>[pg 199]</span>
+nowledge of the general
+movement of the whole regiment. Let us follow the fortunes of some of
+the Troops, and by that means get nearer to the work done by the
+individual soldier.</p>
+
+<p>Troop A was on the right of the leading squadron as the regiment took
+its place in line on the left of the First Cavalry and moved against
+the Spanish blockhouses in the face of a heavy fire, making a rush
+forward without intermission. A portion of the right platoon, under
+Lieutenant Livermore, became separated in one of the thickets, and
+under instructions received personally from the brigade commander, who
+seems to have been everywhere where he was needed, continued up the
+slope toward his right and toward the first blockhouse. The remainder
+of the troop, commanded by Captain Beck and Lieutenant McCoy, moved in
+the same direction at first, but observing that on account of the
+shorter distance to the slope from that end of the line, a large
+number of troops were arriving there, Captain Beck swung his troop to
+the left and reached the summit of the hill between the second and
+third blockhouses, and on arriving received a message by an aid of the
+brigade commander to hold the ridge. Just then Lieut. Livermore
+arrived, having come by way of Blockhouse No. 1. The troop now being
+together, held the crest for an hour. At times the fire of the enemy
+was so severe and Captain Beck's force so small that there was great
+danger that he would be compelled to abandon the position, but
+fortunately at the most critical juncture Lieutenant Lyon of the
+Twenty-fourth Infantry came up with a few reinforcements, and
+Lieutenant Hughes of the Tenth Cavalry with a Hotchkiss gun.
+Lieutenant Lyon formed his troops to the left of the gun, Troop A of
+the Tenth Cavalry being on the right. With this force the position was
+held until other troops arrived. S
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page200" id="page200"></a>[pg 200]</span>
+oon after, the squadron was reformed
+and the men entrenched themselves under fire. Troop B was next to
+Troop A and advanced as skirmishers by rushes and double time, but
+soon found its front blocked by other troops. Troop I advanced in two
+sections, the left being commanded by Lieutenant Miller, joined in the
+attack on the right of the enemy's position; the right commanded by
+Lieutenant Fleming, advanced on trenches between two blockhouses, and
+in so doing caught up with the rest of the troop. The first half of
+the troop, after attacking the blockhouse on right of the enemy's
+position then crossed the valley and attacked the blockhouse on the
+left of enemy's position, and then moved forward with the First
+Regular Cavalry and First Volunteer Cavalry, until the troop assembled
+as a whole. When it reached the place of intrenchment there were
+altogether about one hundred men at that point of the ridge,
+consisting of men from the Tenth Cavalry and of the Rough Riders. It
+is claimed by Lieutenant Anderson, who commanded Troop C, and who made
+his way to the front on the right of the line, that after coming up on
+the second hill and joining his troop to the left of Troop I, Colonel
+Roosevelt and part of his regiment joined on the right of the Tenth,
+and that he reported to him, placing C Troop in his command. Before
+this time Lieutenant Anderson had reported to Captain Jones, of Troop
+F, while they were on Kettle Hill, and the Two troops, F and C, had
+been formed in skirmish line and moved against the second blockhouse.
+In this movement Troop C got separated from Captain Jones, and
+Anderson, with 18 men of his own troop and several from other
+organizations, moved forward until he connected with Troop I, as
+previously narrated. These troops, C and I, were reported by their
+Colonel as having joined the Fir
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page201" id="page201"></a>[pg 201]</span>
+st Volunteer Cavalry. All of the troop
+commanders who were immediately with the men bear hearty testimony to
+their good conduct. Captain Jones, commanding Troop F, says: "I could
+only do justice to the troop by mentioning by name all who were
+engaged, not only for their bravery, but for their splendid discipline
+under the most demoralizing fire." Lieutenant Fleming, commanding
+Troop I, says: "The entire troop behaved with great gallantry. Private
+Elsie Jones particularly distinguished himself." Captain Beck,
+commanding Troop A, says: "The behaviour of the enlisted men was
+magnificent, paying studious attention to orders while on the firing
+line, and generally exhibiting an intrepidity which marks the
+first-class soldier." Lieutenant Hughes, who commanded the Hotchkiss
+gun detachment, mentions four men for conspicuous bravery and commends
+his entire detachment for "spirit, enterprise and good behavior."</p>
+
+<p>The official story is that the entire cavalry division advanced under
+orders from General Sumner and that the heft of its first blow fell
+upon Kettle Hill, which was soon captured, and on the crest of this
+hill the troops which had ascended it made a temporary halt, reformed
+their lines somewhat and immediately advanced upon the second hill to
+the help of that part of the cavalry division which had swung to the
+left in the advance, and also to the help of the infantry who were
+coming against Fort San Juan at the same time. Meanwhile there was
+left upon Kettle Hill a sufficient garrison or force to prevent its
+being recaptured by the enemy. In the assault on Kettle Hill the
+brigade commander, Colonel Carroll, had been wounded, and
+Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton of the Ninth Cavalry killed. Many troop
+officers also had been either killed or wounded and also in the rush
+forward through
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page202" id="page202"></a>[pg 202]</span>
+ the jungle and high grass some troops had been
+separated from their officers, and yet it is remarkable that all were
+ready to move forward to the next assault.</p>
+
+<p>The words of praise to the whole cavalry division contained in the
+following order, published at Camp Wikoff immediately after the
+arrival there of the troops, are claimed by both black and white
+cavalrymen alike:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">
+Headquarters, Cavalry Division,<br />
+Camp Wikoff, L.I., September 7th, 1898.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>To the Officers and Soldiers of the Cavalry Division, Army
+of Santiago.</p>
+
+<p>The duties for which the troops comprising the Cavalry
+Division were brought together have been accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>On June 14th we sailed from Tampa, Fla., to encounter in the
+sickly season the diseases of the tropical island of Cuba,
+and to face and attack the historic legions of Spain in
+positions chosen by them and which for years they had been
+strengthening by every contrivance and art known to the
+skillful military engineers of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>On the 23d, one squadron each of the 1st and 10th Regular
+Cavalry and two squadrons of the 1st Volunteer Cavalry, in
+all 964 officers and men, landed on Cuban soil. These troops
+marched on foot fourteen miles, and, early on the morning of
+the 24th, attacked and defeated double their number of
+regular Spanish soldiers under the command of
+Lieutenant-General Linares. Eagerly and cheerfully you
+pushed onward, and on July 1st forded San Juan River and
+gallantly swept over San Juan Hill, driving the enemy from
+its crest. Without a moment's halt you formed, aligning the
+division upon the 1st Infantry Division under General Kent,
+and, together with these troops, you bravely charged and
+carried the formidable intrenchments of Fort San Juan. The
+entire force which fought and won this great victory was
+less than seven thousand men.</p>
+
+<p>The astonished enemy, though still protected by the strong
+works to which he had made his retreat, was so stunned by
+your determined valor that his only thought was to devise
+the quickest means of saving himself from further battle.
+The great Spanish fleet hastily sought escape from the
+harbor and was destroyed by our matchless navy.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page203" id="page203"></a>[pg 203]</span>
+After seizing the fortifications of San Juan Ridge, you, in
+the darkness of night, strongly intrenched the position
+your valor had won. Reinforced by Bates' Brigade on your
+left and Lawton's Division on your right, you continued the
+combat until the Spanish army of Santiago Province succumbed
+to the superb prowess and courage of American arms. Peace
+promptly followed, and you return to receive the plaudits of
+seventy millions of people.</p>
+
+<p>The valor displayed by you was not without sacrifice.
+Eighteen per cent., or nearly one in five, of the Cavalry
+Division fell on the field either killed or wounded. We
+mourn the loss of these heroic dead, and a grateful country
+will always revere their memory.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever may be my fate, wherever my steps may lead, my
+heart will always burn with increasing admiration for your
+courage in action, your fortitude under privation and your
+constant devotion to duty in its highest sense, whether in
+battle, in bivouac or upon the march.</p>
+
+<p class="author-up">
+JOSEPH WHEELER,<br />
+Major-General U.S.V., Commanding.<br />
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Aside from that part of the Tenth Cavalry who fought under General
+Wheeler and who are consequently included among those congratulated by
+the General Order just quoted, Troop M of that regiment, under command
+of Lieutenant C.P. Johnson, performed an important part in the war.
+The troop consisted of 50 men and left Port Tampa June 21 on board the
+steamship Florida, the steamship Fanita also making a part of the
+expedition. The troop was mounted and was accompanied by a pack train
+of 65 animals. Both ships were heavily loaded with clothing,
+ammunition and provision, and had on board besides Lieutenant
+Johnson's command, General Nunez and staff and 375 armed Cubans. The
+expedition sailed around the west end of the island and attempted a
+landing at a point chosen by General Nunez on June 29, but failed
+owing to the fact that the place chosen was well guarded by Spaniards,
+who fired upon the landing party.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page204" id="page204"></a>[pg 204]</span>
+ The expedition had with it a small
+gunboat, the Peoria, commanded by Captain Ryan, and on the afternoon
+of June 30th an attack was made upon a blockhouse on the shore by the
+gunboat, and a small force of Cuban and American volunteers landed,
+but were repulsed with the loss of one killed, General Nunez's
+brother, and seven wounded. Two days later Lieutenant Johnson was able
+to land and immediately made connection with General Gomez, unloading
+his stores for the Cuban Army.</p>
+
+<p>Lieutenant G.P. Ahearn, of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, who went on this
+expedition as a volunteer, rendered important service on the night
+after the attack on the blockhouse at Tayabacoa. As the attacking
+party met with repulse and escaped to the ship in the darkness,
+several of their wounded were left on shore. Several boats sent out to
+recover them had returned without the men, their crews fearing to go
+on shore after them. Lieutenant Ahearn volunteered to attempt the
+rescue of the men, and taking a water-logged boat, approached the
+shore noiselessly and succeeded in his undertaking. The crew
+accompanying Lieutenant Ahearn was made up of men from Troop M, Tenth
+Cavalry, and behaved so well that the four were given Medals of Honor
+for their marked gallantry. The action of Lieutenant Ahearn in this
+case was in keeping with his whole military career. He has ever
+manifested a fondness for exceptional service, and has never failed
+when opportunity occurred to display a noble gallantry on the side of
+humanity. Nothing appeals to him so commandingly as an individual
+needing rescue, and in such a cause he immediately rises to the hero's
+plane. The noble colored soldiers who won medals on that occasion were
+all privates and became heroes for humanity's sake. Their names
+dese
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page205" id="page205"></a>[pg 205]</span>
+rve a place in this history outside the mere official table. They
+were Dennis Bell, George H. Wanton, Fitz Lee and William H. Tompkins,
+and were the only colored soldiers who, at the time of this writing,
+have won Medals of Honor in the Spanish War. Others, however, may yet
+be given, as doubtless others are deserved. The heroic service
+performed by whole regiments, as in the case of the Twenty-fourth
+Infantry, should entitle every man in it to a medal of some form as a
+souvenir for his posterity.</p>
+
+<p>Losses of the Ninth Cavalry in the battles of San Juan:</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Officers</span>&mdash;Killed, Lieutenant-Colonel John M. Hamilton.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Men</span>&mdash;Killed, Trumpeter Lewis Fort, Private James Johnson.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Officers</span>&mdash;Wounded, Adjutant Winthrop S. Wood, Captain Charles
+W. Taylor.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Men</span>&mdash;Wounded. First Sergeant Charles W. Jefferson, Sergeant
+Adam Moore, Sergeant Henry F. Wall, Sergeant Thomas B. Craig, Corporal
+James W. Ervine, Corporal Horace T. Henry, Corporal John Mason,
+Burwell Bullock, Elijah Crippen, Edward Davis, Hoyle Ervin, James
+Gandy, Edward D. Nelson, Noah Prince, Thomas Sinclair, James R. Spear,
+Jr., Jacob Tull, William H. Turner, George Warren, Alfred Wilson.</p>
+
+<p>Losses of the Tenth Cavalry during the battle of San Juan:</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Officers</span>&mdash;Killed, First Lieutenant W.E. Shipp, First
+Lieutenant W.H. Smith.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Men</span>&mdash;Killed, John H. Smoot, Corporal W.F. Johnson, John H.
+Dodson, George Stroal, William H. Slaughter.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Officers</span>&mdash;Wounded, Major T.J. Wint Captain John Bigelow, Jr.,
+Adjutant and First Lieutenant M.H. Barnum, First Lieutenant R.L.
+Livermore, First Lieuten
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page206" id="page206"></a>[pg 206]</span>
+ant E.D. Anderson, Second Lieutenant F.R.
+McCoy, Second Lieutenant H.C. Whitehead, Second Lieutenant T.A.
+Roberts, Second Lieutenant H.O. Willard.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Men</span>&mdash;Wounded, First Sergeant A. Houston, First Sergeant
+Robert Milbrown, Q.M. Sergeant William Payne, Sergeant Smith Johnson,
+Sergeant Ed. Lane, Sergeant Walker Johnson, Sergeant George Dyers,
+Sergeant Willis Hatcher, Sergeant John L. Taylor, Sergeant Amos
+Elliston, Sergeant Frank Rankin, Sergeant E.S. Washington, Sergeant
+U.G. Gunter, Corporal J.G. Mitchell, Corporal Allen Jones, Corporal
+Marcellus Wright, Privates Lewis L. Anderson, John Arnold, Charles
+Arthur, John Brown, Frank D. Bennett, Wade Bledsoe, Hillary Brown,
+Thornton Burkley, John Brooks, W.H. Brown, Wm. A. Cooper, John Chinn,
+J.H. Campbell, Henry Fearn, Benjamin Franklin, Gilmore Givens, B.F.
+Gaskins, William Gregory, Luther D. Gould, Wiley, Hipsher, Thomas
+Hardy, Charles Hopkins, Richard James, Wesley Jones, Robert E. Lee,
+Sprague Lewis, Henry McCormack, Samuel T. Minor, Lewis Marshall,
+William Matthews, Houston Riddill, Charles Robinson, Frank Ridgeley,
+Fred. Shackley, Harry D. Sturgis, Peter Saunderson, John T. Taylor,
+William Tyler, Isom Taylor, John Watson, Benjamin West, Joseph
+Williams, Allen E. White, Nathan Wyatt.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<blockquote><p>Note.&mdash;"While we talked, and the soldiers filled their
+canteens and drank deep and long, like camels who, after
+days of travel through the land of 'thirst and emptiness,'
+have reached the green oasis and the desert spring, a black
+corporal of the 24th Infantry walked wearily up to the
+'water hole.' He was muddy and bedraggled. He carried no cup
+or canteen, and stretched himself out over the
+stepping-stones in the stream, sipping up the water and the
+mud together out of the shallow pool. A white cavalryman ran
+toward him shouting, 'Hold on, bunkie; here's my cup!' The
+negro looked dazed a moment
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page207" id="page207"></a>[pg 207]</span>
+, and not a few of the spectators
+showed amazement, for such a thing had rarely if ever
+happened in the army before. 'Thank you,' said the black
+corporal. 'Well, we are all fighting under the same flag
+now.' And so he drank out of the white man's cup. I was glad
+to see that I was not the only man who had come to recognize
+the justice of certain Constitutional amendments, in the
+light of the gallant behaviour of the colored troops
+throughout the battle, and, indeed, the campaign. The
+fortune of war had, of course, something to do with it in
+presenting to the colored troops the
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'oportunities'">opportunities</ins>
+for distinguished service, of which they invariably availed
+themselves to the fullest extent; but the confidence of the
+general officers in their superb gallantry, which the event
+proved to be not misplaced, added still more, and it is a
+fact that the services of no four white regiments can be
+compared with those rendered by the four colored
+regiments&mdash;the 9th and <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: The original text reads '1toh'">10th</ins> Cavalry, and the 24th and 25th
+Infantry. They were to the front at La Guasima, at Caney,
+and at San Juan, and what was the severest test of all, that
+came later, in the yellow-fever hospitals."&mdash;Bonsal.</p></blockquote>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Official Report of General Sumner.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/image06.png" alt="Chapter End Graphic" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page208" id="page208"></a>[pg 208]</span>
+</p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>SAN JUAN (Continued).</h3>
+
+<p class="hang center">Kent's Division: The Twenty-fourth Infantry; Forming Under
+Fire&mdash;A Gallant Charge.</p>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+  Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>Turning now to the centre and left of the American line we follow the
+advance of that division of infantry commanded by General Kent, and
+which met the brunt of Spanish resistance at San Juan. This division,
+known as the First Division, Fifth Army Corps, consisted of three
+brigades, composed as follows:</p>
+
+<p>First Brigade, Brigadier-General Hawkins commanding, made up of the
+Sixth Infantry, the Sixteenth Infantry, and the Seventy-first New York
+Volunteers.</p>
+
+<p>The Second Brigade, Colonel Pearson commanding, made up of the Second
+Infantry, the Tenth Infantry and the Twenty-first Infantry.</p>
+
+<p>The Third Brigade, commanded by Colonel Wikoff, in which were the
+Ninth Infantry, the Thirteenth Infantry and the Twenty-fourth
+Infantry; in all 262 officers and 5,095 men. Thus, in the whole
+division there were eight regiments of regular infantry and one
+volunteer regiment, the Seventy-first New York.</p>
+
+<p>Although our present purpose is to bring into view the special work of
+the Twenty-fourth Infantry, it will be necessary to embrace in our
+scope the work of the entire division, in order to lay before the
+reader the field upon whic
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page209" id="page209"></a>[pg 209]</span>
+h that particular regiment won such lasting
+credit. General Kent, who commanded the division, a most accomplished
+soldier, gives a lucid account of the whole assault as seen from his
+position, and of the work performed by his division, in his report,
+dated July 8, 1898.</p>
+
+<p>When General Kent's division arrived in the neighborhood of the San
+Juan ford and found itself under fire and the trail so blocked by
+troops of the cavalry division, which had not yet deployed to the
+right, that direct progress toward the front was next to impossible,
+the welcome information was given by the balloon managers that a trail
+branched off to the left from the main trail, only a short distance
+back from the ford. This trail led to a ford some distance lower down
+the stream and nearly facing the works on the enemy's right. General
+Kent on learning of this outlet immediately hastened back to the forks
+and meeting the Seventy-first New York Regiment, the rear regiment of
+the First Brigade, he directed that regiment into this trail toward
+the ford. The regiment was to lead the way through this new trail and
+would consequently arrive at the front first on the left; but meeting
+the fire of the enemy, the First Battalion of the regiment apparently
+became panic stricken and recoiled upon the rest of the regiment; the
+regiment then lay down on the sides of the trail and in the bushes,
+thoroughly demoralized.</p>
+
+<p>Wikoff's brigade was now coming up and it was directed upon the same
+trail. This brigade consisted of the Ninth, Thirteenth and
+Twenty-fourth. Colonel Wikoff was directed by General Kent to move his
+brigade across the creek by the trail (the left fork) and when
+reaching the opposite side, of the creek to put the brigade in line on
+the left of the trail and begin the attack at once. In executing this
+ord
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page210" id="page210"></a>[pg 210]</span>
+er the entire brigade stumbled through and over hundreds of men of
+the Seventy-first New York Regiment. When a volunteer regiment broke
+through the lines of the Ninth Cavalry from the rear, that regiment
+was in its place on the field in line of battle, with its morale
+perfect. It was under discipline and delivering its fire with
+regularity. It had an absolute right to its place. The Seventy-first
+was in no such attitude, and General Kent directed the advance through
+it in these words: "Tell the brigade to pay no attention to this sort
+of thing; it is highly irregular." The Ninth Cavalry's position was
+exactly <i>regular</i>; the position of the Seventh-first was to the eyes
+of General Kent "highly irregular."</p>
+
+<p>The three regiments of this brigade were to take their positions on
+the left of the ford after crossing the stream, in the following
+order: On the extreme left the Twenty-fourth, next to it in the centre
+of the brigade, the Ninth, and on the right of the brigade the
+Thirteenth. In approaching the ford the Ninth and Twenty-fourth became
+mixed and crossed in the following order: First one battalion of the
+Ninth; then a battalion of the Twenty-fourth; then the second
+battalion of the Ninth, followed by the second battalion of the
+Twenty-fourth. The line was formed under fire, and while
+superintending its formation the brigade commander, Colonel Wikoff,
+came under observation and was killed; Lieutenant-Colonel Worth, who
+succeeded him, was seriously wounded within five minutes after having
+taking command, and Lieutenant-Colonel Liscum, who next assumed charge
+of the brigade, had hardly learned that he was in command before he,
+too, was disabled by a Spanish shot By this time, however, the
+formation was about complete and the brigade ready to begin the
+advance.</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page211" id="page211"></a>[pg 211]</span>
+</p>
+<p>Leaving Wikoff's brigade in line ready to begin the advance we must
+now return in our narrative to the main ford, where the major portions
+of Hawkins' and Pearson's brigades are massed and follow the various
+regiments as they come to their places in the battle line preparing
+for the onslaught. After crossing the ford with the Sixth Infantry,
+pursuant to the orders given by Lieutenant Miley in the name of
+General Shafter, General Hawkins attempted to flank the enemy by a
+movement to the left, the Sixth Infantry leading and the Sixteenth
+intending to pass beyond it in its rear and join to its left. The
+Sixth in passing to its intended position passed to the left of the
+Sixth Cavalry, which held the left of the line of the cavalry
+division, which had crossed the ford and deployed to the right,
+reaching beyond the Spanish lines in that direction, or at least it
+was able to reach the extreme right of the enemy. The Sixth Infantry
+continued this line southward and it was to be farther extended by the
+Sixteenth. Before this disposition could be effected the fire of the
+enemy became so severe that an advance movement was started and the
+Sixth lined up facing the fort on the hill, with only one company and
+a half of the Sixteenth on its left.</p>
+
+<p>While Hawkins' and Wikoff's brigades were preparing for the advance
+upon the enemy's works, Pearson's brigade was approaching the ford,
+hurrying to the support. The Twenty-first Regiment of this brigade was
+detached from the brigade and sent directly forward on the main trail
+with orders to re-enforce the firing line. This regiment crossed the
+San Juan River to the left of the main ford and rushed forward to
+support Hawkins' left. In the meantime the two other regiments of the
+brigade, the Second and Tenth, which had preceded the Twenty-first in
+their march from El Poso, had been defle
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page212" id="page212"></a>[pg 212]</span>
+cted to the left by order of
+the division commander and were passing to the front over the trail
+previously taken by Wikoff's brigade, crossing the San Juan at the
+lower ford. The Tenth crossed in advance and formed in close order on
+the opposite side of the stream, its line facing northwest. It was
+soon after, however, put in battle formation and moved to the right
+until it connected with the Twenty-first. The Second Regiment crossed
+the ford in the rear of the Tenth, having been delayed considerably by
+the Seventh-first New York Volunteers, who still blocked the way
+between the forks and the lower ford. After crossing the ford the
+Second put itself in line on the left of the Tenth, the whole brigade
+being now in position to support the First and Third Brigades in their
+charge.</p>
+
+<p>This movement of Colonel Pearson's brigade had not been made without
+hardship and loss. All of the regiments came under the enemy's fire
+before reaching the San Juan River and many men were killed or wounded
+while the regiments were gaining their positions. The movement was so
+well executed as to call forth from the division commander the
+following enconium: "I observed this movement from the Fort San Juan
+Hill. Colonel E.P. Pearson, Tenth Infantry, commanding the Second
+Brigade, and the officers and troops under his command deserve great
+credit for the soldierly manner in which this movement was executed."</p>
+
+<p>Although we left Wikoff's brigade standing in line on the left of the
+lower ford, we must not imagine that it remained in that position
+until the above movement on the part of the Second Brigade had been
+accomplished. There was no standing still in the fierce fire to which
+the men of that brigade were at that time subjected&mdash;a fire which had
+already cu
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page213" id="page213"></a>[pg 213]</span>
+t down in rapid succession three brigade commanders. The
+formation was no sooner completed than the rapid advance began. The
+Thirteenth Infantry holding the right of the brigade moved to the
+right and front, while the Ninth and Twenty-fourth moved almost
+directly to the front at first, thus partially gaining the flank of
+the enemy's position. The whole line moved with great rapidity across
+the open field and up the hill, so that when the Second and Tenth
+Infantry came to their position as support, the heroic Third Brigade
+was well up the heights. To the right of the Third Brigade the First
+Brigade, containing the gallant Sixth, under Colonel Egbert, and the
+Sixteenth, was advancing also, and the two brigades arrived at the
+fort almost simultaneously; so that the division commander in speaking
+of the capture says: "Credit is almost equally due the Sixth, Ninth,
+Thirteenth, Sixteenth and Twenty-fourth Regiments of Infantry." To the
+Third Brigade he gives the credit of turning the enemy's right.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now examine more closely that sweep of the Third Brigade from
+the left of the lower ford to San Juan Hill, in order to trace more
+distinctly the pathway of honor made for itself by the Twenty-fourth.
+This regiment formed left front into line under fire and advanced over
+the flat in good order, and then reformed under shelter of the hill
+preparatory to the final charge upon the enemy's intrenchments. The
+experience of the companies in crossing the flat is told by the
+company commanders. One company under the orders of its captain formed
+line of skirmishers and advanced in good order at rapid gait, reaching
+the foot of the hill almost exhausted. This was about the experience
+of all, but this company is mentioned because it was the first company
+of the regiment to reach the top of the hill. In crossing the flat
+ther
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page214" id="page214"></a>[pg 214]</span>
+e was necessarily some mixing of companies and in some instances
+men were separated from their officers, but those who escaped the
+enemy's bullets made their way across that plain of fire and were
+ready to join in the charge up the hill where only brave men could go.</p>
+
+<p>There was but a moment's pause for breath at the foot of the hill and
+the general charge all along the line began, the Sixth Infantry
+probably taking the initiative, although the gallant Colonel Egbert,
+of that regiment (since killed in the Philippines), makes no such
+claim. In his farewell official report of the Sixth he thus describes
+the final act:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"We were now unexpectedly re-enforced. Lieutenant Parker,
+made aware by the heavy fire from the hill that a conflict
+was going on in his front, opened fire with his Gatlings
+most effectively on the intrenchments, while from far down
+on my left I heard cheering and shouts, and saw coming up
+the slope towards us a multitude of skirmishers. As they
+drew nearer we distinguished the tall figure of General
+Hawkins, with his aide, Lieutenant Ord, Sixth Infantry,
+charging at the head of the skirmishers and waving their
+hats. When the charge came up nearly abreast of where the
+Sixth stood in the road I ordered the companies out through
+the gaps in the wire fence to join it, and they complied
+with the same alacrity and enthusiasm that they had
+displayed in entering this bloody field. The Gatlings
+redoubled their fierce grinding of bullets on the Spanish,
+despite which there still came a savage fire from the
+blockhouse and trenches. Here the gallant Captain Wetherell,
+Sixth Infantry, fell, shot through the forehead, at the head
+of his company, and I received a Mauser bullet through the
+left lung, which disabled me. But the blood of the troops
+was now up, and no loss of officers or men coul
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page215" id="page215"></a>[pg 215]</span>
+d stop them.
+They charged up the incline until, coming to a steep ridge
+near the top, they were brought to a stand by the hail of
+bullets from the Gatlings against the summit. As soon as
+this could be stopped by a signal, the mingled troops of the
+Sixth, Sixteenth, Thirteenth and Twenty-fourth swept up and
+over the hill and it was won."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>From testimony gathered on the evening of the fight it was concluded
+that there were more men of the Twenty-fourth Infantry on the ridge in
+this first occupation than of any other regiment, but all of the
+regiments of the division had done admirably and the brave blacks of
+the Twenty-fourth won on that day a standing in arms with the bravest
+of the brave.</p>
+
+<p>The Spaniards although driven from their first line, by no means gave
+up the fight; but retreating to a line of intrenchments about eight
+hundred yards in the rear they opened upon the new-comers a fire
+almost as hot as before, and the troops found it difficult to hold
+what they had gained. The supporting regiments were coming up and
+strengthening the line, the men meanwhile entrenching themselves under
+fire as rapidly as possible. The Thirteenth Infantry was immediately
+ordered off to the right to assist the cavalry division, especially
+the Rough Riders, who were said to be in danger of having their flank
+turned. Here it remained under fire all night.</p>
+
+<p>The advance and charge of the Twenty-fourth made up only a part of the
+advance and charge of the Third Brigade; and this in turn was part of
+the attack and assault made by the whole infantry division; a movement
+also participated in at the same hour by the cavalry division; so that
+regarded as a whole, it was a mighty blow delivered on the enemy's
+right and centre by two-thirds of the American Army, and its effect
+was stunning, although its full weight had not been real
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page216" id="page216"></a>[pg 216]</span>
+ized by the
+foe. The part sustained in the assault by each regiment may be
+estimated by the losses experienced by each in killed and wounded.
+Judged by this standard the brunt fell upon the Sixth, Sixteenth,
+Thirteenth, and Twenty-fourth, all of which regiments lost heavily,
+considering the short time of the action.</p>
+
+<p>The movement by which the Twenty-fourth reached its position on that
+memorable 1st of July has called forth especial mention by the
+regimental commander and by the acting Assistant Adjutant-General of
+the brigade; it was also noted immediately after the battle by all the
+newspaper writers as one of the striking occurrences of the day. The
+regiment on coming under fire marched about one mile by the left
+flank, and then formed left front into line on its leading company,
+Company G, commanded by Captain Brereton. The first man of the
+regiment to take position in the line was the First Sergeant of G
+Company, R.G. Woods. This company when reaching its position formed on
+left into line, under a severe fire in front and a fire in the rear;
+the other companies forming in the same manner, with more or less
+regularity, to its left. As soon as the line was formed the order was
+given to charge. The advance was made across an open meadow, during
+which several officers were wounded, among them the officers of
+Company F, the command of that company devolving upon its First
+Sergeant, William Rainey, who conducted the company successfully to
+the crest of the hill.</p>
+
+<p>The description of the movement of Company D as given by Lieutenant
+Kerwin, who was placed in command of that company after its officers
+had been shot, is a very interesting document. Lieutenant Kerwin
+claims to have made his report from "close inquiries and from personal
+obs
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page217" id="page217"></a>[pg 217]</span>
+ervation." According to this report the company was led across the
+San Juan Creek by its Captain (Ducat), the Second Lieutenant of the
+company (Gurney) following it, and keeping the men well closed up.
+While crossing, the company encountered a terrific fire, and after
+advancing about ten yards beyond the stream went through a wire fence
+to the right, and advanced to an embankment about twenty yards from
+the right bank of the stream. Here Captain Ducat gave the order to
+advance to the attack and the whole company opened out in good order
+in line of skirmishers and moved rapidly across the open plain to the
+foot of San Juan Hill. In making this movement across the plain the
+line was under fire and the brave Lieutenant Gurney was killed, and
+First Sergeant Ellis, Corporal Keys and Privates Robinson and Johnson
+wounded. It was a race with death, but the company arrived at the base
+of the hill in good form, though well-nigh exhausted. After breathing
+a moment the men were ready to follow their intrepid commander,
+Captain Ducat, up the hill, and at twelve o'clock they gained the
+summit, being the first company of the regiment to reach the top of
+the hill. Just as they reached the crest the brave Ducat fell, shot
+through the hip, probably by a Spanish sharpshooter, thus depriving
+the company of its last commissioned officer, and leaving its first
+sergeant also disabled.</p>
+
+<p>The commander of the regiment speaks of its doings in a very modest
+manner, but in a tone to give the reader confidence in what he says.
+He became temporarily separated from the regiment, but made his way to
+the crest of the hill in company with the Adjutant and there found a
+part of his command. He says a creditable number of the men of his
+regiment reached the top of the hill among the first to arrive there.
+The commander of the Second Battalion, Captain Wygant,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page218" id="page218"></a>[pg 218]</span>
+crossed the
+meadow, or flat, some distance ahead of the battalion, but as the men
+subsequently charged up the hill, he was unable to keep up with them,
+so rapid was their gait It was from this battalion that Captain
+Ducat's company broke away and charged on the right of the battalion,
+arriving, as has been said, first on the top of the hill. As the
+regiment arrived Captain Wygant, finding himself the ranking officer
+on the ground, assembled it and assigned each company its place.
+Captain Dodge, who commanded Company C in this assault, and who
+subsequently died in the yellow fever hospital at Siboney, mentions
+the fact that Captain Wygant led the advance in person, and says that
+in the charge across the open field the three companies, C, B and H,
+became so intermixed that it was impossible for the company commanders
+to distinguish their own men from those of the other companies, yet he
+says he had the names of twenty men of his own company who reached the
+trenches at Fort San Juan in that perilous rush on that fiery mid-day.
+The testimony of all the officers of the regiment is to the effect
+that the men behaved splendidly, and eight of them have been given
+Certificates of Merit for gallantry in the action of July 1.</p>
+
+<p>The losses of the regiment in that advance were numerous, the killed,
+wounded and missing amounted to 96, which number was swelled to 104
+during the next two days. So many men falling in so short a time while
+advancing in open order tells how severe was the fire they were facing
+and serves to modify the opinion which was so often expressed about
+the time the war broke out, to the effect that the Spanish soldiers
+were wanting both in skill and bravery. They contradicted this both at
+El Caney and at San Juan. In the latter conflict they held their
+ground until the last moment and inflic
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page219" id="page219"></a>[pg 219]</span>
+ted a loss upon their
+assailants equal to the number engaged in the defence of the heights.
+Since July 1, 1898, expatiation on the cowardice and lack of skill of
+the Spanish soldier has ceased to be a profitable literary occupation.
+Too many journalists and correspondents were permitted to witness the
+work of Spanish sharpshooters, and to see their obstinate resistance
+to the advance of our troops, to allow comments upon the inefficiency
+of the Spanish Army to pass unnoticed. Our army from the beginning was
+well impressed with the character of the foe and nerved itself
+accordingly. The bravery of our own soldiers was fully recognized by
+the men who surrendered to our army and who were capable of
+appreciating it, because they themselves were not wanting in the same
+qualities.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>[Transcriber's Note: This footnote appeared in the text
+without a footnote anchor:</p>
+
+<p>"The intrenchments of San Juan were defended by two
+companies of Spanish infantry, numbering about two hundred
+and fifty to three hundred men. At about 11 o'clock in the
+morning reinforcements were sent to them, bringing the
+number up to about seven hundred and fifty men. There were
+two pieces of mountain artillery on these hills, the rest of
+the artillery fire against our troops on that day being from
+batteries close to the city."&mdash;In Cuba with Shafter (Miley),
+page 117.]</p></blockquote>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/image02.png" alt="Chapter End Graphic" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page220" id="page220"></a>[pg 220]</span>
+</p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SURRENDER, AND AFTERWARDS.</h3>
+
+<p class="hang">In the Trenches&mdash;The Twenty-fourth in the Fever Camp&mdash;Are
+Negro Soldiers Immune?&mdash;Camp Wikoff.</p>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+  Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>After the battle of El Caney the Twenty-fifth Infantry started for the
+mango grove, where the blanket rolls and haversacks had been left in
+the morning, and on its way passed the Second Massachusetts Volunteers
+standing by the roadside. This regiment had seen the charge of the
+Twenty-fifth up the hillside, and they now manifested their
+appreciation of the gallantry of the black regulars in an ovation of
+applause and cheers. This was the foundation for Sergeant Harris'
+reply when on another occasion seeing the manifest kind feelings of
+this regiment to the Twenty-fifth, I remarked: "Those men think you
+are soldiers." "They know we are soldiers," replied the sergeant. The
+regiment bivouacked in the main road leading from El Caney to
+Santiago, but sleep was out of the question. What with the passing of
+packtrains and artillery, and the issuing of rations and ammunition,
+the first half of the night gave no time for rest; and shortly after
+12 o'clock, apprehensions of a Spanish attack put every one on the
+alert. At 3.30 the march to the rear was commenced and the entire
+division passed around by El Poso and advanced to the front by the
+Aguadores road, finally reaching a position on Wheeler's right about
+noon, July 2.</p>
+
+<p>Subsequently the line of investment was extended to th
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page221" id="page221"></a>[pg 221]</span>
+e right, the
+Cuban forces under General Garcia holding the extreme right
+connecting with the water front on that side of the city. Next to them
+came Ludlow's McKibben's and Chaffee's forces. In McKibben's brigade
+was the Twenty-fifth, which dug its last trench on Cuban soil on July
+14th, on the railroad running out from Santiago to the northwest. This
+intrenchment was the nearest to the city made by any American
+organization, and in this the regiment remained until the surrender.</p>
+
+<p>The Twenty-fourth remained entrenched over to the left, in General
+Kent's division, lying to the right of the 21st. This regiment (24th)
+had won great credit in its advance upon the enemy, but it was to win
+still greater in the field of humanity. Capt. Leavel, who commanded
+Company A, said: "It would be hard to particularize in reporting upon
+the men of the company. All&mdash;non-commissioned officers, privates, even
+newly joined recruits&mdash;showed a desire to do their duty, yea, more
+than their duty, which would have done credit to seasoned veterans.
+Too much cannot be said of their courage, willingness and endurance."
+Captain Wygant, who commanded the Second Battalion of the regiment,
+says: "The gallantry and bearing shown by the officers and soldiers of
+the regiment under this trying ordeal was such that it has every
+reason to be proud of its record. The losses of the regiment, which
+are shown by the official records, show the fire they were subjected
+to. The casualties were greater among the officers than the men, which
+is accounted for by the fact that the enemy had posted in the trees
+sharpshooters, whose principal business was to pick them off." There
+is no countenance given in official literature to the absurd notion
+maintained by some, that it was necessary for the officers of black
+troops to expose themselves
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page222" id="page222"></a>[pg 222]</span>
+unusually in order to lead their troops,
+and that this fact accounts for excessive losses among them. The fact
+is that the regular officer's code is such that he is compelled to
+occupy the place in battle assigned him in the tactics, and no matter
+how great his cowardice of heart may be, he must go forward until
+ordered to halt. The penalty of cowardice is something to be dreaded
+above wounds or even death by some natures. "Colored troops are brave
+men when led by white officers."(?) As a matter of fact there is very
+little leading of any sort by officers in battle. The officer's place
+is in the rear of the firing line, directing, not leading, and it is
+his right and duty to save his own life if possible, and that of every
+man in his command, even while seeking to destroy the enemy, in
+obedience to orders. The record of the Twenty-fourth for bravery was
+established beyond question when it swept across that open flat and up
+San Juan Hill on that hot mid-day of July 1st, 1898.</p>
+
+<p>After lying in the trenches until July 15th, the news reached the camp
+of the Twenty-fourth that yellow fever had broken out in the army, and
+that a large hospital and pest-house had been established at Siboney.
+About 4 o'clock that day an order came to the commanding officer of
+the regiment directing him to proceed with his regiment to Siboney and
+report to the medical officer there. The regiment started on its march
+at 5.30, numbering at that time 8 companies, containing 15 officers
+and 456 men. Marching on in the night, going through thickets and
+across streams, the men were heard singing a fine old hymn:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">When through the deep waters I call thee to go,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The rivers of woe shall not thee o'erflow;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And sanctify to thee they deepest distress.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page223" id="page223"></a>[pg 223]</span></p>
+
+<p>In view of what was before them, the words were very appropriate. They
+arrived on the hill at Siboney at 3.30 on the morning of July 16th.</p>
+
+<p>Without discussing the graphic story told by correspondents of the
+highest respectability describing the regiment as volunteering, to a
+man, to nurse the sick and dying at Siboney, we will rather follow the
+official records of their doings in that fever-stricken place. On
+arriving at Siboney on the morning of July 16, Sunday, Major Markely,
+then in command of the regiment, met Colonel Greenleaf of the Medical
+Department, and informed him that the Twenty-fourth Infantry was on
+the ground. Colonel Greenleaf was just leaving the post, but Major La
+Garde, his successor, manifested his great pleasure in seeing this
+form of assistance arrive. Such a scene of misery presented itself to
+Major Markely's eyes that he, soldier as he was, was greatly affected,
+and assured Major La Garde that he was prepared personally to sink
+every other consideration and devote himself to giving what assistance
+he could in caring for the sick, and that he believed his whole
+regiment would feel as he did when they came to see the situation. In
+this he was not mistaken. The officers and men of the Twenty-fourth
+Infantry did give themselves up to the care of the sick and dying,
+furnishing all help in their power until their own health and strength
+gave way, in some instances laying down even their lives in this noble
+work.</p>
+
+<p>On the day of arrival seventy men were called for to nurse yellow
+fever patients and do other work about the hospital. More than this
+number immediately volunteered to enter upon a service which they
+could well believe meant death to some of them. The camp was so
+crowded and filthy that the wo
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page224" id="page224"></a>[pg 224]</span>
+rk of cleaning it was begun at once by
+the men of the Twenty-fourth, and day by day they labored as their
+strength would permit, in policing the camp, cooking the food for
+themselves and for the hospital, unloading supplies, taking down and
+removing tents, and numberless other details of necessary labor.
+Despite all the care that could be taken under such conditions as were
+found at Siboney, the yellow fever soon overran the entire camp, and
+of the 16 officers of the regiment, 1 had died, 2 more were expected
+to die; 3 were dangerously ill, and 5 more or less so. Out of the
+whole sixteen there were but three really fit for duty, and often out
+of the whole regiment it would be impossible to get 12 men who could
+go on fatigue duty. Out of the 456 men who marched to Siboney only 24
+escaped sickness, and on one day 241 were down. Those who would
+recover remained weak and unfit for labor. Silently, without
+murmuring, did these noble heroes, officers and men, stand at their
+post ministering to the necessities of their fellowman until the
+welcome news came that the regiment would be sent north and the
+hospital closed as soon as possible. On August 8 Major La Garde, more
+entitled to the honor of being classed among the heroes of Santiago
+than some whose opportunities of brilliant display were vastly
+superior, succumbed to the disease. The fact should be borne in mind
+that all of these men, officers, soldiers and surgeons, went upon this
+pest-house duty after the severe labors of assault of July 1-2, and
+the two weeks of terrible strain and exposure in the trenches before
+Santiago, and with the sick and wounded consequent upon these battles
+and labors&mdash;none were strong.</p>
+
+<p>On July 16th, the day after the Twenty-fourth left the trenches, the
+surrender was made and on the next morning the final ceremonies of
+turning over Santiago to the Ameri
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page225" id="page225"></a>[pg 225]</span>
+can forces took place, and the
+soldiers were allowed to come out of their ditches and enter into
+more comfortable camps. The hardships of the period after the
+surrender were not much less than those experienced while in the
+lines.</p>
+
+<p>On the 26th of August the Twenty-fourth Infantry, having obtained an
+honorable release from its perilous duty, marched out of Siboney with
+band playing and colors flying to go on board the transport for
+Montauk; but of the 456 men who marched into Siboney, only 198 were
+able to march out, directed by 9 out of the 15 officers that marched
+in with them. Altogether there were 11 officers and 289 men who went
+on board the transport, but all except the number first given were
+unable to take their places in the ranks. They went on board the
+steamer Nueces, and coming from an infected camp, no doubt great care
+was taken that the transport should arrive at its destination in a
+good condition. Although there was sickness on board, there were no
+deaths on the passage, and the Nueces arrived in port "one of the
+cleanest ships that came to that place." The official report states
+that the Nueces arrived at Montauk Point September 2, with 385 troops
+on board; 28 sick, no deaths on the voyage, and not infected. Worn out
+by the hard service the regiment remained a short time at Montauk and
+then returned to its former station, Fort Douglass, Utah, leaving its
+camp at Montauk in such a thoroughly creditable condition as to elicit
+official remark.</p>
+
+<p>While the Twenty-fourth Infantry had without doubt the hardest
+service, after the surrender, of any of the colored regiments, the
+others were not slumbering at ease. Lying in the trenches almost
+constantly for two weeks, drenched with rains, scorched by the burning
+sun at times, and chilled by cool nights, subsisting on food not of
+the best and poorly
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page226" id="page226"></a>[pg 226]</span>
+ cooked, cut off from news and kept in suspense,
+when the surrender finally came it found our army generally very
+greatly reduced in vital force. During the period following, from July
+16th to about the same date in August the re-action fell with all its
+weight upon the troops, rendering them an easy prey to the climatic
+influences by which they were surrounded.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> Pernicious malarial
+fever, bowel troubles and yellow fever were appearing in all the
+regiments; and the colored troops appeared as susceptible as their
+white comrades. The theory had been advanced that they were less
+susceptible to malarial fever, and in a certain sense this appears to
+be true; but the experience of our army in Cuba, as well as army
+statistics published before the Cuban War, do not bear out the popular
+view of the theory. The best that can be said from the experience of
+Cuba is to the effect that the blacks may be less liable to yellow
+fever and may more quickly rally from the effects of malarial fever.
+These conclusions are, however, by no means well established. The
+Twenty-fourth suffered excessively from fevers of both kinds, and in
+the judgment of the commanding officer of the regiment "effectually
+showed that colored soldiers were not more immune from Cuban fever
+than white," but we must remember that the service of the
+Twenty-fourth was exceptional. The Twenty-fifth Infantry lost but one
+man during the whole campaign from climatic disease, John A. Lewis,
+and it is believed that could he have received proper medical care his
+life would have been saved. Yet this regiment suffered severely from
+fever as did also the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry.</p>
+
+<p>Arriving at Montauk<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> early the author had the op
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page227" id="page227"></a>[pg 227]</span>
+portunity to see
+the whole of the Fifth Army Corps disembark on its return from Cuba,
+and was so impressed with its forlorn appearance that he then wrote of
+it as coming home on stretchers. Pale, emaciated, weak and halting,
+they came, with 3,252 sick, and reporting 87 deaths on the voyage.
+But, as General Wheeler said in his report, "the great bulk of the
+troops that were at Santiago were by no means well." Never before had
+the people seen an army of stalwart men so suddenly transformed into
+an army of invalids. And yet while all the regiments arriving showed
+the effects of the hardships they had endured, the black regulars,
+excepting the Twenty-fourth Infantry, appeared to have slightly the
+advantage. The arrival of the Tenth Cavalry in "good condition" was an
+early cheering item in the stream of suffering and debility landing
+from the transports. Seeing all of the troops land and remaining at
+Camp Wikoff until its days were nearly numbered, the writer feels sure
+that the colored troops arrived from the front in as good condition as
+the best, and that they recuperated with marked comparative rapidity.</p>
+
+<p>The chaplain of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, while en route to join his
+regiment at Montauk, thinking seriously over the condition of the men
+returning from such a hard experience, concluded that nothing would be
+more grateful to them
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page228" id="page228"></a>[pg 228]</span>
+than a reasonable supply of ripe fruit, fresh
+from the orchards and fields. He therefore sent a dispatch to the
+Daily Evening News, published in Bridgeton, N.J., asking the citizens
+of that community to contribute a carload of melons and fruits for the
+men of the Twenty-fifth, or for the whole camp, if they so wished.
+Subsequently mentioning the fact to the commanding officer of the
+regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Daggett, he heartily commended the idea,
+believing that the fruit would be very beneficial. The good people of
+Bridgeton took hold of the matter heartily, and in a short time
+forwarded to the regiment more than four hundred of Jersey's finest
+watermelons, fresh from the vines. These were distributed judiciously
+and the health of the men began to improve forthwith. Soon five
+hundred more arrived, sent by a patriotic citizen of Philadelphia.
+These were also distributed. Ladies of Brooklyn forwarded peaches and
+vegetables, and supplies of all sorts now were coming in abundance.
+Our men improved so rapidly as to be the occasion of remark by
+correspondents of the press. They were spoken of as being apparently
+in good condition. While engaged in the work of supplying their
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'physicial'">physical</ins>
+wants the chaplain was taken to task by a correspondent of
+Leslie's for being too much concerned in getting a carload of
+watermelons for his regiment, to go over to a graveyard and pray over
+the dead. The next day the chaplain made haste to go over to that
+particular graveyard to relieve the country from the crying shame that
+the correspondent had pointed out, only to find two men already there
+armed with prayer-books and one of them especially so fearful that he
+would not get a chance to read a prayer over a dead soldier, that the
+chaplain found it necessary to assure him that the opportunity to pray
+should not be taken from him
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page229" id="page229"></a>[pg 229]</span>
+; and thus another popular horror was
+found to be without reality.</p>
+
+<p>The colored ladies of Brooklyn organized a Soldiers' Aid Society, and
+besides contributing in a general way, as already mentioned, also made
+and presented to the soldiers about four hundred home-made pies, which
+were most highly appreciated. They also prepared a tasty souvenir
+commemorative of the heroic work performed by the troops in Cuba, and
+expressive of high appreciation of the gallantry of the colored
+regiments. A beautiful stand of colors was also procured for the
+Twenty-fourth Infantry, which were subsequently presented to the
+regiment with appropriate ceremonies.</p>
+
+<p>At the camp were three colored chaplains and one colored surgeon,
+serving with the Regular Army, and their presence was of great value
+in the way of accustoming the people at large to beholding colored men
+as commissioned officers. To none were more attention shown than to
+these colored men, and there was apparently no desire to infringe upon
+their rights. Occasionally a very petty social movement might be made
+by an insignificant, with a view of humiliating a Negro chaplain, but
+such efforts usually died without harm to those aimed at and
+apparently without special comfort to those who engineered them.</p>
+
+<p>The following paragraphs, written while in camp at the time indicated
+in them, may serve a good purpose by their insertion here, showing as
+they do the reflections of the writer as well as in outlining the more
+important facts associated with that remarkable encampment:</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p class="heading">CAMP WIKOFF AND ITS LESSONS.</p>
+
+<p>Now that the days of this camp are drawing to a close it is profitable
+to recall its unique history and gather up
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page230" id="page230"></a>[pg 230]</span>
+some of the lessons it has
+taught us. Despite all the sensationalism, investigations, testings,
+experimentation, and general condemnation, the camp at Montauk
+accomplished what was intended, and was itself a humane and patriotic
+establishment. It is not for me to say whether a better site might not
+have been selected, or whether the camp might not have been better
+managed. I will take it for granted that improvement might have been
+made in both respects, but our concern is rather with what was, than
+with what "might have been."</p>
+
+<p>To appreciate Camp Wikoff we must consider two things specially;
+first, its purpose, and secondly, the short time allowed to prepare
+it; and then go over the whole subject and properly estimate its
+extent and the amount of labor involved.</p>
+
+<p>The intention of the camp was to afford a place where our troops,
+returning from Cuba, prostrated with climatic fever, and probably
+infected with yellow fever, might receive proper medical treatment and
+care, until the diseases were subdued. The site was selected with this
+in view, and the conditions were admirably suited to such a purpose.
+Completely isolated, on dry soil, with dry pure air, cool climate,
+away from mosquitoes, the camp seemed all that was desired for a great
+field hospital.</p>
+
+<p>Here the sick could come and receive the best that nature had to
+bestow in the way of respite from the heat, and pure ocean breezes,
+and, taken altogether, the experiences of August and a good part of
+September, have justified the selection of Montauk. While prostrations
+were occurring elsewhere, the camp was cool and delightful most of the
+time.</p>
+
+<p>As to the preparations, it must be remembered that the recall of the
+whole Army of Invasion from Cuba was made in response to a popular
+demand, and as a measure of humanity. Bring the army home! was the
+call, and, Bring it at once!</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page231" id="page231"></a>[pg 231]</span>
+</p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/image09.png" width="450" height="282" alt="Compliments of the Patriotic Colored Women of Brooklyn, N.Y." title="" />
+<p class="right"><a href="images/image09-lg.png">Enlarge</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Such urgency naturally leaps ahead of minor preparations. The soldiers
+wanted to come; the people wanted them to come; hence the crowding of
+transports and the lack of comforts on the voyages; hence the lack of
+hospital accommodations when the troops began to arrive. Haste almost
+always brings about such things; but sometimes haste is imperative.
+This was the case in getting the army out of Cuba and into Camp at
+Montauk in August, '98. Haste was pushed to that point when omissions
+had to occur, and inconvenience and suffering resulted.</p>
+
+<p>We must also remember the condition of the men who came to Montauk.
+About 4,000 were reported as sick before they left Cuba; but, roughly
+speaking, there were 10,000 sick men landing in Montauk. Those who
+were classed as well were, with rare exceptions, both mentally and
+physically incapable of high effort. It was an invalid army, with
+nearly one-half of its number seriously sick and suffering.</p>
+
+<p>Ten thousand sick soldiers were never on our hands before, and the
+mighty problem was not realized until the transports began to emit
+their streams of weakness and walking death at Montauk. The
+preparation was altogether inadequate for such a mass of misery, and
+for a time all appeared confusion.</p>
+
+<p>Then came severe, cruel, merciless criticisms; deserved in some cases
+no doubt, but certainly not everywhere. The faults, gaps, failures,
+were everywhere to be seen, and it was easy to see and to say what
+ought to have been done. But the situation at Camp Wikoff from August
+15th to Sep. 15th needed more than censure; it needed help. The men
+who were working for the Government in both the medical and commissary
+departments needed assistance; the former in th
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page232" id="page232"></a>[pg 232]</span>
+e way of nurses, and
+the latter in the way of appropriate food. The censure and exposure
+indulged in by the press may have contributed to direct the attention
+of the benevolently disposed to the conditions in the camp.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the era of ample help; from Massachusetts; from New York, in
+a word, from all over the country. The Merchants' Relief Association
+poured in its thousands of dollars worth of supplies, bringing them to
+the camp and distributing them generously and wisely. The Women's
+Patriotic Relief, the Women's War Relief, the International
+Brotherhood League, and the powerful Red Cross Society, all poured in
+food and comforts for the sick thousands. Besides these great
+organizations there were also the spontaneous offerings of the people,
+many of them generously distributed by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle's
+active representatives. The tent of that journal was an excellent
+way-mark and a veritable house of the good shepherd for many a lost
+wanderer, as well as a place of comfort, cheer and rest. The work done
+was very valuable and highly appreciated.</p>
+
+<p>To the medical department came the trained hand of the female nurse.
+No one who saw these calm-faced, white-hooded sisters, or the cheery
+cheeked, white capped nurses from the schools, could fail to see that
+they were in the right place. The sick soldier's lot was brightened
+greatly when the gentle female nurse came to his cot. Woman can never
+be robbed of her right to nurse. This is one of the lessons taught by
+the Hispano-American War.</p>
+
+<p>This vast army has been handled. No yellow fever has been spread. The
+general health has been restored. The disabled are mostly housed in
+hospitals, and many of them are on the road to recovery. Some
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page233" id="page233"></a>[pg 233]</span>
+have
+died; some are on furlough, and many have gone to their homes.</p>
+
+<p>The regulars are repairing to their stations quite invigorated, and
+greatly helped in many ways by the kind treatment they have received.
+Camp Wikoff was not a failure; but a great and successful object
+lesson, as well as a great summer school in nationalism. Here black,
+white and Indian soldiers fraternized; here Northerners and
+Southerners served under the same orders. Ten thousand soldiers and as
+many civilians daily attended the best school of its kind ever held in
+this country, striving to take home to their hearts the lessons that
+God is teaching the nations.</p>
+
+<p>The Rev. Sylvester Malone thus sums up the message of the war to us in
+his letter to the committee to welcome Brooklyn's soldiers:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"This short war has done so much for America at home and
+abroad that we must take every soldier to our warmest
+affection and send him back to peaceful pursuits on the
+conviction that there is nothing higher in our American life
+than to have the privilege to cheer and gladden the marine
+and the soldier that have left to America her brightest and
+best page of a great history. This past war must kindle in
+our souls a love of all the brethren, black as well as
+white, Catholic as well as Protestant, having but one
+language, one nationality, and it is to be hoped, yet one
+religion."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>These are true words, as full of patriotism as they are of fraternity,
+and these are the two special lessons taught at Montauk&mdash;a broad,
+earnest, practical fraternity, and a love of country before which the
+petty prejudices of race and section were compelled to yield ground.</p>
+
+<p class="heading">THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION IN CAMP WIKOFF.</p>
+
+<p>The Young Men's Christian Association has done an excellent work in
+Camp Wikoff. Their tents have afforded
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page234" id="page234"></a>[pg 234]</span>
+facilities for profitable
+amusements, in the way of quiet games, thus bringing out the use of
+these games distinct from their abuse&mdash;gambling.</p>
+
+<p>Their reading tables have also been well supplied with papers and
+magazines, religious and secular, generally very acceptable to the
+soldiers, as attested by the numbers that read them. But perhaps best
+of all, has been the provision made for the soldiers to write. Tables,
+pens, ink, paper and envelopes have been supplied in abundance. These
+were of great advantage to soldiers living in tents, and the work of
+the Association in this respect cannot be too highly commended.</p>
+
+<p>The specially religious work of the Association as I have seen it,
+consists of three divisions: First, the meetings in their tents, held
+nightly and on Sundays. These have been vigorously carried on and well
+attended, the chaplains of the camp often rendering assistance.
+Secondly, I have noticed the Y.M.C.A. men visiting the sick in the
+hospitals and camps, giving the word of exhortation and help to the
+sick. Perhaps, however, in their work of private conversation with the
+well men, they have done as much real service for God as in either of
+the other two fields. They have made the acquaintance of many men and
+have won the respect of the camp. This I have numbered as the third
+division of their work&mdash;personal contact with the soldiers of the
+camp, at the same time keeping themselves "unspotted from the world."</p>
+
+<p><b>B.</b></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>The 24th Infantry was ordered down to Siboney to do guard
+duty. When the regiment reached the yellow-fever hospital it
+was found to be in a deplorable condition. Men were dying
+there every hour for the lack of proper nursing. Major
+Markley, who had commanded the regiment since July 1st, when
+Colonel Liscum was wounded, drew his regiment up in line,
+and Dr
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page235" id="page235"></a>[pg 235]</span>
+. La Garde, in charge of the hospital, explained the
+needs of the suffering, at the same time clearly setting
+forth the danger to men who were not immune, of nursing and
+attending yellow-fever patients. Major Markley then said
+that any man who wished to volunteer to nurse in the
+yellow-fever hospital could step forward. The whole regiment
+stepped forward. Sixty men were selected from the volunteers
+to nurse, and within forty-eight hours forty-two of these
+brave fellows were down seriously ill with yellow or
+pernicious malarial fever. Again the regiment was drawn up
+in line, and again Major Markley said that nurses were
+needed, and that any man who wished to do so could
+volunteer. After the object lesson which the men had
+received in the last few days of the danger from contagion
+to which they would be exposed, it was now unnecessary for
+Dr. La Garde to again warn the brave blacks of the terrible
+contagion. When the request for volunteers to replace those
+who had already fallen in the performance of their dangerous
+and perfectly optional duty was made again, the regiment
+stepped forward as one man. When sent down from the trenches
+the regiment consisted of eight companies, averaging about
+forty men each. Of the officers and men who remained on duty
+the forty days spent in Siboney, only twenty-four escaped
+without serious illness, and of this handful not a few
+succumbed to fevers on the voyage home and after their
+arrival at Montauk.</p>
+
+<p>As a result, thirty-six died and about forty were discharged
+from the regiment owing to disabilities resulting from
+sickness which began in the yellow-fever hospital.&mdash;Bonsal's
+Fight for Santiago.</p></blockquote>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> "After the surrender, dear Chaplain, the real trouble
+and difficulties began. Such a period, from July 14, 1898 to August
+14, 1898, was never before known to human beings, I hope. The starving
+time was nothing to the fever time, where scores died per day. We were
+not permitted to starve; but had fever, and had it bad; semi-decayed
+beef, both from refrigerators and from cans. We had plenty of fever,
+but no clothing until very late; no medicine save a little quinine
+which was forced into you all the time, intermittent only with bad
+meat."&mdash;Extract from a soldier's letter.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> While the Twenty-fifth Infantry was in camp at
+Chickamauga Park I was ordered to Xenia, Ohio, on recruiting duty, and
+on July 5. on seeing the reports of the wounded I asked officially to
+be ordered to my regiment. An order to that effect came about a month
+later, directing me to join my regiment by way of Tampa, Florida.
+Arriving in Tampa, my destination was changed by telegraph to Montauk
+Point, N.Y., whither I arrived a few days before the regiment did.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/image04.png" alt="Chapter End Graphic" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page236" id="page236"></a>[pg 236]</span>
+</p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3>REVIEW AND REFLECTIONS.</h3>
+
+<p class="hang center">Gallantry of the Black Regulars&mdash;Diary of Sergeant-Major
+E.L. Baker, Tenth Cavalry.</p>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+  Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>It is time now to sum up the work of the four regiments whose careers
+we have thus far followed, and to examine the grounds upon which the
+golden opinions they won in battle and siege are based. We have seen
+that in the first fight, that of Las Guasimas, on June 24th, the Tenth
+Cavalry, especially Troops I and B, both with their small arms and
+with the machine guns belonging to Troop B, did most effective work
+against the Spanish right, joining with the First Cavalry in
+overcoming that force which was rapidly destroying Roosevelt's Rough
+Riders. Nor should it be forgotten that in this first fight, Troop B,
+which did its full share, was commanded on the firing line by
+Sergeants John Buck and James Thompson. In the squad commanded by
+Sergeant Thompson several men of the First Regular Cavalry fought and
+it is claimed were highly pleased with him as squad commander.</p>
+
+<p>While this was the first fight of the men of the Tenth Cavalry with
+the Spaniards, it was by no means their first experience under fire.
+From the time of the organization of the regiment in 1866 up to within
+a year of the war, the men had been engaged frequently in conflicts
+with Indians and marauders, often having men killed and wounded in
+their ranks. The fights were participated in by small numbers, and the
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page237" id="page237"></a>[pg 237]</span>
+casualties were not numerous, but there were opportunities for the
+acquirement of skill and the display of gallantry. Altogether the men
+of the regiment during their experience on the plains engaged in
+sixty-two battles and skirmishes. This training had transformed the
+older men of the regiment into veterans and enabled them to be cool
+and efficient in their first fight in Cuba.</p>
+
+<p>Sergeant Buck, upon whom the command of Troop B chiefly fell after
+becoming separated from his Lieutenant in the battle at Guasimas,
+joined the regiment in 1880, and had already passed through eighteen
+years of the kind of service above described. He was at the time of
+the Cuban War in the prime of life, a magnificent horseman, an
+experienced scout, and a skilled packer. In 1880, when he joined the
+regiment, the troops were almost constantly in motion, marching that
+one year nearly seventy-seven thousand miles, his own troop covering
+twelve hundred and forty-two miles in one month. This troop with four
+others made a ride of sixty-five miles in less than twenty-one hours,
+arriving at their destination without the loss of a single horse. In
+1893 he was mentioned by the commanding officer of Fort Missoula,
+Montana, for highly meritorious service, skill and energy displayed
+while in charge of pack train of an expedition across the Bitter Root
+Mountains, Idaho, during the most inclement weather, in quest of a
+party of gentlemen lost. (Letter of commanding officer, Fort Missoula,
+Montana, February 12, 1894.) Sergeant Buck has also won the silver
+medal for revolver shooting.</p>
+
+<p>Sergeant James Thompson joined the regiment in 1888, and has passed
+the ten years in the one troop, and proved himself at Las Guasimas a
+soldier worthy his regiment.</p>
+
+<p>The first battle gave the Tenth a reputation in a new field
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page238" id="page238"></a>[pg 238]</span>
+,
+corresponding to that which it had gained in the West, and this was
+not allowed to fade during its stay in Cuba. The fame of this first
+action spread rapidly through the army and inspired the other
+regiments of colored men with a desire to distinguish themselves on
+this new field of honor, and their readiness to be to the front and to
+take prominent part in all service was so marked that opportunity
+could not be withheld from them. As the army advanced toward Santiago
+these regiments became more and more the mark of observation by
+foreign military men who were present, and by the great throng of
+correspondents who were the eyes for the people of the civilized
+world. And hence, when the lines of assault were finally determined
+and the infantry and cavalry of our army deployed for its perilous
+attack upon the Spanish fortifications the black regiments were in
+their places, conspicuous by their vigor and enthusiasm. In them were
+enlisted men whose time of service had expired a few days before, but
+who had promptly re-enlisted. In at least two cases were men who
+served their full thirty years and could have retired with honor at
+the breaking out of the war. They preferred to share the fortunes of
+their comrades in arms, and it is a comfort to be able to record that
+the two spoken of came home from the fight without a wound and with
+health unimpaired. How many others there were in the same case in the
+army is not reported, but the supposition is that there were several
+such in both the white and colored regiments.</p>
+
+<p>Recalling the scenes of that memorable first of July, 1898, we can see
+the Twenty-fifth Infantry advancing steadily on the stone fort at El
+Caney at one time entirely alone, meeting the fire of the fort even up
+to their last rush forward. Captain Loughborough, who commanded
+Company B, of that regimen
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page239" id="page239"></a>[pg 239]</span>
+t, and although his company was in the
+reserve, was nevertheless under fire, says: "The hardest fighting of
+the Twenty-fifth was between two and four o'clock," at which time all
+the other troops of the attacking force, except Bates' brigade, were
+under cover and remaining stationary, the Twenty-fifth being the only
+organization that was advancing. The official reports give the
+positions of General Chaffee's brigade during the two hours between
+two o'clock and four of that afternoon as follows:</p>
+
+<p>The Seventh was under partial cover and remained in its position
+"until about 4.30 p.m." The Seventeenth remained with its left joined
+to the right of the Seventh "until the battle was over." The Twelfth
+Infantry was in its shelter within 350 yards of the fort "until about
+4 p.m." Ludlow's brigade was engaged with the town, hence only Miles'
+brigade, consisting of the Fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry, was
+advancing upon the fort. The Fourth Infantry was soon checked in its
+advance, as General Daggett especially notes in his report, and the
+Twenty-fifth was thus thrust forward alone, excepting Bates' brigade,
+which was making its way up the right.</p>
+
+<p>This conspicuous advance of the Twenty-fifth brought that regiment
+into the view of the world, and established for it a brilliant
+reputation for skill and courage. Arriving in the very jaws of the
+fort the sharpshooters and marksmen of that regiment poured such a
+deadly fire into the loopholes of the fort that they actually silenced
+it with their rifles. These men with the sternness of iron and the
+skill acquired by long and careful training, impressed their
+characteristics on the minds of all their beholders. Of the four
+hundred men who went on the field that morning very few were recruits,
+and many had passed over ten years in the service. When they "took the
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page240" id="page240"></a>[pg 240]</span>
+battle formation and advanced to the stone fort more like veterans
+than troops who had never been under fire," as their commander
+reports, they gave to the world a striking exhibition of the effect of
+military training. In each breast a spirit of bravery had been
+developed and their skill in the use of their arms did not for a
+moment forsake them. They advanced against volleys from the fort and
+rifle pits in front, and a galling fire from blockhouses, the church
+tower and the village on their left. Before a less severe fire than
+this, on that very day, a regiment of white volunteers had succumbed
+and was lying utterly demoralized by the roadside; before this same
+fire the Second Massachusetts Volunteers were forced to retire&mdash;in the
+face of it the Twenty-fifth advanced steadily to its goal.</p>
+
+<p>Lieutenant Moss, who commanded Company H on the firing line on that
+day, has published an account in which he says: "The town was
+protected on the north by three blockhouses and the church; on the
+west by three blockhouses (and partially by the church); on the east
+by the stone fort, one blockhouse, the church, and three rifle pits;
+on the south and southeast by the stone fort, three blockhouses, one
+loop-holed house, the church and eight rifle pits. However, the Second
+Brigade was sent forward against the southeast of the town, thus being
+exposed to fire from fourteen sources, nearly all of which were in
+different planes, forming so many tiers of fire. The cover on the
+south and southeast of the town was no better than, if as good, as
+that on the other sides."</p>
+
+<p>The cavalry regiments were no less conspicuous in their gallantry at
+San Juan than was the Twenty-fifth Infantry at El Caney. The
+brilliancy of that remarkable regiment, the Rough Riders, commanded on
+July 1st by Colonel Roosevelt, was so dazzling that it drew attention
+away from th
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page241" id="page241"></a>[pg 241]</span>
+e ordinary regulars, yet the five regiments of regular
+cavalry did their duty as thoroughly on that day as did the regiment
+of volunteers.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> In this body of cavalry troops, where courage was
+elevated to a degree infringing upon the romantic, the two black
+regiments took their places, and were fit to be associated in valor
+with that highly representative regiment. The Inspector-General turns
+aside from mere routine in his report long enough to say "the courage
+and conduct of the colored troops and First United States Volunteers
+seemed always up to the best." That these black troopers held no
+second place in valor is proven by their deeds, and from the testimony
+of all who observed their conduct, and that they with the other
+regulars were decidedly superior in skill was recognized by the
+volunteer Colonel himself. The Ninth Cavalry, although suffering
+considerably in that advance on East Hill, involved as it was, more or
+less, with Roosevelt's regiment, did not receive so large a share of
+public notice as its sister regiment. The strength of the Ninth was
+but little over one-half that of the Tenth, and its movements were so
+involved with those of the volunteers as to be somewhat obscured by
+them; the loss also of its commander just as the first position of the
+enemy fell into our hands, was a great misfortune to the regiment. The
+Ninth, however, was with the first that mounted the heights, and
+whatever praise is to be bestowed upon the Rough Riders in that
+assault is to be distributed in equal degree to the men of that
+regiment. Being
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page242" id="page242"></a>[pg 242]</span>
+in the leading brigade of the division this regiment
+had been firing steadily upon the Spanish works before the charge was
+ordered, and when the movement began the men of the Ninth advanced so
+rapidly that they were among the first to reach the crest.</p>
+
+<p>The Tenth Regiment, with its Hotchkiss guns, and its trained men, took
+its place in the line that morning to add if possible further lustre
+to the distinction already won. In crossing the flat, in climbing the
+heights, and in holding the ridge these brave men did all that could
+be expected of them. Roosevelt said: "The colored troops did as well
+as any soldiers could possibly do," meaning the colored men of the
+Ninth and Tenth Cavalry. To their officers he bestows a meed of praise
+well deserved, but not on the peculiar ground which he brings forward.
+He would have the reader believe that it has required special ability
+and effort to bring these colored men up to the condition of good
+soldiers and to induce them to do so well in battle; while the
+testimony of the officers themselves and the experience of more than a
+quarter of a century with colored professional troops give no
+countenance to any such theory. The voice of experience is that the
+colored man is specially apt as a soldier, and General Merritt
+declares him always brave in battle. The officers commanding colored
+troops at Santiago honored themselves in their reports of the battles
+by giving full credit to the men in the ranks, who by their resolute
+advance and their cool and accurate firing dislodged an intrenched foe
+and planted the flag of our Union where had floated the ensign of
+Spain.</p>
+
+<p>That rushing line of dismounted cavalry, so ably directed by Sumner,
+did not get to its goal without loss. As it swept across the open to
+reach the heights, it faced a well-dire
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page243" id="page243"></a>[pg 243]</span>
+cted fire from the Spanish
+works, and men dropped from the ranks, wounded and dying. Of the
+officers directing that advance 35 fell either killed or wounded and
+328 men. These numbers appear small when hastily scanned or when
+brought into comparison with the losses in battle during the Civil
+War, but if we take time to imagine 35 officers lying on the ground
+either killed or wounded and 328 men in the same condition, the
+carnage will not appear insignificant. Woe enough followed even that
+one short conflict. It must be observed also that the whole strength
+of this division was less than 3000 men, so that about one out of
+every eight had been struck by shot or shell.</p>
+
+<p>Several enlisted men among the colored cavalry displayed high
+soldierly qualities in this assault, evidencing a willingness to
+assume the responsibility of command and the ability to lead.
+Color-Sergeant George Berry became conspicuous at once by his
+brilliant achievement of carrying the colors of two regiments, those
+of his own and of the Third Cavalry. The Color-Sergeant of the latter
+regiment had fallen and Berry seized the colors and bore them up the
+hill with his own. The illustrated press gave some attention to this
+exploit at the time, but no proper recognition of it has as yet been
+made. Sergeant Berry's character as a soldier had been formed long
+before this event, and his reputation for daring was already well
+established. He entered the service in 1867 and when he carried that
+flag up San Juan was filling out his thirty-first year in the service.
+All this time he had passed in the cavalry and had engaged in many
+conflicts with hostile Indians and ruffians on our frontiers.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the most important parts taken by any enlisted men in the
+cavalry division were those taken by Sergeants Foster and Givens. The
+former was First Sergeant of Troo
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page244" id="page244"></a>[pg 244]</span>
+p G and as the troop was making its
+way to the hill by some means the Spaniards were able not only to
+discover them but also the direction in which they were moving and to
+determine their exact range. Sergeant Foster ventured to tell the
+Lieutenant in charge that the course of advance should be changed as
+they were marching directly into the enemy's guns.</p>
+
+<p>"Silence," shouted the Lieutenant. "Come on, men; follow me." "All
+right, sir," said the Sergeant; "we'll go as far as you will." The
+next instant the Lieutenant was shot through the head, leaving
+Sergeant Foster in command. Immediately the troop was deployed out of
+the dangerous range and the Sergeant by the exercise of good judgment
+brought his men to the crest of the hill without losing one from his
+ranks. At the time of this action Sergeant Foster was a man who would
+readily command attention. Born in Texas and a soldier almost
+continuously since 1875, part of which time had been passed in an
+infantry regiment, he had acquired valuable experience. In 1888, while
+serving in the cavalry, he had been complimented in General Orders for
+skill in trailing raiding parties in Arizona. He was a resolute and
+stalwart soldier, an excellent horseman and possessed of superior
+judgment, and with a reputation for valor which none who knew him
+would question. The return of Troop G, Tenth Cavalry, for July, 1898,
+contains the following note: "Lieutenant Roberts was wounded early in
+the engagement; Lieutenant Smith was killed about 10.30 a.m. while
+gallantly leading the troop in the advance line. After Lieutenant
+Smith fell the command of the troop devolved upon First Sergeant Saint
+Foster, who displayed remarkable intelligence and ability in handling
+the troop during the remainder of the day. Sergeant Foster's conduct
+was such as cannot be excelled for valor during the operati
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page245" id="page245"></a>[pg 245]</span>
+ons around
+Santiago. He commanded the troop up the hills of San Juan."</p>
+
+<p>Sergeant William H. Givens, of Troop D, Tenth Cavalry, also commanded
+in the action against San Juan. His Captain, who was wounded three
+times in the fight, being finally disabled before reaching the hill,
+makes the following report: "Sergeant William H. Givens was with the
+platoon which I commanded; whenever I observed him he was at his post
+exercising a steadying or encouraging influence on the men, and
+conducting himself like the thorough soldier that I have long known
+him to be. I understand to my great satisfaction that he has been
+rewarded by an appointment to a lieutenancy in an immune regiment."</p>
+
+<p>The Descriptive list of Sergeant Givens, made on August 4th, 1898,
+contains these remarks:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Commanded his troop with excellent judgment after his
+captain fell at the battle of San Juan, July 1, 1898,
+leading it up the hill to the attack of the blockhouse.</p>
+
+<p>"Character: A most excellent soldier."<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Sergeant Givens may also be called an "old-timer." He had enlisted in
+'69, and had passed all that time in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page246" id="page246"></a>[pg 246]</span>
+hard frontier service. The troop
+in which he enlisted during the years 1876-78 was almost constantly
+engaged with hostile Indians along the Mexican border, and Sergeant
+Givens was called upon to take part in numerous scouts in which there
+were many striking adventures. He was also in that memorable campaign
+against Victoria, conducted by General Grierson. Sergeant Givens was
+an ideal soldier and worthy the commendations bestowed upon him by his
+troop commander and others. Captain Bigelow received his disabling
+wound about seventy-five yards from the blockhouse and was taken to
+the rear under heavy fire by two soldiers of the troop by the name of
+Henderson and Boardman.</p>
+
+<p>Lieutenant Kennington, reporting the work of the troop on that morning
+says that Corporal J. Walker was probably the first soldier to reach
+the top of the hill and is believed to have shot the Spaniard who
+killed Lieutenant Ord. The report containing the above statement is
+dated July 5, 1898. Since that time the matter has been fully
+investigated by Captain Bigelow and the fact ascertained that Corporal
+Walker did arrive first on the hill and did shoot the Spaniard
+referred to and he has been recommended for a Medal of Honor in
+consequence.</p>
+
+<p>The Sergeant-Major of the Tenth Cavalry, Mr. E.L. Baker, who served
+with great credit during the Santiago campaign, is a soldier with an
+excellent record. He was born of French and American parentage in
+Wyoming and enlisted in the Ninth Cavalry as trumpeter in 1882,
+serving five years in that regiment. He then enlisted in the Tenth
+Cavalry, and in 1892 became Sergeant-Major. Being desirous of
+perfecting himself in the cavalry service he applied for an extended
+furlough with permission to leave the country, intending to enter
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page247" id="page247"></a>[pg 247]</span>
+a
+cavalry school in France. In this desire he was heartily endorsed by
+the officers of his regiment, and was specially commended by General
+Miles, who knew him as a soldier and who highly appreciated him as
+such. The breaking out of the Spanish war soon after he had made
+application prevented a full consideration of his case. In 1897
+Sergeant-Major Baker published a specially valuable "Roster of the
+Non-Commissioned Officers of the Tenth U.S. Cavalry, with Some
+Regimental Reminiscences, etc.," which has been of marked service in
+the preparation of the sketches of the enlisted men of his regiment.
+He contributes the interesting sketch of his experiences in Cuba with
+his regiment, which follows this chapter, and which will prove to many
+perhaps the most interesting portion of my book.</p>
+
+<p>The Twenty-fourth Infantry advanced in that line of attack on the
+extreme left and reached the crest of the San Juan Hills in such
+numbers as to lead the press correspondents and others to conclude
+that there were more men of this regiment promptly on the ground than
+of any other one regiment. It is certain they made a record for
+heroism in that assault as bright as any won on the field that day;
+and this record they raised to a magnificent climax by their
+subsequent work in the fever hospital at Siboney. For their
+distinguished service both in the field and in the hospital, the
+colored ladies of New York honored themselves in presenting the
+regiment the beautiful stand of colors already mentioned. As these
+fever-worn veterans arrived at Montauk they presented a spectacle well
+fitted to move strong men to tears. In solemn silence they marched
+from on board the transport Nueces, which had brought them from Cuba,
+and noiselessly they dragged their weary forms over the sandy roads
+and up the hill to the distant "detention camp." Twenty-eight of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page248" id="page248"></a>[pg 248]</span>
+ir
+number were reported sick, but the whole regiment was in ill-health.</p>
+
+<p>These were the men who had risked their lives and wrecked their health
+in service for others. Forty days they had stood face to face with
+death. In their soiled, worn and faded clothing, with arms uncleaned,
+emaciated, and with scarce strength enough to make the march before
+them, as they moved on that hot 2nd of September from the transport to
+the camp, they appeared more like a funeral procession than heroes
+returning from the war; and to the credit of our common humanity it
+may be recorded that they were greeted, not with plaudits and cheers,
+but with expressions of real sympathy. Many handkerchiefs were brought
+into view, not to wave joyous welcome, but to wipe away the tears that
+came from overflowing hearts. At no time did human nature at Montauk
+appear to better advantage than in its silent, sympathetic reception
+of the Twenty-fourth Infantry.</p>
+
+<p>Of these shattered heroes General Miles had but recently spoken in
+words well worthy his lofty position and noble manhood as "a regiment
+of colored troops, who, having shared equally in the heroism, as well
+as the sacrifices, is now voluntarily engaged in nursing yellow fever
+patients and burying the dead." These men came up to Montauk from
+great tribulations which should have washed their robes to a
+resplendent whiteness in the eyes of the whole people. Great
+Twenty-fourth, we thank thee for the glory thou hast given to American
+soldiery, and to the character of the American Negro!</p>
+
+<p>Thus these four colored regiments took their place on the march, in
+camp, in assault and in siege with the flower of the American Army,
+the choice and pick of the American nation, and came off acknowledged
+as having shared equally in heroism and sacrifices with the other
+regular regiments so
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page249" id="page249"></a>[pg 249]</span>
+engaged, and deserving of special mention for the
+exhibition of regard for the welfare of their fellow man. The query
+is now pertinent as to the return which has been made to these brave
+men. The question of Ahasuerus when told of the valuable services of
+the Jew, Mordecai, is the question which the better nature of the
+whole American people should ask on hearing the general report of the
+valuable services of the Negro Regular in the Spanish War. When
+Ahasuerus asked: "What honor and dignity hath been done to Mordecai
+for this?" his servants that ministered unto him were compelled to
+answer: "There is nothing done for him." Looking over these four
+regiments at the time of this writing an answer somewhat similar in
+force must be returned. That the colored soldier is entitled to honor
+and dignity must be admitted by all who admire brave deeds, or regard
+the welfare of the state. The colored soldier, however, was compelled
+to stand by and see a hundred lieutenancies filled in the Regular
+Army, many in his own regiments, only to find himself overlooked and
+to be forced to feel that his services however valuable, could not
+outweigh the demerit of his complexion.</p>
+
+<p>The sum total of permanent advantage secured to the colored regular as
+such, in that bloody ordeal where brave men gave up their lives for
+their country's honor, consists of a few certificates of merit
+entitling the holders to two dollars per month additional pay as long
+as they remain in the service. Nor is this all, or even the worst of
+the matter. Men who served in the war as First Sergeants, and who
+distinguished themselves in that capacity, have been allowed to go
+back to their old companies to serve in inferior positions. Notably is
+this the case with Sergeant William H. Givens, whose history has been
+detailed as commanding Troop D, T
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page250" id="page250"></a>[pg 250]</span>
+enth Cavalry, after Captain Bigelow
+fell, and who heroically led the troop up the hill. He is now serving
+in his old troop as Corporal, his distinction having actually worked
+his reduction rather than substantial promotion.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be inferred from the foregoing, however, that nothing
+whatever was done in recognition of the gallantry of the colored
+regulars. Something was done. Cases of individual heroism were so
+marked, and so numerous, that they could not be ignored. The men who
+had so distinguished themselves could not be disposed of by special
+mention and compliments in orders. Something more substantial was
+required. Fortunately for such purpose four regiments of colored
+United States Volunteer Infantry were then in course of organization,
+in which the policy had been established that colored men should be
+accepted as officers below the grade of captain. Into these regiments
+the colored men who had won distinction at Santiago were placed, many
+as Second Lieutenants, although some were given First Lieutenancies.
+This action of the Government was hailed with great delight on the
+part of the colored Americans generally, and the honors were accepted
+very gratefully by the soldiers who had won them on the field.
+Fortunately as this opening seemed, it turned out very disappointing.
+It soon became evident that these regiments would be mustered out of
+the service, as they had proven themselves no more immune, so far as
+it could be determined from the facts, than other troops. The
+Lieutenants who had been most fortunate in getting their commissions
+early got about six or seven months' service, and then the dream of
+their glory departed and they fell back to the ranks to stand
+"attention" to any white man who could muster political influence
+sufficient to secure a commission.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page251" id="page251"></a>[pg 251]</span>
+Their day was short, and when they
+were discharged from the volunteer service, there appeared no future
+for them as commissioned officers. Their occupation was indeed gone.
+It was for them a most disappointing and exasperating promotion,
+resulting in some cases in loss of standing and in financial injury.
+Their honors were too short-lived, and too circumscribed, to be much
+more than a lively tantalization, to be remembered with disgust by
+those who had worn them. Cruel, indeed, was the prejudice that could
+dictate such a policy to the brave black men of San Juan. The black
+heroes, however, were not without sympathy in their misfortune. The
+good people of the country had still a warm place in their hearts for
+the colored soldier, despite the sayings of his maligners.</p>
+
+<p>The people of Washington, D.C., had an opportunity to testify their
+appreciation of the Tenth Cavalry as that regiment passed through
+their city on its way to its station in Alabama, and later a portion
+of it was called to Philadelphia to take part in the Peace Jubilee,
+and no troops received more generous attention. To express in some
+lasting form their regard for the regiment and its officers, some
+patriotic citizens of Philadelphia presented a handsome saber to
+Captain Charles G. Ayres, who had charge of the detachment which took
+part in the Peace Jubilee, "as a token of their appreciation of the
+splendid conduct of the regiment in the campaign of Santiago, and of
+its superb soldierly appearance and good conduct during its attendance
+at the Jubilee Parade in Philadelphia."</p>
+
+<p>Likewise when the Twenty-fifth Infantry arrived at its station at Fort
+Logan, Colorado, the people of Denver gave to both officers and men a
+most cordial reception, and invited them at once to take part in their
+fall carnival. All over the country there was at that time an unusual
+degree of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page252" id="page252"></a>[pg 252]</span>
+good feeling toward the colored soldier who had fought so
+well, and no one seemed to begrudge him the rest which came to him or
+the honors bestowed upon him.</p>
+
+<p>This state of feeling did not last. Before the year closed assiduous
+efforts were made to poison the public mind toward the black soldier,
+and history can but record that these efforts were too successful. The
+three hundred colored officers became an object at which both
+prejudice and jealousy could strike; but to reach them the reputation
+of the entire colored contingent must be assailed. This was done with
+such vehemence and persistency that by the opening of 1899 the good
+name of the black regular was hidden under the rubbish of reports of
+misconduct. So much had been said and done, even in Denver, which had
+poured out its welcome words to the heroes of El Caney, that the
+Ministerial Alliance of that city, on February 6, 1899, found it
+necessary to take up the subject, and that body expressed itself in
+the unanimous adoption of the following resolutions:</p>
+
+
+<p class="heading">RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE MINISTERIAL ALLIANCE
+OF DENVER, FEBRUARY 6, 1899.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p><i>Resolved</i>, By the Ministerial Alliance of the City of
+Denver, that the attempt made in certain quarters to have
+the Twenty-fifth Regiment, United States Infantry, removed
+from Fort Logan, appears to this body to rest on no just
+grounds, to be animated on the contrary by motives unworthy
+and discreditable to Denver and the State, and that
+especially in view of the heroic record of the Twenty-fifth
+Regiment, its presence here is an honor to Denver and
+Colorado, which this Alliance would regret to have
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page253" id="page253"></a>[pg 253]</span>
+withdrawn.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The mustering out of the volunteers about the time this opposition was
+approaching what appeared to be a climax, causing the removal from the
+service of the colored officers, appeased the wrath of the demon, and
+the waves of the storm gradually sank to a peace, gratifying, indeed,
+to those who shuddered to see a black man with shoulder-straps. As the
+last Negro officer descended from the platform and honorably laid
+aside his sword to take his place as a citizen of the Republic, or a
+private in her armies, that class of our citizenship breathed a sigh
+of relief. What mattered it to them whether justice were done; whether
+the army were weakened; whether individuals were wronged; they were
+relieved from seeing Negroes in officers' uniforms, and that to them
+is a most gracious portion. The discharge of the volunteers was to
+them the triumph of their prejudices, and in it they took great
+comfort, although as a matter of fact it was a plain national movement
+coming about as a logical sequence, entirely independent of their
+whims or wishes. The injustice to the Negro officer does not lie in
+his being mustered out of the volunteer service, but in the failure to
+provide for a recogniti
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page254" id="page254"></a>[pg 254]</span>
+on of his valor in the nation's permanent
+military establishment.</p>
+
+<p>The departure of the colored man from the volunteer service was the
+consequent disappearance of the colored military officer, with the
+single exception of Lieutenant Charles Young of the Regular Cavalry,
+had a very depressing effect upon the colored people at large, and
+called forth from their press and their associations most earnest
+protests. With a few exceptions, these protests were encouched in
+respectful language toward the President and his advisers, but the
+grounds upon which they were based were so fair and just, that
+right-thinking men could not avoid their force. The following
+resolution, passed by the National Afro-American Council, may be taken
+as representative of the best form of such remonstrance:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<i>Resolved</i>, That we are heartily grieved that the President
+of the United States and those in authority have not from
+time to time used their high station to voice the best
+conscience of the nation in regard to mob violence and fair
+treatment of justly deserving men. It is not right that
+American citizens should be despoiled of life and liberty
+while the nation looks silently on; or that soldiers who,
+with conspicuous bravery, offer their lives for the country,
+should have their promotion result in practical dismissal
+from the army."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The nation graciously heeded the call of justice and in the
+re-organization of the volunteer army provided for two colored
+regiments, of which all the company officers should be colored men.
+Under this arrangement many of the black heroes of Santiago were
+recalled from the ranks and again restored to the positions they had
+won. Thus did the nation in part remedy the evil which came in
+consequence of the discharge of the volunteers, and prove its
+willingness to do right. Triumphant
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page255" id="page255"></a>[pg 255]</span>
+ly did the Administration vindicate
+itself in the eyes of good people, and again did it place its
+withering disapproval upon the conduct of those who were ready to
+shout their applause over the worthy black officer's accidental
+humiliation. The Negro officer disappeared from the United States'
+Regiments as a Lieutenant only; but he returns to the same, or rather,
+to a higher grade of the same form of regiments, both as Lieutenant
+and Captain. How rapid and pronounced has been the evolution! It is
+true the Negro officer is still a volunteer, but his standing is
+measurably improved, both because of the fact of his recall, and also
+because the regiments which he is now entering have some prospect of
+being incorporated into the Regular Army. It does not seem probable
+that the nation can much longer postpone the increase of the standing
+army, and in this increase it is to be hoped the American Negro, both
+as soldier and officer, will receive that full measure of justice of
+which the formation of the present two colored regiments is so
+conspicuous a part.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p class="heading">DIARY OF E.L. BAKER. SERGEANT-MAJOR TENTH U.S. CAVALRY.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Appointed First Lieutenant Ninth U.S. Volunteer Infantry,
+and later Captain of the Forty-ninth Volunteer Infantry&mdash;Now
+Lieutenant in Philippine Scouts.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p class="heading">A TRIP FROM MONTANA TO CUBA WITH THE TENTH U.S. CAVALRY.</p>
+
+<p>April 16, 1898, at 10.45 p.m., telegram was received from Department
+Headquarters, St. Paul, Minnesota, ordering the regiment to the
+Department of the Gulf.</p>
+
+<p>As every click of the telegraph instrument was expected to announce a
+rupture in the diplomatic relations between the United States and the
+Kingdom of Spain, all knew that the mobilization of the army South
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page256" id="page256"></a>[pg 256]</span>
+
+meant preparing it for the serious work for which it is maintained.</p>
+
+<p>On April 19 we were off for Chickamauga Park. En route we were
+heartily greeted. Patriotism was at its height. Every little hamlet,
+even, had its offerings. To compare the journey with C&aelig;sar's march of
+triumph would be putting it mildly.</p>
+
+<p>We arrived at the historic point April 25. Every moment of our stay
+there was assiduously devoted to organizing, refitting and otherwise
+preparing for the inevitable. Officers were sent to many parts of the
+country to secure recruits. Many also gave up details and relinquished
+their leaves of absence to take part in the impending crisis.</p>
+
+<p>May 14. We were moved a little nearer the probable theatre of
+operations. On account of some deficiency in water for troops at
+Tampa, the regiment was stopped at Lakeland, 30 miles this side, where
+many recruits were received; Troops increased to war strength, and new
+Troops established. Drills and instructions were also constantly
+followed up.</p>
+
+<p>June 6. Orders were received to prepare headquarters, band and eight
+Troops dismounted, with trained men only, for service in Cuba.
+Recruits to be left in camp with horses and property.</p>
+
+<p>June 7. We were off for Port Tampa, where the regiment embarked on the
+steamship Leona that afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>June 8. She steamed from the dock. When the expedition seemed to be
+forming, news was received that the dreaded Spanish fleet was being
+sighted, evidently lying in wait for army transports. So we steamed
+back to the pier. Many of the men appeared disappointed at the move,
+probably not realizing that there was too much water in the Atlantic
+Ocean for the 5th Army Corps to drink.</p>
+
+<p>To my mind, the Divine Providence surely directed the move, as the
+delay enabled the force to be sw
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page257" id="page257"></a>[pg 257]</span>
+elled several thousand, every one of
+whom was needed before Santiago.</p>
+
+<p>June 14. We steamed out of Tampa Bay, amid cheers and music from the
+thirty odd transports, heavily escorted by naval vessels. Among them
+were the much talked-of dynamiter, Vesuvius, and the beautiful little
+cruiser, Helena. Off Dry Tortugas that formidable warship, Indiana,
+joined the fleet.</p>
+
+<p>Splendid weather; nothing unusual transpiring, though our transport,
+which also contained the First U.S. Cavalry, had a seemingly close
+call from being sent to the bottom of the sea, or else being taken in
+as a prisoner, which the enemy could have done with impunity.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst going down the Saint Nicholas Chanel, in Cuban waters, the
+vessel was deliberately stopped about midnight, June 16, and left to
+roll in the trough of the sea until the morning of the 17th, in
+consequence of which we were put 20 hours behind the fleet and without
+escort, almost in sight of the Cuban shores.</p>
+
+<p>Men were indignant at having been placed in such a helpless position,
+and would have thrown the captain of the ship, whom they accused of
+being a Spanish sympathizer and otherwise disloyal, overboard without
+ceremony, but for the strong arm of military discipline. We were
+picked up by the U.S. Cruiser Bancroft, late in the afternoon, she
+having been sent in quest of the Jonah of the fleet. Upon approach of
+the ship there were prolonged cheers from all of Uncle Sam's
+defenders. The only explanation that I have ever heard for this
+unpardonable blunder on the part of the ship's crew was that they
+mistook a signal of a leading vessel.</p>
+
+<p>June 20. Land was sighted.</p>
+
+<p>June 21. Dispatch boats active; transports circling; Morro Castle
+pointed out; three days' rations issued to each man; no ext
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page258" id="page258"></a>[pg 258]</span>
+ra
+impedimenta to be taken ashore; crew preparing for landing.</p>
+
+<p>June 22. As we neared Daiquiri, the designated place for disembarking,
+flames could be seen reaching almost to the heavens, the town having
+been fired by the fleeing Spaniards upon the approach of war vessels
+of Sampson's fleet, who were assembling to bombard the shore and cover
+our landing. After a fierce fire from these ships, the landing was
+effected with loss of two men of our regiment, who were doubtless
+crushed to death between the lighters. They were buried near the place
+of recovery the next morning.</p>
+
+<p>The few half-clothed and hungry-looking natives on shore seemed
+pleased to see us. Daiquiri, a shipping point of the Spanish-American
+Iron Company, was mostly deserted. The board houses seemed to have
+been spared, while the sun-burned huts thatched with palm were still
+smoking, also the roundhouse in which there were two railroad
+locomotives, warped and twisted from the heat. The Spanish evidently
+fired everything they could before evacuating.</p>
+
+<p>June 23. At 6.00 p.m. Troops A, B, E and I, left with four Troops of
+the First U.S. Cavalry and Rough Riders (First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry)
+as advance guard of the Army of Invasion on the main road to Santiago
+de Cuba; about 800 men all told, three Hotchkiss guns, manned by ten
+cavalrymen, accompanied also by the Brigadier Commander, General
+S.M.B. Young and staff.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Note</span>.&mdash;These troops marched about 13 miles through a
+drenching rain from 7 to 10 p.m.; bivouacked one hour later. Oh the
+24th, after breakfast, took the trail about 5.15 a.m. The vapor from
+wet clothing rose with the sun, so that you could scarcely recognize a
+man ten feet away. About three and one-half miles above Siboney the
+command was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page259" id="page259"></a>[pg 259]</span>
+halted; the first U.S. Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders)
+sent to the left; proceeding farther about one mile, the main column
+was split, First U.S. Cavalry going to the right, the Tenth Cavalry
+remaining in the center. General Wheeler joined at this point,
+accompanied by his orderly, Private Queene, Troop A, Tenth Cavalry.
+Disposition of the troops was explained by General Young, who had
+located his headquarters with the Tenth U.S. Cavalry; General Wheeler
+made his the same. Hotchkiss guns were ordered closed up; magazines
+filled. The column had proceeded but a short way when the engagement
+opened in all its fury; troops were deployed and advanced in the
+direction from which the bullets were coming the thickest, as rapidly
+as the formation of the ground would permit, the left of the line
+touching the right of the Rough Riders.</p>
+
+<p>June 24. Headquarters, band and the remainder of the First and Tenth
+U.S. Cavalry were off at 6 A.M. The road was alive with troops (C, D,
+F, G,) colonels and privates alike lugging their rations and bedding
+beneath that ever watchful tropical sun, feeling as though they would
+wilt at every step, the undergrowth being so thick and tall that
+scarcely any breeze could get to you.</p>
+
+<p>On emerging from this thicket, through which we had been marching for
+several hours, the Sampson fleet could be heard firing on the Spanish
+batteries on shore. Marines and other troops could be seen crossing
+the mountains above Altares; this revived the men very much. As we
+approached Verni Jarabo (Altares?), we were met by General Lawton, who
+informed our Colonel that the advance guard was engaged with the
+Spanish at La Guasima, and that it was hard pressed. Our pace was
+quickened; the news appeared to lighten our heavy packs as we toiled
+to the front to assist our comr
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page260" id="page260"></a>[pg 260]</span>
+ades. The roar of the artillery became
+plainer; wounded men along the road as well as those played-out from
+the intense heat. Women and children were fleeing to places of safety.
+Our forces were repairing a railroad engine and track; also tearing up
+a piece leading to a Spanish blockhouse. In fact, everything seemed to
+have on an exceedingly warlike tint, but our advance continued as
+swifty as our weary feet would allow, which soon brought us to a
+number of our own comrades conveyed on litters from La Guasima, where
+our advance guard was tussling hard with the Dons for the honors of
+the day.</p>
+
+<p>Upon arrival of reinforcements, victory had been wrested from the Dons
+fairly by the advance guard without assistance. Every one greeted each
+other, as though it had been a year instead of a few hours since
+parting. The First U.S. Cavalry and Rough Riders were unstinted in
+extolling the fighting qualities of their brothers in arms, the Tenth
+U.S. Cavalry.</p>
+
+<p>The enemy was struck early June 24, entrenched on the heights of La
+Guasima, near Sevilla, on the main road from Daiquiri to the city of
+Santiago de Cuba. The advance guard was soon hotly engaged with them;
+after a very desperate fight of over one hour, the enemy was driven in
+confusion from their intrenchments. Our men were too exhausted to
+follow them. The Tenth Cavalry lost 13 killed and wounded. For a while
+it was a terrific fight, as the enemy was strongly intrenched on the
+heights and our men had to climb them subjected to their fire, which
+was very accurate, and much of it doubtless from machine guns in hands
+of experienced men. Our men had also to contend with the thickest
+underbrush, wire fences (the famous military trochas) and Spanish
+daggers jabbing them in side at every step. For a while the situation
+was serious. The decisive blow of the attack seems to have b
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page261" id="page261"></a>[pg 261]</span>
+een struck
+at an opportune moment, and the enemy withdrew in confusion.</p>
+
+<p>It has been estimated that about 4,000 Spanish were engaged.
+Everything indicated that they lost heavily; a Santiago paper put it
+at 240. The writer and the Sergeant-Major of the First U.S. Cavalry
+superintended the digging of one large grave where all the dead of the
+two regiments were interred according to the Episcopal service. The
+Rough Riders, being farther to our left, buried their own. If
+advantage of position goes for anything, the Spanish should have
+annihilated the Americans as they approached the stronghold.</p>
+
+<p>The command remained on the battlefield until June 26, when it
+proceeded to Sevilla, an old coffee and sugar plantation, to await the
+assembling of the army and placing of the artillery.</p>
+
+<p>Our camp at Sevilla was an interesting one in many ways. It was
+pitched between the main road and a stream of excellent water. From
+the hill beyond, the Spanish works could be viewed. From the roadside
+many acquaintances were seen, also generals, foreign military
+attaches, troops, artillery and pack trains. Wheeled transportation
+seemed entirely out of its place in Cuba; one piece of artillery was
+noticed with 24 horses tugging away at it.</p>
+
+<p>The Cuban Army, cavalry and infantry, passed us at this point, which
+seemed to consist of every male capable of swelling the crowd. Those
+unable to carry or secure guns had an old knife or machete strapped to
+them.</p>
+
+<p>On June 30, about 4 P.M., shortly after our daily shower, which was a
+little more severe and much longer than usual, the regiment was put in
+motion for the front. We had marched about 1600 yards when the war
+balloon was seen ascending some distance to our right. As the balloon
+question was new, every one almost was stumbling on the ma
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page262" id="page262"></a>[pg 262]</span>
+n's heels in
+front, trying to get a peep at this wonderful war machine.</p>
+
+<p>After much vexatious delay, narrow road crowded with troops, a pack
+train came along and added its mite to the congestion, as some of the
+mules turned their heels on the advancing column when pushed too much.</p>
+
+<p>We finally merged into a beautiful lawn, site of the Division
+Hospital, where all were as busy as beavers in placing this
+indispensable adjunct in order. Here the work of July 1 was clearly
+suggested. Proceeding, wading and rewading streams, we bivouacked
+beyond the artillery on the heights of El Poso, an old sugar
+plantation, about four miles off, in plain view of the city of
+Santiago. The lights of the city showed so brightly, the enemy
+offering no resistance to our advance, I could not help feeling
+apprehensive of being in a trap. I thought so seriously over the
+matter that I did not unroll my pack, so as to be ready at an instant.
+Simply released my slicker, put it on, and lay down where I halted.</p>
+
+<p>Early July 1 all the brigade was up, getting breakfast and making as
+much noise as if on a practice march. The Tenth Cavalry did not make
+any fire until orders were received to that effect. I remarked to my
+bunky that we were not going to fight evidently, as the smoke would
+surely disclose our presence and enable the enemy's artillery to get
+our range. The whole of Santiago seemed to be decorated with hospital
+flags.</p>
+
+<p>At 6.30 a shell from Capron's battery, U.S. Artillery, directed at a
+blockhouse in El Caney, announced that the battle was on. Then the
+musketry became general. All stood and watched the doomed village
+quite a while as the battle progressed. Soon Grices' battery of the
+U.S. Artillery, which was in support, belched forth destruction at the
+Spanish work
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page263" id="page263"></a>[pg 263]</span>
+s of the city, using black powder. The fire was almost
+immediately returned by the enemy's batteries, who had smokeless.
+They were shortly located when a fierce duel took place. The Dons were
+silenced, but not until we had suffered loss. During this fire an
+aide&mdash;Lieut. Wm. E. Shipp, Tenth Cavalry, Brigade
+Quartermaster&mdash;brought orders for us to take position on the left of
+the First U.S. Cavalry. The line extended nearly north and south on a
+ridge some three or four miles from the city, where the regiment was
+exposed to much of the return fire from the enemy's batteries. The men
+exhibited no special concern and watched the flight of the death
+messenger as eagerly as if at a horse race. Adjutant Barnum here
+divided the band and turned it over to the surgeons to assist in
+caring for the wounded, and directed Saddler Sergeant Smith and myself
+to accompany the Colonel in advance. When Lieut. Shipp delivered his
+orders, some of the officers remarked, "You are having a good time
+riding around here." He replied that it was no picnic riding among
+bullets, and that he would prefer being with his troops.</p>
+
+<p>After the artillery had ceased firing, the regiment moved to the
+right, passed El Poso, where there were additional signs of the
+enemy's havoc among our troops, proceeded down the road leading to
+Santiago. The movement of the regiment was delayed as it approached
+the San Juan River, by an infantry brigade which had halted.</p>
+
+<p>The regiment came within range of musket fire about three-quarters or
+one-half mile from the crossing. Upon reaching the ford the Colonel
+(Baldwin) rode nearly across the stream (closely followed by his
+regiment) when we were greeted by the Dons with a terrific volley of
+musketry, soon followed by artillery, which caused us to realize more
+fully tha
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page264" id="page264"></a>[pg 264]</span>
+n ever, that "things were coming our way." Orders were given
+to throw off packs and get cover. In removing his, Sergeant Smith,
+on, my immediate left, was assisted by a Spanish bullet, and an
+infantry soldier fell as my pack was thrown off to the right. In
+seeking cover men simply dropped to the right and left of the road in
+a prone position.</p>
+
+<p>The regiment was here subjected to a terrific converging fire from the
+blockhouse and intrenchments in front and the works further to the
+left and nearer the city. The atmosphere seemed perfectly alive with
+flying missiles from bursting shells over head, and rifle bullets
+which seemed to have an explosive effect. Much fire was probably drawn
+by the war balloon, which preceded the regiment to a point on the edge
+of the river, near the ford, where it was held. This balloon
+undoubtedly rendered excellent service in locating positions of the
+Spanish works and developing an ambush which had been laid for us, but
+the poor, ill-fated balloon certainly received many uncomplimentary
+remarks during our stay in its vicinity.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed as though the Spanish regarded the balloon as an evil agent
+of some kind, and as though every gun, both great and small, was
+playing on it. I made several trips under it following the Colonel,
+who repeatedly rode up and down the stream, and I would have been
+fully satisfied to have allowed my mind even to wander back to the
+gaily lighted ball rooms and festivals left behind only a few months
+before.</p>
+
+<p>While on the last trip under the balloon a large naval shell exploded,
+knocking the Colonel's hat off, crippling his horse, and injuring the
+rider slightly in the arm and side, all of course, in addition to a
+good sand bath. I then joined the regiment, some rods beyond, then
+under cover. In crouching down behind a clump of brush, heard some one
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page265" id="page265"></a>[pg 265]</span>
+groan; on looking around, saw Private Marshall struggling in the river
+wounded. Immediately rushing to his assistance another of those
+troublesome shells passed so close as to cause me to feel the heat. It
+did not stop the effort, however, and the wounded man was placed in
+safety.</p>
+
+<p>The regiment remained in the road only a few moments when it was
+ordered to take position behind the river bank some yards above the
+balloon for protection; while moving to that position, and while
+there, suffered much loss. Why we did not lose heavier may be
+attributed to the fact that the enemy's musket fire was a trifle high,
+and their shells timed from one-half to one second too long, caused
+them to explode beyond, instead of in front, where the shells would
+have certainly secured the Dons' maximum results, as, after the
+balloon was cut down, you could scarcely hold your hand up without
+getting it hit. During the battle, one trooper fell upon a good-sized
+snake and crushed it to death, and another trooper allowed one of
+these poisonous reptiles to crawl over him while dodging a volley from
+the Spanish Mausers.</p>
+
+<p>The shrapnel and canister shells, with their exceedingly mournful and
+groaning sound, seemed to have a more terrifying effect than the swift
+Mauser bullet, which always rendered the same salutation, "Bi-Yi." The
+midern shrapnel shell is better known as the man-killing projectile,
+and may be regarded as the most dangerous of all projectiles designed
+for taking human life. It is a shell filled with 200 or 300 bullets,
+and having a bursting charge, which is ignited by a time fuse, only
+sufficient to break the base and release the bullets, which then move
+forward with the velocity it had the time of bursting. Each piece is
+capable of dealing death to any living thing in its path. In practice
+firing, it is known w
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page266" id="page266"></a>[pg 266]</span>
+here, by one shot, 152 hits were made by a single
+shrapnel. In another, 215 hits are recorded. Imagine then, the havoc
+of a well-directed shrapnel upon a group of men such as is here
+represented. Capron's battery at El Caney cut down 16 cavalrymen with
+one shell.</p>
+
+<p>After a delay of about 30 minutes, during part of the time, the
+writer, assisted by Sergeant Smith and Mr. T.A. Baldwin, cut all the
+wire fences possible. Mr. Baldwin was dangerously wounded while so
+engaged just before the general advance.</p>
+
+<p>The regiment merged into open space in plain view of and under the
+fire of the enemy; and formed line of battle facing toward the
+blockhouses and strong intrenchments to the north, occupied by the
+Spanish, and advanced rapidly in this formation, under a galling,
+converging fire from the enemy's artillery and infantry, on the
+blockhouses and heavy intrenchments to the right front. Many losses
+occurred before reaching the top of the hill, Lieut. W.H. Smith being
+killed while gallantly conducting his troop as it arrived on the
+crest. Lieut. W.E. Shipp was killed about the same instant, shortly
+after leaving Lieutenant Smith, further to the left and near the pond
+on the sunken road leading to Santiago. Lieutenant Smith was struck in
+the head and perished with a single groan. Lieutenant Shipp was hit
+near the heart; death must have been almost instantaneous, though it
+appears he made an effort to make use of his first aid package. Thus
+the careers of two gallant and efficient officers whose lives had been
+so closely associated were ended.</p>
+
+<p>Private Slaughter, who was left in charge of Lieutenant Smith's body,
+was picked off by the Spanish sharpshooters, and Private Jackson,
+Lieutenant Shipp's orderly, was left as deaf as a post from a bursting
+shell.</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page267" id="page267"></a>[pg 267]</span>
+</p>
+<p>The enemy having been driven back, northwest, to the second and third
+blockhouses, new lines were formed and a rapid advance made upon them
+to the new positions. The regiment assisted in capturing these works
+from the enemy, and planted two sets of colors on them, then took up a
+position to the north of the second blockhouse. With some changes in
+position of troops, this line, one of the most advanced, about three
+hundred yards of the enemy, was held and intrenchments dug under a
+very heavy and continuous fire from the Spanish intrenchments in
+front, July 2 and 3.</p>
+
+<p>In their retreat from the ridge, the enemy stood not on the order of
+their going, but fled in disorder like so many sheep from the scene,
+abandoning a quantity of ammunition, which was fired at them
+subsequently from our rapid-fire guns. Our men were too exhausted to
+pursue them, footwear and clothing being soaked by wading rivers, they
+had become drenched with rain, and when they reached the crest they
+were about played-out; having fought about 12 hours, most of which was
+under that ever-relentless tropical sun.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the night, work on the intrenchments was pushed, details
+buried the dead, improvised litters, and conveyed the wounded to
+hospitals, all of which was prosecuted with that vim for which the
+regular soldier is characterized, notwithstanding their water-logged
+condition.</p>
+
+<p>The regiment acted with extraordinary coolness and bravery. It held
+its position at the ford and moved forward unflinchingly after
+deployment, through the dense underbrush, crossed and recrossed by
+barbed wire, under heavy and almost plunging fire from the Spanish
+works, while attacking with small arms an enemy strongly posted in
+intrenchments and blockhouses, supported by artillery, and who
+stubbor
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page268" id="page268"></a>[pg 268]</span>
+nly contested every inch of ground gained by the American
+troops.</p>
+
+<p>Officers were exceedingly active and tireless in their efforts to
+inspire and encourage the men. You could hear them call out, "Move
+right along; the Spaniards can't shoot; they are using blanks." One
+officer deliberately stopped and lit his pipe amid a shower of
+bullets, and then moved on as unconcerned as if on target practice.</p>
+
+<p>The rifle pits occupied by the enemy were intrenchments in reality,
+dug almost shoulder deep, and faced with stone, being constructed
+without approaches, leaving the only avenue for escape over the
+parapet, which was equivalent to committing suicide, in face of the
+unerring marksmanship of the United States troops.</p>
+
+<p>We were afterward told by a Spanish soldier how they were held in
+these trenches by an officer stationed at each end with a club; also
+how they depended on their officers for everything. This may account
+for the large percentage of our officers picked off by the Dons. I
+observed during the battle that when spotted by the enemy, delivering
+orders or busying about such duties as usually indicated some one in
+authority, the Spanish would fire whole volleys at an individual, this
+evidently with a view to demoralizing the rank and file by knocking
+off the officers.</p>
+
+<p>The Spanish also tried an old Indian trick to draw our fire, or induce
+the men to expose themselves, by raising their hats on sticks or
+rifles, or placing them upon parapets, so when we went to fire they
+would aim to catch us as we rose with a terrific volley. The Dons
+were, however, soon convinced of their folly in this respect, as we
+always had a volley for the hats and a much stouter one for the enemy
+as he raised to reply to the volley at the hats. The Tenth Caval
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page269" id="page269"></a>[pg 269]</span>
+ry had
+fought Indians too long in the West to be foiled in that manner.</p>
+
+<p>We were annoyed much by the Spanish sharpshooters stationed in tops of
+the beautiful palms and other trees of dense foliage. A number of
+these guerillas were found provided with seats, water and other
+necessaries, and I am told some of them had evidently robbed our dead
+to secure themselves an American uniform, that they might still carry
+on their nefarious work undetected.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the disabled received their second and some their mortal
+wound, while being conveyed from the field by litter-bearers.</p>
+
+<p>Though it was the tendency for a time to give the sharpshooter story
+little or no credence, but to lay the matter to "spent bullets"; it
+seemed almost out of the question that "spent bullets" should annoy
+our Division Hospital, some four or five miles from the Spanish works.
+It would also seem equally as absurd that a bullet could be trained to
+turn angles, as several of our men were hit while assembled for
+transfer to general hospital and receiving temporary treatment at the
+dressing station located in an elbow of the San Juan River.</p>
+
+<p>The Division Hospital was so harassed that it was necessary to order
+four Troops of the 9th U.S. Cavalry there for guard. While en route to
+the hospital on the morning of July 2 with wounded, I saw a squad of
+the 2nd U.S. Cavalry after one of these annoying angels, not 20 feet
+from the road. On arrival at the hospital I was told by a comrade that
+several had been knocked from their stage of action. On July 1, our
+Color-Sergeant was shot from a tree after our line had passed beneath
+the tree where he was located. July 3, three more fell in response to
+a volley through tree tops, and on July 14, while waiting the hand to
+reach the hour for the bombar
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page270" id="page270"></a>[pg 270]</span>
+dment of the city, one of the scoundrels
+deliberately ascended a tree in plain view of, and within two hundred
+yards of, our line. It was a good thing that the white flag for
+surrender appeared before the hour to commence firing, otherwise Spain
+would have had at least one less to haggle with on account of back
+pay.</p>
+
+<p>To locate a sharpshooter using smokeless powder among the dense
+tropical growth may be compared with "looking for a needle in a
+haystack."</p>
+
+<p>The killed and wounded in battle present a scene well calculated to
+move the most callous. Men shot and lacerated in every conceivable
+manner; some are expressionless; some just as they appeared in life;
+while others are pinched and drawn and otherwise distorted, portraying
+agony in her most distressful state. Of the wounded, in their anguish,
+some are perfectly quiet; others are heard praying; some are calling
+for their mothers, while others are giving out patriotic utterances,
+urging their comrades on to victory, or bidding them farewell as they
+pass on to the front. July 1, in passing a wounded comrade, he told me
+that he could whip the cowardly Spaniard who shot him, in a fair fist
+fight.</p>
+
+<p>During the first day's battle many interesting sights were witnessed.
+The new calibre 30 Gatling guns were in action. These cruel machines
+were peppering away several hundred shots each per minute and sweeping
+their front from right to left, cutting down shrubbery and Spaniards
+like grain before the reaper. I observed the excellent service of the
+Hotchkiss Mountain gun; they certainly do their work to perfection and
+well did the Dons know it. Many shots fired into the "blind ditches
+and blockhouses" of the enemy caused them to scatter like rats. These
+guns use a percussion shell nearly t
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page271" id="page271"></a>[pg 271]</span>
+wo inches, and can be packed on
+mules. They were designed for light service with cavalry on the
+frontier. Four of these little beauties were manned by men of the
+Tenth Cavalry. The Spanish made it so hot for the boys that they would
+have to roll the gun under cover to load, and then steal it back to
+fire.</p>
+
+<p>I saw one of our light batteries of artillery go in position under
+fire at the foot of San Juan Hill. The movement was swiftly and
+skillfully executed. A most interesting feature of this was to see the
+Caissons, drawn by six magnificent horses, off for ammunition. Three
+drivers to each outfit, one to each pair of horses; all plying the
+whip at every jump, would remind you of a Roman chariot race coming
+around on their last heat.</p>
+
+<p>Wheeled vehicles of war suffer more than other troops, on account of
+their stationary positions. It is here that the dreaded sharpshooter
+comes in for glory, by picking off the gunners and other individuals.</p>
+
+<p>Pack trains were seen dashing along the line with that always
+absolutely essential&mdash;ammunition&mdash;thereby gladdening the hearts of the
+boys who were doing their utmost to expend every round in their belts
+to gain another foot of Spanish territory.</p>
+
+<p>During all these stirring events the stomachs of the real heroes were
+not neglected, and most certainly not along our part of the line. Pack
+mules were brought right up to the line under a hot fire, loaded with
+sugar, coffee, bacon and hardtack, all of which was in plenty. Some of
+the mules were killed and wounded, but this did not retard the advance
+of the train. When near the firing line some one called, "Whose
+rations?" A prompt reply, "Hungry soldiers."</p>
+
+<p>The daring horseman was all that was needed to m
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page272" id="page272"></a>[pg 272]</span>
+ake the situation
+complete. Without participation of cavalry, the ideal warrior
+disappears from the scene, and the battle and-picture of war is robbed
+of its most attractive feature.</p>
+
+<p>Late in the afternoon, July 1, I was directed to take Saddler Sergeant
+Smith and bring to the firing line all the men I could find of the
+regiment. Going to the dressing station, collected those who had
+brought or assisted wounded there, thence across a portion of the
+field passed over a few hours previous. Men were found almost
+exhausted, soaking wet, or a solid mass of mud, resting as comfortably
+as if in the finest of beds; many of them had been on picket duty all
+night before, to which was added the hard day's work not then
+completed. After locating all I could, we went to the crest of the San
+Juan Hill, to the left of the sunken road, where the First U.S.
+Cavalry was reforming, and there picked up a few more who had joined
+that regiment.</p>
+
+<p>The Tenth Cavalry having in the meantime taken another position, I set
+out to find it, going in front, telling Smith to bring up the rear. We
+were detained a short time near Sunken Roads by shells from Cervera's
+fleet, which were falling in it at a lively rate. Barbed wire
+prevented us from "running the gauntlet." Shortly after crossing the
+road an officer passed us, his horse pushed to his utmost, telling us
+to take all the ammunition that we possibly could on the firing line.
+About that instant, the pack train came thundering by, which we
+relieved of a few thousand rounds in short order. I was much amused at
+one of the men who innocently asked, "Where are we to get axes to
+burst these strong boxes?" The job was speedily accomplished before
+the boxes were on the ground good, and most certainly in less time
+than it would have taken to explain matters to the inexperienced. We
+were soo
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page273" id="page273"></a>[pg 273]</span>
+n off again, tramping all over the country, through darkness,
+running into wire entanglements, outposts and pickets, and within
+fifty yards of the enemy (subsequently ascertained).</p>
+
+<p>About 11.00 P.M. found Colonel Roosevelt a few hundred yards from the
+Spanish lines with some of my regiment, the First Cavalry, and Rough
+Riders, at work on trenches, where we reported. All seemed glad to
+have my little reinforcement, about 65 men, and ammunition. I never
+felt so relieved at anything as I did to get that herculean task off
+my hands, a job as hard as working a problem in the third book of
+Euclid. The men were so tired that they would lie down at every stop
+to find the right road or the way out of the wire entanglements
+constantly encountered. I have never seen in a book anything to equal
+the Spanish wire entanglements. Barbed wire was stretched in every
+nook and corner, through streams, grass, and from two inches to six
+feet in height, and from a corkscrew to a cable in design. It takes
+the nerve of a circus man to get men along when they are so exhausted
+that every place feels alike to them, and that they would gladly give
+away Mr. Jim Hill's fortune if they possessed it, for a few hours'
+sleep.</p>
+
+<p>On arrival at the front, lunch was about over or just ready.
+Lieutenant E.D. Anderson (10th Cavalry) gave me two and one-half
+hardtacks from his supply, which he carried in his bosom. I was soon
+down for a little rest; all desultory firing had ceased; the pick and
+the shovel were the only things to disturb the quietude of that
+anxious night. Had been down but a short time when aroused by one of
+the Rough Riders, who had some rice and meat in an ammunition box
+which he brought from the captured blockhouse. The meat was
+undoubtedly mule, as the longer I chewed it the larg
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page274" id="page274"></a>[pg 274]</span>
+er and more spongy
+it got, and were it not for the fact that I had had some experience
+in the same line many years before in Mexico while in pursuit of
+hostile Indians, I would certainly have accused our best friends
+(Rough Riders) of feeding us rubber. I made another effort for a
+little sleep, and was again aroused by some one passing around
+hardtack, raw bacon, etc., with instructions as to where to go to cook
+it. I thanked him and carefully laid it aside to resume my nap. At
+2.40 A.M. the pickets were having such a lively set to, that I thought
+the general engagement was on. It was at this time I discovered that I
+was shivering cold, and that my teeth were rattling equal to a
+telegraph sounder; so under the circumstances, I concluded not to try
+for any more sleep. The dew was falling thick and heavy; no coat, no
+blanket, top shirt torn in strips from the brush, and undershirt wet
+and in my pack, thrown off on coming into battle.</p>
+
+<p>Early July 22nd the artillery took position on our left. Pickets kept
+up firing from 2.40 A.M. until 5.25, when the engagement became
+general. Shortly after 6.00 A.M. our artillery opened on the Spanish
+works, who promptly returned the compliment. During the firing the
+Dons exploded a shell in the muzzle of one of our pieces. Adjutant
+Barnum fell at 6.30 A.M.; his wound was promptly dressed, when I
+started to the Division Hospital with him. Though seriously hurt, I
+have never seen a better natured man. While en route, we laid him down
+to eat a can of salmon <i>found in the road</i>. In response to his query,
+"What's up, Sergeant?" the salmon was passed him; he helped himself,
+no further questions were asked, and the journey was resumed. On
+arrival at the hospital he was quickly examined and placed on a
+comfortable co
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page275" id="page275"></a>[pg 275]</span>
+t. Many of the attendants were completely played-out
+from overwork.</p>
+
+<p>A visit to a field hospital will have a lasting place in your memory.
+Every way you turn, amid the cries and groans, you get a beck or call
+to ease this, or hand me that, and one feels badly because of his
+inability to extend them material aid in their sufferings.</p>
+
+<p>On returning to the front, I found the regiment as hotly engaged as
+when I left it some hours before. As the fighting was from trenches,
+many of our men were wounded by shells. Sharpshooters were on hand as
+usual. I was sent to the Captain of Troop E, under the crest of the
+hill, with orders to dig an approach to one of the enemy's trenches,
+evacuated the day before; also to bury some of their dead. While
+delivering the order, it being necessary to get very close on account
+of the noise, one of those ever vigilant sharpshooters put a bullet
+between our faces. The Captain asked me to cut the wire fence so his
+troops could get through more rapidly; while telling me, another
+bullet passed so close as to disturb the Captain's mustache. He took
+it good-naturedly, only remarking as he smiled, "Pretty close,
+Sergeant-Major!"</p>
+
+<p>Firing ceased about 8 P.M. After all had had supper we changed
+position further to the right, where work on trenches was resumed.
+About 10.30 P.M. the Spaniards made an attack upon our lines, and I
+have never before or since seen such terrific firing; the whole
+American line, which almost encircled the city, was a solid flame of
+fire. The enemy's artillery replied, also their much-praised
+"Mausers," but to no avail; they had opened the ball, but Uncle Sam's
+boys did not feel like yielding one inch of the territory so dearly
+bought.</p>
+
+<p>About midnight all hands were aroused by the dynamite cruiser Vesuvius
+"coughing" for the Dons. The roar was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page276" id="page276"></a>[pg 276]</span>
+ so great that it seemed to shake
+the whole island. To the uninitiated it would appear that some one
+had taken a few mountains several miles up in a balloon and thrown
+them down.</p>
+
+<p>July 3. Firing by pickets commenced very early, and quite heavy, at
+5.40 A.M. Terrific cannonading to the seaward was heard between 9 and
+10 A.M. As there was some talk of the enemy making a sortie, all eyes
+were open. Dirt began falling in the pits from the jar, bells could be
+heard tolling in the city, and steam whistles in the harbor. There was
+much speculation as to what was in progress. I'll say that there were
+many glad hearts when the news reached us that <i>Sampson's fleet was
+King of the Seas</i>. At 12 M. all firing was ordered off, for flag of
+truce to enter the Spanish lines. When the order for cease firing was
+given, one of the troopers laid his gun upon the parapet and remarked
+that he "would not take $2000 for his experience, but did not want a
+cent's worth more." Work on bomb-proofs and breast works was continued
+incessantly until news of the surrender reached us.</p>
+
+<p>July 4. Flag of truce all day; national and regimental colors placed
+on parapets. At noon the regiment paraded, and all hearts cheered by
+the patriotic telegram of the Commander-in-Chief&mdash;His Excellency,
+President McKinley. Refugees, in droves, could be seen leaving for
+several days, notice of bombardment having been served on the city.</p>
+
+<p>July 5. There was much excitement when Lieutenant Hobson and party
+crossed our lines.</p>
+
+<p>During truce, the monotony was broken occasionally by the presence of
+Spanish soldiers in quest of something to eat or desiring to
+surrender.</p>
+
+<p>Truce was off July 10 at 4 P.M. Bombardment of the city commenced by
+the army and navy combined, which continued un
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page277" id="page277"></a>[pg 277]</span>
+til 2 P.M. 11th.
+Gatling, dynamite, rapid-firing and Hotchkiss guns were so well
+trained that the Dons scarcely dared to raise their heads, and their
+firing was soon silenced. During the attack our part of the line
+suffered no loss. While occupying these works, it was discovered that
+the gun of the enemy that <i>annoyed us most was quite near a large
+building covered with Red Cross flags</i>.</p>
+
+<p>During the truce all of our dead were located and buried. It was sad,
+indeed, to see the vultures swarming like flies, when we knew so well
+their prey.</p>
+
+<p>Though prepared to, several times, no shots were exchanged after July
+11, and all was quiet until date of capitulation. The hardest rain
+ever witnessed, accompanied by terrific thunder and lightning, was on
+the last day of the engagement. Trenches were flooded and everything
+appeared as a sea.</p>
+
+<p>July 17, at 9 A.M., the regiment, with the remainder of the army, was
+assembled over the trenches to witness the formal surrender of General
+Toral, with the Spanish forces. Owing to the dense tropical growth,
+and its similarity in color to their clothing, little or nothing could
+be seen, beyond the straw hats of the Dons, as they marched through
+the jungles. At 12 M., we were again placed in the same position, to
+salute "Old Glory" as she ascended over the Governor's palace in the
+city, which was told by Capron's battery U.S. Artillery. At the first
+shot, every individual tested his lungs to their fullest capacity,
+bands of music playing national airs.</p>
+
+<p>Spanish soldiers were soon over our lines, trading off swords, wine,
+cigarettes and trinkets for hard tack and bacon. This soon ended, as
+there were positive orders against our fraternizing. The Spaniards
+were a fine looking lot of young men; though generally small in
+stature, and were very neat a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page278" id="page278"></a>[pg 278]</span>
+nd clean, considering. The officers were
+an intelligent and dignified looking set. The Dons were away ahead on
+ammunition, and away behind on eatables. A few musty, hard tack,
+thrown in our trenches, were devoured like so much fresh beef, by so
+many hungry wolves.</p>
+
+<p>Campaigning in the tropics entails many hardships, though unavoidable
+and only to be expected, in war. War is horrible in any aspect in
+which it may be viewed. Even those features of it intended to be
+merciful, are full of harshness and rigor; and after all, fighting is
+the easiest part.</p>
+
+<p>As the capitulation was complete, and Santiago was our's, we were
+ordered to change camp to a more healthful locality, with a view to
+allowing the men to recuperate. While en route many refugees were met
+returning to the city, men and women, with the scantiest clothing
+imaginable; large children even worse&mdash;in a nude state&mdash;all were
+making signs for something to eat.</p>
+
+<p>In passing through El Caney, filth of all descriptions was piled up in
+the streets; stock was seen standing inside dwellings with occupants;
+young and old were emaciated&mdash;walking skeletons; children with
+stomachs bloated to thrice their natural size&mdash;due to the unsanitary
+condition of the huts, so I was informed.</p>
+
+<p>The bare facts are, that "half has never been told" regarding the true
+condition of the Cubans, and it is truly a Godsend that "Uncle Sam"
+was not delayed another day in letting the Don's breathe a little of
+nature's sweetest fragrance of the nineteenth century&mdash;Civilization.</p>
+
+<p>The portion of the island I saw appears to be a beautiful park
+deserted and laid waste by the lavish application of the torch for
+many years. Magnificent m
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page279" id="page279"></a>[pg 279]</span>
+ansions, or dwellings, in ruins; habitation
+scant, except near towns.</p>
+
+<p>There were no domestic animals, except a few for saddle purposes, nor
+were there crops to be seen. No use whatever appears to be made of the
+luxuriant pasturage and rich fields. Sugar houses and sheds on
+plantations are in a state of decay, and the huge kettles for boiling
+deeply coated with rust.</p>
+
+<p>The climate of Cuba offers all the essentials, heat, moisture and
+organic matter, for the development of germ life in its most active
+form.</p>
+
+<p>The great heat and moisture, so excellent for the development of
+infected wounds, and for the rapid decomposing of the heavy
+undergrowth cannot, I believe, be exceeded anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>The frequent tropical showers, invariably followed by a hot steam,
+along with which germs seem to float; the consequent exposure of the
+men to that glaring heat and moisture, lowered the general tone of the
+system so that they were especially liable to attacks of miasmatic
+diseases (malarial and typhoid fevers and dysentery.)</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the dense humidity, clothing does not dry so long as it
+remains on the person, but must be removed, a condition that was
+absolutely impossible for many days on the field before Santiago. To
+this alone, much of our sickness may be attributed.</p>
+
+<p>Our new camp, pitched on the eminence of El Caney, about one and
+one-half miles from the village, overlooking the city and bay of
+Santiago, with its excellent water, shade, grass, and increased
+comforts, which were daily shipped from our transports, presented a
+scene far more conciliatory <span class="pagenum"><a name="page280" id="page280"></a>[pg 280]</span>
+than had been witnessed about the Tenth Horse for many days.</p>
+
+
+<p class="heading">MEDALS OF HONOR AND CERTIFICATES OF MERIT GRANTED TO COLORED SOLDIERS
+FOR DISTINGUISHED SERVICES IN THE CUBAN CAMPAIGN.</p>
+
+<p class="heading">OFFICIAL.</p>
+<pre class="note">
+                        MEDALS OF HONOR.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+     Name.       |  Rank  |  Regiment. |  Troop or Co.| Remarks.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+Bell, Dennis     |  Pvt.  |  10th Cav. |  Troop H.    |For gallantry
+Lee, Fitz        |  Pvt.  |  10th Cav. |  Troop M.    |in action at
+Tompkins, Wm. H. |  Pvt.  |  10th Cav. |  Troop M.    |Tayabacoa, Cuba,
+Wanton, Geo. H.  |  Pvt.  |  10th Cav. |  Troop M.    |June 30, 1898.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+                      CERTIFICATES OF MERIT.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+    Name.        |Rank.     | Regiment. | Troop or Co.| Remarks.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+Bates, James     |Pvt.      |  9th Cav. | Troop H.    |
+Crosby, Scott    |Pvt.      | 24th Inf. | Comp. A.    |
+Davis, Edward    |Pvt.      |  9th Cav. | Troop H.    |
+Elliott, J.      |Sergt.    | 10th Cav. | Troop D.    |
+Fasit, Benjamin  |Sergt.    | 10th Cav. | Troop E.    |
+Gaither, O.      |Q.M.Sergt | 10th Cav. | Troop B.    |
+Goff, G.W.       |Sergt.    |  9th Cav. | Troop B.    |
+Graham, J.       |Sergt.    | 10th Cav. | Troop E.    |
+Hagen, Abram     |Corp.     | 24th Inf. | Comp. G.    |
+Herbert, H.T.    |Corp.     | 10th Cav. | Troop E.    |
+Houston, Adam    |1st Sergt.| 10th Cav. | Troop C.    |
+Jackson, J.      |1st Sergt.|  9th Cav. | Troop C.    |
+Jackson, Elisha  |Sergt.    |  9th Cav. | Troop H.    |
+Jackson, Peter   |Corp.     | 24th Inf. | Comp. G.    |
+Jefferson, C.W.  |1st Sergt.|  9th Cav. | Troop B.    |
+McCoun, P.       |1st Sergt.| 10th Cav. | Troop E.    |
+Moore, Loney     |Pvt.      | 24th Inf. | Comp. A.    |
+Oden, Oscar      |Musician  | 10th Cav. | ........    |
+Payne, William   |Sergt.    | 10th Cav. | Troop E.    |
+Pumphrey, Geo. W |Corp.     |  9th Cav. | Troop H.    |
+Satchell, James  |Sergt.    | 24th Inf. | Comp. A.    |
+Smith, L.        |Pvt.      | 10th Cav. | Troop D.    |
+Thornton, William|Corp.     | 24th Inf. | Comp. G.    |
+Walker, J.       |Corp.     | 10th Cav. | Troop D.    |
+Williams, John T.|Sergt.    | 24th Inf. | Comp. G.    |
+Williams, R.     |Corp.     | 24th Inf. | Comp. B.    |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+</pre>
+
+<p>Besides the Certificates of Merit and Medals of Honor, mentioned
+above, and the promotions to commissions i
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page281" id="page281"></a>[pg 281]</span>
+n the volunteer services,
+there were some instances of promotion to non-commissioned officers'
+positions of men in the ranks or junior grade for conspicuous
+gallantry. Notably among such were Benjamin F. Sayre, of the
+Twenty-fourth, promoted to Sergeant-Major for gallantry at San Juan,
+and Private James W. Peniston, of the Tenth Cavalry, promoted to
+Squadron Sergeant-Major for conspicuous bravery at Las Guasimas.
+Others there may be whose names are not available at this time.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> "The Ninth and Tenth Cavalry regiments fought one on
+either side of mine at Santiago, and I wish no better men beside me in
+battle than these colored troops showed themselves to be. Later on,
+when I come to write of the campaign, I shall have much to say about
+them."&mdash;T. Roosevelt.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> The major commanding the squadron in which Sergeant
+Givens' troops served, writes to the sergeant the following letter:
+</p>
+<blockquote><p>Sergeant William H. Givens, Troop D, 10th Cavalry, Fort
+Clark, Texas.
+</p><p>
+Sergeant:&mdash;When making my report as commander of the Second
+Squadron, 10th U. S. Cavalry, for action of July 1, 1898, at
+San Juan Hills, I did not mention any enlisted men by name,
+as I was absent from the regiment at the time of making the
+report and without access to records, so that I could not
+positively identify and name certain men who were
+conspicuous during the fight; but I recollect finding a
+detachment of Troop D under your command on the firing line
+during the afternoon of July 1st. Your service and that of
+your men at that time was most creditable, and you deserve
+special credit for having brought your detachment promptly
+to the firing line when left without a commissioned officer.
+</p>
+<p class="author-up">THEO. J. WINT,<br />
+Lieutenant-Colonel, 6th U.S. Cavalry.<br />
+Second Lieutenant, 10th Cavalry.<br />
+</p>
+<p>True copy:</p>
+</blockquote>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Extract from <i>The Statesman</i>, Denver, after the
+departure of the 25th Infantry, and the arrival of the 34th:
+</p>
+<blockquote><p>Two policemen killed, the murderer at large and his comrades
+of the 34th Regiment busy boasting of their sympathy for
+him, and extolling his deed to the skies, yet not a single
+petition has been prepared to have the regiment removed. The
+25th Infantry, with its honor undimmed by any such wanton
+crime, with a record unexcelled by any regiment in the
+service, was the target for all sorts of criticism and
+persecution as soon as it arrived. The one is a white
+regiment, composed of the scum of the earth, the other a
+black regiment composed of men who have yet to do one thing
+of which they should be ashamed. Yet Denver welcomes the one
+with open arms and salutes with marked favor, while she
+barely suffered the other to remain.
+</p><p>
+Had it been a negro soldier who committed the dastardly deed
+of Saturday night the War Department would have been deluged
+with complaints and requests for removal, but not a word has
+been said against the 34th. Prejudice and hatred blacker
+than the wings of night has so envenomed the breasts of the
+people that fairness is out of the question. Be he black, no
+matter how noble and good, a man must be despised. Be he
+white, he may commit the foulest of crimes and yet have his
+crimes condoned.</p></blockquote>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/image02.png" alt="Chapter End Graphic" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page282" id="page282"></a>[pg 282]</span>
+</p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>The Colored Volunteers.</h3>
+
+<p class="hang">The Ninth Ohio Battalion&mdash;Eighth Illinois&mdash;Twenty-third
+Kansas-Third North Carolina&mdash;Sixth Virginia&mdash;Third
+Alabama&mdash;The Immunes.</p>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+  Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>The return of the army and the repatriation of the Spanish army from
+Cuba, brought before the country for immediate solution the problem of
+garrisoning that island; and in a very short time the question of
+similar nature regarding Porto Rico. Ten regiments of immunes had been
+organized in the volunteer service partly in anticipation of such a
+situation. Four of these regiments were composed of colored enlisted
+men. The regiments were classed as United States Volunteer Infantry,
+and were numbered from one to ten, the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and
+Tenth being colored.</p>
+
+<p>Of these four colored regiments the officers above first lieutenants
+were white men, except the chaplains, and in some cases the surgeons.
+Very little care had been taken in enlisting the men, as it was
+important to get the regiments in the field as soon as possible; yet
+of them as a whole General Breckinridge, Inspector-General, speaks as
+follows: "The colored regiments of immunes, so called, raised for this
+war, have turned out, so far as can be judged from their camp life (as
+none of them have been in any actual campaign), very satisfactory. The
+regular colored regiments won golden opinions in battle. The
+experiment of having so many colored officers has not yet shown its
+full results. Certainly we should
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page283" id="page283"></a>[pg 283]</span>
+have the best obtainable officers
+for our volunteers, and therefore some such men as Colonel Young, who
+is a graduate of the Military Academy at West Point, whether white or
+black, must be sought for."</p>
+
+<p>Besides these four colored regiments of immunes, so-called, there were
+other State organizations composed entirely of colored men, mustered
+into the United States service, as for example the Ninth Battalion of
+the Ohio National Guard. This organization was composed of four
+companies, with colored captains and lieutenants, the staff officers
+also being colored, the commanding officer of the battalion being
+Major Young, who was a first lieutenant in the Regular Army, a
+graduate from the Military Academy, and an officer of experience. He
+is the person referred to as <i>Colonel</i> Young by General Breckinridge,
+cited just above. This battalion, although not permitted to do any
+active campaigning, maintained itself well in that most trying of all
+duties for raw troops&mdash;camp duty&mdash;winning a good record in the South
+as well as in the North, having been stationed in Virginia,
+Pennsylvania and lastly in South Carolina; from which latter place it
+was mustered out, and the men proceeded to their homes in an orderly
+manner, reflecting credit upon themselves and the officers under whom
+they had served. This organization is mentioned first, because it was
+the only one of its kind commanded by a Regular Army officer, and a
+man who had received scientific military training.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p>
+
+<p>Two of these volunteer regiments, the Eighth Illinois and the
+Twenty-third Kansas, reached Cuba and made history there, in garrison
+service, coming in direct contact with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page284" id="page284"></a>[pg 284]</span>
+ the Ninth Immunes, and in no
+sense suffering in comparison thereto. The Eighth Illinois being the
+first to go to the front, in a sense deserves to be noticed here
+first. This remarkable regiment was developed out of the Ninth
+Battalion, Illinois National Guard, and owes its origin to the
+persistent efforts of Messrs. John R. Marshall, Robert R. Jackson,
+Franklin Dennison, E.H. Wright, Rev. R.C. Ransom, Rev. J.W. Thomas,
+S.B. Turner and doubtless many others whose names do not appear. These
+gentlemen named called upon the Governor of their State the next day
+after the President had issued his call for 175,000 volunteers, and
+received from that official the assurance that if another call should
+be made they should have the opportunity to recruit their battalion to
+a regiment, and that he would "call that regiment first into the
+service," and "that every officer in that regiment will be a colored
+man."</p>
+
+<p>After receiving this encouragement, the leaders began at once the work
+of organizing and recruiting, and when the second call came, May 25th,
+the regiment was well under way, and soon ready to go into camp to
+prepare for service. On June 30th it assembled in Springfield from the
+following places: Seven hundred men from Chicago; one hundred and
+twenty from Cairo; a full company from Quincy, and smaller numbers
+from Mound City, Metropolis and Litchfield, and nearly a company from
+Springfield. The regiment was sworn in during the latter half of July,
+the muster roll showing 1,195 men and 46 officers, every one of whom
+was of African descent except one private in a Chicago company.</p>
+
+<p>Of these forty-six officers, ten had received college education, six
+were lawyers, and the others were educated in the public schools, or
+had served in the Regular Army as non-commissioned officers. Many of
+them were directly fro
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page285" id="page285"></a>[pg 285]</span>
+m Illinois, that is in the sense of having been
+born and reared in the State, and were fully accustomed to the full
+exercise of their rights as men and citizens. In character and
+intelligence the official element of the Eighth was about up to the
+standard of the volunteer army, as events subsequently proved.</p>
+
+<p>Going into camp with the Ninth, white, this latter regiment, early in
+August, received an order to move to a Southern camp en route for
+Cuba, leaving the Eighth behind, greatly to the chagrin of both
+officers and men. Governor Tanner was evidently disturbed by this
+move, and expressed himself in the following language: "Even from the
+very doors of the White House have I received letters asking and
+advising me not to officer this regiment with colored men, but I
+promised to do so, and I have done it. I shall never rest until I see
+this regiment&mdash;my regiment&mdash;on the soil of Cuba, battling for the
+right and for its kinsmen."</p>
+
+<p>Later the misfortunes of the First Illinois proved the opportunity of
+the Eighth. This regiment was in Cuba, suffering terribly with the
+fever, the men going down under its effects so rapidly that the
+Colonel in command implored Governor Tanner "to use all influence at
+Washington to secure the immediate recall of the First Illinois." When
+the Governor received this message he sent for Colonel Marshall, of
+the Eighth, and asked him to ascertain the sentiments of the officers
+and men of his regiment in regard to being sent to relieve the First.
+On the 4th day of August Colonel Marshall was able to send to
+Washington the following dispatch:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"H. C. Corbin, Adjutant-General:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I called the officers of the Eighth Illinois, colored, in
+conference and they are unanimously and enthusiastically in
+favor of being sent to relieve the First Illinois at
+Santiago."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>To this hearty dispatch came the following reply:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The Secretary of War appreciates very much the offer of the
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page286" id="page286"></a>[pg 286]</span>
+Eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry for duty in Santiago,
+and has directed that the regiment be sent there by steamer
+Yale, leaving New York next Tuesday. The main trouble with
+our troops now in Cuba is that they are suffering from
+exhaustion and exposure incident to one of the most trying
+campaigns to which soldiers have ever been subjected."</p>
+
+<p class="author-up">
+"H.C. Corbin,<br />
+"<i>Adjutant-General</i>."<br />
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>This action on the part of the regiment is said to have so pleased the
+President that on hearing it he declared it was the proudest moment of
+his life.</p>
+
+<p>On the 9th of August the regiment left Springfield, and in passing
+through Illinois and Ohio was greeted with the most generous
+enthusiasm, the people supplying the men with free lunches at every
+station. This was the period when the sympathy of the whole country
+was turned toward the colored soldier in consequence of the reports of
+valor and heroism that had been circulated concerning the black
+regulars. On the afternoon of the 11th the Yale cast off her lines,
+and with the first American Negro regiment that the world has ever
+seen, steamed out of New York harbor amid the ringing of bells and
+shrieks of steam whistles, and four days later, August 15, landed in
+Cuba. The regiment remained in Cuba until March 10, performing
+garrison duty so well that General Breckenridge said it was "as fine a
+volunteer regiment as was ever mustered into the service," and that it
+was "a shame to muster out of service such an excellent regiment."</p>
+
+<p>The Twenty-third Kansas, made up in that State and officered as was
+the Eighth Illinois, by men of the same race, with the enlisted men,
+arrived in Cuba August 30, and in company with the Eighth Illinois
+Regiment, was stationed in the country about San Luis, with
+headquarters at that place, Colonel Marshall, of the Illinois
+Regiment, serving as comm
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page287" id="page287"></a>[pg 287]</span>
+ander of the post, and also as Governor of
+the Province of San Luis. A detachment of the Illinois Regiment,
+under command of Major Jackson, was sent to Palma Soriana, and did
+excellent work there in the preservation of order between the Cubans
+and Spaniards, who were living together in that place in outward peace
+but in secret resentful hostility. Major Jackson managed affairs so
+well that both parties came to admire him, and when he was called away
+expressed their regret. Captain Roots, who commanded the post after
+the departure of Major Jackson, was equally fortunate, especially with
+the Cubans, and when it was thought his command was to be removed, the
+citizens generally united in a petition to the General commanding,
+asking that both the Captain and his command might remain in the city.
+The fact is also noted by the chroniclers of the regiment that several
+marriages took place in Palma Soriana between soldiers of the Eighth
+Illinois and Cuban maidens.</p>
+
+<p>The Eighth Regiment was finally settled in San Luis, occupying the old
+Spanish barracks and arsenal, and under Colonel Marshall's supervision
+the city was put in fine sanitary condition, streets and yards being
+carefully policed; meanwhile under the reign of order and peace which
+the Colonel's just methods established, confidence prevailed, business
+revived and the stagnation which had so long hung like a fog over the
+little city, departed, and in its stead came an era of bustling
+activity.</p>
+
+<p>All was peaceful and prosperous, both with the citizens and the
+garrison, until the Ninth United States Volunteers came in the
+vicinity. Then a difficulty sprang up in which both regiments became
+involved, although it was in no sense serious, but it afforded a
+pretext for the removal of the Eighth I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page288" id="page288"></a>[pg 288]</span>
+llinois from the city. The
+event turned out all the better for the Eighth, as it enabled them to
+establish Camp Marshall, about three miles from the city, in a healthy
+neighborhood, where they remained until ordered home to be mustered
+out. The regiment came back to Chicago in fine condition and was
+tendered an enthusiastic welcome by that great city. Thus two entire
+regiments represented the country abroad in this, its first, foreign
+war with a European power.</p>
+
+<p>It should also be recorded that although the Ninth United States
+Volunteers was composed of persons who were classed as immune, and had
+come chiefly from Louisiana, and notwithstanding that the officers of
+the regiment above lieutenants were white men, and the colonel an
+officer of the Regular Army of long experience, and was specially
+praised by so good a sanitarian as General Wood for having been,
+constant and untiring in his efforts to look after the welfare of his
+men, and that the surgeons of the regiment were white men, that deaths
+among the colored men numbered one officer and seventy-three enlisted
+men. In striking contrast with this record of the immune regiment is
+that of the Eighth Illinois, which was made up entirely of residents
+of that State and officered throughout by colored men. Its medical
+officers were men of high character, and its losses by death were just
+twenty, or but little over one-fourth the number that occurred in the
+immune regiment. An efficient auxiliary society to this regiment was
+formed of colored ladies of Chicago who forwarded to the sick in Cuba
+more than six hundred dollars worth of well chosen supplies, which did
+much for the comfort of those in the hospital; but this would not
+account for the great difference in the death rate of the two
+regiments. Though not immune, the Eighth Illinois fa
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page289" id="page289"></a>[pg 289]</span>
+red very much
+better than the so-called immune regiment, although the latter had
+the benefit of white officers. The experience of the Twenty-third
+Kansas did not differ in any important respect from that of the Eighth
+Illinois. Both regiments returned to their homes in March, 1899, and
+were mustered out of the service, leaving behind them good records for
+efficiency.</p>
+
+<p>The Sixth Virginia Regiment consisted of eight companies and was under
+command of Lieutenant-Colonel Richard C. Croxton, of the Regular Army,
+white, with Majors J.B. Johnson and W.H. Johnson, colored. It was
+mustered into service during the latter part of the summer and went
+into camp near Knoxville, Tennessee. Here an order came from Corps
+Headquarters, at Lexington, Kentucky, directing that nine of the
+officers, including one major, should appear before a board of
+examiners in order to give evidence of their fitness to command. The
+officers named, regarding this as uncalled for, immediately tendered
+their resignations. The vacancies thus created were filled by the
+Governor of the State, the appointees being white men. These white
+officers on arriving at the camp and finding themselves unwelcome,
+immediately followed in the wake of their colored predecessors, and
+tendered their resignations.</p>
+
+<p>The difficulties arising from this friction were somehow adjusted, but
+in what manner the reports available at this time do not show. Moving
+to Macon, Georgia, the regiment remained in the service until some
+time in the winter, when it was mustered out. Much was said by the
+local papers to the detriment of the men composing this regiment, but
+viewing their action from the standpoint of the civilian and citizen,
+it does not appear reprehensible. They had volunteered with the
+understanding that their own officers, officers wit
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page290" id="page290"></a>[pg 290]</span>
+h whom they were
+well acquainted, and in whose friendship they held a place, should
+command them, and when they saw these officers displaced and white
+strangers put in their stead, they felt a pardonable indignation, and
+took their own way of expressing it. As soldiers, their conduct in
+resisting authority, cannot be commended.</p>
+
+<p>The Third North Carolina Volunteer Infantry was organized as were the
+regiments of Illinois and Kansas, above described. The officers of the
+North Carolina Regiment were all colored men of that State and were
+men of character and note. Its commanding officer, Colonel Young, had
+held responsible positions under both State and National Governments,
+had been editor of a paper and member of the State Legislature and
+Major in the State militia. In character, he was above reproach, being
+a strict teetotaler and not even using tobacco. The regiment made a
+good record, but did not see any active service.</p>
+
+<p>A peculiar regiment was organized in Alabama, known as the Third
+Alabama Volunteer Infantry, in which the enlisted men were all colored
+and the officers all white. The regiment saw no service and attracted
+no attention outside of its immediate locality.</p>
+
+<p>Two companies of colored men with colored captains were also mustered
+into the United States service from Indiana, and finally attached to
+Colonel Huggins' command, although not becoming a part of his
+regiment, the Eighth Immunes. They were stationed at Fort Thomas, Ky.,
+and at Chickamauga, and were mustered out early. Their officers were
+men of intelligence who had acquired experience by several years'
+service in the militia, and the companies were exceptionally well
+drilled. They were designated Companies A and B and were commanded by
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page291" id="page291"></a>[pg 291]</span>
+
+Captains Porter and Buckner, with Lieutenant Thomas as Quartermaster.</p>
+
+<p>The organization of the four immune regiments, already mentioned, gave
+opportunity for ninety-six colored men to obtain commissions as
+lieutenants. A few of these positions were seized upon by influential
+young white men, who held them, but with no intention of ever serving
+in the regiments, as they found staff positions much more congenial to
+their tastes. The colored men who were appointed lieutenants in these
+regiments were generally either young men of ability and influence who
+had assisted in getting up their companies, and who in many cases had
+received some elementary military instruction as cadets, in school, or
+men who had distinguished themselves by efficiency or gallantry in the
+Regular Army. Some exceptions there were, of course, and a few
+received commissions in consequence of personal friendship and
+political considerations. Before these regiments were mustered out of
+the service about one-half of the lieutenants were men from the
+Regular Army.</p>
+
+<p>I am sure the reader will be pleased to learn that Sergeants Foster,
+Buck and Givens, whose deeds in Cuba have already been related, were
+rewarded with commissions, and that the gallant Thomas C. Butler, who
+rushed forward from his company's line and seized the Spanish standard
+at El Caney, was afterward permitted to serve in Cuba with the rank of
+a commissioned officer. Besides those named above, there were others
+also of marked ability and very respectable attainments who received
+commissions on general merit, as well as for gallantry. Chief among
+the class promoted for efficiency was First Lieutenant James R.
+Gillespie, formerly Post Quartermaster-Sergeant. Gillespie had served
+several years in the Tenth Cavalry and had proved himself an excellent
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page292" id="page292"></a>[pg 292]</span>
+soldier. Both in horsemanship and as marksman he was up to the
+standard, while his character and business qualifications were such
+as to secure for him a staff position of responsibility. As
+Quartermaster-Sergeant he held positions of important posts and filled
+them with great satisfaction. Because of his efficiency as a soldier
+he was given a commission as First Lieutenant and executed the duties
+of his office with the same ability that had marked his career as an
+enlisted man. From the Tenth Cavalry also came First Lieutenant Baker,
+whose commission was a tribute to his fidelity and efficiency. A
+soldier of high type he bore his commission and its honors as worthily
+as any son of our Republic. In the same category must be placed First
+Lieutenant Wm. McBryer, formerly Sergeant in the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry. McBryer had served in the Tenth Cavalry and had won a Medal
+of Honor in conflict with the Indians. He was a soldier distinguished
+by strength of character, prompt executiveness, quick decision and
+courage. He was also possessed of considerable literary skill, was a
+good speaker and attractive writer, and a man of fine parts. He was a
+valuable acquisition to the volunteer service and would have made a
+fine captain.</p>
+
+<p>Of the colored sergeants from the Regular Army who were given
+commissions in the volunteer service it would not be extravagant to
+say that all were men of worth, well-tried in the service, and there
+was scarcely one of them but could have successfully commanded a
+company. Lieutenant A.J. Smith, formerly First Sergeant in the
+Twenty-fifth Infantry, was so well informed in the paper work of the
+army and in company administration particularly that he was regarded
+as an authority, and he was so well experienced in the whole life of a
+soldier, in camp, field, garrison and in battle, that it
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page293" id="page293"></a>[pg 293]</span>
+ would have
+been difficult to find his superior in the army. To the credit of all
+of the enlisted men of the Regular Army referred to, who received
+commissions in the volunteer service, all served honorably and were
+mustered out without bringing any scandal of any sort upon the
+service.</p>
+
+<p>The colored volunteers in the service acquitted themselves as well as
+the average volunteer, and when mustered out proceeded to their homes
+about as others did. The treatment accorded them in some of the
+Southern cities, especially in Nashville, Tennessee, did not speak
+well for the loyalty of that section, nor was it such as might
+reasonably be expected from a people who had fared so well in the
+offices and honors of the short war. From the best sources available,
+it seems incumbent to say that the many charges alleged against the
+colored volunteers for excessive rioting and disorder were without
+proper foundation, and the assaults made upon them unjustifiable and
+cruel. The spirit of the assailants is best seen from a description of
+the attack made upon the unarmed discharged soldiers of the Eighth
+Immuners in Nashville, already alluded to. This description was made
+by the sheriff who participated in the brutality. An officer who was
+on the train, and who was asleep at the time, when aroused went into
+the car where the men were and found that they had been beaten and
+robbed, and in some instances their discharges taken from them and
+torn up, and their weapons and money taken from them by citizens. It
+was about one o'clock A.M. and the men were generally asleep when
+attacked. The sheriff gloats over it in language which ought not be
+allowed to disappear:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"It was the best piece of work I ever witnessed. The police
+went to the depot, not armed with the regulation 'billy,'
+but carrying stout hickory clubs about two and one-half feet
+long.</p></blockquote>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page294" id="page294"></a>[pg 294]</span>
+</p>
+<p>Their idea was that a mahogany or lignum vitae billy was too costly a
+weapon to be broken over a Negro's head. The police were on board the
+train before it stopped even, and the way they went for the Negroes
+was inspiring. The police tolerated no impudence, much less rowdyism,
+from the Negroes, and if a darky even looked mad, it was enough for
+some policeman to bend his club double over his head. In fact after
+the police finished with them they were the meekest, mildest, most
+polite set of colored men I ever saw." This language is respectfully
+dedicated to the memory of the proud city of Nashville, and presents
+to the readers the portrait of her police.</p>
+
+<p>Despite this vile treatment, the colored soldier went on to his home,
+ready again to respond to his country's call, and to rally to the
+defence of his country's flag, and, incidentally, to the preservation
+of the lives and homes of the misguided, heartless beings who can
+delight in his sufferings. The hickory club belongs to one sort of
+warrior; the rifle to quite another. The club and rifle represent
+different grades of civilization. The Negro has left the club; the
+language from Nashville does honor to the club. Billy and bully are
+the theme of this officer of the law, and for a "darkey even to look
+mad" is ample justification for "some policeman to bend his club
+double over his head." Were these policemen rioters? Or were they
+conservaters of the peace? Judge ye!</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page295" id="page295"></a>[pg 295]</span>
+</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/image04.png" alt="Chapter End Graphic" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="heading">OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE NINTH (SEPARATE) BATTALION, OHIO VOLUNTEER
+INFANTRY.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>By the Battalion Adjutant, Lieutenant Wilson Ballard.</i></p>
+
+<p>The Ninth Battalion, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, the only colored
+organization from Ohio in the Volunteer Army during the war with
+Spain, was, previous to the date of its muster into the United States
+service, known as the Ninth Battalion, Ohio National Guard. April
+25th, 1898, the battalion, consisting of three companies, A from
+Springfield, under Captain R.R. Rudd; B from Columbus, under Captain
+James Hopkins, and C from Xenia, under Captain Harry H. Robinson, was
+ordered into camp at Columbus, Ohio. The battalion was under the
+command of Major Charles Fillmore.</p>
+
+<p>May 14, 1898, the battalion was mustered into the volunteer service by
+Captain Rockefeller, U.S.A. Lieutenant Charles Young, U.S.A., then on
+duty at Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio, as professor of
+military science and tactics, was commissioned by Governor Bushnell as
+Major commanding the Ninth Battalion, O.V.I., relieving Major
+Fillmore. In order to enable Lieutenant Young to accept his volunteer
+commission, he was granted an indefinite leave of absence by the War
+Department.</p>
+
+<p>May 19, 1898, the command having been ordered to join the Second Army
+Corps at Camp Russell A. Alger, near Falls Church, Va., left Camp
+Bushnell and arrived at Camp Alger May 21, 1898.</p>
+
+<p>When Major-General Graham assumed command of the Second Army Corps and
+organized it into divisions, the battalion was placed in the
+provisional division. In June (exact date not remembered) the
+battalion was placed in the Second Brigade, Second Division, being
+brigaded with the Twelfth Pennsylvania and Seventh Illinois Regiments.
+The battalion was relieved from the Second Brigade, Second Division
+and placed in the Second Brigade, First Division, being brigaded with
+the Eighth Ohio and Sixth Massachusetts.</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page296" id="page296"></a>[pg 296]</span>
+</p>
+<p>A New Jersey regiment was relieved from duty as corps headquarters'
+guard late in June and the Ninth Battalion assigned to that duty. The
+battalion performed this duty until it was ordered South from Camp
+Meade, Penn., when it became separated from corps headquarters.
+Important outposts, such as the entrance to Falls Church and the
+guarding of the citizens' gardens and property, were under the charge
+of the command.</p>
+
+<p>When General Garretson's brigade (Second Brigade, First Division,
+consisting of the Eighth Ohio, Ninth Battalion and Sixth
+Massachusetts) was ordered to Cuba, General Graham, thinking that his
+entire Army Corps would soon be ordered to active service, requested
+the War Department, as the battalion was his headquarters guard, to
+let the battalion remain with him. (See telegrams Gen. Graham's report
+to the Secretary of War.) General Graham's request being honored by
+the department, the battalion was deprived of this chance of seeing
+active service in foreign fields. The battalion was then attached to
+the Second Brigade, Second Division, under Brigadier-General Plummer,
+being brigaded with the First New Jersey, Sixty-fifth New York and
+Seventh Ohio.</p>
+
+<p>In July the battalion was relieved from this brigade and attached
+directly to corps headquarters. When the Second Army Corps was ordered
+to Camp Meade, Penna., the battalion was one of the first to break
+camp, going with corps headquarters. The battalion left Camp R.A.
+Alger August 15, 1898, and arrived in camp at Camp George G. Meade,
+near Middletown, Penna., August 16, 1898. In camp the battalion
+occupied a position with the signal and engineer corps and hospital,
+near corps headquarters.</p>
+
+<p>When the Peace Jubilee was held in Philadelphia, the battalion was one
+of the representative commands from the Second Army Corps, being given
+the place of honor in the corps in the parade, following immediately
+General Graham and staff. When the corps was ordered South the
+battalion was assigned to the Second Brigade under Brigadier-General
+Ames. The battalion left Camp Meade November 17. Up to this time it
+had done the guard duty of corps head
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page297" id="page297"></a>[pg 297]</span>
+quarters and was complimented for
+its efficient work by the commanding general. The battalion arrived
+in Summerville, S.C., November 21, 1898. It was brigaded with the
+Fourteenth Pennsylvania and Third Connecticut.</p>
+
+<p>When the battalion arrived in the South the white citizens were not at
+all favorably disposed toward colored soldiers, and it must be said
+that the reception was not cordial. But by their orderly conduct and
+soldierly behavior the men soon won the respect of all, and the
+battalion was well treated before it left. November 28-29 Major Philip
+Reade, Inspector General First Division, Second Army Corps, inspected
+the Ninth Battalion, beginning his duties in that brigade with this
+inspection. He complimented the battalion for its work both from a
+practical and theoretical standpoint. Coming to the Fourteenth
+Pennsylvania he required them to go through certain movements in the
+extended order drill which not being done entirely to his
+satisfaction, he sent his orderly to the commanding officer of the
+Ninth Battalion, requesting him to have his command on the drill
+ground at once. The battalion fell in and marched to the ground and
+when presented to the Inspector orders were given for it to go through
+with certain movements in the extended order drill in the presence of
+the Pennsylvania regiment. This done, the Inspector dismissed the
+battalion, highly complimenting Major Young on the efficiency of his
+command. Just after the visit of the Inspector General, General S.B.M.
+Young, commanding the Second Army Corps, visited Camp Marion. Orders
+were sent to Major Young one morning to have his battalion fall in at
+once, as the General desired to have them drill. By his command the
+battalion went through the setting-up exercises and battalion drill in
+close and extended order. The General was so well pleased with the
+drill that the battalion was exempted from all work during the
+remainder of the day.</p>
+
+<p>The battalion was ordered to be mustered out January 29, 1899.
+Lieutenant Geo. W. Van Deusen, First Artillery, who was detailed to
+muster out the command, hardly spent fifteen minutes in the camp.
+Major Young had been detai
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page298" id="page298"></a>[pg 298]</span>
+led Assistant Commissary of Musters and
+signed all discharges for the Ninth Battalion, except for the field
+and staff, which were signed by Lieutenant Van Deusen. The companies
+left for their respective cities the same night they were paid. Major
+Bullis was the paymaster.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> See "Outline History of the Ninth (Separate) Battalion
+Ohio Volunteer Infantry," by the Battalion Adjutant, Lieutenant Nelson
+Ballard, following the close of this chapter.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/image02.png" alt="Chapter End Graphic" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page299" id="page299"></a>[pg 299]</span>
+</p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<h3>COLORED OFFICERS.</h3>
+
+<p class="hang center">By Captain Frank R. Steward, A.B., LL.B., Harvard,
+Forty-ninth U.S. Volunteer Infantry&mdash;Appendix.</p>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+  Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>Of all the avenues open to American citizenship the commissioned ranks
+of the army and navy have been the stubbornest to yield to the newly
+enfranchised. Colored men have filled almost every kind of public
+office or trust save the Chief Magistracy. They have been members of
+both Houses of Congress, and are employed in all the executive
+branches of the Government, but no Negro has as yet succeeded in
+invading the commissioned force of the navy, and his advance in the
+army has been exceedingly slight. Since the war, as has been related,
+but three Negroes have been graduated from the National Military
+Academy at West Point; of these one was speedily crowded out of the
+service; another reached the grade of First Lieutenant and died
+untimely; the third, First Lieutenant Charles Young, late Major of the
+9th Ohio Battalion, U.S. Volunteers, together with four colored
+Chaplains, constitute the sole colored commissioned force of our
+Regular Army.</p>
+
+<p>Although Negroes fought in large numbers in both the Revolution and
+the War of 1812, there is no instance of any Negro attaining or
+exercising the rank of commissioned officer. It is a curious bit of
+history, however, that in the Civil War those who were fighting to
+keep colored men enslav
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page300" id="page300"></a>[pg 300]</span>
+ed were the first to commission colored
+officers. In Louisiana but a few days after the outbreak of the war,
+the free colored population of New Orleans organized a military
+organization, called the "Native Guard," which was accepted into the
+service of the State and its officers were duly commissioned by the
+Governor.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p>
+
+<p>These Negro soldiers were the first to welcome General Butler when he
+entered New Orleans, and the fact of the organization of the "Native
+Guard" by the Confederates was used by General Butler as the basis for
+the organization of three colored regiments of "Native Guards," all
+the line officers of which were colored men. Governor Pinchback, who
+was a captain in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page301" id="page301"></a>[pg 301]</span>
+one of these regiments, tells the fate of these early
+colored officers.</p>
+
+<p>"There were," he writes, "in New Orleans some colored soldiers known
+as 'Native Guards' before the arrival of the Federal soldiers, but I
+do not know much about them. It was a knowledge of this fact that
+induced General Butler, then in command of the Department of the Gulf,
+to organize three regiments of colored soldiers, viz: The First,
+Second and Third Regiments of Native Guards.</p>
+
+<p>"The First Regiment of Louisiana Native Guards, Colonel Stafford
+commanding, with all the field officers white, and a full complement
+of line officers (30) colored, was mustered into service at New
+Orleans September 27, 1862, for three years. Soon after General Banks
+took command of the department and changed the designation of the
+regiment to First Infantry, Corps d'Afrique. April 4th, 1864, it was
+changed again to Seventy-third United States Colored Infantry.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>[Transcriber's Note: This footnote appeared in the text
+without a footnote anchor:</p>
+
+<p>"On the 23d of November, 1861, there was a grand review of
+the Confederate troops stationed at New Orleans. An
+Associated Press despatch announced that the line was seven
+miles long. The feature of the review, however, was one
+regiment of fourteen hundred free colored men. Another grand
+review followed the next spring, and on the appearance of
+rebel negroes a local paper made the following comment:</p>
+
+<p>"'We must also pay a deserved compliment to the companies of
+free colored men, all very well drilled and comfortably
+uniformed. Most of these companies, quite unaided by the
+administration, have supplied themselves with arms without
+regard to cost or trouble. On the same day one of these
+negro companies was presented with a flag, and every
+evidence of public approbation was manifest.'"</p>
+
+<p>(Williams's Negro Troops in the Rebellion, pp. 83-4)]</p></blockquote><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page302" id="page302"></a>[pg 302]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>"The Second Louisiana Native Guards, with Colonel N.W. Daniels and
+Lieutenant-Colonel Hall, white, and Major Francis E. Dumas, colored,
+and all the line officers colored except one Second Lieutenant, was
+mustered into service for three years, October 12, 1862. General Banks
+changed its designation to Second Infantry Corps d'Afrique, June 6,
+1863, and April 6, 1864, it was changed to Second United States
+Colored Troops. Finally it was consolidated with the Ninety-first as
+the Seventy-fourth Colored Infantry, and mustered out October 11,
+1865.</p>
+
+<p>"The Third Regiment of Louisiana Native Guards, with Colonel Nelson
+and all field officers white, and all line officers (30) colored, was
+mustered into service at New Orleans for three years, November 24,
+1862. Its designation went through the same changes as the others at
+the same dates, and it was mustered out November 25, 1865, as the
+Seventy-fifth Colored Infantry.</p>
+
+<p>"Soon after the organization of the Third Regiment, trouble for the
+colored officers began, and the department began a systematic effort
+to get rid of them. A board of examiners was appointed and all COLORED
+officers of the Third Regiment were ordered before it. They refused to
+obey the order and tendered their resignations in a body. The
+resignations were accepted and that was the beginning of the end. Like
+action with the same results followed in the First and Second
+Regiments, and colored officers were soon seen no more. All were
+driven out of the service except three or four who were never ordered
+to appear before the examining board. Among these was your humble
+servant. I was then Captain of Compa
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page303" id="page303"></a>[pg 303]</span>
+ny A, Second Regiment, but I soon
+tired of my isolation and resigned."</p>
+
+<p>Later on in the war, with the general enlistment of colored soldiers,
+a number of colored chaplains and some surgeons were commissioned.
+Towards the close of the war several colored line officers and a field
+officer or two were appointed. The State of Massachusetts was foremost
+in according this recognition to colored soldiers. But these later
+appointments came, in most cases, after the fighting was all over, and
+gave few opportunities to command. At the close of the war, with the
+muster out of troops the colored officers disappeared and upon the
+reorganization of the army, despite the brilliant record of the
+colored soldiers, no Negro was given a commission of any sort.</p>
+
+<p>The outbreak of the Spanish War brought the question of colored
+officers prominently to the front. The colored people began at once to
+demand that officers of their own race be commissioned to command
+colored volunteers. They were not to be deluded by any extravagant
+praise of their past heroic services, which veiled a determination to
+ignore their just claims. So firmly did they adhere to their demands
+that but one volunteer regiment of colored troops, the Third Alabama,
+could be induced to enter the service with none of its officers
+colored. But the concessions obtained were always at the expense of
+continuous and persistent effort, and in the teeth of a very active
+and at times extremely violent opposition. We know already the kind of
+opposition the Eighth Illinois, the Twenty-third Kansas, and the Third
+North Carolina Regiments, officered entirely by colored men,
+encountered. It was this opposition, as we have seen, which confined
+colored officers to positions below the grade of captain in the four
+immune regiments. From a like cause, we know also, disti
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page304" id="page304"></a>[pg 304]</span>
+nguished
+non-commissioned officers of the four regular regiments of colored
+troops were allowed promotion only to Lieutenantcies in the immune
+regiments, and upon the muster out of those organizations, were
+compelled, if they desired to continue soldiering, to resume their
+places as enlisted men.</p>
+
+<p>There is some explanation for this opposition in the nature of the
+distinction which military rank confers. Military rank and naval rank
+constitute the only real distinction among us. Our officers of the
+army and navy, and of the army more than of the navy, because the
+former officers are more constantly within the country, make up the
+sole separate class of our population. We have no established
+nobility. Wealth confers no privilege which men are bound to observe.
+The respect paid to men who attain eminence in science and learning
+goes only as far as they are known. The titles of the professions are
+matters of courtesy and customs only. Our judges and legislators, our
+governors and mayors, are still our "fellow citizens," and the dignity
+they enjoy is but an honorary one. The highest office within our gift
+offers no exception. At the close of his term, even an ex-President,
+"that melancholy product of our system," must resume his place among
+his fellow citizens, to sink, not infrequently, into obscurity. But
+fifty thousand soldiers must stand attention to the merest second
+lieutenant! His rank is a <i>fact</i>. The life tenure, the necessities of
+military discipline and administration, weld army officers into a
+distinct class and make our military system the sole but necessary
+relic of personal government. Any class with special privileges is
+necessarily conservative.</p>
+
+<p>The intimate association of "officer" and "gentleman," a legacy of
+feudal days, is not without significance. An o
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page305" id="page305"></a>[pg 305]</span>
+fficer must also be a
+gentleman, and "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman" is
+erected into an offence punishable by dismissal from the service. The
+word "gentleman" has got far away from the strict significance of its
+French parent. De Tocqueville has made us see the process of this
+development. Passing over to England, with the changing conditions,
+"gentleman" was used to describe persons lower and lower in the social
+scale, until, when it crossed to this country, its significance became
+lost in an indiscriminate application to all citizens<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a>. A flavor of
+its caste significance still remains in the traditional "high sense of
+honor" characteristic of our military service. It was a distant step
+for a slave and freedman to become an officer and gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>While the above reflections may be some explanations <i>in fact</i> for the
+opposition to the commissioning of Negroes, there was no one with
+hardihood enough to bring them forward. Such notions might form the
+groundwork of a prejudice, but they could not become the reason of a
+policy. It is an instinctive tribute to the good sense of the American
+people that the opponents of colored officers were compelled to find
+reasons of another kind for their antagonism.</p>
+
+<p>The one formula heard always in the campaign against colored officers
+was: Negroes cannot command. This formula was sent forth with every
+kind of variation, from the fierce fulminations of the hostile
+Southern press, to the more apologetic and philosophical discussions
+of our Northern secular and religious journals. To be sure, every now
+and then, there were exhibitions of impatience against the doctrine.
+Not a few newspapers had little tolerance for the nonsense. Some
+former commanders of Negro soldiers in the C
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page306" id="page306"></a>[pg 306]</span>
+ivil War, notably, General
+T.J. Morgan, spoke out in their behalf. The brilliant career of the
+black regulars in Cuba broke the spell for a time, but the re-action
+speedily set in. In short it became fastened pretty completely in the
+popular mind as a bit of demonstrated truth that Negroes could not
+make officers; that colored soldiers would neither follow nor obey
+officers of their own race.</p>
+
+<p>This formula had of course to ignore an entire epoch of history. It
+could take no account of that lurid program wrought in the Antilles a
+century ago&mdash;a rising mob of rebel slaves, transformed into an
+invincible army of tumultuous blacks, under the guidance of the
+immortal Toussaint, overcoming the trained armies of three Continental
+powers, Spain, England and France, and audaciously projecting a black
+republic into the family of nations, a program at once a marvel and a
+terror to the civilized world.</p>
+
+<p>Not alone in Hayti, but throughout the States of Central and South
+America have Negroes exercised military command, both in the struggles
+of these states for independence, and in their national armies
+established after independence. At least one soldier of Negro blood,
+General Dumas, father of the great novelist, arose to the rank of
+General of Division in the French Army and served under Napoleon. In
+our day we have seen General Dodds, another soldier of Negro blood,
+returning from a successful campaign in Africa, acclaimed throughout
+France, his immense popularity threatening Paris with a renewal of the
+hysterical days of Boulanger. Finally, we need not be told that at the
+very head and front of the Cuban Rebellion were Negroes of every hue,
+exercising every kind of command up to the very highest. We need but
+recall the lamented Maceo, the Negro chieftain, whose t
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page307" id="page307"></a>[pg 307]</span>
+ragic end
+brought sorrow and dismay to all of Cuba. With an army thronging with
+blacks and mulattoes, these Cuban chieftains, black, mulatto and
+white, prolonged such an harassing warfare as to compel the
+intervention of the United States. At the end of this recital, which
+could well have been extended with greater particularity, if it were
+thought needful, we are bound to conclude that the arbitrary formula
+relied upon by the opponents of colored officers was never constructed
+to fit such an obstinate set of facts.</p>
+
+<p>The prolonged struggle which culminated in permitting the Negro's
+general enlistment in our Civil War had only to be repeated to secure
+for him the full pay of a soldier, the right to be treated as a
+prisoner of war, and to relieve him of the monopoly of fatigue and
+garrison duty. He was too overjoyed with the boon of fighting for the
+liberation of his race to make much contention about who was to lead
+him. With meagre exception, his exclusive business in that war was to
+carry a gun. Yet repeatedly Negro soldiers evinced high capacity for
+command. Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson draws a glowing portrait
+of Sergeant Prince Rivers, Color-Sergeant of the First South Carolina
+Volunteers, a regiment of slaves, organized late in 1862. The
+Color-Sergeant was provost-Sergeant also, and had entire charge of the
+prisoners and of the daily policing of the camp.</p>
+
+<p>"He is a man of distinguished appearance and in old times was the
+crack coachman of Beaufort. * * * They tell me that he was once
+allowed to present a petition to the Governor of South Carolina in
+behalf of slaves, for the redress of certain grievances, and that a
+placard, offering two thousand dollars for his re-capture is still to
+be seen by the wayside between here and Charleston. He was a sergean
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page308" id="page308"></a>[pg 308]</span>
+t
+in the old 'Hunter Regiment,' and was taken by General Hunter to New
+York last spring, where the chevrons on his arm brought a mob upon him
+in Broadway, whom he kept off till the police interfered. There is not
+a white officer in this regiment who has more administrative ability,
+or more absolute authority over the men; they do not love him, but his
+mere presence has controlling power over them. He writes well enough
+to prepare for me a daily report of his duties in the camp; if his
+education reached a higher point I see no reason why he should not
+command the Army of the Potomac. He is jet-black, or rather, I should
+say, wine-black, his complexion, like that of others of my darkest
+men, having a sort of rich, clear depth, without a trace of sootiness,
+and to my eye very handsome. His features are tolerably regular, and
+full of command, and his figure superior to that of any of our white
+officers, being six feet high, perfectly proportioned, and of
+apparently inexhaustable strength and activity. His gait is like a
+panther's; I never saw such a tread. No anti-slavery novel has
+described a man of such marked ability. He makes Toussaint perfectly
+intelligible, and if there should ever be a black monarchy in South
+Carolina he will be its king."<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p>
+
+<p>Excepting the Louisiana Native Guards, the First South Carolina
+Volunteers was the first regiment of colored troops to be mustered
+into the service in the Civil War. The regiment was made up entirely
+of slaves, with scarcely a mulatto among them. The first day of
+freedom for these men was passed in uniform and with a gun. Among
+these Negroes, just wrested from slavery, their scholarly commander,
+Colonel Higginson, could find many whom he judged well fitted by
+nature to command.</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page309" id="page309"></a>[pg 309]</span>
+</p>
+<p>"Afterwards I had excellent battalion drills," he writes, "without a
+single white officer, by way of experiment, putting each company under
+a sergeant, and going through the most difficult movements, such as
+division columns and oblique squares. And as to actual discipline, it
+is doing no injustice to the line-officers of the regiment to say that
+none of them received from the men more implicit obedience than
+Color-Sergeant Rivers. * * * It always seemed to me an insult to those
+brave men to have novices put over their heads, on the ground of color
+alone, and the men felt it the more keenly as they remained longer in
+the service. There were more than seven hundred enlisted men in the
+regiment, when mustered out after more than three years' service. The
+ranks had been kept full by enlistment, but there were only fourteen
+line-officers instead of the full thirty. The men who should have
+filled these vacancies were doing duty as sergeants in the ranks."<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p>
+
+<p>Numerous expeditions were constantly on foot in the Department of the
+South, having for their object the liberation of slaves still held to
+service in neighborhoods remote from the Union camps, or to capture
+supplies and munitions of war. Frequently these expeditions came in
+conflict with armed bodies of rebels and hot engagements would ensue,
+resulting in considerable loss of life. Colored soldiers were
+particularly serviceable for this work because of their intimate
+knowledge of the country and their zeal for the rescue of their
+enslaved brethren.</p>
+
+<p>One of these expeditions, composed of thirty colored soldiers and
+scouts, commanded by Sergeant-Major Henry James, Third United States
+Colored Troops, left Jackson
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page310" id="page310"></a>[pg 310]</span>
+ville, Florida, early in March, 1865, to
+penetrate into the interior through Marion county. They destroyed
+considerable property in the use of the rebel government, burned the
+bridge across the Oclawaha River, and started on their return with
+ninety-one Negroes whom they had rescued from slavery, four white
+prisoners, some wagons and a large number of horses and mules. They
+were attacked by a rebel band of more than fifty cavalry. The colored
+soldiers commanded by one of their own number, defeated and drove off
+the rebels, inflicting upon them the heavy loss of thirty men. After a
+long and rapid march they arrived at St. Augustine, Florida, with a
+loss of but two killed and four wounded, the expedition covering in
+all five days. These colored soldiers and their colored commander were
+thanked in orders by Major-General Q.A. Gilmore, commanding the
+department, who was moved to declare that "this expedition, planned
+and executed by colored men, under the command of a colored
+non-commissioned officer, reflects credit upon the brave participants
+and their leader," and "he holds up their conduct to their comrades in
+arms as an example worthy of emulation."<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p>
+
+<p>It was no uncommon occurrence throughout the Civil War for colored
+non-commissioned officers to be thrown into command of their companies
+by the killing or wounding of their superior officers. On many a field
+of battle this happened and these colored non-commissioned officers
+showed the same ability to take the initiative and accept the
+responsibility, and conducted their commands just as bravely and
+unfalteringly as did their successors on the firing line at La Guasima
+and El Caney, or in the charge up San Juan Hill.</p>
+
+<p>In the battle of New Market Heights, fought on
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page311" id="page311"></a>[pg 311]</span>
+the 29th of September,
+1864, as part of a comprehensive effort to turn Lee's left flank, the
+great heroism of the black soldiers, and the terrible slaughter among
+them, impressed their commander, the late Major-General Butler, to his
+dying day, and made him the stout champion of their rights for the
+rest of his life. In that battle, to quote from the orders putting on
+record the "gallant deeds of the officers and soldiers of the Army of
+the James":&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Milton M. Holland, Sergeant-Major Fifth United States
+Colored Troops, commanding Company C; James H. Bronson,
+First Sergeant, commanding Company D; Robert Pinn, First
+Sergeant, commanding Company I, wounded; Powhatan Beaty,
+First Sergeant, commanding Company G, Fifth United States
+Colored Troops&mdash;all these gallant colored soldiers were left
+in command, all their company officers being killed or
+wounded, and led them gallantly and meritoriously through
+the day. For these services they have most honorable
+mention, and the commanding general will cause a special
+medal to be struck in honor of these gallant soldiers."</p>
+
+<p>"First Sergeant Edward Ratcliff, Company C, Thirty-eighth
+United States Colored Troops, thrown into command of his
+company by the death of the officer commanding, was the
+first enlisted man in the enemy's works, leading his company
+with great gallantry for which he has a medal."</p>
+
+<p>"Sergeant Samuel Gilchrist, Company K, Thirty-sixth United
+States Colored Troops, showed great bravery and gallantry in
+commanding his company after his officers were killed. He
+has a medal for gallantry."<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"Honorable mention" and "medals" were the sole reward open to the
+brave Negro soldiers of that day.</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page312" id="page312"></a>[pg 312]</span>
+</p>
+<p>Not alone in camp and garrison, in charge of expeditions, or as
+non-commissioned officers thrown into command of their companies on
+the field of battle have Negro soldiers displayed unquestioned
+capacity for command, but as commissioned officers they commanded in
+camp and in battle, showing marked efficiency and conspicuous
+gallantry. The colored officers of the First and Second Regiments of
+Louisiana Native Guards, whose history has been detailed earlier in
+this chapter,<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> were retained in the service long enough to command
+their troops in bloody combat with the enemy. It will be remembered
+that of the Second Regiment of Louisiana Native Guards only the
+Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel were white, the Major, F.E. Dumas, and
+all the line officers, as in the case of the First Regiment of
+Louisiana Native Guards, being colored. On April 9, 1863, Colonel N.U.
+Daniels, who commanded the Second Regiment of Louisiana Native Guards,
+with a detachment of two hundred men of his regiment, under their
+colored officers, engaged and repulsed a considerable body of rebel
+infantry and cavalry at Pascagoula, Mississippi. The engagement lasted
+from 10 A.M. until 2 P.M. and was remarkable for the steadiness,
+tenacity and bravery of these black troops in this, their first
+battle, where they succeeded in defeating and beating off an enemy
+five times their number. The official report by the Colonel commanding
+declared: "Great credit is due to the troops engaged for their
+unflinching bravery and steadiness under this, their first fire,
+exchanging volley after volley with the coolness of veterans, and for
+their determined tenacity in maintaining their position, and taking
+advantage of every success that their courage and valor gave them; and
+also to their officers, who were
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page313" id="page313"></a>[pg 313]</span>
+ cool and determined throughout the
+action, fighting their commands against five times their number, and
+confident throughout of success. * * *</p>
+
+<p>"I would particularly call the attention of the department to Major
+F.E. Dumas, Capt. Villeverd and Lieuts. Jones and Martin, who were
+constantly in the thickest of the fight, and by their unflinching
+bravery and admirable handling of their commands, contributed to the
+success of the attack, and reflected great honor upon the flag for
+which they so nobly struggled."<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p>
+
+<p>The battle which settled for all time the bravery of black troops, and
+ought as well to silence all question about the capacity of colored
+officers, was the storming of Port Hudson, May 27, 1863. For months
+the Confederates had had uninterrupted opportunity to strengthen their
+works at Port Hudson at a time when an abundance of slave labor was at
+their disposal. They had constructed defenses of remarkable strength.
+On a bluff, eighty feet above the river, was a series of batteries
+mounting in all twenty siege guns. For land defenses they had a
+continuous line of parapet of strong profile, beginning at a point on
+the river a mile from Port Hudson and extending in a semi-circle for
+three or four miles over a country for the most part rough and broken,
+and ending again at the river, a half mile north of Port Hudson. At
+appropriate positions along this line four bastion works were
+constructed and thirty pieces of field artillery were posted. The
+average thickness of the parapet was twenty feet, and the depth of the
+ditch below the top of the parapet was fifteen feet. The ground beh
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page314" id="page314"></a>[pg 314]</span>
+ind
+the parapet was well adapted for the prompt movement of troops.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p>
+
+<p>On the 24th of May General Banks reached the immediate vicinity of
+Port Hudson, and proceeded at once to invest the place.</p>
+
+<p>On the 27th the assault was ordered. Two colored regiments of
+Louisiana Native Guards, the First Regiment with all line officers
+colored, and the Third with white officers throughout, were put under
+command of Colonel John A. Nelson, of the Third Regiment, and assigned
+to position on the right of the line, where the assault was begun. The
+right began the assault in the morning; for some reason the left did
+not assault until late in the afternoon. Six companies of the First
+Louisiana and nine companies of the Third, in all 1080 men, were
+formed in column of attack. Even now, one cannot contemplate unmoved
+the desperate valor of these black troops and the terrible slaughter
+among them as they were sent to their impossible task that day in May.
+Moving forward in double quick time the column emerged from the woods,
+and passing over the plain strewn with felled trees and entangled
+brushwood, plunged into a fury of shot and shell as they charged for
+the batteries on the rebel left. Again and again that unsupported
+column of black troops held to their hopeless mission by the
+unrelenting order of the brigade commander, hurled itself literally
+into the jaws of death, many meeting horrible destruction actually at
+the cannon's mouth.</p>
+
+<p>It was a day prodigal with deeds of fanatical bravery. The colors of
+the First Louisiana, torn and shivered in that fearful hail of fire,
+were still borne forward in front of the works by the color-sergeant,
+until a shell from the enemy cut the flag in two and gave the sergeant
+his mortal wound. He fell spattering the flag with blood and brains
+and hugged it to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page315" id="page315"></a>[pg 315]</span>
+his bosom as he lay in the grasp of death. Two
+corporals sprang forward to seize the colors, contending in generous
+rivalry until a rebel sharpshooter felled one of them across the
+sergeant's lifeless body. The other dashed proudly forward with the
+flag. Sixteen men fell that day defending the colors.</p>
+
+<p>Black officers and white officers commanded side by side, moving among
+the men to prompt their valor by word and example, revealing no
+difference in their equal contempt of death. Captain Quinn, of the
+Third Regiment, with forty reckless followers, bearing their rifles
+and cartridge boxes above their heads, swam the ditch and leaped among
+the guns, when they were ordered back to escape a regiment of rebels
+hastening for their rear. Six of them re-crossed alive, and of these
+only two were unhurt, the brave Quinn and a Lieutenant. The gallant
+Captain Andre Cailloux, who commanded the color company of the First
+Louisiana, a man black as night, but a leader by birth and education,
+moved in eager zeal among his men, cheering them on by words and his
+own noble example, with his left arm already shattered, proudly
+refusing to leave the field. In a last effort of heroism, he sprang to
+the front of his company, commanded his men to follow him, and in the
+face of that murderous fire, gallantly led them forward until a shell
+smote him to death but fifty yards from the works.</p>
+
+<p>Cailloux, a pure Negro in blood, was born a freeman and numbered
+generations of freemen among his ancestry. He had fine presence, was a
+man of culture and possessed wealth. He had raised his company by his
+own efforts, and attached them to him, not only by his ardent pride of
+race, which made him boast his blackness, but also by his undoubted
+talents for command. His heroic death was mo
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page316" id="page316"></a>[pg 316]</span>
+urned by thousands of his
+race who had known him. His body, recovered after the surrender, was
+given a soldier's burial in his own native city of New Orleans.</p>
+
+<p>When the day was spent, the bleeding and shattered column was at
+length recalled. The black troops did not take the guns, but the day's
+work had won for them a fame that cannot die. The nation, which had
+received them into the service half-heartedly, and out of necessity,
+was that day made to witness a monotony of gallantry and heroism that
+compelled everywhere awe and admiration. Black soldiers, and led by
+black officers as well as white, assigned a task hopeless and
+impossible at the start, had plunged into that withering storm of shot
+and shell, poured fourth by artillery and infantry, charging over a
+field strewn with obstacles, and in madness of bravery had more than
+once thrown the thin head of their column to the very edge of the
+guns. They recoiled only to reform their broken lines and to start
+again their desperate work. When the day was gone, and they were
+called back, the shattered remnant of the column which had gone forth
+in the morning still burned with passion. With that day's work of
+black soldiers under black officers, a part forever of the military
+glory of the Republic, there are those who yet dare to declare that
+Negroes cannot command.</p>
+
+<p>The assault on Port Hudson had been unsuccessful all along the line. A
+second assault was ordered June 13. It, too, was unsuccessful. The
+fall of Vicksburg brought the garrison to terms. The surrender took
+place July 9, 1863. In the report of the general commanding, the
+colored soldiers were given unstinted praise. General Banks declared
+that "no troops could be more determined or more daring."<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page317" id="page317"></a>[pg 317]</span> The
+Northern press described glowingly their part in the fight. The
+prowess of the black soldiers had conquered military prejudice, and
+won for them a place in the army of the Union. And the brave black
+officers who led these black soldiers, they were, all of them, ordered
+forthwith before an examining board with the purpose of driving them
+from the service, and every one of them in self-respect was made to
+resign. In such manner was their bravery rewarded.</p>
+
+<p>In the four regiments of colored troops made a part of the Regular
+Army since the Civil War, colored soldiers, to say nothing of the
+three colored graduates from West Point, referred to earlier in this
+chapter, have repeatedly given evidence of their capacity to command.
+An earlier chapter has already set forth the gallant manner in which
+colored non-commissioned officers, left in command by the killing or
+wounding of their officers, commanded their companies at La Guasima,
+El Caney and in the charge at San Juan. On numerous occasions, with
+none of the heroic setting of the Santiago campaign, have colored
+soldiers time and again command detachments and companies on dangerous
+scouting expeditions, and in skirmishes and fights with hostile
+Indians and marauders. The entire Western country is a witness of
+their prowess. This meritorious work, done in remote regions, has
+seldom come to public notice; the medal which the soldier wears, and
+the official entry in company and regimental record are in most cases
+the sole chronicle. A typical instance is furnished in the career of
+Sergeant Richard Anderson, late of the Ninth Cavalry. The sergeant has
+long ago completed his thirty years of service. He passed through all
+non-commissioned grades in his troop and regiment, and was retired as
+Post Commissary-Sergeant. The stor
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page318" id="page318"></a>[pg 318]</span>
+y of the engagements in which he
+commanded give ample proof of his ability and bravery. It would be no
+service to the sergeant to disturb his own frank and formal narrative.</p>
+
+<p>The Sergeant's story:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"While in sub-camp at Fort Cumming, New Mexico, awaiting
+orders for campaign duty against hostile Indians (old
+Naney's band), on the evening of June 5, 1880, my troop
+commander being absent at Fort Bayard, which left me in
+command of my troop, there being no other commissioned
+officer available, a report having come in to the commanding
+officer about 1 o'clock that a band of Apache Indians were
+marching toward Cook's Canon, Troops B and L, under general
+command of Captain Francis, 9th Cavalry, and myself
+commanding Troop B, were ordered out.</p>
+
+<p>We came upon the Indians in Cook's Canon and had an
+engagement which lasted two or three hours. Three or four
+Indians were killed and several wounded. We had no men
+killed, but a few wounded in both L and B Troops. We
+followed the Indians many miles that evening, but having no
+rations, returned to Fort Cumming late that evening, and
+went into camp until the following morning, when the two
+troops took the trail and followed it many days, but being
+unable to overtake the Indians, returned to Fort Cumming.</p>
+
+<p>In August, 1881, while my troop was in camp at Fort Cumming,
+New Mexico, awaiting orders for another campaign against
+these same Apache Indians, my troop commander having been
+ordered to Fort Bayard, New Mexico, on general court-martial
+duty, and during his absence having no commissioned officer
+available, I was in command of my troop subject to the
+orders of the post commander. At 12 o'clock at night, August
+17, 1881, while in my tent asleep, the commanding officer's
+orderly knocked on my tent and informed me that the
+commanding officer wanted me to report to him at once. I
+asked the orderly what was up. He informed me that he
+supposed a scout was going out, as the commanding officer
+had sent for Lieutenant Smith, then in command of Troop H,
+9th Cavalry.</p>
+
+<p>I dressed myself promptly and reported, and found Lieutenant
+Smith and the commanding officer at the office on my
+arrival.</p>
+
+<p>The commanding officer asked me about how many men I c
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page319" id="page319"></a>[pg 319]</span>
+ould
+mount for thirty days' detached duty, leaving so many men
+to take care of property and horses. I told him about how
+many. He ordered me to make a ration return for that number
+of men, and send a sergeant to draw rations for thirty days'
+scout; and for me to hurry up, and when ready to report to
+Lieutenant Smith. By 12.45 my troop was ready and mounted,
+and reported as ordered, and at 1 o'clock Troop's B and H
+pulled out from Fort Cumming for Lake Valley, New Mexico;
+and when the sun showed himself over the tops of the
+mountains we marched down the mountains into Lake Valley,
+thirty-five miles from Fort Cumming. We went into camp
+hoping to spend a few hours and take a rest, and feed our
+horses and men.</p>
+
+<p>About 9 o'clock a small boy came running through camp crying
+as if to break his heart, saying that the Indians had killed
+his mother and their baby. Some of the men said the boy must
+be crazy; but many of them made for their horses without
+orders. Soon Lieutenant Smith ordered "Saddle up." In less
+than five minutes all the command was saddled up and ready
+to mount. We mounted and pulled out at a gallop, and
+continued at that gait until we came to a high mountain,
+when we came down to a walk. And when over the mountain we
+took up the gallop, and from that time on, nothing but a
+gallop and a trot, when the country was favorable for such.
+When we had marched about two miles from Lake Valley we met
+the father of the boy, with his leg bleeding where the
+Indians had shot him. We marched about half a mile farther,
+when we could see the Indians leaving this man's ranch. We
+had a running fight with them from that time until about 5
+o'clock that evening, August 18th, 1881. Having no rations,
+we returned to Lake Valley with the intention of resting
+that night and taking the trail the next morning; but about
+9 o'clock that night a ranchman came into camp and reported
+that the Indians had marched into a milk ranch and burned up
+the ranch, and had gone into camp near by.</p>
+
+<p>Lieutenant Smith ordered me to have the command in readiness
+to march at 12 o'clock sharp, and said we could surprise
+those Indians and capture many of them and kill a few also.
+I went and made my detail as ordered, with five days'
+rations in haversacks, and at 12 o'clock reported as
+ordered.</p>
+
+<p>About half-past 12 o'clock the command pulled out and
+marched within about a mile and a half of the milk ranch and
+went
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page320" id="page320"></a>[pg 320]</span>
+ into camp; and at daylight in the morning saddled up
+and marched to the ranch. The Indians had pulled out a few
+minutes before our arrival. We took their trail and came up
+with them about 10 o'clock, finding the Indians in ambush.
+Lieutenant Smith was the first man killed, and when I heard
+his last command, which was "Dismount," then the whole
+command fell upon your humble servant. We fell back, up a
+canon and on a hill, and held them until 4 o'clock, when a
+reinforcement came up of about twenty men from Lake Valey
+and the Indians pulled off over the mountains. The
+following-named men were killed in the engagement:</p>
+
+<p>Lieutenant G.W. Smith; Mr. Daily, a miner; Saddler Thomas
+Golding; Privates James Brown and Monroe Overstreet.
+Wounded&mdash;Privates Wesley Harris, John W. Williams and
+William A. Hallins.</p>
+
+<p>After the Indians ceased firing and fell back over the
+mountains I cared for the wounded and sent Lieutenant
+Smith's body to Fort Bayard, New Mexico, where his wife was,
+which was about sixty miles from the battle-ground, and Mr.
+Daily's body to Lake Valley, all under a strong detachment
+of men under a non-commissioned officer; when I marched with
+the remainder of the command with the dead and wounded for
+Rodman Mill, where I arrived about 5 o'clock on the morning
+of August 20 and buried the dead and sent the wounded to
+Fort Bayard.</p>
+
+<p>One thing that attracted my attention more than anything
+else was the suffering of Private John W. Williams, Troop H,
+who was shot through the kneecap and had to ride all that
+night from the battle-ground to Brookman's Mill. Poor
+fellow!</p>
+
+<p>I buried all my dead, and then marched for Fort Cumming,
+where we arrived about sunset and reported to General Edward
+Hatch, then commanding the regiment and also the district of
+New Mexico, giving him all the details pertaining to the
+engagement.</p>
+
+<p>General Hatch asked me about how many men I could mount the
+next morning, the 21st. I informed him about how many. He
+ordered me to have my troop in readiness by daylight and
+report to Lieutenant Demmick, then commanding Troop L, and
+follow that Indian trail.</p>
+
+<p>My troop was ready as ordered, and marched. We followed
+those Indians to the line of Old Mexico, but were unable to
+overtake them. Such was my last engagement with hostile
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page321" id="page321"></a>[pg 321]</span>
+Indians."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The formula that Negroes cannot command, with the further assertion
+that colored soldiers will neither follow nor obey officers of their
+own race, we have now taken out of the heads of its upholders, and
+away from its secure setting of type on the printed page, and applied
+it to the facts. Negro soldiers have shown their ability to command by
+commanding, not always with shoulder-straps, to be sure, but
+nevertheless commanding. With wearying succession, instance after
+instance, where Negroes have exercised all manner of military command
+and always creditably, have extended for us a recital to the border of
+monotony, and made formidable test of our patience. In France and the
+West Indies, in Central and South America, Negroes have commanded
+armies, in one instance fighting under Napoleon, at other times to
+free themselves from slavery and their countries from the yoke of
+oppression. In our own country, from the days of the Revolution, when
+fourteen American officers declared in a memorial to the Congress,
+that a "Negro man called Salem Poor, of Colonel Frye's regiment,
+Captain Ames' company, in the late battle at Charlestown, behaved like
+an <i>experienced officer</i>, as well as an excellent soldier;"<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> from
+the first war of the nation down to its last, Negro soldiers have been
+evincing their capacity to command. In the Civil War, where thousands
+of colored soldiers fought for the Union, their ability to command has
+been evidenced in a hundred ways, on scouts and expeditions, in camp
+and in battle; on two notable occasions, Negro officers gallantly
+fought their commands side by side with white officers, and added
+lustre to the milita
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page322" id="page322"></a>[pg 322]</span>
+ry glory of the nation. Upon the re-organization
+of the Regular Army at the close of the war the theatre shifted to
+our Western frontier, where the Negro soldier continued to display his
+ability to command. Finally, in the Spanish War, just closed, the
+Negro soldier made the nation again bear witness not alone to his
+undaunted bravery, but also to his conspicuous capacity to command.
+Out of this abundant and conclusive array of incontestable facts,
+frankly, is there anything left to the arbitrary formula that Negroes
+cannot command, but a string of ipse dixits hung on a very old, but
+still decidedly robust prejudice? There is no escape from the
+conclusion that as a matter of fact, with opportunity, Negroes differ
+in no wise from other men in capacity to exercise military command.</p>
+
+<p>Undoubtedly substantial progress has been made respecting colored
+officers since 1863, when colored soldiers were first admitted in
+considerable numbers into the army of the Union. At the period of the
+Civil War colored officers for colored soldiers was little more than
+thought of; the sole instance comprised the short-lived colored
+officers of the three regiments of Louisiana Native Guards, and the
+sporadic appointments made near the close of the war, when the
+fighting was over.</p>
+
+<p>More than three hundred colored officers served in the volunteer army
+in the war with Spain. Two Northern States, Illinois and Kansas, and
+one Southern State, North Carolina, put each in the field as part of
+its quota a regiment of colored troops officered throughout by colored
+men. Ohio and Indiana contributed each a separate battalion of colored
+soldiers entirely under colored officers.</p>
+
+<p>In 1863 a regiment of colored troops with colored officers was
+practically impossible. In 1898 a regiment of col
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page323" id="page323"></a>[pg 323]</span>
+ored volunteers
+without some colored officers was almost equally impossible. In 1863
+a regiment of colored soldiers commanded by colored officers would
+have been a violation of the sentiment of the period and an outrage
+upon popular feelings, the appearance of which in almost any Northern
+city would hardly fail to provoke an angry and resentful mob. At that
+period, even black recruits in uniforms were frequently assaulted in
+the streets of Northern cities. We have seen already how Sergeant
+Rivers, of the First South Carolina Volunteers, had to beat off a mob
+on Broadway in New York city. In 1898 regiments and battalions of
+colored troops, with colored colonels and majors in command, came out
+of States where the most stringent black laws were formerly in force,
+and were greeted with applause as they passed on their way to their
+camps or to embark for Cuba.</p>
+
+<p>In Baltimore, in 1863, the appearance of a Negro in the uniform of an
+army surgeon started a riot, and the irate mob was not appeased until
+it had stripped the patriotic colored doctor of his shoulder-straps.
+In 1898, when the Sixth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers passed
+through the same city, the colored officers of Company L of that
+regiment were welcomed with the same courtesies as their white
+colleagues&mdash;courtesies extended as a memorial of the fateful progress
+of the regiment through the city of Baltimore in 1861. One State which
+went to war in 1861 to keep the Negro a slave, put in the field a
+regiment of colored soldiers, officered by colored men from the
+colonel down. To this extent has prejudice been made to yield either
+to political necessity, or a generous change in sentiment. Thus were
+found States both North and South willing to give the Negro the full
+military recognition to which he is entitled.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page324" id="page324"></a>[pg 324]</span>
+With this wider recognition of colored officers the general
+government has not kept pace. In the four regiments of colored
+volunteers recruited by the general government for service in the war
+with Spain, only the lieutenants were colored. Through the extreme
+conservatism of the War Department, in these regiments no colored
+officers, no matter how meritorious, could be appointed or advanced to
+the grade of captain. Such was the announced policy of the department,
+and it was strictly carried out. The commissioning of this large
+number of colored men even to lieutenancies was, without doubt, a
+distinct step in advance; it was an entering wedge. But it was also an
+advance singularly inadequate and embarrassing. In one of these
+colored volunteer, commonly called "immune" regiments, of the twelve
+captains, but five had previous military training, while of the
+twenty-four colored lieutenants, eighteen had previous military
+experience, and three of the remaining six were promoted from the
+ranks, so that at the time of their appointment twenty-one lieutenants
+had previous military training. Of the five captains with previous
+military experience, one, years ago, had been a lieutenant in the
+Regular Army; another was promoted from Post Quartermaster-Sergeant; a
+third at one time had been First Sergeant of Artillery; the remaining
+two had more or less experience in the militia. Of the eighteen
+lieutenants with previous military experience, twelve had served in
+the Regular Army; eight of these, not one with a service less than
+fifteen years, were promoted directly from the ranks of the regulars
+for efficiency and gallantry. At the time of their promotion two were
+Sergeants, five First Sergeants and one a Post Quartermaster-Sergeant.
+The four others from the Regular Army had served five years each. Of
+the six remaining Lieu
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page325" id="page325"></a>[pg 325]</span>
+tenants with previous military experience, four
+had received military training in high schools, three of whom were
+subsequently officers in the militia; fifth graduated from a state
+college with a military department; the sixth had been for years an
+officer in the militia. With this advantage at the start, it is no
+extravagance to say that the colored officers practically made the
+companies. To them was due the greater part of the credit for whatever
+efficiency the companies showed. Moreover, these colored officers were
+not behind in intelligence. Among them were four graduates of
+universities and colleges, two lawyers, two teachers, one journalist,
+five graduates of high schools and academies, and the men from the
+Regular Army, as their previous non-commissioned rank indicates, were
+of good average intelligence. There is no reason to believe that this
+one of the four colored volunteer regiments was in any degree
+exceptional.</p>
+
+<p>These are the officers for whom the War Department had erected their
+arbitrary bar at captaincy, and declared that no show of efficiency
+could secure for them the titular rank which they more than once
+actually exercised. For they were repeatedly in command of their
+companies through sickness or absence of their captains. They served
+as officers without the incentive which comes from hope of promotion.
+They were forced to see the credit of their labors go to others, and
+to share more than once in discredit for which they were not
+responsible. They were, and in this lay their chief embarrassment,
+without the security and protection which higher rank would have
+accorded them. In case of trial by court-martial, captains and other
+higher officers filled the court to the exclusion of almost all
+others. These were white men. It is gratifying to record that the War
+Department recognized this special injustice to colored officers, and
+in the two regim
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page326" id="page326"></a>[pg 326]</span>
+ents of colored volunteers recruited for service in
+the Philippines all the line-officers are colored men, the field
+officers being white, and appointed from the Regular Army in pursuance
+of a general policy. Thus far has the general government advanced in
+recognition of the military capacity of the Negro. In the swing of the
+pendulum the nation is now at the place where the hardy General Butler
+was thirty-seven years ago, when he organized the three regiments of
+Louisiana Native Guards with all line-officers colored.</p>
+
+<p>The way in which modern armies are organized and perfected leaves
+little necessity for an equipment of exceptional personal gifts in
+order to exercise ordinary military command. The whole thing is
+subordinate, and the field for personal initiative is contracted to
+the minimum. In our own army the President is Commander-in-Chief, and
+the command descends through a multitude of subordinate grades down to
+the lowest commissioned officer in the service. We have "Articles of
+War" and "Regulations," and the entire discipline and government of
+the army is committed to writing. There is no chance to enshroud in
+mystery the ability to command. For ordinary military command, with
+intelligence the chief requisite, little is required beyond courage,
+firmness and good judgment. These qualities are in no respect natural
+barriers for colored men.</p>
+
+<p>This last story of the Negro soldier's efficiency and gallantry, told
+in the pages of this book, teaches its own very simple conclusion. The
+Cuban campaign has forced the nation to recognize the completion of
+the Negro's evolution as a soldier in the Army of the United States.
+The colored American soldier, by his own prowess, has won an
+acknowledged place by the side of the best trained fighters with arms.
+In the fullness of his manhood he has no rejoicing
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page327" id="page327"></a>[pg 327]</span>
+in the patronizing
+paean, "the colored troops fought nobly," nor does he glow at all
+when told of his "faithfulness" and "devotion" to his white officers,
+qualities accentuated to the point where they might well fit an
+affectionate dog. He lays claim to no prerogative other than that of a
+plain citizen of the Republic, trained to the profession of arms. The
+measure of his demand&mdash;and it is the demand of ten millions of his
+fellow-citizens allied to him by race&mdash;is that the full manhood
+privileges of a soldier be accorded him. On his record in arms, not
+excluding his manifest capacity to command, the colored soldier,
+speaking for the entire body of colored citizens in this country, only
+demands that the door of the nation's military training school be
+freely open to the capable of his race, and the avenue of promotion
+from the ranks be accessible to his tried efficiency; that no
+hindrance prevent competent colored men from taking their places as
+officers as well as soldiers in the nation's permanent military
+establishment.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a>
+</p>
+<blockquote><p class="letterDate">
+Headquarters Department of the Gulf,<br />
+New Orleans, August 22, 1862.</p>
+<p>General Orders No. 63.</p>
+<p>
+"Whereas, on the 23d day of April, in the year eighteen
+hundred and sixty-one, at a public meeting of the free
+colored population of the city of New Orleans, a military
+organization, known as the 'Native Guards' (colored), had
+its existence, which military organization was duly and
+legally enrolled as a part of the militia of the State, its
+officers being commissioned by Thomas O. Moore, Governor and
+Commander-in-Chief of the militia of the State of Louisiana,
+in the form following, that is to say:
+</p>
+<p class="author-up">
+The State of Louisiana.<br />
+(Seal of the State.)<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+By Thomas Overton Moore, Governor of the State of Louisiana,
+and commander-in-chief of the militia thereof.
+</p>
+<p>
+"'In the name and by the authority of the State of
+Louisiana: Know ye that &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash;, having been duly and
+legally elected captain of the "Native Guards" (colored),
+first division of the Militia of Louisiana, to serve for the
+term of the war,
+</p><p>
+"'I do hereby appoint and commission him captain as
+aforesaid, to take rank as such, from the 2d day of May,
+eighteen hundred and sixty-one.
+</p><p>
+"'He is, therefore, carefully and diligently to discharge
+the duties of his office by doing and performing all manner
+of things thereto belonging. And I do strictly charge and
+require all officers, non-commissioned officers and privates
+under his command to be obedient to his orders as captain;
+and he is to observe and follow such orders and directions,
+from time to time, as he shall receive from me, or the
+future Governor of the State of Louisiana, or other superior
+officers, according to the Rules and Articles of War, and in
+conformity to law.
+</p><p>
+"'In testimony whereof, I have caused these letters to be
+made patent, and the seal of the State to be hereunto
+annexed.
+</p><p>
+"'Given under my hand, at the city of Baton Rouge, on the
+second day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand
+eight hundred and sixty-one.
+</p>
+<p class="author-up">(L.S.)                  (Signed) THOS. O. MOORE.</p>
+<p class="close">"'By the Governor:</p>
+<p class="author-up">(Signed) P.D. HARDY,<br />
+Secretary of State.</p>
+<p>(Wilson: Black Phalanx, p. 194.)</p>
+</blockquote>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> De Tocqueville: L'Ancien R&eacute;gime et La Revolution, p.
+125-6.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Thomas Westworth Higginson: Army Life in a Black
+Regiment, pp. 57-8.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Thomas Wentworth Higginson: Army Life in a Black
+Regiment, p. 261.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Williams's Negro Troops in the Rebellion, pp. 339-40,
+quoting the order.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Williams's Negro Troops in the Rebellion, pp. 334-6,
+original order quoted.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> See pp. 351-6 MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Wilson: Black Phalanx, p. 211, original order quoted.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Campaigns of the Civil War. F.V. Greene. The
+Mississippi, p. 226 et seq.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Williams's Negro Troops in the Rebellion, p. 221,
+original order quoted.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> MS. Archives of Massachusetts, Vol. 180, p. 241, quoted
+in Williams's Negro Troops in the Rebellion, p. 13.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/image06.png" alt="Chapter End Graphic" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page328" id="page328"></a>[pg 328]</span>
+</p>
+<h2><a name="APPENDIX" id="APPENDIX"></a>APPENDIX.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+  Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>The correspondence following shows the progress of the negotiations
+for the surrender of the city of Santiago and the Spanish Army, from
+the morning of July 3d until the final convention was signed on the
+sixteenth of the same month. This surrender virtually closed the war,
+but did not restore the contending nations to a status of peace.
+Twenty-three thousand Spanish soldiers had laid down their arms and
+had been transformed from enemies to friends. On the tenth of August
+following, a protocol was submitted by the President of the United
+States, which was accepted by the Spanish cabinet on the eleventh, and
+on the twelfth the President announced the cessation of hostilities,
+thus closing a war which had lasted one hundred and ten days. On the
+tenth of December a Treaty of Peace between the United States and
+Spain was signed at Paris, which was subsequently ratified by both
+nations, and diplomatic relations fully restored. The war, though
+short, had been costly. One hundred and fifty million dollars had been
+spent in its prosecution, and there were left on our hands the
+unsolved problem of Cuba and the Philippines, which promised much
+future trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Within a month from the signing of the convention, the Army of
+Invasion, known as the Fifth Army Corps, was on its homeward voyage,
+and by the latter part of August the whole command was well out of
+Cuba. Well did the soldiers themselves, as well as their friends,
+realize, as
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page329" id="page329"></a>[pg 329]</span>
+the former returned from that campaign of a hundred days,
+that war in the tropics was neither a pastime nor a practice march.
+The campaign had tested the powers of endurance of the men to its
+utmost limit. The horrors of war were brought directly to the face of
+the people, as the ten thousand invalids dragged their debilitated
+forms from the transports to their detention camps, or to the
+hospitals, some too helpless to walk, and many to die soon after
+greeting their native shores. Those who had been so enthusiastic for
+the war were now quiet, and were eagerly laying the blame for the
+sorrow and suffering before them upon the shoulders of those who had
+conducted the war. Few stopped to think that a good part of this woe
+might be justly charged to those who had constantly resisted the
+establishment of an adequate standing army, and who, with inconsistent
+vehemence, had urged the nation into a war, regardless of its military
+equipment. The emaciated veterans arriving at Montauk were spoken of
+as the evidences of "military incompetency;" they were also evidence
+of that narrow statesmanship which ignores the constant suggestions of
+military experience.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">Headquarters United States Forces,<br />
+Near San Juan River, July 3, 1898&mdash;8.30 A.M.</p>
+<p>To the Commanding General of the Spanish Forces, Santiago de Cuba.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Sir:&mdash;I shall be obliged, unless you surrender, to shell
+Santiago de Cuba. Please inform the citizens of foreign
+countries, and all the women and children, that they should
+leave the city before 10 o'clock to-morrow morning.</p>
+
+<p class="letterClose3">Very respectfully, your obedient servant,</p>
+<p class="author-up">WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,<br />
+Major-General U.S.V.</p>
+</blockquote><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page330" id="page330"></a>[pg 330]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>Reply.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">Santiago de Cuba, July 3, 1898.</p>
+<p>
+His Excellency the General Commanding Forces of United States,
+near San Juan River.
+</p>
+
+<p>Sir:&mdash;I have the honor to reply to your communication of
+to-day, written at 8.30 A.M., and received at 1 P.M.,
+demanding the surrender of this city, or, in contrary case,
+announcing to me that you will bombard this city, and that I
+advise the foreigners, women and children that they must
+leave the city before 10 o'clock to-morrow morning. It is my
+duty to say to you that this city will not surrender, and
+that I will inform the foreign consuls and inhabitants of
+the contents of your message.</p>
+
+<p class="letterClose3">Very respectfully,</p>
+<p class="author-up">JOSE TORAL,<br />
+Commander-in-Chief, Fourth Corps.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letterDate">
+Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,<br />
+Camp near San Juan River, Cuba, July 4, 1898.</p>
+<p>The Commanding General, Spanish Forces, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba.</p>
+
+<p>Sir:&mdash;I was officially informed last night that Admiral
+Cervera is now a captive on board the U.S.S. Gloucester, and
+is unharmed. He was then in the harbor of Siboney. I regret
+also to have to announce to you the death of General Vara
+del Rey at El Caney, who, with two of his sons, was killed
+in the battle of July 1st. His body will be buried this
+morning with military honors. His brother,
+Lieutenant-Colonel Vara del Rey, is wounded and a prisoner
+in my hands, together with the following officers: Captain
+Don Antonio Vara del Rey, Captain Isidor Arias, Captain
+Antonio Mansas, and Captain Manuel Romero, who, though
+severely wounded, will all probably survive.</p>
+
+<p>I also have to announce to you that the Spanish fleet, with
+the exception of one vessel, was destroyed, and this one is
+being so vigorously pursued that it will be impossible for
+it to escape. General Pando is opposed by forces sufficient
+to hold him in check.</p>
+
+<p>In view of the above, I would suggest that, to save needless
+effusion of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page331" id="page331"></a>[pg 331]</span>
+ blood and the distress of many people, you may
+reconsider your determination of yesterday. Your men have
+certainly shown the gallantry which was expected of them.</p>
+
+<p>I am, sir, with great respect,</p>
+<p class="letterClose3">Your obedient servant,</p>
+<p class="author-up">WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,<br />
+Major-General, Commanding United States Forces.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">
+Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,<br />
+Camp near San Juan River, Cuba, July 4, 1898.</p>
+<p>
+To the Commanding General, Spanish Forces, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba.
+</p>
+
+<p>Sir:&mdash;The fortune of war has thrown into my hands quite a
+number of officers and private soldiers, whom I am now
+holding as prisoners of war, and I have the honor to propose
+to you that a cartel of exchange be arranged to-day, by
+which the prisoners taken by the forces of Spain from on
+board the Merrimac, and any officers and men of the army who
+may have fallen into our hands within the past few days, may
+be returned to their respective governments on the terms
+usual in such cases, of rank for rank. Trusting that this
+will meet with your favorable consideration, I remain,</p>
+
+<p class="letterClose3">
+Very respectfully, your obedient servant,</p>
+<p class="author-up">WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,<br />
+Major-General, Commanding United States Forces.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">
+Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,<br />
+Camp near San Juan River, Cuba, July 4, 1898.</p>
+<p>To the Commanding Officer, Spanish Forces, Santiago.</p>
+
+<p>Sir:&mdash;It will give me great pleasure to return to the city
+of Santiago at an early hour to-morrow morning all the
+wounded Spanish officers now at El Caney who are able to be
+carried and who will give their parole not to serve against
+the United States until regularly exchanged. I make this
+proposition, as I am not so situated as to give these
+officers the care and attention that they can receive at the
+hands of their military associates and from their own
+surgeons; though I shall, of course, give them every kind
+treatment that it is possible to do under such ad
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page332" id="page332"></a>[pg 332]</span>
+verse
+circumstances. Trusting that this will meet with your
+approbation, and that you will permit me to return to you
+these persons, I am,</p>
+
+<p class="letterClose3">Your very obedient servant,</p>
+<p class="author-up">WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,<br />
+Major-General, Commanding United States Forces.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">
+Army of the Island of Cuba,<br />
+Fifth Corps, General Staff.</p>
+<p>To His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief of the American Forces.</p>
+
+<p>Excellency:&mdash;I have the honor to reply to the three
+communications of your Excellency, dated to-day, and I am
+very grateful for the news you give in regard to the
+generals, chiefs, officers and troops that are your
+prisoners, and of the good care that you give to the wounded
+in your possession. With respect to the wounded, I have no
+objection to receiving in this place those that your
+Excellency may willingly deliver me, but I am not authorized
+by the General-in-Chief to make any exchange, as he has
+reserved to himself that authority. Yet I have given him
+notice of the proposition of your Excellency.</p>
+
+<p>It is useless for me to tell you how grateful I am for the
+interest that your Excellency has shown for the prisoners
+and corpse of General Vara del Rey, giving you many thanks
+for the chivalrous treatment.</p>
+
+<p>The same reasons that I explained to you yesterday, I have
+to give again to-day&mdash;that this place will not be
+surrendered.</p>
+
+<p>I am, yours with great respect and consideration,</p>
+<p class="author-up">(Signed) JOSE TORAL.</p>
+<p>In Santiago de Cuba, July 4, 1898.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">
+Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,<br />
+Camp near San Juan River, Cuba, July 6, 1898.</p>
+<p>To the Commander-in-Chief, Spanish Forces, Santiago de Cuba.</p>
+
+<p>Sir:&mdash;In view of the events of the 3d instant, I have the
+honor to lay before your Excellency certain propositions to
+which, I trust, your Excellency, will give the consideration
+which, in my judgment, they deserve.</p>
+
+<p>I inclose a bulletin of the engagement of Sunday morning
+which resulted in the complete destruction of Admiral
+Cervera's fleet, the loss of six hundred of his officers and
+men, and the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page333" id="page333"></a>[pg 333]</span>
+ capture of the remainder. The Admiral, General
+Paredes and all others who escaped alive are now prisoners
+on board the Harvard and St. Louis, and the latter ship, in
+which are the Admiral, General Paredes and the surviving
+captains (all except the captain of the Almirante Oquendo,
+who was slain) has already sailed for the United States. If
+desired by you, this may be confirmed by your Excellency
+sending an officer under a flag of truce to Admiral Sampson,
+and he can arrange to visit the Harvard, which will not sail
+until to-morrow, and obtain the details from Spanish
+officers and men on board that ship.</p>
+
+<p>Our fleet is now perfectly free to act, and I have the honor
+to state that unless a surrender be arranged by noon of the
+9th instant, a bombardment will be begun and continued by
+the heavy guns of our ships. The city is within easy range
+of these guns, the eight-inch being capable of firing 9,500
+yards, the thirteen-inch, of course, much farther. The ships
+can so lie that with a range of 8,000 yards they can reach
+the centre of the city.</p>
+
+<p>I make this suggestion of a surrender purely in a
+humanitarian spirit. I do not wish to cause the slaughter of
+any more men, either of your Excellency's forces or my own,
+the final result, under circumstances so disadvantageous to
+your Excellency being a foregone conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>As your Excellency may wish to make reference of so
+momentous a question to your Excellency's home government,
+it is for this purpose that I have placed the time of the
+resumption of hostilities sufficiently far in the future to
+allow a reply being received.</p>
+
+<p>I beg an early answer from your Excellency.</p>
+
+<p>I have the honor to be,</p>
+
+<p class="letterClose3">
+Very respectfully, your obedient servant,</p>
+<p class="author-up">W. R. SHAFTER,<br />
+Major-General, Commanding.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">
+Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,<br />
+Camp near Santiago, July 9, 1898.</p>
+<p>Hon. Secretary of War, Washington, D.C.</p>
+
+<p>I forwarded General Toral's proposition to evacuate the town
+this morning without consulting any one. Since then I have
+seen the general officers commanding divisions, who agree
+with me in that it should be accepted.</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page334" id="page334"></a>[pg 334]</span>
+</p>
+<p>1st. It releases at once the harbor.</p>
+
+<p>2d. It permits the return of thousands of women, children
+and old men, who have left the town, fearing bombardment,
+and are now suffering fearfully where they are, though I am
+doing my best to supply them with food.</p>
+
+<p>3d. It saves the great destruction of property which a
+bombardment would entail, most of which belongs to Cubans
+and foreign residents.</p>
+
+<p>4th. It at once releases this command while it is in good
+health for operations elsewhere. There are now three cases
+of yellow fever at Siboney in a Michigan regiment, and if it
+gets started, no one knows where it will stop.</p>
+
+<p>We lose by this, simply some prisoners we do not want and
+the arms they carry. I believe many of them will desert and
+return to our lines. I was told by a sentinel who deserted
+last night that two hundred men wanted to come, but were
+afraid our men would fire upon them.</p>
+
+<p class="author-up">W.R. SHAFTER,<br />
+Major-General, United States Volunteers.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Reply.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">
+Washington, D.C., July 9, 1898.</p>
+<p>Major-General Shafter, Playa, Cuba.</p>
+
+<p>In reply to your telegram recommending terms of evacuation
+as proposed by the Spanish commander, after careful
+consideration by the President and Secretary of War, I am
+directed to say that you have repeatedly been advised that
+you would not be expected to make an assault upon the enemy
+at Santiago until you were prepared to do the work
+thoroughly. When you are ready this will be done. Your
+telegram of this morning said your position was impregnable
+and that you believed the enemy would yet surrender
+unconditionally. You have also assured us that you could
+force their surrender by cutting off their supplies. Under
+these circumstances, your message recommending that Spanish
+troops be permitted to evacuate and proceed without
+molestation to Holguin is a great surprise and is not
+approved. The responsibility for the destruction and
+distress to the inhabitants rests entirely with the Spanish
+commander. The Secretary of War orders that when you are
+strong enough to destroy the enemy and take Santiago, you do
+it. If you have not force enough, it will be despatched to
+you at the earliest moment possible. Reinforcements are on
+the way of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page335" id="page335"></a>[pg 335]</span>
+ which you have already been apprised. In the
+meantime, nothing is lost by holding the position you now
+have, and which you regard as impregnable.</p>
+
+<p>
+Acknowledge receipt. By order of the Secretary of War.</p>
+
+<p class="author-up">(Signed) H.C. CORBIN, Adjutant-General.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">
+Headquarters United States Forces,<br />
+Camp near San Juan River, Cuba, July 11, 1898.</p>
+<p>
+To His Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish Forces,
+Santiago de Cuba.</p>
+
+<p>Sir:&mdash;With the largely increased forces which have come to
+me, and the fact that I have your line of retreat securely
+within my hands, the time seems fitting that I should again
+demand of your Excellency the surrender of Santiago and your
+Excellency's army. I am authorized to state that should your
+Excellency so desire, the Government of the United States
+will transport your entire command to Spain. I have the
+honor to be,</p>
+
+<p class="letterClose3">Very respectfully, your obedient servant,</p>
+<p class="author-up">WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,<br />
+Major-General, Commanding.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Reply.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">
+Army of the Island of Cuba, Fourth Corps,<br />
+July 11, 1898.</p>
+<p>
+To His Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces of
+the United States, in the Camp of the San Juan.</p>
+
+<p>Esteemed Sir:&mdash;I have the honor to advise your Eminence that
+your communication of this date is received, and in reply
+desire to confirm that which I said in my former
+communication, and also to advise you that I have
+communicated your proposition to the General-in-Chief.
+Reiterating my sentiments, I am,</p>
+
+<p class="letterClose3">
+Very respectfully, your obedient servant,</p>
+<p class="author-up">
+(Signed) JOSE TORAL,<br />
+Commander-in-Chief of the Fourth Corps and Military Governor
+of Santiago.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">
+Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,<br />
+Camp near Santiago de Cuba, July 12, 1898.</p>
+<p>
+To His Excellency, Commander-in-Chief of Spanish Forces, Santiago de Cuba.</p>
+
+<p>Sir:&mdash;I have the honor to inform your Excellency that I have
+already
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page336" id="page336"></a>[pg 336]</span>
+ ordered a suspension of hostilities, and I will
+repeat that order, granting in this manner a reasonable
+time within which you may receive an answer to the message
+sent to the Government of Spain, which time will end
+to-morrow at 12 o'clock noon.</p>
+
+<p>I think it my duty to inform your Excellency that during
+this armistice I will not move any of my troops that occupy
+the advanced line, but the forces that arrived to-day and
+which are debarking at Siboney require moving to this camp.</p>
+
+<p>I wish that your Excellency would honor me with a personal
+interview to-morrow morning at 9 o'clock. I will come
+accompanied by the Commanding General of the American army,
+and by an interpreter, which will permit you to be
+accompanied by two or three persons of your staff who speak
+English. Hoping for a favorable answer, I have the honor to
+be,</p>
+
+<p class="letterClose3">
+Very respectfully, your obedient servant,</p>
+<p class="author-up">WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,<br />
+Major-General, Commanding.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">
+Army of the Island of
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'Cuma'">Cuba,</ins>
+Fourth Corps,<br />
+Santiago de cuba, July 12, 1898&mdash;9 P. M.</p>
+<p>To His Excellency, the General of the American Troops.</p>
+
+<p>Esteemed Sir:&mdash;I have the honor to answer your favor of this
+date, inform your Excellency that in deference to your
+desires I will be much honored by a conference with his
+Excellency, the Commanding General of your army, and your
+Excellency, to-morrow morning at the hour you have seen fit
+to appoint.</p>
+
+<p class="letterClose3">
+Very respectfully, your obedient servant,</p>
+<p class="author-up">(Signed) JOSE TORAL,<br />
+Commander-in-Chief of the Fourth Army Corps.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote><p>Preliminary agreement for the capitulation of the Spanish
+forces which constitute the division of Santiago de Cuba,
+occupying the territory herein set forth, said capitulation
+authorized by the Commander-in-Chief of the Island of Cuba,
+agreed to by General Toral and awaiting the approbation of
+the Government at Madrid, and subject to the following
+conditions:</p>
+
+<p>Submitted by the undersigned Commissioners&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page337" id="page337"></a>[pg 337]</span>
+Brigadier-General Don Frederick Escario, Lieutenant-Colonel
+of Staff Don Ventura Fontan and Mr. Robert Mason, of the
+city of Santiago de Cuba, representing General Toral,
+commanding Spanish forces, to Major-General Joseph Wheeler,
+U.S.V., Major-General H.W. Lawton, U.S.V., and First
+Lieutenant J.D. Miley, Second Artillery, A.D.C, representing
+General Shafter, commanding American forces, for the
+capitulation of the Spanish forces comprised in that portion
+of the Island of Cuba east of a line passing through
+Aserradero, Dos Palmas, Palma Soriano, Cauto Abajo,
+Escondida, Tanamo and Aguilera, said territory being known
+as the Eastern District of Santiago, commanded by General
+Jose Toral.</p>
+
+<p>1. That pending arrangements for capitulation all
+hostilities between American and Spanish forces in this
+district shall absolutely and unequivocally cease.</p>
+
+<p>2. That this capitulation includes all the forces and war
+material in said territory.</p>
+
+<p>3. That after the signing of the final capitulation the
+United States agrees, with as little delay as possible, to
+transport all the Spanish troops in said district to the
+Kingdom of Spain, the troops, as near as possible, to embark
+at the port nearest the garrison they now occupy.</p>
+
+<p>4. That the officers of the Spanish Army be permitted to
+retain their side arms, and both officers and enlisted men
+their personal property.</p>
+
+<p>5. That after final capitulation the Spanish authorities
+agree without delay to remove, or assist the American Navy
+in removing, all mines or other obstructions to navigation
+now in the harbor of Santiago and its mouth.</p>
+
+<p>6. That after final capitulation the commander of the
+Spanish forces deliver without delay a complete inventory of
+all arms and munitions of war of the Spanish forces and a
+roster of the said forces now in the above-described
+district, to the commander of the American forces.</p>
+
+<p>7. That the commander of the Spanish forces, in leaving said
+district, is authorized to carry with him all military
+archives and r
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page338" id="page338"></a>[pg 338]</span>
+ecords pertaining to the Spanish Army now in
+said district.</p>
+
+<p>8. That all of that portion of the Spanish forces known as
+Volunteers, Movilizados and Guerillas, who wish to remain in
+the Island of Cuba are permitted to do so under parole not
+to take up arms against the United States during the
+continuance of the war between Spain and the United States,
+delivering up their arms.</p>
+
+<p>9. That the Spanish forces will march out of Santiago de
+Cuba with honors of war, depositing their arms thereafter at
+a point mutually agreed upon, to await their disposition by
+the United States Government, it being understood that the
+United States Commissioners will recommend that the Spanish
+soldier return to Spain with the arms he so bravely
+defended.</p>
+
+<p>Entered into this fifteenth day of July, eighteen hundred
+and ninety-eight, by the undersigned Commissioners, acting
+under instructions from their respecting commanding
+generals.</p>
+
+<p>
+(Signed)<br />
+JOSEPH WHEELER,<br />
+<i>Major-General U.S. Vols.</i>;<br />
+<br />
+H.W. LAWTON,<br />
+<i>Major-General U.S. Vols.</i>;<br />
+<br />
+J.D. MILEY,<br />
+<i>1st Lieut. 2d Art., A.D.C. to General Shafter.</i></p>
+<p class="author-up">
+FREDERICO ESCARIO,<br />
+VENTURA FONTAN,<br />
+ROBERT MASON.<br />
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">
+Army of the Island of Cuba, Fourth Corps,<br />
+Santiago de Cuba, July 12, 1898&mdash;9 P.M.</p>
+<p>To His Excellency, the General-in-Chief of the American Forces,</p>
+
+<p>Esteemed Sir:&mdash;As I am now authorized by my Government to
+capitulate, I have the honor to so advise you, requesting
+you to designate the hour and place where my representatives
+should appear, to concur with those of your Excellency to
+edit the articles of capitulation on the basis of what has
+been agreed upon to this date.</p>
+
+<p>In due time I wish to manifest to your Excellency my desire
+to know the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page339" id="page339"></a>[pg 339]</span>
+ resolution of the United States Government
+respecting the return of the arms, so as to note it in the
+capitulation; also for their great courtesy and gentlemanly
+deportment I wish to thank your Grace's representatives, and
+in return for their generous and noble efforts for the
+Spanish soldiers, I hope your Government will allow them to
+return to the Peninsula with the arms that the American army
+do them the honor to acknowledge as having dutifully
+defended.</p>
+
+<p>Reiterating my former sentiments, I remain,</p>
+
+<p class="letterClose3">
+Very respectfully, your obedient servant,</p>
+<p class="author-up">JOSE TORAL,<br />
+Commander-in-Chief of the Fourth Army Corps.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">
+At Neutral Camp, near Santiago, Under a Flag of Truce,<br />
+July 14, 1898.</p>
+
+<p>Recognizing the chivalry, courage and gallantry of Generals
+Linares and Toral, and of the soldiers of Spain who were
+engaged in the battles recently fought in the vicinity of
+Santiago de Cuba, as displayed in said battles, we, the
+undersigned officers of the United States army, who had the
+honor to be engaged in said battle, and are now a duly
+organized commission, treating with a like commission of
+officers of the Spanish army, for the capitulation of
+Santiago de Cuba, unanimously join in earnestly soliciting
+the proper authority to accord to these brave and chivalrous
+soldiers the privilege of returning to their country bearing
+the arms they have so bravely defended.</p>
+
+<p class="author-up">
+JOSEPH WHEELER,<br />
+Major-General, U.S. Vols.<br />
+<br />
+H. W. LAWTON,<br />
+Major-General, U.S. Vols.<br />
+<br />
+First Lieut., 2d Art., A.D.C.<br />
+J. D. MILEY.<br />
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">
+Army of the Island of Cuba, Fourth Corps,<br />
+Santiago de Cuba, July 16, 1898.</p>
+<p>
+To His Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces of
+the United States.</p>
+
+<p>Esteemed Sir:&mdash;At half-past 11 I received your communication
+of this date, and I am sorry to advise you that it is
+impossible for my representatives to come to the appointed
+place at midday, as you wish, as I must meet them and give
+them their instructions.</p>
+
+<p>If agre
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page340" id="page340"></a>[pg 340]</span>
+eable to you, will you defer the visit until 4 P.M.
+to-day or until 7 to-morrow morning, and in the meanwhile
+the obstacles to the entrance of the Red Cross will be
+removed from the harbor.</p>
+
+<p>I beg your Honor will make clear what force you wish me to
+retire from the railroad, as, if it is that in Aguadores, I
+would authorize the repair of the bridge at once by your
+engineers; and if it is that on the heights to the left of
+your lines, I beg you will specify with more precision.</p>
+
+<p>I have ordered those in charge of the aqueduct to proceed at
+once to repair it with the means at their command.</p>
+
+<p>Awaiting your reply, I remain,</p>
+
+<p class="letterClose3">
+Very respectfully, your obedient servant,</p>
+<p class="author-up">JOSE TORAL,<br />
+Commander-in-Chief of the Fourth Army Corps.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">
+Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,<br />
+Camp, July 16, 1898.</p>
+<p>
+To His Excellency, General Jose Toral, Commanding Spanish Forces
+in Eastern Cuba.</p>
+
+<p>Sir:&mdash;I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your
+Excellency's letter of this date, notifying me that the
+Government at Madrid approves your action, and requesting
+that I designate officers to arrange for and receive the
+surrender of the forces of your Excellency. This I do,
+nominating Major-General Wheeler, Major-General Lawton, and
+my aide, Lieutenant Miley. I have to request that your
+Excellency at once withdraw your troops from along the
+railway to Aguadores, and from the bluff in rear of my left;
+also that you at once direct the removal of the obstructions
+at the entrance to the harbor or assist the navy in doing
+so, as it is of the utmost importance that I at once get
+vessels loaded with food into the harbor.</p>
+
+<p>The repair of the railroad will, I am told, require a week's
+time. I shall, as I have said to your Excellency, urge my
+Government that the gallant men your Excellency has so ably
+commanded have returned to Spain with them the arms they
+have wielded. With great respect, I remain,</p>
+
+<p class="letterClose3">
+Your obedient servant and friend,</p>
+<p class="author-up">WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,<br />
+General, Commanding.</p>
+</blockquote><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page341" id="page341"></a>[pg 341]</span>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Terms of the Military Convention for the capitulation of the
+Spanish forces occupying the territory which constitutes the
+Division of Santiago de Cuba and described as follows: All
+that portion of the Island of Cuba east of a line passing
+through Aserradero, Dos Palmas, Cauto Abajo, Escondida,
+Tanamo and Aguilara, said troops being in command of General
+Jose Toral; agreed upon by the undersigned Commissioners:
+Brigadier-General Don Federico Escario, Lieutenant-Colonel
+of Staff Don Ventura Fontan, and as Interpreter, Mr. Robert
+Mason, of the city of Santiago de Cuba, appointed by General
+Toral, commanding the Spanish forces, on behalf of the
+Kingdom of Spain, and Major-General Joseph Wheeler, U.S.V.,
+Major-General H.W. Lawton, U.S.V., and First Lieutenant J.D.
+Miley, Second Artillery, A.D.C., appointed by General
+Shafter, commanding the American forces on behalf of the
+United States:</p>
+
+<p>1. That all hostilities between the American and Spanish
+forces in this district absolutely and unequivocally cease.</p>
+
+<p>2. That this capitulation includes all the forces and war
+material in said territory.</p>
+
+<p>3. That the United States agrees, with as little delay as
+possible, to transport all the Spanish troops in said
+district to the Kingdom of Spain, the troops being embarked,
+as far as possible at the port nearest the garrison they now
+occupy.</p>
+
+<p>4. That the officers of the Spanish
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'Arm'">Army</ins>
+be permitted to
+retain their side arms, and both officers and private
+soldiers their personal property.</p>
+
+<p>5. That the Spanish authorities agree to remove, or assist
+the American Navy in removing, all mines or other
+obstructions to navigation now in the harbor of Santiago and
+its mouth.</p>
+
+<p>6. That the commander of the Spanish forces deliver without
+delay a complete inventory of all arms and munitions of war
+of the Spanish forces in above described district to the
+commander of the American forces; also a roster of said
+forces now in said district.</p>
+
+<p>7. That the commander of the Spanish forces, in leaving said
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page342" id="page342"></a>[pg 342]</span>
+district, is authorized to carry with him all military
+archives and records pertaining to the Spanish Army now in
+said district.</p>
+
+<p>8. That all that portion of the Spanish forces known as
+Volunteers, Movilizados and Guerillas, who wish to remain in
+the Island of Cuba, are permitted to do so upon the
+condition of delivering up their arms and taking a parole
+not to bear arms against
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'he'">the</ins>
+United States during the
+continuance of the present war between Spain and the United
+States.</p>
+
+<p>9. That the Spanish forces will march out of Santiago de
+Cuba with the honors of war, depositing their arms
+thereafter at a point mutually agreed upon, to await their
+disposition by the United States Government, it being
+understood that the United States Commissioners will
+recommend that the Spanish soldier return to Spain with the
+arms he so bravely defended.</p>
+
+<p>10. That the provisions of the foregoing instrument become
+operative immediately upon its being signed.</p>
+
+<p>Entered into this sixteenth day of July, eighteen hundred
+and ninety-eight, by the undersigned Commissioners, acting
+under instructions from their respective commanding generals
+and with the approbation of their respective governments.</p>
+
+<p>
+(Signed)<br />
+JOSEPH WHEELER,<br />
+<i>Major-General U.S. Vols.</i>;<br />
+<br />
+H.W. LAWTON,<br />
+<i>Major-General U.S. Vols.</i>;<br />
+<br />
+J.D. MILEY,<br />
+<i>1st Lieut. 2d Art., A.D.C. to General Shafter.</i></p>
+<p class="author-up">
+FREDERICO ESCARIO,<br />
+VENTURA FONTAN,<br />
+ROBERT MASON.<br />
+</p>
+</blockquote><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page343" id="page343"></a>[pg 343]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>The following dispatch, sent by General Linares, will show how
+desperate were the straits into which he had been driven and how
+earnestly he desired to be granted authority to avoid further fighting
+by the surrender of his forces at Santiago:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="letterDate">
+Santiago de Cuba, July 12, 1898.</p>
+<p>
+The General-in-Chief to the Secretary of War.
+</p>
+
+<p>Although prostrated in bed from weakness and pain, my mind
+is troubled by the situation of our suffering troops, and
+therefore I think it my duty to address myself to you, Mr.
+Secretary, and describe the true situation.</p>
+
+<p>The enemy's forces very near city; ours extended fourteen
+kilometres (14,000 yards). Our troops exhausted and sickly
+in an alarming proportion. Cannot be brought to the
+hospital&mdash;needing them in trenches. Cattle without fodder or
+hay. Fearful storm of rain, which has been pouring
+continuously for past twenty-four hours. Soldiers without
+permanent shelter. Their only food rice, and not much of
+that. They have no way of changing or drying their clothing.
+Our losses were very heavy&mdash;many chiefs and officers among
+the dead, wounded and sick. Their absence deprives the
+forces of their leaders in this very critical moment. Under
+these conditions it is impossible to open a breach on the
+enemy, because it would take a third of our men who cannot
+go out, and whom the enemy would decimate. The result would
+be a terrible disaster, without obtaining, as you desire,
+the salvation of eleven maimed battalions. To make a sortie
+protected by the division at Holguin, it is necessary to
+attack the enemy's lines simultaneously, and the forces of
+Holguin cannot come here except after many long days'
+marching. Impossible for them to transport rations.
+Unfortunately, the situation is desperate. The surrender is
+imminent, otherwise we will only gain time to prolong our
+agony. The sacrifice would be sterile, and the men
+understand this. With his lines so near us, the enemy will
+annihilate us without exposing his own, as he did yesterday,
+bombarding by land elevations without our being able to
+discover their batteries, and by sea the fleet has a perfect
+knowledge of the place, and bombards with a mathematical
+accuracy. Santiago is no Gerona, a walled city, part of the
+mother country, and defended inch by inch by her own people
+without distinction&mdash;old men a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page344" id="page344"></a>[pg 344]</span>
+nd women who helped with their
+lives, moved by the holy idea of freedom, and with the hope
+of help, which they received. Here I am alone. All the
+people have fled, even those holding public offices, almost
+without exception. Only the priests remain, and they wish to
+leave the city to-day, headed by their archbishop. These
+defenders do not start now a campaign full of enthusiasm and
+energy, but for three years they have been fighting the
+climate, privations and fatigue, and now they have to
+confront this critical situation when they have no
+enthusiasm or physical strength. They have no ideals,
+because they defend the property of people who have deserted
+them and those who are the allies of the American forces.</p>
+
+<p>The honor of arms has its limit, and I appeal to the
+judgment of the Government and of the entire nation whether
+these patient
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'trops'">troops</ins>
+have not repeatedly saved it since May
+18th&mdash;date of first bombardment. If it is necessary that I
+sacrifice them for reasons unknown to me, or if it is
+necessary for some one to take responsibility for the issue
+foreseen and announced by me in several telegrams, I
+willingly offer myself as a sacrifice to my country, and I
+will take charge of the command for the act of surrender, as
+my modest reputation is of small value when the reputation
+of the nation is at stake.</p>
+
+<p class="author">(Signed) LINARES.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Thus surrendered to our forces about 23,500 Spanish troops, of whom
+about 11,000 had been in the garrison of Santiago, the others having
+been stationed in garrisons outside of the city, but belonging to the
+Division of Santiago. With them were also surrendered 100 cannon, 18
+machine guns and over 25,000 rifles. The troops were all sent back to
+Spain in vessels of their own nation and flying their own flag. We had
+lost in battles with them before the surrender 23 officers killed and
+237 men; and 100 officers and 1,332 men wounded.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" >
+<img src="images/image04.png" alt="Chapter End Graphic" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Colored Regulars in the United
+States Army, by T. G. Steward
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+</body>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Colored Regulars in the United States
+Army, by T. G. Steward
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Colored Regulars in the United States Army
+
+Author: T. G. Steward
+
+Release Date: September 25, 2005 [EBook #16750]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COLORED REGULARS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Richard J. Shiffer, and the PG
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE COLORED REGULARS
+
+IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY
+
+
+With a Sketch of the History of the Colored American, and an Account of
+His Services in the Wars of the Country, from the
+Period of the Revolutionary War to 1899.
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY LETTER FROM
+
+Lieutenant-General Nelson A. Miles
+Commanding the Army of the United States.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+By CHAPLAIN T.G. STEWARD, D.D.,
+Twenty-fifth U.S. Infantry.
+
+
+Philadelphia
+A.M.E. Book Concern,
+631 Pine Street.
+
+1904
+
+
+[Illustration: Chaplain T.G. Steward, D.D.]
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+CHAPTER I.--SKETCH OF SOCIAL HISTORY.
+
+The Importation of the Africans. Character of the Colored Population
+in 1860. Colored Population in British West Indian Possessions. Free
+Colored People of the South. Free Colored People of the North. Notes.
+                                                                     21
+
+CHAPTER II.--THE AMERICAN NEGRO AND THE MILITARY SPIRIT.
+
+Early Literature of Negro Soldiers. Negro Soldiers in the War of the
+Revolution. The War of 1812. Negro Insurrections. Negro Troops in the
+Civil War. Notes.                                                    57
+
+CHAPTER III.--THE BLACK REGULARS OF THE ARMY OF INVASION IN THE
+SPANISH WAR.
+
+Organization of Negro Regiments in the Regular Army. First Movement in
+the War. Chickamauga and Tampa. Notes.                               84
+
+CHAPTER IV.--BRIEF SKETCH OF SPANISH HISTORY.                       107
+
+CHAPTER V.--PASSAGE, LANDING, AND FIRST BATTLE IN CUBA.
+
+The Tenth Cavalry at Guasimas. The "Rescue of the Rough Riders." Was
+there an Ambush? Notes.                                             116
+
+CHAPTER VI.--THE BATTLE OF EL CANEY.
+
+The Capture of the Stone Fort by the Twenty-fifth Infantry.         150
+
+CHAPTER VII.--SAN JUAN.
+
+Cavalry Division: The Ninth and Tenth Regiments. Kent's Division: The
+Twenty-fourth Infantry. Forming under fire. A Gallant Charge.       191
+
+CHAPTER VIII.--SAN JUAN (Continued).
+
+Kent's Division. The Twenty-fourth Infantry. Forming Under Fire. A
+Gallant Charge.                                                     208
+
+CHAPTER IX.--THE SURRENDER AND AFTERWARDS.
+
+In the Trenches. The Twenty-fourth in the Fever Camp. Are Negro
+Soldiers Immune? Camp Wikoff.                                       220
+
+CHAPTER X.--REVIEW AND REFLECTIONS.
+
+Gallantry of the Black Regulars. Diary of Sergeant Major E.L. Baker,
+Tenth Cavalry.                                                      236
+
+CHAPTER XI.--THE COLORED VOLUNTEERS.
+
+The Ninth Ohio Battalion. Eighth Illinois. Twenty-third Kansas. Third
+North Carolina. Sixth Virginia. Third Alabama. The Immunes.         282
+
+CHAPTER XII.--COLORED OFFICERS.
+
+By Captain Frank R. Steward, A.B., LL.B., Harvard, 49th U. S.
+Volunteer Infantry.                                                 299
+
+APPENDIX.                                                           328
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The material out of which the story of the COLORED REGULARS has been
+constructed has been collected with great pains, and upon it has been
+expended a serious amount of labor and care. All the movements of the
+Cuban campaign, and particularly of the battles, have been carefully
+studied by the aid of official reports, and conversations and
+correspondence with those who participated in them. The work has been
+performed with an earnest desire to obtain and present the truth,
+hoping that the reader will be inspired by it to a more profound
+respect for the brave and skilled black men who passed through that
+severe baptism of fire and suffering, contributing their full share to
+their country's honor.
+
+It is also becoming in this place to mention with gratitude the
+encouragement given by the War Department both in granting me the time
+in which to do the work, and also in supplying me with documents and
+furnishing other facilities. By this enlightened course on the part of
+the Department great aid has been given to historical science, and,
+incidentally, very important service rendered to the cause of freedom
+and humanity. A struggling people has been helped and further glory
+reflected upon the Government. The President, himself, has manifested
+a kindly interest in the work, and has wished that the story of the
+black soldiers should be told to the world. The interest of the
+Commanding General of the Army is shown in his letter.
+
+Thus encouraged from official sources and receiving the most hearty
+words of cheer from friends, of whom none has been more potent or more
+earnest than Bishop B.W. Arnett, D.D., of the African M.E. Church, I
+have, after five months of severe labor, about completed my task, so
+far as I find it in my power to complete it; and trusting that the
+majesty and interest of the story itself will atone for any defects in
+the style of the narration, the volume is now offered to a sympathetic
+public, affectionately dedicated to the men whose heroic services have
+furnished the theme for my pen.
+
+T.G. STEWARD.
+Wilberforce, Ohio, September, 1899.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER FROM GENERAL MILES.
+
+
+Headquarters of the Army, Washington, August 5, 1899.
+
+Rev. T.G. Steward, Chaplain 25th Infantry, Wilberforce, Ohio.
+
+Dear Sir:--Your letter of the 20th ultimo was duly received, but my
+time has been so much engrossed with official duties, requiring my
+presence part of the time out of the city, that it has not been
+practicable to comply with your request earlier; and even now I can
+only reply very briefly.
+
+You will remember that my acquaintance with negro character commenced
+during the Civil War. The colored race then presented itself to me in
+the character of numerous contrabands of war, and as a people who,
+individually, yearned for the light and life of liberty. Ages of
+slavery had reduced them to the lowest ebb of manhood. From that
+degree of degradation I have been an interested spectator of the
+marvelously rapid evolution of the down-trodden race. From the
+commencement of this evolution to the present time I have been more or
+less in a position to closely observe their progress. At the close of
+the war I was in command of one of the very important military
+districts of the South, and my concern for the welfare of all the
+people of that district, not excluding the people of color, you will
+find evidenced in the measures taken by me, more especially in regard
+to educational matters, at that time. The first regiment which I
+commanded on entering the Regular Army of the United States at the
+close of the war was made up of colored troops. That regiment--the
+40th Infantry--achieved a reputation for military conduct which forms
+a record that may be favorably compared with the best regiments in the
+service. Then, again, refer to my General Order No. 1, issued after
+the fall of Santiago, and you will see that recognition is not
+grudgingly given to the troops who heroically fought there, whether of
+American, of African, or of Latin descent. If so early in the second
+generation of the existence of the race in the glorious light of
+liberty it produces such orators as Douglas, such educators as Booker
+T. Washington, such divines as the Afro-American Bishops, what may we
+not expect of the race when it shall have experienced as many
+generations of growth and development as the Anglo-Saxons who now
+dominate the thought, the inventive genius, the military prowess, and
+the commercial enterprise of the world! Very truly yours,
+
+NELSON A. MILES.
+
+
+[Illustration: Lieutenant-General Nelson A. Miles.]
+
+
+
+
+Headquarters of the Army,
+Siboney, Cuba, July 16, 1898.
+
+General Field Orders No. 1.
+
+The gratifying success of the American arms at Santiago de Cuba and
+some features of a professional character both important and
+instructive, are hereby announced to the army.
+
+The declaration of war found our country with a small army scattered
+over a vast territory. The troops composing this army were speedily
+mobilized at Tampa, Fla. Before it was possible to properly equip a
+volunteer force, strong appeals for aid came from the navy, which had
+inclosed in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba an important part of the
+Spanish fleet. At that time the only efficient fighting force
+available was the United States Army, and in order to organize a
+command of sufficient strength, the cavalry had to be sent dismounted
+to Santiago de Cuba with the infantry and artillery.
+
+The expedition thus formed was placed under command of Major-General
+Shafter. Notwithstanding the limited time to equip and organize an
+expedition of this character, there was never displayed a nobler
+spirit of patriotism and fortitude on the part of officers and men
+going forth to mantain the honor of their country. After encountering
+the vicissitudes of an ocean voyage, they were obliged to disembark on
+a foreign shore and immediately engage in an aggressive campaign.
+Under drenching storms, intense and prostrating heat, within a
+fever-afflicted district, with little comfort or rest, either by day
+or night, they pursued their purpose of finding and conquering the
+enemy. Many of them, trained in the severe experience of the great
+war, and in frequent campaigns on the Western plains, officers and men
+alike exhibited a great skill, fortitude, and tenacity, with results
+which have added a new chapter of glory to their country's history.
+Even when their own generals in several cases were temporarily
+disabled, the troops fought on with the same heroic spirit until
+success was finally achieved. In many instances the officers placed
+themselves in front of their commands, and under their direct and
+skillful leadership the trained troops of a brave army were driven
+from the thickets and jungles of an almost inaccessible country. In
+the open field the troops stormed intrenched infantry, and carried and
+captured fortified works with an unsurpassed daring and disregard of
+death. By gaining commanding ground they made the harbor of Santiago
+untenable for the Spanish fleet, and practically drove it out to a
+speedy destruction by the American Navy.
+
+While enduring the hardships and privations of such campaign, the
+troops generously shared their scanty food with the 5,000 Cuban
+patriots in arms, and the suffering people who had fled from the
+besieged city. With the twenty-four regiments and four batteries, the
+flower of the United States Army, were also three volunteer regiments.
+These though unskilled in warfare, yet, inspired with the same spirit,
+contributed to the victory, suffered hardships, and made sacrifices
+with the rest. Where all did so well, it is impossible, by special
+mention, to do justice to those who bore conspicuous part. But of
+certain unusual features mention cannot be omitted, namely, the
+cavalry dismounted, fighting and storming works as infantry, and a
+regiment of colored troops, who, having shared equally in the heroism
+as well as the sacrifices, is now voluntarily engaged in nursing
+yellow-fever patients and burying the dead. The gallantry, patriotism
+and sacrifices of the American Army, as illustrated in this brief
+campaign, will be fully appreciated by a grateful country, and the
+heroic deeds of those who have fought and fallen in the cause of
+freedom will ever be cherished in sacred memory and be an inspiration
+to the living.
+
+By command of Major-General Miles:
+
+J.C. GILMORE,
+Brigadier-General, United States Volunteers.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+
+To write the history of the Negro race within that part of the western
+world known as the United States of America would be a task to which
+one might devote a life time and still fail in its satisfactory
+accomplishment. The difficulties lying in the way of collecting and
+unifying the material are very great; and that of detecting the inner
+life of the people much greater. Facts and dates are to history what
+color and proportion are to the painting. Employed by genius, color
+and form combine in a language that speaks to the soul, giving
+pleasure and instruction to the beholder; so the facts and dates
+occurring along the pathway of a people, when gathered and arranged by
+labor and care, assume a voice and a power which they have not
+otherwise. As these facts express the thoughts and feelings, and the
+growth, of a people, they become the language in which that people
+writes its history, and the work of the historian is to read and
+interpret this history for the benefit of his fellow men.
+
+Borrowing a second illustration from the work of the artist, it may be
+said, that as nature reveals her secrets only to him whose soul is in
+deepest sympathy with her moods and movements, so a people's history
+can be discovered only by one whose heart throbs in unison with those
+who have made the history. To write the history of any people
+successfully one must read it by the heart; and the best part of
+history, like the best part of the picture, must ever remain
+unexpressed. The artist sees more, and feels more than he is able to
+transfer to his canvas, however entrancing his presentation; and the
+historian sees and feels more than his brightest pages convey to his
+readers. Nothing less than a profound respect and love for humankind
+and a special attraction toward a particular people and age, can fit
+one to engage in so sublime a task as that of translating the history
+of a people into the language of common men.
+
+The history of the American Negro differs very widely from that of any
+people whose life-story has been told; and when it shall come to be
+known and studied will open an entirely new view of experience. In it
+we shall be able to see what has never before been discovered in
+history; to wit: the absolute beginning of a people. Brought to these
+shores by the ship-load as freight, and sold as merchandise; entirely
+broken away from the tribes, races, or nations of their native land;
+recognized only, as African slaves, and forbidden all movement looking
+toward organic life; deprived of even the right of family or of
+marriage, and corrupted in the most shameless manner by their powerful
+and licentious oppressors--it is from this heterogeneous protoplasm
+that the American Negro has been developed. The foundation from which
+he sprang had been laid by piecemeal as the slave ships made their
+annual deposits of cargoes brought from different points on the West
+Coast, and basely corrupted as is only too well known; yet out of it
+has grown, within less than three hundred years, an organic people.
+Grandfathers, and great-grandfathers are among them; and personal
+acquaintance is exceedingly wide. In the face of slavery and against
+its teaching and its power, overcoming the seduction of the master
+class, and the coarse and brutal corruptions of the baser overseer
+class, the African slave persistently strove to clothe himself with
+the habiliments of civilization, and so prepared himself for social
+organization that as soon as the hindrances were removed, this vast
+people almost immediately set themselves in families; and for over
+thirty years they have been busily engaged hunting up the lost roots
+of their family trees. We know the pit whence the Afro-American race
+was dug, the rock whence he was hewn; he was born here on this soil,
+from a people who in the classic language of the Hebrew prophet, could
+be described as, No People.
+
+That there has been a majestic evolution quietly but rapidly going on
+in this mass, growing as it was both by natural development and by
+accretion, is plainly evident. Heterogeneous as were the fragments, by
+the aid of a common language and a common lot, and cruel yet partially
+civilizing control, the whole people were forced into a common outward
+form, and to a remarkable extent, into the same ways of thinking. The
+affinities within were really aided by the repulsions without, and
+when finally freed from slavery, for an ignorant and inexperienced
+people, they presented an astonishing spectacle of unity. Socially,
+politically and religiously, their power to work together showed
+itself little less than marvellous. The Afro-American, developing from
+this slave base, now directs great organizations of a religious
+character, and in comprehensive sweep invites to his co-operation the
+inhabitants of the isles of the sea and of far-off Africa. He is
+joining with the primitive, strong, hopeful and expanding races of
+Southern Africa, and is evidently preparing for a day that has not yet
+come.
+
+The progress made thus far by the people is somewhat like that made by
+the young, man who hires himself to a farmer and takes his pay in
+farming stock and utensils. He is thus acquiring the means to stock a
+farm, and the skill and experience necessary to its successful
+management at the same time. His career will not appear important,
+however, until the day shall arrive when he will set up for himself.
+The time spent on the farm of another was passed in comparative
+obscurity; but without it the more conspicuous period could never have
+followed. So, now, the American colored people are making history, but
+it is not of that kind that gains the attention of writers. Having no
+political organizations, governments or armies they are not performing
+those deeds of splendor in statesmanship and war over which the pen of
+the historian usually delights to linger. The people, living, growing,
+reading, thinking, working, suffering, advancing and dying--these are
+all common-place occurrences, neither warming the heart of the
+observer, nor capable of brightening the page of the chronicler. This,
+however, is, with the insignificant exception of Liberia, all that is
+yet to be found in the brief history of the Afro-American race.
+
+The period for him to set up for himself has not yet come, and he is
+still acquiring means and training within a realm controlled in all
+respects by a people who maintain toward him an attitude of absolute
+social exclusion. His is the history of a people marching from nowhere
+to somewhere, but with no well-defined Canaan before them and no Moses
+to lead. It is indeed, on their part, a walk by faith, for as yet the
+wisest among the race cannot tell even the direction of the journey.
+Before us lie surely three possible destinies, if not four; yet it is
+not clear toward which one of these we are marching. Are we destined
+to see the African element of America's population blend with the
+Euro-American element and be lost in a common people? Will the colored
+American leave this home in which as a race he has been born and
+reared to manhood, and find his stage of action somewhere else on
+God's earth? Will he remain here as a separate and subordinate people
+perpetuating the conditions of to-day only that they may become more
+humiliating and exasperating? Or is there to arise a war of races in
+which the blacks are to be exterminated? Who knows? Fortunately the
+historian is not called upon to perform the duties of prophet. His
+work is to tell what has been; and if others, building upon his
+presentation of facts can deduce what is to be, it is no small tribute
+to the correctness of his interpretations; for all events are parts of
+one vast system ever moving toward some great end. One remark only
+need be made. It is reasonable to presume that this new Afro-American
+will somehow and somewhere be given an opportunity to express that
+particular modification of material life which his spiritual nature
+will demand. Whether that expression will be made here or elsewhere;
+whether it will be higher or lower than what now surrounds us, are
+questions which we may well leave to the future.
+
+No people can win and hold a place, either as a nation among other
+nations, or as an elementary component of a nation, merely by its own
+goodness or by the goodness of others. The struggle for national
+existence is a familiar one, and is always initiated by a display of
+physical force. Those who have the power seize territory and
+government, and those who CAN, keep possession and control. It is in
+some instances the backing up of right by might, and in others the
+substituting of right by might. Too often the greatest of all national
+crimes is to be weak. When the struggle is a quiet one, going on
+within a nation, and is that of an element seeking a place in the
+common social life of the country, much the same principles are
+involved. It is still a question to be settled by force, no matter how
+highly the claim of the weaker may be favored by reason and justice.
+
+The powers by which a special people may emerge from an unhappy
+condition and secure improved social relations, using the word social
+in its broadest sense, are physical, intellectual and material. There
+must be developed manly strength and courage and a power of intellect
+which will manifest itself in organization and attractiveness, and in
+the aptitude of employing appropriate methods for ends in view. To
+these must be added the power that comes through wealth; and thus,
+with the real advancement of condition and character will come,
+tardily and grudgingly perhaps, but nevertheless surely, improved
+social standing. Once filled with the common national spirit,
+partaking of its thoughts, entering heartily into the common
+movements, having the same dress, language and manners as others, and
+being as able and as willing to help as to be helped, and withal being
+in fact the most intensely American element on the continent because
+constructed on this soil, we may hope that the Afro-American will
+ultimately win and hold his proper place.
+
+The history made by the American Negro has been so filled with
+suffering that we have overlooked the active side. The world has heard
+so much of the horrors of the "Middle Passage"; the awful sufferings
+of the slave; the barbarous outrages that have been perpetrated upon
+ex-slaves; the inhuman and senseless prejudices that meet colored
+Americans almost everywhere on their native soil; that it has come to
+look upon this recital as the whole of the story. It needs to be told
+that these records constitute the dark side of the picture, dark and
+horrible enough, to be sure, but this is by no means the whole
+picture. If there are scenes whose representations would serve to
+ornament the infernal regions, pictures over which fiends might gloat,
+there are also others which angels might delight to gaze upon. There
+has been much of worthy action among the colored people of this
+country, wherever the bonds of oppression have been slackened enough
+to allow of free movement. There have been resistance to wrong by way
+of remonstrance and petition, sometimes even by force; laudable
+efforts toward self-education; benevolent and philanthropic movements;
+reform organizations, and commendable business enterprise both in
+individuals and associations. These show a toughness of fibre and
+steadiness of purpose sufficient to make the backbone of a real
+history.
+
+The present work deals with these elements of character as they are
+exhibited in the garb of the soldier. When men are willing to fight
+and die for what they hold dear, they have become a moving force,
+capable of disturbing the currents of history and of making a channel
+for the stream of their own actions. The American Negro has evolved an
+active, aggressive element in the scientific fighting men he has
+produced. Individual pugilists of that race have entered all classes,
+from featherweight to heavyweight, and have remained there; receiving
+blows and dealing blows; showing a sturdy, positive force; mastering
+and employing all the methods of attack and defence allowed in such
+encounters, and supporting themselves with that fortitude and courage
+so necessary to the ring. Such combats are not to be commended, as
+they are usually mere tests of skill and endurance, entered into on
+the principles of the gambler, and they are introduced here for the
+sole purpose of showing the colored man as a positive force, yielding
+only to a superior degree of force of the same kind. The soldier
+stands for something far higher than the pugilist represents, although
+he has need of the same qualities of physical hardihood--contempt for
+suffering and coolness in the presence of danger, united with skill in
+the use of his weapons. The pugilist is his own general and never
+learns the high lessons of obedience; the soldier learns to
+subordinate himself to his commander, and to fight bravely and
+effectively under the direction of another.
+
+The evolution of the Afro-American soldier was the work of a short
+period and suffered many interruptions. When the War of the Revolution
+broke out the colored man was a slave, knowing nothing of the spirit
+or the training of the soldier; before it closed several thousand
+colored men had entered the army and some had won distinction for
+gallantry. Less than forty years later, in the war of 1812, the black
+man again appeared to take his stand under the flag of independence.
+The War of Secession again witnessed the coming forth of the black
+soldier, this time in important numbers and performing heroic services
+on a grand scale, and under most discouraging circumstances, but with
+such success that he won a place in arms for all time. When the Civil
+War closed, the American black man had secured his standing as a
+soldier--the evolution was complete. Henceforth he was to be found an
+integral part of the Army of the United States.
+
+The black man passed through the trying baptism of fire in the Sixties
+and came out of it a full-fledged soldier. His was worse than an
+impartial trial; it was a trial before a jury strongly biased against
+him; in the service of a government willing to allow him but half pay;
+and in the face of a foe denying him the rights belonging to civilized
+warfare. Yet against these odds, denied the dearest right of a
+soldier--the hope of promotion--scorned by his companions in arms, the
+Negro on more than two hundred and fifty battle-fields, demonstrated
+his courage and skill, and wrung from the American nation the right to
+bear arms. The barons were no more successful in their struggle with
+King John when they obtained Magna Charta than were the American
+Negroes with Prejudice, when they secured the national recognition of
+their right and fitness to hold a place in the Standing Army of the
+United States. The Afro-American soldier now takes his rank with
+America's best, and in appearance, skill, physique, manners, conduct
+and courage proves himself worthy of the position he holds. Combining
+in his person the harvested influences of three great continents,
+Europe, Africa and America, he stands up as the typical soldier of the
+Western World, the latest comer in the field of arms, but yielding his
+place in the line to none, and ever ready to defend his country and
+his flag against any and all foes.
+
+The mission of this book is to make clear this evolution, giving the
+historical facts with as much detail as possible, and setting forth
+finally the portrait of this new soldier. That this is a prodigious
+task is too evident to need assertion--a task worthy the most lofty
+talents; and in essaying it I humbly confess to a sense of unfitness;
+yet the work lies before me and duty orders me to enter upon it. A
+Major General writes: "I wish you every success in producing a work
+important both historically and for the credit of a race far more
+deserving than the world has acknowledged." A Brigadier General who
+commanded a colored regiment in Cuba says to me most encouragingly:
+"You must allow me--for our intimate associations justify it--to write
+frankly. Your education, habits of thought, fairness of judgment and
+comprehension of the work you are to undertake, better fit you for
+writing such a history than any person within my acquaintance. Those
+noble men made the history at El Caney and San Juan; I believe you are
+the man to record it. May God help you to so set forth the deeds of
+that memorable first of July in front of Santiago that the world may
+see in its true light what those brave, intelligent colored men did."
+
+Both these men fought through the Civil War and won distinction on
+fields of blood. To the devout prayer offered by one of them I
+heartily echo an Amen, and can only wish that in it all my friends
+might join, and that God would answer it in granting me power to do
+the work in such a way as to bring great good to the race and reflect
+some glory to Himself, in whose name the work is undertaken.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+SKETCH OF SOCIAL HISTORY.
+
+     The Importation of the Africans--Character of the Colored
+     Population in 1860--Colored Population in British West
+     Indian Possessions--Free Colored People of the South--Free
+     Colored People of the North--Notes.
+
+
+Professor DuBois, in his exhaustive work upon the "Suppression of the
+African Slave-Trade," has brought within comparatively narrow limits
+the great mass of facts bearing upon his subject, and in synopses and
+indices has presented all of the more important literature it has
+induced. In his Monograph, published as Volume II of the Harvard
+Historical Series, he has traced the rise of this nefarious traffic,
+especially with reference to the American colonies, exhibited the
+proportions to which it expanded, and the tenacity with which it held
+on to its purpose until it met its death in the fate of the
+ill-starred Southern Confederacy. Every step in his narrative is
+supported by references to unimpeachable authorities; and the
+scholarly Monograph bears high testimony to the author's earnest
+labor, painstaking research and unswerving fidelity. Should the
+present work stimulate inquiry beyond the scope herein set before the
+reader, he is most confidently referred to Professor Du Bois' book as
+containing a complete exposition of the development and overthrow of
+that awful crime.
+
+It is from this work, however, that we shall obtain a nearer and
+clearer view of the African planted upon our shores. Negro slavery
+began at an early day in the North American Colonies; but up until the
+Revolution of 1688 the demand for slaves was mainly supplied from
+England, the slaves being white.[1] "It is probable," says Professor
+DuBois, "that about 25,000 slaves were brought to America each year
+between 1698 and 1707, and after 1713 it rose to perhaps 30,000
+annually. "Before the Revolution the total exportation to America is
+variously estimated as between 40,000 and 100,000 each year."
+Something of the horrors of the "Middle Passage" may be shown by the
+records that out of 60,783 slaves shipped from Africa during the years
+1680-88, 14,387, or nearly one-fourth of the entire number, perished
+at sea. In 1790 there were in the country nearly seven hundred
+thousand Africans, these having been introduced by installments from
+various heathen tribes. The importation of slaves continued with more
+or less success up until 1858, when the "Wanderer" landed her cargo of
+500 in Georgia.
+
+During the period from 1790 to the breaking out of the Civil War,
+shortly after the landing of the last cargo of slaves, the colored
+population, both slave and free, had arisen to about four million, and
+had undergone great modifications. The cargo of the "Wanderer" found
+themselves among strangers, even when trying to associate with those
+who in color and hair were like themselves. The slaves of 1860
+differed greatly from the slaves of a hundred years earlier. They had
+lost the relics of that stern warlike spirit which prompted the Stono
+insurrection, the Denmark Vesey insurrection, and the Nat Turner
+insurrection, and had accepted their lot as slaves, hoping that
+through God, freedom would come to them some time in the happy future.
+Large numbers of them had become Christians through the teaching of
+godly white women, and at length through the evangelistic efforts of
+men and women of their own race. Independent religious organizations
+had been formed in the North, and large local churches with Negro
+pastors were in existence in the South when the "Wanderer" landed her
+cargo. There had been a steady increase in numbers, indicating that
+the physical well-being of the slave was not overlooked, and the
+slaves had greatly improved in character. Sales made in South Carolina
+between 1850 and 1860 show "boys," from 16 to 25 years of age,
+bringing from $900 to $1000; and "large sales" are reported showing an
+"average of $620 each," "Negro men bringing from $800 to $1000," and a
+"blacksmith" bringing $1425. The averages generally obtained were
+above $600. A sale of 109 Negroes in families is reported in the
+"Charleston Courier" in which the writer says: "Two or three families
+averaged from $1000 to $1100 for each individual." The same item
+states also that "C.G. Whitney sold two likely female house servants,
+one for $1000, the other for $1190." These cases are presented to
+illustrate the financial value of the American slave, and
+inferentially the progress he had made in acquiring the arts of modern
+civilization. Slaves had become blacksmiths, wheelwrights,
+carriage-makers, carpenters, bricklayers, tailors, bootmakers,
+founders and moulders, not to mention all the common labor performed
+by them. Slave women had become dressmakers, hairdressers, nurses and
+the best cooks to be found in the world. The slave-holders regarded
+themselves as the favored of mankind because of the competence and
+faithfulness of their slaves. The African spirit and character had
+disappeared, and in their place were coming into being the elements of
+a new character, existing in 1860 purely in a negative form. The slave
+had become an American. He was now a civilized slave, and had received
+his civilization from his masters. He had separated himself very far
+from his brother slave in St. Domingo. The Haytian Negro fought and
+won his freedom before he had been civilized in slavery, and hence has
+never passed over the same ground that his American fellow-servant has
+been compelled to traverse.
+
+Beside the slaves in the South, there were also several thousand "free
+persons of color," as they were called, dwelling in such cities as
+Richmond, Va., Charleston, S.C., and New Orleans, La. Some of these
+had become quite wealthy and well-educated, forming a distinct class
+of the population. They were called Creoles in Louisiana, and were
+accorded certain privileges, although laws were carefully enacted to
+keep alive the distinction between them and the whites. In Charleston
+the so-called colored people set themselves up as a class, prided
+themselves much upon their color and hair and in their sympathies
+joined almost wholly with the master class. Representatives of their
+class became slave-holders and were in full accord with the social
+policy of the country. Nevertheless their presence was an
+encouragement to the slave, and consequently was objected to by the
+slave-holder. The free colored man became more and more disliked in
+the South as the slave became more civilized. He was supposed by his
+example to contribute to the discontent of the slave, and laws were
+passed restricting his priveleges so as to induce him to leave.
+Between 1850 and 1860 this question reached a crisis and free colored
+people from the South were to be seen taking up their homes in the
+Northern States and in Canada. (Many of the people, especially from
+Charleston, carried with them all their belittling prejudices, and
+after years of sojourn under the sway of enlightened and liberal
+ideas, proved themselves still incapable of learning the new way or
+forgetting the old.)
+
+There were, then, three very distinct classes of colored people in the
+country, to wit: The slave in the South, the free colored people of
+the South, and the free colored people of the North. These were also
+sub-divided into several smaller classes. Slaves were divided into
+field hands, house servants and city slaves. The free colored people
+of the South had their classes based usually on color; the free
+colored people of the North had their divisions caused by differences
+in religion, differences as to place of birth, and numerous family
+conceits. So that surveyed as a whole, it is extremely difficult to
+get anything like a complete social map of these four millions as they
+existed at the outbreak of the Civil War.
+
+For a quarter of a century there had been a steady concentration of
+the slave population within the cotton and cane-growing region, the
+grain-growing States of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia having become
+to a considerable extent breeding farms. Particularly was this the
+case with the more intelligent and higher developed individual slaves
+who appeared near the border line. The master felt that such persons
+would soon make their escape by way of the "Underground Railroad" or
+otherwise, and hence in order to prevent a total loss, would follow
+the dictates of business prudence and sell his bright slave man to
+Georgia. The Maryland or Virginia slave who showed suspicious
+aspirations was usually checked by the threat, "I'll sell you to
+Georgia;" and if the threat did not produce the desired reformation it
+was not long before the ambitious slave found himself in the gang of
+that most despised and most despicable of all creatures, the Georgia
+slave-trader. Georgia and Canada were the two extremes of the slave's
+anticipation during the last decade of his experience. These stood as
+his earthly Heaven and Hell, the "Underground Railroad," with its
+agents, conducting to one, and the odious slave-trader, driving men,
+women and children, to the other. No Netherlander ever hated and
+feared the devil more thoroughly than did the slaves of the border
+States hate and fear these outrages on mankind, the kidnapping
+slave-traders of the cotton and cane regions. I say kidnapping, for I
+have myself seen persons in Georgia who had been kidnapped in
+Maryland. If the devil was ever incarnate, I think it safe to look for
+him among those who engaged in the slave-trade, whether in a foreign
+or domestic form.
+
+Nothing is more striking in connection with the history of American
+Slavery than the conduct of Great Britain on the same subject. So
+inconsistent has this conduct been that it can be explained only by
+regarding England as a conglomerate of two elements nearly equal in
+strength, of directly opposite character, ruling alternately the
+affairs of the nation. As a slave-trader and slave-holder England was
+perhaps even worse than the United States. Under her rule the slave
+decreased in numbers, and remained a savage. In Jamaica, in St.
+Vincent, in British Guiana, in Barbadoes, in Trinidad and in Grenada,
+British slavery was far worse than American slavery. In these colonies
+"the slave was generally a barbarian, speaking an unknown tongue, and
+working with men like himself, in gangs with scarcely a chance for
+improvement." An economist says, had the slaves of the British
+colonies been as well fed, clothed, lodged, and otherwise cared for as
+were those of the United States, their number at emancipation would
+have reached from seventeen to twenty millions, whereas the actual
+number emancipated was only 660,000. Had the blacks of the United
+States experienced the same treatment as did those of the British
+colonies, 1860 would have found among us less than 150,000 colored
+persons. In the United States were found ten colored persons for every
+slave imported, while in the British colonies only one was found for
+every three imported. Hence the claim that the American Negro is a new
+race, built up on this soil, rests upon an ample supply of facts. The
+American slave was born in our civilization, fed upon good American
+food, housed and clothed on a civilized plan, taught the arts and
+language of civilization, acquired necessarily ideas of law and
+liberty, and by 1860 was well on the road toward fitness for freedom.
+No lessons therefore drawn from the emancipation of British slaves in
+the West Indies are of any direct value to us, inasmuch as British
+slavery was not like American slavery, the British freedman was in no
+sense the equal of the American freedman, and the circumstances
+surrounding the emancipation of the British slave had nothing of the
+inspiring and ennobling character with those connected with the
+breaking of the American Negro's chains. Yet, superior as the American
+Negro was as a slave, he was very far below the standard of American
+citizenship as subsequent events conclusively proved. The best form of
+slavery, even though it may lead toward fitness for freedom, can never
+be regarded as a fit school in which to graduate citizens of so
+magnificent an empire as the United States.
+
+The slave of 1860 was perhaps, all things considered, the best slave
+the world had ever seen, if we except those who served the Hebrews
+under the Mosaic statutes. While there was no such thing among them as
+legal marriage or legitimate childhood, yet slave "families" were
+recognized even on the auction block, and after emancipation legal
+family life was erected generally upon relationships which had been
+formed in slavery. Bishop Gaines, himself born a slave of slave
+parents, says: "The Negro had no civil rights under the codes of the
+Southern States. It was often the case, it is true, that the marriage
+ceremony was performed, and thousands of couples regarded it, and
+observed it as of binding force, and were as true to each other as if
+they had been lawfully married." * * * "The colored people
+generally," he says, "held their marriage (if such unauthorized union
+may be called marriage) sacred, even while they were slaves. Many
+instances will be recalled by the older people of the life-long
+fidelity which existed between the slave and his concubine" (Wife,
+T.G.S.)" ... the mother of his children. My own father and mother
+lived together over sixty years. I am the fourteenth child of that
+union, and I can truthfully affirm that no marriage, however made
+sacred by the sanction of law, was ever more congenial and beautiful.
+Thousands of like instances might be cited to the same effect. It will
+always be to the credit of the colored people that almost without
+exception, they adhered to their relations, illegal though they had
+been, and accepted gladly the new law which put the stamp of
+legitimacy upon their union and removed the brand of bastardy from the
+brows of their children."
+
+Let us now sum up the qualifications that these people possessed in
+large degree, in order to determine their fitness for freedom, then so
+near at hand. They had acquired the English language, and the
+Christian religion, including the Christian idea of marriage, so
+entirely different in spirit and form from the African marriage. They
+had acquired the civilized methods of cooking their food, making and
+wearing clothes, sleeping in beds, and observing Sunday. They had
+acquired many of the useful arts and trades of civilization and had
+imbibed the tastes and feelings, to some extent, at least, of the
+country in which they lived. Becoming keen observers, shut out from
+books and newspapers, they listened attentively, learned more of law
+and politics than was generally supposed. They knew what the election
+of 1860 meant and were on tiptoe with expectation. Although the days
+of insurrection had passed and the slave of '59 was not ready to rise
+with the immortal John Brown, he had not lost his desire for freedom.
+The steady march of escaping slaves guided by the North star, with the
+refrain:
+
+    "I'm on my way to Canada,
+      That cold but happy land;
+    The dire effects of slavery
+      I can no longer stand,"
+
+proved that the desire to be free was becoming more extensive and
+absorbing as the slave advanced in intelligence.
+
+It is necessary again to emphasize the fact that the American slaves
+were well formed and well developed physically, capable of enduring
+hard labor and of subsisting upon the plainest food. Their diet for
+years had been of the simplest sort, and they had been subjected to a
+system of regulations very much like those which are employed in the
+management of armies. They had an hour to go to bed and an hour to
+rise; left their homes only upon written "passes," and when abroad at
+night were often halted by the wandering patrol. "Run, nigger, run,
+the patrol get you," was a song of the slave children of South
+Carolina.
+
+Strangers who saw for the first time these people as they came out of
+slavery in 1865 were usually impressed with their robust appearance,
+and a conference of ex-slaves, assembled soon after the war,
+introduced a resolution with the following declaration: "Whereas,
+Slavery has left us in possession of strong and healthy bodies." It is
+probable that at least a half-million of men of proper age could then
+have been found among the newly liberated capable of bearing arms.
+They were inured to the plain ration, to labor and fatigue, and to
+subordination, and had long been accustomed to working together under
+the immediate direction of foremen.
+
+Two questions of importance naturally arose at this period: First, did
+the American slave understand the issue that had been before the
+country for more than a half-century and that was now dividing the
+nation in twain and marshalling for deadly strife these two opposing
+armies? Second, had he the courage necessary to take part in the
+struggle and help save the Union? It would be a strange thing to say,
+but nevertheless a thing entirely true, that many of the Negro slaves
+had a clearer perception of the real question at issue than did some
+of our most far-seeing statesmen, and a clearer vision of what would
+be the outcome of the war. While the great men of the North were
+striving to establish the doctrine that the coming war was merely to
+settle the question of Secession, the slave knew better. God had hid
+certain things from the wise and prudent and had revealed them unto
+babes. Lincoln, the wisest of all, was slow to see that the issue he
+himself had predicted was really at hand. As President, he declared
+for the preservation of the Union, with or without slavery, or even
+upon the terms which he had previously declared irreconcilable, "half
+slave and half free." The Negro slave saw in the outbreak of the war
+the death struggle of slavery. He knew that the real issue was
+slavery.
+
+The masters were careful to keep from the knowledge of the slave the
+events as well as the causes of the war, but in spite of these efforts
+the slave's keen perception enabled him to read defeat in the dejected
+mien of his master, and victory in his exultation. To prevent the
+master's knowing what was going on in their thoughts, the slaves
+constructed curious codes among themselves. In one neighborhood
+freedom was always spoken of as "New Rice"; and many a poor slave
+woman sighed for the coming of New Rice in the hearing of those who
+imagined they knew the inmost thoughts of their bondwomen. Gleefully
+at times they would talk of the jollification they would make when the
+New Rice came. It was this clear vision, this strong hope, that
+sustained them during the trying days of the war and kept them back
+from insurrection. Bishop Gaines says: "Their prayers ascended for
+their deliverance, and their hearts yearned for the success of their
+friends. They fondly hoped for the hour of victory, when the night of
+slavery would end and the dawn of freedom appear. They often talked to
+each other of the progress of the war and conferred in secret as to
+what they might do to aid in the struggle. Worn out with long bondage,
+yearning for the boon of freedom, longing for the sun of liberty to
+rise, they kept their peace and left the result to God." Mr. Douglass,
+whom this same Bishop Gaines speaks of very inappropriately as a
+"half-breed," seemed able to grasp the feelings both of the slave and
+the freeman and said: "From the first, I for one, saw in this war the
+end of slavery, and truth requires me to say that my interest in the
+success of the North was largely due to this belief." Mr. Seward, the
+wise Secretary of State, had thought that the war would come and go
+without producing any change in the relation of master and slave; but
+the humble slave on the Georgia cotton plantation, or in the Carolina
+rice fields, knew that the booming of the guns of rebellion in
+Charleston was the opening note of the death knell of slavery. The
+slave undoubtedly understood the issue, and knew on which side liberty
+dwelt. Although thoroughly bred to slavery, and as contented and happy
+as he could be in his lot, he acted according to the injunction of the
+Apostle: "Art thou called being a servant, care not for it; but if
+thou mayest be made free, use it rather." The slaves tried to be
+contented, but they preferred freedom and knew which side to take when
+the time came for them to act.
+
+Enough has been said to show that out of the African slave had been
+developed a thoroughly American slave, so well imbued with modern
+civilization and so well versed in American politics, as to be
+partially ready for citizenship. He had become law-abiding and
+order-loving, and possessed of an intelligent desire to be free.
+Whether he had within him the necessary moral elements to become a
+soldier the pages following will attempt to make known. He had the
+numbers, the physical strength and the intelligence. He could enter
+the strife with a sufficient comprehension of the issues involved to
+enable him to give to his own heart a reason for his action. Fitness
+for the soldier does not necessarily involve fitness for citizenship,
+but the actual discharge of the duties of the soldier in defence of
+the nation, entitles one to all common rights, to the nation's
+gratitude, and to the highest honors for which he is qualified.
+
+In concluding this chapter I shall briefly return to the free colored
+people of the South that the reader may be able to properly estimate
+their importance as a separate element. Their influence upon the slave
+population was very slight, inasmuch as law and custom forbade the
+intercourse of these two classes.
+
+According to the Census of 1860 there were in the slave-holding States
+altogether 261,918 free colored persons, 106,770 being mulattoes. In
+Charleston there were 887 free blacks and 2,554 mulattoes; in Mobile,
+98 free blacks and 617 mulattoes; in New Orleans, 1,727 blacks and
+7,357 mulattoes. As will be seen, nearly one-half of the entire number
+of free colored persons were mulattoes, while in the leading Southern
+cities seventy-five per cent. of the free colored people were put in
+this class. The percentage of mulatto slaves to the total slave
+population at that time was 10.41, and in the same cities which showed
+seventy-five per cent, of all the free colored persons mulattoes, the
+percentage of mulatto slaves was but 16.84. Mulatto in this
+classification includes all colored persons who are not put down as
+black.
+
+In New Orleans the free mulattoes were generally French, having come
+into the Union with the Louisiana purchase, and among them were to be
+found wealthy slave-holders. They much resembled the class of
+mulattoes which obtained in St. Domingo at the beginning of the
+century, and had but little sympathy with the blacks, although they
+were the first to acquiesce in emancipation, some of them actually
+leading their own slaves into the army of liberation. It is possible,
+however, that they had not fully realized the trend of the war,
+inasmuch as New Orleans was excepted from the effects of the
+Proclamation. It is certain that the free colored people of that city
+made a tender of support to the Confederacy, although they were among
+the first to welcome the conquering "Yankees," and afterward fought
+with marked gallantry in the Union cause. The free mulattoes, or
+_browns_, as they called themselves, of Charleston, followed much the
+same course as their fellow classmen of New Orleans. Here, too, they
+had been exclusive and to some extent slave-holders, had tendered
+their services to the Confederacy, and had hastily come forward to
+welcome the conquerors. They were foremost among the colored people in
+wealth and intelligence, but their field of social operations had been
+so circumscribed that they had exerted but little influence in the
+work of Americanizing the slave. Separated from the slave by law and
+custom they did all in their power to separate themselves from him in
+thought and feeling. They drew the line against all blacks as
+mercilessly and senselessly as the most prejudiced of the whites and
+were duplicates of the whites placed on an intermediate plane. It was
+not unusual to find a Charleston brown filled with more prejudice
+toward the blacks than were the whites.
+
+     [Transcriber's Note: This footnote appeared in the text
+     without a footnote anchor: "Census of 1860."]
+
+The colored people of the North in 1860 numbered 237,283,
+Pennsylvania having the largest number, 56,849; then came New York
+with 49,005; Ohio, 36,673; New Jersey, 25,318; Indiana, 11,428;
+Massachusetts, 9,602; Connecticut, 8,627; Illinois, 7,628; Michigan,
+6,799; Rhode Island, 3,952; Maine, 1,327; Wisconsin, 1,171; Iowa,
+1,069; Vermont, 709; Kansas, 625; New Hampshire, 494; Minnesota, 259;
+Oregon, 128.
+
+Considerably more than one-half of this population was located within
+the States along the Atlantic Coast, viz.; Maine, New Hampshire,
+Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York,
+Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Here were to be found 154,883 free
+colored people. Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey took the lead in
+this population, with Massachusetts and Connecticut coming next, while
+Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont had but few. The cities, Boston, New
+York and Philadelphia, were the largest cities of free colored people
+then in the North. In Boston there were 2,261; New York City, 12,574,
+while in Philadelphia there were 22,185
+
+As early as 1787 the free colored people of Philadelphia, through two
+distinguished representatives, Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, "two
+men of the African race," as the chroniclers say, "saw the irreligious
+and uncivilized state" of the "people of their complexion," and
+finally concluded "that a society should be formed without regard to
+religious tenets, provided the persons lived an orderly and sober
+life," the purpose of the society being "to support one another in
+sickness and for the benefit of their widows and fatherless children."
+Accordingly a society was established, known as the Free African
+Society of Philadelphia, and on the 17th, 5th-mo., 1787, articles were
+published, including the following, which is inserted to show the
+breadth of the society's purpose:
+
+"And we apprehend it to be necessary that the children of our
+deceased members be under the care of the Society, so far as to pay
+for the education of their children, if they cannot attend free
+school; also to put them out apprentices to suitable trades or places,
+if required."[2]
+
+Shortly after this we read of "the African School for the free
+instruction of the black people," and in 1796, "The Evening Free
+School, held at the African Methodist Meeting House in Philadelphia"
+was reported as being "kept very orderly, the scholars behaving in a
+becoming manner, and their improvement beyond the teachers'
+expectations, their intellects appearing in every branch of learning
+to be equal to those of the fairest complexion." The name African, as
+the reader will notice, is used with reference to school, church, and
+individuals; although not to the complete exclusion of "colored
+people" and "people of color." These phrases seem to have been coined
+in the West Indies, and were there applied only to persons of mixed
+European and African descent. In the United States they never obtained
+such restricted use except in a very few localities. The practice of
+using African as a descriptive title of the free colored people of the
+North became very extensive and so continued up to the middle of the
+century. There were African societies, churches and schools in all the
+prominent centres of this population.
+
+In 1843 one, Mr. P. Loveridge, Agent for Colored Schools of New York,
+wrote the editor of the African Methodist Magazine as follows:[3] "As
+to the name of your periodical, act as we did with the name of our
+schools--away with Africa. There are no Africans in your connection.
+Substitute colored for African and it will be, in my opinion, as it
+should be." The earnestness of the writer shows that the matter of
+parting with African was then a live question. The cool reply of the
+editor indicates how strong was the conservative element among the
+African people of '43. He says: "We are unable to see the
+reasonableness of the remarks. It is true we are not Africans, or
+natives born upon the soil of Africa, yet, as the descendants of that
+race, how can we better manifest that respect due to our fathers who
+begat us, than by the adoption of the term in our institutions, and
+inscribing it upon our public places of resort?" To this Mr. Loveridge
+rejoins in the following explanatory paragraph: "We who are engaged in
+the Public Schools in this city found upon examination of about 1500
+children who attend our schools from year to year, not one African
+child among them. A suggestion was made that we petition the Public
+School Society to change the name African to Colored Schools. The
+gentlemen of that honorable body, perceiving our petition to be a
+logical one, acquiesced with us. Hence the adjective African (which
+does not apply to us) was blotted out and Colored substituted in its
+place. It is 'Public Schools for Colored Children.' We are Americans
+and expect American sympathies."
+
+In 1816 the colored Methodists conceived the idea of organizing and
+evangelizing their race, and to this end a convention was called and
+assembled in Philadelphia of that year, composed of sixteen delegates,
+coming from Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey. The
+convention adopted a resolution that the people of Philadelphia,
+Baltimore and all other places who should unite with them, should
+become one body under the name and style of the African Methodist
+Episcopal Church. Similar action was taken by two other bodies of
+colored Methodists, one in New York, the other in Wilmington,
+Delaware, about the same time. The people were coming together and
+beginning to understand the value of organization. This was manifested
+in their religious, beneficial and educational associations that were
+springing up among them. In 1841 the African Methodist Magazine
+appeared, the first organ of religious communication and thought
+issued by the American colored people. It was published in Brooklyn,
+N.Y., Rev. George Hogarth being its editor.
+
+There were papers published by the colored people prior to the
+appearance of the African Methodist Magazine, but these were
+individual enterprises. They were, however, indices of the thought of
+the race, and looking back upon them now, we may regard them as
+mile-stones set up along the line of march over which the people have
+come. New York, city and State, appears to have been the home of these
+early harbingers, and it was there that the earliest literary centre
+was established, corresponding to that centre of religious life and
+thought which had been earlier founded in Philadelphia. In 1827 the
+first newspaper published on this continent by colored men issued from
+its office in New York. It was called "Freedom's Journal," and had for
+its motto "Righteousness exalteth a nation." Its editors and
+proprietors were Messrs. Cornish & Russwurm. Its name was subsequently
+changed to the "Rights of All," Mr. Cornish probably retiring, and in
+1830 it suspended, Mr. Russwurm going to Africa. Then followed "The
+Weekly Advocate," "The American," "The Colored American," "The
+Elevator," "The National Watchman," "The Clarion," "The Ram's Horn,"
+"The North Star," "Frederick Douglass' Paper," and finally that
+crowning literary work of the race, "The Anglo-African."
+
+"The Anglo-African" appeared in 1859, under the management of the
+strongest and most brilliant purely literary families the American
+Negro up to that time had produced. It was edited and published by
+Thomas Hamilton, and like all the important literary ventures of the
+race in those days, had its birth in New York. It came out in 1859 and
+continued through the war, and in 1865 went out of existence
+honorably, having its work well done. Its first volume, that of 1859,
+contains the ablest papers ever given to the public by the American
+Negro; and taken as a whole this volume is the proudest literary
+monument the race has as yet erected.
+
+Reviewing the progress of the race in the North, we may say, the
+period of organized benevolence and united religious effort began
+before the close of the past century, Philadelphia being its place of
+origin; that the religious movement reached much broader and clearer
+standing about 1816, and in consequence there sprang up organizations
+comprehending the people of the whole country; that the religious
+movement advanced to a more intellectual stage when in 1841 the
+African Methodist Magazine appeared, since which time the organized
+religion of the American Negro has never been for any considerable
+time without its organs of communication. The journalistic period
+began in 1827, its centre being New York and the work of the journals
+almost wholly directed to two ends: the abolition of slavery, and the
+enfranchisement and political elevation of the free blacks. This work
+had reached its highest form in the Anglo-African, as that epoch of
+our national history came to its close in the slave-holders' war.
+
+The titles of the newspapers indicate the opening and continuance of a
+period of anti-slavery agitation. Their columns were filled with
+arguments and appeals furnished by men who gave their whole souls to
+the work. It was a period of great mental activity on the part of the
+free colored people. They were discussing all probable methods of
+bettering their condition. It was the period that produced both
+writers and orators. In 1830 the first convention called by colored
+men to consider the general condition of the race and devise means to
+improve that condition, met in the city of Philadelphia. The history
+of this convention is so important that I append a full account of it
+as published in the Anglo-African nearly thirty years after the
+convention met. It was called through the efforts of Hezekiah Grice,
+of Baltimore, who afterwards emigrated to Hayti, and for many years
+followed there the occupation of carver and gilder and finally became
+Director of Public Works of the city of Port-au-Prince. While visiting
+that city years ago, I met a descendant of Mr. Grice, a lady of great
+personal beauty, charming manners, accomplished in the French
+language, but incapable of conversing at all in English.
+
+The conventions, begun in 1830, continued to be held annually for a
+brief period, and then dropped into occasional and special gatherings.
+They did much good in the way of giving prominence to the colored
+orators and in stemming the tide of hostile sentiment by appealing to
+the country at large in language that reached many hearts.
+
+The physical condition, so far as the health and strength of the free
+colored people were concerned, was good. Their mean age was the
+greatest of any element of our population, and their increase was
+about normal, or 1.50 per cent. annually. In the twenty years from
+1840 to 1860 it had kept up this rate with hardly the slightest
+variation, while the increase of the free colored people of the South
+during the same period had been 1 per cent, annually.[4] The increase
+of persons of mixed blood in the North did not necessarily imply
+laxity of morals, as the census compilers always delighted to say, but
+could be easily accounted for by the marriages occurring between
+persons of this class. I have seen more than fifty persons, all of
+mixed blood, descend from one couple, and these with the persons
+joined to them by marriages as they have come to marriageable age,
+amounted to over seventy souls--all in about a half century. That the
+slaves had, despite their fearful death rate, the manumissions and the
+escapes, increased twice as fast as the free colored people of the
+North, three times as fast as the free colored people of the South,
+and faster than the white people with all the immigration of that
+period, can be accounted for only by the enormous birth rate of that
+people consequent upon their sad condition. Their increase was
+abnormal, and when properly viewed, proves too much.
+
+There is no way of determining the general wealth of the colored
+people of the North at the period we are describing; but some light
+may be thrown upon their material condition from the consideration
+that they were supporting a few publications and building and
+supporting churches, and were holders of considerable real estate. In
+New York city, the thirteen thousand colored people paid taxes on
+nearly a million and a half in real estate, and had over a quarter
+million of dollars in the savings banks. It is probable that the
+twenty-five thousand in Philadelphia owned more in proportion than
+their brethren in New York, for they were then well represented in
+business in that city. There were the Fortens, Bowers, Casseys,
+Gordons, and later Stephen Smith, William Whipper and Videl, all of
+whom were men of wealth and business. There were nineteen churches
+owned and supported by colored people of Philadelphia, with a seating
+capacity of about 10,000 and valued at about $250,000.
+
+[5]The schools set apart for colored children were very inferior and
+were often kept alive by great sacrifices on the part of the colored
+people themselves. Prior to the war and in many cases for some time
+afterward, the colored public schools were a disgrace to the country.
+A correspondent writing from Hollidaysburg, Pa., says, speaking of the
+school there: "The result of my inquiries here is that here, as in the
+majority of other places, the interest manifested for the colored man
+is more for political effect, and that those who prate the loudest
+about the moral elevation and political advancement of the colored man
+are the first to turn against him when he wants a friend." The
+correspondent then goes on to say that the school directors persist in
+employing teachers "totally incompetent." What the schools were in New
+York the report made by the New York Society for the promotion of
+Education among Colored Children to the Honorable Commissioners for
+examining into the condition of Common Schools in the City and County
+of New York, will show. Reverend Charles B. Ray, who was President of
+this Society, and Philip A. White, its Secretary, both continued to
+labor in the interest of education unto the close of their lives, Mr.
+White dying as a member of the School Board of the city of Brooklyn,
+and Mr. Ray bequeathing his library to Wilberforce University at his
+death.
+
+In summing up the conditions which they have detailed in their report
+they say: "From a comparison of the school houses occupied by the
+colored children with the splendid, almost palatial edifices, with
+manifold comforts, conveniences and elegancies which make up the
+school houses for white children in the city of New York, it is
+clearly evident that the colored children are painfully neglected and
+positively degraded. Pent up in filthy neighborhoods, in old
+dilapidated buildings, they are held down to low associations and
+gloomy surroundings. * * * The undersigned enter their solemn protest
+against this unjust treatment of colored children. They believe with
+the experience of Massachusetts, and especially the recent experience
+of Boston before them, there is no sound reason why colored children
+shall be excluded from any of the common schools supported by taxes
+levied alike on whites and blacks, and governed by officers elected by
+the vote of colored as well as white voters."
+
+This petition and remonstrance had its effect, for mainly through its
+influence within two years very great improvements were made in the
+condition of the New York colored schools.
+
+For the especial benefit of those who erroneously think that the
+purpose of giving industrial education is a new thing in our land, as
+well as for general historical purposes, I call attention to the
+establishment of the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia in
+1842. This Institute was founded by the Society of Friends, and was
+supported in its early days and presumably still "by bequests and
+donations made by members of that Society." The objects of the
+Institute as set forth by its founders, fifty-seven years ago, are:
+"The education and improvement of colored youth of both sexes, to
+qualify them to act as teachers and instructors to their own people,
+either in the various branches of school learning or the mechanic
+arts and agriculture." Two years later the African Methodists
+purchased one hundred and eighty acres of land in eastern Ohio and
+established what was called the Union Seminary, on the manual labor
+plan. It did not succeed, but it lingered along, keeping alive the
+idea, until it was eclipsed by Wilberforce University, into which it
+was finally merged.
+
+The anti-slavery fight carried on in the North, into which the colored
+men entered and became powerful leaders, aroused the race to a deep
+study of the whole subject of liberty and brought them in sympathy
+with all people who had either gained or were struggling for their
+liberties, and prompted them to investigate all countries offering to
+them freedom. No country was so well studied by them as Hayti, and
+from 1824 to 1860 there had been considerable emigration thither.
+Liberia, Central and South America and Canada were all considered
+under the thought of emigration. Thousands went to Hayti and to
+Canada, but the bulk preferred to remain here. They liked America, and
+had become so thoroughly in love with the doctrines of the Republic,
+so imbued with the pride of the nation's history, so inspired with
+hope in the nation's future, that they resolved to live and die on her
+soil. When the troublous times of 1860 came and white men were fleeing
+to Canada, colored men remained at their posts. They were ready to
+stand by the old flag and to take up arms for the Union, trusting that
+before the close of the strife the flag might have to them a new
+meaning. An impassioned colored orator had said of the flag: "Its
+stars were for the white man, and its stripes for the Negro, and it
+was very appropriate that the stripes should be red." The free Negro
+of the North was prepared in 1861 to support Abraham Lincoln with
+40,000 as good American-born champions for universal liberty as the
+country could present.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Slave Trade--Carey.
+
+[2] Outlines--Tanner.
+
+[3] A.M.E. Magazine, 1843.
+
+[4] It is to be noted that in Maryland and Virginia an important
+number of white serving women married Negro slave men in the early
+days of these colonies.
+
+[5] In 1835 there were six high schools, or schools for higher
+education, in the United States that admitted colored students on
+equal footing with others. These were: Oneida Institute, New York;
+Mount Pleasant, Amherst, Mass.; Canaan, N.H.; Western Reserve, Ohio;
+Gettysburg, Pa.; and "one in the city of Philadelphia of which Miss
+Buffam" was "principal." There was also one manual labor school in
+Madison County, N.Y., capable of accommodating eighteen students. It
+was founded by Gerrit Smith.
+
+
+NOTES.
+
+A.
+
+THE FIRST COLORED CONVENTION.
+
+On the fifteenth day of September, 1830, there was held at Bethel
+Church, in the city of Philadelphia, the first convention of the
+colored people of these United States. It was an event of historical
+importance; and, whether we regard the times or the men of whom this
+assemblage was composed, we find matter for interesting and profitable
+consideration.
+
+Emancipation had just taken place in New York, and had just been
+arrested in Virginia by the Nat Turner rebellion and Walker's
+pamphlet. Secret sessions of the legislatures of the several Southern
+States had been held to deliberate upon the production of a colored
+man who had coolly recommended to his fellow blacks the only solution
+to the slave question, which, after twenty-five years of arduous labor
+of the most hopeful and noble-hearted of the abolitionists, seems the
+forlorn hope of freedom to-day--insurrection and bloodshed. Great
+Britain was in the midst of that bloodless revolution which, two years
+afterwards, culminated in the passage of the Reform Bill, and thus
+prepared the joyous and generous state of the British heart which
+dictated the West India Emancipation Act. France was rejoicing in the
+not bloodless _trois jours de Juliet_. Indeed, the whole world seemed
+stirred up with a universal excitement, which, when contrasted with
+the universal panics of 1837 and 1857, leads one to regard as more
+than a philosophical speculation the doctrine of those who hold the
+life of mankind from the creation as but one life, beating with one
+heart, animated with one soul, tending to one destiny, although made
+up of millions upon millions of molecular lives, gifted with their
+infinite variety of attractions and repulsions, which regulate or
+crystallize them into evanescent substructures or organizations, which
+we call nationalities and empires and peoples and tribes, whose minute
+actions and reactions on each other are the histories which absorb our
+attention, whilst the grand universal life moves on beyond our ken,
+or only guessed at, as the astronomers shadow out movements of our
+solar system around or towards some distant unknown centre of
+attraction.
+
+If the times of 1830 were eventful, there were among our people, as
+well as among other peoples, men equal to the occasion. We had giants
+in those days! There were Bishop Allen, the founder of the great
+Bethel connection of Methodists, combining in his person the fiery
+zeal of St. Francis Xavier with the skill and power of organizing of a
+Richelieu; the meek but equally efficient Rush (who yet remains with
+us in fulfilment of the Scripture), the father of the Zion Methodists;
+Paul, whose splendid presence and stately eloquence in the pulpit, and
+whose grand baptisms in the waters of Boston harbor are a living
+tradition in all New England; the saintly and sainted Peter Williams,
+whose views of the best means of our elevation are in triumphant
+activity to-day; William Hamilton, the thinker and actor, whose sparse
+specimens of eloquence we will one day place in gilded frames as rare
+and beautiful specimens of Etruscan art--William Hamilton, who, four
+years afterwards, during the New York riots, when met in the street,
+loaded down with iron missiles, and asked where he was going, replied,
+"To die on my threshold"; Watkins, of Baltimore; Frederick Hinton,
+with his polished eloquence; James Forten, the merchant prince;
+William Whipper, just essaying his youthful powers; Lewis Woodson and
+John Peck, of Pittsburg; Austin Steward, then of Rochester; Samuel E.
+Cornish, who had the distinguished honor of reasoning Gerrit Smith out
+of colonization, and of telling Henry Clay that he would never be
+president of anything higher than the American Colonization Society;
+Philip A. Bell, the born sabreur, who never feared the face of clay,
+and a hundred others, were the worthily leading spirits among the
+colored people.
+
+And yet the idea of the first colored convention did not originate
+with any of these distinguished men; it came from a young man of
+Baltimore; then, and still, unknown to fame. Born in that city in
+1801, he was in 1817 apprenticed to a man some two hundred miles off
+in the Southeast. Arriving at his field of labor, he worked hard
+nearly a week and received poor fare in return. One day, while at work
+near the house, the mistress came out and gave him a furious scolding,
+so furious, indeed, that her husband mildly interfered; she drove the
+latter away, and threatened to take the Baltimore out of the lad with
+cowhide, etc., etc. At this moment, to use his own expression, the
+lad became converted, that is, he determined to be his own master as
+long as he lived. Early nightfall found him on his way to Baltimore
+which he reached after a severe journey which tested his energy and
+ingenuity to the utmost. At the age of twenty-three he was engaged in
+the summer time in supplying Baltimore with ice from his cart, and in
+winter in cutting up pork for Ellicotts' establishment. He must have
+been strong and swift with knife and cleaver, for in one day he cut up
+and dressed some four hundred and fifteen porkers.
+
+In 1824 our young friend fell in with Benjamin Lundy, and in 1828-9,
+with William Lloyd Garrison, editors and publishers of the "Genius of
+Universal Emancipation," a radical anti-slavery paper, whose boldness
+would put the "National Era" to shame, printed and published in the
+slave State of Maryland. In 1829-30 the colored people of the free
+States were much excited on the subject of emigration; there had been
+an emigration to Hayti, and also to Canada, and some had been driven
+to Liberia by the severe laws and brutal conduct of the fermenters of
+colonization in Virginia and Maryland. In some districts of these
+States the disguised whites would enter the houses of free colored men
+at night, and take them out and give them from thirty to fifty lashes,
+to get them to consent to go to Liberia.
+
+It was in the spring of 1830 that the young man we have sketched,
+Hezekiah Grice, conceived the plan of calling together a meeting or
+convention of colored men in some place north of the Potomac, for the
+purpose of comparing views and of adopting a harmonious movement
+either of emigration or of determination to remain in the United
+States; convinced of the hopelessness of contending against the
+oppressions in the United States, living in the very depth of that
+oppression and wrong, his own views looked to Canada; but he held them
+subject to the decision of the majority of the convention which might
+assemble.
+
+On the 2d of April, 1830, he addressed a written circular to prominent
+colored men in the free States, requesting their opinions on the
+necessity and propriety of holding such convention, and stated that if
+the opinions of a sufficient number warranted it, he would give time
+and place at which duly elected delegates might assemble. Four months
+passed away, and his spirit almost died within him, for he had not
+received a line from any one in reply. When he visited Mr. Garrison
+in his office, and stated his project, Mr. Garrison took up a copy of
+Walker's Appeal, and said, although it might be right, yet it was too
+early to have published such a book.
+
+On the 11th of August, however, he received a sudden and peremptory
+order from Bishop Allen to come instantly to Philadelphia, about the
+emigration matter. He went, and found a meeting assembled to consider
+the conflicting reports on Canada of Messrs. Lewis and Dutton; at a
+subsequent meeting, held the next night, and near the adjournment, the
+Bishop called Mr. Grice aside and gave to him to read a printed
+circular, issued from New York City, strongly approving of Mr. Grice's
+plan of a convention, and signed by Peter Williams, Peter Vogelsang
+and Thomas L. Jinnings. The Bishop added, "My dear child, we must take
+some action immediately, or else these New Yorkers will get ahead of
+us." The Bishop left the meeting to attend a lecture on chemistry by
+Dr. Wells, of Baltimore. Mr. Grice introduced the subject of the
+convention; and a committee consisting of Bishop Allen, Benjamin
+Pascal, Cyrus Black, James Cornish and Junius C. Morel, were appointed
+to lay the matter before the colored people of Philadelphia. This
+committee, led, doubtless, by Bishop Allen, at once issued a call for
+a convention of the colored men of the United States, to be held in
+the city of Philadelphia on the 15th of September, 1830.
+
+Mr. Grice returned to Baltimore rejoicing at the success of his
+project; but, in the same boat which bore him down the Chesapeake, he
+was accosted by Mr. Zollickoffer, a member of the Society of Friends,
+a Philadelphian, and a warm and tried friend of the blacks. Mr.
+Zollickoffer used arguments, and even entreaties, to dissuade Mr.
+Grice from holding the convention, pointing out the dangers and
+difficulties of the same should it succeed, and the deep injury it
+would do the cause in case of failure. Of course, it was reason and
+entreaty thrown away.
+
+On the fifteenth of September, Mr. Grice again landed in Philadelphia,
+and in the fulness of his expectation asked every colored man he met
+about the convention; no one knew anything about it; the first man did
+not know the meaning of the word, and another man said, "Who ever
+heard of colored people holding a convention--convention, indeed!"
+Finally, reaching the place of meeting, he found, in solemn conclave,
+the five gentlemen who had constituted themselves delegates: with a
+warm welcome from Bishop Allen, Mr. Grice, who came with credentials
+from the people of Baltimore, was admitted as delegate. A little while
+after, Dr. Burton, of Philadelphia, dropped in, and demanded by what
+right the six gentlemen held their seats as members of the convention.
+On a hint from Bishop Allen, Mr. Pascal moved that Dr. Burton be
+elected an honorary member of the convention, which softened the
+Doctor. In half an hour, five or six grave, stern-looking men, members
+of the Zion Methodist body in Philadelphia, entered, and demanded to
+know by what right the members present held their seats and undertook
+to represent the colored people. Another hint from the Bishop, and it
+was moved that these gentlemen be elected honorary members. But the
+gentlemen would submit to no such thing, and would accept nothing
+short of full membership, which was granted them.
+
+Among the delegates were Abraham Shadd, of Delaware; J.W.C.
+Pennington, of Brooklyn; Austin Steward, of Rochester; Horace Easton,
+of Boston, and ---- Adams, of Utica.
+
+The main subject of discussion was emigration to Canada; Junius C.
+Morel, chairman of a committee on that subject presented a report, on
+which there was a two days' discussion; the point discussed was that
+the report stated that "the lands in Canada were synonymous with those
+of the Northern States." The word synonymous was objected to, and the
+word similar proposed in its stead. Mr. Morel, with great vigor and
+ingenuity, defended the report, but was finally voted down, and the
+word similar adopted. The convention recommended emigration to Canada,
+passed strong resolutions against the American Colonization Society,
+and at its adjournment appointed the next annual convention of the
+people of color to be held in Philadelphia, on the first Monday in
+June, 1831.
+
+At the present day, when colored conventions are almost as frequent as
+church meetings, it is difficult to estimate the bold and daring
+spirit which inaugurated the Colored Convention of 1830. It was the
+right move, originating in the right quarter and at the right time.
+Glorious old Maryland, or, as one speaking in the view that climate
+grows the men, would say,--Maryland-Virginia region,--which has
+produced Benjamin Banneker, Nat. Turner, Frederick Douglass, the
+parents of Ira Aldridge, Henry Highland Garnett and Sam. Ringold Ward,
+also produced the founder of colored conventions, Hezekiah Grice! At
+that time, in the prime of his young manhood, he must have presented
+the front of one equal to any fortune, able to achieve any
+undertaking. Standing six feet high, well-proportioned, of a dark
+bronze complexion, broad brow, and that stamp of features out of which
+the Greek sculptor would have delighted to mould the face of
+Vulcan--he was, to the fullest extent, a working man of such sort and
+magnetism as would lead his fellows where he listed.
+
+In looking to the important results that grew out of this convention,
+the independence of thought and self-assertion of the black man are
+the most remarkable. Then, the union of purpose and union of strength
+which grew out of the acquaintanceship and mutual pledges of colored
+men from different States. Then, the subsequent conventions, where the
+great men we have already named, and others, appeared and took part in
+the discussions with manifestations of zeal, talent and ability, which
+attracted Garrison, the Tappans, Jocelyn and others of that noble
+host, who, drawing no small portion of their inspiration from their
+black brethren in bonds, did manfully fight in the days of
+anti-slavery which tried men's souls, and when, to be an abolitionist,
+was, to a large extent, to be a martyr.
+
+We cannot help adding the thought that had these conventions of the
+colored people of the United States continued their annual sittings
+from 1830 until the present time, the result would doubtless have been
+greater general progress among our people themselves, a more united
+front to meet past and coming exigencies, and a profounder hold upon
+the public attention, and a deeper respect on the part of our enemies,
+than we now can boast of. Looking at public opinion as it is, the
+living law of the land, and yet a malleable, ductile entity, which can
+be moulded, or at least affected, by the thoughts of any masses
+vigorously expressed, we should have become a power on earth, of
+greater strength and influence than in our present scattered and
+dwindled state we dare even dream of. The very announcement,
+"Thirtieth Annual Convention of the Colored People of the United
+States," would bear a majestic front. Our great gathering at Rochester
+in 1853, commanded not only public attention, but respect and
+admiration. Should we have such a gathering even now, once a year, not
+encumbered with elaborate plans of action, with too many wheels within
+wheels, we can yet regain much of the ground lost. The partial
+gathering at Boston, the other day, has already assumed its place in
+the public mind, and won its way into the calculations of the
+politicians.
+
+Our readers will doubtless be glad to learn the subsequent history of
+Mr. Grice. He did not attend the second convention, but in the
+interval between the second and third he formed, in the city of
+Baltimore, a "Legal Rights Association," for the purpose of
+ascertaining the legal status of the colored man in the United States.
+It was entirely composed of colored men, among whom were Mr. Watkins
+(the colored Baltimorean), Mr. Deaver, and others. Mr. Grice called on
+William Wirt, and asked him "what he charged for his opinion on a
+given subject." "Fifty dollars." "Then, sir, I will give you fifty
+dollars if you will give me your opinion on the legal condition of a
+free colored man in these United States."
+
+Mr. Wirt required the questions to be written out in proper form
+before he could answer them. Mr. Grice employed Tyson, who drew up a
+series of questions, based upon the Constitution of the United States,
+and relating to the rights and citizenship of the free black. He
+carried the questions to Mr. Wirt, who, glancing over them, said,
+"Really, sir, my position as an officer under the government renders
+it a delicate matter for me to answer these questions as they should
+be answered, but I'll tell you what to do: they should be answered,
+and by the best legal talent in the land; do you go to Philadelphia,
+and present my name to Horace Binney, and he will give you an answer
+satisfactory to you, and which will command the greatest respect
+throughout the land." Mr. Grice went to Philadelphia, and presented
+the questions and request to Horace Binney. This gentleman pleaded age
+and poor eyesight, but told Mr. Grice that if he would call on John
+Sargent he would get answers of requisite character and weight. He
+called on John Sargent, who promptly agreed to answer the questions if
+Mr. Binney would allow his name to be associated as an authority in
+the replies. Mr. Binney again declined, and so the matter fell
+through. This is what Mr. Grice terms his "Dred Scott case" and so it
+was.
+
+He attended the convention of 1832, but by some informality, or a want
+of credentials, was not permitted to sit as full member!--Saul ejected
+from among the prophets!--Yet he was heard on the subject of rights,
+and the doctrine of "our rights," as well as the first colored
+convention, are due to the same man.
+
+In 1832, chagrined at the colored people of the United States, he
+migrated to Hayti, where, until 1843, he pursued the business of
+carver and gilder. In the latter year he was appointed Director of
+Public Works in Port-au-Prince, which office he held until two years
+ago. He is also engaged in, and has wide knowledge of machinery and
+engineering. Every two or three years he visits New York, and is
+welcomed to the arcana of such men as James J. Mapes, the Bensons,
+Dunhams, and at the various works where steam and iron obey human
+ingenuity in our city. He is at present in this city, lodging at the
+house of the widow of his old friend and coadjutor, Thomas L.
+Jinnings, 133 Reade street. We have availed ourselves of his presence
+among us to glean from him the statements which we have imperfectly
+put together in this article.
+
+We cannot dismiss this subject without the remark, of peculiar
+pertinence at this moment, that it would have been better for our
+people had Mr. Grice never left these United States. The twenty-seven
+years he has passed in Hayti, although not without their mark on the
+fortunes of that island, are yet with out such mark as he would have
+made in the land and upon the institutions among which he was born. So
+early as his thirty-second year, before he had reached his
+intellectual prime, he had inaugurated two of the leading ideas on
+which our people have since acted, conventions to consider and
+alleviate their grievances, and the struggle for legal rights. If he
+did such things in early youth, what might he not have done with the
+full force and bent of his matured intellect? And where, in the wide
+world, in what region, or under what sun, could he so effectually have
+labored to elevate the black man as on this soil and under American
+institutions?
+
+So profoundly are we opposed to the favorite doctrine of the Puritans
+and their co-workers, the colonizationists--Ubi Libertas, ibi
+Patria--that we could almost beseech Divine Providence to reverse some
+past events and to fling back into the heart of Virginia and Maryland
+their Sam Wards, Highland Garnets, J.W. Penningtons, Frederick
+Douglasses, and the twenty thousand who now shout hosannas in
+Canada--and we would soon see some stirring in the direction of Ubi
+Patria, ibi Libertas.--Anglo-African Magazine, October, 1859.
+
+
+B.
+
+COMMUNICATION FROM THE NEW YORK SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF EDUCATION
+AMONG COLORED CHILDREN.
+
+To the Honorable the Commissioners for examining into the condition of
+Common Schools in the City and County of New York.
+
+The following statement in relation to the colored schools in said
+city and county is respectfully presented by the New York Society for
+the Promotion of Education among Colored Children:
+
+  1. The number of colored children in the city and county of
+    New York (estimated in 1855, from the census of 1850), between
+    the ages of 4 and 17 years                                   3,000
+
+    a. Average attendance of colored children at public
+    schools in 1855                                         913
+
+    Average attendance of colored children in
+    corporate schools supported by school funds
+    (Colored Orphan Asylum)                                 240
+                                                           ----  1,153
+
+    b. Proportion of average attendance in public
+    schools of colored children to whole number
+    of same is as 1 to 2.60.
+
+  2. The number of white children in the city of New
+    York in 1855 (estimated as above), between the ages of
+    4 and 17 years                                             159,000
+
+    a. Average attendance of white children in public
+    schools in 1855                                      43,858
+
+    Average attendance of white children in
+    corporate schools supported by public
+    funds                                                 2,826
+                                                         ------ 46,684
+
+    b. Proportion of average attendance of white children
+    in public schools to whole number of same
+    is as 1 to 3.40.
+
+  3. From these facts it appears that colored children attend
+    the public schools (and schools supported by public funds in
+    the city of New York) in the proportion of 1 to 2.60, and that
+    the white children attend similar schools in said city in the
+    proportion of 1 to 3.40; that is to say, nearly 25 per cent. more of
+    colored children than of white children attend the public schools,
+    and schools supported by public funds in the city of New York.
+
+  4. The number of colored children attending private schools
+    in the city of New York, 125.
+
+    a. The number of white children attending private
+    schools in 1850, census gave 10,560, which number has since
+    been increased by the establishment of Catholic parochial
+    schools, estimated in 1856, 17,560.
+
+    b. The proportion of colored children attending private
+    schools to white children attending same, is as 1 to 140.
+
+    c. But the average attendance of colored children in all
+    schools is about the same as that of the white in proportion,
+    that is to say, as many colored children attend the
+    public schools as do whites attend both public and private
+    schools, in proportion to the whole number of each class
+    of children.
+
+  Locality, capability, etc., of colored schools.
+
+  1. The Board of Education, since its organization, has
+    expended in sites and buildings for white schools $1,600,000.
+
+    b. The Board of Education has expended for sites and
+    buildings for colored schools (addition to building leased
+    19 Thomas), $1,000.
+
+    c. The two schoolhouses in possession of the Board
+    now used for colored children were assigned to same by
+    the Old Public School Society.
+
+  2. The proportion of colored children to white children
+    attending public schools is as 1 to 40.
+
+    a. The sum expended on school buildings and sites of
+    colored and white schools by the Board of Education is as
+    1 to 1,600.
+
+  3. a. Schoolhouse No. 1, for colored children, is an old
+    building, erected in 1820 by the New York Manumission Society
+    as a school for colored children, in Mulberry street, in a poor
+    but decent locality. It has two departments, one male and one
+    female; it consists of two stories only, and has two small
+    recitation rooms on each floor, but as primary as well as grammar
+    children attend each department, much difficulty and confusion
+    arises from the want of class room for the respective studies.
+    The building covers only part of the lot, and as it is, the best
+    attended and among the best taught of the colored schools, a
+    new and ample school building, erected in this place, would
+    prove a great attraction, and could be amply filled by children.
+
+    b. Schoolhouse No. 2, erected in Laurens street more
+    than twenty years ago for colored children by the Public
+    School Society, is in one of the lowest and filthiest
+    neighborhoods, and hence, although it has competent teachers
+    in the male and female departments, and a separate primary
+    department, the attendance has always been slender,
+    and will be until the school is removed to a neighborhood
+    where children may be sent without danger to their morals.
+
+    c. School No. 3, for colored children, in Yorkville, is
+    an old building, is well attended, and deserves, in connection
+    with Schoolhouse No. 4, in Harlem, a new building midway
+    between the present localities.
+
+    d. Schoolhouse No. 5, for colored children, is an old
+    building, leased at No. 19 Thomas street, a most degraded
+    neighborhood, full of filth and vice; yet the attendance on
+    this school, and the excellence of its teachers, earn for it the
+    need of a new site and new building.
+
+    e. Schoolhouse No. 6, for colored children, is in Broadway,
+    near 37th street, in a dwelling house leased and fitted
+    up for a school, in which there is always four feet of water
+    in the cellar. The attendance good. Some of the school
+    officers have repeatedly promised a new building.
+
+    f. Primary school for colored children, No. 1, is in the
+    basement of a church on 15th street, near 7th avenue,
+    in a good location, but premises too small for the attendance;
+    no recitation rooms, and is perforce both primary
+    and grammar school, to the injury of the progress of all.
+
+    g. Primary schools for colored children, No. 2 and 3,
+    are in the rear of church, in 2d street, near 6th avenue; the
+    rooms are dark and cheerless, and without the needful
+    facilities of sufficient recitation rooms, etc.
+
+From a comparison of the schoolhouses with the splendid, almost
+palatial edifices, with manifold comforts, conveniences and elegancies
+which make up the schoolhouses for white children in the city of New
+York, it is evident that the colored children are painfully neglected
+and positively degraded. Pent up in filthy neighborhoods, in old and
+dilapidated buildings, they are held down to low associations and
+gloomy surroundings.
+
+Yet Mr. Superintendent Kiddle, at a general examination of colored
+schools held in July last (for silver medals awarded by the society
+now addressing your honorable body) declared the reading and spelling
+equal to that of any schools in the city.
+
+The undersigned enter their solemn protest against this unjust
+treatment of colored children. They believe with the experience of
+Massachusetts, and especially the recent experience of Boston before
+them, there is no sound reason why colored children shall be excluded
+from any of the common schools supported by taxes levied alike on
+whites and blacks, and governed by officers elected by the vote of
+colored as well as white voters.
+
+But if in the judgment of your honorable body common schools are not
+thus common to all, then we earnestly pray you to recommend to the
+Legislature such action as shall cause the Board of Education of this
+city to erect at least two well-appointed modern grammar schools for
+colored children on suitable sites, in respectable localities, so that
+the attendance of colored children may be increased and their minds be
+elevated in like manner as the happy experience of the honorable Board
+of Education has been in the matter of white children.
+
+In addition to the excellent impulse to colored youth which these new
+grammar schools would give, they will have the additional argument of
+actual economy; the children will be taught with far less expense in
+two such schoolhouses than in the half dozen hovels into which they
+are now driven. It is a costly piece of injustice which educates the
+white scholar in a palace at $10 per year and the colored pupil in a
+hovel at $17 or $18 per annum.
+
+Taxes, etc., of colored population of the city.
+
+No proposition can be more reasonable than that they who pay taxes for
+schools and schoolhouses should be provided with schools and
+schoolhouses. The colored population of this city, in proportion to
+their numbers, pay their full share of the general and therefore of
+the school taxes. There are about nine thousand adults of both sexes;
+of these over three thousand are householders, rent-payers, and
+therefore tax-payers, in that sense of the word in which owners make
+tax-payers of their poor tenants. The colored laboring man, with an
+income of $200 a year, who pays $72 per year for a room and bedroom,
+is really in proportion to his means a larger tax-payer than the
+millionaire whose tax rate is thousands of dollars. But directly,
+also, do the colored people pay taxes. From examinations carefully
+made, the undersigned affirm that there are in the city at least
+1,000 colored persons who own and pay taxes on real estate.
+
+     Taxed real estate in the city of New York owned
+       by colored persons                            $1,400,000
+     Untaxed by colored persons (churches)              250,000
+     Personal estate                                    710,000
+     Money in savings banks                           1,121,000
+                                                    -----------
+                                                     $3,481,000
+
+These figures indicate that in proportion to their numbers, the
+colored population of this city pay a fair share of the school taxes,
+and that they have been most unjustly dealt with. Their money has been
+used to purchase sites and erect and fit up schoolhouses for white
+children, whilst their own children are driven into miserable edifices
+in disgraceful localities. Surely, the white population of the city
+are too able, too generous, too just, any longer to suffer this
+miserable robbing of their colored fellow-citizens for the benefit of
+white children.
+
+Praying that your honorable commission will take due notice of these
+facts, and recommend such remedy as shall seem to you best,
+
+We have the honor to be, in behalf of the New York Society for the
+Promotion of Education among Colored Citizens,
+
+Most respectfully yours,
+
+CHARLES B. RAY, President.
+PHILIP A. WHITE, Secretary.
+New York City, December 28, 1857.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+AMERICAN NEGRO AND THE MILITARY SPIRIT.
+
+     Early Literature of Negro Soldiers--Negro Soldiers in the
+     War of the Revolution--The War of 1812--Negro
+     Insurrections--Negro Troops in the Civil War--Notes.
+
+
+"Do you think I'll make a soldier?" is the opening line of one of
+those delightful spirituals, originating among the slaves in the far
+South. I first heard it sung in the Saint James Methodist Church,
+corner of Spring and Coming Streets, Charleston, South Carolina,
+immediately after the close of the war. It was sung by a vast
+congregation to a gentle, swinging air, with nothing of the martial
+about it, and was accompanied by a swaying of the body to the time of
+the music. Occasionally there would be the "curtesys" peculiar to the
+South Carolina slave of the low country, which consists in a stooping
+of the body by bending the knees only, the head remaining erect, a
+movement which takes the place of the bow among equals. The older
+ladies, with heads adorned with the ever-present Madras kerchief,
+often tied in the most becoming and tasteful manner, and faces aglow
+with an enthusiasm that bespoke a life within sustained by visions of
+spiritual things, would often be seen to shake hands and add a word of
+greeting and hope which would impart a charm and meaning to the
+singing far above what the humble words of the song without these
+accessories could convey. As the rich chorus of matchless voices
+poured out in perfect time and tune, "Rise, shine, and give God the
+glory," the thoughts of earthly freedom, of freedom from sin, and
+finally of freedom from the toils, cares and sorrows of earth to be
+baptized into the joys of heaven, all seemed to blend into the many
+colored but harmonious strain. The singing of the simple hearted
+trustful, emancipated slave! Shall we ever hear the like again on
+earth? Alas, that the high hopes and glowing prophecies of that
+auspicious hour have been so deferred that the hearts of millions have
+been made sick!
+
+Of the songs that came out of slavery with these long suffering
+people, Colonel Higginson, who perhaps got nearer to them in sentiment
+than any other literary man not really, of them, says: "Almost all
+their songs were thoroughly religious in their tone, however quaint
+their expression, and were in a minor key both as to words and music.
+The attitude is always the same, and, as a commentary on the life of
+the race, is infinitely pathetic. Nothing but patience for this
+life--nothing but triumph in the next. Sometimes the present
+predominates, sometimes the future; but the combination is always
+implied."
+
+I do not know when this "soldier" song had its birth, but it may have
+sprung out of the perplexity of the slave's mind as he contemplated
+the raging conflict and saw himself drawn nearer and nearer to the
+field of strife. Whether in this song the "present predominates," and
+the query, therefore, has a strong primary reference to carnal weapons
+and to garments dyed in blood; whether the singer invites an opinion
+as to his fitness to engage in the war for Freedom--it may not be
+possible to determine. The "year of Jubilee," coming in the same song
+in connection with the purpose for which the singer is to be made a
+soldier, gives clearer illustration of that combination of the present
+and future which Mr. Higginson says was always present in the
+spirituals of that period, if it shows no more. When it is remembered
+that at that time Charleston was literally trodden under foot by black
+soldiers in bright uniforms, whose coming seemed to the colored people
+of that city like a dream too good to be true, it is not hard to
+believe that this song had much of the present in it, and owed its
+birth to the circumstances of war.
+
+Singularly enough the song makes the Negro ask the exact question
+which had been asked about him from the earliest days of our history
+as a nation, a question which in some form confronts him still. The
+question, as the song has it, is not one of fact, but one of opinion.
+It is not: Will I make a soldier? but: Do you think I will make a
+soldier? It is one thing to "make a soldier," another thing to have
+men think so. The question of fact was settled a century ago; the
+question of opinion is still unsettled. The Negro soldier, hero of
+five hundred battlefields, with medals and honors resting upon his
+breast, with the endorsement of the highest military authority of the
+nation, with Port Hudson, El Caney and San Juan behind him, is still
+expected by too many to stand and await the verdict of thought, from
+persons who never did "think" he would make a soldier, and who never
+will think so. As well expect the excited animal of the ring to
+_think_ in the presence of the red rag of the toreador as to expect
+_them_ to think on the subject of the Negro soldier. They can curse,
+and rant, when they see the stalwart Negro in uniform, but it is too
+much to ask them to think. To them the Negro can be a fiend, a brute,
+but never a soldier.
+
+To John G. Whittier and to William C. Nell are we indebted for the
+earliest recital of the heroic deeds of the colored American in the
+Wars of the Revolution and 1812. Whittier contributed an article on
+this subject to the "National Era" in 1847, and five or six years
+later Nell published his pamphlet on "Colored Patriots," a booklet
+recently reprinted by the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It is a
+useful contribution, showing as it does the rising and spreading
+abroad of that spirit which appreciates military effort and valor; and
+while recognizing the glory that came to American arms in the period
+described, honestly seeks to place some of that glory upon the
+deserving brow of a race then enslaved and despised. The book is
+unpretentious and aims to relate the facts in a straight-forward way,
+unaccompanied by any of the charms of tasteful presentation. Its
+author, however, is deserving our thanks, and the book marks an
+important stage in the development of the colored American. His mind
+was turning toward the creation of the soldier--the formation of
+armies.
+
+There are other evidences that the mind of the colored man was at this
+time turning towards arms. In 1852 Doctor Pennington, one of the most
+learned colored men of his times, having received his Degree in
+Divinity from Heidelberg, delivered an address before a mass
+convention of colored citizens of Ohio, held in Cleveland, in which he
+spoke principally of the colored soldier. During the convention the
+"Cleveland Light Artillery" fired a salute, and on the platform were
+seated several veteran colored men, some of them, particularly Mr.
+John Julius, of Pittsburg, Pa., taking part in the speech-making. Mr.
+Nell says: "Within recent period several companies of colored men in
+New York city have enrolled themselves a la militaire," and quotes
+from the New York Tribune of August, 1852, as follows:
+
+     "COLORED SOLDIERS.--Among the many parades within a few days
+     we noticed yesterday a soldierly-looking company of colored
+     men, on their way homeward from a target or parade drill.
+     They looked like men, handled their arms like men, and
+     should occasion demand, we presume they would fight like
+     men."
+
+In Boston, New Haven, New Bedford and other places efforts were made
+during the decade from 1850 to 1860 to manifest this rising military
+spirit by appropriate organization, but the efforts were not always
+successful. In some cases the prejudices of the whites put every
+possible obstacle in the way of the colored young men who attempted to
+array themselves as soldiers.
+
+The martial spirit is not foreign to the Negro character, as has been
+abundantly proved in both ancient and modern times. Williams, in his
+admirable history of the Negro as well as in his "Negro Troops in the
+Rebellion," has shown at considerable length that the Negro has been a
+soldier from earliest times, serving in large numbers in the Egyptian
+army long before the beginning of the Christian era. We know that
+without any great modification in character, runaway slaves developed
+excellent fighting qualities as Maroons, in Trinidad, British Guiana,
+St. Domingo and in Florida. But it was in Hayti that the unmixed Negro
+rose to the full dignity of a modern soldier, creating and leading
+armies, conducting and carrying on war, treating with enemies and
+receiving surrenders, complying fully with the rules of civilized
+warfare, and evolving finally a Toussaint, whose military genius his
+most bitter enemies were compelled to recognize--Toussaint, who to the
+high qualities of the soldier added also the higher qualities of
+statesmanship. With Napoleon, Cromwell and Washington, the three great
+commanders of modern times who have joined to high military talent
+eminent ability in the art of civil government, we must also class
+Toussaint L'Ouverteur, the black soldier of the Antilles. Thiers, the
+prejudiced attorney of Napoleon, declares nevertheless that Toussaint
+possessed wonderful talent for government, and the fact ever remains
+that under his benign rule all classes were pacified and San Domingo
+was made to blossom as the rose. In the armies of Menelek, in the
+armies of France, in the armies of England, as well as in the
+organization of the Zulu and Kaffir tribes the Negro has shown himself
+a soldier. If the Afro-American should fail in this particular it will
+not be because of any lack of the military element in the African side
+of his character, or for any lack of "remorseless military audacity"
+in the original Negro, as the historian, Williams, expresses it.
+
+In our own Revolutionary War, the Negro, then but partially civilized,
+and classed with "vagabonds," held everywhere as a slave, and
+everywhere distrusted, against protest and enactment, made his way
+into the patriot army, fighting side by side with his white
+compatriots from Lexington to Yorktown. On the morning of April 19th,
+1775, when the British re-enforcements were preparing to leave Boston
+for Lexington, a Negro soldier who had served in the French war,
+commanded a small body of West Cambridge "exempts" and captured Lord
+Percy's supply train with its military escort and the officer in
+command. As a rule the Negro soldiers were distributed among the
+regiments, thirty or forty to a regiment, and did not serve in
+separate organizations. Bishop J.P. Campbell, of the African Methodist
+Church, was accustomed to say "both of my grandfathers served in the
+Revolutionary War." In Varnum's Brigade, however, there was a Negro
+regiment and of it Scribner's history, 1897, says, speaking of the
+battle of Rhode Island: "None behaved better than Greene's colored
+regiment, which three times repulsed the furious charges of veteran
+Hessians." Williams says: "The black regiment was one of three that
+prevented the enemy from turning the flank of the American army. These
+black troops were doubtless regarded as the weak spot of the line, but
+they were not."
+
+The colony of Massachusetts alone furnished 67,907 men for the
+Revolutionary War, while all the colonies together south of
+Pennsylvania furnished but 50,493, hence the sentiment prevailing in
+Massachusetts would naturally be very powerful in determining any
+question pertaining to the army. When the country sprang to arms in
+response to that shot fired at Lexington, the echoes of which,
+poetically speaking, were heard around the world, the free Negroes of
+every Northern colony rallied with their white neighbors. They were in
+the fight at Lexington and at Bunker Hill, but when Washington came to
+take command of the army he soon gave orders that no Negroes should be
+enlisted. He was sustained in this position by a council of war and by
+a committee of conference in which were representatives from Rhode
+Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts, and it was agreed that Negroes
+be rejected altogether. The American Negro's persistency in pressing
+himself where he is not _wanted_ but where he is _eminently needed_
+began right there. Within six weeks so many colored men applied for
+enlistment, and those that had been put out of the army raised such a
+clamor that Washington changed his policy, and the Negro, who of all
+America's population contended for the privilege of shouldering a gun
+to fight for American liberty, was allowed a place in the Continental
+Army, the first national army organized on this soil, ante-dating the
+national flag. The Negro soldier helped to evolve the national
+standard and was in the ranks of the fighting men over whom it first
+unfolded its broad stripes and glittering stars.
+
+     [Transcriber's Note: This footnote appeared in the text
+     without a footnote anchor:
+
+     "To the Honorable General Court of the Massachusetts Bay:
+
+     "The subscribers beg leave to report to your Honorable
+     House, which we do in justice to the character of so brave a
+     man, that, under our own observation, we declare that a
+     Negro man called Salem Poor, of Col. Frye's regiment, Capt.
+     Ames' company, in the late battle at Charlestown, behaved
+     like an experienced officer, as well as an excellent
+     soldier. We would only beg leave to say, in the person of
+     this said Negro centres a brave and gallant soldier. The
+     reward due to so great and distinguished a character we
+     submit to the Congress.
+
+     "Cambridge, Dec. 5, 1775."
+
+     These black soldiers, fresh from heathen lands, not out of
+     slavery, proved themselves as worthy as the best. In the
+     battle of Bunker Hill, where all were brave, two Negro
+     soldiers so distinguished themselves that their names have
+     come down to us garlanded with the tributes of their
+     contemporaries. Peter Salem, until then a slave, a private
+     in Colonel Nixon's regiment of Continentals, without orders
+     fired deliberately upon Major Pitcairn as he was leading the
+     assault of the British to what appeared certain victory.
+     Everet in speaking "of Prescott, Putnam and Warren, the
+     chiefs of the day," mentions in immediate connection "the
+     colored man, Salem, who is reported to have shot the gallant
+     Pitcairn as he mounted the parapet." What Salem Poor did is
+     not set forth, but the following is the wreath of praise
+     that surrounds his name:
+
+     Jona. Brewer, Col.             Eliphalet Bodwell, Sgt.
+     Thomas Nixon, Lt.-Col.         Josiah Foster, Lieut.
+     Wm. Precott, Col.              Ebenr. Varnum, 2d Lieut.
+     Ephm. Corey, Lieut.            Wm. Hudson Ballard, Capt.
+     Joseph Baker, Lieut.           William Smith, Capt.
+     Joshua Row, Lieut.             John Morton, Sergt. (?)
+     Jonas Richardson, Capt.        Richard Welsh, Lieut.]
+
+
+It is in place here to mention a legion of free mulattoes and blacks
+from the Island of St. Domingo, a full account of whose services is
+appended to this section, who fought under D'Estaing with great
+distinction in the siege of Savannah, their bravery at that time
+saving the patriot army from annihilation.
+
+When the Revolutionary War had closed the brave black soldier who had
+fought to give to the world a new flag whose every star should be a
+star of hope to the oppressed, and whose trinity of colors should
+symbolize Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, found his race, and in
+some instances himself personally, encased in a cruel and stubborn
+slavery. For the soldier himself special provision had been made in
+both Northern and Southern colonies, but it was not always hearty or
+effective. In October, 1783, the Virginia Legislature passed an act
+for the relief of certain slaves who had served in the army whose
+"former owners were trying to force to return to a state of servitude,
+contrary to the principles of justice and their solemn promise." The
+act provided that each and every slave who had enlisted "by the
+appointment and direction of his owner" and had "been received as a
+substitute for any free person whose duty or lot it was to serve" and
+who had served faithfully during the term of such enlistment, unless
+lawfully discharged earlier, should be fully and completely
+emancipated and should be held and deemed free in as full and ample
+manner as if each and every one of them were specially named in the
+act. The act, though apparently so fair on its face, and interlarded
+as it is with patriotic and moral phrases, is nevertheless very narrow
+and technical, liberating only those who enlisted by the appointment
+and direction of their owners, and who were accepted as substitutes,
+and who came out of the army with good discharges. It is not hard to
+see that even under this act many an ex-soldier might end his days in
+slavery. The Negro had joined in the fight for freedom and when
+victory is won finds himself a slave. He was both a slave and a
+soldier, too often, during the war; and now at its close may be both a
+veteran and a slave.
+
+The second war with Great Britain broke out with an incident in which
+the Negro in the navy was especially conspicuous. The Chesapeake, an
+American war vessel was hailed, fired upon and forced to strike her
+colors, by the British. She was then boarded and searched and four
+persons taken from her decks, claimed as deserters from the English
+navy. Three of these were Negroes and one white. The Negroes were
+finally dismissed with a reprimand and the white man hanged. Five
+years later hostilities began on land and no opposition was manifested
+toward the employment of Negro soldiers. Laws were passed, especially
+in New York, authorizing the formation of regiments of blacks with
+white officers. It is remarkable that although the successful
+insurrection of St. Domingo was so recent, and many refugees from that
+country at that time were in the United States, and our country had
+also but lately come into possession of a large French element by the
+Louisiana purchase, there was no fear of a servile insurrection in
+this country. The free colored men of New Orleans, under the
+proclamation of the narrow-minded Jackson, rallied to the defence of
+that city and bore themselves with commendable valor in that useless
+battle. The war closed, however, and the glory of the Negro soldier
+who fought in it soon expired in the dismal gloom of a race-slavery
+becoming daily more wide-spread and hopeless.
+
+John Brown's movement was military in character and contemplated the
+creation of an army of liberated slaves; but its early suppression
+prevented any display of Negro valor or genius. Its leader must ever
+receive the homage due those who are so moved by the woes of others as
+to overlook all considerations of policy and personal risk. As a plot
+for the destruction of life it fell far short of the Nat Turner
+insurrection which swept off fifty-seven persons within a few hours.
+In purpose the two episodes agree. They both aim at the liberation of
+the slave; both were led by fanatics, the reflex production of the
+cruelty of slavery, and both ended in the melancholy death of their
+heroic leaders. Turner's was the insurrection of the slave and was not
+free from the mad violence of revenge; Brown's was the insurrection of
+the friend of the slave, and was governed by the high and noble
+purpose of freedom. The insurrections of Denmark Vesey in South
+Carolina, in 1822, and of Nat Turner, in Virginia, in 1831, show
+conclusively that the Negro slave possessed the courage, the cunning,
+the secretiveness and the intelligence to fight for his freedom.
+These two attempts were sufficiently broad and intelligent, when taken
+into consideration with the enforced ignorance of the slave, to prove
+the Negro even in his forlorn condition capable of daring great
+things. Of the probable thousands who were engaged in the Denmark
+Vesey insurrection, only fifteen were convicted, and these died
+heroically without revealing anything connected with the plot.
+Forty-three years later I met the son of Denmark Vesey, who rejoiced
+in the efforts of his noble father, and regarded his death on the
+gallows as a holy sacrifice to the cause of freedom. Turner describes
+his fight as follows: "The white men, eighteen in number, approached
+us to about one hundred yards, when one of them fired, and I
+discovered about half of them retreating. I then ordered my men to
+fire and rush on them. The few remaining stood their ground until we
+approached within fifty yards, when they fired and retreated. We
+pursued and overtook some of them whom we thought we left dead. After
+pursuing them about two hundred yards, and rising a little hill, I
+discovered they were met by another party, and had halted and were
+reloading their guns. Thinking that those who retreated first and the
+party who fired on us at fifty or sixty yards distant had all only
+fallen back to meet others with ammunition, as I saw them reloading
+their guns, and more coming up than I saw at first, and several of my
+bravest men being wounded, the others became panic struck and
+scattered over the field. The white men pursued and fired on us
+several times. Hark had his horse shot under him, and I caught another
+for him that was running by me; five or six of my men were wounded,
+but none left on the field. Finding myself defeated here, I instantly
+determined to go through a private way and cross the Nottoway River at
+Cypress Bridge, three miles below Jerusalem, and attack that place in
+the rear, as I expected they would look for me on the other road, and
+I had a great desire to get there to procure arms and ammunition.
+After going a short distance in this private way, accompanied by about
+twenty men, I overtook two or three who told me the others were
+dispersed in every direction. After trying in vain to collect a
+sufficient force to proceed to Jerusalem, I determined to return, as I
+was sure they would make back to their old neighborhood, where they
+would rejoin me, make new recruits, and come down again. On my way
+back I called on Mrs. Thomas', Mrs. Spencer's and several other
+places. We stopped at Major Ridley's quarters for the night, and being
+joined by four of his men, with the recruits made since my defeat, we
+mustered now about forty strong.
+
+After placing out sentinels, I lay down to sleep, but was quickly
+aroused by a great racket. Starting up I found some mounted and others
+in great confusion, one of the sentinels having given the alarm that
+we were about to be attacked. I ordered some to ride around and
+reconnoitre, and on their return the others being more alarmed, not
+knowing who they were, fled in different ways, so that I was reduced
+to about twenty again. With this I determined to attempt to recruit,
+and proceed on to rally in the neighborhood I had left."[6]
+
+No one can read this account, which is thoroughly supported by
+contemporary testimony, without seeing in this poor misguided slave
+the elements of a vigorous captain. Failing in his efforts he made his
+escape and remained for two months in hiding in the vicinity of his
+pursuers. One concerned in his prosecution says: "It has been said
+that he was ignorant and cowardly and that his object was to murder
+and rob for the purpose of obtaining money to make his escape. It is
+notorious that he was never known to have a dollar in his life, to
+swear an oath, or drink a drop of spirits. As to his ignorance, he
+certainly never had the advantages of education, but he can read and
+write (it was taught him by his parents) and for natural intelligence
+and quickness of apprehension, is surpassed by few men I have ever
+seen. As to his being a coward, his reason as given for not resisting
+Mr. Phipps shows the decision of his character."[7]
+
+The War of the Rebellion, now called the Civil War, effected the last
+and tremendous step in the transition of the American Negro from the
+position of a slave under the Republic to that of a soldier in its
+armies. Both under officers of his own race at Port Hudson and under
+white officers on a hundred battlefields, the Negro in arms proved
+himself a worthy foeman against the bravest and sternest enemies that
+ever assailed our nation's flag, and a worthy comrade of the Union's
+best defenders. Thirty-six thousand eight hundred and forty-seven of
+them gave their lives in that awful conflict. The entire race on this
+continent and those of allied blood throughout the world are indebted
+to the soldier-historian, Honorable George W. Williams, for the
+eloquent story of their service in the Union Army, and for the
+presentation of the high testimonials to the valor and worthiness of
+the colored soldier as given by the highest military authority of the
+century. From Chapter XVI of his book, "Negro Troops in the
+Rebellion," the paragraphs appended at the close of this chapter are
+quoted.
+
+
+A.
+
+HOW THE BLACK ST. DOMINGO LEGION SAVED THE PATRIOT ARMY IN THE SIEGE
+OF SAVANNAH, 1779.
+
+The siege and attempted reduction of Savannah by the combined French
+and American forces is one of the events of our revolutionary war,
+upon which our historians care little to dwell. Because it reflects
+but little glory upon the American arms, and resulted so disastrously
+to the American cause, its important historic character and
+connections have been allowed to fade from general sight; and it
+stands in the ordinary school text-books, much as an affair of shame.
+The following, quoted from Barnes' History, is a fair sample of the
+way in which it is treated:
+
+"French-American Attack on Savannah.--In September, D'Estaing joined
+Lincoln in besieging that city. After a severe bombardment, an
+unsuccessful assault was made, in which a thousand lives were lost.
+Count Pulaski was mortally wounded. The simple-hearted Sergeant Jasper
+died grasping the banner presented to his regiment at Fort Moultrie.
+D'Estaing refused to give further aid; thus again deserting the
+Americans when help was most needed."
+
+From this brief sketch the reader is at liberty to infer that the
+attack was unwise if not fool-hardy; that the battle was unimportant;
+and that the conduct of Count D'Estaing immediately after the battle
+was unkind, if not unjust, to the Americans. While the paragraph does
+not pretend to tell the whole truth, what it does tell ought to be the
+truth; and this ought to be told in such a way as to give correct
+impressions. The attack upon Savannah was well-planned and thoroughly
+well considered; and it failed only because the works were so ably
+defended, chiefly by British regulars, under brave and skillful
+officers. In a remote way, which it is the purpose of this paper to
+trace, that sanguinary struggle had a wider bearing upon the progress
+of liberty in the Western World than any other one battle fought
+during the Revolution.
+
+But first let us listen to the story of the battle itself. Colonel
+Campbell with a force of three thousand men, captured Savannah in
+December, 1778; and in the January following, General Prevost arrived,
+and by March had established a sort of civil government in Georgia,
+Savannah being the capital. In April, the American general, Lincoln,
+feeble in more senses than one, perhaps, began a movement against
+Savannah by way of Augusta; but Prevost, aware of his purpose, crossed
+into South Carolina and attempted an attack upon Charleston. Finding
+the city too well defended, he contented himself with ravaging the
+plantations over a wide extent of adjacent country, and returned to
+Savannah laden with rich spoils, among which were included three
+thousand slaves, of whose labor he made good use later.
+
+The patriots of the South now awaited in hope the coming of the French
+fleet; and on the first of September, Count D'Estaing appeared
+suddenly on the coast of Georgia with thirty-three sail, surprised and
+captured four British warships, and announced to the government of
+South Carolina his readiness to assist in the recapture of Savannah.
+He urged as a condition, however, that his ships should not be
+detained long off so dangerous a coast, as is was now the hurricane
+season, and there was neither harbor, road, nor offing for their
+protection.
+
+By means of small vessels sent from Charleston he effected a landing
+in ten days, and four days thereafter, on the 16th, he summoned the
+garrison to surrender to the arms of France. Although this demand was
+made in the name of France for the plain reason that the American army
+was not yet upon the spot, the loyalists did not fail to make it a
+pretext for the accusation that the French were desirous of making
+conquests in the war on their own account. In the meantime Lincoln
+with the regular troops, was hurrying toward Savannah, and had issued
+orders for the militia to rendezvous at the same place; and the
+militia full of hope of a speedy, if not of a bloodless conquest, were
+entering upon this campaign with more than ordinary enthusiasm.
+
+During the time that the fleet had been off the coast, and especially
+since the landing, the British had been very busy in putting the city
+in a high state of defence, and in making efforts to strengthen the
+garrison. Lieutenant-colonel Cruger, who had a small force at Sunbury,
+the last place in Georgia that had been captured by the British, and
+Lieutenant-colonel Maitland who was commanding a considerable force at
+Beaufort, were ordered to report in haste with their commands at
+Savannah. On the 16th, when the summons to surrender was received by
+Prevost, Maitland had not arrived, but was hourly expected. Prevost
+asked for a delay of twenty-four hours to consider the proposal, which
+delay was granted; and on that very evening, Maitland with his force
+arrived at Dawfuskie. Finding the river in the possession of the
+French, his course for a time seemed effectually cut off. By the
+merest chance he fell in with some Negro fishermen who informed him of
+a passage known as Wall's cut, through Scull's creek, navigable for
+small boats. A favoring tide and a dense fog enabled him to conduct
+his command unperceived by the French, through this route, and thus
+arrive in Savannah on the afternoon of the 17th, before the expiration
+of the twenty-four hours. General Prevost had gained his point; and
+now believing himself able to resist an assault, declined the summons
+to surrender. Two armed ships and four transports were sunk in the
+channel of the river below the city, and a boom in the same place laid
+entirely across the river; while several small boats were sunk above
+the town, thus rendering it impossible for the city to be approached
+by water.
+
+On the day of the summons to surrender, although the works were
+otherwise well advanced, there were not ten cannon mounted in the
+lines of Savannah; but from that time until the day of assault, the
+men of the garrison, with the slaves they had captured, worked day and
+night to get the defences of the city in the highest state of
+excellence. Major Moncrief, chief of the engineers, is credited with
+placing in position more than eighty cannons in a short time after the
+call to surrender had been received.
+
+The city itself at this time was but a mere village of frame buildings
+and unpaved streets. Viewed as facing its assailants, it was protected
+in its rear, or upon its north side, by the Savannah river; and on its
+west side by a thick swamp or morass, which communicated with the
+river above the city. The exposed sides were those of the east and
+south. These faced an open country which for several miles was
+entirely clear of woods. This exposed portion of the city was well
+protected by an unbroken line of defences extending from the river
+back to the swamp, the right and left extremes of the line consisting
+of strong redoubts, while the centre was made up of seamen's batteries
+in front, with impalements and traverses thrown up to protect the
+troops from the fire of the besiegers. The whole extent of the works
+was faced with an ample abattis.
+
+[Illustration: Savannah River.]
+
+To be still more particular: there were three redoubts on the right of
+the line, and on the right of them quite near the swamp, was a
+sailor's battery of nine pounders, covered by a company of the British
+legion. The left redoubt of these three, was known as the Springhill
+redoubt; and proved to be the objective of the final assault. Between
+it and the centre, was another sailor's battery behind which were
+posted the grenadiers of the 60th regiment, with the marines which had
+been landed from the warships. On the left of the line near the river
+were two redoubts, strongly constructed, with a massy frame of green
+spongy wood, filled in with sand, and mounted with heavy cannon. The
+centre, or space between these groups of redoubts, was composed, as
+has been said, of lighter but nevertheless very effective works, and
+was strongly garrisoned.
+
+Having thus scanned the works, let us now take a glance at the men who
+are to defend them. As all of the assaulting forces are not made up of
+Americans, so all of the defenders are not foreigners. The centre
+redoubt of the triplet on the right, was garrisoned by two companies
+of militia, with the North Carolina regiment to support them; Captains
+Roworth and Wylie, with the provincial corps of King's Rangers, were
+posted in the redoubt on the right; and Captain Tawse with his corps
+of provincial dragons, dismounted, in the left or Springhill redoubt,
+supported by the South Caroline regiment. The whole of this force on
+the right of the line, was under the command of the gallant
+Lieutenant-colonel Maitland; and it was this force that made the
+charge that barely failed of annihilating the American army. On the
+left of the line, the Georgia loyalists garrisoned one of those massy
+wooden sand-filled redoubts; while in the centre, cheek by jowl so to
+speak, with two battalions of the seventy-first regiment, and two
+regiments of Hessians, stood the New York Volunteers. All of these
+corps were ready to act as circumstances should require and to support
+any part of the line that might be attacked. The Negroes who worked on
+these defences were under the direction of Major Moncrief.
+
+The French troops had landed below the city and were formed facing the
+British lines, with the river on their right. On their left, later,
+assembled the American troops. The final dispositions were concluded
+by September 22nd, and were as follows: The American troops under
+Lincoln formed the left of the line, their left resting upon the swamp
+and the entire division facing the Springhill redoubt and her two
+sister defences; then came the division of M. de Noailles, composed of
+nine hundred men. D'Estaing's division of one thousand men beside the
+artillery, came next, and formed the centre of the French army. On
+D'Estaing's right was Count Dillon's division of nine hundred men; on
+the right of Dillon were the powder magazine, cattle depot, and a
+small field hospital; on the right of the depot and a little in
+advance, were Dejean's dragoons, numbering fifty men; upon the same
+alignment and to the right of the dragoons were Rouvrais' Volunteer
+Chasseurs, numbering seven hundred and fifty men; still further on to
+the right and two hundred yards in advance of Rouvrais, was Framais,
+comanding the Grenadier Volunteers, and two hundred men besides, his
+right resting upon the swampy wood that bordered the river, thus
+completely closing in the city on the land side. The frigate, La
+Truite, and two galleys, lay within cannon shot of the town, and with
+the aid of the armed store ship, La Bricole, and the frigate, La
+Chimere, effectually cut off all communication by water.
+
+On the 23rd, both the French and the Americans opened their trenches;
+and on the 24th, a small detachment of the besieged made a sortie
+against the French. The attack was easily repulsed, but the French
+pursuing, approached so near the entrenchments of the enemy that they
+were fired upon and several were killed. On the night of the 27th
+another sortie was made which threw the besiegers into some confusion
+and caused the French and Americans to fire upon each other.
+Cannonading continued with but little result until October 8th.
+
+The engineers were now of the opinion that a speedy reduction of the
+city could not be accomplished by regular approaches; and the naval
+officers were very anxious about the fleet, both because of the
+dangers to which it was exposed from the sea, and also because with so
+many men ashore it was in especial danger of being attacked and
+captured by British men-of-war. These representations agreeing
+altogether with D'Estaing's previously expressed wishes to leave the
+coast as soon as possible, induced that officer and General Lincoln
+to decide upon an attempt to storm the British works at once. It is
+quite probable that this had been the purpose as a last resort from
+the first. The preservation of the fleet was, however, the powerful
+factor in determining the time and character of the assault upon
+Savannah.
+
+On the night of the eighth, Major L'Enfant, with a detachment
+attempted to set fire to the abattis in order to clear the way for the
+assault, but failed to through the dampness of the wood. The plan of
+the assault may be quite accurately obtained from the orders given to
+the American troops on the evening of the 8th by General Lincoln and
+from the inferences to be drawn from the events of the morning of the
+9th as they are recorded in history. At least two of the historians
+who have left us accounts of the seige, Ramsey and McCall, were
+present at the time, and their accounts may be regarded as original
+authority. General Lincoln's orders were as follows:
+
+
+     "Evening Orders. By General Lincoln.
+     Watchword--Lewis.
+
+     "The soldiers will be immediately supplied with 40 rounds of
+     cartridges, a spare flint, and have their arms in good
+     order. The infantry destined for the attack of Savannah will
+     be divided into two bodies; first composed of the light
+     troops under the command of Colonel Laurens; the second, of
+     the continental battalions and the first battalion of the
+     Charleston militia, except the grenadiers, who are to join
+     the light troops. The whole will parade at 1 o'clock, near
+     the left of the line, and march by platoons. The guards of
+     the camp will be formed of the invalids, and be charged to
+     keep the fires as usual in camp.
+
+     "The cavalry under the command of Count Pulaski, will parade
+     at the same time with the infantry and follow the left
+     column of the French troops, precede the column of the
+     American light troops; they will endeavor to penetrate the
+     enemy's lines between the battery on the left of Springhill
+     redoubt, and the next towards the river; having effected
+     this, will pass to the left towards Yamacraw and secure such
+     parties of the enemy as may be lodged in that quarter.
+
+     "The artillery will parade at the same time, follow the
+     French artillery, and remain with the corps de reserve until
+     they receive further orders.
+
+     "The whole will be ready by the time appointed, with the
+     utmost silence and punctuality; and be ready to march the
+     instant Count Dillon and General Lincoln shall order.
+
+     "The light troops who are to follow the cavalry, will
+     attempt to enter the redoubt on the left of the Springhill,
+     by escalade if possible; if not by entrance into it, they
+     are to be supported if necessary by the first South Carolina
+     regiment; in the meantime the column will proceed with the
+     lines to the left of the Springhill battery.
+
+     "The light troops having succeeded against the redoubt will
+     proceed to the left and attempt the several works between
+     that and the river.
+
+     "The column will move to the left of the French troops,
+     taking care not to interfere with them.
+
+     "The light troops having carried the work towards the river
+     will form on the left of the column.
+
+     "It is especially forbidden to fire a single gun before the
+     redoubts are carried; or for any soldier to quit his rank to
+     plunder without an order for that purpose; any who shall
+     presume to transgress in either of these respects shall be
+     reputed a disobeyer of military orders which is punishable
+     with death.
+
+     "The militia of the first and second brigades, General
+     Williamson's and the second battalion of the Charleston
+     militia will parade immediately under the command of General
+     Huger; after draughting five hundred of them the remander of
+     them will go into the trenches and put themselves under the
+     commanding officer there; with the 500 he will march to the
+     left of the enemy's line, remain as near them as he possibly
+     can without being seen, until four o'clock in the morning,
+     at which time the troops in the trenches will begin an
+     attack upon the enemy; he will then advance and make his
+     attack as near the river as possible; though this is only
+     meant as a feint, yet should a favorable opportunity offer,
+     he will improve it and push into the town.
+
+     "In case of a repulse after taking Springhill redoubt, the
+     troops will retreat and rally in the rear of redoubt; if it
+     cannot be effected that way, it must be attempted by the
+     same route at which they entered.
+
+     "The second place of rallying (or the first if the redoubt
+     should not be carried) will be at the Jews' burying-ground,
+     where the reserve will be placed; if these two halts should
+     not be effected, they will retire towards camp.
+
+     "The troops will carry in their hats a piece of white paper
+     by which they will be distinguished."
+
+General Huger with his five hundred militia, covered by the river
+swamp, crept quite close to the enemy's lines and delivered his attack
+as directed. Its purpose was to draw attention to that quarter and if
+possible cause a weakening of the strength in the left centre of the
+line. What its real effect was, there is now no means of knowing.
+
+Count Dillon, who during the siege had been on D'Estaing's right, and
+who appears to have been second in command in the French army, in this
+assault was placed in command of a second attacking column. His
+purpose was to move to the right of General Huger, and keeping in the
+edge of the swamps along the river, steal past the enemy's batteries
+on the left, and attack him in the rear. Bancroft describes the
+results of his efforts as follows: "The column under Count Dillon,
+which was to have attacked the rear of the British lines, became
+entangled in a swamp of which it should only have skirted the edge was
+helplessly exposed to the British batteries and could not even be
+formed." Here were the two strong sand-filled redoubts, mounted with
+heavy cannon, and these may have been the batteries that stopped
+Dillon's column.
+
+Count Pulaski with his two hundred brave cavalrymen, undertook his
+part in the deadly drama with ardor, and began that perilous ride
+which had for its object: "to penetrate the enemy's lines, between the
+battery on the left of the Springhill redoubt, and the next towards
+the river." Balch describes it as an attempt to "penetrate into the
+city by galloping between the redoubts." It was the anticipation of
+the Crimean "Charge of the Light Brigade;" only in this case, no one
+blundered; it was simply a desperate chance. Cannon were to the right,
+left, and front, and the heroic charge proved in vain; the noble Pole
+fell, banner[8] in hand, pierced with a mortal wound--another foreign
+martyr to our dearly bought freedom.
+
+The cavalry dash having failed, that much of the general plan was
+blotted out. The feints may have been understood; it is said a
+sergeant of the Charleston Grenadiers deserted during the night of the
+8th and gave the whole plan of the attack to General Prevost, so that
+he knew just where to strengthen his lines. The feints were
+effectually checked by the garrison on the left, twenty-eight of the
+Americans being killed: while Dillon's column was stopped by the
+batteries near the river. This state of affairs allowed the whole of
+Maitland's force to protect the Springhill redoubt and that part of
+the line which was most threatened. The Springhill redoubt, as has
+been stated, was occupied by the South Carolina regiment and a corps
+of dragoons. This circumstance may account for the fact, that while
+the three hundred and fifty Charleston militia occupied a most exposed
+position in the attacking column, only one man among them was killed
+and but six wounded. The battery on the left of this redoubt was
+garrisoned by grenadiers and marines.
+
+The attacking column now advanced boldly, under the command of
+D'Estaing and Lincoln, the Americans consisting of six hundred
+continental troops and three hundred and fifty Charleston militia,
+being on the left, while the centre and right were made up of the
+French forces. They were met with so severe and steady a fire that the
+head of the column was soon thrown into confusion. They endured this
+fire for fifty-five minutes, returning it as best they could, although
+many of the men had no opportunity to fire at all. Two American
+standards and one French standard, were placed on the British works,
+but their bearers were instantly killed. It being found impossible to
+carry any part of the works, a general retreat was ordered. Of the six
+hundred continental troops, more than one-third had fallen, and about
+one-fifth of the French. The Charleston militia had not suffered,
+although they had bravely borne their part in the assault, and it had
+certainly been no fault of theirs if their brethren behind the
+embankments had not fired upon them. Count D'Estaing had received two
+wounds, one in the thigh, and being unable to move, was saved by the
+young naval lieutenant Truguet. Ramsey gives the losses of the battle
+as follows: French soldiers 760; officers 61; Americans 312; total
+1133.
+
+As the army began its retreat, Lieutenant-colonel Maitland with the
+grenadiers and marines, who were incorporated with the grenadiers,
+charged its rear with the purpose of accomplishing its annihilation.
+It was then that there occurred the most brilliant feat of the day,
+and one of the bravest ever performed by foreign troops in the
+American cause. In the army of D'Estaing was a legion of black and
+mulatto freedmen, known as Fontages Legion, commanded by Vicount de
+Fontages, a brave and experienced officer. The strength of this legion
+is given variously from six hundred to over eight hundred men. This
+legion met the fierce charge of Maitland and saved the retreating
+army.
+
+In an official record prepared in Paris, now before me, are these
+words: "This legion saved the army at Savannah by bravely covering its
+retreat. Among the blacks who rendered signal services at that time
+were: Andre, Beauvais, Rigaud, Villatte, Beauregard, Lambert, who
+latterly became generals under the convention, including Henri
+Christophe, the future king of Haiti." This quotation is taken from a
+paper secured by the Honorable Richard Rush, our minister to Paris in
+1849, and is preserved in the Pennsylvania Historical Society. Henri
+Christophe received a dangerous gunshot wound in Savannah. Balch says
+in speaking of Fontages at Savannah: "He commanded there a legion of
+mulattoes, according to my manuscript, of more than eight hundred men,
+and saved the army after the useless assault on the fortifications, by
+bravely covering the retreat."
+
+It was this legion that formed the connecting link between the siege
+of Savannah and the wide development of republican liberty on the
+Western continent, which followed early in the present century. In
+order to show this connection and the sequences, it will be necessary
+to sketch in brief the history of this remarkable body of men,
+especially that of the prominent individuals who distinguished
+themselves at Savannah.
+
+In 1779 the French colony of Saint Domingo was in a state of peace,
+the population then consisting of white slave-holders, mulatto and
+black freedmen (affranchis), and slaves. Count D'Estaing received
+orders to recruit men from Saint Domingo for the auxiliary army; and
+there being no question of color raised, received into the service a
+legion of colored freedmen. There had been for years a colored militia
+in Saint Domingo, and as early as 1716, the Marquis de Chateau Morant,
+then governor of the colony, made one Vincent the Captain-general of
+all the colored militia in the vicinity of the Cape. This Captain
+Vincent died in 1780 at the reputed age of 120 years. He was certainly
+of great age, for he had been in the siege of Carthegenia in 1697, was
+taken prisoner, afterwards liberated by exchange and presented to
+Louis XIV, and fought in the German war under Villars. Moreau de St.
+Mery, in his description of Vincent, incidentally mentions the
+Savannah expedition. He says: "I saw him (Vincent) the year preceding
+his death, recalling his ancient prowess to the men of color who were
+enrolling themselves for the expedition to Savannah; and showing in
+his descendants who were among the first to offer themselves, that he
+had transmitted his valor. Vincent, the good Captain Vincent, had a
+most pleasing countenance; and the contrast of his black skin with his
+white hair produced an effect that always commanded respect."
+
+[Illustration: Hutchinson Island.]
+
+The Haytian historian, Enclus Robin, says when the call for volunteers
+reached Saint Domingo: "eight hundred young freedmen, blacks and
+mulattoes, offered themselves to take part in the expedition;" that
+they went and "fought valiantly; and returned to Saint Domingo covered
+with glory." Madiou, another Haytian historian of the highest
+respectability says: "A crowd of young men, black and colored,
+enlisted with the French troops and left for the continent. They
+covered themselves with glory in the siege of Savannah, under the
+orders of Count D'Estaing."
+
+What effect this experience had upon these volunteers may be inferred
+from their subsequent history. Robin says: "These men who contributed
+their mite toward American independence, had still their mothers and
+sisters in slavery; and they themselves were subject to humiliating
+discriminations. Should not France have expected from that very
+moment, that they would soon use in their own cause, those very arms
+which they had learned so well to use in the interests of others?"
+Madiou says: "On their return to Saint Domingo they demanded for their
+brothers the enjoyment of political rights." Beauvais went to Europe
+and served in the army of France; but returned to fight for liberty in
+Hayti, and was Captain-general in 1791; Rigaud, Lambert and Christophe
+wrote their names--not in the sand. These are the men who dared to
+stir Saint Domingo, under whose influence Hayti became the first
+country of the New World, after the United States, to throw off
+European rule. The connection between the siege of Savannah and the
+independence of Hayti is traced, both as to its spirit, and
+physically, through the black legion that on that occasion saved the
+American army. How this connection is traced to the republics of South
+America, I will allow a Haytian statesman and man of letters, honored
+both at home and abroad, to relate. I translate from a work published
+in Paris in 1885:
+
+"The illustrious Bolivar, liberator and founder of five republics in
+South America, undertook in 1811 his great work of shaking off the
+yoke of Spain, and of securing the independence of those immense
+countries which swelled the pride of the catholic crown--but failed.
+Stripped of all resources he took flight and repaired to Jamaica,
+where he implored in vain of the governor of that island, the help of
+England. Almost in despair, and without means, he resolved to visit
+Hayti, and appeal to the generosity of the black Republic for the
+help necessary to again undertake that work of liberation which had
+gone to pieces in his hands. Never was there a more solemn hour for
+any man--and that man the representative of the destiny of South
+America! Could he hope for success? After the English, who had every
+interest in the destruction of Spanish colonial power, had treated him
+with so much indifference, could he hope that a new-born nation, weak,
+with microscopic territory, and still guarding anxiously its own
+ill-recognized independence, would risk itself in an enterprise
+hazardous as the one he represented? Full of doubt he came; but Petion
+gave him a most cordial welcome.
+
+"Taking the precautions that a legitimate sentiment of prudence
+dictated at that delicate moment of our national existence, the
+government of Port-au-Prince put to the disposition of the hero of
+Boyaca and Carabobo, all the elements of which he had need--and
+Bolivar needed everything. Men, arms and money were generously given
+him. Petion did not wish to act openly for fear of compromising
+himself with the Spanish government; it was arranged that the men
+should embark secretly as volunteers; and that no mention of Hayti
+should ever be made in any official act of Venezuela."
+
+Bolivar's first expedition with his Haytian volunteers was a failure;
+returning to the island he procured reinforcements and made a second
+descent which was brilliantly successful. Haytian arms, money and men
+turned Bolivar's disasters to victory; and the spirit of Western
+liberty marched on to the redemption of South America. The liberation
+of Mexico and all Central America, followed as a matter of course; and
+the ground was thus cleared for the practical application of that
+Continentalism enunciated in the Monroe doctrine.
+
+The black men of the Antilles who fought in the siege of Savannah,
+enjoy unquestionably the proud historical distinction of being the
+physical conductors that bore away from our altars the sacred fire of
+liberty to rekindle it in their own land; and also of becoming the
+humble but important link that served to unite the Two Americas in the
+bond of enlightened independence.
+
+T.G. STEWARD, U.S.A.
+
+Note:--In the preparation of the above paper I have been greatly
+assisted by the Honorable L.J. Janvier, Charge d'affairs d' Haiti, in
+London; by Right Reverend James Theodore Holly, bishop of Hayti, and
+by Messrs. Charles and Frank Rudolph Steward of Harvard University. To
+all of these gentlemen my thanks are here expressed. T.G.S.
+
+Paper read at the session of the Negro Academy, Washington, D.C.,
+1898.
+
+
+B.
+
+EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER XVI "NEGRO TROOPS IN THE REBELLION"--WILLIAMS.
+
+Adjutant-General Thomas in a letter to Senator Wilson, May 30, 1864,
+says: "Experience proves that they manage heavy guns very well. Their
+fighting qualities have also been fully tested a number of times, and
+I am yet to hear of the first case where they did not fully stand up
+to their work."
+
+Major-General James G. Blunt writing of the battle of Honey Springs,
+Arkansas, said of Negro troops: "The Negroes (First Colored Regiment)
+were too much for the enemy, and let me here say that I never saw such
+fighting as was done by that Negro regiment. They fought like
+veterans, with a coolness and valor that is unsurpassed. They
+preserved their line perfect throughout the whole engagement, and
+although in the hottest of the fight, they never once faltered. Too
+much praise cannot be awarded them for their gallantry. The question
+that Negroes will fight is settled; besides, they make better soldiers
+in every respect than any troops I have ever had under my command."
+
+General Thomas J. Morgan, speaking of the courage of Negro troops in
+the battle of Nashville, and its effect upon Major-General George H.
+Thomas, says: "Those who fell nearest the enemy's works were colored.
+General Thomas spoke very feelingly of the sight which met his eye as
+he rode over the field, and he confessed that the Negro had fully
+vindicated his bravery, and wiped from his mind the last vestige of
+prejudice and doubt."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[6] Confession of Nat Turner, Anglo-African Magazine, Vol. 1, p. 338,
+1859.
+
+[7] Ibid.
+
+[8] The presentation of this banner by the Moravian Nuns of Bethlehem
+forms the text of the poem by Longfellow beginning--
+
+    When the dying flame of day
+    Through the chancel shot its ray,
+    Far the glimmering tapers shed
+    Faint light on the cowled head;
+    And the censer burning swung
+    Where, before the altar, hung
+    The crimson banner, that with prayer
+    Had been consecrated there.
+    And the nuns' sweet hymn was heard the while,
+    Sung low in the dint, mysterious aisle,
+      "Take thy banner! may it wave
+      Proudly o'er the good and brave;
+      When the battle's distant wail
+      Breaks the Sabbath of our vale,
+      When the cannon's music thrills
+      To the hearts of those lone hills.
+      When the spear in conflict shakes,
+      And the strong lance shivering breaks.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+      "Take thy banner! and if e'er
+      Thou should'st press the soldier's bier
+      And the muffled drum shall beat
+      To the tread of mournful feet,
+      Then the crimson flag shall be
+      Martial cloak and shroud for thee."
+    The warrior took that banner proud,
+    And it was his martial cloak and shroud.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE BLACK REGULARS OF THE ARMY OF INVASION IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN
+WAR.
+
+     Organization of Negro Regiments in the Regular Army--First
+     Move in the War--Chickamauga and Tampa--Note.
+
+
+Altogether the colored soldiers in the Civil War took part and
+sustained casualties in two hundred and fifty-one different
+engagements and came out of the prolonged conflict with their
+character so well established that up to the present hour they have
+been able to hold an important place in the Regular Army of the United
+States. No regiment of colored troops in the service was more renowned
+at the close of the war or has secured a more advantageous position in
+the history of that period than the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts
+Regiment of Infantry. Recruited among the free colored people of the
+North, many of them coming from Ohio, it was remarkable for the
+intelligence and character of its men, and for the high purpose and
+noble bearing of its officers. Being granted but half the pay per
+month given to white soldiers, the regiment to a man, for eighteen
+months refused to receive one cent from the Government. This was a
+spectacle that the country could not longer stand. One thousand
+volunteers fighting the country's battles without any compensation
+rather than submit to a discrimination fatal to their manhood, aroused
+such a sentiment that Congress was compelled to put them on the
+pay-roll on equal footing with all other soldiers. By them the
+question of the black soldier's pay and rations was settled in the
+Army of the United States for all time. Every soldier, indeed every
+man in the army, except the chaplain, now draws the pay of his grade
+without regard to color, hair or race. By the time these lines reach
+the public eye it is to be hoped that even the chaplain will be lifted
+from his exceptional position and given the pay belonging to his rank
+as captain.
+
+(February 2, 1901, the bill became a law giving chaplains the full pay
+of their grade.)
+
+More than 185,000 blacks, all told, served in the army of the Union
+during the War of the Rebellion, and the losses from their ranks of
+men killed in battle were as heavy as from the white troops. Their
+bravery was everywhere recognized, and in the short time in which they
+were employed, several rose to commissions.
+
+Perhaps the most notable act performed by a colored American during
+the war was the capture and delivery to the United States forces of
+the rebel steamer Planter, by Robert Smalls, of Charleston. Smalls was
+employed as pilot on the Planter, a rebel transport, and was entirely
+familiar with the harbors and inlets, of which there are many, on the
+South Atlantic coast. On May 13, 1862, the Planter came to her wharf
+in Charleston, and at night all the white officers went ashore,
+leaving a colored crew of eight men on board in charge of Smalls.
+Smalls hastily got his wife and three children on board, and at 2
+o'clock on the morning of the 14th steamed out into the harbor,
+passing the Confederate forts by giving the proper signals, and when
+fairly out of reach, as daylight came, he ran up the Stars and Stripes
+and headed his course directly toward the Union fleet, into whose
+hands he soon surrendered himself and his ship. The act caused much
+favorable comment and Robert Smalls became quite a hero. His
+subsequent career has been in keeping with the high promise indicated
+by this bold dash for liberty, and his name has received additional
+lustre from gallant services performed in the war after, and in
+positions of distinguished honor and responsibility in civil life. The
+Planter, after being accepted by the United States, became a despatch
+boat, and Smalls demonstrating by skill and bravery his fitness for
+the position, was finally, as an act of imperative justice, made her
+commander.
+
+With the close of the Revolutionary War the prejudice against a
+standing army was so great that the army was reduced to scarce six
+hundred men, and the Negro as a soldier dropped out of existence. When
+the War of 1812 closed sentiment with regard to the army had made but
+little advancement, and consequently no place in the service was left
+for Negro soldiers. In the navy the Negro still lingered, doing
+service in the lower grades, and keeping up the succession from the
+black heroes of '76 and 1812. When the War of the Rebellion closed the
+country had advanced so far as to see both the necessity of a standing
+army, and the fitness of the Negro to form a part of the army; and
+from this position it has never receded, and if the lessons of the
+Cuban campaign are rightly heeded, it is not likely to recede
+therefrom. The value of the Regular Army and of the Black Regular were
+both proven to an absolute demonstration in that thin line of blue
+that compelled the surrender of Santiago.
+
+In July, 1866, Congress passed an act adding eight new regiments of
+infantry and four of calvary to the nineteen regiments of infantry and
+six of calvary of which those arms of the Regular Army were at that
+time composed, thus making the permanent establishment to consist of
+five regiments of artillery, twenty-seven of infantry, and ten of
+cavalry. Of the eight new infantry regiments to be formed, four were
+to be composed of colored men; and of the four proposed for the
+calvary arm, two were to be of colored men. The President was
+empowered by the act also to appoint a chaplain for each of the six
+regiments of colored troops. Under this law the Ninth and Tenth
+Cavalry Regiments were organized.
+
+In 1869 the infantry suffered further reduction, and the four colored
+regiments organized under the law of 1866, numbered respectively the
+38th, 39th, 40th and 41st, were consolidated into two regiments, and
+numbered the 24th and 25th--the 38th and 41st becoming the former, and
+the 39th and 40th the latter. Previous to this consolidation the
+numbers between the old 19th and the 38th, which was the lowest number
+borne by the new colored regiments, were filled in by dividing the old
+three batallion regiments in the service, and making of the second and
+third batallions of these regiments new regiments. The whole infantry
+arm, by the law of 1869, was compressed into twenty-five regiments,
+and in that condition the army remains to the present, to wit:[9] Ten
+regiments of cavalry, five of artillery and twenty-five of infantry.
+
+The number of men in a company and the number of companies in a
+regiment have varied greatly within the past few months. Just previous
+to the breaking out of the war a regiment of infantry consisted of
+eight companies of about sixty men each, and two skeletonized
+companies and the band--the whole organization carrying about five
+hundred men; now a regiment of infantry consists of twelve companies
+of 106 men each and with the non-commissioned staff numbers twelve
+hundred and seventy-four men.
+
+Since 1869, or for a period of thirty years, the colored American has
+been represented in the Regular Army by these four regiments and
+during this time these regiments have borne more than their
+proportionate share in hard frontier service, including all sorts of
+Indian campaigning and much severe guard and fatigue duty. The men
+have conducted themselves so worthily as to receive from the highest
+military authority the credit of being among our best troops. General
+Miles and General Merritt,[10] with others who were active leaders in
+the Indian wars of the West, have been unstinting in their praise of
+the valor and skill of colored soldiers. They proved themselves not
+only good individual fighters, but in some instances non-commissioned
+officers exhibited marked coolness and ability in command.[11]
+
+From 1869 to the beginning of the Hispano-American War there were in
+the Regular Army at some time, as commissioned officers, the following
+colored men, all from West Point, all serving with the cavalry, and
+none rising higher than first-lieutenant, viz: John H. Alexander, H.O.
+Flipper and Charles Young. H.O. Flipper was dismissed; Alexander died,
+and Young became major in the volunteer service, and was placed in
+command of the Ninth Battalion of Ohio Volunteers, discharging the
+duties of his position in such a manner as to command general
+satisfaction from his superior officers.[12]
+
+These colored men while cadets at West Point endured hardships
+disgraceful to their country, and when entering the army were not
+given that cordial welcome by their brother officers, becoming an
+"officer and gentleman," both to give and to receive. Of course there
+were some noble exceptions, and this class of officers seems to be
+steadily increasing, so that now it is no longer necessary, even on
+the ground of expediency, to strive to adhere to the rule of only
+white men for army officers. Of Alexander and Young it can be said
+they have acquitted themselves well, the former enjoying the
+confidence and esteem of his associates up to the time of his early
+death--an event which caused deep regret--and the latter so impressing
+the Governor of his State and the President as to secure for himself
+the responsible position which he, at the time of this writing, so
+worthily fills. Besides these line officers, five colored chaplains
+have been appointed, all of whom have served successfully, one,
+however, being dismissed by court-martial after many years of really
+meritorious service, an event to be regretted, but by no means without
+parallel.
+
+Brief sketches of the history of these four colored regiments, as well
+as of the others, have been recently made by members of them and
+published in the Journal of the Military Service Institution and
+subsequently in a large and beautiful volume edited by
+Brigadier-General Theo. F. Rodenbough and Major William L. Haskin,
+published by the Institution and designated "The Army of the United
+States," a most valuable book of reference. From the sketches
+contained therein the following summary is given.
+
+The Twenty-fourth Infantry was organized, as we have seen, from the
+38th and 41st Regiments, these two regiments being at the time
+distributed in New Mexico, Louisiana and Texas, and the regiment
+remained in Texas from the time of its organization in 1869 until
+1880. Its first Lieutenant-Colonel was William R. Shafter. It was
+from this regiment and the Tenth Cavalry that the escort of Paymaster
+Wham was selected which made so brave a stand against a band of
+robbers that attacked the paymaster that several of them were given
+medals for distinguished gallantry, and others certificates of merit.
+The Twenty-fifth Infantry was organized in New Orleans out of the
+39th, that was brought from North Carolina for that purpose, and the
+40th, that was then in Louisiana. It was organized during the month of
+April, 1869, and early in 1870 moved to Texas, where it remained ten
+years. In 1880 it moved to the Department of Dakota and remained in
+the Northwest until it took the road for the Cuban war.
+
+The Ninth Cavalry was organized in New Orleans during the winter of
+1866-67. Its first Colonel was Edward Hatch and its first
+Lieutenant-Colonel Wesley Merritt. From 1867 to 1890 it was in almost
+constant Indian warfare, distinguishing itself by daring and
+hardihood. From 1890 to the opening of the Cuban war it remained in
+Utah and Nebraska, engaging in but one important campaign, that
+against hostile Sioux during the winter of 1890-91, in which, says the
+historian: "The regiment was the first in the field, in November, and
+the last to leave, late in the following March, after spending the
+winter, the latter part of which was terrible in its severity, under
+canvas."
+
+The Tenth Calvary was organized under the same law as was the Ninth,
+and at the same time. Its place of rendezvous was Fort Leavenworth,
+Kansas, and its first Colonel, Benjamin H. Grierson. This regiment was
+the backbone of the Geronimo campaign force, and it finally succeeded
+in the capture of that wily warrior. The regiment remained in the
+Southwest until 1893, when it moved to Montana, and remained there
+until ordered to Chickamauga for the war.
+
+These four regiments were finely officered, well drilled and well
+experienced in camp and field, particularly the cavalry regiments, and
+it was of them that General Merritt said: "I have always found them
+brave in battle." With such training and experience they were well
+fitted to take their place in that selected host of fighting men which
+afterwards became the Fifth Army Corps, placed under command of
+Major-General William R. Shafter, the first Lieutenant-Colonel of the
+Twenty-fourth Infantry.
+
+When the news of the blowing up of our great battleship Maine, in the
+harbor of Havana, with the almost total loss of her crew, flashed over
+the country, carrying sadness to hundreds of homes, and arousing
+feelings of deepest indignation whether justly or unjustly, it was
+easy to predict that we should soon be involved in war with Spain. The
+Cuban question, already chronic, had by speeches of Senators Thurston
+and Proctor been brought to such a stage of aggravation that it needed
+only an incident to set the war element in motion. That incident was
+furnished by the destruction of the Maine. Thenceforth there was no
+power in the land sufficient to curb the rapidly swelling tide of
+popular hate, which manifested itself in the un-Christian but truly
+significant mottoes: "Remember the Maine," "Avenge the Maine," and "To
+hell with Spain." These were the outbreathings of popular fury, and
+they represented a spirit quite like that of the mob, which was not to
+be yielded to implicitly, but which could not be directly opposed.
+
+The President did all in his power to stay this element of our
+population and to lead the country to a more befitting attitude. He
+and his advisers argued that Spain was to be resisted, and fought if
+necessary, not on account of the Maine, not in the spirit of revenge,
+but in the interest of humanity, and upon principles sanctioned even
+by our holy religion. On behalf of the starving reconcentrados, and in
+aid of the noble Cuban patriot, we might justly arm and equip
+ourselves for the purpose of driving Spanish rule from the Western
+Hemisphere.
+
+This view appealed to all lovers of freedom, to all true patriots, and
+to the Christian and philanthropist. It also afforded a superb
+opportunity for the old leaders in the South, who were not entirely
+relieved from the taint of secession, to come out and reconsecrate
+themselves to the country and her flag. Hence, Southern statesmen, who
+were utterly opposed to Negroes or colored men having any share in
+ruling at home, became very enthusiastic over the aspirations of the
+colored Cuban patriots and soldiers. The supporters, followers, and in
+a sense, devotees of Maceo and Gomez, were worthy of our aid. The same
+men, actuated by the same principles, in the Carolinas, in Louisiana
+or in Mississippi, would have been pronounced by the same authorities
+worthy of death.
+
+The nation was, however, led into war simply to liberate Cuba from the
+iniquitous and cruel yoke of Spain, and to save thousands of
+impoverished Cubans from death by starvation. Great care was taken not
+to recognize the Cuban government in any form, and it seemed to be
+understood that we were to do the fighting both with our navy and our
+army, the Cubans being invited to co-operate with us, rather than that
+we should co-operate with them. We were to be the liberators and
+saviors of a people crushed to the very gates of death. Such was the
+platform upon which our nation stood before the world when the first
+orders went forth for the mobilization of its forces for war. It was a
+position worthy our history and character and gave to our national
+flag a prouder meaning than ever. Its character as the emblem of
+freedom shone out with awe-inspiring brilliancy amid the concourse of
+nations.
+
+While there was such a clamor for war in the newspapers and in the
+public speeches of statesmen, both in and out of Congress, it is
+remarkable that the utmost serenity prevailed in the army. Officers
+and men were ready to fight if the stern necessity came, but they were
+not so eager for the death-game as were the numerous editors' whose
+papers were getting out extras every half-hour. It was argued by the
+officers of rank that the Maine incident added nothing whatever to the
+Cuban question; that it did not involve the Spanish Government; that
+the whole subject might well be left to arbitration, and full respect
+should be given to Spain's disclaimer. It was also held that to rush
+into a war in order to prevent a few people from starving, might not
+relieve them, and at the same time would certainly cost the lives of
+many innocent men. Spain was revising her policy, and the benevolence
+of the United States would soon bring bread to the door of every needy
+Cuban. Such remarks and arguments as these were used by men who had
+fought through one war and were ready to fight, through another if
+they must; but who were willing to go to any reasonable length to
+prevent it; and yet the men who used such arguments beforehand and
+manifested such a shrinking from carnage, are among those to whom the
+short Spanish War brought distinction and promotion. To their honor be
+it said that the war which gave them fresh laurels was in no sense
+brought about through their instigation.
+
+As chaplain of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, stationed with the
+headquarters of the regiment at Fort Missoula, where we had been for
+ten years, the call for the war met me in the midst of my preparations
+for Easter service. One young man, then Private Thomas C. Butler, who
+was practicing a difficult solo for the occasion, before the year
+closed became a Second Lieutenant, having distinguished himself in
+battle; the janitor, who cared for my singing books, and who was my
+chief school teacher, Private French Payne, always polite and
+everywhere efficient, met his death from a Spanish bullet while on the
+reserve before bloody El Caney.
+
+It was on a bright day during the latter part of March and near the
+close of the day as I was looking out of the front window of my
+quarters that I saw the trumpeter of the guard come out of the
+Adjutant's office with a dispatch in his hand and start on a brisk run
+toward the quarters of the Commanding Officer. I immediately divined
+what was in the wind, but kept quiet. In a few minutes "officers'
+call" was sounded, and all the officers of the post hastened to the
+administration building to learn the news.
+
+When all were assembled the Commanding Officer desired to know of each
+company officer how much time he would need to have his company ready
+to move from the post to go to a permanent station elsewhere, and from
+all officers how much time they would require to have their families
+ready to quit the station. The answers generally were that all could
+be ready within a week. It was finally agreed, however, to ask for ten
+days.
+
+Immediately the work of preparation began, although none knew where
+the regiment was to go. At this time the order, so far as it was
+understood at the garrison, was, that two companies were to go to Key
+West, Florida, and the other companies of the regiment to Dry
+Tortugas. One officer, Lieutenant V.A. Caldell, early saw through the
+haze and said: "It means that we will all eventually land in Cuba."
+While we were packing, rumors flew through the garrison, as indeed
+through the country, thick and fast, and our destination was changed
+three or four times a day. One hour we would be going to Key West, the
+next to St. Augustine, the next to Tortugas. In this confusion I asked
+an old frontier officer where he thought we would really go.
+Regarding himself as an indicator and always capable of seeing the
+amusing side of a subject, he replied: "I p'int toward Texas." Such
+was the state of uncertainty as to destination, and yet all the time
+the greatest activity prevailed in making ready for departure. Finally
+definite orders came that we were to store our furniture in the large
+gymnasium hall at the post and prepare to go in camp at Chickamauga
+Park, Georgia.
+
+Our regiment was at the time stationed as follows: Headquarters, four
+companies and the band at Fort Missoula; two companies at Fort
+Harrison, near Helena, and two companies at Fort Assinniboine, all in
+Montana. The arrangements contemplated moving the regiment in two
+sections, one composed of the Missoula troops to go over the Northern
+Pacific Railroad, the other of the Fort Harrison and Fort Assinniboine
+troops to go over the Great Northern Railroad, all to arrive in St.
+Paul about the same time.
+
+On the 10th of April, Easter Sunday, the battalion at Fort Missoula
+marched out of post quite early in the morning, and at Bitter Root
+Station took the cars for their long journey. Officers and men were
+all furnished sleeping accommodations on the train. Arriving in the
+city of Missoula, for the gratification of the citizens and perhaps to
+avoid strain on the bridge crossing the Missoula River, the men were
+disembarked from the train and marched through the principal streets
+to the depot, the citizens generally turning out to see them off. Many
+were the compliments paid officers and men by the good people of
+Missoula, none perhaps more pleasing than that furnished by a written
+testimonial to the regret experienced at the departure of the
+regiment, signed by all the ministers of the city.
+
+As the Twenty-fifth was the first regiment to move in the preparation
+for war, its progress from Montana to Chickamauga was a marked event,
+attracting the attention of both the daily and illustrated press. All
+along the route they were greeted with enthusiastic crowds, who fully
+believed the war with Spain had begun. In St. Paul, in Chicago, in
+Terre Haute, in Nashville, and in Chattanooga the crowds assembled to
+greet the black regulars who were first to bear forward the Starry
+Banner of Union and Freedom against a foreign foe. What could be more
+significant, or more fitting, than that these black soldiers, drilled
+up to the highest standard of modern warfare, cool, brave and
+confident, themselves a proof of American liberty, should be called
+first to the front in a war against oppression? Their martial tread
+and fearless bearing proclaimed what the better genius of our great
+government meant for all men dwelling beneath the protection of its
+honored flag.
+
+As the Twenty-fifth Infantry was the first regiment to leave its
+station, so six companies of it were first to go into camp on the
+historic grounds of Chickamauga. Two companies were separated from the
+regiment at Chattanooga and forwarded to Key West where they took
+station under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel A.S. Daggett. The
+remaining six companies, under command of Colonel A.S. Burt, were
+conducted by General Boynton to a choice spot on the grounds, where
+they pitched camp, their tents being the first erected in that
+mobilization of troops which preceded the Cuban invasion, and theirs
+being really the first camp of the war.
+
+Soon came the Ninth Cavalry, the Tenth Cavalry and the Twenty-fourth
+Infantry. While these were assembling there arrived on the ground also
+many white regiments, cavalry, artillery and infantry, and it was
+pleasing to see the fraternity that prevailed among black and white
+regulars. This was especially noticeable between the Twenty-fifth and
+Twelfth. In brigading the regiments no attention whatever was paid to
+the race or color of the men. The black infantry regiments were placed
+in two brigades, and the black cavalry likewise, and they can be
+followed through the fortunes of the war in the official records by
+their regimental numbers. During their stay in Chickamauga, and at Key
+West and Tampa, the Southern newspapers indulged in considerable
+malicious abuse of colored soldiers, and some people of this section
+made complaints of their conduct, but the previous good character of
+the regiments and the violent tone of the accusations, taken together
+with the well-known prejudices of the Southern people, prevented their
+complaints from having very great weight. The black soldiers held
+their place in the army chosen for the invasion of Cuba, and for that
+purpose were soon ordered to assemble in Tampa.
+
+From the 10th of April, when the war movement began with the march of
+the Twenty-fifth Infantry out of its Montana stations, until June
+14th, when the Army of Invasion cleared Tampa for Cuba--not quite two
+months--the whole energy of the War Department had been employed in
+preparing the army for the work before it. The beginning of the war is
+officially given as April 21st, from which time onward it was declared
+a state of war existed between Spain and the United States, but
+warlike movements on our side were begun fully ten days earlier, and
+begun with a grim definiteness that presaged much more than a practice
+march or spring manoeuver.
+
+After arriving at Chickamauga all heavy baggage was shipped away for
+storage, and all officers and men were required to reduce their field
+equipage to the minimum; the object being to have the least possible
+amount of luggage, in order that the greatest possible amount of
+fighting material might be carried. Even with all this preparation
+going on some officers were indulging the hope that the troops might
+remain in camps, perfecting themselves in drill, until September, or
+October, before they should be called upon to embark for Cuba. This,
+however, was not to be, and it is perhaps well that it was not, as the
+suffering and mortality in the home camps were almost equal to that
+endured by the troops in Cuba. The suffering at home, also, seemed
+more disheartening, because it appeared to be useless, and could not
+be charged to any important changes in conditions or climate. It was
+perhaps in the interest of humanity that this war, waged for
+humanity's sake, should have been pushed forward from its first step
+to its last, with the greatest possible dispatch, and that just enough
+men on our side were sent to the front, and no more. It is still a
+good saying that all is well that ends well.
+
+The Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, the place
+where our troops assembled on their march to Cuba, beautiful by
+nature, especially in the full season of spring when the black
+soldiers arrived there, and adorned also by art, has, next to
+Gettysburg, the most prominent place among the historic battle-fields
+of the Civil War. As a park it was established by an act of Congress
+approved August 19, 1890, and contains seven thousand acres of rolling
+land, partly cleared and partly covered with oak and pine timber.
+Beautiful broad roads wind their way to all parts of the ground, along
+which are placed large tablets recording the events of those dreadful
+days in the autumn of 1863, when Americans faced Americans in bloody,
+determined strife. Monuments, judiciously placed, speak with a mute
+eloquence to the passer-by and tell of the valor displayed by some
+regiment or battery, or point to the spot where some lofty hero gave
+up his life. The whole park is a monument, however, and its definite
+purpose is to preserve and suitably mark "for historical and
+professional military study the fields of some of the most remarkable
+manoeuvres and most brilliant fighting in the War of the Rebellion."
+The battles commemorated by this great park are those of Chickamauga,
+fought on September 19-20, and the battles around Chattanooga,
+November 23-25, 1863. The battle of Chickamauga was fought by the Army
+of the Cumberland, commanded by Major-General W.S. Rosecrans, on the
+Union side, and the Army of Tennessee, commanded by General Braxton
+Bragg, on the side of the Confederates. The total effective strength
+of the Union forces in this battle was little less than 60,000 men,
+that of the Confederates about 70,000. The total Union loss was 16,179
+men, a number about equal to the army led by Shatter against Santiago.
+Of the number reported as lost, 1,656 were killed, or as many as were
+lost in killed, wounded and missing in the Cuban campaign. The
+Confederate losses were 17,804, 2,389 being killed, making on both
+sides a total killed of 4,045, equivalent to the entire voting
+population of a city of over twenty thousand inhabitants. General
+Grant, who commanded the Union forces in the battles around
+Chattanooga, thus sums up the results: "In this battle the Union army
+numbered in round figures about 60,000 men; we lost 752 killed, 4,713
+wounded and 350 captured or missing. The rebel loss was much greater
+in the aggregate, as we captured and sent North to be rationed there
+over 6,100 prisoners. Forty pieces of artillery, over seven thousand
+stand of small arms, many caissons, artillery wagons and baggage
+wagons fell into our hands. The probabilities are that our loss in
+killed was the heavier as we were the attacking party. The enemy
+reported his loss in killed at 361, but as he reported his missing at
+4,146, while we held over 6,000 of them as prisoners, and there must
+have been hundreds, if not thousands, who deserted, but little
+reliance can be placed upon this report."
+
+In the battle of Chickamauga, when "four-fifths of the Union Army had
+crumbled into wild confusion," and Rosecrans was intent only on saving
+the fragments, General Thomas, who had commanded the Federal left
+during the two days' conflict, and had borne the brunt of the fight,
+still held his position. To him General James A. Garfield reported.
+General Gordon Granger, without orders, brought up the reserves, and
+Thomas, replacing his lines, held the ground until nightfall, when he
+was joined by Sheridan. Bragg won and held the field, but Thomas
+effectually blocked his way to Chattanooga, securing to himself
+immediately the title of the "Rock of Chickamauga." His wonderful
+resolution stayed the tide of a victory dearly bought and actually
+won, and prevented the victors from grasping the object for which they
+had fought. In honor of this stubborn valor, and in recognition of
+this high expression of American tenacity, the camp established in
+Chickamauga Park by the assembling army was called Camp George H.
+Thomas.
+
+The stay of the colored regulars at Camp George H. Thomas was short,
+but it was long enough for certain newspapers of Chattanooga to give
+expression to their dislike to negro troops in general and to those in
+their proximity especially. The Washington Post, also, ever faithful
+to its unsavory trust, lent its influence to this work of defamation.
+The leading papers, however, both of Chattanooga and the South
+generally, spoke out in rather conciliatory and patronizing tones, and
+"sought to restrain the people of their section from compromising
+their brilliant display of patriotism by contemptuous flings at the
+nation's true and tried soldiers.
+
+The 24th Infantry and the 9th Cavalry soon left for Tampa, Florida,
+whither they were followed by the 10th Cavalry and the 25th Infantry,
+thus bringing the entire colored element of the army together to
+prepare for embarkation. The work done at Tampa is thus described
+officially by Lieutenant-Colonel Daggett in general orders addressed
+to the 25th Infantry, which he at that time commanded. On August 11th,
+with headquarters near Santiago, after the great battles had been
+fought and won, he thus reviewed the work of the regiment: "Gathered
+from three different stations, many of you strangers to each other,
+you assembled as a regiment for the first time in more than
+twenty-eight years, on May 7, 1898, at Tampa, Florida. There you
+endeavored to solidify and prepare yourselves, as far as the
+oppressive weather would permit, for the work that appeared to be
+before you." What is here said of the 25th might have been said with
+equal propriety of all the regular troops assembled at Tampa.
+
+In the meantime events were ripening with great rapidity. The historic
+"first gun" had been fired, and the United States made the first naval
+capture of the war on April 22, the coast trader Buena Ventura having
+surrendered to the American gunboat Nashville. On the same day the
+blockade of Cuban ports was declared and on the day following a call
+was issued for 125,000 volunteers. On May 20th the news that a Spanish
+fleet under command of Admiral Cervera had arrived at Santiago was
+officially confirmed, and a speedy movement to Cuba was determined
+upon.
+
+Almost the entire Regular Army with several volunteer regiments were
+organized into an Army of Invasion and placed under the command of
+Major-General W.R. Shafter with orders to prepare immediately for
+embarkation, and on the 7th and 10th of June this army went on board
+the transports. For seven days the troops lay cooped up on the vessels
+awaiting orders to sail, a rumor having gained circulation that
+certain Spanish gunboats were hovering around in Cuban waters awaiting
+to swoop down upon the crowded transports. While the Army of Invasion
+was sweltering in the ships lying at anchor off Port Tampa, a small
+body of American marines made a landing at Guantanamo, and on June
+12th fought the first battle between Americans and Spaniards on Cuban
+soil. In this first battle four Americans were killed. The next day,
+June 13th, General Shafter's army containing the four colored
+regiments, excepting those left behind to guard property, sailed for
+Cuba.[13]
+
+The whole number of men and officers in the expedition, including
+those that came on transports from Mobile, amounted to about seventeen
+thousand men, loaded on twenty-seven transports. The colored regiments
+were assigned to brigades as follows: The Ninth Cavalry was joined
+with the Third and Sixth Cavalry and placed under command of Colonel
+Carrol; the Tenth Cavalry was joined with the Rough Riders and First
+Regular Cavalry and fell under the command of General Young; the
+Twenty-fourth Infantry was joined with the Ninth and Thirteenth
+Infantry and the brigade placed under command of Colonel Worth and
+assigned to the division commanded by General Kent, who, until his
+promotion as Brigadier-General of Volunteers, had been Colonel of the
+Twenty-fourth; the Twenty-fifth Infantry was joined with the First and
+Fourth Infantry and the brigade placed under command of Colonel Evans
+Miles, who had formerly been Major of the Twenty-fifth. All of the
+colored regiments were thus happily placed so that they should be in
+pleasant soldierly competition with the very best troops the country
+ever put in the field, and this arrangement at the start proves how
+strongly the black regular had entrenched himself in the confidence of
+our great commanders.
+
+Thus sailed from Port Tampa the major part of our little army of
+trained and seasoned soldiers, representative of the skill and daring
+of the nation.[14] In physique, almost every man was an athlete, and
+while but few had seen actual war beyond an occasional skirmish with
+Indians, all excepting the few volunteers, had passed through a long
+process of training in the various details of marching, camping and
+fighting in their annual exercises in minor tactics. For the first
+time in history the nation is going abroad, by its army, to occupy the
+territory of a foreign foe, in a contest with a trans-Atlantic power.
+The unsuccessful invasions of Canada during the Revolutionary War and
+the War of 1812 can hardly be brought in comparison with this movement
+over sea. The departure of Decatur with his nine ships of war to the
+Barbary States had in view only the establishment of proper civil
+relations between those petty, half-civilized countries and the United
+States. The sailing of General Shafter's army was only one movement in
+a comprehensive war against the Kingdom of Spain. More than a month
+earlier Commodore Dewey, acting under orders, had destroyed a fleet of
+eleven war ships in the Philippines. The purpose of the war was to
+relieve the Cubans from an inhumane warfare with their mother country,
+and to restore to that unhappy island a stable government in harmony
+with the ideas of liberty and justice.
+
+Up to the breaking out of the Spanish War the American policy with
+respect to Europe had been one of isolation. Some efforts had been
+made to consolidate the sentiment of the Western world, but it had
+never been successful. The fraternity of the American Republics and
+the attempted construction of a Pan-American policy had been thus far
+unfulfilled dreams. Canada was much nearer to the United States,
+geographically and socially, than even Mexico, although the latter is
+a republic. England, in Europe, was nearer than Brazil. The day came
+in 1898, when the United States could no longer remain in political
+seclusion nor bury herself in an impossible federation. Washington's
+advice against becoming involved in European affairs, as well as the
+direct corrollary of the Monroe Doctrine, were to be laid aside and
+the United States was to speak out to the world. The business of a
+European nation had become our business; in the face of all the world
+we resolved to invade her territory in the interest of humanity; to
+face about upon our own traditions and dare the opinions and arms of
+the trans-Atlantic world by openly launching upon the new policy of
+armed intervention in another's quarrel.
+
+While the troops were mobilizing at Tampa preparatory to embarking for
+Cuba the question came up as to why there were no colored men in the
+artillery arm of the service, and the answer given by a Regular Army
+officer was, that the Negro had not brains enough for the management
+of heavy guns. It was a trifling assertion, of course, but at this
+period of the Negro's history it must not be allowed to pass
+unnoticed. We know that white men of all races and nationalities can
+serve big guns, and if the Negro cannot, it must be because of some
+marked difference between him and them. The officer said it was a
+difference in "brains," i.e., a mental difference. Just how the
+problem of aiming and firing a big gun differs from that of aiming and
+firing small arms is not so easily explained. In both, the questions
+of velocity, gravitation, wind and resistance are to be considered and
+these are largely settled by mechanism, the adjustment of which is
+readily learned; hence the assumption that a Negro cannot learn it is
+purely gratuitous. Several of the best rifle shots known on this
+continent are Negroes; and it was a Negro who summerized the whole
+philosophy of rifle shooting in the statement that it all consists in
+knowing _where_ to aim, and _how_ to pull--in knowing just what value
+to assign to gravitation, drift of the bullet and force of the wind,
+and then in being able to pull the trigger of the piece without
+disturbing the aim thus judiciously determined. This includes all
+there is in the final science and art of firing a rifle. If the Negro
+can thus master the revolver, the carbine and the rifle, why may he
+not master the field piece or siege gun?
+
+But an ounce of fact in such things is worth more than many volumes of
+idle speculation, and it is remarkable that facts so recent, so
+numerous, and so near at hand, should escape the notice of those who
+question the Negro's ability to serve the artillery organizations.
+Negro artillery, both light and heavy, fought in fifteen battles in
+the Civil War with average effectiveness; and some of those who fought
+against them must either admit the value of the Negro artilleryman or
+acknowledge their own inefficiency. General Fitz-Hugh Lee failed to
+capture a Negro battery after making most vigorous attempts to that
+end. This attempt to raise a doubt as to the Negro's ability to serve
+in the artillery arm is akin to, and less excusable, than that other
+groundless assertion, that Negro officers cannot command troops, an
+assertion which in this country amounts to saying that the United
+States cannot command its army. Both of these assertions have been
+emphatically answered in fact, the former as shown above, and the
+latter as will be shown later in this volume. These assertions are
+only temporary covers, behind which discomfitted and retreating
+prejudice is able to make a brief stand, while the black hero of five
+hundred battle-fields, marches proudly by, disdaining to lower his gun
+to fire a shot on a foe so unworthy. When the Second Massachusetts
+Volunteers sent up their hearty cheers of welcome to the gallant old
+Twenty-fifth, as that solid column fresh from El Caney swung past its
+camp, I remarked to Sergeant Harris, of the Twenty-fifth: "Those men
+think you are soldiers." "They know we are soldiers," was his reply.
+When the people of this country, like the members of that
+Massachusetts regiment, come to know that its black men in uniform are
+soldiers, plain soldiers, with the same interests and feelings as
+other soldiers, of as much value to the government and entitled from
+it to the same attention and rewards, then a great step toward the
+solution of the prodigious problem now confronting us will have been
+taken.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Note.--"I had often heard that the physique of the men of
+     our regular army was very remarkable, but the first time I
+     saw any large body of them, which was at Tampa, they
+     surpassed my highest expectations. It is not, however, to be
+     wondered at that, for every recruit who is accepted, on the
+     average thirty-four are rejected, and that, of course, the
+     men who present themselves to the recruiting officer already
+     represent a physical 'elite'; but it was very pleasant to
+     see and be assured, as I was at Tampa, by the evidences of
+     my own eyes and the tape measure, that there is not a guard
+     regiment of either the Russian, German or English army, of
+     whose remarkable physique we have heard so much, that can
+     compare physically, not with the best of our men, but simply
+     with the average of the men of our regular army."--Bonsal.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[9] The army has been reorganized since. See Register.
+
+[10] "My experience in this direction since the war is beyond that of
+any officer of my rank in the army. For ten years I had the honor of
+being lieutenant-colonel of the Ninth Cavalry, and during most of that
+service I commanded garrisons composed in part of the Ninth Cavalry
+and other organizations of cavalry and infantry. I have always found
+the colored race represented in the army obedient, intelligent and
+zealous in the discharge of duty, brave in battle, easily disciplined,
+and most efficient in the care of their horses, arms and equipments.
+The non-commissioned officers have habitually shown the qualities for
+control in their position which marked them as faithful and sensible
+in the discharge of their duties. I take pleasure in bearing witness
+as above in the interest of the race you represent." WESLEY MERRITT.
+
+[11] See chapter on Colored Officers.
+
+[12] Young is now captain in the Ninth Cavalry.--T.G.S.
+
+[13] The colored regulars were embarked on the following named ships:
+The 9th Cavalry on the Miami, in company with the 6th Infantry; the
+10th Cavalry on the Leona, in company with the 1st Cavalry; the 24th
+Infantry on the City of Washington, in company with one battalion of
+the 21st Infantry; the 25th infantry on board the Concho, in company
+with the 4th Infantry.
+
+[14] See Note, at the close of this chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+BRIEF SKETCH OF SPANISH HISTORY.
+
+
+The following brief sketch of Spain, its era of greatness, the causes
+leading thereto, and the reasons for its rapid decline, will be of
+interest to the reader at this point in the narrative, as it will
+bring into view the other side of the impending conflict:
+
+Spain, the first in rank among the second-rate powers of Europe, by
+reason of her possessions in the West Indies, especially Cuba, may be
+regarded as quite a near neighbor, and because of her connection with
+the discovery and settlement of the continent, as well as the
+commanding part she at one time played in the world's politics, her
+history cannot but awaken within the breasts of Americans a most
+lively interest.
+
+As a geographical and political fact, Spain dates from the earliest
+times, and the Spanish people gather within themselves the blood and
+the traditions of the three great continents of the Old World--Europe,
+Asia and Africa--united to produce the mighty Spaniard of the 15th and
+16th centuries. It would be an interesting subject for the
+anthropologist to trace the construction of that people who are so
+often spoken of as possessing the pure blood of Castile, and as the
+facts should be brought to view, another proud fiction would dissipate
+in thin air, as we should see the Spaniard arising to take his place
+among the most mixed of mankind.
+
+The Spain that we are considering now is the Spain that gradually
+emerged from a chaos of conflicting elements into the unity of a
+Christian nation. The dismal war between creeds gave way to the
+greater conflict between religions, when Cross and Crescent contended
+for supremacy, and this too had passed. The four stalwart Christian
+provinces of Leon, Castile, Aragon and Navarre had become the four
+pillars of support to a national throne and Ferdinand and Isabella
+were reigning. Spain has now apparently passed the narrows and is
+crossing the bar with prow set toward the open sea. She ends her war
+with the Moors at the same time that England ends her wars of the
+Roses, and the battle of Bosworth's field may be classed with the
+capitulation of Granada. Both nations confront a future of about equal
+promise and may be rated as on equal footing, as this new era of the
+world opens to view.
+
+What was this new era? Printing had been invented, commerce had
+arisen, gunpowder had come into use, the feudal system was passing,
+royal authority had become paramount, and Spain was giving to the
+world its first lessons in what was early stigmatized as the "knavish
+calling of diplomacy."
+
+Now began the halcyon days of Spain, and what a breed of men she
+produced! Read the story of their conquests in Mexico and Peru, as
+told with so much skill and taste by our own Prescott; or read of the
+grandeur of her national character, and the wonderful valor of her
+troops, and the almost marvelous skill of her Alexander of Parma, and
+her Spinola, as described by our great Motley, and you will see
+something of the moral and national glory of that Spain which under
+Charles V and Philip II awed the world into respectful silence.
+
+Who but men of iron, under a commander of steel, could have conducted
+to a successful issue the awful siege of Antwerp, and by a discipline
+more dreadful than death, kept for so many years, armed control of the
+country of the brave Netherlanders? A Farnese was there, who could
+support and command an army, carry Philip and his puerile
+idiosyncrasies upon his back and meet the fury of an outraged people
+who were fighting on their own soil for all that man holds dear. Never
+was wretched cause so ably led, never were such splendid talents so
+unworthily employed.
+
+Alexander of Parma, Cortez, the Pizarros, were representatives of that
+form of human character that Spain especially developed. Skill and
+daring were brought out in dazzling splendor, and success followed
+their movements. Take a brief survey of the Empire under Charles V:
+Himself Emperor of Germany; his son married to the Queen of England;
+Turkey repulsed; France humbled, and all Europe practically within his
+grasp. And what was Spain outside of Europe? In America she possessed
+territory covering sixty degrees of latitude, owning Mexico, Central
+America, Venezuela, New Granada, Peru and Chili, with vast parts of
+North America, and the islands of Cuba, Jamaica and St. Domingo. In
+Africa and Asia she had large possessions--in a word, the energies of
+the world were at her feet. The silver and gold of America, the
+manufactures and commerce of the Netherlands, combined to make her the
+richest of nations.
+
+The limits of the present purpose do not permit an exhaustive
+presentation of her material strength in detail, nor are the means at
+hand for making such an exhibit. We must be content with a general
+picture, quoted directly from Motley. He says:
+
+"Look at the broad magnificent Spanish Peninsula, stretching across
+eight degrees of latitude and ten of longtitude, commanding the
+Atlantic and the Mediterranean, with a genial climate, warmed in
+winter by the vast furnace of Africa, and protected from the scorching
+heats of summer by shady mountain and forest, and temperate breezes
+from either ocean. A generous southern territory, flowing with oil and
+wine, and all the richest gifts of a bountiful nature--splendid
+cities--the new and daily expanding Madrid, rich in the trophies of
+the most artistic period of the modern world; Cadiz, as populous at
+that day as London, seated by the straits where the ancient and modern
+systems of traffic were blending like the mingling of the two oceans;
+Granada, the ancient, wealthy seat of the fallen Moors; Toledo,
+Valladolid, and Lisbon, chief city of the recently conquered kingdom
+of Portugal, counting with its suburbs a larger population than any
+city excepting Paris, in Europe, the mother of distant colonies, and
+the capital of the rapidly-developing traffic with both the
+Indies--these were some of the treasures of Spain herself. But she
+possessed Sicily also, the better portion of Italy, and important
+dependencies in Africa, while the famous maritime discoveries of the
+age had all enured to her aggrandizement. The world seemed suddenly to
+have expanded its wings from East to West, only to bear the fortunate
+Spanish Empire to the most dizzy heights of wealth and power. The most
+accomplished generals, the most disciplined and daring infantry the
+world has ever known, the best equipped and most extensive navy, royal
+and mercantile, of the age, were at the absolute command of the
+sovereign. Such was Spain."
+
+Such is not Spain to-day. A quite recent writer, speaking of Spain
+before the war, said, that although Spain in extent holds the sixth
+place in the European states, "it really now subsists merely by the
+sufferance of stronger nations." Thus has that nation, which three
+centuries ago dominated the world, lost both its position and its
+energy.
+
+Without attempting to sketch chronologically, either this rise or this
+decline, let us rather direct our efforts to an inquiry into the
+causes of both the one and the other.
+
+In attempting to explain the greatness of Spain we must give first
+place to the vigor of the Spanish race. The great Spaniard was a
+mighty compound. He had the blood of Rome mingled with the awful
+torrent that gave birth to the soulless Goths and Vandals. In him also
+flowed the hot blood of the Moors. He was both sturdy and fiery; he
+had the fervor of the South with the tenacity of the North; the pride
+of the Roman with the passion of the Moor. The Spanish race was
+emphatically a rich race.
+
+And then we must remember that this race had been forged in war.
+Century after century, from the earliest times, they had lived with
+their arms in their hands. First came the long war between the Arian
+Vandals, and the Trinitarian natives; then the seven-hundred-year war
+with the followers of Mahomed. The whole mission of life to them was
+to fight.
+
+Naturally there was developed in the people at large the most complete
+unification and subjection. Individualism gave place almost entirely
+to the common weal, and the spectacle was presented of a nation with
+no political questions. Maccaulay maintains that human nature is such
+that aggregations of men will always show the two principles of
+radicalism and conservatism, and that two parties will exist in
+consequence, one composed of those who are ever looking to a brighter
+future, the other of those who are ever seeking to restore a
+delightful past; but no such phenomena appear in the ascending period
+of Spain's history. The whole nation moved as an organized army,
+steadily forward, until its zenith was reached. This solidity was a
+marked element of its strength.
+
+Mr. Buckle recognizes this, and accounts for the harmonious movements
+of the nation by the influence of two leading principles, which he is
+pleased to call superstition and loyalty. The Arab invasion had
+pressed upon the Christians with such force that it was only by the
+strictest discipline that the latter had managed to survive. To secure
+such discipline, and at the same time supply the people with the
+steady enthusiasm necessary to support a war from century to century,
+all the terrors and all the glories that could be derived from
+religion were employed. The church and the state, the prince and the
+priest, became as one, and loyalty and religion, devotion to the
+standard and to the cross, were but different names for the same
+principles and actions. Hence Spain emerged to greatness without the
+least dream of liberty of either person, conscience or thought. Her
+rallying cry was: For the Prince and the Church; not, For God and
+Liberty. She went up to greatness the most loyal and the most
+religious of nations; but Liberty, Justice and Truth were not upon her
+banners.
+
+Look over the territory settled and conquered by her, and what do we
+see? Columbus, sailing under Spain, names the first land he discovers
+San Salvador; the first settlement made in this country is St.
+Augustine; the second, Sante Fe. Look down over the southern half of
+our continent and such names as Espirito Santo, Corpus Christi, San
+Diego, San Juan, San Jose, San Domingo attest the religious zeal of
+the conquerors. They were missionaries of the Cross, robbing the
+people of their gold and paying them off with religion.
+
+Steadfast in the faith and sturdy in her loyalty, Spain resisted all
+innovations with respect to her religious beliefs, and all
+insurrections against her government. Her Alva and her Torquemada but
+illustrated how strong was her conservatism, while her Isabella and
+her Philip II show how grand and comprehensive and how persistent was
+her aggressiveness, under the idea of spreading and upholding the true
+faith. She not only meant to hold all she had of wealth and power, but
+she aspired to universal dominion; already chief, she desired to be
+sole, and this in the interest and name of the Holy Church.
+
+The Reformation did not disturb Spain; it was crushed out within
+twenty years. The spirit of liberty that had been growing in England
+since Bosworth's Field, and that was manifesting itself in Germany and
+the Netherlands, and that had begun to quiver even in France, did not
+dare stir itself in Spain. Spain was united, or rather, was solidity
+itself, and this solidity was both its strength and its death. England
+was not so united, and England went steadily onward and upward; but
+Spain's unity destroyed her, because it practically destroyed
+individualism and presented the strange paradox of a strong nation of
+weak men.
+
+As a machine Spain in the sixteenth century was a marvel of power; as
+an aggregation of thinking men, it was even then contemptible.
+Ferdinand, Charles V and Philip II were able and illustrious rulers,
+and they appeared at a time when their several characters could tell
+on the immediate fortunes of Spain. They were warriors, and the nation
+was entirely warlike. During this period the Spaniard overran the
+earth, not that he might till the soil, but that he might rob the man
+who did. With one hand he was raking in the gold and silver of Mexico
+and Peru; with the other confiscating the profits of the trade and
+manufactures of the Low Countries--and all in the name of the Great
+God and Saints!
+
+How was Spain overthrown? The answer is a short one. Spain, under
+Philip II staked her all upon a religious war against the awakening
+age. She met the Reformation within her own borders and extinguished
+it; but thought had broken loose from its chains and was abroad in the
+earth. England had turned Protestant, and Elizabeth was on the throne;
+Denmark, Norway and Sweden, indeed all countries except Spain and
+Italy had heard the echoes from Luther's trumpet blast. Italy
+furnished the religion, and Spain the powder, in this unequal fight
+between the Old and the New. Spain was not merely the representative
+of the old, she WAS the old, and she armed her whole strength in its
+behalf.
+
+Here was a religion separated from all moral principle and devoid of
+all softening sentiment--its most appropriate formula being, death to
+all heretics. Death--not to tyrants, not to oppressors, not to robbers
+and men-stealers--but death to _heretics_. It was this that equipped
+her Armada.
+
+The people were too loyal and too pious to THINK, and so were hurled
+in a solid mass against the armed thought of the coming age, and a
+mighty nation crumbled as in a day. With the destruction of her Armada
+her warlike ascendancy passed and she had nothing to put in its place.
+She had not tillers of the soil, mechanics or skilled merchants.
+Business was taking the place of war all over the world, but Spain
+knew only religion and war, hence worsted in her only field, she was
+doomed.
+
+From the days of Philip II her decline was rapid. Her territory
+slipped from her as rapidly as it had been acquired. Her great domains
+on our soil are now the seat of thriving communities of
+English-speaking people. The whole continent of South America has
+thrown off her yoke, though still retaining her language, and our
+troops now embarked from Port Tampa are destined to wrest from her the
+two only remaining colonies subject to her sway in the Western
+World,--Cuba and Porto Rico. With all her losses hitherto, Spain has
+not learned wisdom. Antagonistic to truth and liberty, she seems to
+sit in the shadow of death, hugging the delusions that have betrayed
+her, while all other people of earth are pressing onward toward light
+and liberty.
+
+The struggle in Cuba had been going on for years, and in that colony
+of less than two millions of inhabitants, many of whom were Spaniards,
+there was now an army four times as large as the standing army of the
+United States. Against this army and against the Government of Spain a
+revolt had been carried on previous to the present outbreak for a
+period of ten years, and which had been settled by concessions on the
+part of the home government. The present revolt was of two years'
+standing when our government decided to interfere. The Cubans had
+maintained disorder, if they had not carried on war; and they had
+declined to be pacified. In their army they experienced no color
+difficulties. Gomez, Maceo and Quintin Banderas were generals honored
+and loved, Maceo especially coming to be the hero and idol of the
+insurgents of all classes. And it can truthfully be said that no man
+in either the Cuban or Spanish army, in all the Cuban struggle
+previous to our intervention, has earned a loftier fame as patriot,
+soldier and man of noble mould than ANTONIO MACEO.
+
+Cuba, by far the most advanced of all the West Indian colonies; Cuba,
+essentially Spanish, was destined to be the battle ground between our
+troops and the veterans of Spain. The question to be settled was that
+of Spain's sovereignty. Spain's right to rule over the colonies of
+Cuba and Porto Rico was disputed by the United States, and this
+question, and this alone, is to be settled by force of arms. Further
+than this, the issue does not go. The dictum of America is: Spain
+shall not rule. The questions of Annexation, Expansion and Imperialism
+were not before us as we launched our forces to drive Spain out of the
+West Indies. The Cuban flag was closely associated with our own
+standard popularly, and "Cuba Libre" was a wide-spread sentiment in
+June, 1898. "We are ready to help the Cubans gain their liberty" was
+the honest expression of thousands who felt they were going forward in
+a war for others.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+PASSAGE, LANDING, AND FIRST BATTLE IN CUBA.
+
+     The Tenth Cavalry at Guasimas--The "Rescue of the Rough
+     Riders"--Was There an Ambush?--Notes.
+
+
+"The passage to Santiago was generally smooth and uneventful," says
+General Shafter in his official report. But when the fact is called to
+mind that the men had been on board a week before sailing, and were a
+week more on the passage, and that "the conveniences on many of the
+transports in the nature of sleeping accommodations, space for
+exercise, closet accommodations, etc., were not all that could have
+been desired," and that the opinion was general throughout the army
+that the travel ration was faulty, it cannot be doubted that the trip
+was a sore trial to the enlisted men at least. The monotonous days
+passed in the harbor at Port Tampa, while waiting for orders to sail,
+were unusually trying to the men. They were relieved somewhat by
+bathing, swimming, gaming and chatting on the coming events. A soldier
+who was in one of the colored regiments describes the inside life of
+one of the transports as follows: "After some miles of railroad travel
+and much hustling we were put on board the transport. I say _on
+board_, but it is simply because we cannot use the terms _under
+board_. We were huddled together below two other regiments and under
+the water line, in the dirtiest, closest, most sickening place
+imaginable. For about fifteen days we were on the water in this dirty
+hole, but being soldiers we were compelled to accept this without a
+murmur. We ate corn beef and canned tomatoes with our hard bread
+until we were anything but half way pleased. In the fifth or sixth day
+out to sea the water furnished us became muddy or dirty and well
+flavored with salt, and remained so during the rest of the journey.
+Then, the ship's cooks, knowing well our condition made it convenient
+to themselves to sell us a glass of clean ice water and a small piece
+of bread and tainted meat for the sum of seventy-five cents, or one
+dollar, as the case might be."
+
+A passage from Port Tampa, around the eastern end of Cuba, through the
+Windward Passage, even in June, is ordinarily pleasant. On the deck of
+a clean steamer, protected from the sun's rays by a friendly awning,
+it may be put down as nearly an ideal pleasure trip; but crowded into
+freight ships as these men were, many of them clad in thick and
+uncomfortable clothing, reduced to the uninviting travel ration,
+compelled to spend most of the time below decks, occupied with
+thoughts of home and friends, and beset with forebodings of coming
+events, it was very far from being to them a pastime. Of the thousands
+who are going to Cuba to magnify the American flag, not all will
+return. Occasionally the gay music of the bands would relieve the dull
+routine and cause the spirits to rise under the effects of some
+enlivening waltz or stirring patriotic air; or entering a school of
+flying fish the men would be entertained to see these broad-finned
+creatures dart from the waves like arrows from the bow, and after a
+graceful flight of perhaps near two hundred yards drop again into the
+sea; but taken altogether it was a voyage that furnishes little for
+the historian.
+
+The transports were so arranged as to present an interesting and
+picturesque spectacle as they departed from our shores on their ocean
+march. Forming in three columns, with a distance of about 1,000 yards
+between the columns, and the vessels in the columns being distanced
+from one another about 400 yards, the fleet was convoyed from Port
+Tampa by small naval vessels until it reached a point between the Dry
+Tortugas and Key West. Here it was met by the noble battleship Indiana
+and nine other war vessels, thus making a convoy altogether of fifteen
+fighting craft. Transports and convoy now made an armada of more than
+forty ships, armed and manned by the audacious modern republic whose
+flag waved from every masthead. Thus spreading out over miles of
+smooth sea, moving quietly along by steam, carrying in its arms the
+flower of the American army, every man of which was an athlete, this
+fleet announced to the world the grim purpose of a nation aroused.
+
+The weather from the time of leaving Port Tampa continued fine until
+the fleet entered the passage between the western coast of Hayti and
+the eastern end of Cuba, known as the Windward Passage, when the
+breeze freshened and a rough sea began, continuing more or less up to
+the time of landing. Rounding this eastern coast of Cuba the fleet
+headed its course westerly and on the morning of the 20th was able to
+determine its position as being off Guantanamo Bay, about fifty miles
+east of Santiago. Here, eight days before, the first battle on Cuban
+soil, in which four American marines were killed, had been fought.
+About noon on the same day, the fleet came to a halt off Santiago
+harbor, or a little to the west of the entrance to it, and Admiral
+Sampson came on board. He and General Shafter soon after went ashore
+to consult the Cuban General, Garcia, who was known to be in that
+vicinity with about 4,000 well armed troops.
+
+The voyage over, and the men having been crowded together on
+shipboard for nearly two weeks, it was now expedient to get them on
+shore as soon as possible. But it was necessary to find out beforehand
+what defences were along the coast, and what forces of the enemy were
+likely to be encountered in landing. The fleet lay off from the shore
+about a mile, and it was no small undertaking to convey the 17,000 men
+on board with all their arms and equipments to the shore in small
+boats over a rough sea, especially should the landing be disputed. It
+was to arrange for the landing and also to map out a general plan of
+campaign that the three great leaders, Shafter, Sampson and Garcia met
+at Aserradores on the afternoon of June 20th as the American fleet
+stood guard over the harbor of Santiago.
+
+General Garcia was already aware of the coming of the fleet, having
+received a message from Major-General Miles two weeks previous. The
+letter of General Miles ran as follows:
+
+
+     Headquarters of the Army,
+     In the Field, Tampa, Fla., June 2, 1898.
+
+     Dear General:--I am very glad to have received your
+     officers, General Enrique Collazo and Lieut.-Col. Carlos
+     Hernandez, the latter of whom returns to-night with our best
+     wishes for your success.
+
+     It would be a very great assistance if you could have as
+     large a force as possible in the vicinity of the harbor of
+     Santiago de Cuba, and communicate any information by signals
+     which Colonel Hernandez will explain to you either to our
+     navy or to our army on its arrival, which we hope will be
+     before many days.
+
+     It would also assist us very much if you could drive in and
+     harass any Spanish troops near or in Santiago de Cuba,
+     threatening or attacking them at all points, and preventing,
+     by every means, any possible re-enforcement coming to that
+     garrison. While this is being done, and before the arrival
+     of our army, if you can seize and hold any commanding
+     position to the east or west of Santiago de Cuba, or both,
+     that would be advantageous for the use of our artillery, it
+     will be exceedingly gratifying to us."
+
+To this General Garcia replied that he would "take measures at once to
+carry out your (Miles') recommendation, but concentration of forces
+will require some time. Roads bad and Cubans scattered. Will march
+without delay." Admiral Sampson also cabled the Secretary of the Navy
+that Garcia "regards his (Miles') wishes and suggestions as orders,
+and immediately will take measures to concentrate forces at the points
+indicated, but he is unable to do so as early as desired on account of
+his expedition at Banes Port, Cuba, but will march without delay. All
+of his subordinates are ordered to assist to disembark the United
+States troops and to place themselves under orders." It was in
+compliance with these requests that General Garcia had the five
+thousand troops so near Santiago at the time he welcomed Shafter and
+Sampson to his camp, as mentioned above, and there is every necessary
+evidence that these Cuban troops took part in the fight about
+Santiago. Says General Miles of Garcia: "He had troops in the rear as
+well as on both sides of the garrison at Santiago before the arrival
+of our troops."
+
+It was agreed that the force of five hundred men under General
+Castillo, posted near Daiquiri, should be increased to 1,000, and
+should be prepared to make an attack upon the rear of the Spanish
+garrison at Daiquiri on the morning of the 22nd, at which time the
+debarkation would begin. General Rabi with about 500 men was also to
+attack Cabanas at the same time, in the same manner, the transports
+and war vessels so manoeuvring as to give the impression that a
+landing was to be made at that place. While these attacks in the rear
+were distracting the garrisons, the navy, by order of Admiral Sampson,
+was to start up a vigorous bombardment of all the villages along the
+coast, thus clearing the shore for the landing of the army. Thus did
+the conference unite the hands of Americans and Cubans in the fight
+against Spain on Cuban soil, and each was pledged to the other by the
+expressions of good will. Having accomplished its work the important
+conference closed, Admiral Sampson and General Shafter to return to
+their ships, and General Garcia to carry out the part of the work
+assigned to him, which he did with fidelity and success.[15]
+
+According to orders published on the 20th, General Lawton's Division,
+known as the Second Division, Fifth Army Corps, was to disembark
+first. This Division contained the three following Brigades: The
+First, General Ludlow's, composed of the Eighth and Twenty-second
+Infantry (regulars) and the Second Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry;
+the Second Brigade, General Miles', composed of the Fourth and
+Twenty-fifth Infantry (regulars); the Third Brigade, General
+Chaffee's, containing the Seventh, Twelfth and Seventeenth Infantry
+(regulars). Next to follow was General Bates' Brigade, which was to
+act as reserve to Lawton's Division. This Brigade consisted of the
+Third and Twentieth Infantry (regulars) and one squadron of the Second
+Cavalry, the only mounted troops in Shafter's army. The cavalry,
+however, were not to disembark with the Brigade, but were to be the
+last troops to leave the transports. After Bates' Brigade, was to
+follow Wheeler's Dismounted Cavalry Division, containing the two
+following Brigades: The First, composed of the Third, Sixth and Ninth
+Cavalry (regulars); the Second, composed of the First and Tenth
+Cavalry (regulars) and the First Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders). To
+follow the Cavalry Division was to come the First Division, General
+Kent's, containing the following troops: The First Brigade, General
+Hawkins', consisting of the Sixth and Sixteenth Infantry (regulars)
+and the Seventy-first New York Volunteer Infantry; the Second Brigade,
+General Pearson's, consisting of the Second, Tenth and Twenty-first
+Infantry (regulars); the Third Brigade, Colonel Wikoffs, made up of
+the Ninth, Thirteenth and Twenty-fourth Infantry (regulars). Then,
+lastly, was to depart the squadron of mounted cavalry.
+
+Thus prepared, both on board the ships and on shore, the morning of
+the 22nd dawned to witness the beginning of mighty operations. The war
+vessels, drawn up in proper order, early began to hurl shot and shell
+upon the towns, forts, blockhouses and clumps of trees that could be
+discovered along the shore. The cannonading lasted between two and
+three hours and was furious throughout. Meanwhile General Lawton's
+Division began the work of going ashore. The sea was rough and the
+passage to the shore was made in small boats furnished from the
+transports and from the naval vessels, towed by steam launches
+belonging to the navy. The larger of the boats were capable of
+carrying ten or twelve men each, while the smaller ones could carry
+but six or seven. During the passage to the shore several of the men
+who had escaped thus far, were taken with seasickness, greatly to the
+amusement of their more hardy companions. The landing was made at a
+pier which had been used formerly as a railroad pier, but was now
+abandoned and somewhat dilapidated. To get from the boats to the pier
+in this rough sea was the most perilous part of the whole trip from
+Tampa to Cuba. As the boats would rise on the waves almost level with
+the landing place it was necessary to leap quickly from the boat to
+the shore. In this way two cavalrymen of the Tenth lost their lives,
+falling into the sea with their equipments on and sinking before help
+could reach them. Some of the boats were rowed ashore and made a
+landing on the beach some distance from the pier. By this method some
+men of the Twenty-fifth tried to be the first to land, but failed,
+that regiment landing, however, in the first body of troops to go
+ashore, and being the second in order, in the invasion of the island.
+By night of the 22nd more than one-third of the troops were on shore,
+and by the evening of the 24th the whole army was disembarked
+according to the program announced at the beginning, the squadron of
+cavalry coming in at the close of the march to the shore.
+
+The only national movement on our part deserving to be brought into
+comparison with the expedition against the Spanish power in Cuba, is
+that of fifty years earlier, when General Scott sailed at the head of
+the army of invasion against Mexico. Some of the occurrences of that
+expedition, especially connected with its landing, should be carefully
+studied, and if the reports which have reached the public concerning
+it are truthful, we would do well to consider how far the methods then
+in use could be applied now. Scribner's recent history, published just
+before the outbreak of the Spanish War, tells the story of that
+expedition, so far as it tells it at all, in the following sentence:
+"On the 7th of March, the fleet with Scott's army came to anchor a few
+miles south of Vera Cruz, and two days later he landed his whole
+force--nearly twelve thousand men--by means of surf-boats." A writer
+in a recent number of _The Army and Navy Journal_ says General Worth's
+Division of 4,500 men were landed in one hour, and the whole force was
+landed in six hours, without accident or confusion. In the prosecution
+of that unholy war, which lasted about a year, nearly three thousand
+men were lost in battle and about as many more by disease, peace being
+finally made by the cession of territory on the part of Mexico, the
+United States paying in return much more than the territory was
+worth. The twenty millions paid to Texas probably in great part went
+into the coffers of the patriots who occupied that region, some of
+whom had not been known as desirable citizens in the parts from which
+they came, and had manifested their patriotism by leaving their
+country for their country's good. The fifteen millions handed over to
+Mexico looks like a contribution to a conscience fund, and an
+atonement offered for an assault without provocation. The country
+gained Arizona, New Mexico, California and finally Texas, but it lost
+six thousand good men, the cost of the war, and all told, in
+negotiations, about thirty million dollars, besides. However, it is
+not always profitable to look up the harvests of war. There are always
+two--the harvest of gain, and the harvest of loss. Death and debt are
+reapers, as well as are honor and extent of territory.
+
+The feelings of the six thousand American troops who landed on Cuban
+soil on June 22nd, 1898, may well be imagined. Although they felt the
+effects of the confinement to which they had been subjected while on
+shipboard, there was very little sickness among them. Again possessed
+of the free use of their limbs they swarmed the beach and open space
+near the landing, making themselves at home, and confronting the
+difficulties and perils that lay before them with a courage born of
+national pride. Before them were the mountains with their almost
+impassable roads, the jungles filled with poisonous plants and the
+terrible prickly underbrush and pointed grass, in which skulked the
+land crab and various reptiles whose bite or sting was dangerous;
+twenty miles of this inhospitable country lay between them and
+Santiago, their true objective. And somewhere on the road to that city
+they knew they were destined to meet a well-trained foe, skilled in
+all the arts of modern warfare, who would contest their advance. The
+prospect, however, did not unnerve them, although they could well
+conjecture that all who landed would not re-embark. Some in that six
+thousand were destined never again to set foot on shipboard. Out of
+the Twenty-fifth Infantry and the Tenth Cavalry men were to fall both
+before Spanish bullets and disease ere these organizations should
+assemble to return to their native shores. These thoughts did not
+prevent the men from taking advantage of what nature had to offer
+them.
+
+"We landed in rowboats, amid, and after the cessation of the
+bombardment of the little hamlet and coast by the men-of-war and
+battle-ships," writes a brave soldier of the Twenty-fifth Infantry,
+and adds immediately: "We then helped ourselves to cocoanuts which we
+found in abundance near the landing." Ordinarily this statement, so
+trivial and apparently unimportant, would not merit repetition, but in
+its connection here it is significant as showing the immediate
+tendency of the men to resort to the fruits of the country, despite
+all warnings to the contrary. The two weeks' experience on board the
+transports had made the finding of cocoanuts an event to be noted, and
+the dry pulp and strongly flavored milk of this tropical fruit became
+extremely grateful to the palate, even if not altogether safe for the
+stomach. If ripe, however, the cocoanut could scarcely be more
+ungenial to many, than the raw, canned tomatoes upon which they had in
+part subsisted during the voyage. It is to be added that this report
+of the finding of the cocoanuts is not the report of an old soldier,
+but of a young and intelligent, first enlistment man.
+
+Lawton's Division soon after landing, was ordered to move forward in
+the direction of Santiago, on the road leading past Siboney. A staff
+officer, writing of that movement, says: "General Lawton, with his
+Division, in obedience to this order, pushed forward from Daiquiri
+about five miles, when night overtook him and he bivouacked on the
+road." An old soldier of the Twenty-fifth, writing me from the
+hospital in Tampa, Florida, July 22nd, says of the same event: "After
+the regiment landed we marched about four and a half miles through the
+mountains; then we made camp." The old soldier says nothing of
+cocoanuts, but makes his statement with as much accuracy as possible,
+and with no waste of words. The novice describing the same thing says:
+"A short distance ahead (from the shore) we bivouacked for the night.
+We were soon lying in dreamland, so far from friends and home, indeed,
+on a distant, distant shore." These two extracts show at once the
+difference between the soldier produced by years of trial and training
+on our plains, and the soldier who but yesterday was a civilian. With
+the one the march is a short distance; with the other it is about four
+and a half miles; one reports that they "made camp," the other talks
+of dreamland, friend, home and distant shore; one expresses his
+feelings, the other shows control of feeling and reserve in
+expression.
+
+That first night on Cuban soil, the night following June 22nd, was one
+without events, but one of great concern to the commanders on shore
+and on the fleet. The work of disembarking had gone on successfully,
+and already about six thousand men were on shore. Nearly the whole of
+Lawton's Division, with Bates' independent brigade, were bivouacked,
+as we have seen, about five miles from Daiquiri, exactly where the
+railroad crosses the wagon road leading to Siboney. General Wheeler's
+troops--one brigade--were encamped on the open ground near the
+landing, the remainder of his division being still on the transports.
+The Twenty-fifth Infantry was with Lawton; the Tenth Cavalry was
+ashore with Wheeler's troops. A detachment of the Twenty-fifth was put
+on outpost duty on that night of their landing, and five miles within
+Cuban territory they tramped their solitary beats, establishing and
+guarding the majestic authority of the United States.
+
+Lawton's orders were to seize and hold the town of Siboney at which
+place Kent's Division, containing the Twenty-fourth, was to land. It
+was then intended that the whole army should advance as rapidly as
+would be consistent with supplying the men with rations toward
+Santiago. Siboney was to be the base of supplies, and from this point
+ammunition and food were to be conveyed to the front by wagons and
+pack trains. General Shafter also intended that Lawton with his
+division should lead the advance upon Santiago, but circumstances
+beyond his control brought about a different result. On the morning of
+the 23rd Lawton's division was in motion early, and before half-past
+ten o'clock he was able to report that the Spaniards had evacuated
+Siboney and were in full retreat, pursued by a body of Cubans under
+direction of General Castillo; that the town was in his hands, and he
+had also captured one locomotive and nearly one hundred cars loaded
+with coal.
+
+General Young's brigade of General Wheeler's cavalry division, got on
+shore on the afternoon of the 23rd and after landing received verbal
+orders to move out with three days' rations "to a good camping place
+between Juraguacito and Siboney, on the road leading to Santiago de
+Cuba." In obedience to these orders, at 4.30 in the afternoon Young
+with the Rough Riders and a squadron from each of the First and Tenth
+Regular Cavalry moved from the bivouack near the landing and arrived
+at Siboney at about 7 o'clock. When General Young arrived at Siboney
+he had with him the Rough Riders, the other troops having been delayed
+by the crowded condition of the trail and the difficulty of following
+after nightfall. Although these troops are always spoken of as
+cavalry, the reader must not forget that they were dismounted and in
+marching and fighting were the same as infantry.
+
+General Young on arriving at Siboney reported to General Wheeler, who
+had preceded him to the same place. The statements of the several
+commanders here appear somewhat conflicting, although not
+inexplicable. General Lawton says: "Yesterday afternoon, late, General
+Wheeler and staff arrived and established his headquarters within the
+limits of my command. Saw him after dark. Late last night Colonel
+Wood's regiment of dismounted cavalry (Rough Riders) passed through my
+camp at Division Headquarters, and later General Young, with some of
+the dismounted Cavalry, and early this morning others of the
+dismounted cavalry." Wheeler says that "in obedience to instructions
+from the Major-General Commanding," given to him in person, he
+proceeded, on June 23rd, to Siboney, but does not say at what hour. He
+says he "rode out to the front and found that the enemy had halted and
+established themselves at a point about three miles from Siboney." He
+then informs us that "at 8 o'clock on that evening of the 23rd General
+Young reached Siboney with eight troops of Colonel Wood's regiment (A,
+B, D, E, F, G, K and L), 500 strong; Troops A, B, G and K, of the
+First Cavalry, in all 244, and Troops A, B, E and I, of the Tenth
+Cavalry, in all 220 men, making a total force of 964 men, which
+included nearly all of my command which had disembarked. These troops
+had marched from Daiquiri, 11 miles. With the assistance of General
+Castillo a rough map of the country was prepared and the position of
+the enemy fully explained, and I determined to make an attack."
+Lieutenant Miley says that the whole brigade of Wheeler's troops
+arrived in Siboney about dark and were occupying the same ground as
+General Lawton ("In Cuba With Shafter," p. 76.) General Young says
+that after reporting to General Wheeler he "asked and obtained from
+General Wheeler authority to make a reconnoisance in force" for the
+purpose of obtaining "positive information * * * as to the position
+and movements of the enemy in front."
+
+The distance from Daiquiri to Siboney was but eleven miles, and as the
+troops left the former place at 4.30 it is probable that they were all
+bivouacked near Siboney before 9 o'clock, as they were all together,
+according to General Wheeler's report, at 5.45 on the morning of the
+24th. General Young having discovered that there were two roads or
+trails leading from Siboney northward toward the town of Sevilla
+determined to make his reconnoisance by both these trails. He directed
+Colonel Wood to move by the western trail and to keep a careful
+lookout and to attack any Spaniards he might encounter, being careful
+to join his right in the event of an engagement, with the left of the
+column advancing by the eastern trail. Colonel Wood's column was the
+left column and was composed of the Rough Riders only. The column
+marching by the eastern trail was composed of the First and Tenth
+Cavalry (regulars) and was under the command of General Young. It was
+the intention of General Young by this column to gain the enemy's
+left, and thus attack in front and left. As early as 7.20 a.m. Captain
+Mills discovered the enemy exactly as had been described by General
+Castillo. When this was done word was sent to Colonel Wood, who was
+making his way to the front over a more difficult route than the one
+by which General Young's column had marched. A delay was therefore
+made on the part of General Young in order that the attack should
+begin on both flanks at the same time. During this delay General
+Wheeler arrived and was informed of the plans and dispositions for the
+attack, and after examining the position gave his approval of what
+had been done, whereupon General Young ordered the attack. General
+Wheeler in speaking of the same event says: "General Young and myself
+examined the position of the enemy. The lines were deployed and I
+directed him to open fire with the Hotchkiss gun. The enemy replied
+and the firing immediately became general." There can be no question
+as to the planning of this fight nor as to the direction of the
+American force in the fight so far as any general direction was
+possible. Colonel Wood directed one column and General Young another,
+while the plan of the attack undoubtedly originated with General
+Young. General Wheeler conveys as much when he says: "General Young
+deserves special commendation for his cool deliberate and skillful
+management." General Young, if only the commander of the right column
+consisting of two squadrons of regular cavalry, had not as large a
+command, nor as difficult and important a one as had Colonel Wood, and
+hence is not deserving of special commendation except upon the general
+ground that he had supervision over the whole battle. This position is
+taken by General Shafter in his report, who though admitting the
+presence of the Division Commander, credits the battle to General
+Young, the commander of the brigade. The reconnoissance in force for
+which Young had obtained authority from General Wheeler on the night
+of the 23rd had developed into a battle, and the plan had evolved
+itself from the facts discovered. This plan General Wheeler approved,
+but in no such way as to take the credit from its originator; and it
+is doubtless with reference both to the plan and the execution that he
+bestows on General Young the mead of praise. This statement of fact
+does not in the least detract from either the importance or the
+praiseworthiness of the part played by Colonel Wood. Both he and the
+officers and men commanded by him received both from General Young
+and from the division commander the most generous praise. The advance
+of Wood's column was made with great difficulty owing to the nature of
+the ground, and according to General Young's belief, he was in the
+rear when at 7.20 in the morning Captain Mills discovered the enemy,
+and a Cuban guide was dispatched to warn Wood, and a delay made to
+allow time for him to come up. Colonel Wood, on the other hand, claims
+to have discovered the enemy at 7.10 and to have begun action almost
+immediately, so that it turned out as Young had planned, and "the
+attack of both wings was simultaneous." The Spaniards were posted on a
+range of high hills in the form of a "V," the opening being toward
+Siboney, from which direction the attack came.
+
+From Colonel Wood's report it appears that soon after the firing began
+he found it necessary to deploy five troops to the right, and left,
+leaving three troops in reserve. The enemy's lines being still beyond
+his, both on the right and on the left, he hastily deployed two more
+troops, which made the lines now about equal in length. The firing was
+now "exceedingly heavy," and much of it at short range, but on account
+of the thick underbrush it was not very effective; "comparatively few
+of our men were injured." Captain Capron at this time received his
+mortal wound and the firing became so terrific that the last remaining
+troop of the reserve was absorbed by the firing line, and the whole
+regiment ordered to advance very slowly. The Spanish line yielded and
+the advance soon showed that in falling back the enemy had taken a new
+position, about three hundred yards in front of the advancing
+regiment. Their lines extended from 800 to 1,000 yards, and the firing
+from their front was "exceedingly heavy" and effective. A "good many
+men" were wounded, "and several officers," says Colonel Wood's
+report. Still the advance was kept up, and the Spanish line was
+steadily forced back. "We now began," says Colonel Wood, "to get a
+heavy fire from a ridge on our right, which enfiladed our line." The
+reader can at once see that although the Rough Riders were advancing
+heroically, they were now in a very serious situation, with an
+exceedingly heavy and effective fire striking them in front, and a
+heavy, enfilading fire raking them from the right. Their whole
+strength was on the line, and these two fires must have reduced their
+effectiveness with great rapidity had it kept up, the Spaniards having
+their range and firing by well-directed volleys. It was for the
+regiment a moment of the utmost peril. Had they been alone they must
+have perished.
+
+It was from this perilous situation of Colonel Wood's command that one
+of the most popular stories of the war originated, a story that
+contained some truth, but which was often told in such a way as to
+cause irritation, and in some instances it was so exaggerated or
+mutilated in the telling as to be simply ridiculous. On the day after
+the battle the story was told in Lawton's camp according to the
+testimony of an intelligent soldier of the Twenty-fifth Infantry. His
+words are: "The next day about noon we heard that the Tenth Cavalry
+had met the enemy and that the Tenth Cavalry had rescued the Rough
+Riders. We congratulated ourselves that although not of the same
+branch of service, we were of the same color, and that to the eye of
+the enemy we, troopers and footmen, all looked alike." According to
+artists and cheap newspaper stories this rescuing occurred again and
+again. A picture is extensively advertized as "an actual and
+authoritative presentation of this regiment (the Tenth Cavalry) as it
+participated in that great struggle, and their heroic rescue of the
+Rough Riders on that memorable _July_ day." This especial rescuing
+took place on _San Juan Hill_. The editor of a religious paper
+declares that it was the _Twenty-fifth Infantry_ that rescued the
+Rough Riders and that it was done at _El Caney_![16]
+
+Before we go any farther let us see just what the Tenth Cavalry did do
+in this fight. That their action was highly meritorious admits of no
+doubt, and the laurels they won were never allowed to fade during the
+whole campaign. General Wheeler speaks of them with the First Cavalry.
+He says: "I was immediately with the troops of the First and Tenth
+Regular Cavalry, dismounted, and personally noticed their brave and
+good conduct." There were four troops of the Tenth engaged, composing
+the First Squadron of that regiment, under command of Major Norval.
+Troop A was commanded by Captain W.H. Beck, who was specially
+commended by General Wheeler for good conduct. Second Lieutenant F.R.
+McCoy was Captain Beck's assistant. This troop moved over to the left,
+receiving the fire of the enemy, but making no response, the distance
+being too great for effective carbine firing. This troop reached
+Colonel Wood's right and made the line continuous so that there was
+now a force in front of that ridge where the Spaniards were securely
+entrenched and from which they were pouring their enfilading fire upon
+Colonel Wood's line. Troop A, although coming into the line, did not
+fire. Their presence, however, gave the Rough Riders the assurance
+that their flank was saved. Troop E was commanded by Captain C.G.
+Ayres with Second Lieutenant George Vidmar. This troop was placed by
+General Young in support of Captain Watson's two Hotchkiss guns, and
+also of the troops in their front. The troop was under fire one hour
+and a quarter, during which they were in plain view of the Spaniards,
+who also had their exact range. One man was killed and one wounded.
+Their courage, coolness and discipline in this trying hour and a
+quarter were of the very highest order. The troop commander says:
+"Their coolness and fine discipline were superb." This troop did not
+fire a shot. Thus one-half of the squadron moved to its positions and
+held them without being able to do any damage to the enemy, as they
+were carrying out to the letter their instructions, which were to fire
+only when they could see the enemy. Troop B was commanded by Captain
+J.W. Watson with H.O. Willard as Second Lieutenant. A detachment of
+this troop was placed in charge of four Hotchkiss mountain guns. This
+detachment opened fire upon the enemy, using the ammunition sparingly,
+as they had but fifty rounds with them. Twenty-two shots were fired,
+apparently with effect. The remainder of the troop under Lieutenant
+Williard was ordered to move out to the extreme right, which would
+place it beyond the line of the First Cavalry, thus bringing that
+regiment between Troop A of the Tenth, which connected it with the
+Rough Riders and Troop B, which was to be on its extreme right.
+Lieutenant Williard's report of this movement is as follows:
+
+     "I ordered the troop forward at once, telling them to take
+     advantage of all cover available. In the meantime the
+     volleys from the Spanish were coming in quite frequently and
+     striking the ground on all sides near where we were. I found
+     it very difficult to move the men forward after having found
+     cover, and ran back to a portion of the troop near an old
+     brick wall, and ordered them forward at once. They then made
+     a dash forward, and in doing so three or four men were
+     wounded, Private Russell severely. Who the others were I do
+     not know. We encountered a severe fire directly after this
+     move forward; and Private Wheeler was wounded in the left
+     leg. There was a wire fence on our right, and such thick
+     underbrush that we were unable to get through right there,
+     so had to follow along the fence for some distance before
+     being able to penetrate. Finally, was able to get the
+     greater proportion of my men through, and about this time I
+     met Lieutenants Fleming and Miller, Tenth Cavalry, moving
+     through the thicket at my left. I there heard the order
+     passed on 'not to fire ahead,' as there was danger of firing
+     into our own forces. In the meantime there was shouting from
+     the First Cavalry in our front, 'Don't fire on us in rear.'
+     My troop had not fired a shot to my knowledge, nor the
+     knowledge of any non-commissioned officers in the troop.
+     About this time I found I was unable to keep the troop
+     deployed, as they would huddle up behind one rock or tree,
+     so I gave all sergeants orders to move out on the extreme
+     right and to keep in touch with those on their left. Then,
+     with a squad of about five men, I moved to the right front,
+     and was unfortunate enough to lose the troop, i.e., I could
+     see nothing of them except the men with me.
+
+     "But as I had given explicit instructions to my sergeant, in
+     case I was lost from them, to continue to advance until
+     halted by some one in authority, I moved ahead myself,
+     hoping to find them later on. In making a rush forward three
+     men of my squad were lost from me in some way. I still had
+     two men with me, Privates Combs and Jackson, and in the next
+     advance made I picked up a First Cavalry sergeant who had
+     fallen out from exhaustion. After a terrific climb up the
+     ridge in front of me, and a very regular though ineffective
+     fire from the enemy kept up until we were about sixty yards
+     from the summit of hill, we reached the advance line of the
+     First United States Cavalry, under command of Captain
+     Wainwright. I then reported to him for orders, and moved
+     forward when he next advanced. The firing had ceased, and no
+     more shots were fired, to my knowledge, after this time.
+     With the First Cavalry, Troop G, we followed along the right
+     of the ridge and came down to the right front, encountering
+     no opposition or fire from the enemy, but finding the
+     enemy's breastworks in confusion, ammunition and articles of
+     clothing scattered around; also one dead Spaniard and two
+     Mauser rifles. At the foot of the ridge we met some of the
+     First Volunteer Cavalry, and being utterly exhausted, I was
+     obliged to lie down. Soon after, Captain Mills,
+     adjutant-general of Second Brigade, Cavalry Division, came
+     up to where I was and placed me in command of Troop K, First
+     United States Cavalry, whose officers were wounded. I then
+     marched them forward on the road to where General Wheeler
+     was sitting, and received orders from Colonel Wood, First
+     Volunteer Cavalry, to remain until further orders and make
+     no further advance. Directly afterwards, learning the action
+     was over, I reported back to General Young, and received
+     orders to remain camped with the First Cavalry Squadron,
+     where the action had closed. In the meantime, I should have
+     stated that I found the principal part of my troop and
+     collected them and left them under the first sergeant, when
+     I went back to receive orders. So far as I know, and to the
+     best of my knowledge, the men of my troop acted with the
+     greatest bravery, advancing on an enemy who could not be
+     seen, and subjected to a severe and heavy fire at each step,
+     which was only rendered ineffective to a great degree by the
+     poor marksmanship of the enemy, as many times we were in
+     sight of them (I discovered this by observation after the
+     engagement) while we could see nothing. We were also
+     subjected to a severe reverse fire from the hills in our
+     right rear, several men being wounded by this fire.
+     Throughout the fight the men acted with exceptional
+     coolness, in my judgment. The casualties were: Privates
+     Russell, Braxton and Morris, severely wounded; Privates F.A.
+     Miller, Grice, Wheeler and Gaines, slightly wounded, i.e.,
+     less severely. None killed.
+
+     Very respectfully,
+
+     HENRY O. WILLIARD.
+     June 24, 1898.
+     Troop B, Tenth Cavalry, during action near La Guasima,
+     Second Lieutenant, Tenth United States Cavalry, Commanding.
+
+
+Troop I of the Tenth Cavalry was commanded by First Lieutenant R.J.
+Fleming with Second Lieutenant A.M. Miller. This troop moved to the
+right and wedged in between B Troop and the right of the First
+Cavalry. Lieutenant Fleming discovered the enemy posted on the high
+ridge immediately in front of his troop, and also extending to his
+right, in front of B Troop. Moving his troop a little to the right so
+as to secure room to advance without coming in contact with the First
+Cavalry, he then directed his course straight toward the hill on which
+he had located the enemy. The advance was made with great caution, the
+men seeking cover wherever possible, and dashing across the open
+spaces at full run. Thus they moved until the base of the steep part
+of the hill was reached. This was found very difficult of ascent, not
+only because of the rugged steepness, but also on account of the
+underbrush, and the sharp-leaved grass, the cacti and Spanish bayonet,
+that grow on all these hillsides. Paths had to be cut through these
+prickly obstructions with knives and sabres. Consequently the advance
+up that hill, though free from peril, was very slow and trying. Twice
+during the advance the men obtained a view of their enemies and were
+permitted to fire. The instructions were rigidly adhered to: No firing
+only at the visible foe. Lieutenant Fleming says: "Owing to the
+underbrush it was impossible for me to see but a very few men at a
+time, but as they all arrived on the crest about the time I did, or
+shortly after, they certainly advanced steadily." He says: "The entire
+troop behaved with great coolness and obeyed every order." Farrier
+Sherman Harris, Wagoner John Boland and Private Elsie Jones especially
+distinguished themselves for coolness and gallantry. The aggressive
+work of the Tenth Cavalry, therefore, appears to have been done by
+Troops B and I, a detachment of the former troop serving the Hotchkiss
+gun battery. Troop I was commanded by Lieutenant Fleming and by him
+conducted to the front, although he admits that in their advance up
+the slope of the hill he could see but very few of the men at a time,
+and declares that their advance was certainly steady, because all
+arrived at the crest of the hill simultaneously or nearly so.
+
+Lieutenant Fleming does not show that his troop of excellent men were
+in any sense _peculiarly_ dependent upon their white officers as some
+have asserted. They advanced steadily, just as the regulars always do,
+advanced noiselessly and without any reckless firing, and reached the
+crest of the hill in order, although he could not see them as they
+were making their advance. They kept their line despite all the
+obstructions. Lieutenant Fleming also says that in moving to his
+position he passed Troop B, which then "inclined to the right, and
+during the remainder of the action was on my right." Troop B,
+therefore, went through about the same experience as Troop I, and
+being on the extreme right of the line may have been more directly in
+front of that foe which Fleming says was in his front and to the
+right. Why did not the officer who directed or led B Troop in its
+advance upon the enemy report the action of his troop as vividly and
+generously as did Lieutenant Fleming the men of Troop I? With not the
+slightest reflection upon the gallant officer, he himself has the
+manliness to say he was so unfortunate as to lose the troop. The
+troop, however, did not become demoralized, but went into action under
+command of its First Sergeant, _John Buck,[17] and remained on
+Lieutenant Fleming's right during the action_. It has been proven more
+than once that should the commissioned officers of a company or troop
+of colored regulars be killed or incapacitated, the non-commissioned
+officers can carry on the fight. Speaking of this same regiment it is
+equally true that at San Juan the officers of Troops D and G were all
+shot and the commands of these troops fell to their First Sergeants,
+the first to Sergeant William H. Given, the second to Sergeant Saint
+Foster, and it is generally understood that these two men were
+appointed Lieutenants of Volunteers because of their success in
+handling their troops in battle.
+
+The entire attacking force at this end of the line, if we count only
+those engaged in actual firing, consisted of two troops of the Tenth
+Cavalry and two of the First Cavalry--four troops--while to the left
+the entire eight troops were on the firing line. The action of the
+troops of the First Cavalry was quite similar to that of the troops of
+the Tenth Cavalry, and equally deserving of commendation. Of them all
+General Young says:
+
+     "The ground over which the right column advanced was a mass
+     of jungle growth, with wire fences, not to be seen until
+     encountered, and precipitous heights as the ridge was
+     approached. It was impossible for the troops to keep in
+     touch along the front, and they could only judge of the
+     enemy from the sound and direction of his fire. However, had
+     it not been for this dense jungle, the attack would not have
+     been made against an overwhelming force in such a position.
+     Headway was so difficult that advance and support became
+     merged and moved forward under a continuous volley firing,
+     supplemented by that of two rapid-fire guns. Return firing
+     by my force was only made as here and there a small clear
+     spot gave a sight of the enemy. The fire discipline of these
+     particular troops was almost perfect. The ammunition
+     expended by the two squadrons engaged in an incessant
+     advance for one hour and fifteen minutes averaged less than
+     ten rounds per man. The fine quality of these troops is also
+     shown by the fact that there was not a single straggler, and
+     in not one instance was an attempt made by any soldier to
+     fall out in the advance to assist the wounded or carry back
+     the dead. The fighting on the left flank was equally
+     creditable and was remarkable, and I believe unprecedented,
+     in volunter troops so quickly raised, armed and equipped."
+
+The five hundred men of Colonel Wood's regiment were stretched over a
+space of 800 to 1,000 yards, and were entirely without support or
+reserve, and appear to have advanced to a point where this very strong
+force on the right swept a good part of their line both with rifle
+fire and the fire of their two machine guns. Men and officers were
+falling under both the front and flank fire of the enemy, and had not
+the squadrons of the First and Tenth made their successful assault
+upon that ridge, which, according to General Wood's report, was "very
+strongly held," the situation of the Rough Riders would have been
+extreme. Because this successful assault was participated in by the
+Tenth Cavalry the story arose that the Rough Riders were rescued by
+that regiment. The fair statement would be: That the Regular Cavalry,
+consisting of a squadron of the First and a squadron of the Tenth,
+made their advance on the right at the precise moment to deliver the
+Rough Riders from a fire that threatened their annihilation. The
+marksmanship and coolness of the men of the Tenth have been specially
+commented upon and their fire was described as very effective, but the
+same remarks could be made of the men of the First, who fought side by
+side with them. It is probable that the volunteers advanced more
+rapidly than did the regulars, using more ammunition, and manifesting
+a very high degree of courage and enthusiasm as well as deliberation;
+but the regulars reached their objective at the proper time to turn
+the battle's tide. Each advancing column was worthy to be companion to
+the other.
+
+General Wheeler said the fire was very hot for about an hour, and "at
+8.30 sent a courier to General Lawton informing him that he was
+engaged with a larger force of the enemy than was anticipated, and
+asked that his force be sent forward on the Sevilla road as quickly as
+possible." ("In Cuba With Shafter," p. 83.) General Lawton, however,
+with the true instinct of a soldier had already sent orders to General
+Chaffee to move forward with the First Brigade. The Second Brigade was
+also in readiness to move and the men of the Twenty-fifth were
+expecting to go forward to take a position on the right and if
+possible a little to the rear of the Spanish entrenchments in order to
+cut off their retreat. The rapid movements of the cavalry division,
+however, rendered this unnecessary, and the routing of the foe gave to
+the Americans an open country and cleared the field for the advance on
+Santiago. The first battle had been fought, and the Americans had been
+victorious, but not without cost. Sixteen men had been killed and
+fifty-two wounded. In Colonel Wood's regiment eight had been killed
+and thirty-four wounded; in the First Cavalry, seven killed and eight
+wounded; in the Tenth Cavalry, one killed and ten wounded. The
+percentage of losses to the whole strength of the several
+organizations engaged was as follows: Rough Riders, over 8 per cent.;
+First Cavalry, over 6 per cent.; Tenth Cavalry, 5 per cent. But if we
+take those on the firing line as the base the rate per cent. of losses
+among the regulars would be doubled, while that of the volunteers
+would remain the same.
+
+The strength of the enemy in this battle is given in the Spanish
+official reports, according to Lieutenant Miley, at about five
+hundred, and their losses are put at nine killed and twenty-seven
+wounded. At the time of the fight it was supposed to be much larger.
+General Young's report places the estimates at 2,000, and adds "that
+it has since been learned from Spanish sources to have been 2,500. The
+Cuban military authorities claim the Spanish strength was 4,000."
+These figures are doubtless too high. The force overtaken at Las
+Guasimas was the same force that evacuated Siboney at the approach of
+Lawton and the force with which the Cubans had fought on the morning
+of the 23rd. It may have consisted solely of the garrison from
+Siboney, although it is more probable that it included also those from
+Daiquiri and Jutici, as it is quite certain that all these troops
+proceeded toward Santiago over the same road. The force at Siboney had
+been given by the Cubans at 600, at Daiquiri at 300, and at Jutici at
+150. If these had concentrated and the figures were correct, the
+Spanish force at Guasimas was upwards of 1,000. If, however, it was
+the force from Siboney alone, it was about as the Spanish official
+report gives it. On this latter basis, however, the losses are out of
+proportion, for while the attacking party lost a little less than 7
+per cent. of its entire strength in killed and wounded, the losses of
+the entrenched, defending party, were even a little greater, or over 7
+per cent. of its strength. It is, therefore, probable that the Spanish
+force was greater than officially reported and included the troops
+from the other posts as well as those from Siboney. The engagement was
+classed by General Shafter as unimportant, although its effect upon
+our army was inspiring. It did not cut off the retreat of the Spanish
+force, and the men who faced our army at Guasimas met them again in
+the trenches before Santiago. General Shafter desired to advance with
+his whole force, and cautioned strongly against any further forward
+movement until the troops were well in hand. The two battles between
+the Cubans and Spaniards, fought on the 23rd, in which the Cubans had
+sixteen men wounded and two killed, were engagements of some
+consequence, although we have no reports of them. There is no evidence
+that the Cubans took part in the battle of Guasimas, although they
+arrived on the grounds immediately after the firing ceased.
+
+The story thus far told is, as the reader cannot fail to see,
+directly from official records, and the conclusions arrived at are
+those which result naturally from the facts as therein detailed. Not
+one word is quoted from any but military men--actors in the affair. We
+may now go briefly over the same ground, giving the views and
+conclusions of able civilian correspondents who followed the army to
+see what was done, and who were trained observers and skilled writers.
+How have these able war journalists told the story of Las Guasimas?
+
+To quote from Stephen Bonsal in substance, not in words, is to
+contradict what General Shafter says officially in one particular, but
+in no such way as to discredit the General, or to weaken Bonsal. It is
+not a case of bringing two universal, antagonistic propositions face
+to face, but a case where two men of different training look upon an
+action from different standpoints and through different field-glasses.
+General Shafter says of the collision of the Rough Riders with the
+Spanish force: "There was no ambush as reported." As a military man,
+he says there was no more concealment on the part of the Spanish force
+than what an attacking party should expect, no more than what is usual
+in modern warfare, hence he does not regard it as an ambush, and does
+not officially take notice of any surprise or unexpected encounter on
+the part of his force. To do so would be to reflect, however slightly,
+upon the professional skill of the commander of the left column.
+General Shafter thus says officially in a manly way: "There was no
+ambush." Beyond this his duty does not call him to go, and he halts
+his expressions exactly at this line, maintaining in his attitude all
+the attributes of the true soldier, placing himself beyond criticism
+by thus securing from attack the character of his subordinate.
+
+Mr. Bonsal is a writer and author, accustomed to view actions in the
+broader light of popular judgment, entirely free from professional
+bias, and having no class-feeling or obligations to serve. His pen is
+not official; his statements are not from the military standpoint; not
+influenced in any way by considerations of personal weal or woe with
+respect to others or himself. He says that one troop of the Rough
+Riders, Troop L, commanded by Captain Capron, was leading the advance
+of the regiment, and was in solid formation and within twenty-five
+yards of its scouting line when it received the enemy's fire. This
+troop was so far in the advance that it took the other troops of the
+regiment more than a half hour to get up to it. The writer speaks of
+the advance of that troop as having been made "in the fool-hardy
+formation of a solid column along a narrow trail, which brought them,
+in the way I have described, within point-blank range of the Spanish
+rifles, and within the unobstructed sweep of their machine guns." He
+sums up as follows: "And if it is to be ambushed when you receive the
+enemy's fire perhaps a quarter of an hour before it was expected, and
+when the troop was in a formation, and the only one in which, in view
+of the nature of the ground it was possible to advance quickly, then
+most certainly L Troop of the Rough Riders was ambushed by the
+Spaniards on the morning of June 24th."
+
+Mr. Bonsal also brings into clear view the part taken in this battle
+by Lawton's Infantry. He shows by means of a simple map the trail by
+which Miles' brigade, in which was the Twenty-fifth Infantry, moved in
+order to flank the Spanish position, while Chaffee's brigade was
+hurrying forward on the Royal Road to reinforce the line in front. A
+letter from a soldier of the Twenty-fifth written soon after these
+events fully confirms Mr. Bonsal in what he says concerning the
+movement of Miles' brigade. The soldier says: "On the morning of the
+24th the Rough Riders, Tenth and First Cavalry were to make an attack
+on a little place where the Spanish were fortified. The Second Brigade
+was to come on the right flank of these troops and a little in rear of
+the fortifications; but by some misunderstanding, the former troops,
+led by the Rough Riders, made an attack before we got our position,
+and the result was a great many lives lost in the First Cavalry and
+Rough Riders--only one in Tenth Cavalry, but many wounded. They
+captured the fortification." This letter by a humble soldier, written
+with no thought of its importance, shows how gallantly Lawton had
+sprung to the rescue of Wheeler's division. According to Bonsal, who
+says he obtained his information from Spanish officers who were
+present in this fight, it was the information of the approach of this
+brigade and of Chaffee's up the main road that caused the Spaniards to
+withdraw rapidly from the position. The whole force was in imminent
+danger of being captured. Another soldier of the Twenty-fifth wrote:
+"The report came that the Twenty-fifth Infantry was to cut off the
+Spanish retreat from a stronghold, toward Santiago." These glimpses
+from soldiers' letters illustrate how clearly they comprehended the
+work upon which they were sent, and show also how hearty and cordial
+was the support which the infantry at that time was hurrying forward
+to the advancing cavalry.
+
+The official reports show that the strength of the Spanish position
+was before the right of our line. Mr. Bonsal says: "Directly in front
+of the Tenth Cavalry rose undoubtedly the strongest point in the
+Spanish position--two lines of shallow trenches, strengthened by heavy
+stone parapets." We must remember that so far as we can get the
+disposition of these troops from official records, Troop A connected
+the Rough Riders with the First Cavalry, and Troops I and B were on
+the right of the First Cavalry. Troop A did not fire a shot; the
+fighting, therefore, was done by Troops I and B on the extreme right
+of the line, and it was on their front that "undoubtedly the strongest
+point in the Spanish position" lay--nor should the reader forget that
+at this very important moment Troop B was commanded by its First
+Sergeant, Buck, Lieutenant Williard having by his own report been
+"unfortunate enough to lose the troop." This is said with no
+disparagement to Lieutenant Williard. It was merely one of the
+accidents of battle.
+
+Says Mr. Bonsal: "The moment the advance was ordered the black
+troopers of the Tenth Cavalry forged ahead. They were no braver
+certainly than any other men in the line, but their better training
+enabled them to render more valuable services than the other troops
+engaged. They had with them and ready for action their machine guns,
+and shoved them right up to the front on the firing line, from where
+they poured very effective fire into the Spanish trenches, which not
+only did considerable execution, but was particularly effective in
+keeping down the return fire of the Spaniards. The machine guns of the
+Rough Riders were mislaid, or the mules upon which they had been
+loaded could not be found at this juncture. It was said they had
+bolted. It is certain, however, that the guns were not brought into
+action, and consequently the Spaniards suffered less, and the Rough
+Riders more, in the gallant charge they made up the hill in front of
+them, after the Tenth Cavalry had advanced and driven the Spaniards
+from their position on the right."
+
+Corporal W.F. Johnson, B Troop, was the non-commissioned officer in
+charge of the machine guns during the brief fight at Las Guasimas, and
+his action was such as to call forth from the troop commander special
+mention "for his efficiency and perfect coolness under fire." Here I
+may be pardoned for calling attention to a notion too prevalent
+concerning the Negro soldier in time of battle. He is too often
+represented as going into action singing like a zany or yelling like a
+demon, rather than as a man calculating the chances for life and
+victory. The official reports from the Black Regulars in Cuba ought to
+correct this notion. Every troop and company commander, who has
+reported upon colored soldiers in that war, speaks of the coolness of
+the men of his command. Captain Beck, of Troop A, Tenth Cavalry, in
+the Guasimas fight, says: "I will add that the enlisted men of Troop
+A, Tenth Cavalry, behaved well, silently and alertly obeying orders,
+and without becoming excited when the fire of the enemy reached them."
+The yell, in the charge of the regulars, is a part of the action, and
+is no more peculiar to Negro troops than to the whites, only as they
+may differ in the general timbre of voice. Black American soldiers
+when not on duty may sing more than white troops, but in quite a long
+experience among them I have not found the difference so very
+noticeable. In all garrisons one will find some men more musically
+inclined than others; some who love to sing and some who do not; some
+who have voices adapted to the production of musical tones, and some
+who have not, and it is doubtless owing to these constitutional
+differences that we find differences in habits and expressions.
+
+Lieutenant Miley, of General Shafter's staff, in his description of
+the departure of General Shatter from General Garcia's tent, gives us
+a glimpse of the character of the men that composed the Cuban army in
+that vicinity.
+
+     "While the interview was going on, the troops were being
+     assembled to do honor to the General on his departure.
+     Several companies were drawn up in front of the tent to
+     present arms as he came out, and a regiment escorted him to
+     the beach down the winding path, which was now lined on both
+     sides by Cuban soldiers standing about a yard apart and
+     presenting arms. The scene made a strong impression on all
+     in the party, there seemed to be such an earnestness and
+     fixedness of purpose displayed that all felt these soldiers
+     to be a power. About fifty per cent. were blacks, and the
+     rest mulattoes, with a small number of whites. They were
+     very poorly clad, many without shirts or shoes, but every
+     man had his gun and a belt full of ammunition."
+
+
+B.
+
+EXTRACT FROM A LETTER FROM A SOLDIER OF THE 10TH CAVALRY, TROOP B,
+CONCERNING THE BATTLE OF LAS GUASIMAS:
+
+     "... The platoon which escaped this ditch got on the right
+     of the 1st Cavalry on the firing line, and pushed steadily
+     forward under First Sergeant Buck, being then in two
+     squads--one under Sergeant Thompson. On account of the
+     nature of the ground and other natural obstacles, there were
+     men not connected with any squads, but who advanced with the
+     line.
+
+     Both squads fired by volley and at will, at the command of
+     the sergeants named; and their shots reached the enemy and
+     were effective, as it is generally believed.
+
+     Private W.M. Bunn, of Sergeant Thompson's squad, is reported
+     to have shot a sharpshooter from a tree just in front of the
+     enemy's work. Private Wheeler was shot twice in the advance.
+     Sergeant Thompson's squad was once stopped from firing by
+     General Wheeler's adjutant-general for fear of hitting the
+     Rough Riders.
+
+     It seems that two distinct battles were fought that day.
+     Colonel Wood's command struck the enemy at about the tame
+     time, or probably a Little before, ours did, and all unknown
+     to the men in our ranks; and got themselves into a pretty
+     tight squeeze. About the same time our force engaged the
+     enemy and drew part of the attention they were giving the
+     Rough Riders. This, the latter claimed, enabled them to
+     continue the movement on the enemy's works.
+
+     But as our command had an equal number of 1st and 10th
+     Cavalrymen, I am of the opinion that the story of our saving
+     the Rough Riders arose from the fact that as soon as the
+     fight was over, the 1st Regular Cavalry was opening its arms
+     to us, declaring that we, especially B Troop, had saved
+     them; for the 1st Regular Cavalry was first in the attack in
+     General Young's command; and when the enemy began to make it
+     pretty warm, he ordered B and I Troops of the 10th forward
+     on the right. Troop B was in the lead; and the alacrity
+     with which these two troops moved to the front has always
+     been praised by the 1st Cavalry; and they declare that that
+     movement helped them wonderfully. In making this movement my
+     troop had three or four men wounded; and later, when
+     Sergeant Thompson's squad was fighting far to the front, it
+     had in it several members of the 1st Cavalry, who are always
+     glad to praise him.
+
+     So, I think that by the Rough Riders first attributing their
+     success, or their rescue from inevitable defeat, to the
+     attack made by our command; and by the 1st Regular Cavalry's
+     very generously, in the heat of success, bestowing upon us
+     the honors of the day, it finally became a settled thing
+     that we saved the whole battle.
+
+     That evening, after the battle, I was met by Lieutenant
+     Shipp, later killed at San Juan Hill, who, on inquiring and
+     being told that I belonged to Troop B, congratulated me on
+     its conduct, and said it had made a name for the regiment.
+     Lieutenant Shipp was not in that fight, but had come up
+     after it was over and had heard of us through the 1st
+     Cavalry."
+
+
+C.
+
+     Sergeant John Buck was born September 10th, 1861, at Chapel
+     Hill, Texas; enlisted in 10th Cavalry, November 6, 1880, and
+     passed over ten years in active Indian service. He is a man
+     of strong character, an experienced horseman and packer, and
+     so commanded a portion of the firing line in the battle of
+     June 24 as to elicit remarks of praise from officers of
+     other troops "for his gallantry, coolness and good judgment
+     under fire." Sergeant Thompson's good conduct in the same
+     battle was noticeable also. Sergeant Buck was made second
+     lieutenant in the 7th U.S. Volunteer Infantry and
+     subsequently captain in the 48th United States Volunteers.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[15] See Note A at the end of this chapter.
+
+[16] THE TWENTY-FIFTH AT EL-CANEY.
+
+American valor never shone with greater luster than when the
+Twenty-fifth Infantry swept up the sizzling hill of El-Caney to the
+rescue of the rough riders. Two other regiments came into view of the
+rough riders. But the bullets were flying like driving hail; the enemy
+were in trees and ambushes with smokeless powder, and the rough riders
+were biting the dust and were threatened with annihilation.
+
+A rough rider described the feelings of his brigade when they saw the
+other regiments appear and retreat. Finally this rough rider, a
+Southerner, heard a well-known yell. And out of the distance moved a
+regiment as if on dress parade, faces set like steel, keeping step
+like a machine, their comrades falling here, there, everywhere, moving
+into the storm of invisible death without one faltering step, passing
+the rough riders, conquering up the hill, and never stopping until
+with the rough riders El-Caney was won. This was the Twenty-fifth
+Regiment (colored), United States Infantry, now quartered at Fort
+Logan, Denver. We have asked the chaplain, T.G. Steward, to recite the
+events at El-Caney. His modesty confines him to the barest recital of
+"semi-official" records. But the charge of the Twenty-fifth is
+deserving of comparison with that of "the Light Brigade" in the
+Crimean War, or of Custer at the massacre of the Big Horn.
+
+(Editorial in religious paper.)
+
+[17] See Note C at the end of this chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE BATTLE OF EL CANEY.
+
+     The Capture of the Stone Fort by the Twenty-fifth Infantry.
+
+
+While the battle of Guasimas was going on, in which the Tenth Cavalry
+took so conspicuous a part, the Twenty-fourth Infantry still remained
+on board the City of Washington awaiting orders to land. During the
+night of the 24th such orders were received by the authorities of the
+transport, and they were directed to land their troops, but the
+General Commanding, Brigadier-General Kent, did not hear of the matter
+until some time the next morning. He relates the following
+circumstances in his official report of the debarkation:
+
+"At 9 a.m. of the 25th Lieutenant Cardin, of the Revenue Marine, came
+aboard with orders for me to proceed to and disembark at Altares
+(Siboney). This officer also handed me a letter from the corps
+commander expressing his astonishment that I had remained away three
+days."
+
+General Kent also states in his report that his travel rations had
+been exhausted seven days before and that but one meal of field
+rations remained, and that the ship's supply both of water and
+provisions was running low, and that in consequence of these facts as
+well as for higher considerations he was very anxious to get on shore.
+The debarkation followed as rapidly as possible, and that afternoon
+General Kent reported in person to Major-General Wheeler, the troops
+bivouacking for the night near the landing. The next day Colonel
+Pearson, who commanded the Second Brigade of Kent's division, took
+the Second Infantry and reconnoitred along the railroad toward the
+Morro, going a distance of about six miles and returning in the
+evening, having found no enemy in that vicinity, although evidences
+were found that a force had recently retreated from a blockhouse
+situated on the railroad about two miles from Aguadores.
+
+On the day following, June 27th, the entire division moved out on the
+road toward Santiago and encamped on the same ground that Lawton had
+occupied the night previous. The Second Brigade took its place near
+Savilla, while the Third Brigade, which included the Twenty-fourth
+Infantry, went into camp at Las Guasimas, where the affair of the 24th
+had occurred. The order of march had now partially fallen back to the
+original plan: Lawton in advance, with whom was the Twenty-Fifth
+Infantry; Wheeler next, with whom was the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, and
+Kent in the rear, who had, as we have just related, the Twenty-fourth
+Infantry in his Third Brigade. In this order the army moved, so far as
+it moved at all, until the morning of the 30th, when dispositions for
+the general attack began.
+
+The story of the great battle, or as it turned out, of the two great
+battles, begins on this day, and the careers of the four colored
+regiments are to be followed through the divisions of Lawton, Kent and
+Wheeler. Let us begin, however, with General Shafter's official report
+and his "Story of Santiago," as told in the "Century" of February,
+1899.
+
+From these sources it is learned that on June 30th General Shafter
+reconnoitered the country about Santiago and determined upon a plan of
+attack. Ascending a hill from which he could obtain a good view of the
+city, and could also see San Juan Hill and the country about El Caney,
+he observed afresh what had impressed itself upon all immediately
+upon landing, to wit: That in all this country there were no good
+roads along which to move troops or transport supplies. The General
+says: "I had never seen a good road in a Spanish country, and Santiago
+did not disappoint my expectations." The roads as he saw them from the
+summit of the hill on June 30th were very poor, and indeed, little
+better than bridle paths, except between El Caney and San Juan River
+and the city. Within this region, a distance of from four to four and
+a half miles, the roads were passable. El Caney lay about four miles
+northeast of Santiago, and was strongly fortified, and, as events
+proved, strongly garrisoned. This position was of great importance to
+the enemy, because from it a force might come to attack the right
+flank and rear of the American Army as it should make its attempt on
+San Juan Hill. El Caney held the road from Guantanamo, at which point
+an important Spanish force was posted. While General Shafter was
+surveying the country from the hill at El Pozo and making what special
+examination he could of the country toward San Juan Hills, Generals
+Lawton and Chaffee were making a reconnoisance around El Caney. From
+General Lawton's report it would appear that the work of
+reconnoitering around El Caney was done chiefly by General Chaffee. He
+says: "To General Adna R. Chaffee I am indebted for a thorough and
+intelligent reconnoissance of the town of El Caney and vicinity prior
+to the battle and the submission of a plan of attack which was
+adopted. I consider General Chaffee one of the best practical soldiers
+in the army and recommend him for special distinction for successfully
+charging the stone fort mentioned in this report, the capture of which
+practically closed the battle."
+
+The general plan of attack as explained by General Shafter himself in
+his "Century" article was "to put a brigade on the road between
+Santiago and El Caney, to keep the Spaniards at the latter place from
+retreating on the city, and then with the rest of Lawton's division
+and the divisions of Wheeler and Kent, and Bates' brigade to attack
+the Spanish position in front of Santiago." Before that he had said
+that he wished to put a division in on the right of El Caney and
+assault the town on that road. To Admiral Sampson on June 26th he
+said: "I shall, if I can, put a large force in Caney, and one perhaps
+still farther west, near the pipe-line conveying water to the city,
+making my main attack from the northeast and east." His desire at this
+time was to "get the enemy in my front and the city at my back." On
+June 30th he had modified this plan so as to decide to place one
+brigade on the road between El Caney and Santiago, with a view merely
+to keeping the El Caney garrison from retreating into Santiago.
+
+As he was explaining his plan to the division officers and others on
+the afternoon of the 30th at his own headquarters, Lawton and Chaffee
+were of the opinion that they could dispose of the Spaniards at El
+Caney in two hours time. "Therefore," says the General, "I modified my
+plan, assigning Lawton's whole division for the attack of El Caney and
+directed Bates' independent brigade to his support." This last
+modification of General Shafter's plan was made in deference to the
+opinion of subordinates, and was based upon observations made
+especially by General Chaffee.
+
+The force assigned for the reduction of El Caney was to begin its work
+early in the morning, and by ten or eleven o'clock at the outside it
+was expected that the task would be accomplished and Lawton would join
+Kent and Sumner in the assault upon San Juan. Early on the morning of
+July 1st Capron's battery was got into position on a line running
+directly north from Marianage on a hill about five hundred yards east
+of Las Guasimas Creek. Lawton's division began its move on the
+afternoon of the 30th, as did in fact the whole army, and bivouacked
+that night near El Pozo. The Twenty-fifth Infantry, which belonged to
+the Second Brigade, commanded by Colonel Miles, a former Major of the
+Twenty-fifth, left El Pozo at daylight by way of the road leading
+almost due north, and marched about one mile to the little town of
+Marianage. Here a halt was made for an hour, from 6.30 to 7.30, during
+which time reconnoitering parties were sent out to examine the ground
+toward the Ducoureau House, which lay about one mile to the northward
+of Marianage, and which had been designated by General Lawton as a
+general rendezvous after the engagement should terminate.
+Reconnoissance was made also to the front for the purpose of
+discovering the enemy, and to ascertain the left of Ludlow's brigade.
+This was the first brigade of Lawton's division and consisted of the
+Eighth and Twenty-second Infantry and the Second Massachusetts, the
+last named regiment being on the right. The Second Brigade was to
+connect with this on its right and succeeded in finding the position
+of the Second Massachusetts during this halt. At 11.30 Miles' brigade
+was ordered to take position on the right of Ludlow's brigade, which
+it did in the following order: The Fourth Infantry on the left,
+joining with the Second Massachusetts on Ludlow's right; the
+Twenty-fifth on the right, with its left joining on the Fourth
+Infantry.
+
+We must now review the progress of the battle so far as it is possible
+to do so, from the firing of the first shot by Capron's battery up to
+11.30, an hour long after the time at which it had been supposed that
+El Caney would fall. Capron's reports are very brief. He says: "July
+1--Fired shell and shrappnel into El Caney (ranged 2,400) 6.15 a.m. to
+11.30 a.m." In another report he says: "Opened fire July 1, with shell
+and shrappnel at 6.15 on Caney; range, 2,400 yards; continued until
+11.30 a.m." He says that the battery "continued its fire against
+specified objectives intermittently throughout the day under the
+personal direction of the division commander." The forces we have so
+far considered, consisting of Ludlow's and Miles' brigades, and of
+Capron's battery, lay to the south of Caney, between it and Santiago,
+Ludlow's brigade having been placed there to "cut off the retreat of
+the garrison should it attempt to escape." Up to 11.30 there had been
+no call for employing it for that purpose. The garrison had made no
+attempt to escape. We must now go around to the east and north of
+Caney. Here the Third Brigade, consisting of the Seventh, Twelfth and
+Seventeenth Infantry, was posted, and early in the morning joined in
+the attack, the brigade getting under fire before eight o'clock.
+Colonel Carpenter, of the Seventh Regiment, says that one company of
+his regiment, by General Chaffee's direction, was detached and sent
+forward to reduce a blockhouse, well up on the hill, which commanded
+the approach of his regiment to the field of action. After several
+ineffectual attempts by the company, the Captain (Van Orsdale) was
+directed to abandon the undertaking and rejoin the regiment, which
+then took up a position on the crest of a hill running nearly parallel
+with the Spanish lines. From this position the men crawled forward
+about fifty yards and opened a deliberate fire upon the enemy, keeping
+it up for about an hour, but as the losses of the regiment at this
+time were considerable and the fire seemed to be without material
+effect, the command was withdrawn to its position on the hill where
+it found protection in a sunken road. In this condition this regiment
+lay when Capron's battery made its lull at 11.30. The fearful fire
+this regiment met can be estimated by the losses it sustained, which
+during the day were as follows: Killed, 1 officer and 33 enlisted men;
+wounded, 4 officers and 95 enlisted men; missing, 3 enlisted men. The
+Seventeenth Regiment went into action on the right of the Seventh,
+doing but little firing, as their orders were not to open fire unless
+they could make the fire effective. Companies C and G fired a few
+volleys; the remainder of the regiment did not fire at all. Four
+enlisted men were killed and two officers severely wounded, one,
+Lieutenant Dickinson, dying from his wounds within a few hours.
+Several enlisted men were also wounded. At 11.30 this regiment was
+lying on the right of the Seventh. The Twelfth Regiment began firing
+between 6 and 7 in the morning and advanced to take its position on
+the left of the Seventh Infantry. This regiment early reached a
+position within 350 yards of the enemy, in which it found shelter in
+the sunken road, "free from the enemy's fire." The regiment remained
+in this position until about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and, hence,
+was there at 11.30 a.m. The losses of this regiment during the day
+were, killed, 7 enlisted men; wounded, 2 officers and 31 enlisted men.
+From these brief sketches the reader will now be able to grasp the
+position of Lawton's entire division. Beginning on the south, from the
+west, with Ludlow's brigade, consisting of the Twenty-second, Eighth
+and Second Massachusetts, the line was continued by Miles' brigade of
+the Fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry; then passing over a considerable
+space, we strike Chaffee's brigade, posted as has just been described.
+General Bates' brigade probably arrived upon the field about noon.
+This brigade consisted of the Third and Twentieth Infantry, and is
+known as "Bates' Independent Brigade." The brigade is reported as
+going into action about 1 o'clock and continuing in action until 4
+o'clock. It took a position on the right, partially filling up the gap
+between Miles and Chaffee. The first battalion of the Twentieth
+Infantry went into action on the left of the Twenty-fifth Infantry's
+firing line, and one company, A, took part in the latter part of the
+charge by which the stone house was taken. Between 11.30, when
+Capron's firing stopped, and when Miles' brigade was moved forward to
+join the right of Ludlow's, and 12.20, when the battery recommenced,
+the troops, including Bates' brigade, were either in the positions
+described above or were moving to them. Noon had arrived and El Caney
+is not taken; the garrison has not attempted to escape, but is sending
+out upon its assailants a continuous and deadly fire. "Throughout the
+heaviest din of our fire," says Colonel Carpenter, "could be heard the
+peculiar high-keyed ring of the defiant enemy's shots."
+
+Twelve o'clock on July 1st, 1898, was a most anxious hour for our army
+in Cuba. The battle at El Caney was at a standstill and the divisions
+of Kent and Sumner were in a most perilous situation. Bonsal's
+description of the state of the battle at that time is pathetic.
+Speaking of the artillery at El Caney--Capron's battery--he says it
+was now apparent that this artillery, firing from its position of
+twenty-four hundred yards, could do very little damage to the great
+stone fort and earthworks north of the village. The shots were too few
+and the metal used too light to be effectual. Three hours of the
+morning had worn away and the advance of our men had been slowly made
+and at great cost; all the approaches were commanded by Spanish
+entrenchments and the fighting was very unequal. A soldier of the
+Twenty-fifth says that when he came in sight of the battle at El
+Caney, "the Americans were gaining no ground, and the flashes of the
+Spanish mausers told us that the forces engaged were unequally
+matched, the difference of position favoring the Spaniards." This view
+was had about noon, or soon after. At that time "a succession of aides
+and staff officers came galloping from headquarters with messages
+which plainly showed that confusion, if not disaster, had befallen the
+two divisions which, by the heavy firing, we had learned to our great
+surprise, had become warmly engaged in the centre. The orders to
+General Lawton from headquarters were at first peremptory in
+character--he was to pull out of his fight and to move his division to
+the support of the centre" (Bonsal). This call for Lawton arose from
+the fact that about noon General Shafter received several dispatches
+from Sumner, of the Cavalry Division, requiring assistance. General
+Sumner felt the need of the assistance of every available man in the
+centre of the line where he was carrying on his fight with the
+Spaniards on Blue House Hill. This situation so impressed the General,
+Shafter, that he finally wrote to Lawton, "You must proceed with the
+remainder of your force and join on immediately upon Sumner's right.
+If you do not the battle is lost." Shafter's idea then was to fall
+back to his original plan of just leaving enough troops at El Caney to
+prevent the garrison from going to the assistance of any other part of
+the line. Shafter himself says: "As the fight progressed I was
+impressed with the fact that we were meeting with a very stubborn
+resistance at El Caney and I began to fear that I had made a mistake
+in making two fights in one day, and sent Major Noble with orders to
+Lawton to hasten with his troops along the Caney road, placing himself
+on the right of Wheeler" (Sumner). Lawton now made a general advance,
+and it is important to see just what troops did advance. The Seventh
+Infantry did not move, for Lieutenant-Colonel Carpenter says that
+after withdrawing "to the partial cover furnished by the road, the
+regiment occupied this position from 8 o'clock a.m. until about 4.30
+p.m." The Seventeenth did not move, for Captain O'Brien, commanding,
+says the regiment took a position joining "its left with the right of
+the Seventh Infantry" and that the regiment "remained in this position
+until the battle was over." The Twelfth Infantry remained in its
+shelter within 350 yards of the stone fort until about 4 p.m. Then we
+have Chaffee's brigade on the north of the fort remaining stationary
+and by their own reports doing but little firing. The Seventeenth
+fired "for about fifty minutes" about noon, with remarkable precision,
+but "it seemingly had no effect upon reducing the Spanish fire
+delivered in our (their) front." The Seventh did not fire to any
+extent. The Twelfth Infantry lay in its refuge "free from the enemy's
+fire" and may have kept up an irregular fire.
+
+About this time Bates' brigade entered the field and one battalion of
+the Twentieth Infantry is reported to have joined the left of the
+firing line of the Twenty-fifth. General Ludlow says there was a lull
+from 12 to 1 p.m., "when the action again became violent, and at 3
+p.m. the Third Brigade captured the stone fort with a rush and hoisted
+the American flag." From Ludlow's brigade, Captain Van Horne,
+commanding the Twenty-second Infantry, after the wounding of
+Lieutenant-Colonel Patterson, says that the First Battalion of his
+regiment took a position about 800 yards from the town and kept up
+firing until the place surrendered. He does not say positively that
+the firing was upon the town, but he had said just before that the
+Second Battalion slowly moved forward, firing into the town from the
+left, so that we may readily conclude from the context as well as from
+the position that the First Battalion fired into the town also. Hence
+it seems fair to exclude from the fort all of Ludlow's brigade, and it
+is observable that Ludlow himself claims no part in the capture of
+that stronghold.
+
+General Bates says his brigade took position to the right of Colonel
+Miles' brigade and pushed rapidly to the front. He then says that
+after remaining sometime in the crossroad to the right of Miles'
+brigade, under a heavy fire from the enemy, the brigade moved farther
+"to the right to the assault of a small hill, occupied upon the top by
+a stone fort and well protected by rifle pits. General Chaffee's
+brigade charged them from the right, and the two brigades joining upon
+the crest, opened fire from this point of vantage, lately occupied by
+the Spanish, upon the village of El Caney." General Chaffee says it
+was in consequence of the fire of General Bates' troops upon the fort
+that the assault by the Twelfth Infantry was postponed.
+
+In General Chaffee's report this statement occurs: "The action lasted
+nearly throughout the day, terminating at about 4.30 p.m., at which
+time the stone blockhouse was assaulted by Captain Haskell's battalion
+of the Twelfth Infantry, under the personal direction of
+Lieutenant-Colonel Comba, commanding the regiment. The resistance at
+this point had been greatly affected by the fire of Capron's battery.
+A few moments after the seizure of this point--the key to the
+situation--my left was joined by General Bates with a portion of his
+command." It is to be noted in connection with all of the above
+statements that Major McCaskey, who commanded the Twentieth Infantry
+(Bates brigade), says: "The First Battalion was moved to the right and
+put into action on the left of the Twenty-fifth Infantry's firing
+line, and one company, A, took part in the latter part of the charge
+by which the stone house was taken." The two points to be noted here
+are (1) that this battalion was on the left of the Twenty-fifth's
+firing line, and (2) that one company took part in the charge upon the
+stone house. When Chaffee's brigade charged the stone house from the
+right some of Bates' troops, at least this Company A, from the
+battalion near the firing line of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, took part
+in the latter part of the charge. The two brigades, Bates' and
+Chaffee's, joined immediately after the capture of the stone fort and
+opened fire upon the town.
+
+We have now traced the actions and the fortunes of the three following
+brigades: Ludlow's Chaffee's and Bates'. But what has become of Miles'
+brigade? Unfortunately, the Second Brigade has not been so well
+reported as were the others engaged in the action at El Caney. We have
+seen that it was ordered to take position on the right of Ludlow's
+brigade at 11.30, when Capron's battery ceased its firing for the
+fifty minutes. "We were detained in reaching our position by troops in
+our front blocking the road," says the brigade commander. "We came
+into action directly in front of the stone blockhouse at 12.30, and
+from that hour until about 4.30, when the command 'cease firing' was
+given, the blockhouse having been captured, my command was
+continuously under fire." The reader will note in this report that the
+brigade went into action at 12.30, several hours before the charge was
+ordered by General Chaffee, and at least an hour and a half before,
+according to the report of the commander of the Third Brigade, "this
+fort was practically in the possession of the Twelfth Infantry." Major
+Baker, who commanded the Fourth Infantry, says: "About 12 m. we
+received orders directing us to take our place in the line of battle,
+and arriving at the proper point the regiment was placed in line in
+the following order: The First Battalion in the fighting line; the
+Second Battalion in support and regimental reserve. In this order the
+First Battalion, under my command, took up the advance toward the
+blockhouse, to our right, south east of Caney." This battalion
+advanced until it reached a position about 200 yards from the village,
+where it remained, assisted by the Second Battalion until the capture
+of the fort. Two companies of this First Battalion "fired into the
+town and also into the blockhouse until its fall." A good part of the
+fire of this regiment was directed upon the fort.
+
+Colonel Miles says: "The brigade advanced steadily, with such scanty
+cover as the ground afforded, maintaining a heavy fire on the stone
+fort from the time the fight began until it ended." The reader is
+asked to note particularly that this fire was continuous throughout
+the fight; that it was characterized by the brigade commander as
+"heavy," and that it was "on the stone fort". He says: "As the brigade
+advanced across a plowed field in front of the enemy's position the
+latter's sharpshooters in the houses in Caney enfiladed the left of
+our line with a murderous fire. To silence it Major Baker, Fourth
+Infantry, in command of the battalion of that regiment on the left of
+our line of battle, directed it to turn its fire upon the town. In so
+doing this battalion lost heavily, but its steady front and accurate
+volleys greatly assisted the advance of the remainder of the brigade
+upon the stone fort."
+
+We have now these facts clearly brought out or suggested: That the
+brigade took its place in line of battle soon after 12 o'clock; that
+the Fourth Infantry was on the left; that the advance of the First
+Battalion of the Fourth Infantry was "toward the blockhouse;" that
+aside from the companies of the Fourth Infantry that fired into town,
+"the remainder of the brigade advanced upon the stone fort." The
+Fourth Infantry, holding the left of the line, however, reached a
+position from which it could not advance, its commander having
+"quickly perceived that an advance meant annihilation, as it would
+involve not only a frontal, but also a flank fire from the town." Here
+the Fourth Infantry remained, but continued to maintain a fire upon
+both the blockhouse and the town.
+
+There is but one more regiment in all of Lawton's division to be
+accounted for, and that is the Twenty-fifth Infantry, holding the
+right of Miles' brigade in this advance. This regiment was in place
+in the line under its gallant and experienced commander,
+Lieutenant-Colonel A.S. Daggett, and contributed its full share of
+that "heavy fire on the stone fort from the time the fight began until
+it ended." Major McCaskey says the First Battalion of his regiment
+took a position on the left of the Twenty-fifth's firing line. The
+statement seems erroneous, and one is inclined to believe that it was
+originally written "on the right," instead of "on the left"; but it is
+enough for our purpose now, that the firing line of the Twenty-fifth
+is recognized well in advance. Major Baker, who commanded on the left
+of the brigade line, and whose advance was stopped by the flank fire
+from the village and a frontal fire from the fort, says: "as a matter
+of fact the village of El Caney was not charged by any troops. Those
+of Bates' brigade and the Twenty-fifth Infantry, after having carried
+the stone fort (on a hill some 75 feet higher, and to the east of the
+town,) fired into the village, and the Fourth Infantry continued its
+fire. Nor was it charged by any of the troops to our left. Such a
+charge would necessarily have been seen by us." Major Baker, who was
+on the field and had the blockhouse in clear view, declares that some
+of Bates' brigade and the Twenty-fifth Infantry carried the stone
+fort. Major McCaskey says that one battalion of the Twentieth Infantry
+(Bates' brigade) was on the left of the Twenty-fifth's firing line,
+and that one company (A) took part in the latter part of the charge by
+which the fort was taken. This battalion may be referred to by Major
+Baker when he says: "Those of Bates' brigade and the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry, after having carried, etc."
+
+As there are some matters of dispute concerning the events which I am
+now going to relate, I will present a soldier's statement before I go
+to the official records. The soldier in writing to me after the battle
+says: "I was left-guide of Company G (25th Infantry), and I received
+orders from Lieutenant McCorkle to guide on Fourth Infantry, which
+held the left flank. 'Forward, march! Guide left. Don't fire until you
+see somebody; then fire to hit!' came the orders. Tramp! tramp! Crash!
+crash! On we walked and stopped. We fired into the underbrush for
+safety; then in another moment we were under Spanish fire. Balls flew
+like bees, humming as they went. Soon we found ourselves up against a
+network of Spanish trickery. Barbed-wire fences, ditches and creeks,
+too numerous to think of. The only thing left was to go ahead or die;
+or else retreat like cowards. We preferred to go ahead. At this first
+fence Lieutenant McCorkle was taken to earth by a Spanish bullet.
+Lieutenant Moss spoke out, 'Come ahead! Let's get at these Spaniards!'
+A few moments more and he, too, was almost dead with exertion, loud
+speaking, running and jumping, as onward we swept toward the Spanish
+stronghold. The sun was exceedingly hot, as on the slope of a little
+mound we rested for a few moments. We lay here about five minutes,
+looking into the Spanish fort or blockhouse; we measured the distance
+by our eyesight, then with our rifles; we began to cheer and storm,
+and in a moment more, up the hill like a bevy of blue birds did the
+Twenty-fifth fly. G and H Companies were the first to reach the summit
+and to make the Spaniards fly into the city of El Caney, which lay
+just behind the hill. When we reached the summit others soon began to
+_mount our ladder_. We fired down into the city until nearly dusk."
+
+The brigade made its advance under fire almost from the beginning. The
+commander says it was continuously under fire from 12.30 to 4.30 p.m.
+"The attack was begun by two companies in each regiment on the firing
+line, strengthened by supports and reserves from the remaining
+companies until the brigade had but two companies in reserve. At one
+time in this hotly engaged contest the commanding officer of the
+Twenty-Fifth Infantry sent me word that he needed troops on his right.
+I then sent forward 40 Cubans, under command of Captains Jose' Varges
+and Avelens Bravo, with Lieutenants Nicholas Franco and Tomas Repelao,
+to form on the right of the Twenty-fifth, which was also the right of
+the brigade. With these Cubans I ordered Private Henry Downey, Company
+H, First Infantry, on duty as interpreter at the headquarters. These
+men advanced on the stone fort with our line, fighting gallantly,
+during which Lieutenant Nicholas Franco was mortally wounded and died
+soon afterwards." (Col. Miles' report.)
+
+From the soldier's story, as well as from the official report of the
+brigade commander, it is conclusive that the real objective of the
+Second Brigade was the stone fort, and that the Twenty-fifth Infantry,
+which occupied the right of the line, had no other objective
+whatever.* [Transcriber's Note: No footnote text present for this
+footnote anchor.] It also appears that Bates' brigade, although
+somewhere on the right, was not so near but that the commanding
+officer of the Twenty-fifth could see the need of troops at his right;
+and to meet this need the brigade commander "sent forward 40 Cubans,
+who advanced on the stone fort with our lines." The fire from this
+fort continued severe during the whole of the advance, and until the
+last halt made by the Twenty-fifth. At the first fence met by the
+Twenty-fifth Lieutenant McCorkle was killed; and, to use the words of
+a soldier, "as the regiment swept toward the Spanish stronghold" to
+reach the slope of a little mound for cover, many more fell. Behind
+this little mound, after resting about five minutes, they began their
+last fire upon the enemy. This must have been as late as 3 o'clock,
+and perhaps considerably later, and the fire from the stone fort was
+vigorous up until their last halt, as their casualties prove. The
+battery had begun to fire on the fort again at 12.30 and continued
+from the same position until 2.10, the range being as has been already
+stated, 2,400 yards. Hence the artillery firing at long range had
+ceased, and it is generally conceded that this long range firing had
+been ineffective. Captain Capron says he moved his battery at 2.10
+p.m. to 1,000 yards from Caney and opened fire on two blockhouses. He
+does not say at what hour he opened fire on these two blockhouses, or
+how long he continued to fire, or what was the effect of his fire upon
+the two block houses. Lieutenant-Colonel Bisbee, who was acting as
+support of Capron's battery, says of himself that he "moved with the
+battery at 3.30 p.m. by the Dubroix (Ducureaux) road." General Lawton
+says the battery was moved to a new position about 2.30, "about 1,000
+yards from certain blockhouses in the town, where a few shots, all
+taking effect, were fired." From these reports it would appear that
+after moving to the second station the battery fired upon two
+blockhouses in the town, and not upon the stone fort. General Ludlow,
+speaking of the battle, says: "In the present case, the artillery fire
+was too distant to reduce the blockhouses or destroy the
+entrenchments, so that the attack was practically by infantry alone."
+On the other hand, General Chaffee says: "The resistance at this
+point," meaning the stone fort at the time of assault, "had been
+greatly affected by the fire of Capron's battery." Colonel Comba, of
+the Twelfth Infantry, says: "The artillery made the breach through
+which our men entered the stone work." Bonsal says that Captain
+Capron, "under the concentrated fire of his four guns at a point blank
+range of a thousand yards, had converted the fort into a shapeless
+ruin," when the infantry charged it.
+
+It is probable that in this case, as in most cases of similar nature,
+the truth divides equally between the apparently opposing views. Of
+General Ludlow, who is the authority for this statement, that the
+stone fort at El Caney was taken by infantry alone, General Lawton
+says: "General Ludlow's professional accomplishments are well known
+and his assignment to command a brigade in my division I consider a
+high compliment to myself." "The fighting was all done with small
+arms" were the words written me by an infantryman soon after the
+battle. The question, whether Capron fired upon the stone fort after
+taking his new position, or fired on two blockhouses, entirely
+distinct from the fort, remains undetermined. The author of this work
+inclines to the conclusion that the fire of Capron after moving to his
+new position was directed for a brief period, at least, upon the stone
+fort.
+
+Inasmuch as we are now to trace the career of the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry through an unfortunate dispute, on both sides of which are
+officers of high rank and unimpeachable honor, it is important to
+note, first, to what extent the several statements, both unofficial
+and official, can be harmonized and made to corroborate one another.
+Major Baker says: "Those of Bates' brigade and the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry, after having carried the stone fort," which he explains was
+some 75 feet higher than the town, then fired _down_ into the village.
+The soldier who acted as left-guide of Company G, Twenty-fifth
+Infantry, says, after getting up on the hill, "we fired _down_ into
+the city until near dusk." The experience of the soldier agrees
+exactly with the report of the officer. The fact that the Twenty-fifth
+went up the hill cannot be questioned, and that up to their last halt,
+they went under fire, no one will deny. Bonsal, in speaking of
+Chaffee's brigade, which was "more immediately charged with the
+reduction of Caney" (Ludlow's report), says: "And it was nearly five
+o'clock when his most advanced regiment, the gallant Twelfth Infantry,
+deployed into the valley and charged up the steep hillside, which was
+lined with Spanish trenches, rising in irregular tiers and crowned
+with a great stone fort." The stone fort at this time, however, was,
+as he says, "a shapeless ruin." Where was the Twenty-fifth Infantry at
+this time? Mr. Bonsal continues: "Almost at the same moment the
+Twenty-fifth Colored Infantry, the leading regiment of Miles' brigade,
+which had been advancing in the centre, started up the hill also."
+General Lawton says that after moving the battery to its new position,
+1,000 yards from certain blockhouses in the town, Capron fired a few
+shots, all of which took effect, and he adds: "This firing terminated
+the action, as the Spanish garrison were attempting to escape."
+Colonel Comba says there was a breach in the stonework large enough
+for his men to enter, and that this had been made by the artillery;
+General Chaffee says resistance had been greatly affected by the
+artillery, and Bonsal adds, the garrison resisted the last advance
+made by the infantry but for a moment.
+
+General Chaffee declares: "The troops arriving at the fort were there
+in the following order: Twelfth Infantry, which took the place; the
+command of General Bates some moments later; the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry."
+
+The facts therefore stand, that the Twenty-fifth Infantry was on the
+ground with the first troops that reached the fort and that there was
+a captain of that regiment who then and there claimed the capture of
+the place, even against the claims of a Major-General. He was told
+that his proposition was absurd, and so it may have been from one
+standpoint; and yet there may be a ground upon which the captain's
+claim was fair and just.
+
+That the Twelfth Infantry arrived on the ground first is not disputed;
+but it is questioned whether the fort was belligerent at that time.
+General Chaffee says the resistance had been greatly reduced by the
+artillery; General Lawton says the action had been finished by
+Capron's shots and the garrison was trying to escape; a soldier from
+the Twenty-fifth says the Spaniards flew out of the fort to the town;
+Bonsal says, they stoutly resisted "for a moment and then fled
+precipitately down the ravine and up the other side, and into the
+town." If first occupancy is the only ground upon which the capture of
+a place can be claimed, then the title to the honor of capturing the
+stone fort lies, according to official report as so far presented,
+with the Twelfth Infantry. But even upon this ground it will be shown
+that the Twenty-fifth's action will relieve the claim of its captain
+from absurdity. We are now prepared to read the official report of the
+commanding officer of the Twenty-fifth Regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel
+Daggett, who was with the regiment all through the fight, and who bore
+himself so well that the division commander said: "Lieutenant-Colonel
+Daggett deserves special mention for skillful handling of his
+regiment, and would have received it before had the fact been reported
+by his brigade commander."
+
+     July 5, 1898.
+
+     Intrenchments Twenty-fifth United States Infantry,
+     Adjutant-General, Second Brigade, Second Division, Fifth
+     Corps.
+
+     Sir:--I have the honor to submit the following report of the
+     part taken by the Twenty-fifth Infantry in the battle of the
+     1st instant. The regiment formed firing line on the right of
+     the Fourth Infantry, facing a Spanish fort or blockhouse
+     about half a mile distant. On moving forward, the battalion,
+     composed of Companies C, D, E, G and H, and commanded by
+     Capt. W.S. Scott, received the fire of the enemy, and after
+     advancing about 400 yards was subjected to a galling fire on
+     their left. Finding cover, the battalion prepared for an
+     advance up the hill to the fort. This advance was made
+     rapidly and conducted with great skill by company officers.
+
+     "On arriving within a short distance of the fort the white
+     flag was waved to our companies, but a cross fire prevented
+     the enemy from advancing with it or our officers from
+     receiving it. About twenty minutes later a battalion of some
+     other regiment advanced to the rear of the fort, completely
+     covered from fire, and received the flag; but the men of the
+     Twenty-fifth Infantry entered the fort at the same time. All
+     officers and men behaved gallantly. One officer was killed
+     and three wounded; eight men were killed and twenty wounded.
+
+     "About 200 men and ten officers were in the firing line. I
+     attribute the comparatively small losses to the skill and
+     bravery of the company officers, viz.: First Lieutenant
+     Caldwell and Second Lieutenants Moss and Hunt. Second
+     Lieutenant French, adjutant of the battalion, was among
+     those who gallantly entered the fort.
+
+     "The battle lasted about two hours and was a hotly contested
+     combat. Very respectfully,
+
+     "A.S. DAGGETT,
+     "Lieutenant-Colonel, Twenty-fifth Infantry, Commanding."
+
+Here it is shown by the testimony of the regimental commander, that a
+battalion of the Twenty-fifth ascended the hill and arrived at a short
+distance from the fort about twenty minutes before any other troops
+are mentioned as coming in sight; and that a white flag was waved to
+the companies of the Twenty-fifth. It was doubtless upon this ground
+that a captain of the Twenty-fifth had the temerity to claim the
+capture of the place, even from a Major-General. I do not know who the
+captain was, but it is evident that he had what he believed ample
+grounds for his claim. Colonel Daggett says, also, that when the men
+of the other regiment advanced to this fort after it had waved the
+white flag to the companies of the Twenty-fifth, the men of the
+Twenty-fifth advanced and entered the fort at the same time. Bonsal
+says: "Almost at the same moment that the Twelfth started up the hill
+the Twenty-fifth started up the hill also;" while according to Colonel
+Daggett's testimony the Twenty-fifth was well up the hill already and
+the fort had waved to it the white flag.
+
+Colonel Daggett makes this further report:
+
+     Headquarters Twenty-fifth Infantry,
+     Near Santiago, Cuba, July 16, 1898.
+
+     The Adjutant-General, Second Division, Fifth Corps, near Santiago,
+     Cuba.
+
+     Sir:--Feeling that the Twenty-fifth Infantry has not
+     received credit for the part it took in the battle of El
+     Caney on the first instant, I have the honor to submit the
+     following facts:
+
+     I was ordered by the brigade commander to put two companies
+     (H, Lieutenant Caldwell, and G, Lieutenant McCorkle) on the
+     firing line in extended order. The right being uncovered and
+     exposed to the enemy, I ordered D Company (Captain Edwards)
+     to deploy as flankers. The battalion was commanded by Capt.
+     W.S. Scott. The battalion advanced about 300 yards under
+     fire, the Fourth Infantry on its left, where the line found
+     cover, halted, and opened fire on the blockhouse and
+     intrenchments in front of it. After the line had been
+     steadied and had delivered an effective fire, I ordered a
+     further advance, which was promptly made. As the Fourth
+     Infantry did not advance, my left was exposed to a very
+     severe fire from the village on the left. I immediately
+     ordered Company C (Lieutenant Murdock), which was in
+     support, to the front, and E. Company (Lieutenant Kinnison)
+     from regimental reserve to take its place. Thus
+     strengthened, the four companies moved up the hill rapidly,
+     being skilfully handled by company officers. On arriving
+     near the fort the white flag was waved toward our men, but
+     the fire from the village on our left was so severe that
+     neither our officers nor Spanish could pass over the
+     intervening ground. After about twenty minutes some of the
+     Twelfth Infantry arrived in rear of the fort, completely
+     sheltered from the fire from the village, and received the
+     white flag; but Privates J.H. Jones, of Company D, and T.C.
+     Butler, H. Company, Twenty-fifth Infantry, entered the fort
+     at the same time and took possession of the Spanish flag.
+     They were ordered to give it up by an officer of the Twelfth
+     United States Infantry, but before doing so they each tore a
+     piece from it, which they now have. So much for the facts.
+
+     I attribute the success attained by our line largely to the
+     bravery and skill of the company officers who conducted the
+     line to the fort. These officers are: First Lieutenants V.A.
+     Caldwell and J.A. Moss, and Second Lieutenant J.E. Hunt. It
+     is my opinion that the two companies first deployed could
+     not have reached the fort alone, and that it was the two
+     companies I ordered to their support that gave them the
+     power to reach it. I further believe that had we failed to
+     move beyond the Fourth Infantry the fort would not have been
+     taken that night.
+
+     The Twenty-fifth Infantry lost one officer killed[18] and
+     three wounded, and seven men killed and twenty-eight
+     wounded.
+
+     Second Lieutenant H.W. French, adjutant of Captain Scott's
+     battalion, arrived at the fort near the same time as the
+     other officers.
+
+     I request that this report be forwarded to corps
+     headquarters.
+
+     Very respectfully,
+
+     A.S. DAGGETT,
+     Lieutenant-Colonel, Twenty-fifth Infantry, Commanding.
+
+General Chaffee's statement is not to be questioned for a moment.
+There is not the least doubt that the troops, as organizations arrived
+at the fort in the order he describes. General Lawton says: "General
+Chaffee's brigade was especially charged with the duty of assaulting
+the stone fort, and successfully executed that duty, after which a
+portion of the Twenty-fifth, and a portion of Bates' brigade, assisted
+in the work, all of which is commendable." He says also, that the
+"Twenty-fifth Infantry did excellent service, as reported, though
+not better than the others engaged.' This seems to confirm
+Lieutenant-Colonel Daggett's report, for he says he is sure the
+regiment did excellent work, "as reported;" and at that time he is
+commenting on Lieutenant-Colonel Daggett's report, the report printed
+above. The broad statements of General Lawton do not touch the exact
+question at issue between the reports of the subordinate commanders;
+nor do they throw any light on the circumstances of the final charge.
+Miles' brigade had been advancing on the stone fort for some hours,
+and the Twenty-fifth was so near when the charge of the Twelfth was
+made that portions of it were on the hill and near the fort at the
+same time. The commander of the Third Brigade saw the fight from one
+side and reported events as he learned them. His official statement
+requires no support. The commanding officer of the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry saw the fight from another standpoint, and his official
+reports are entitled to equal respect. Both the General's and the
+Lieutenant-Colonel's must be accepted as recitals of facts, made with
+all the accuracy that high personal integrity armed with thorough
+military training can command. Happily the statements, which at first
+appear so widely at variance, are entirely reconcilable. The following
+supplementary report of the regimental commander, when taken in
+connection with the final complimentary orders published in the
+regiment before leaving Cuba, will place the whole subject before the
+reader and put the question at rest, and at the same time leave
+undisturbed all the reports of superior officers.
+
+     Headquarters Twenty-fifth Infantry,
+     Montauk Point, Long Island, August 22, 1898.
+
+     The Adjutant-General, U.S. Army, Washington, D.C.
+
+     Sir:--I have the honor to submit a supplementary report to
+     the original one made on the 19th (16th) of July, 1898, of
+     the battle of El Caney de Cuba, so far as relates to the
+     part taken therein by the Twenty-fifth Infantry:
+
+     1. I stated in the original report that the Twenty-fifth
+     Infantry, in advancing, broke away from and left the Fourth
+     Infantry behind. This may inferentially reflect on the
+     latter regiment. It was not so intended, and a subsequent
+     visit to the battle-field convinces me that it would have
+     been impossible for the regiment to advance to the fort,
+     and, although it might have advanced a short distance
+     farther, it would have resulted in a useless slaughter, and
+     that the battalion commander exercised excellent judgment in
+     remaining where he did and by his fire aiding the
+     Twenty-fifth Infantry in its advance.
+
+     2. Colonel Miles, the then brigade commander, informed me
+     that his first report of the battle would be brief and that
+     a later and full report would be made. In his former report
+     I think he failed to give credit to myself and regiment. As
+     he was soon after relieved of the command of the brigade I
+     assume that no further report will be made.
+
+     I have reported what the regiment did, but said nothing
+     about my own action. I must, therefore, report it myself or
+     let it go unrecorded. Distasteful as it is to me, I deem it
+     duty to my children to state the facts and my claims based
+     thereon, as follows:
+
+     1. I was ordered to put two companies in the firing line.
+     Before this line advanced the brigade commander informed me,
+     and personal examination verified, that my right was in the
+     air and exposed. On my own judgment I ordered a company, as
+     flankers, to that part of the line.
+
+     2. As soon as the line had rested and become steadied at its
+     first halt I ordered it to advance, and it continued to
+     advance, although it broke away from the rest of the
+     brigade.
+
+     3. As this exposed the left to a galling and dangerous fire,
+     I ordered, on my own judgment, a company to re-enforce that
+     part of the line and a company from the regimental reserve
+     also to the fighting line.
+
+     These are the facts, and as my orders were to keep my left
+     joined to the right of the Fourth Infantry, and received no
+     further orders, my claims are as follows:
+
+     1. That it was necessary to place a company on the right as
+     flankers.
+
+     2. That the conditions offered an opportunity to advance
+     after the first halt, and I took advantage of it.
+
+     3. That the left being exposed by this advance of the line
+     beyond the rest of the brigade, it was proper and necessary
+     to re-enforce it by two companies.
+
+     4. That the two companies first deployed could not have
+     reached the stone fort.
+
+     5. That the three companies added to the firing line gave it
+     the power to reach the fort.
+
+     6. That the advance beyond the rest of the brigade was a
+     bold and, without support, dangerous movement, but that the
+     result justified the act. Had it failed I would have been
+     held responsible.
+
+     7. That I saw at each stage of the battle what ought to be
+     done, and did it. Results show that it was done at the right
+     moment.
+
+     8. That the Twenty-fifth Infantry caused the surrender of
+     the stone fort.
+
+     I desire to repeat that it is with great reluctance that I
+     make so much of this report as relates to myself, and
+     nothing but a sense of duty would impel me to do it.
+
+     Very respectfully,
+
+     A.S. DAGGETT,
+     Lieutenant-Colonel, Twenty-fifth Infantry, Commanding.
+
+
+LOSSES OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH INFANTRY.
+
+     Killed.--Lieutenant H.L. McCorkle, Company G; Private Albert
+     Strother, H; Private John W. Steele, D; Corporal Benj.
+     Cousins, H; Private John B. Phelps, D; Private French Payne,
+     B; Private Aaron Leftwich, G; Private Tom Howe, D.
+
+     Wounded.--Company A: Private William H. Clarke, Sergeant
+     Stephen A. Browne. Company B: Private Tom Brown. Company C:
+     Lieutenant John S. Murdock, Private Joseph L. Johnson,
+     Private Samuel W. Harley, Private John A. Boyd. Company D;
+     Captain Eaton A. Edwards, Sergeant Hayden Richards, Private
+     Robert Goodwin. Company E: Lieutenant H.L. Kinnison, Private
+     James Howard, Private John Saddler, Private David C. Gillam,
+     Private Hugh Swann. Company F: First Sergeant Frank Coleman.
+     Company G: Corporal James O. Hunter, Private Henry
+     Brightwell, Private David Buckner, Private Alvin Daniels,
+     Private Boney Douglas, Private George P. Cooper, Private
+     John Thomas, Corporal Gov. Staton, Private Eugene Jones.
+     Company H: Private James Bevill, Private Henry Gilbert.
+
+     Wounded July 2.--Private Elwood A. Forman, H; Private Smith,
+     D; Private William Lafayette, F.
+
+COMPLIMENTARY ORDER.
+
+     Headquarters 25th Infantry,
+
+     Near Santiago de Cuba, August 11, 1898.
+     General Orders No. 19.
+
+     The regimental commander congratulates the regiment on the
+     prospect of its speedy return to the United States.
+
+     Gathered from three different stations, many of you
+     strangers to each other, you assembled as a regiment for the
+     first time in more than twenty-eight years on May 7, 1898,
+     at Tampa, Florida. There you endeavored to solidify and
+     prepare yourselves, as far as the oppressive weather would
+     permit, for the work that appeared to be before you; but,
+     who could have fortold the severity of that work?
+
+     You endured the severe hardships of a long sea voyage, which
+     no one who has not experienced it can appreciate. You then
+     disembarked, amidst dangerous surroundings; and on landing
+     were for the first time on hostile ground. You marched,
+     under a tropical sun, carrying blanket-roll, three days'
+     rations, and one hundred rounds of ammunition, through rain
+     and mud, part of the time at night, sleeping on the wet
+     ground without shelter, living part of the time on scant
+     rations, even, of bacon, hard bread and coffee, until on
+     July 1 you arrived at El Caney. Here you took the battle
+     formation and advanced to the stone fort, more like veterans
+     than troops who had never been under fire. You again
+     marched, day and night, halting only to dig four lines of
+     intrenchments, the last being the nearest point to the enemy
+     reached by any organization, when, still holding your
+     rifles, within these intrenchments, notice was received that
+     Santiago and the Spanish army had surrendered.
+
+     But commendable as the record cited may be, the brightest
+     hours of your lives were on the afternoon of July 1. Formed
+     in battle array, you advanced to the stone fort against
+     volleys therefrom, and rifle-pits in front, and against a
+     galling fire from blockhouses, the church tower and the
+     village on your left. You continued to advance, skilfully
+     and bravely directed by the officers in immediate command,
+     halting and delivering such a cool and well-directed fire
+     that the enemy was compelled to wave the white flag in token
+     of surrender.
+
+     Seldom have troops been called upon to face a severer fire,
+     and never have they acquitted themselves better.
+
+     The regimental reserve was called upon to try its nerve, by
+     lying quiet under a galling fire, without the privilege of
+     returning it, where men were killed and wounded. This is a
+     test of nerve which the firing line cannot realize, and
+     requires the highest qualities of bravery and endurance.
+
+     You may well return to the United States proud of your
+     accomplishments; and if any one asks you what you have done,
+     point him to El Caney.
+
+     But in the midst of the joy of going home, we mourn the loss
+     of those we leave behind. The genial, generous-hearted
+     McCorkle fell at his post of duty, bravely directing his men
+     in the advance on the stone fort. He died as the soldier
+     dies, and received a soldier's burial. He was beloved by all
+     who knew him, and his name will always be fondly remembered
+     by his regiment--especially by those who participated in the
+     Santiago campaign. The officers of the regiment will wear
+     the prescribed badge of mourning for Lieutenant McCorkle for
+     thirty days. And Corporal Benjamin Cousins, Privates Payne,
+     Lewis, Strother, Taliaferro, Phelps, Howell, Steel and
+     Leftwitch, sacrificed their lives on their country's altar.
+     Being of a race which only thirty-five years ago emerged
+     through a long and bloody war, from a condition of
+     servitude, they in turn engaged in a war which was
+     officially announced to be in the interest of humanity and
+     gave all they had--their lives--that the oppressed might be
+     free, and enjoy the blessings of liberty guaranteed by a
+     stable government. They also died like true soldiers and
+     received a soldier's burial.
+
+     By order of Lieutenant-Colonel Daggett.
+
+     M.D. CRONIN,
+     First Lieutenant and Adjutant, 25th Infantry.
+
+
+MAJOR GENERAL AARON S. DAGGETT.
+
+General Aaron S. Daggett is a native of Maine, born at Greene Corner,
+in that State, June 14, 1837. He is descended from a paternal ancestry
+which can be traced, with an honorable record, as far back as 1100
+A.D. His mother was Dorcas C., daughter of Simon Dearborn, a
+collateral descendant of General Henry Dearborn. His more immediate
+ancestors came from Old to New England about 1630, and both his
+grandparents served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary
+War. He was educated in his native town, at Monmouth Academy, Maine
+Wesleyan Seminary and Bates College. At the outbreak of the Civil War
+he enlisted as a private, April 27th, 1861, in the 5th Maine Infantry;
+was appointed second lieutenant May 1, and promoted first lieutenant
+May 24, 1861. He commanded his company at the first Bull Run battle,
+and was promoted captain August 14, 1861.
+
+[Illustration: Lieutenant-Colonel A.S. Daggett]
+
+From the first engagement of the regiment to the end of its three
+years' memorable service, Captain Daggett proved a faithful and
+gallant soldier. He was promoted major, January 8th, 1863; on January
+18th, 1865, was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 5th Regiment,
+United States Veteran Volunteers, Hancock Corps, and was brevetted
+colonel and brigadier-general of volunteers, March 13, 1865, for
+"gallant and meritorious services during the war." He also received
+the brevets of major in the United States Army for "gallant and
+meritorious services at the battle of Rappahannock Station, Va.,"
+November 7, 1863, and lieutenant-colonel for "gallant and meritorious
+services in the battle of the Wilderness, Va." Immediately after the
+battle of Rappahannock Station, the captured trophies, flags, cannons,
+etc., were escorted, by those who had been most conspicuous in the
+action, to General Meade's headquarters, Colonel Daggett being in
+command of the battalion of his brigade. General Upton to whom he owed
+this distinction, wrote of him as follows:
+
+     "In the assault at Rappahannock Station, Colonel Daggett's
+     regiment captured over five hundred prisoners. In the
+     assault at Spottsylvania Court House, May 10, his regiment
+     lost six out of seven captains, the seventh being killed on
+     the 12th of May, at the "angle," or the point where the tree
+     was shot down by musketry, on which ground the regiment
+     fought from 9.30 A.M. to 5.30 P.M., when it was relieved. On
+     all these occasions Colonel Daggett was under my immediate
+     command, and fought with distinguished bravery.
+
+     "Throughout his military career in the Army of the Potomac,
+     he maintained the character of a good soldier and an upright
+     man, and his promotion would be commended by all those who
+     desire to see courage rewarded."
+
+General Upton also wrote to the Governor of Maine as follows:
+
+     "I would respectfully recommend to Your Excellency, Major
+     A.S. Daggett, formerly 5th Maine Volunteers, as an officer
+     highly qualified to command a regiment. Major Daggett served
+     his full term in this brigade with honor both to himself and
+     State, and won for himself the reputation of being a brave,
+     reliable and efficient officer. His promotion to a colonelcy
+     would be a great benefit to the service, while the honor of
+     his State could scarcely be entrusted to safer hands."
+
+He was subsequently recommended for promotion by Generals Meade,
+Hancock, Wright and D.A. Russell. He was in every battle and campaign
+in which the Sixth Corps, Army of the Potomac, was engaged, from the
+first Bull Run to Petersburg, and was twice slightly wounded. On July
+28, 1866, without his knowledge or solicitation, he was appointed a
+captain in the U.S. Regular Army, on recommendation of General Grant,
+and has since been promoted colonel in this service. During his
+subsequent career he has won the reputation of being a fine tactician
+and of being thoroughly versed in military law, as is indicated by
+Major Hancock's commendatory words in 1878:
+
+     "I look upon him as by far the best tactician in the
+     regiment, and as for a thorough, clear knowledge of tactics
+     his superior is not in the army. As regards military and
+     civil law, I know of no one so well informed."
+
+His ability and soldierly qualities have also been highly commended by
+General Crook, Colonel Hughes--Inspector-General in 1891--and Colonel
+----, Inspector-General in 1892.
+
+Not only as a soldier, but in many other ways, has General Daggett
+distinguished himself. As a public speaker the following was said of
+him by the Rev. S.S. Cummings, of Boston:
+
+     "It was my privilege and pleasure to listen to an address
+     delivered by General A.S. Daggett on Memorial Day of 1891. I
+     had anticipated something able and instructive, but it far
+     exceeded my fondest expectations. The address was dignified,
+     yet affable, delivered in choice language without
+     manuscript, instructive and impressive, and highly
+     appreciated by an intelligent audience."
+
+General Daggett is noted for his courteous and genial manner, and his
+sterling integrity of character. He is a member of the Presbyterian
+church.
+
+     War Department, Inspector-General's Office,
+     Washington, Jan. 6th, 1899.
+
+     To the Adjutant-General, U.S.A., Washington, D.C.
+
+     Sir:--I desire to recommend to your favorable consideration
+     and for advancement in case of the reorganization of the
+     Regular Army, Lieutenant-Colonel A.S. Daggett, 25th U.S.
+     Infantry.
+
+     I have known Colonel Daggett for a long time; he served in
+     the War of the Rebellion with the 5th Maine Volunteers and
+     acquitted himself with much honor; he served in Cuba in the
+     war with Spain, commanding the 25th U.S. Infantry, and was
+     conspicuous for gallantry at the battle of El Caney. He is
+     an officer of the highest character, intelligent, courageous
+     and energetic.
+
+     I sincerely trust that he may receive all the consideration
+     he deserves.
+
+     Very respectfully,
+
+     (Sd) H.W. LAWTON,
+     Major-General, U.S.V.
+
+     A true copy:
+
+
+     M.D. CRONIN,
+     First Lieutenant and Adjutant 25th Infantry.
+     Headquarters Department of the East,
+     Governor's Island, New York City,
+     December 29, 1898.
+
+     Honorable R.A. Alger, Secretary of War, Washington, D.C.
+
+     Sir:--I recommend to the favorable consideration of the
+     Secretary of War for promotion to Brigadier-General, Colonel
+     A.S. Daggett, 25th Infantry. This officer has an excellent
+     war record; his service has been faithful since then, and in
+     the recent Spanish-American war he distinguished himself by
+     his good judgment and faithful attention to duty, as well as
+     for gallant service in action. An appointment of this
+     character will be very highly appreciated throughout the
+     army as a recognition of faithful, meritorious and gallant
+     service. From my observation of Colonel Daggett he is well
+     qualified for the position.
+
+     Very respectfully,
+
+     (Sd) WM. R. SHAFTER,
+     Major-General, U.S. Volunteers.
+
+     M.D. CRONIN,
+
+     A true copy:
+
+     First Lieutenant and Adjutant 25th Infantry.
+
+To this very brilliant official record it is necessary to add but a
+word personal. Colonel Daggett is a typical New Englander; tall,
+well-formed, nervous and sinewy, a centre of energy, making himself
+felt wherever he may be. Precise and forceful of speech, correct and
+sincere in manners, a safe counsellor and a loyal friend, his
+character approaches the ideal. Stern and commanding as an officer he
+is nevertheless tender and sympathetic. His very sensitiveness
+concerning the feelings of others embarrasses him in giving expression
+to his own feelings on seeing suffering, unless it should be urgent,
+but those who know him best know him to be just, humane and tender. No
+man could have taken more care than he did for his regiment in Cuba.
+Hating oppression and wrong with a vehemency suited to his intense
+nature, he nevertheless deplores war and bloodshed. The President of
+the United States never did a more worthy act than when he gave to
+Lieutenant-Colonel A.S. Daggett of the Twenty-fifth Infantry his
+commission as Brigadier-General of Volunteers in recognition of his
+valor and skill at El Caney and of his general efficiency as an
+officer in our army.
+
+TESTIMONIES CONCERNING THE WORK OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH INFANTRY BEFORE EL
+CANEY.
+
+
+     Headquarters First District, Southern Luzon,
+     El Deposito, P.I., April 20, 1900.
+
+     My Dear General Daggett:--Some time ago I received a letter
+     from you asking me to make an official statement as to where
+     and at what objective the energies and fire of the 25th
+     Infantry were directed during the battle of El Caney, Cuba,
+     July 1, 1898.
+
+     In reply I have the honor to officially state that about
+     noon July 1, 1898, the regiment moved from the mango grove,
+     near the Ducro House, toward a stone fort located on a hill,
+     near the town of El Caney.
+
+     It arrived at about one of the afternoon at a point about
+     eight hundred yards to the south and east of the fort;
+     immediately deployed, and the First Battalion, under command
+     of Captain Walter S. Scott, and of which I was adjutant,
+     designated as the attacking line. Presently, after advancing
+     a few yards, we were subjected to a galling fire from the
+     stone fort, the trenches in its front and from a blockhouse
+     on its right. The line steadily moved forward, directing its
+     fire at the stone fort and the trenches surrounding it. When
+     within about one hundred and fifty yards from the fort the
+     line was halted, and several sharpshooters, directed by
+     their company officers to fire at the loopholes. Finally,
+     when the men had regained their wind, a rush was made, part
+     of the line going through a cornfield. At the foot the line
+     was again halted, and after a few moments' rest charged up
+     the hill, and the fort surrendered.
+
+     I went to the fort and found a Spanish lieutenant and seven
+     enlisted men whom I passed out and were taken charge of by
+     an officer of the 12th Infantry. This was about 3.50 P.M.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+          Note.--Since the above was written, General Daggett
+          served with great distinction in the Philippines and in
+          China, and was retired as a brigadier-general--a hero
+          of four wars. A bill is now before Congress to make him
+          a major-general, an honor to which he is most justly
+          entitled.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     As soon as the line reached the top of the hill it was
+     fired on from the town, which had before been masked by the
+     hill; the fire was of course returned, and this was the
+     first fire from the battalion directed at the town. About
+     five o'clock firing had ceased, the battalion was assembled
+     and marched away.
+
+     (Sd) H.W. FRENCH,
+     First Lieutenant, 17th Infantry (late Second Lieutenant 25th
+     Infantry).
+
+     A true copy:
+
+     H.G. LEARNARD,
+     Capt. and Adj. 14th Infantry.
+     Manila, P.I., March 30, 1900.
+
+     I certify that in the action of El Caney, Cuba, July 1,
+     1898, the company I commanded, i.e., H, 25th Infantry,
+     directed its fire almost exclusively on the stone fort and
+     the trench a few yards from its base. That very little of
+     this company's fire was directed on the town and none before
+     the fort was carried.
+
+     (Sd) VERNON A. CALDWELL,
+     First Lieutenant, 25th Infantry.
+
+     A true copy:
+
+     H.G. LEARNARD,
+     Capt. and Adj. 14th Infantry.
+     Tayug, Luzon, Philippine Islands,
+     April 17th, 1900.
+
+     To Those in Military Authority.
+
+     Regarding the battle of El Caney, Cuba, July 1, 1898, I
+     hereby certify:
+
+     1. From about 1.20 o'clock P.M. to the time of the capture
+     of the town of El Caney, I was in command of two
+     companies--C and G--forming part of the 25th U.S. Infantry
+     firing line.
+
+     2. From about 2.55 o'clock P.M. to the time of the capture
+     of the town, very nearly the entire 25th Infantry firing
+     line was under my observation.
+
+     3. From about 2.55 o'clock P. M. to about 3.20, the time of
+     the surrender of the stone fort to the east of the town, the
+     fire of the entire 25th Infantry firing line within my sight
+     was directed against the fort.
+
+     4. During this period of the battle the 25th Infantry firing
+     line was about 150 yards from the stone fort.
+
+     5. From the time the firing line began firing--about 1
+     o'clock P.M.--to the time of the surrender of the stone
+     fort--about 3.20 P.M.--the companies under my command and
+     all others under my observation concentrated their fire on
+     the fort.
+
+     6. About 3.20 P.M., I was standing about 150 yards from the
+     stone fort, and I plainly and distinctly saw a Spaniard
+     appear in the door of the fort, and, for two or three
+     seconds, wave a white flag at the 25th Infantry firing line,
+     and upon being shot down, another Spaniard picked up the
+     flag and likewise waved it at the 25th Infantry firing line.
+
+     7. After the white flag had twice been presented to the 25th
+     Infantry firing line, and after all fire from the stone fort
+     had ceased, the firing line rushed forward, took up a
+     position facing to their left--that is, facing the town--and
+     began a vigorous fire on a small blockhouse and on the town.
+
+     Respectfully,
+
+     JAMES A. MOSS,
+     First Lieutenant, 24th U.S. Infantry.
+
+
+
+RECOLLECTIONS OF THE SANTIAGO CAMPAIGN, BY CAPTAIN R.H.R.
+LOUGHBOROUGH, 25TH U.S. INFANTRY.
+
+     The 25th U.S. Infantry left its stations in Montana on the
+     10th of April, 1898; six companies (B, C, D, E, F and H)
+     went in camp at Chickamauga National Park; the other two
+     companies (A and G) went to Key West, Fla.
+
+     On May 6th the six companies at the Chickamauga National
+     Park moved by rail to Tampa, Fla., arriving the night of the
+     7th, where they were joined by the two companies from Key
+     West. With the exception of three days in 1870, the regiment
+     had never been together since its organization in 1869. It
+     necessarily followed that many of the officers, as well as
+     men, were strangers to each other.
+
+     Our camp at Tampa was fair; the ground is sandy and flat,
+     but as the rainy season had not set in, it was dry and the
+     health was good. Drills and parades were held daily (Sundays
+     excepted), but on account of the intense heat the hours for
+     it were limited to the early mornings and after sunset. The
+     clothing of the men was the same they had worn in Montana,
+     and did not add to their comfort. Supplies of all kinds
+     (except rations) came by piecemeal, and we finally sailed
+     for the tropics with the same clothing used in the
+     Northwest.
+
+     At 6 o'clock P.M. June 6th the regiment received orders to
+     strike tents and be ready to move within an hour; the order
+     was immediately complied with, though the necessary
+     transportation to move the baggage did not report until the
+     forenoon of the following day; it was not far from noon when
+     the last of it left the camp for the railroad station, en
+     route to Port Tampa, where we were to embark on transports
+     for the seat of war.
+
+     As soon as the camp equipage was started, the regiment was
+     formed and marched to West Tampa (about three miles), where
+     we took a train for Port Tampa, distant nine miles. On
+     arrival, the regiment boarded the steamer "Concho," one of
+     the vessels to carry the expedition to its destination. The
+     4th U.S. Infantry had preceded us, and the next day a
+     battalion of the 2d Massachusetts Volunteers was put on, but
+     owing to the crowded condition of the ship, a few days later
+     they were transferred to another vessel.
+
+     The "Concho" is a large ship, but without the comforts I
+     have seen since then on the U.S. Army transports plying
+     between San Francisco and Manila. The ships used were
+     hastily fitted up for the occasion, and it could not be
+     expected that they would be all that was required, but some
+     of the appointments could and should have been better. After
+     a tedious wait until June 14th, we sailed down Tampa Bay and
+     out on the Gulf of Mexico, still in ignorance of our
+     destination. The evening of the 15th the light at Dry
+     Tortugas was seen to our right. June 16th, 17th and 18th our
+     course was a little south of east, and part of the time the
+     north coast of Cuba was visible. The weather (except the
+     intense heat) was fine. On Sunday morning, June 18th, we
+     entered the Windward Passage, and it seemed certain, from
+     our course, that Santiago was our objective. Early the next
+     morning the high mountains of Santiago de Cuba were in plain
+     sight to our north. June 20th and 21st, remained off the
+     coast; the sea was rough and the vessel rolled considerably,
+     adding to the discomfort of every one, especially those
+     subject to seasickness. During the evening of the 21st,
+     orders were received to be ready to disembark the following
+     morning. About 8 A.M. on the 22d our warships began shelling
+     the coast, and two hours later the troops started in small
+     boats from the transports to the shore. By evening most of
+     the Second Division and part of the Cavalry Division were on
+     Cuban soil. There was no opposition to our landing; I
+     believe that a small force well handled could have made it
+     very difficult, if, indeed, it could not have prevented it.
+
+     As soon as the regiment had landed it was marched out about
+     four miles and bivouacked for the night. The country is
+     rugged and covered with a dense tropical vegetation. A few
+     "Cuban Patriots" had joined us and formed the extreme
+     advance, saving us some disagreeable outpost duty. This was
+     the only service that I know of them doing throughout the
+     campaign, though they were always on hand ration day. Later
+     developments showed that the service rendered was not so
+     important, as any Spanish force had retired to a safe place,
+     something our friends looked out for whenever there was any
+     danger.
+
+     June 23d, the regiment started shortly after daylight
+     towards the city of Santiago. About 9 o'clock there was a
+     report that the enemy were in our front. The regiment was
+     immediately formed for battle, and reconnoitering parties
+     sent forward; after about thirty minutes' delay the supposed
+     enemy proved to be the large leaves of some tropical trees
+     being moved by the wind, giving them the appearance of
+     persons in motion. Our route was over a narrow trail,
+     through a dense wilderness; water was scarce and the heat
+     was intense. About noon we arrived at Siboney, where we
+     bivouacked for the night. Before daylight next morning the
+     troops in our rear were heard passing on the trail by our
+     camp. Shortly after daylight Captain Capron's battery of
+     four guns passed, and the men lined up along the road and
+     cheered lustily. About an hour later, musketry fire and the
+     occasional discharge of a Hotchkiss gun could be plainly
+     heard towards Santiago. About three-quarters of an hour
+     later we received orders to march. By mistake, the wrong
+     trail was taken, and after marching fourteen hours we
+     returned to our camp of the previous night, all fagged out.
+     A great many men of the brigade were overcome with heat
+     during this long, tiresome and fruitless ramble. I cannot
+     say how many of these were of the 25th Infantry, but in my
+     own company (B) there was not a man out of the ranks when
+     the camp was reached. (I have called the above-mentioned
+     place "Siboney." There is probably some other name for it,
+     as the Cubans have one for every hamlet. It is not far from
+     Siboney, and not knowing the name, have called it Siboney.)
+
+     On the morning of the 25th we got rations from the transport
+     and all enjoyed a hearty breakfast. At 1 P.M. we broke camp
+     and marched to Sevilla, about six miles. Here we remained
+     until the morning of the 27th, part of the regiment being
+     out on picket duty. June 27th, the regiment marched three
+     miles towards Santiago and bivouacked on the banks of a
+     small creek. Bathing was forbidden, as the creek was the
+     only water supply for the army. The troops remained at this
+     place until the afternoon of June 30th. The camp was in the
+     valley of the creek, the ground is low and flat, and with
+     the heavy rainfall every one was uncomfortable. Rations had
+     to be brought from Siboney over a trail and did not arrive
+     regularly.
+
+     About 1 o'clock in the afternoon on the 30th, the officers
+     of the regiment were assembled at headquarters and were
+     notified that there would be an attack on the Spanish
+     position the next morning. About 4 o'clock the regiment
+     started for its position, arriving after 10 o'clock, having
+     covered a distance of less than three miles. The route was
+     over an excuse for a road, but was crowded with some of the
+     troops of almost every organization of the army, causing
+     numberless halts, but worse than all, breaking the
+     much-needed rest of the troops. On one part of this route I
+     heard men asking, "What regiment is this?" and heard various
+     responses, as follows: "The W.W.W.'s, the 1st Cavalry, the
+     4th Infantry, the 10th Cavalry," etc. Some one asked, "What
+     are the W.W.W.'s?" and some one replied, "Wood's Weary
+     Walkers." I do not know who is responsible for that
+     condition of affairs. Had we had an enterprising enemy in
+     our front, disaster certainly would have followed. Here were
+     a number of organizations scattered along a narrow, muddy
+     trail, at the mercy of an active foe. All this was only
+     three or four miles from the Spanish works. The men were
+     cheerful, and few if any realized that there might be
+     danger.
+
+     Most of the men were up and moving about before daylight the
+     next morning. Shortly after, the regiment started in the
+     direction of El Caney. At 9 A.M. we halted in a mango grove
+     near the Ducureau mansion. Shortly before noon a mounted
+     orderly appeared with a message for the brigade commander. A
+     few minutes later the march towards El Caney was taken up.
+     Heavy musketry fire had been heard in that direction since
+     shortly before 7 o'clock. A march of little more than a mile
+     and the regiment was formed for battle, Companies G and H in
+     the firing line, C and D in support, the remaining four
+     companies in reserve.
+
+     For two hours or perhaps more the firing was very heavy,
+     especially during the second hour. Attention is called to
+     report of Colonel A.S. Daggett, pages 387 and 388, "Report
+     of the War Department, 1898, Vol. I," and endorsement on
+     same by Major-General A.R. Chaffee. He says: "This stone
+     fort was practically in the possession of the 12th Infantry
+     at about 2 P.M. July 1." I cannot reconcile this statement
+     with the fact that between the hours named some of the
+     heaviest firing was going on, which does not indicate that
+     its defenders were ready to give up. Lord Wellington once
+     said, "At the end of every campaign truth lies at the bottom
+     of a deep well, and it often takes twenty years to get her
+     out." This may not be an exception. About half-past 4
+     o'clock the firing ceased and El Caney was ours.
+
+     The dead were collected near a hedge and the regiment was
+     formed in column of masses to pay a silent tribute of
+     respect to our departed comrades.
+
+     The regiment then started for the mango grove where we had
+     left our blanket rolls and haversacks. Just as we were
+     starting, some men with canteens started for water (about a
+     mile away), when orders were received to be ready to march
+     in twenty minutes. A few rods took us back to the road
+     leading to Santiago. We moved down the road about
+     three-quarters of a mile and halted. Two hours later, the
+     pack train arrived with ammunition and then another with
+     rations. Before the latter were issued orders were issued to
+     move at once to the rear. The regiment marched over the
+     trail it had come on the day before, arriving at El Poso
+     about 8 o'clock A.M. Here we took the road leading to
+     Santiago. About 9 A.M. we passed under San Juan Hill and
+     moved to our right. Our forces held the crest of the hill.
+     In passing along the hill we were sheltered from the fire
+     except a short space, where one or two men were slightly
+     wounded. Arriving at the La Cruz house near the road leading
+     from El Caney to Santiago about 3.30 P.M. and bivouacked for
+     the night. About 10 o'clock the troops on our left were
+     attacked by the Spanish. The firing was very heavy for an
+     hour, when it suddenly ceased, and we retired for the night.
+     During this time we were under the hill and protected from
+     the fire.
+
+     Next morning (Sunday, July 3d) desultory firing began at
+     daylight. About 7 A.M. the regiment left the La Cruz house
+     and moved across the Caney-Santiago road and formed line to
+     the left and moved forward to a ridge overlooking the city.
+     A number of shots fell about us, but no one was struck.
+     Shortly after, we were in possession of the ridge and began
+     intrenching. The firing was kept up and two men were
+     wounded. About noon we were informed that a truce had been
+     established and all work was stopped. This gave all a
+     much-needed rest, though it proved to be of short duration,
+     caused by a false alarm by Major Webb, the inspector of the
+     division staff.
+
+     During the afternoon the regiment was moved to the foot of
+     the ridge, leaving only the pickets on the crest. About 8.30
+     P.M. we were ordered to the picket line and began
+     intrenching. The tall grass was wet from a drenching rain a
+     few hours before. The ground, though wet, was hard, and slow
+     progress was made, having only their bayonets for picks and
+     their bare hands for shovels. All night this work went on.
+     The men were tired, and hungry (as rations had not come up
+     that day), but worked faithfully. During this, and I will
+     add, throughout the campaign, I never heard a murmur nor a
+     complaint; even when almost all the men of the regiment were
+     down with fever and bowel trouble they were cheerful and
+     ready to do any duty they were called on for.
+
+     The morning of July 3d Cervera's fleet sailed down the bay.
+     An officer rode by our part of the line about half-past 9
+     and informed us of it. A few minutes later we heard the roar
+     of the big guns, though at the time I little thought of what
+     was going on. In the afternoon we heard cheering on our line
+     way to the left, and as the good news came along it was
+     taken up, and soon the whole line was shouting.
+
+     On the morning of July 5th the non-combatants left Santiago
+     by two roads, one passing through our line. It was a pitiful
+     sight. During the forenoon of the 5th we moved about a mile
+     to the right and began intrenching. This position was very
+     near the Spanish line, and quite elaborate works were
+     constructed. We remained in this position until the morning
+     of the 11th, when the regiment was ordered to the right of
+     the line, about three miles. Here we intrenched. About 1
+     P.M. a truce was announced.
+
+     At 9.15 P.M. a staff officer came to the regimental
+     commander's tent and informed him that the regiment was to
+     be on the line at 12 o'clock midnight, and as soon as the
+     moon rose to advance through the jungle until fired on, when
+     the line was to halt and intrench. The night was stormy and
+     any moon there might have been was obscured by the clouds.
+     We were up, however, standing until daylight in a drenching
+     rain, for it was so dark that any movement was impossible.
+     Our rest was broken, without accomplishing anything that I
+     know or heard of.
+
+     However, the rain and storm were providential, for I will
+     always believe if the movement had been started we should
+     have met with disaster. The ground was broken, deep ravines
+     and underbrush with wire fences running through it. I have
+     never learned who was "the father" of this order, and
+     possibly never will. He must be ashamed of it.
+
+     The afternoon of the 12th the regiment advanced several
+     hundred yards to the front and dug more intrenchments. They
+     were still on this work the afternoon of the 14th when it
+     was announced that the Spanish army had agreed to surrender.
+     This came none too soon, for our men were coming down with
+     malarial fever. A few days later nearly half the regiment
+     were on the sick list, and the balance could not have done
+     much.
+
+     The regiment was moved the same afternoon to higher ground
+     in rear of the trenches. Strong guards were kept to look out
+     for our prisoners and to prevent "our allies," the Cubans,
+     from going into the city.
+
+     On the morning of the 17th the formal surrender of the city
+     and Spanish army took place. We were some distance away and
+     did not see anything of the ceremony.
+
+     On July 25th the regiment was moved about a mile further
+     back in the hills and made camp, our tents, etc., having
+     been brought up from the transport. Medicines appeared very
+     scarce, resulting in much suffering. The food supplied was
+     totally unfit for our new surroundings, and I believe not a
+     little of the sickness can be traced to this. Our last camp
+     was as good as any to be found in that vicinity.
+
+     The regiment remained in camp until August 13th, when it
+     embarked on the transport "Camanche" for Montauk Point,
+     arriving on the 18th, and landed on the 23d.
+
+     B.H.R. LOUGHBOROUGH,
+     Captain, 25th Infantry.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[18] First Lieutenant McCorkle killed; Captain Edwards and First
+Lieutenants Kinnison and Murdock wounded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+SAN JUAN.
+
+     Cavalry Division: The Ninth and Tenth Regiments.
+
+
+When Lawton's division swung off to the right to engage the enemy at
+El Caney, with the results described in the preceeding chapter, the
+divisions of Wheeler and Kent were ordered to proceed directly along
+the Santiago road toward San Juan. Within a mile from El Pozo, the
+point where they had bivouacked for the night of the 30th, the troops
+arrived at the Aguadores River, which crosses the road here within
+less than a mile from San Juan Heights. Wheeler's division headed the
+column, although that general was not commanding. He had been relieved
+on the afternoon of the 30th and did not resume command until about 4
+o'clock on July 1,[19] long after the heights had been carried,
+although he was on the field shortly after 1 o'clock of that day.
+
+The Dismounted Cavalry Division on the morning of July 1 presented
+2,663 fighting men, including officers. The First Brigade, commanded
+by Colonel Carrol, had 50 officers and 1,054 men, in regiments as
+follows: Third Cavalry, 22 officers, 420 men; Sixth Cavalry, 16
+officers, 427 men; Ninth Cavalry, 12 officers, 207 men, the Ninth
+having hardly one-half the strength of either of the other regiments
+of the brigade. The Second Brigade, commanded by General Wood,
+contained 1,559 persons, distributed as follows: Brigade staff, 9
+officers, 14 men; First Cavalry, 21 officers, 501 men: Tenth Cavalry,
+22 officers, 507 men; First Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders), 25
+officers, 517 men.
+
+Before the troops left El Poso, Grimes' battery had been put in
+position and had fired a few shots at a blockhouse on San Juan Hill,
+distance 2,600 yards. Using black powder, which created a cloud of
+smoke with every shot, the battery was readily located by the foe, and
+the shrapnel from their guns was soon bursting among our forces. The
+second shot from the Spaniards wounded four of the Rough Riders and
+two or three of the regulars, while a third killed and wounded several
+Cubans. As a matter of course there was a rapid movements of the
+troops from that immediate vicinity. The firing soon ceased, and the
+troops took up that general advance movement already noted.
+
+It is no easy task to follow the movements of the Cavalry Division
+from the time it left El Poso that July morning until it finally
+entrenched itself for the night on San Juan Hills. As heretofore we
+will take the official reports first, and from them make up the
+itinerary and the movements of the battle that followed, as far as
+they will enable us to do so. General Sumner says the division
+proceeded toward Santiago, and when about three-fourths of a mile from
+El Poso was halted in a narrow road to await orders and remained there
+for nearly an hour, subject to the effects of heavy artillery fire
+from the enemy's battery. Major Wessells, of the Third Cavalry, says,
+while following the road toward Santiago that morn, "much delay ensued
+from some reason unknown to the undersigned," and that the First
+Brigade of the division arrived at San Juan ford about 10 o'clock.
+This creek was about five hundred yards farther toward Santiago than
+Aguadores River, and ran about parallel with San Juan Heights, from
+which it was about three-fourths of a mile distant.
+
+The orders for which General Sumner had waited nearly an hour under
+fire had come and were "verbal instructions to move to the San Juan
+Creek and hold it." Reaching this creek his advance guard was met by
+the Spaniards who fired one volley and retreated to a position on a
+hill on Sumner's right front, about 1,200 yards distant. Crossing this
+creek with sufficient strength to hold it, Sumner was now ordered to
+move by the right flank and connect with Lawton's left. While his
+troops were in this massed condition prior to deploying to the right
+through a thick jungle, the balloon that was in use for purposes of
+reconnoitering, came up the road and exposed itself to the full view
+of the Spaniards upon the heights. They needed no further invitation
+to direct toward our forces their artillery, for which the balloon
+became a flying target. Many officers and men were wounded here by
+exploding shells and small arms' fire of the enemy (Sumner). Under
+this fire, however, the troops were deployed as ordered.
+
+Colonel Wood, who had charge of the Second Brigade, of which the Rough
+Riders were the leading regiment, says this "regiment was directed to
+change direction to the right, and by moving up the creek to effect a
+junction with General Lawton's division, which was engaged at Caney,
+about one and a-half miles toward the right, but was supposed to be
+working toward our right flank. After proceeding in this direction
+about half a mile the effort to connect with General Lawton was given
+up." This movement to the right took place between ten and eleven
+o'clock, at which time Lawton's forces had made no impression upon El
+Caney, and he was far from making any movement which might be
+described as working toward the right flank of the Cavalry Division.
+Lawton was not found by that half-hour's search to the right; and it
+was evident that something must be done by these troops in front, and
+done quickly. The whole division was under fire, and the battle on the
+Spanish side was in actual progress. True our men were hidden away in
+the jungle that bordered the creek, but their position was known to
+the Spaniards, and leaves and boughs are no cover from shot and shell.
+They were receiving the fire of the enemy and making no reply
+whatever, save by the few ineffective shots from the far away battery
+on El Poso Hill.
+
+Directly in front of the cavalry division was a little hill occupied
+by a Spanish force. This hill is called in General Wood's report East
+Hill, but in the literature of the battle it is usually mentioned as
+Kettle Hill. The fire in part was coming from here. Colonel Wood gives
+another report of the morning's experience in which he says: "The
+brigade moved down the road toward Santiago in rear of the First
+Brigade, with instructions to deploy to the right after crossing the
+San Juan, and continue to extend to the right, reaching out toward
+General Lawton's left and holding ourselves in rear of the First
+Brigade as a support. On reaching the stream the First Volunteer
+Cavalry, which was in the lead, crossed the stream with comparatively
+slight loss and deployed to the right in good order, but at this time
+a captive balloon was led down the road in which the troops were
+massed, and finally anchored at the crossing of the stream. The
+approach and anchoring of this balloon served to indicate the line of
+approach of the troops and to locate the ford, and the result was a
+terrific converging of artillery and rifle fire on the ford, which
+resulted in severe loss of men. Under this fire the First United
+States Cavalry and the Tenth United States Cavalry crossed the stream
+and deployed to the right where they were placed in position in rear
+of the First Brigade. Two regiments of the Second Brigade, to wit.,
+the First and the Tenth Regular Cavalry, were located in the rear of
+the First Brigade. The First Regular Cavalry had begun its day's work
+as support of Grimes' battery, but had later come forward and taken
+its place in the brigade time enough to join in the action that
+followed.
+
+"After completing the deployment," says Sumner, "the command was so
+much committed to battle that it became necessary either to advance or
+else retreat under fire." The troops were already in battle, but were
+not fighting, and could not do so in their present position, simply
+because they could not see the enemy. "Lieutenant Miley, representing
+General Shafter, authorized an advance, which was ordered, Carroll's
+brigade taking the advance, reinforced on the right by Roosevelt's
+regiment, and supported by the First and Tenth Cavalry." (Sumner.)
+Colonel Wood says: "After remaining in this position for about an hour
+(meaning the position held by his brigade previous to the coming of
+the order to advance) the order to advance was given, and the brigade
+advanced in good order as possible, but more or less broken up by the
+masses of brush and heavy grass and cactus; passing through the line
+of the First Brigade, mingling with them and charging the hill in
+conjunction with these troops, as well as some few infantry who had
+extended to the right." It must be remembered that the First Brigade
+consisted wholly of regulars, the Third, Sixth and Ninth Cavalry,
+while the Second Brigade had that remarkable regiment, the Rough
+Riders. This fact may account for their breaking through the lines of
+the First Brigade. Major Wessells, who commanded the Third Cavalry in
+that fight, and was himself wounded at the close of the first charge,
+says his regiment became entangled with other regiments, but,
+nevertheless, was to the crest as soon as any. Of the advance of the
+whole division, General Sumner says: "The advance was made under heavy
+infantry fire, through open flat ground, cut up by wire fences, to the
+creek, distant about 600 yards. The advance was made in good order,
+the enemy's fire being returned only under favorable opportunities. In
+crossing the flat one officer and several men were killed and several
+officers and men wounded. Both sides of the creek were heavily wooded
+for about 200 yards. The creek was swollen, and the crossing through
+this space and the creek was made with great difficulty.
+
+"After passing through the thick woods the ground was entirely open
+and fenced by wire. From this line it was necessary to storm the hill,
+upon the top of which is a house, loop-holed for defense. The slope of
+the hill is very difficult, but the assault was made with great
+gallantry and with much loss to the enemy. In this assault Colonel
+Hamilton, Lieutenants Smith and Shipp were killed; Colonel Carroll,
+Lieutenants Thayer and Myer were wounded. A number of casualties
+occurred among the enlisted men." The heights were carried by the
+whole division.
+
+Lieutenant-Colonel Baldwin's account of the part his regiment took in
+the assault upon San Juan is told about as follows: After the search
+for Lawton had been given up, the First and Tenth Cavalry were formed
+for attack on East Hill. "I was directed," he says, "to take a
+position to the right, behind the river bank, for protection. While
+moving to this position, and while there, the regiment suffered
+considerable loss. After an interval of twenty or thirty minutes I was
+directed to form line of battle in a partially open field facing
+toward the blockhouses and strong intrenchments to the north occupied
+by the enemy. Much difficulty was found on account of the dense
+undergrowth, crossed in several directions by wire fences. As a part
+of the cavalry division under General Sumner, the regiment was formed
+in two lines, the First Squadron under Major S.T. Norvell, consisting
+of Troops A, B, E and I, leading; the second line, under Major T.J.
+Wint, consisting of Troops C, F and G. Troop D having crossed farther
+down the river, attached itself to a command of infantry and moved
+with that command on the second blockhouse. The regiment advanced in
+this formation in a heavy converging fire from the enemy's position,
+proceeding but a short distance when the two lines were united into
+one. The advance was rapidly continued in an irregular line toward the
+blockhouses and intrenchments to the right front. During this advance
+the line passed some troops of the First Cavalry, which I think had
+previously been formed on our right. Several losses occurred before
+reaching the top of the hill, First Lieutenant William H. Smith being
+killed as he arrived on its crest. The enemy having retreated toward
+the northwest to the second and third blockhouses, new lines were
+formed and a rapid advance was made upon these new positions. The
+regiment assisted in capturing these works from the enemy, and with
+the exception of Troops C and I, which in the meantime had joined the
+First Volunteer Cavalry, then took up a position to the north of the
+second blockhouse, remaining there all night."
+
+Major Norvell, who commanded the First Squadron of the Tenth Cavalry,
+which consisted of Troops A, B, E and I, gives the following account
+of the experiences of July 1st:
+
+"The regiment took position in a wood, and here suffered considerable
+loss, due to the fact that the whole of the enemy's fire appeared to
+be directed to this point. In a short time we moved out of the wood by
+the right flank and then deployed to the left, being then directly in
+front of the enemy and one mile distant from his works, marked by
+three houses about half a mile from one another. The enemy was
+strongly entrenched in front of these houses. The line, consisting of
+the cavalry division, under direction of Brigadier-General Sumner,
+moved forward in double time, under a terrific fire of the enemy. We
+had a very heavy jungle to march through, beside the river (San Juan)
+to cross, and during our progress many men were killed and wounded.
+The troops became separated from one another, though the general line
+was pretty well preserved. The works of the enemy were carried in
+succession by the troops; and the Spaniards were steadily driven back
+toward the town to their last ditches. We now found ourselves about
+half a mile from the city, but the troops being by this time nearly
+exhausted, here intrenched themselves for the night under a heavy
+fire. By dark this line was occupied by all the troops engaged during
+the day."
+
+The official reports of the troop commanders of the Tenth Cavalry
+bring out a few more particulars which serve to give us a more vivid
+conception of this moving line. The entire cavalry division advanced
+together, and notwithstanding the roughness of the ground, Major
+Norvell assures us the line was pretty well preserved. Troops A, B, E
+and I were in the First Squadron, which was in the lead; Troops C, F
+and G were in the second line; Troop D made its advance with the
+infantry off to the left. We have now a fair knowledge of the general
+movement of the whole regiment. Let us follow the fortunes of some of
+the Troops, and by that means get nearer to the work done by the
+individual soldier.
+
+Troop A was on the right of the leading squadron as the regiment took
+its place in line on the left of the First Cavalry and moved against
+the Spanish blockhouses in the face of a heavy fire, making a rush
+forward without intermission. A portion of the right platoon, under
+Lieutenant Livermore, became separated in one of the thickets, and
+under instructions received personally from the brigade commander, who
+seems to have been everywhere where he was needed, continued up the
+slope toward his right and toward the first blockhouse. The remainder
+of the troop, commanded by Captain Beck and Lieutenant McCoy, moved in
+the same direction at first, but observing that on account of the
+shorter distance to the slope from that end of the line, a large
+number of troops were arriving there, Captain Beck swung his troop to
+the left and reached the summit of the hill between the second and
+third blockhouses, and on arriving received a message by an aid of the
+brigade commander to hold the ridge. Just then Lieut. Livermore
+arrived, having come by way of Blockhouse No. 1. The troop now being
+together, held the crest for an hour. At times the fire of the enemy
+was so severe and Captain Beck's force so small that there was great
+danger that he would be compelled to abandon the position, but
+fortunately at the most critical juncture Lieutenant Lyon of the
+Twenty-fourth Infantry came up with a few reinforcements, and
+Lieutenant Hughes of the Tenth Cavalry with a Hotchkiss gun.
+Lieutenant Lyon formed his troops to the left of the gun, Troop A of
+the Tenth Cavalry being on the right. With this force the position was
+held until other troops arrived. Soon after, the squadron was reformed
+and the men entrenched themselves under fire. Troop B was next to
+Troop A and advanced as skirmishers by rushes and double time, but
+soon found its front blocked by other troops. Troop I advanced in two
+sections, the left being commanded by Lieutenant Miller, joined in the
+attack on the right of the enemy's position; the right commanded by
+Lieutenant Fleming, advanced on trenches between two blockhouses, and
+in so doing caught up with the rest of the troop. The first half of
+the troop, after attacking the blockhouse on right of the enemy's
+position then crossed the valley and attacked the blockhouse on the
+left of enemy's position, and then moved forward with the First
+Regular Cavalry and First Volunteer Cavalry, until the troop assembled
+as a whole. When it reached the place of intrenchment there were
+altogether about one hundred men at that point of the ridge,
+consisting of men from the Tenth Cavalry and of the Rough Riders. It
+is claimed by Lieutenant Anderson, who commanded Troop C, and who made
+his way to the front on the right of the line, that after coming up on
+the second hill and joining his troop to the left of Troop I, Colonel
+Roosevelt and part of his regiment joined on the right of the Tenth,
+and that he reported to him, placing C Troop in his command. Before
+this time Lieutenant Anderson had reported to Captain Jones, of Troop
+F, while they were on Kettle Hill, and the Two troops, F and C, had
+been formed in skirmish line and moved against the second blockhouse.
+In this movement Troop C got separated from Captain Jones, and
+Anderson, with 18 men of his own troop and several from other
+organizations, moved forward until he connected with Troop I, as
+previously narrated. These troops, C and I, were reported by their
+Colonel as having joined the First Volunteer Cavalry. All of the troop
+commanders who were immediately with the men bear hearty testimony to
+their good conduct. Captain Jones, commanding Troop F, says: "I could
+only do justice to the troop by mentioning by name all who were
+engaged, not only for their bravery, but for their splendid discipline
+under the most demoralizing fire." Lieutenant Fleming, commanding
+Troop I, says: "The entire troop behaved with great gallantry. Private
+Elsie Jones particularly distinguished himself." Captain Beck,
+commanding Troop A, says: "The behaviour of the enlisted men was
+magnificent, paying studious attention to orders while on the firing
+line, and generally exhibiting an intrepidity which marks the
+first-class soldier." Lieutenant Hughes, who commanded the Hotchkiss
+gun detachment, mentions four men for conspicuous bravery and commends
+his entire detachment for "spirit, enterprise and good behavior."
+
+The official story is that the entire cavalry division advanced under
+orders from General Sumner and that the heft of its first blow fell
+upon Kettle Hill, which was soon captured, and on the crest of this
+hill the troops which had ascended it made a temporary halt, reformed
+their lines somewhat and immediately advanced upon the second hill to
+the help of that part of the cavalry division which had swung to the
+left in the advance, and also to the help of the infantry who were
+coming against Fort San Juan at the same time. Meanwhile there was
+left upon Kettle Hill a sufficient garrison or force to prevent its
+being recaptured by the enemy. In the assault on Kettle Hill the
+brigade commander, Colonel Carroll, had been wounded, and
+Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton of the Ninth Cavalry killed. Many troop
+officers also had been either killed or wounded and also in the rush
+forward through the jungle and high grass some troops had been
+separated from their officers, and yet it is remarkable that all were
+ready to move forward to the next assault.
+
+The words of praise to the whole cavalry division contained in the
+following order, published at Camp Wikoff immediately after the
+arrival there of the troops, are claimed by both black and white
+cavalrymen alike:
+
+     Headquarters, Cavalry Division,
+     Camp Wikoff, L.I., September 7th, 1898.
+
+     To the Officers and Soldiers of the Cavalry Division, Army
+     of Santiago.
+
+     The duties for which the troops comprising the Cavalry
+     Division were brought together have been accomplished.
+
+     On June 14th we sailed from Tampa, Fla., to encounter in the
+     sickly season the diseases of the tropical island of Cuba,
+     and to face and attack the historic legions of Spain in
+     positions chosen by them and which for years they had been
+     strengthening by every contrivance and art known to the
+     skillful military engineers of Europe.
+
+     On the 23d, one squadron each of the 1st and 10th Regular
+     Cavalry and two squadrons of the 1st Volunteer Cavalry, in
+     all 964 officers and men, landed on Cuban soil. These troops
+     marched on foot fourteen miles, and, early on the morning of
+     the 24th, attacked and defeated double their number of
+     regular Spanish soldiers under the command of
+     Lieutenant-General Linares. Eagerly and cheerfully you
+     pushed onward, and on July 1st forded San Juan River and
+     gallantly swept over San Juan Hill, driving the enemy from
+     its crest. Without a moment's halt you formed, aligning the
+     division upon the 1st Infantry Division under General Kent,
+     and, together with these troops, you bravely charged and
+     carried the formidable intrenchments of Fort San Juan. The
+     entire force which fought and won this great victory was
+     less than seven thousand men.
+
+     The astonished enemy, though still protected by the strong
+     works to which he had made his retreat, was so stunned by
+     your determined valor that his only thought was to devise
+     the quickest means of saving himself from further battle.
+     The great Spanish fleet hastily sought escape from the
+     harbor and was destroyed by our matchless navy.
+
+     After seizing the fortifications of San Juan Ridge, you, in
+     the darkness of night, strongly intrenched the position
+     your valor had won. Reinforced by Bates' Brigade on your
+     left and Lawton's Division on your right, you continued the
+     combat until the Spanish army of Santiago Province succumbed
+     to the superb prowess and courage of American arms. Peace
+     promptly followed, and you return to receive the plaudits of
+     seventy millions of people.
+
+     The valor displayed by you was not without sacrifice.
+     Eighteen per cent., or nearly one in five, of the Cavalry
+     Division fell on the field either killed or wounded. We
+     mourn the loss of these heroic dead, and a grateful country
+     will always revere their memory.
+
+     Whatever may be my fate, wherever my steps may lead, my
+     heart will always burn with increasing admiration for your
+     courage in action, your fortitude under privation and your
+     constant devotion to duty in its highest sense, whether in
+     battle, in bivouac or upon the march.
+
+     JOSEPH WHEELER,
+     Major-General U.S.V., Commanding.
+
+Aside from that part of the Tenth Cavalry who fought under General
+Wheeler and who are consequently included among those congratulated by
+the General Order just quoted, Troop M of that regiment, under command
+of Lieutenant C.P. Johnson, performed an important part in the war.
+The troop consisted of 50 men and left Port Tampa June 21 on board the
+steamship Florida, the steamship Fanita also making a part of the
+expedition. The troop was mounted and was accompanied by a pack train
+of 65 animals. Both ships were heavily loaded with clothing,
+ammunition and provision, and had on board besides Lieutenant
+Johnson's command, General Nunez and staff and 375 armed Cubans. The
+expedition sailed around the west end of the island and attempted a
+landing at a point chosen by General Nunez on June 29, but failed
+owing to the fact that the place chosen was well guarded by Spaniards,
+who fired upon the landing party. The expedition had with it a small
+gunboat, the Peoria, commanded by Captain Ryan, and on the afternoon
+of June 30th an attack was made upon a blockhouse on the shore by the
+gunboat, and a small force of Cuban and American volunteers landed,
+but were repulsed with the loss of one killed, General Nunez's
+brother, and seven wounded. Two days later Lieutenant Johnson was able
+to land and immediately made connection with General Gomez, unloading
+his stores for the Cuban Army.
+
+Lieutenant G.P. Ahearn, of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, who went on this
+expedition as a volunteer, rendered important service on the night
+after the attack on the blockhouse at Tayabacoa. As the attacking
+party met with repulse and escaped to the ship in the darkness,
+several of their wounded were left on shore. Several boats sent out to
+recover them had returned without the men, their crews fearing to go
+on shore after them. Lieutenant Ahearn volunteered to attempt the
+rescue of the men, and taking a water-logged boat, approached the
+shore noiselessly and succeeded in his undertaking. The crew
+accompanying Lieutenant Ahearn was made up of men from Troop M, Tenth
+Cavalry, and behaved so well that the four were given Medals of Honor
+for their marked gallantry. The action of Lieutenant Ahearn in this
+case was in keeping with his whole military career. He has ever
+manifested a fondness for exceptional service, and has never failed
+when opportunity occurred to display a noble gallantry on the side of
+humanity. Nothing appeals to him so commandingly as an individual
+needing rescue, and in such a cause he immediately rises to the hero's
+plane. The noble colored soldiers who won medals on that occasion were
+all privates and became heroes for humanity's sake. Their names
+deserve a place in this history outside the mere official table. They
+were Dennis Bell, George H. Wanton, Fitz Lee and William H. Tompkins,
+and were the only colored soldiers who, at the time of this writing,
+have won Medals of Honor in the Spanish War. Others, however, may yet
+be given, as doubtless others are deserved. The heroic service
+performed by whole regiments, as in the case of the Twenty-fourth
+Infantry, should entitle every man in it to a medal of some form as a
+souvenir for his posterity.
+
+Losses of the Ninth Cavalry in the battles of San Juan:
+
+OFFICERS--Killed, Lieutenant-Colonel John M. Hamilton.
+
+MEN--Killed, Trumpeter Lewis Fort, Private James Johnson.
+
+OFFICERS--Wounded, Adjutant Winthrop S. Wood, Captain Charles
+W. Taylor.
+
+MEN--Wounded. First Sergeant Charles W. Jefferson, Sergeant
+Adam Moore, Sergeant Henry F. Wall, Sergeant Thomas B. Craig, Corporal
+James W. Ervine, Corporal Horace T. Henry, Corporal John Mason,
+Burwell Bullock, Elijah Crippen, Edward Davis, Hoyle Ervin, James
+Gandy, Edward D. Nelson, Noah Prince, Thomas Sinclair, James R. Spear,
+Jr., Jacob Tull, William H. Turner, George Warren, Alfred Wilson.
+
+Losses of the Tenth Cavalry during the battle of San Juan:
+
+OFFICERS--Killed, First Lieutenant W.E. Shipp, First
+Lieutenant W.H. Smith.
+
+MEN--Killed, John H. Smoot, Corporal W.F. Johnson, John H.
+Dodson, George Stroal, William H. Slaughter.
+
+OFFICERS--Wounded, Major T.J. Wint Captain John Bigelow, Jr.,
+Adjutant and First Lieutenant M.H. Barnum, First Lieutenant R.L.
+Livermore, First Lieutenant E.D. Anderson, Second Lieutenant F.R.
+McCoy, Second Lieutenant H.C. Whitehead, Second Lieutenant T.A.
+Roberts, Second Lieutenant H.O. Willard.
+
+MEN--Wounded, First Sergeant A. Houston, First Sergeant
+Robert Milbrown, Q.M. Sergeant William Payne, Sergeant Smith Johnson,
+Sergeant Ed. Lane, Sergeant Walker Johnson, Sergeant George Dyers,
+Sergeant Willis Hatcher, Sergeant John L. Taylor, Sergeant Amos
+Elliston, Sergeant Frank Rankin, Sergeant E.S. Washington, Sergeant
+U.G. Gunter, Corporal J.G. Mitchell, Corporal Allen Jones, Corporal
+Marcellus Wright, Privates Lewis L. Anderson, John Arnold, Charles
+Arthur, John Brown, Frank D. Bennett, Wade Bledsoe, Hillary Brown,
+Thornton Burkley, John Brooks, W.H. Brown, Wm. A. Cooper, John Chinn,
+J.H. Campbell, Henry Fearn, Benjamin Franklin, Gilmore Givens, B.F.
+Gaskins, William Gregory, Luther D. Gould, Wiley, Hipsher, Thomas
+Hardy, Charles Hopkins, Richard James, Wesley Jones, Robert E. Lee,
+Sprague Lewis, Henry McCormack, Samuel T. Minor, Lewis Marshall,
+William Matthews, Houston Riddill, Charles Robinson, Frank Ridgeley,
+Fred. Shackley, Harry D. Sturgis, Peter Saunderson, John T. Taylor,
+William Tyler, Isom Taylor, John Watson, Benjamin West, Joseph
+Williams, Allen E. White, Nathan Wyatt.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Note.--"While we talked, and the soldiers filled their
+     canteens and drank deep and long, like camels who, after
+     days of travel through the land of 'thirst and emptiness,'
+     have reached the green oasis and the desert spring, a black
+     corporal of the 24th Infantry walked wearily up to the
+     'water hole.' He was muddy and bedraggled. He carried no cup
+     or canteen, and stretched himself out over the
+     stepping-stones in the stream, sipping up the water and the
+     mud together out of the shallow pool. A white cavalryman ran
+     toward him shouting, 'Hold on, bunkie; here's my cup!' The
+     negro looked dazed a moment, and not a few of the spectators
+     showed amazement, for such a thing had rarely if ever
+     happened in the army before. 'Thank you,' said the black
+     corporal. 'Well, we are all fighting under the same flag
+     now.' And so he drank out of the white man's cup. I was glad
+     to see that I was not the only man who had come to recognize
+     the justice of certain Constitutional amendments, in the
+     light of the gallant behaviour of the colored troops
+     throughout the battle, and, indeed, the campaign. The
+     fortune of war had, of course, something to do with it in
+     presenting to the colored troops the opportunities for
+     distinguished service, of which they invariably availed
+     themselves to the fullest extent; but the confidence of the
+     general officers in their superb gallantry, which the event
+     proved to be not misplaced, added still more, and it is a
+     fact that the services of no four white regiments can be
+     compared with those rendered by the four colored
+     regiments--the 9th and 10th Cavalry, and the 24th and 25th
+     Infantry. They were to the front at La Guasima, at Caney,
+     and at San Juan, and what was the severest test of all, that
+     came later, in the yellow-fever hospitals."--Bonsal.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[19] Official Report of General Sumner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+SAN JUAN (Continued).
+
+     Kent's Division: The Twenty-fourth Infantry; Forming Under
+     Fire--A Gallant Charge.
+
+
+Turning now to the centre and left of the American line we follow the
+advance of that division of infantry commanded by General Kent, and
+which met the brunt of Spanish resistance at San Juan. This division,
+known as the First Division, Fifth Army Corps, consisted of three
+brigades, composed as follows:
+
+First Brigade, Brigadier-General Hawkins commanding, made up of the
+Sixth Infantry, the Sixteenth Infantry, and the Seventy-first New York
+Volunteers.
+
+The Second Brigade, Colonel Pearson commanding, made up of the Second
+Infantry, the Tenth Infantry and the Twenty-first Infantry.
+
+The Third Brigade, commanded by Colonel Wikoff, in which were the
+Ninth Infantry, the Thirteenth Infantry and the Twenty-fourth
+Infantry; in all 262 officers and 5,095 men. Thus, in the whole
+division there were eight regiments of regular infantry and one
+volunteer regiment, the Seventy-first New York.
+
+Although our present purpose is to bring into view the special work of
+the Twenty-fourth Infantry, it will be necessary to embrace in our
+scope the work of the entire division, in order to lay before the
+reader the field upon which that particular regiment won such lasting
+credit. General Kent, who commanded the division, a most accomplished
+soldier, gives a lucid account of the whole assault as seen from his
+position, and of the work performed by his division, in his report,
+dated July 8, 1898.
+
+When General Kent's division arrived in the neighborhood of the San
+Juan ford and found itself under fire and the trail so blocked by
+troops of the cavalry division, which had not yet deployed to the
+right, that direct progress toward the front was next to impossible,
+the welcome information was given by the balloon managers that a trail
+branched off to the left from the main trail, only a short distance
+back from the ford. This trail led to a ford some distance lower down
+the stream and nearly facing the works on the enemy's right. General
+Kent on learning of this outlet immediately hastened back to the forks
+and meeting the Seventy-first New York Regiment, the rear regiment of
+the First Brigade, he directed that regiment into this trail toward
+the ford. The regiment was to lead the way through this new trail and
+would consequently arrive at the front first on the left; but meeting
+the fire of the enemy, the First Battalion of the regiment apparently
+became panic stricken and recoiled upon the rest of the regiment; the
+regiment then lay down on the sides of the trail and in the bushes,
+thoroughly demoralized.
+
+Wikoff's brigade was now coming up and it was directed upon the same
+trail. This brigade consisted of the Ninth, Thirteenth and
+Twenty-fourth. Colonel Wikoff was directed by General Kent to move his
+brigade across the creek by the trail (the left fork) and when
+reaching the opposite side, of the creek to put the brigade in line on
+the left of the trail and begin the attack at once. In executing this
+order the entire brigade stumbled through and over hundreds of men of
+the Seventy-first New York Regiment. When a volunteer regiment broke
+through the lines of the Ninth Cavalry from the rear, that regiment
+was in its place on the field in line of battle, with its morale
+perfect. It was under discipline and delivering its fire with
+regularity. It had an absolute right to its place. The Seventy-first
+was in no such attitude, and General Kent directed the advance through
+it in these words: "Tell the brigade to pay no attention to this sort
+of thing; it is highly irregular." The Ninth Cavalry's position was
+exactly _regular_; the position of the Seventh-first was to the eyes
+of General Kent "highly irregular."
+
+The three regiments of this brigade were to take their positions on
+the left of the ford after crossing the stream, in the following
+order: On the extreme left the Twenty-fourth, next to it in the centre
+of the brigade, the Ninth, and on the right of the brigade the
+Thirteenth. In approaching the ford the Ninth and Twenty-fourth became
+mixed and crossed in the following order: First one battalion of the
+Ninth; then a battalion of the Twenty-fourth; then the second
+battalion of the Ninth, followed by the second battalion of the
+Twenty-fourth. The line was formed under fire, and while
+superintending its formation the brigade commander, Colonel Wikoff,
+came under observation and was killed; Lieutenant-Colonel Worth, who
+succeeded him, was seriously wounded within five minutes after having
+taking command, and Lieutenant-Colonel Liscum, who next assumed charge
+of the brigade, had hardly learned that he was in command before he,
+too, was disabled by a Spanish shot By this time, however, the
+formation was about complete and the brigade ready to begin the
+advance.
+
+Leaving Wikoff's brigade in line ready to begin the advance we must
+now return in our narrative to the main ford, where the major portions
+of Hawkins' and Pearson's brigades are massed and follow the various
+regiments as they come to their places in the battle line preparing
+for the onslaught. After crossing the ford with the Sixth Infantry,
+pursuant to the orders given by Lieutenant Miley in the name of
+General Shafter, General Hawkins attempted to flank the enemy by a
+movement to the left, the Sixth Infantry leading and the Sixteenth
+intending to pass beyond it in its rear and join to its left. The
+Sixth in passing to its intended position passed to the left of the
+Sixth Cavalry, which held the left of the line of the cavalry
+division, which had crossed the ford and deployed to the right,
+reaching beyond the Spanish lines in that direction, or at least it
+was able to reach the extreme right of the enemy. The Sixth Infantry
+continued this line southward and it was to be farther extended by the
+Sixteenth. Before this disposition could be effected the fire of the
+enemy became so severe that an advance movement was started and the
+Sixth lined up facing the fort on the hill, with only one company and
+a half of the Sixteenth on its left.
+
+While Hawkins' and Wikoff's brigades were preparing for the advance
+upon the enemy's works, Pearson's brigade was approaching the ford,
+hurrying to the support. The Twenty-first Regiment of this brigade was
+detached from the brigade and sent directly forward on the main trail
+with orders to re-enforce the firing line. This regiment crossed the
+San Juan River to the left of the main ford and rushed forward to
+support Hawkins' left. In the meantime the two other regiments of the
+brigade, the Second and Tenth, which had preceded the Twenty-first in
+their march from El Poso, had been deflected to the left by order of
+the division commander and were passing to the front over the trail
+previously taken by Wikoff's brigade, crossing the San Juan at the
+lower ford. The Tenth crossed in advance and formed in close order on
+the opposite side of the stream, its line facing northwest. It was
+soon after, however, put in battle formation and moved to the right
+until it connected with the Twenty-first. The Second Regiment crossed
+the ford in the rear of the Tenth, having been delayed considerably by
+the Seventh-first New York Volunteers, who still blocked the way
+between the forks and the lower ford. After crossing the ford the
+Second put itself in line on the left of the Tenth, the whole brigade
+being now in position to support the First and Third Brigades in their
+charge.
+
+This movement of Colonel Pearson's brigade had not been made without
+hardship and loss. All of the regiments came under the enemy's fire
+before reaching the San Juan River and many men were killed or wounded
+while the regiments were gaining their positions. The movement was so
+well executed as to call forth from the division commander the
+following enconium: "I observed this movement from the Fort San Juan
+Hill. Colonel E.P. Pearson, Tenth Infantry, commanding the Second
+Brigade, and the officers and troops under his command deserve great
+credit for the soldierly manner in which this movement was executed."
+
+Although we left Wikoff's brigade standing in line on the left of the
+lower ford, we must not imagine that it remained in that position
+until the above movement on the part of the Second Brigade had been
+accomplished. There was no standing still in the fierce fire to which
+the men of that brigade were at that time subjected--a fire which had
+already cut down in rapid succession three brigade commanders. The
+formation was no sooner completed than the rapid advance began. The
+Thirteenth Infantry holding the right of the brigade moved to the
+right and front, while the Ninth and Twenty-fourth moved almost
+directly to the front at first, thus partially gaining the flank of
+the enemy's position. The whole line moved with great rapidity across
+the open field and up the hill, so that when the Second and Tenth
+Infantry came to their position as support, the heroic Third Brigade
+was well up the heights. To the right of the Third Brigade the First
+Brigade, containing the gallant Sixth, under Colonel Egbert, and the
+Sixteenth, was advancing also, and the two brigades arrived at the
+fort almost simultaneously; so that the division commander in speaking
+of the capture says: "Credit is almost equally due the Sixth, Ninth,
+Thirteenth, Sixteenth and Twenty-fourth Regiments of Infantry." To the
+Third Brigade he gives the credit of turning the enemy's right.
+
+Let us now examine more closely that sweep of the Third Brigade from
+the left of the lower ford to San Juan Hill, in order to trace more
+distinctly the pathway of honor made for itself by the Twenty-fourth.
+This regiment formed left front into line under fire and advanced over
+the flat in good order, and then reformed under shelter of the hill
+preparatory to the final charge upon the enemy's intrenchments. The
+experience of the companies in crossing the flat is told by the
+company commanders. One company under the orders of its captain formed
+line of skirmishers and advanced in good order at rapid gait, reaching
+the foot of the hill almost exhausted. This was about the experience
+of all, but this company is mentioned because it was the first company
+of the regiment to reach the top of the hill. In crossing the flat
+there was necessarily some mixing of companies and in some instances
+men were separated from their officers, but those who escaped the
+enemy's bullets made their way across that plain of fire and were
+ready to join in the charge up the hill where only brave men could go.
+
+There was but a moment's pause for breath at the foot of the hill and
+the general charge all along the line began, the Sixth Infantry
+probably taking the initiative, although the gallant Colonel Egbert,
+of that regiment (since killed in the Philippines), makes no such
+claim. In his farewell official report of the Sixth he thus describes
+the final act:
+
+     "We were now unexpectedly re-enforced. Lieutenant Parker,
+     made aware by the heavy fire from the hill that a conflict
+     was going on in his front, opened fire with his Gatlings
+     most effectively on the intrenchments, while from far down
+     on my left I heard cheering and shouts, and saw coming up
+     the slope towards us a multitude of skirmishers. As they
+     drew nearer we distinguished the tall figure of General
+     Hawkins, with his aide, Lieutenant Ord, Sixth Infantry,
+     charging at the head of the skirmishers and waving their
+     hats. When the charge came up nearly abreast of where the
+     Sixth stood in the road I ordered the companies out through
+     the gaps in the wire fence to join it, and they complied
+     with the same alacrity and enthusiasm that they had
+     displayed in entering this bloody field. The Gatlings
+     redoubled their fierce grinding of bullets on the Spanish,
+     despite which there still came a savage fire from the
+     blockhouse and trenches. Here the gallant Captain Wetherell,
+     Sixth Infantry, fell, shot through the forehead, at the head
+     of his company, and I received a Mauser bullet through the
+     left lung, which disabled me. But the blood of the troops
+     was now up, and no loss of officers or men could stop them.
+     They charged up the incline until, coming to a steep ridge
+     near the top, they were brought to a stand by the hail of
+     bullets from the Gatlings against the summit. As soon as
+     this could be stopped by a signal, the mingled troops of the
+     Sixth, Sixteenth, Thirteenth and Twenty-fourth swept up and
+     over the hill and it was won."
+
+From testimony gathered on the evening of the fight it was concluded
+that there were more men of the Twenty-fourth Infantry on the ridge in
+this first occupation than of any other regiment, but all of the
+regiments of the division had done admirably and the brave blacks of
+the Twenty-fourth won on that day a standing in arms with the bravest
+of the brave.
+
+The Spaniards although driven from their first line, by no means gave
+up the fight; but retreating to a line of intrenchments about eight
+hundred yards in the rear they opened upon the new-comers a fire
+almost as hot as before, and the troops found it difficult to hold
+what they had gained. The supporting regiments were coming up and
+strengthening the line, the men meanwhile entrenching themselves under
+fire as rapidly as possible. The Thirteenth Infantry was immediately
+ordered off to the right to assist the cavalry division, especially
+the Rough Riders, who were said to be in danger of having their flank
+turned. Here it remained under fire all night.
+
+The advance and charge of the Twenty-fourth made up only a part of the
+advance and charge of the Third Brigade; and this in turn was part of
+the attack and assault made by the whole infantry division; a movement
+also participated in at the same hour by the cavalry division; so that
+regarded as a whole, it was a mighty blow delivered on the enemy's
+right and centre by two-thirds of the American Army, and its effect
+was stunning, although its full weight had not been realized by the
+foe. The part sustained in the assault by each regiment may be
+estimated by the losses experienced by each in killed and wounded.
+Judged by this standard the brunt fell upon the Sixth, Sixteenth,
+Thirteenth, and Twenty-fourth, all of which regiments lost heavily,
+considering the short time of the action.
+
+The movement by which the Twenty-fourth reached its position on that
+memorable 1st of July has called forth especial mention by the
+regimental commander and by the acting Assistant Adjutant-General of
+the brigade; it was also noted immediately after the battle by all the
+newspaper writers as one of the striking occurrences of the day. The
+regiment on coming under fire marched about one mile by the left
+flank, and then formed left front into line on its leading company,
+Company G, commanded by Captain Brereton. The first man of the
+regiment to take position in the line was the First Sergeant of G
+Company, R.G. Woods. This company when reaching its position formed on
+left into line, under a severe fire in front and a fire in the rear;
+the other companies forming in the same manner, with more or less
+regularity, to its left. As soon as the line was formed the order was
+given to charge. The advance was made across an open meadow, during
+which several officers were wounded, among them the officers of
+Company F, the command of that company devolving upon its First
+Sergeant, William Rainey, who conducted the company successfully to
+the crest of the hill.
+
+The description of the movement of Company D as given by Lieutenant
+Kerwin, who was placed in command of that company after its officers
+had been shot, is a very interesting document. Lieutenant Kerwin
+claims to have made his report from "close inquiries and from personal
+observation." According to this report the company was led across the
+San Juan Creek by its Captain (Ducat), the Second Lieutenant of the
+company (Gurney) following it, and keeping the men well closed up.
+While crossing, the company encountered a terrific fire, and after
+advancing about ten yards beyond the stream went through a wire fence
+to the right, and advanced to an embankment about twenty yards from
+the right bank of the stream. Here Captain Ducat gave the order to
+advance to the attack and the whole company opened out in good order
+in line of skirmishers and moved rapidly across the open plain to the
+foot of San Juan Hill. In making this movement across the plain the
+line was under fire and the brave Lieutenant Gurney was killed, and
+First Sergeant Ellis, Corporal Keys and Privates Robinson and Johnson
+wounded. It was a race with death, but the company arrived at the base
+of the hill in good form, though well-nigh exhausted. After breathing
+a moment the men were ready to follow their intrepid commander,
+Captain Ducat, up the hill, and at twelve o'clock they gained the
+summit, being the first company of the regiment to reach the top of
+the hill. Just as they reached the crest the brave Ducat fell, shot
+through the hip, probably by a Spanish sharpshooter, thus depriving
+the company of its last commissioned officer, and leaving its first
+sergeant also disabled.
+
+The commander of the regiment speaks of its doings in a very modest
+manner, but in a tone to give the reader confidence in what he says.
+He became temporarily separated from the regiment, but made his way to
+the crest of the hill in company with the Adjutant and there found a
+part of his command. He says a creditable number of the men of his
+regiment reached the top of the hill among the first to arrive there.
+The commander of the Second Battalion, Captain Wygant, crossed the
+meadow, or flat, some distance ahead of the battalion, but as the men
+subsequently charged up the hill, he was unable to keep up with them,
+so rapid was their gait It was from this battalion that Captain
+Ducat's company broke away and charged on the right of the battalion,
+arriving, as has been said, first on the top of the hill. As the
+regiment arrived Captain Wygant, finding himself the ranking officer
+on the ground, assembled it and assigned each company its place.
+Captain Dodge, who commanded Company C in this assault, and who
+subsequently died in the yellow fever hospital at Siboney, mentions
+the fact that Captain Wygant led the advance in person, and says that
+in the charge across the open field the three companies, C, B and H,
+became so intermixed that it was impossible for the company commanders
+to distinguish their own men from those of the other companies, yet he
+says he had the names of twenty men of his own company who reached the
+trenches at Fort San Juan in that perilous rush on that fiery mid-day.
+The testimony of all the officers of the regiment is to the effect
+that the men behaved splendidly, and eight of them have been given
+Certificates of Merit for gallantry in the action of July 1.
+
+The losses of the regiment in that advance were numerous, the killed,
+wounded and missing amounted to 96, which number was swelled to 104
+during the next two days. So many men falling in so short a time while
+advancing in open order tells how severe was the fire they were facing
+and serves to modify the opinion which was so often expressed about
+the time the war broke out, to the effect that the Spanish soldiers
+were wanting both in skill and bravery. They contradicted this both at
+El Caney and at San Juan. In the latter conflict they held their
+ground until the last moment and inflicted a loss upon their
+assailants equal to the number engaged in the defence of the heights.
+Since July 1, 1898, expatiation on the cowardice and lack of skill of
+the Spanish soldier has ceased to be a profitable literary occupation.
+Too many journalists and correspondents were permitted to witness the
+work of Spanish sharpshooters, and to see their obstinate resistance
+to the advance of our troops, to allow comments upon the inefficiency
+of the Spanish Army to pass unnoticed. Our army from the beginning was
+well impressed with the character of the foe and nerved itself
+accordingly. The bravery of our own soldiers was fully recognized by
+the men who surrendered to our army and who were capable of
+appreciating it, because they themselves were not wanting in the same
+qualities.
+
+     [Transcriber's Note: This footnote appeared in the text
+     without a footnote anchor:
+
+     "The intrenchments of San Juan were defended by two
+     companies of Spanish infantry, numbering about two hundred
+     and fifty to three hundred men. At about 11 o'clock in the
+     morning reinforcements were sent to them, bringing the
+     number up to about seven hundred and fifty men. There were
+     two pieces of mountain artillery on these hills, the rest of
+     the artillery fire against our troops on that day being from
+     batteries close to the city."--In Cuba with Shafter (Miley),
+     page 117.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE SURRENDER, AND AFTERWARDS.
+
+     In the Trenches--The Twenty-fourth in the Fever Camp--Are
+     Negro Soldiers Immune?--Camp Wikoff.
+
+
+After the battle of El Caney the Twenty-fifth Infantry started for the
+mango grove, where the blanket rolls and haversacks had been left in
+the morning, and on its way passed the Second Massachusetts Volunteers
+standing by the roadside. This regiment had seen the charge of the
+Twenty-fifth up the hillside, and they now manifested their
+appreciation of the gallantry of the black regulars in an ovation of
+applause and cheers. This was the foundation for Sergeant Harris'
+reply when on another occasion seeing the manifest kind feelings of
+this regiment to the Twenty-fifth, I remarked: "Those men think you
+are soldiers." "They know we are soldiers," replied the sergeant. The
+regiment bivouacked in the main road leading from El Caney to
+Santiago, but sleep was out of the question. What with the passing of
+packtrains and artillery, and the issuing of rations and ammunition,
+the first half of the night gave no time for rest; and shortly after
+12 o'clock, apprehensions of a Spanish attack put every one on the
+alert. At 3.30 the march to the rear was commenced and the entire
+division passed around by El Poso and advanced to the front by the
+Aguadores road, finally reaching a position on Wheeler's right about
+noon, July 2.
+
+Subsequently the line of investment was extended to the right, the
+Cuban forces under General Garcia holding the extreme right
+connecting with the water front on that side of the city. Next to them
+came Ludlow's McKibben's and Chaffee's forces. In McKibben's brigade
+was the Twenty-fifth, which dug its last trench on Cuban soil on July
+14th, on the railroad running out from Santiago to the northwest. This
+intrenchment was the nearest to the city made by any American
+organization, and in this the regiment remained until the surrender.
+
+The Twenty-fourth remained entrenched over to the left, in General
+Kent's division, lying to the right of the 21st. This regiment (24th)
+had won great credit in its advance upon the enemy, but it was to win
+still greater in the field of humanity. Capt. Leavel, who commanded
+Company A, said: "It would be hard to particularize in reporting upon
+the men of the company. All--non-commissioned officers, privates, even
+newly joined recruits--showed a desire to do their duty, yea, more
+than their duty, which would have done credit to seasoned veterans.
+Too much cannot be said of their courage, willingness and endurance."
+Captain Wygant, who commanded the Second Battalion of the regiment,
+says: "The gallantry and bearing shown by the officers and soldiers of
+the regiment under this trying ordeal was such that it has every
+reason to be proud of its record. The losses of the regiment, which
+are shown by the official records, show the fire they were subjected
+to. The casualties were greater among the officers than the men, which
+is accounted for by the fact that the enemy had posted in the trees
+sharpshooters, whose principal business was to pick them off." There
+is no countenance given in official literature to the absurd notion
+maintained by some, that it was necessary for the officers of black
+troops to expose themselves unusually in order to lead their troops,
+and that this fact accounts for excessive losses among them. The fact
+is that the regular officer's code is such that he is compelled to
+occupy the place in battle assigned him in the tactics, and no matter
+how great his cowardice of heart may be, he must go forward until
+ordered to halt. The penalty of cowardice is something to be dreaded
+above wounds or even death by some natures. "Colored troops are brave
+men when led by white officers."(?) As a matter of fact there is very
+little leading of any sort by officers in battle. The officer's place
+is in the rear of the firing line, directing, not leading, and it is
+his right and duty to save his own life if possible, and that of every
+man in his command, even while seeking to destroy the enemy, in
+obedience to orders. The record of the Twenty-fourth for bravery was
+established beyond question when it swept across that open flat and up
+San Juan Hill on that hot mid-day of July 1st, 1898.
+
+After lying in the trenches until July 15th, the news reached the camp
+of the Twenty-fourth that yellow fever had broken out in the army, and
+that a large hospital and pest-house had been established at Siboney.
+About 4 o'clock that day an order came to the commanding officer of
+the regiment directing him to proceed with his regiment to Siboney and
+report to the medical officer there. The regiment started on its march
+at 5.30, numbering at that time 8 companies, containing 15 officers
+and 456 men. Marching on in the night, going through thickets and
+across streams, the men were heard singing a fine old hymn:
+
+    When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
+    The rivers of woe shall not thee o'erflow;
+    For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
+    And sanctify to thee they deepest distress.
+
+In view of what was before them, the words were very appropriate. They
+arrived on the hill at Siboney at 3.30 on the morning of July 16th.
+
+Without discussing the graphic story told by correspondents of the
+highest respectability describing the regiment as volunteering, to a
+man, to nurse the sick and dying at Siboney, we will rather follow the
+official records of their doings in that fever-stricken place. On
+arriving at Siboney on the morning of July 16, Sunday, Major Markely,
+then in command of the regiment, met Colonel Greenleaf of the Medical
+Department, and informed him that the Twenty-fourth Infantry was on
+the ground. Colonel Greenleaf was just leaving the post, but Major La
+Garde, his successor, manifested his great pleasure in seeing this
+form of assistance arrive. Such a scene of misery presented itself to
+Major Markely's eyes that he, soldier as he was, was greatly affected,
+and assured Major La Garde that he was prepared personally to sink
+every other consideration and devote himself to giving what assistance
+he could in caring for the sick, and that he believed his whole
+regiment would feel as he did when they came to see the situation. In
+this he was not mistaken. The officers and men of the Twenty-fourth
+Infantry did give themselves up to the care of the sick and dying,
+furnishing all help in their power until their own health and strength
+gave way, in some instances laying down even their lives in this noble
+work.
+
+On the day of arrival seventy men were called for to nurse yellow
+fever patients and do other work about the hospital. More than this
+number immediately volunteered to enter upon a service which they
+could well believe meant death to some of them. The camp was so
+crowded and filthy that the work of cleaning it was begun at once by
+the men of the Twenty-fourth, and day by day they labored as their
+strength would permit, in policing the camp, cooking the food for
+themselves and for the hospital, unloading supplies, taking down and
+removing tents, and numberless other details of necessary labor.
+Despite all the care that could be taken under such conditions as were
+found at Siboney, the yellow fever soon overran the entire camp, and
+of the 16 officers of the regiment, 1 had died, 2 more were expected
+to die; 3 were dangerously ill, and 5 more or less so. Out of the
+whole sixteen there were but three really fit for duty, and often out
+of the whole regiment it would be impossible to get 12 men who could
+go on fatigue duty. Out of the 456 men who marched to Siboney only 24
+escaped sickness, and on one day 241 were down. Those who would
+recover remained weak and unfit for labor. Silently, without
+murmuring, did these noble heroes, officers and men, stand at their
+post ministering to the necessities of their fellowman until the
+welcome news came that the regiment would be sent north and the
+hospital closed as soon as possible. On August 8 Major La Garde, more
+entitled to the honor of being classed among the heroes of Santiago
+than some whose opportunities of brilliant display were vastly
+superior, succumbed to the disease. The fact should be borne in mind
+that all of these men, officers, soldiers and surgeons, went upon this
+pest-house duty after the severe labors of assault of July 1-2, and
+the two weeks of terrible strain and exposure in the trenches before
+Santiago, and with the sick and wounded consequent upon these battles
+and labors--none were strong.
+
+On July 16th, the day after the Twenty-fourth left the trenches, the
+surrender was made and on the next morning the final ceremonies of
+turning over Santiago to the American forces took place, and the
+soldiers were allowed to come out of their ditches and enter into
+more comfortable camps. The hardships of the period after the
+surrender were not much less than those experienced while in the
+lines.
+
+On the 26th of August the Twenty-fourth Infantry, having obtained an
+honorable release from its perilous duty, marched out of Siboney with
+band playing and colors flying to go on board the transport for
+Montauk; but of the 456 men who marched into Siboney, only 198 were
+able to march out, directed by 9 out of the 15 officers that marched
+in with them. Altogether there were 11 officers and 289 men who went
+on board the transport, but all except the number first given were
+unable to take their places in the ranks. They went on board the
+steamer Nueces, and coming from an infected camp, no doubt great care
+was taken that the transport should arrive at its destination in a
+good condition. Although there was sickness on board, there were no
+deaths on the passage, and the Nueces arrived in port "one of the
+cleanest ships that came to that place." The official report states
+that the Nueces arrived at Montauk Point September 2, with 385 troops
+on board; 28 sick, no deaths on the voyage, and not infected. Worn out
+by the hard service the regiment remained a short time at Montauk and
+then returned to its former station, Fort Douglass, Utah, leaving its
+camp at Montauk in such a thoroughly creditable condition as to elicit
+official remark.
+
+While the Twenty-fourth Infantry had without doubt the hardest
+service, after the surrender, of any of the colored regiments, the
+others were not slumbering at ease. Lying in the trenches almost
+constantly for two weeks, drenched with rains, scorched by the burning
+sun at times, and chilled by cool nights, subsisting on food not of
+the best and poorly cooked, cut off from news and kept in suspense,
+when the surrender finally came it found our army generally very
+greatly reduced in vital force. During the period following, from July
+16th to about the same date in August the re-action fell with all its
+weight upon the troops, rendering them an easy prey to the climatic
+influences by which they were surrounded.[20] Pernicious malarial
+fever, bowel troubles and yellow fever were appearing in all the
+regiments; and the colored troops appeared as susceptible as their
+white comrades. The theory had been advanced that they were less
+susceptible to malarial fever, and in a certain sense this appears to
+be true; but the experience of our army in Cuba, as well as army
+statistics published before the Cuban War, do not bear out the popular
+view of the theory. The best that can be said from the experience of
+Cuba is to the effect that the blacks may be less liable to yellow
+fever and may more quickly rally from the effects of malarial fever.
+These conclusions are, however, by no means well established. The
+Twenty-fourth suffered excessively from fevers of both kinds, and in
+the judgment of the commanding officer of the regiment "effectually
+showed that colored soldiers were not more immune from Cuban fever
+than white," but we must remember that the service of the
+Twenty-fourth was exceptional. The Twenty-fifth Infantry lost but one
+man during the whole campaign from climatic disease, John A. Lewis,
+and it is believed that could he have received proper medical care his
+life would have been saved. Yet this regiment suffered severely from
+fever as did also the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry.
+
+Arriving at Montauk[21] early the author had the opportunity to see
+the whole of the Fifth Army Corps disembark on its return from Cuba,
+and was so impressed with its forlorn appearance that he then wrote of
+it as coming home on stretchers. Pale, emaciated, weak and halting,
+they came, with 3,252 sick, and reporting 87 deaths on the voyage.
+But, as General Wheeler said in his report, "the great bulk of the
+troops that were at Santiago were by no means well." Never before had
+the people seen an army of stalwart men so suddenly transformed into
+an army of invalids. And yet while all the regiments arriving showed
+the effects of the hardships they had endured, the black regulars,
+excepting the Twenty-fourth Infantry, appeared to have slightly the
+advantage. The arrival of the Tenth Cavalry in "good condition" was an
+early cheering item in the stream of suffering and debility landing
+from the transports. Seeing all of the troops land and remaining at
+Camp Wikoff until its days were nearly numbered, the writer feels sure
+that the colored troops arrived from the front in as good condition as
+the best, and that they recuperated with marked comparative rapidity.
+
+The chaplain of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, while en route to join his
+regiment at Montauk, thinking seriously over the condition of the men
+returning from such a hard experience, concluded that nothing would be
+more grateful to them than a reasonable supply of ripe fruit, fresh
+from the orchards and fields. He therefore sent a dispatch to the
+Daily Evening News, published in Bridgeton, N.J., asking the citizens
+of that community to contribute a carload of melons and fruits for the
+men of the Twenty-fifth, or for the whole camp, if they so wished.
+Subsequently mentioning the fact to the commanding officer of the
+regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Daggett, he heartily commended the idea,
+believing that the fruit would be very beneficial. The good people of
+Bridgeton took hold of the matter heartily, and in a short time
+forwarded to the regiment more than four hundred of Jersey's finest
+watermelons, fresh from the vines. These were distributed judiciously
+and the health of the men began to improve forthwith. Soon five
+hundred more arrived, sent by a patriotic citizen of Philadelphia.
+These were also distributed. Ladies of Brooklyn forwarded peaches and
+vegetables, and supplies of all sorts now were coming in abundance.
+Our men improved so rapidly as to be the occasion of remark by
+correspondents of the press. They were spoken of as being apparently
+in good condition. While engaged in the work of supplying their
+physical wants the chaplain was taken to task by a correspondent of
+Leslie's for being too much concerned in getting a carload of
+watermelons for his regiment, to go over to a graveyard and pray over
+the dead. The next day the chaplain made haste to go over to that
+particular graveyard to relieve the country from the crying shame that
+the correspondent had pointed out, only to find two men already there
+armed with prayer-books and one of them especially so fearful that he
+would not get a chance to read a prayer over a dead soldier, that the
+chaplain found it necessary to assure him that the opportunity to pray
+should not be taken from him; and thus another popular horror was
+found to be without reality.
+
+The colored ladies of Brooklyn organized a Soldiers' Aid Society, and
+besides contributing in a general way, as already mentioned, also made
+and presented to the soldiers about four hundred home-made pies, which
+were most highly appreciated. They also prepared a tasty souvenir
+commemorative of the heroic work performed by the troops in Cuba, and
+expressive of high appreciation of the gallantry of the colored
+regiments. A beautiful stand of colors was also procured for the
+Twenty-fourth Infantry, which were subsequently presented to the
+regiment with appropriate ceremonies.
+
+At the camp were three colored chaplains and one colored surgeon,
+serving with the Regular Army, and their presence was of great value
+in the way of accustoming the people at large to beholding colored men
+as commissioned officers. To none were more attention shown than to
+these colored men, and there was apparently no desire to infringe upon
+their rights. Occasionally a very petty social movement might be made
+by an insignificant, with a view of humiliating a Negro chaplain, but
+such efforts usually died without harm to those aimed at and
+apparently without special comfort to those who engineered them.
+
+The following paragraphs, written while in camp at the time indicated
+in them, may serve a good purpose by their insertion here, showing as
+they do the reflections of the writer as well as in outlining the more
+important facts associated with that remarkable encampment:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CAMP WIKOFF AND ITS LESSONS.
+
+Now that the days of this camp are drawing to a close it is profitable
+to recall its unique history and gather up some of the lessons it has
+taught us. Despite all the sensationalism, investigations, testings,
+experimentation, and general condemnation, the camp at Montauk
+accomplished what was intended, and was itself a humane and patriotic
+establishment. It is not for me to say whether a better site might not
+have been selected, or whether the camp might not have been better
+managed. I will take it for granted that improvement might have been
+made in both respects, but our concern is rather with what was, than
+with what "might have been."
+
+To appreciate Camp Wikoff we must consider two things specially;
+first, its purpose, and secondly, the short time allowed to prepare
+it; and then go over the whole subject and properly estimate its
+extent and the amount of labor involved.
+
+The intention of the camp was to afford a place where our troops,
+returning from Cuba, prostrated with climatic fever, and probably
+infected with yellow fever, might receive proper medical treatment and
+care, until the diseases were subdued. The site was selected with this
+in view, and the conditions were admirably suited to such a purpose.
+Completely isolated, on dry soil, with dry pure air, cool climate,
+away from mosquitoes, the camp seemed all that was desired for a great
+field hospital.
+
+Here the sick could come and receive the best that nature had to
+bestow in the way of respite from the heat, and pure ocean breezes,
+and, taken altogether, the experiences of August and a good part of
+September, have justified the selection of Montauk. While prostrations
+were occurring elsewhere, the camp was cool and delightful most of the
+time.
+
+As to the preparations, it must be remembered that the recall of the
+whole Army of Invasion from Cuba was made in response to a popular
+demand, and as a measure of humanity. Bring the army home! was the
+call, and, Bring it at once!
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Such urgency naturally leaps ahead of minor preparations. The soldiers
+wanted to come; the people wanted them to come; hence the crowding of
+transports and the lack of comforts on the voyages; hence the lack of
+hospital accommodations when the troops began to arrive. Haste almost
+always brings about such things; but sometimes haste is imperative.
+This was the case in getting the army out of Cuba and into Camp at
+Montauk in August, '98. Haste was pushed to that point when omissions
+had to occur, and inconvenience and suffering resulted.
+
+We must also remember the condition of the men who came to Montauk.
+About 4,000 were reported as sick before they left Cuba; but, roughly
+speaking, there were 10,000 sick men landing in Montauk. Those who
+were classed as well were, with rare exceptions, both mentally and
+physically incapable of high effort. It was an invalid army, with
+nearly one-half of its number seriously sick and suffering.
+
+Ten thousand sick soldiers were never on our hands before, and the
+mighty problem was not realized until the transports began to emit
+their streams of weakness and walking death at Montauk. The
+preparation was altogether inadequate for such a mass of misery, and
+for a time all appeared confusion.
+
+Then came severe, cruel, merciless criticisms; deserved in some cases
+no doubt, but certainly not everywhere. The faults, gaps, failures,
+were everywhere to be seen, and it was easy to see and to say what
+ought to have been done. But the situation at Camp Wikoff from August
+15th to Sep. 15th needed more than censure; it needed help. The men
+who were working for the Government in both the medical and commissary
+departments needed assistance; the former in the way of nurses, and
+the latter in the way of appropriate food. The censure and exposure
+indulged in by the press may have contributed to direct the attention
+of the benevolently disposed to the conditions in the camp.
+
+Then came the era of ample help; from Massachusetts; from New York, in
+a word, from all over the country. The Merchants' Relief Association
+poured in its thousands of dollars worth of supplies, bringing them to
+the camp and distributing them generously and wisely. The Women's
+Patriotic Relief, the Women's War Relief, the International
+Brotherhood League, and the powerful Red Cross Society, all poured in
+food and comforts for the sick thousands. Besides these great
+organizations there were also the spontaneous offerings of the people,
+many of them generously distributed by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle's
+active representatives. The tent of that journal was an excellent
+way-mark and a veritable house of the good shepherd for many a lost
+wanderer, as well as a place of comfort, cheer and rest. The work done
+was very valuable and highly appreciated.
+
+To the medical department came the trained hand of the female nurse.
+No one who saw these calm-faced, white-hooded sisters, or the cheery
+cheeked, white capped nurses from the schools, could fail to see that
+they were in the right place. The sick soldier's lot was brightened
+greatly when the gentle female nurse came to his cot. Woman can never
+be robbed of her right to nurse. This is one of the lessons taught by
+the Hispano-American War.
+
+This vast army has been handled. No yellow fever has been spread. The
+general health has been restored. The disabled are mostly housed in
+hospitals, and many of them are on the road to recovery. Some have
+died; some are on furlough, and many have gone to their homes.
+
+The regulars are repairing to their stations quite invigorated, and
+greatly helped in many ways by the kind treatment they have received.
+Camp Wikoff was not a failure; but a great and successful object
+lesson, as well as a great summer school in nationalism. Here black,
+white and Indian soldiers fraternized; here Northerners and
+Southerners served under the same orders. Ten thousand soldiers and as
+many civilians daily attended the best school of its kind ever held in
+this country, striving to take home to their hearts the lessons that
+God is teaching the nations.
+
+The Rev. Sylvester Malone thus sums up the message of the war to us in
+his letter to the committee to welcome Brooklyn's soldiers:
+
+     "This short war has done so much for America at home and
+     abroad that we must take every soldier to our warmest
+     affection and send him back to peaceful pursuits on the
+     conviction that there is nothing higher in our American life
+     than to have the privilege to cheer and gladden the marine
+     and the soldier that have left to America her brightest and
+     best page of a great history. This past war must kindle in
+     our souls a love of all the brethren, black as well as
+     white, Catholic as well as Protestant, having but one
+     language, one nationality, and it is to be hoped, yet one
+     religion."
+
+These are true words, as full of patriotism as they are of fraternity,
+and these are the two special lessons taught at Montauk--a broad,
+earnest, practical fraternity, and a love of country before which the
+petty prejudices of race and section were compelled to yield ground.
+
+
+THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION IN CAMP WIKOFF.
+
+The Young Men's Christian Association has done an excellent work in
+Camp Wikoff. Their tents have afforded facilities for profitable
+amusements, in the way of quiet games, thus bringing out the use of
+these games distinct from their abuse--gambling.
+
+Their reading tables have also been well supplied with papers and
+magazines, religious and secular, generally very acceptable to the
+soldiers, as attested by the numbers that read them. But perhaps best
+of all, has been the provision made for the soldiers to write. Tables,
+pens, ink, paper and envelopes have been supplied in abundance. These
+were of great advantage to soldiers living in tents, and the work of
+the Association in this respect cannot be too highly commended.
+
+The specially religious work of the Association as I have seen it,
+consists of three divisions: First, the meetings in their tents, held
+nightly and on Sundays. These have been vigorously carried on and well
+attended, the chaplains of the camp often rendering assistance.
+Secondly, I have noticed the Y.M.C.A. men visiting the sick in the
+hospitals and camps, giving the word of exhortation and help to the
+sick. Perhaps, however, in their work of private conversation with the
+well men, they have done as much real service for God as in either of
+the other two fields. They have made the acquaintance of many men and
+have won the respect of the camp. This I have numbered as the third
+division of their work--personal contact with the soldiers of the
+camp, at the same time keeping themselves "unspotted from the world."
+
+B.
+
+     The 24th Infantry was ordered down to Siboney to do guard
+     duty. When the regiment reached the yellow-fever hospital it
+     was found to be in a deplorable condition. Men were dying
+     there every hour for the lack of proper nursing. Major
+     Markley, who had commanded the regiment since July 1st, when
+     Colonel Liscum was wounded, drew his regiment up in line,
+     and Dr. La Garde, in charge of the hospital, explained the
+     needs of the suffering, at the same time clearly setting
+     forth the danger to men who were not immune, of nursing and
+     attending yellow-fever patients. Major Markley then said
+     that any man who wished to volunteer to nurse in the
+     yellow-fever hospital could step forward. The whole regiment
+     stepped forward. Sixty men were selected from the volunteers
+     to nurse, and within forty-eight hours forty-two of these
+     brave fellows were down seriously ill with yellow or
+     pernicious malarial fever. Again the regiment was drawn up
+     in line, and again Major Markley said that nurses were
+     needed, and that any man who wished to do so could
+     volunteer. After the object lesson which the men had
+     received in the last few days of the danger from contagion
+     to which they would be exposed, it was now unnecessary for
+     Dr. La Garde to again warn the brave blacks of the terrible
+     contagion. When the request for volunteers to replace those
+     who had already fallen in the performance of their dangerous
+     and perfectly optional duty was made again, the regiment
+     stepped forward as one man. When sent down from the trenches
+     the regiment consisted of eight companies, averaging about
+     forty men each. Of the officers and men who remained on duty
+     the forty days spent in Siboney, only twenty-four escaped
+     without serious illness, and of this handful not a few
+     succumbed to fevers on the voyage home and after their
+     arrival at Montauk.
+
+     As a result, thirty-six died and about forty were discharged
+     from the regiment owing to disabilities resulting from
+     sickness which began in the yellow-fever hospital.--Bonsal's
+     Fight for Santiago.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[20] "After the surrender, dear Chaplain, the real trouble and
+difficulties began. Such a period, from July 14, 1898 to August 14,
+1898, was never before known to human beings, I hope. The starving
+time was nothing to the fever time, where scores died per day. We were
+not permitted to starve; but had fever, and had it bad; semi-decayed
+beef, both from refrigerators and from cans. We had plenty of fever,
+but no clothing until very late; no medicine save a little quinine
+which was forced into you all the time, intermittent only with bad
+meat."--Extract from a soldier's letter.
+
+[21] While the Twenty-fifth Infantry was in camp at Chickamauga Park I
+was ordered to Xenia, Ohio, on recruiting duty, and on July 5. on
+seeing the reports of the wounded I asked officially to be ordered to
+my regiment. An order to that effect came about a month later,
+directing me to join my regiment by way of Tampa, Florida. Arriving in
+Tampa, my destination was changed by telegraph to Montauk Point, N.Y.,
+whither I arrived a few days before the regiment did.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+REVIEW AND REFLECTIONS.
+
+     Gallantry of the Black Regulars--Diary of Sergeant-Major
+     E.L. Baker, Tenth Cavalry.
+
+
+It is time now to sum up the work of the four regiments whose careers
+we have thus far followed, and to examine the grounds upon which the
+golden opinions they won in battle and siege are based. We have seen
+that in the first fight, that of Las Guasimas, on June 24th, the Tenth
+Cavalry, especially Troops I and B, both with their small arms and
+with the machine guns belonging to Troop B, did most effective work
+against the Spanish right, joining with the First Cavalry in
+overcoming that force which was rapidly destroying Roosevelt's Rough
+Riders. Nor should it be forgotten that in this first fight, Troop B,
+which did its full share, was commanded on the firing line by
+Sergeants John Buck and James Thompson. In the squad commanded by
+Sergeant Thompson several men of the First Regular Cavalry fought and
+it is claimed were highly pleased with him as squad commander.
+
+While this was the first fight of the men of the Tenth Cavalry with
+the Spaniards, it was by no means their first experience under fire.
+From the time of the organization of the regiment in 1866 up to within
+a year of the war, the men had been engaged frequently in conflicts
+with Indians and marauders, often having men killed and wounded in
+their ranks. The fights were participated in by small numbers, and the
+casualties were not numerous, but there were opportunities for the
+acquirement of skill and the display of gallantry. Altogether the men
+of the regiment during their experience on the plains engaged in
+sixty-two battles and skirmishes. This training had transformed the
+older men of the regiment into veterans and enabled them to be cool
+and efficient in their first fight in Cuba.
+
+Sergeant Buck, upon whom the command of Troop B chiefly fell after
+becoming separated from his Lieutenant in the battle at Guasimas,
+joined the regiment in 1880, and had already passed through eighteen
+years of the kind of service above described. He was at the time of
+the Cuban War in the prime of life, a magnificent horseman, an
+experienced scout, and a skilled packer. In 1880, when he joined the
+regiment, the troops were almost constantly in motion, marching that
+one year nearly seventy-seven thousand miles, his own troop covering
+twelve hundred and forty-two miles in one month. This troop with four
+others made a ride of sixty-five miles in less than twenty-one hours,
+arriving at their destination without the loss of a single horse. In
+1893 he was mentioned by the commanding officer of Fort Missoula,
+Montana, for highly meritorious service, skill and energy displayed
+while in charge of pack train of an expedition across the Bitter Root
+Mountains, Idaho, during the most inclement weather, in quest of a
+party of gentlemen lost. (Letter of commanding officer, Fort Missoula,
+Montana, February 12, 1894.) Sergeant Buck has also won the silver
+medal for revolver shooting.
+
+Sergeant James Thompson joined the regiment in 1888, and has passed
+the ten years in the one troop, and proved himself at Las Guasimas a
+soldier worthy his regiment.
+
+The first battle gave the Tenth a reputation in a new field,
+corresponding to that which it had gained in the West, and this was
+not allowed to fade during its stay in Cuba. The fame of this first
+action spread rapidly through the army and inspired the other
+regiments of colored men with a desire to distinguish themselves on
+this new field of honor, and their readiness to be to the front and to
+take prominent part in all service was so marked that opportunity
+could not be withheld from them. As the army advanced toward Santiago
+these regiments became more and more the mark of observation by
+foreign military men who were present, and by the great throng of
+correspondents who were the eyes for the people of the civilized
+world. And hence, when the lines of assault were finally determined
+and the infantry and cavalry of our army deployed for its perilous
+attack upon the Spanish fortifications the black regiments were in
+their places, conspicuous by their vigor and enthusiasm. In them were
+enlisted men whose time of service had expired a few days before, but
+who had promptly re-enlisted. In at least two cases were men who
+served their full thirty years and could have retired with honor at
+the breaking out of the war. They preferred to share the fortunes of
+their comrades in arms, and it is a comfort to be able to record that
+the two spoken of came home from the fight without a wound and with
+health unimpaired. How many others there were in the same case in the
+army is not reported, but the supposition is that there were several
+such in both the white and colored regiments.
+
+Recalling the scenes of that memorable first of July, 1898, we can see
+the Twenty-fifth Infantry advancing steadily on the stone fort at El
+Caney at one time entirely alone, meeting the fire of the fort even up
+to their last rush forward. Captain Loughborough, who commanded
+Company B, of that regiment, and although his company was in the
+reserve, was nevertheless under fire, says: "The hardest fighting of
+the Twenty-fifth was between two and four o'clock," at which time all
+the other troops of the attacking force, except Bates' brigade, were
+under cover and remaining stationary, the Twenty-fifth being the only
+organization that was advancing. The official reports give the
+positions of General Chaffee's brigade during the two hours between
+two o'clock and four of that afternoon as follows:
+
+The Seventh was under partial cover and remained in its position
+"until about 4.30 p.m." The Seventeenth remained with its left joined
+to the right of the Seventh "until the battle was over." The Twelfth
+Infantry was in its shelter within 350 yards of the fort "until about
+4 p.m." Ludlow's brigade was engaged with the town, hence only Miles'
+brigade, consisting of the Fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry, was
+advancing upon the fort. The Fourth Infantry was soon checked in its
+advance, as General Daggett especially notes in his report, and the
+Twenty-fifth was thus thrust forward alone, excepting Bates' brigade,
+which was making its way up the right.
+
+This conspicuous advance of the Twenty-fifth brought that regiment
+into the view of the world, and established for it a brilliant
+reputation for skill and courage. Arriving in the very jaws of the
+fort the sharpshooters and marksmen of that regiment poured such a
+deadly fire into the loopholes of the fort that they actually silenced
+it with their rifles. These men with the sternness of iron and the
+skill acquired by long and careful training, impressed their
+characteristics on the minds of all their beholders. Of the four
+hundred men who went on the field that morning very few were recruits,
+and many had passed over ten years in the service. When they "took the
+battle formation and advanced to the stone fort more like veterans
+than troops who had never been under fire," as their commander
+reports, they gave to the world a striking exhibition of the effect of
+military training. In each breast a spirit of bravery had been
+developed and their skill in the use of their arms did not for a
+moment forsake them. They advanced against volleys from the fort and
+rifle pits in front, and a galling fire from blockhouses, the church
+tower and the village on their left. Before a less severe fire than
+this, on that very day, a regiment of white volunteers had succumbed
+and was lying utterly demoralized by the roadside; before this same
+fire the Second Massachusetts Volunteers were forced to retire--in the
+face of it the Twenty-fifth advanced steadily to its goal.
+
+Lieutenant Moss, who commanded Company H on the firing line on that
+day, has published an account in which he says: "The town was
+protected on the north by three blockhouses and the church; on the
+west by three blockhouses (and partially by the church); on the east
+by the stone fort, one blockhouse, the church, and three rifle pits;
+on the south and southeast by the stone fort, three blockhouses, one
+loop-holed house, the church and eight rifle pits. However, the Second
+Brigade was sent forward against the southeast of the town, thus being
+exposed to fire from fourteen sources, nearly all of which were in
+different planes, forming so many tiers of fire. The cover on the
+south and southeast of the town was no better than, if as good, as
+that on the other sides."
+
+The cavalry regiments were no less conspicuous in their gallantry at
+San Juan than was the Twenty-fifth Infantry at El Caney. The
+brilliancy of that remarkable regiment, the Rough Riders, commanded on
+July 1st by Colonel Roosevelt, was so dazzling that it drew attention
+away from the ordinary regulars, yet the five regiments of regular
+cavalry did their duty as thoroughly on that day as did the regiment
+of volunteers.[22] In this body of cavalry troops, where courage was
+elevated to a degree infringing upon the romantic, the two black
+regiments took their places, and were fit to be associated in valor
+with that highly representative regiment. The Inspector-General turns
+aside from mere routine in his report long enough to say "the courage
+and conduct of the colored troops and First United States Volunteers
+seemed always up to the best." That these black troopers held no
+second place in valor is proven by their deeds, and from the testimony
+of all who observed their conduct, and that they with the other
+regulars were decidedly superior in skill was recognized by the
+volunteer Colonel himself. The Ninth Cavalry, although suffering
+considerably in that advance on East Hill, involved as it was, more or
+less, with Roosevelt's regiment, did not receive so large a share of
+public notice as its sister regiment. The strength of the Ninth was
+but little over one-half that of the Tenth, and its movements were so
+involved with those of the volunteers as to be somewhat obscured by
+them; the loss also of its commander just as the first position of the
+enemy fell into our hands, was a great misfortune to the regiment. The
+Ninth, however, was with the first that mounted the heights, and
+whatever praise is to be bestowed upon the Rough Riders in that
+assault is to be distributed in equal degree to the men of that
+regiment. Being in the leading brigade of the division this regiment
+had been firing steadily upon the Spanish works before the charge was
+ordered, and when the movement began the men of the Ninth advanced so
+rapidly that they were among the first to reach the crest.
+
+The Tenth Regiment, with its Hotchkiss guns, and its trained men, took
+its place in the line that morning to add if possible further lustre
+to the distinction already won. In crossing the flat, in climbing the
+heights, and in holding the ridge these brave men did all that could
+be expected of them. Roosevelt said: "The colored troops did as well
+as any soldiers could possibly do," meaning the colored men of the
+Ninth and Tenth Cavalry. To their officers he bestows a meed of praise
+well deserved, but not on the peculiar ground which he brings forward.
+He would have the reader believe that it has required special ability
+and effort to bring these colored men up to the condition of good
+soldiers and to induce them to do so well in battle; while the
+testimony of the officers themselves and the experience of more than a
+quarter of a century with colored professional troops give no
+countenance to any such theory. The voice of experience is that the
+colored man is specially apt as a soldier, and General Merritt
+declares him always brave in battle. The officers commanding colored
+troops at Santiago honored themselves in their reports of the battles
+by giving full credit to the men in the ranks, who by their resolute
+advance and their cool and accurate firing dislodged an intrenched foe
+and planted the flag of our Union where had floated the ensign of
+Spain.
+
+That rushing line of dismounted cavalry, so ably directed by Sumner,
+did not get to its goal without loss. As it swept across the open to
+reach the heights, it faced a well-directed fire from the Spanish
+works, and men dropped from the ranks, wounded and dying. Of the
+officers directing that advance 35 fell either killed or wounded and
+328 men. These numbers appear small when hastily scanned or when
+brought into comparison with the losses in battle during the Civil
+War, but if we take time to imagine 35 officers lying on the ground
+either killed or wounded and 328 men in the same condition, the
+carnage will not appear insignificant. Woe enough followed even that
+one short conflict. It must be observed also that the whole strength
+of this division was less than 3000 men, so that about one out of
+every eight had been struck by shot or shell.
+
+Several enlisted men among the colored cavalry displayed high
+soldierly qualities in this assault, evidencing a willingness to
+assume the responsibility of command and the ability to lead.
+Color-Sergeant George Berry became conspicuous at once by his
+brilliant achievement of carrying the colors of two regiments, those
+of his own and of the Third Cavalry. The Color-Sergeant of the latter
+regiment had fallen and Berry seized the colors and bore them up the
+hill with his own. The illustrated press gave some attention to this
+exploit at the time, but no proper recognition of it has as yet been
+made. Sergeant Berry's character as a soldier had been formed long
+before this event, and his reputation for daring was already well
+established. He entered the service in 1867 and when he carried that
+flag up San Juan was filling out his thirty-first year in the service.
+All this time he had passed in the cavalry and had engaged in many
+conflicts with hostile Indians and ruffians on our frontiers.
+
+Perhaps the most important parts taken by any enlisted men in the
+cavalry division were those taken by Sergeants Foster and Givens. The
+former was First Sergeant of Troop G and as the troop was making its
+way to the hill by some means the Spaniards were able not only to
+discover them but also the direction in which they were moving and to
+determine their exact range. Sergeant Foster ventured to tell the
+Lieutenant in charge that the course of advance should be changed as
+they were marching directly into the enemy's guns.
+
+"Silence," shouted the Lieutenant. "Come on, men; follow me." "All
+right, sir," said the Sergeant; "we'll go as far as you will." The
+next instant the Lieutenant was shot through the head, leaving
+Sergeant Foster in command. Immediately the troop was deployed out of
+the dangerous range and the Sergeant by the exercise of good judgment
+brought his men to the crest of the hill without losing one from his
+ranks. At the time of this action Sergeant Foster was a man who would
+readily command attention. Born in Texas and a soldier almost
+continuously since 1875, part of which time had been passed in an
+infantry regiment, he had acquired valuable experience. In 1888, while
+serving in the cavalry, he had been complimented in General Orders for
+skill in trailing raiding parties in Arizona. He was a resolute and
+stalwart soldier, an excellent horseman and possessed of superior
+judgment, and with a reputation for valor which none who knew him
+would question. The return of Troop G, Tenth Cavalry, for July, 1898,
+contains the following note: "Lieutenant Roberts was wounded early in
+the engagement; Lieutenant Smith was killed about 10.30 a.m. while
+gallantly leading the troop in the advance line. After Lieutenant
+Smith fell the command of the troop devolved upon First Sergeant Saint
+Foster, who displayed remarkable intelligence and ability in handling
+the troop during the remainder of the day. Sergeant Foster's conduct
+was such as cannot be excelled for valor during the operations around
+Santiago. He commanded the troop up the hills of San Juan."
+
+Sergeant William H. Givens, of Troop D, Tenth Cavalry, also commanded
+in the action against San Juan. His Captain, who was wounded three
+times in the fight, being finally disabled before reaching the hill,
+makes the following report: "Sergeant William H. Givens was with the
+platoon which I commanded; whenever I observed him he was at his post
+exercising a steadying or encouraging influence on the men, and
+conducting himself like the thorough soldier that I have long known
+him to be. I understand to my great satisfaction that he has been
+rewarded by an appointment to a lieutenancy in an immune regiment."
+
+The Descriptive list of Sergeant Givens, made on August 4th, 1898,
+contains these remarks:
+
+     "Commanded his troop with excellent judgment after his
+     captain fell at the battle of San Juan, July 1, 1898,
+     leading it up the hill to the attack of the blockhouse.
+
+     "Character: A most excellent soldier."[23]
+
+Sergeant Givens may also be called an "old-timer." He had enlisted in
+'69, and had passed all that time in hard frontier service. The troop
+in which he enlisted during the years 1876-78 was almost constantly
+engaged with hostile Indians along the Mexican border, and Sergeant
+Givens was called upon to take part in numerous scouts in which there
+were many striking adventures. He was also in that memorable campaign
+against Victoria, conducted by General Grierson. Sergeant Givens was
+an ideal soldier and worthy the commendations bestowed upon him by his
+troop commander and others. Captain Bigelow received his disabling
+wound about seventy-five yards from the blockhouse and was taken to
+the rear under heavy fire by two soldiers of the troop by the name of
+Henderson and Boardman.
+
+Lieutenant Kennington, reporting the work of the troop on that morning
+says that Corporal J. Walker was probably the first soldier to reach
+the top of the hill and is believed to have shot the Spaniard who
+killed Lieutenant Ord. The report containing the above statement is
+dated July 5, 1898. Since that time the matter has been fully
+investigated by Captain Bigelow and the fact ascertained that Corporal
+Walker did arrive first on the hill and did shoot the Spaniard
+referred to and he has been recommended for a Medal of Honor in
+consequence.
+
+The Sergeant-Major of the Tenth Cavalry, Mr. E.L. Baker, who served
+with great credit during the Santiago campaign, is a soldier with an
+excellent record. He was born of French and American parentage in
+Wyoming and enlisted in the Ninth Cavalry as trumpeter in 1882,
+serving five years in that regiment. He then enlisted in the Tenth
+Cavalry, and in 1892 became Sergeant-Major. Being desirous of
+perfecting himself in the cavalry service he applied for an extended
+furlough with permission to leave the country, intending to enter a
+cavalry school in France. In this desire he was heartily endorsed by
+the officers of his regiment, and was specially commended by General
+Miles, who knew him as a soldier and who highly appreciated him as
+such. The breaking out of the Spanish war soon after he had made
+application prevented a full consideration of his case. In 1897
+Sergeant-Major Baker published a specially valuable "Roster of the
+Non-Commissioned Officers of the Tenth U.S. Cavalry, with Some
+Regimental Reminiscences, etc.," which has been of marked service in
+the preparation of the sketches of the enlisted men of his regiment.
+He contributes the interesting sketch of his experiences in Cuba with
+his regiment, which follows this chapter, and which will prove to many
+perhaps the most interesting portion of my book.
+
+The Twenty-fourth Infantry advanced in that line of attack on the
+extreme left and reached the crest of the San Juan Hills in such
+numbers as to lead the press correspondents and others to conclude
+that there were more men of this regiment promptly on the ground than
+of any other one regiment. It is certain they made a record for
+heroism in that assault as bright as any won on the field that day;
+and this record they raised to a magnificent climax by their
+subsequent work in the fever hospital at Siboney. For their
+distinguished service both in the field and in the hospital, the
+colored ladies of New York honored themselves in presenting the
+regiment the beautiful stand of colors already mentioned. As these
+fever-worn veterans arrived at Montauk they presented a spectacle well
+fitted to move strong men to tears. In solemn silence they marched
+from on board the transport Nueces, which had brought them from Cuba,
+and noiselessly they dragged their weary forms over the sandy roads
+and up the hill to the distant "detention camp." Twenty-eight of their
+number were reported sick, but the whole regiment was in ill-health.
+
+These were the men who had risked their lives and wrecked their health
+in service for others. Forty days they had stood face to face with
+death. In their soiled, worn and faded clothing, with arms uncleaned,
+emaciated, and with scarce strength enough to make the march before
+them, as they moved on that hot 2nd of September from the transport to
+the camp, they appeared more like a funeral procession than heroes
+returning from the war; and to the credit of our common humanity it
+may be recorded that they were greeted, not with plaudits and cheers,
+but with expressions of real sympathy. Many handkerchiefs were brought
+into view, not to wave joyous welcome, but to wipe away the tears that
+came from overflowing hearts. At no time did human nature at Montauk
+appear to better advantage than in its silent, sympathetic reception
+of the Twenty-fourth Infantry.
+
+Of these shattered heroes General Miles had but recently spoken in
+words well worthy his lofty position and noble manhood as "a regiment
+of colored troops, who, having shared equally in the heroism, as well
+as the sacrifices, is now voluntarily engaged in nursing yellow fever
+patients and burying the dead." These men came up to Montauk from
+great tribulations which should have washed their robes to a
+resplendent whiteness in the eyes of the whole people. Great
+Twenty-fourth, we thank thee for the glory thou hast given to American
+soldiery, and to the character of the American Negro!
+
+Thus these four colored regiments took their place on the march, in
+camp, in assault and in siege with the flower of the American Army,
+the choice and pick of the American nation, and came off acknowledged
+as having shared equally in heroism and sacrifices with the other
+regular regiments so engaged, and deserving of special mention for the
+exhibition of regard for the welfare of their fellow man. The query
+is now pertinent as to the return which has been made to these brave
+men. The question of Ahasuerus when told of the valuable services of
+the Jew, Mordecai, is the question which the better nature of the
+whole American people should ask on hearing the general report of the
+valuable services of the Negro Regular in the Spanish War. When
+Ahasuerus asked: "What honor and dignity hath been done to Mordecai
+for this?" his servants that ministered unto him were compelled to
+answer: "There is nothing done for him." Looking over these four
+regiments at the time of this writing an answer somewhat similar in
+force must be returned. That the colored soldier is entitled to honor
+and dignity must be admitted by all who admire brave deeds, or regard
+the welfare of the state. The colored soldier, however, was compelled
+to stand by and see a hundred lieutenancies filled in the Regular
+Army, many in his own regiments, only to find himself overlooked and
+to be forced to feel that his services however valuable, could not
+outweigh the demerit of his complexion.
+
+The sum total of permanent advantage secured to the colored regular as
+such, in that bloody ordeal where brave men gave up their lives for
+their country's honor, consists of a few certificates of merit
+entitling the holders to two dollars per month additional pay as long
+as they remain in the service. Nor is this all, or even the worst of
+the matter. Men who served in the war as First Sergeants, and who
+distinguished themselves in that capacity, have been allowed to go
+back to their old companies to serve in inferior positions. Notably is
+this the case with Sergeant William H. Givens, whose history has been
+detailed as commanding Troop D, Tenth Cavalry, after Captain Bigelow
+fell, and who heroically led the troop up the hill. He is now serving
+in his old troop as Corporal, his distinction having actually worked
+his reduction rather than substantial promotion.
+
+It must not be inferred from the foregoing, however, that nothing
+whatever was done in recognition of the gallantry of the colored
+regulars. Something was done. Cases of individual heroism were so
+marked, and so numerous, that they could not be ignored. The men who
+had so distinguished themselves could not be disposed of by special
+mention and compliments in orders. Something more substantial was
+required. Fortunately for such purpose four regiments of colored
+United States Volunteer Infantry were then in course of organization,
+in which the policy had been established that colored men should be
+accepted as officers below the grade of captain. Into these regiments
+the colored men who had won distinction at Santiago were placed, many
+as Second Lieutenants, although some were given First Lieutenancies.
+This action of the Government was hailed with great delight on the
+part of the colored Americans generally, and the honors were accepted
+very gratefully by the soldiers who had won them on the field.
+Fortunately as this opening seemed, it turned out very disappointing.
+It soon became evident that these regiments would be mustered out of
+the service, as they had proven themselves no more immune, so far as
+it could be determined from the facts, than other troops. The
+Lieutenants who had been most fortunate in getting their commissions
+early got about six or seven months' service, and then the dream of
+their glory departed and they fell back to the ranks to stand
+"attention" to any white man who could muster political influence
+sufficient to secure a commission. Their day was short, and when they
+were discharged from the volunteer service, there appeared no future
+for them as commissioned officers. Their occupation was indeed gone.
+It was for them a most disappointing and exasperating promotion,
+resulting in some cases in loss of standing and in financial injury.
+Their honors were too short-lived, and too circumscribed, to be much
+more than a lively tantalization, to be remembered with disgust by
+those who had worn them. Cruel, indeed, was the prejudice that could
+dictate such a policy to the brave black men of San Juan. The black
+heroes, however, were not without sympathy in their misfortune. The
+good people of the country had still a warm place in their hearts for
+the colored soldier, despite the sayings of his maligners.
+
+The people of Washington, D.C., had an opportunity to testify their
+appreciation of the Tenth Cavalry as that regiment passed through
+their city on its way to its station in Alabama, and later a portion
+of it was called to Philadelphia to take part in the Peace Jubilee,
+and no troops received more generous attention. To express in some
+lasting form their regard for the regiment and its officers, some
+patriotic citizens of Philadelphia presented a handsome saber to
+Captain Charles G. Ayres, who had charge of the detachment which took
+part in the Peace Jubilee, "as a token of their appreciation of the
+splendid conduct of the regiment in the campaign of Santiago, and of
+its superb soldierly appearance and good conduct during its attendance
+at the Jubilee Parade in Philadelphia."
+
+Likewise when the Twenty-fifth Infantry arrived at its station at Fort
+Logan, Colorado, the people of Denver gave to both officers and men a
+most cordial reception, and invited them at once to take part in their
+fall carnival. All over the country there was at that time an unusual
+degree of good feeling toward the colored soldier who had fought so
+well, and no one seemed to begrudge him the rest which came to him or
+the honors bestowed upon him.
+
+This state of feeling did not last. Before the year closed assiduous
+efforts were made to poison the public mind toward the black soldier,
+and history can but record that these efforts were too successful. The
+three hundred colored officers became an object at which both
+prejudice and jealousy could strike; but to reach them the reputation
+of the entire colored contingent must be assailed. This was done with
+such vehemence and persistency that by the opening of 1899 the good
+name of the black regular was hidden under the rubbish of reports of
+misconduct. So much had been said and done, even in Denver, which had
+poured out its welcome words to the heroes of El Caney, that the
+Ministerial Alliance of that city, on February 6, 1899, found it
+necessary to take up the subject, and that body expressed itself in
+the unanimous adoption of the following resolutions:
+
+     RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE MINISTERIAL ALLIANCE
+     OF DENVER, FEBRUARY 6, 1899.
+
+     _Resolved_, By the Ministerial Alliance of the City of
+     Denver, that the attempt made in certain quarters to have
+     the Twenty-fifth Regiment, United States Infantry, removed
+     from Fort Logan, appears to this body to rest on no just
+     grounds, to be animated on the contrary by motives unworthy
+     and discreditable to Denver and the State, and that
+     especially in view of the heroic record of the Twenty-fifth
+     Regiment, its presence here is an honor to Denver and
+     Colorado, which this Alliance would regret to have
+     withdrawn.[24]
+
+The mustering out of the volunteers about the time this opposition was
+approaching what appeared to be a climax, causing the removal from the
+service of the colored officers, appeased the wrath of the demon, and
+the waves of the storm gradually sank to a peace, gratifying, indeed,
+to those who shuddered to see a black man with shoulder-straps. As the
+last Negro officer descended from the platform and honorably laid
+aside his sword to take his place as a citizen of the Republic, or a
+private in her armies, that class of our citizenship breathed a sigh
+of relief. What mattered it to them whether justice were done; whether
+the army were weakened; whether individuals were wronged; they were
+relieved from seeing Negroes in officers' uniforms, and that to them
+is a most gracious portion. The discharge of the volunteers was to
+them the triumph of their prejudices, and in it they took great
+comfort, although as a matter of fact it was a plain national movement
+coming about as a logical sequence, entirely independent of their
+whims or wishes. The injustice to the Negro officer does not lie in
+his being mustered out of the volunteer service, but in the failure to
+provide for a recognition of his valor in the nation's permanent
+military establishment.
+
+The departure of the colored man from the volunteer service was the
+consequent disappearance of the colored military officer, with the
+single exception of Lieutenant Charles Young of the Regular Cavalry,
+had a very depressing effect upon the colored people at large, and
+called forth from their press and their associations most earnest
+protests. With a few exceptions, these protests were encouched in
+respectful language toward the President and his advisers, but the
+grounds upon which they were based were so fair and just, that
+right-thinking men could not avoid their force. The following
+resolution, passed by the National Afro-American Council, may be taken
+as representative of the best form of such remonstrance:
+
+     "_Resolved_, That we are heartily grieved that the President
+     of the United States and those in authority have not from
+     time to time used their high station to voice the best
+     conscience of the nation in regard to mob violence and fair
+     treatment of justly deserving men. It is not right that
+     American citizens should be despoiled of life and liberty
+     while the nation looks silently on; or that soldiers who,
+     with conspicuous bravery, offer their lives for the country,
+     should have their promotion result in practical dismissal
+     from the army."
+
+The nation graciously heeded the call of justice and in the
+re-organization of the volunteer army provided for two colored
+regiments, of which all the company officers should be colored men.
+Under this arrangement many of the black heroes of Santiago were
+recalled from the ranks and again restored to the positions they had
+won. Thus did the nation in part remedy the evil which came in
+consequence of the discharge of the volunteers, and prove its
+willingness to do right. Triumphantly did the Administration vindicate
+itself in the eyes of good people, and again did it place its
+withering disapproval upon the conduct of those who were ready to
+shout their applause over the worthy black officer's accidental
+humiliation. The Negro officer disappeared from the United States'
+Regiments as a Lieutenant only; but he returns to the same, or rather,
+to a higher grade of the same form of regiments, both as Lieutenant
+and Captain. How rapid and pronounced has been the evolution! It is
+true the Negro officer is still a volunteer, but his standing is
+measurably improved, both because of the fact of his recall, and also
+because the regiments which he is now entering have some prospect of
+being incorporated into the Regular Army. It does not seem probable
+that the nation can much longer postpone the increase of the standing
+army, and in this increase it is to be hoped the American Negro, both
+as soldier and officer, will receive that full measure of justice of
+which the formation of the present two colored regiments is so
+conspicuous a part.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DIARY OF E.L. BAKER. SERGEANT-MAJOR TENTH U.S. CAVALRY.
+
+     Appointed First Lieutenant Ninth U.S. Volunteer Infantry,
+     and later Captain of the Forty-ninth Volunteer Infantry--Now
+     Lieutenant in Philippine Scouts.
+
+A TRIP FROM MONTANA TO CUBA WITH THE TENTH U.S. CAVALRY.
+
+April 16, 1898, at 10.45 p.m., telegram was received from Department
+Headquarters, St. Paul, Minnesota, ordering the regiment to the
+Department of the Gulf.
+
+As every click of the telegraph instrument was expected to announce a
+rupture in the diplomatic relations between the United States and the
+Kingdom of Spain, all knew that the mobilization of the army South
+meant preparing it for the serious work for which it is maintained.
+
+On April 19 we were off for Chickamauga Park. En route we were
+heartily greeted. Patriotism was at its height. Every little hamlet,
+even, had its offerings. To compare the journey with Caesar's march of
+triumph would be putting it mildly.
+
+We arrived at the historic point April 25. Every moment of our stay
+there was assiduously devoted to organizing, refitting and otherwise
+preparing for the inevitable. Officers were sent to many parts of the
+country to secure recruits. Many also gave up details and relinquished
+their leaves of absence to take part in the impending crisis.
+
+May 14. We were moved a little nearer the probable theatre of
+operations. On account of some deficiency in water for troops at
+Tampa, the regiment was stopped at Lakeland, 30 miles this side, where
+many recruits were received; Troops increased to war strength, and new
+Troops established. Drills and instructions were also constantly
+followed up.
+
+June 6. Orders were received to prepare headquarters, band and eight
+Troops dismounted, with trained men only, for service in Cuba.
+Recruits to be left in camp with horses and property.
+
+June 7. We were off for Port Tampa, where the regiment embarked on the
+steamship Leona that afternoon.
+
+June 8. She steamed from the dock. When the expedition seemed to be
+forming, news was received that the dreaded Spanish fleet was being
+sighted, evidently lying in wait for army transports. So we steamed
+back to the pier. Many of the men appeared disappointed at the move,
+probably not realizing that there was too much water in the Atlantic
+Ocean for the 5th Army Corps to drink.
+
+To my mind, the Divine Providence surely directed the move, as the
+delay enabled the force to be swelled several thousand, every one of
+whom was needed before Santiago.
+
+June 14. We steamed out of Tampa Bay, amid cheers and music from the
+thirty odd transports, heavily escorted by naval vessels. Among them
+were the much talked-of dynamiter, Vesuvius, and the beautiful little
+cruiser, Helena. Off Dry Tortugas that formidable warship, Indiana,
+joined the fleet.
+
+Splendid weather; nothing unusual transpiring, though our transport,
+which also contained the First U.S. Cavalry, had a seemingly close
+call from being sent to the bottom of the sea, or else being taken in
+as a prisoner, which the enemy could have done with impunity.
+
+Whilst going down the Saint Nicholas Chanel, in Cuban waters, the
+vessel was deliberately stopped about midnight, June 16, and left to
+roll in the trough of the sea until the morning of the 17th, in
+consequence of which we were put 20 hours behind the fleet and without
+escort, almost in sight of the Cuban shores.
+
+Men were indignant at having been placed in such a helpless position,
+and would have thrown the captain of the ship, whom they accused of
+being a Spanish sympathizer and otherwise disloyal, overboard without
+ceremony, but for the strong arm of military discipline. We were
+picked up by the U.S. Cruiser Bancroft, late in the afternoon, she
+having been sent in quest of the Jonah of the fleet. Upon approach of
+the ship there were prolonged cheers from all of Uncle Sam's
+defenders. The only explanation that I have ever heard for this
+unpardonable blunder on the part of the ship's crew was that they
+mistook a signal of a leading vessel.
+
+June 20. Land was sighted.
+
+June 21. Dispatch boats active; transports circling; Morro Castle
+pointed out; three days' rations issued to each man; no extra
+impedimenta to be taken ashore; crew preparing for landing.
+
+June 22. As we neared Daiquiri, the designated place for disembarking,
+flames could be seen reaching almost to the heavens, the town having
+been fired by the fleeing Spaniards upon the approach of war vessels
+of Sampson's fleet, who were assembling to bombard the shore and cover
+our landing. After a fierce fire from these ships, the landing was
+effected with loss of two men of our regiment, who were doubtless
+crushed to death between the lighters. They were buried near the place
+of recovery the next morning.
+
+The few half-clothed and hungry-looking natives on shore seemed
+pleased to see us. Daiquiri, a shipping point of the Spanish-American
+Iron Company, was mostly deserted. The board houses seemed to have
+been spared, while the sun-burned huts thatched with palm were still
+smoking, also the roundhouse in which there were two railroad
+locomotives, warped and twisted from the heat. The Spanish evidently
+fired everything they could before evacuating.
+
+June 23. At 6.00 p.m. Troops A, B, E and I, left with four Troops of
+the First U.S. Cavalry and Rough Riders (First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry)
+as advance guard of the Army of Invasion on the main road to Santiago
+de Cuba; about 800 men all told, three Hotchkiss guns, manned by ten
+cavalrymen, accompanied also by the Brigadier Commander, General
+S.M.B. Young and staff.
+
+NOTE.--These troops marched about 13 miles through a
+drenching rain from 7 to 10 p.m.; bivouacked one hour later. Oh the
+24th, after breakfast, took the trail about 5.15 a.m. The vapor from
+wet clothing rose with the sun, so that you could scarcely recognize a
+man ten feet away. About three and one-half miles above Siboney the
+command was halted; the first U.S. Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders)
+sent to the left; proceeding farther about one mile, the main column
+was split, First U.S. Cavalry going to the right, the Tenth Cavalry
+remaining in the center. General Wheeler joined at this point,
+accompanied by his orderly, Private Queene, Troop A, Tenth Cavalry.
+Disposition of the troops was explained by General Young, who had
+located his headquarters with the Tenth U.S. Cavalry; General Wheeler
+made his the same. Hotchkiss guns were ordered closed up; magazines
+filled. The column had proceeded but a short way when the engagement
+opened in all its fury; troops were deployed and advanced in the
+direction from which the bullets were coming the thickest, as rapidly
+as the formation of the ground would permit, the left of the line
+touching the right of the Rough Riders.
+
+June 24. Headquarters, band and the remainder of the First and Tenth
+U.S. Cavalry were off at 6 A.M. The road was alive with troops (C, D,
+F, G,) colonels and privates alike lugging their rations and bedding
+beneath that ever watchful tropical sun, feeling as though they would
+wilt at every step, the undergrowth being so thick and tall that
+scarcely any breeze could get to you.
+
+On emerging from this thicket, through which we had been marching for
+several hours, the Sampson fleet could be heard firing on the Spanish
+batteries on shore. Marines and other troops could be seen crossing
+the mountains above Altares; this revived the men very much. As we
+approached Verni Jarabo (Altares?), we were met by General Lawton, who
+informed our Colonel that the advance guard was engaged with the
+Spanish at La Guasima, and that it was hard pressed. Our pace was
+quickened; the news appeared to lighten our heavy packs as we toiled
+to the front to assist our comrades. The roar of the artillery became
+plainer; wounded men along the road as well as those played-out from
+the intense heat. Women and children were fleeing to places of safety.
+Our forces were repairing a railroad engine and track; also tearing up
+a piece leading to a Spanish blockhouse. In fact, everything seemed to
+have on an exceedingly warlike tint, but our advance continued as
+swifty as our weary feet would allow, which soon brought us to a
+number of our own comrades conveyed on litters from La Guasima, where
+our advance guard was tussling hard with the Dons for the honors of
+the day.
+
+Upon arrival of reinforcements, victory had been wrested from the Dons
+fairly by the advance guard without assistance. Every one greeted each
+other, as though it had been a year instead of a few hours since
+parting. The First U.S. Cavalry and Rough Riders were unstinted in
+extolling the fighting qualities of their brothers in arms, the Tenth
+U.S. Cavalry.
+
+The enemy was struck early June 24, entrenched on the heights of La
+Guasima, near Sevilla, on the main road from Daiquiri to the city of
+Santiago de Cuba. The advance guard was soon hotly engaged with them;
+after a very desperate fight of over one hour, the enemy was driven in
+confusion from their intrenchments. Our men were too exhausted to
+follow them. The Tenth Cavalry lost 13 killed and wounded. For a while
+it was a terrific fight, as the enemy was strongly intrenched on the
+heights and our men had to climb them subjected to their fire, which
+was very accurate, and much of it doubtless from machine guns in hands
+of experienced men. Our men had also to contend with the thickest
+underbrush, wire fences (the famous military trochas) and Spanish
+daggers jabbing them in side at every step. For a while the situation
+was serious. The decisive blow of the attack seems to have been struck
+at an opportune moment, and the enemy withdrew in confusion.
+
+It has been estimated that about 4,000 Spanish were engaged.
+Everything indicated that they lost heavily; a Santiago paper put it
+at 240. The writer and the Sergeant-Major of the First U.S. Cavalry
+superintended the digging of one large grave where all the dead of the
+two regiments were interred according to the Episcopal service. The
+Rough Riders, being farther to our left, buried their own. If
+advantage of position goes for anything, the Spanish should have
+annihilated the Americans as they approached the stronghold.
+
+The command remained on the battlefield until June 26, when it
+proceeded to Sevilla, an old coffee and sugar plantation, to await the
+assembling of the army and placing of the artillery.
+
+Our camp at Sevilla was an interesting one in many ways. It was
+pitched between the main road and a stream of excellent water. From
+the hill beyond, the Spanish works could be viewed. From the roadside
+many acquaintances were seen, also generals, foreign military
+attaches, troops, artillery and pack trains. Wheeled transportation
+seemed entirely out of its place in Cuba; one piece of artillery was
+noticed with 24 horses tugging away at it.
+
+The Cuban Army, cavalry and infantry, passed us at this point, which
+seemed to consist of every male capable of swelling the crowd. Those
+unable to carry or secure guns had an old knife or machete strapped to
+them.
+
+On June 30, about 4 P.M., shortly after our daily shower, which was a
+little more severe and much longer than usual, the regiment was put in
+motion for the front. We had marched about 1600 yards when the war
+balloon was seen ascending some distance to our right. As the balloon
+question was new, every one almost was stumbling on the man's heels in
+front, trying to get a peep at this wonderful war machine.
+
+After much vexatious delay, narrow road crowded with troops, a pack
+train came along and added its mite to the congestion, as some of the
+mules turned their heels on the advancing column when pushed too much.
+
+We finally merged into a beautiful lawn, site of the Division
+Hospital, where all were as busy as beavers in placing this
+indispensable adjunct in order. Here the work of July 1 was clearly
+suggested. Proceeding, wading and rewading streams, we bivouacked
+beyond the artillery on the heights of El Poso, an old sugar
+plantation, about four miles off, in plain view of the city of
+Santiago. The lights of the city showed so brightly, the enemy
+offering no resistance to our advance, I could not help feeling
+apprehensive of being in a trap. I thought so seriously over the
+matter that I did not unroll my pack, so as to be ready at an instant.
+Simply released my slicker, put it on, and lay down where I halted.
+
+Early July 1 all the brigade was up, getting breakfast and making as
+much noise as if on a practice march. The Tenth Cavalry did not make
+any fire until orders were received to that effect. I remarked to my
+bunky that we were not going to fight evidently, as the smoke would
+surely disclose our presence and enable the enemy's artillery to get
+our range. The whole of Santiago seemed to be decorated with hospital
+flags.
+
+At 6.30 a shell from Capron's battery, U.S. Artillery, directed at a
+blockhouse in El Caney, announced that the battle was on. Then the
+musketry became general. All stood and watched the doomed village
+quite a while as the battle progressed. Soon Grices' battery of the
+U.S. Artillery, which was in support, belched forth destruction at the
+Spanish works of the city, using black powder. The fire was almost
+immediately returned by the enemy's batteries, who had smokeless.
+They were shortly located when a fierce duel took place. The Dons were
+silenced, but not until we had suffered loss. During this fire
+an aide--Lieut. Wm. E. Shipp, Tenth Cavalry, Brigade
+Quartermaster--brought orders for us to take position on the left of
+the First U.S. Cavalry. The line extended nearly north and south on a
+ridge some three or four miles from the city, where the regiment was
+exposed to much of the return fire from the enemy's batteries. The men
+exhibited no special concern and watched the flight of the death
+messenger as eagerly as if at a horse race. Adjutant Barnum here
+divided the band and turned it over to the surgeons to assist in
+caring for the wounded, and directed Saddler Sergeant Smith and myself
+to accompany the Colonel in advance. When Lieut. Shipp delivered his
+orders, some of the officers remarked, "You are having a good time
+riding around here." He replied that it was no picnic riding among
+bullets, and that he would prefer being with his troops.
+
+After the artillery had ceased firing, the regiment moved to the
+right, passed El Poso, where there were additional signs of the
+enemy's havoc among our troops, proceeded down the road leading to
+Santiago. The movement of the regiment was delayed as it approached
+the San Juan River, by an infantry brigade which had halted.
+
+The regiment came within range of musket fire about three-quarters or
+one-half mile from the crossing. Upon reaching the ford the Colonel
+(Baldwin) rode nearly across the stream (closely followed by his
+regiment) when we were greeted by the Dons with a terrific volley of
+musketry, soon followed by artillery, which caused us to realize more
+fully than ever, that "things were coming our way." Orders were given
+to throw off packs and get cover. In removing his, Sergeant Smith,
+on, my immediate left, was assisted by a Spanish bullet, and an
+infantry soldier fell as my pack was thrown off to the right. In
+seeking cover men simply dropped to the right and left of the road in
+a prone position.
+
+The regiment was here subjected to a terrific converging fire from the
+blockhouse and intrenchments in front and the works further to the
+left and nearer the city. The atmosphere seemed perfectly alive with
+flying missiles from bursting shells over head, and rifle bullets
+which seemed to have an explosive effect. Much fire was probably drawn
+by the war balloon, which preceded the regiment to a point on the edge
+of the river, near the ford, where it was held. This balloon
+undoubtedly rendered excellent service in locating positions of the
+Spanish works and developing an ambush which had been laid for us, but
+the poor, ill-fated balloon certainly received many uncomplimentary
+remarks during our stay in its vicinity.
+
+It seemed as though the Spanish regarded the balloon as an evil agent
+of some kind, and as though every gun, both great and small, was
+playing on it. I made several trips under it following the Colonel,
+who repeatedly rode up and down the stream, and I would have been
+fully satisfied to have allowed my mind even to wander back to the
+gaily lighted ball rooms and festivals left behind only a few months
+before.
+
+While on the last trip under the balloon a large naval shell exploded,
+knocking the Colonel's hat off, crippling his horse, and injuring the
+rider slightly in the arm and side, all of course, in addition to a
+good sand bath. I then joined the regiment, some rods beyond, then
+under cover. In crouching down behind a clump of brush, heard some one
+groan; on looking around, saw Private Marshall struggling in the river
+wounded. Immediately rushing to his assistance another of those
+troublesome shells passed so close as to cause me to feel the heat. It
+did not stop the effort, however, and the wounded man was placed in
+safety.
+
+The regiment remained in the road only a few moments when it was
+ordered to take position behind the river bank some yards above the
+balloon for protection; while moving to that position, and while
+there, suffered much loss. Why we did not lose heavier may be
+attributed to the fact that the enemy's musket fire was a trifle high,
+and their shells timed from one-half to one second too long, caused
+them to explode beyond, instead of in front, where the shells would
+have certainly secured the Dons' maximum results, as, after the
+balloon was cut down, you could scarcely hold your hand up without
+getting it hit. During the battle, one trooper fell upon a good-sized
+snake and crushed it to death, and another trooper allowed one of
+these poisonous reptiles to crawl over him while dodging a volley from
+the Spanish Mausers.
+
+The shrapnel and canister shells, with their exceedingly mournful and
+groaning sound, seemed to have a more terrifying effect than the swift
+Mauser bullet, which always rendered the same salutation, "Bi-Yi." The
+midern shrapnel shell is better known as the man-killing projectile,
+and may be regarded as the most dangerous of all projectiles designed
+for taking human life. It is a shell filled with 200 or 300 bullets,
+and having a bursting charge, which is ignited by a time fuse, only
+sufficient to break the base and release the bullets, which then move
+forward with the velocity it had the time of bursting. Each piece is
+capable of dealing death to any living thing in its path. In practice
+firing, it is known where, by one shot, 152 hits were made by a single
+shrapnel. In another, 215 hits are recorded. Imagine then, the havoc
+of a well-directed shrapnel upon a group of men such as is here
+represented. Capron's battery at El Caney cut down 16 cavalrymen with
+one shell.
+
+After a delay of about 30 minutes, during part of the time, the
+writer, assisted by Sergeant Smith and Mr. T.A. Baldwin, cut all the
+wire fences possible. Mr. Baldwin was dangerously wounded while so
+engaged just before the general advance.
+
+The regiment merged into open space in plain view of and under the
+fire of the enemy; and formed line of battle facing toward the
+blockhouses and strong intrenchments to the north, occupied by the
+Spanish, and advanced rapidly in this formation, under a galling,
+converging fire from the enemy's artillery and infantry, on the
+blockhouses and heavy intrenchments to the right front. Many losses
+occurred before reaching the top of the hill, Lieut. W.H. Smith being
+killed while gallantly conducting his troop as it arrived on the
+crest. Lieut. W.E. Shipp was killed about the same instant, shortly
+after leaving Lieutenant Smith, further to the left and near the pond
+on the sunken road leading to Santiago. Lieutenant Smith was struck in
+the head and perished with a single groan. Lieutenant Shipp was hit
+near the heart; death must have been almost instantaneous, though it
+appears he made an effort to make use of his first aid package. Thus
+the careers of two gallant and efficient officers whose lives had been
+so closely associated were ended.
+
+Private Slaughter, who was left in charge of Lieutenant Smith's body,
+was picked off by the Spanish sharpshooters, and Private Jackson,
+Lieutenant Shipp's orderly, was left as deaf as a post from a bursting
+shell.
+
+The enemy having been driven back, northwest, to the second and third
+blockhouses, new lines were formed and a rapid advance made upon them
+to the new positions. The regiment assisted in capturing these works
+from the enemy, and planted two sets of colors on them, then took up a
+position to the north of the second blockhouse. With some changes in
+position of troops, this line, one of the most advanced, about three
+hundred yards of the enemy, was held and intrenchments dug under a
+very heavy and continuous fire from the Spanish intrenchments in
+front, July 2 and 3.
+
+In their retreat from the ridge, the enemy stood not on the order of
+their going, but fled in disorder like so many sheep from the scene,
+abandoning a quantity of ammunition, which was fired at them
+subsequently from our rapid-fire guns. Our men were too exhausted to
+pursue them, footwear and clothing being soaked by wading rivers, they
+had become drenched with rain, and when they reached the crest they
+were about played-out; having fought about 12 hours, most of which was
+under that ever-relentless tropical sun.
+
+Throughout the night, work on the intrenchments was pushed, details
+buried the dead, improvised litters, and conveyed the wounded to
+hospitals, all of which was prosecuted with that vim for which the
+regular soldier is characterized, notwithstanding their water-logged
+condition.
+
+The regiment acted with extraordinary coolness and bravery. It held
+its position at the ford and moved forward unflinchingly after
+deployment, through the dense underbrush, crossed and recrossed by
+barbed wire, under heavy and almost plunging fire from the Spanish
+works, while attacking with small arms an enemy strongly posted in
+intrenchments and blockhouses, supported by artillery, and who
+stubbornly contested every inch of ground gained by the American
+troops.
+
+Officers were exceedingly active and tireless in their efforts to
+inspire and encourage the men. You could hear them call out, "Move
+right along; the Spaniards can't shoot; they are using blanks." One
+officer deliberately stopped and lit his pipe amid a shower of
+bullets, and then moved on as unconcerned as if on target practice.
+
+The rifle pits occupied by the enemy were intrenchments in reality,
+dug almost shoulder deep, and faced with stone, being constructed
+without approaches, leaving the only avenue for escape over the
+parapet, which was equivalent to committing suicide, in face of the
+unerring marksmanship of the United States troops.
+
+We were afterward told by a Spanish soldier how they were held in
+these trenches by an officer stationed at each end with a club; also
+how they depended on their officers for everything. This may account
+for the large percentage of our officers picked off by the Dons. I
+observed during the battle that when spotted by the enemy, delivering
+orders or busying about such duties as usually indicated some one in
+authority, the Spanish would fire whole volleys at an individual, this
+evidently with a view to demoralizing the rank and file by knocking
+off the officers.
+
+The Spanish also tried an old Indian trick to draw our fire, or induce
+the men to expose themselves, by raising their hats on sticks or
+rifles, or placing them upon parapets, so when we went to fire they
+would aim to catch us as we rose with a terrific volley. The Dons
+were, however, soon convinced of their folly in this respect, as we
+always had a volley for the hats and a much stouter one for the enemy
+as he raised to reply to the volley at the hats. The Tenth Cavalry had
+fought Indians too long in the West to be foiled in that manner.
+
+We were annoyed much by the Spanish sharpshooters stationed in tops of
+the beautiful palms and other trees of dense foliage. A number of
+these guerillas were found provided with seats, water and other
+necessaries, and I am told some of them had evidently robbed our dead
+to secure themselves an American uniform, that they might still carry
+on their nefarious work undetected.
+
+Many of the disabled received their second and some their mortal
+wound, while being conveyed from the field by litter-bearers.
+
+Though it was the tendency for a time to give the sharpshooter story
+little or no credence, but to lay the matter to "spent bullets"; it
+seemed almost out of the question that "spent bullets" should annoy
+our Division Hospital, some four or five miles from the Spanish works.
+It would also seem equally as absurd that a bullet could be trained to
+turn angles, as several of our men were hit while assembled for
+transfer to general hospital and receiving temporary treatment at the
+dressing station located in an elbow of the San Juan River.
+
+The Division Hospital was so harassed that it was necessary to order
+four Troops of the 9th U.S. Cavalry there for guard. While en route to
+the hospital on the morning of July 2 with wounded, I saw a squad of
+the 2nd U.S. Cavalry after one of these annoying angels, not 20 feet
+from the road. On arrival at the hospital I was told by a comrade that
+several had been knocked from their stage of action. On July 1, our
+Color-Sergeant was shot from a tree after our line had passed beneath
+the tree where he was located. July 3, three more fell in response to
+a volley through tree tops, and on July 14, while waiting the hand to
+reach the hour for the bombardment of the city, one of the scoundrels
+deliberately ascended a tree in plain view of, and within two hundred
+yards of, our line. It was a good thing that the white flag for
+surrender appeared before the hour to commence firing, otherwise Spain
+would have had at least one less to haggle with on account of back
+pay.
+
+To locate a sharpshooter using smokeless powder among the dense
+tropical growth may be compared with "looking for a needle in a
+haystack."
+
+The killed and wounded in battle present a scene well calculated to
+move the most callous. Men shot and lacerated in every conceivable
+manner; some are expressionless; some just as they appeared in life;
+while others are pinched and drawn and otherwise distorted, portraying
+agony in her most distressful state. Of the wounded, in their anguish,
+some are perfectly quiet; others are heard praying; some are calling
+for their mothers, while others are giving out patriotic utterances,
+urging their comrades on to victory, or bidding them farewell as they
+pass on to the front. July 1, in passing a wounded comrade, he told me
+that he could whip the cowardly Spaniard who shot him, in a fair fist
+fight.
+
+During the first day's battle many interesting sights were witnessed.
+The new calibre 30 Gatling guns were in action. These cruel machines
+were peppering away several hundred shots each per minute and sweeping
+their front from right to left, cutting down shrubbery and Spaniards
+like grain before the reaper. I observed the excellent service of the
+Hotchkiss Mountain gun; they certainly do their work to perfection and
+well did the Dons know it. Many shots fired into the "blind ditches
+and blockhouses" of the enemy caused them to scatter like rats. These
+guns use a percussion shell nearly two inches, and can be packed on
+mules. They were designed for light service with cavalry on the
+frontier. Four of these little beauties were manned by men of the
+Tenth Cavalry. The Spanish made it so hot for the boys that they would
+have to roll the gun under cover to load, and then steal it back to
+fire.
+
+I saw one of our light batteries of artillery go in position under
+fire at the foot of San Juan Hill. The movement was swiftly and
+skillfully executed. A most interesting feature of this was to see the
+Caissons, drawn by six magnificent horses, off for ammunition. Three
+drivers to each outfit, one to each pair of horses; all plying the
+whip at every jump, would remind you of a Roman chariot race coming
+around on their last heat.
+
+Wheeled vehicles of war suffer more than other troops, on account of
+their stationary positions. It is here that the dreaded sharpshooter
+comes in for glory, by picking off the gunners and other individuals.
+
+Pack trains were seen dashing along the line with that always
+absolutely essential--ammunition--thereby gladdening the hearts of the
+boys who were doing their utmost to expend every round in their belts
+to gain another foot of Spanish territory.
+
+During all these stirring events the stomachs of the real heroes were
+not neglected, and most certainly not along our part of the line. Pack
+mules were brought right up to the line under a hot fire, loaded with
+sugar, coffee, bacon and hardtack, all of which was in plenty. Some of
+the mules were killed and wounded, but this did not retard the advance
+of the train. When near the firing line some one called, "Whose
+rations?" A prompt reply, "Hungry soldiers."
+
+The daring horseman was all that was needed to make the situation
+complete. Without participation of cavalry, the ideal warrior
+disappears from the scene, and the battle and-picture of war is robbed
+of its most attractive feature.
+
+Late in the afternoon, July 1, I was directed to take Saddler Sergeant
+Smith and bring to the firing line all the men I could find of the
+regiment. Going to the dressing station, collected those who had
+brought or assisted wounded there, thence across a portion of the
+field passed over a few hours previous. Men were found almost
+exhausted, soaking wet, or a solid mass of mud, resting as comfortably
+as if in the finest of beds; many of them had been on picket duty all
+night before, to which was added the hard day's work not then
+completed. After locating all I could, we went to the crest of the San
+Juan Hill, to the left of the sunken road, where the First U.S.
+Cavalry was reforming, and there picked up a few more who had joined
+that regiment.
+
+The Tenth Cavalry having in the meantime taken another position, I set
+out to find it, going in front, telling Smith to bring up the rear. We
+were detained a short time near Sunken Roads by shells from Cervera's
+fleet, which were falling in it at a lively rate. Barbed wire
+prevented us from "running the gauntlet." Shortly after crossing the
+road an officer passed us, his horse pushed to his utmost, telling us
+to take all the ammunition that we possibly could on the firing line.
+About that instant, the pack train came thundering by, which we
+relieved of a few thousand rounds in short order. I was much amused at
+one of the men who innocently asked, "Where are we to get axes to
+burst these strong boxes?" The job was speedily accomplished before
+the boxes were on the ground good, and most certainly in less time
+than it would have taken to explain matters to the inexperienced. We
+were soon off again, tramping all over the country, through darkness,
+running into wire entanglements, outposts and pickets, and within
+fifty yards of the enemy (subsequently ascertained).
+
+About 11.00 P.M. found Colonel Roosevelt a few hundred yards from the
+Spanish lines with some of my regiment, the First Cavalry, and Rough
+Riders, at work on trenches, where we reported. All seemed glad to
+have my little reinforcement, about 65 men, and ammunition. I never
+felt so relieved at anything as I did to get that herculean task off
+my hands, a job as hard as working a problem in the third book of
+Euclid. The men were so tired that they would lie down at every stop
+to find the right road or the way out of the wire entanglements
+constantly encountered. I have never seen in a book anything to equal
+the Spanish wire entanglements. Barbed wire was stretched in every
+nook and corner, through streams, grass, and from two inches to six
+feet in height, and from a corkscrew to a cable in design. It takes
+the nerve of a circus man to get men along when they are so exhausted
+that every place feels alike to them, and that they would gladly give
+away Mr. Jim Hill's fortune if they possessed it, for a few hours'
+sleep.
+
+On arrival at the front, lunch was about over or just ready.
+Lieutenant E.D. Anderson (10th Cavalry) gave me two and one-half
+hardtacks from his supply, which he carried in his bosom. I was soon
+down for a little rest; all desultory firing had ceased; the pick and
+the shovel were the only things to disturb the quietude of that
+anxious night. Had been down but a short time when aroused by one of
+the Rough Riders, who had some rice and meat in an ammunition box
+which he brought from the captured blockhouse. The meat was
+undoubtedly mule, as the longer I chewed it the larger and more spongy
+it got, and were it not for the fact that I had had some experience
+in the same line many years before in Mexico while in pursuit of
+hostile Indians, I would certainly have accused our best friends
+(Rough Riders) of feeding us rubber. I made another effort for a
+little sleep, and was again aroused by some one passing around
+hardtack, raw bacon, etc., with instructions as to where to go to cook
+it. I thanked him and carefully laid it aside to resume my nap. At
+2.40 A.M. the pickets were having such a lively set to, that I thought
+the general engagement was on. It was at this time I discovered that I
+was shivering cold, and that my teeth were rattling equal to a
+telegraph sounder; so under the circumstances, I concluded not to try
+for any more sleep. The dew was falling thick and heavy; no coat, no
+blanket, top shirt torn in strips from the brush, and undershirt wet
+and in my pack, thrown off on coming into battle.
+
+Early July 22nd the artillery took position on our left. Pickets kept
+up firing from 2.40 A.M. until 5.25, when the engagement became
+general. Shortly after 6.00 A.M. our artillery opened on the Spanish
+works, who promptly returned the compliment. During the firing the
+Dons exploded a shell in the muzzle of one of our pieces. Adjutant
+Barnum fell at 6.30 A.M.; his wound was promptly dressed, when I
+started to the Division Hospital with him. Though seriously hurt, I
+have never seen a better natured man. While en route, we laid him down
+to eat a can of salmon _found in the road_. In response to his query,
+"What's up, Sergeant?" the salmon was passed him; he helped himself,
+no further questions were asked, and the journey was resumed. On
+arrival at the hospital he was quickly examined and placed on a
+comfortable cot. Many of the attendants were completely played-out
+from overwork.
+
+A visit to a field hospital will have a lasting place in your memory.
+Every way you turn, amid the cries and groans, you get a beck or call
+to ease this, or hand me that, and one feels badly because of his
+inability to extend them material aid in their sufferings.
+
+On returning to the front, I found the regiment as hotly engaged as
+when I left it some hours before. As the fighting was from trenches,
+many of our men were wounded by shells. Sharpshooters were on hand as
+usual. I was sent to the Captain of Troop E, under the crest of the
+hill, with orders to dig an approach to one of the enemy's trenches,
+evacuated the day before; also to bury some of their dead. While
+delivering the order, it being necessary to get very close on account
+of the noise, one of those ever vigilant sharpshooters put a bullet
+between our faces. The Captain asked me to cut the wire fence so his
+troops could get through more rapidly; while telling me, another
+bullet passed so close as to disturb the Captain's mustache. He took
+it good-naturedly, only remarking as he smiled, "Pretty close,
+Sergeant-Major!"
+
+Firing ceased about 8 P.M. After all had had supper we changed
+position further to the right, where work on trenches was resumed.
+About 10.30 P.M. the Spaniards made an attack upon our lines, and I
+have never before or since seen such terrific firing; the whole
+American line, which almost encircled the city, was a solid flame of
+fire. The enemy's artillery replied, also their much-praised
+"Mausers," but to no avail; they had opened the ball, but Uncle Sam's
+boys did not feel like yielding one inch of the territory so dearly
+bought.
+
+About midnight all hands were aroused by the dynamite cruiser Vesuvius
+"coughing" for the Dons. The roar was so great that it seemed to shake
+the whole island. To the uninitiated it would appear that some one
+had taken a few mountains several miles up in a balloon and thrown
+them down.
+
+July 3. Firing by pickets commenced very early, and quite heavy, at
+5.40 A.M. Terrific cannonading to the seaward was heard between 9 and
+10 A.M. As there was some talk of the enemy making a sortie, all eyes
+were open. Dirt began falling in the pits from the jar, bells could be
+heard tolling in the city, and steam whistles in the harbor. There was
+much speculation as to what was in progress. I'll say that there were
+many glad hearts when the news reached us that _Sampson's fleet was
+King of the Seas_. At 12 M. all firing was ordered off, for flag of
+truce to enter the Spanish lines. When the order for cease firing was
+given, one of the troopers laid his gun upon the parapet and remarked
+that he "would not take $2000 for his experience, but did not want a
+cent's worth more." Work on bomb-proofs and breast works was continued
+incessantly until news of the surrender reached us.
+
+July 4. Flag of truce all day; national and regimental colors placed
+on parapets. At noon the regiment paraded, and all hearts cheered by
+the patriotic telegram of the Commander-in-Chief--His Excellency,
+President McKinley. Refugees, in droves, could be seen leaving for
+several days, notice of bombardment having been served on the city.
+
+July 5. There was much excitement when Lieutenant Hobson and party
+crossed our lines.
+
+During truce, the monotony was broken occasionally by the presence of
+Spanish soldiers in quest of something to eat or desiring to
+surrender.
+
+Truce was off July 10 at 4 P.M. Bombardment of the city commenced by
+the army and navy combined, which continued until 2 P.M. 11th.
+Gatling, dynamite, rapid-firing and Hotchkiss guns were so well
+trained that the Dons scarcely dared to raise their heads, and their
+firing was soon silenced. During the attack our part of the line
+suffered no loss. While occupying these works, it was discovered that
+the gun of the enemy that _annoyed us most was quite near a large
+building covered with Red Cross flags_.
+
+During the truce all of our dead were located and buried. It was sad,
+indeed, to see the vultures swarming like flies, when we knew so well
+their prey.
+
+Though prepared to, several times, no shots were exchanged after July
+11, and all was quiet until date of capitulation. The hardest rain
+ever witnessed, accompanied by terrific thunder and lightning, was on
+the last day of the engagement. Trenches were flooded and everything
+appeared as a sea.
+
+July 17, at 9 A.M., the regiment, with the remainder of the army, was
+assembled over the trenches to witness the formal surrender of General
+Toral, with the Spanish forces. Owing to the dense tropical growth,
+and its similarity in color to their clothing, little or nothing could
+be seen, beyond the straw hats of the Dons, as they marched through
+the jungles. At 12 M., we were again placed in the same position, to
+salute "Old Glory" as she ascended over the Governor's palace in the
+city, which was told by Capron's battery U.S. Artillery. At the first
+shot, every individual tested his lungs to their fullest capacity,
+bands of music playing national airs.
+
+Spanish soldiers were soon over our lines, trading off swords, wine,
+cigarettes and trinkets for hard tack and bacon. This soon ended, as
+there were positive orders against our fraternizing. The Spaniards
+were a fine looking lot of young men; though generally small in
+stature, and were very neat and clean, considering. The officers were
+an intelligent and dignified looking set. The Dons were away ahead on
+ammunition, and away behind on eatables. A few musty, hard tack,
+thrown in our trenches, were devoured like so much fresh beef, by so
+many hungry wolves.
+
+Campaigning in the tropics entails many hardships, though unavoidable
+and only to be expected, in war. War is horrible in any aspect in
+which it may be viewed. Even those features of it intended to be
+merciful, are full of harshness and rigor; and after all, fighting is
+the easiest part.
+
+As the capitulation was complete, and Santiago was our's, we were
+ordered to change camp to a more healthful locality, with a view to
+allowing the men to recuperate. While en route many refugees were met
+returning to the city, men and women, with the scantiest clothing
+imaginable; large children even worse--in a nude state--all were
+making signs for something to eat.
+
+In passing through El Caney, filth of all descriptions was piled up in
+the streets; stock was seen standing inside dwellings with occupants;
+young and old were emaciated--walking skeletons; children with
+stomachs bloated to thrice their natural size--due to the unsanitary
+condition of the huts, so I was informed.
+
+The bare facts are, that "half has never been told" regarding the true
+condition of the Cubans, and it is truly a Godsend that "Uncle Sam"
+was not delayed another day in letting the Don's breathe a little of
+nature's sweetest fragrance of the nineteenth century--Civilization.
+
+The portion of the island I saw appears to be a beautiful park
+deserted and laid waste by the lavish application of the torch for
+many years. Magnificent mansions, or dwellings, in ruins; habitation
+scant, except near towns.
+
+There were no domestic animals, except a few for saddle purposes, nor
+were there crops to be seen. No use whatever appears to be made of the
+luxuriant pasturage and rich fields. Sugar houses and sheds on
+plantations are in a state of decay, and the huge kettles for boiling
+deeply coated with rust.
+
+The climate of Cuba offers all the essentials, heat, moisture and
+organic matter, for the development of germ life in its most active
+form.
+
+The great heat and moisture, so excellent for the development of
+infected wounds, and for the rapid decomposing of the heavy
+undergrowth cannot, I believe, be exceeded anywhere.
+
+The frequent tropical showers, invariably followed by a hot steam,
+along with which germs seem to float; the consequent exposure of the
+men to that glaring heat and moisture, lowered the general tone of the
+system so that they were especially liable to attacks of miasmatic
+diseases (malarial and typhoid fevers and dysentery.)
+
+Owing to the dense humidity, clothing does not dry so long as it
+remains on the person, but must be removed, a condition that was
+absolutely impossible for many days on the field before Santiago. To
+this alone, much of our sickness may be attributed.
+
+Our new camp, pitched on the eminence of El Caney, about one and
+one-half miles from the village, overlooking the city and bay of
+Santiago, with its excellent water, shade, grass, and increased
+comforts, which were daily shipped from our transports, presented a
+scene far more conciliatory than had been witnessed about the Tenth
+Horse for many days.
+
+
+MEDALS OF HONOR AND CERTIFICATES OF MERIT GRANTED TO COLORED SOLDIERS
+FOR DISTINGUISHED SERVICES IN THE CUBAN CAMPAIGN.
+
+OFFICIAL.
+
+                            MEDALS OF HONOR.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+     Name.       |  Rank  |  Regiment. |  Troop or Co.| Remarks.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+Bell, Dennis     |  Pvt.  |  10th Cav. |  Troop H.    |For gallantry
+Lee, Fitz        |  Pvt.  |  10th Cav. |  Troop M.    |in action at
+Tompkins, Wm. H. |  Pvt.  |  10th Cav. |  Troop M.    |Tayabacoa, Cuba,
+Wanton, Geo. H.  |  Pvt.  |  10th Cav. |  Troop M.    |June 30, 1898.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+                       CERTIFICATES OF MERIT.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+    Name.        |Rank.     | Regiment. | Troop or Co.| Remarks.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+Bates, James     |Pvt.      |  9th Cav. | Troop H.    |
+Crosby, Scott    |Pvt.      | 24th Inf. | Comp. A.    |
+Davis, Edward    |Pvt.      |  9th Cav. | Troop H.    |
+Elliott, J.      |Sergt.    | 10th Cav. | Troop D.    |
+Fasit, Benjamin  |Sergt.    | 10th Cav. | Troop E.    |
+Gaither, O.      |Q.M.Sergt | 10th Cav. | Troop B.    |
+Goff, G.W.       |Sergt.    |  9th Cav. | Troop B.    |
+Graham, J.       |Sergt.    | 10th Cav. | Troop E.    |
+Hagen, Abram     |Corp.     | 24th Inf. | Comp. G.    |
+Herbert, H.T.    |Corp.     | 10th Cav. | Troop E.    |
+Houston, Adam    |1st Sergt.| 10th Cav. | Troop C.    |
+Jackson, J.      |1st Sergt.|  9th Cav. | Troop C.    |
+Jackson, Elisha  |Sergt.    |  9th Cav. | Troop H.    |
+Jackson, Peter   |Corp.     | 24th Inf. | Comp. G.    |
+Jefferson, C.W.  |1st Sergt.|  9th Cav. | Troop B.    |
+McCoun, P.       |1st Sergt.| 10th Cav. | Troop E.    |
+Moore, Loney     |Pvt.      | 24th Inf. | Comp. A.    |
+Oden, Oscar      |Musician  | 10th Cav. | ........    |
+Payne, William   |Sergt.    | 10th Cav. | Troop E.    |
+Pumphrey, Geo. W |Corp.     |  9th Cav. | Troop H.    |
+Satchell, James  |Sergt.    | 24th Inf. | Comp. A.    |
+Smith, L.        |Pvt.      | 10th Cav. | Troop D.    |
+Thornton, William|Corp.     | 24th Inf. | Comp. G.    |
+Walker, J.       |Corp.     | 10th Cav. | Troop D.    |
+Williams, John T.|Sergt.    | 24th Inf. | Comp. G.    |
+Williams, R.     |Corp.     | 24th Inf. | Comp. B.    |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Besides the Certificates of Merit and Medals of Honor, mentioned
+above, and the promotions to commissions in the volunteer services,
+there were some instances of promotion to non-commissioned officers'
+positions of men in the ranks or junior grade for conspicuous
+gallantry. Notably among such were Benjamin F. Sayre, of the
+Twenty-fourth, promoted to Sergeant-Major for gallantry at San Juan,
+and Private James W. Peniston, of the Tenth Cavalry, promoted to
+Squadron Sergeant-Major for conspicuous bravery at Las Guasimas.
+Others there may be whose names are not available at this time.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[22] "The Ninth and Tenth Cavalry regiments fought one on either side
+of mine at Santiago, and I wish no better men beside me in battle than
+these colored troops showed themselves to be. Later on, when I come to
+write of the campaign, I shall have much to say about them."--T.
+Roosevelt.
+
+[23] The major commanding the squadron in which Sergeant Givens'
+troops served, writes to the sergeant the following letter:
+
+     Sergeant William H. Givens, Troop D, 10th Cavalry, Fort
+     Clark, Texas.
+
+     Sergeant:--When making my report as commander of the Second
+     Squadron, 10th U. S. Cavalry, for action of July 1, 1898, at
+     San Juan Hills, I did not mention any enlisted men by name,
+     as I was absent from the regiment at the time of making the
+     report and without access to records, so that I could not
+     positively identify and name certain men who were
+     conspicuous during the fight; but I recollect finding a
+     detachment of Troop D under your command on the firing line
+     during the afternoon of July 1st. Your service and that of
+     your men at that time was most creditable, and you deserve
+     special credit for having brought your detachment promptly
+     to the firing line when left without a commissioned officer.
+
+     THEO. J. WINT,
+     Lieutenant-Colonel, 6th U.S. Cavalry.
+     Second Lieutenant, 10th Cavalry.
+
+     True copy:
+
+[24] Extract from _The Statesman_, Denver, after the departure of the
+25th Infantry, and the arrival of the 34th:
+
+     Two policemen killed, the murderer at large and his comrades
+     of the 34th Regiment busy boasting of their sympathy for
+     him, and extolling his deed to the skies, yet not a single
+     petition has been prepared to have the regiment removed. The
+     25th Infantry, with its honor undimmed by any such wanton
+     crime, with a record unexcelled by any regiment in the
+     service, was the target for all sorts of criticism and
+     persecution as soon as it arrived. The one is a white
+     regiment, composed of the scum of the earth, the other a
+     black regiment composed of men who have yet to do one thing
+     of which they should be ashamed. Yet Denver welcomes the one
+     with open arms and salutes with marked favor, while she
+     barely suffered the other to remain.
+
+     Had it been a negro soldier who committed the dastardly deed
+     of Saturday night the War Department would have been deluged
+     with complaints and requests for removal, but not a word has
+     been said against the 34th. Prejudice and hatred blacker
+     than the wings of night has so envenomed the breasts of the
+     people that fairness is out of the question. Be he black, no
+     matter how noble and good, a man must be despised. Be he
+     white, he may commit the foulest of crimes and yet have his
+     crimes condoned.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+The Colored Volunteers.
+
+     The Ninth Ohio Battalion--Eighth Illinois--Twenty-third
+     Kansas-Third North Carolina--Sixth Virginia--Third
+     Alabama--The Immunes.
+
+
+The return of the army and the repatriation of the Spanish army from
+Cuba, brought before the country for immediate solution the problem of
+garrisoning that island; and in a very short time the question of
+similar nature regarding Porto Rico. Ten regiments of immunes had been
+organized in the volunteer service partly in anticipation of such a
+situation. Four of these regiments were composed of colored enlisted
+men. The regiments were classed as United States Volunteer Infantry,
+and were numbered from one to ten, the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and
+Tenth being colored.
+
+Of these four colored regiments the officers above first lieutenants
+were white men, except the chaplains, and in some cases the surgeons.
+Very little care had been taken in enlisting the men, as it was
+important to get the regiments in the field as soon as possible; yet
+of them as a whole General Breckinridge, Inspector-General, speaks as
+follows: "The colored regiments of immunes, so called, raised for this
+war, have turned out, so far as can be judged from their camp life (as
+none of them have been in any actual campaign), very satisfactory. The
+regular colored regiments won golden opinions in battle. The
+experiment of having so many colored officers has not yet shown its
+full results. Certainly we should have the best obtainable officers
+for our volunteers, and therefore some such men as Colonel Young, who
+is a graduate of the Military Academy at West Point, whether white or
+black, must be sought for."
+
+Besides these four colored regiments of immunes, so-called, there were
+other State organizations composed entirely of colored men, mustered
+into the United States service, as for example the Ninth Battalion of
+the Ohio National Guard. This organization was composed of four
+companies, with colored captains and lieutenants, the staff officers
+also being colored, the commanding officer of the battalion being
+Major Young, who was a first lieutenant in the Regular Army, a
+graduate from the Military Academy, and an officer of experience. He
+is the person referred to as _Colonel_ Young by General Breckinridge,
+cited just above. This battalion, although not permitted to do any
+active campaigning, maintained itself well in that most trying of all
+duties for raw troops--camp duty--winning a good record in the South
+as well as in the North, having been stationed in Virginia,
+Pennsylvania and lastly in South Carolina; from which latter place it
+was mustered out, and the men proceeded to their homes in an orderly
+manner, reflecting credit upon themselves and the officers under whom
+they had served. This organization is mentioned first, because it was
+the only one of its kind commanded by a Regular Army officer, and a
+man who had received scientific military training.[25]
+
+Two of these volunteer regiments, the Eighth Illinois and the
+Twenty-third Kansas, reached Cuba and made history there, in garrison
+service, coming in direct contact with the Ninth Immunes, and in no
+sense suffering in comparison thereto. The Eighth Illinois being the
+first to go to the front, in a sense deserves to be noticed here
+first. This remarkable regiment was developed out of the Ninth
+Battalion, Illinois National Guard, and owes its origin to the
+persistent efforts of Messrs. John R. Marshall, Robert R. Jackson,
+Franklin Dennison, E.H. Wright, Rev. R.C. Ransom, Rev. J.W. Thomas,
+S.B. Turner and doubtless many others whose names do not appear. These
+gentlemen named called upon the Governor of their State the next day
+after the President had issued his call for 175,000 volunteers, and
+received from that official the assurance that if another call should
+be made they should have the opportunity to recruit their battalion to
+a regiment, and that he would "call that regiment first into the
+service," and "that every officer in that regiment will be a colored
+man."
+
+After receiving this encouragement, the leaders began at once the work
+of organizing and recruiting, and when the second call came, May 25th,
+the regiment was well under way, and soon ready to go into camp to
+prepare for service. On June 30th it assembled in Springfield from the
+following places: Seven hundred men from Chicago; one hundred and
+twenty from Cairo; a full company from Quincy, and smaller numbers
+from Mound City, Metropolis and Litchfield, and nearly a company from
+Springfield. The regiment was sworn in during the latter half of July,
+the muster roll showing 1,195 men and 46 officers, every one of whom
+was of African descent except one private in a Chicago company.
+
+Of these forty-six officers, ten had received college education, six
+were lawyers, and the others were educated in the public schools, or
+had served in the Regular Army as non-commissioned officers. Many of
+them were directly from Illinois, that is in the sense of having been
+born and reared in the State, and were fully accustomed to the full
+exercise of their rights as men and citizens. In character and
+intelligence the official element of the Eighth was about up to the
+standard of the volunteer army, as events subsequently proved.
+
+Going into camp with the Ninth, white, this latter regiment, early in
+August, received an order to move to a Southern camp en route for
+Cuba, leaving the Eighth behind, greatly to the chagrin of both
+officers and men. Governor Tanner was evidently disturbed by this
+move, and expressed himself in the following language: "Even from the
+very doors of the White House have I received letters asking and
+advising me not to officer this regiment with colored men, but I
+promised to do so, and I have done it. I shall never rest until I see
+this regiment--my regiment--on the soil of Cuba, battling for the
+right and for its kinsmen."
+
+Later the misfortunes of the First Illinois proved the opportunity of
+the Eighth. This regiment was in Cuba, suffering terribly with the
+fever, the men going down under its effects so rapidly that the
+Colonel in command implored Governor Tanner "to use all influence at
+Washington to secure the immediate recall of the First Illinois." When
+the Governor received this message he sent for Colonel Marshall, of
+the Eighth, and asked him to ascertain the sentiments of the officers
+and men of his regiment in regard to being sent to relieve the First.
+On the 4th day of August Colonel Marshall was able to send to
+Washington the following dispatch:
+
+     "H. C. Corbin, Adjutant-General:--
+
+     "I called the officers of the Eighth Illinois, colored, in
+     conference and they are unanimously and enthusiastically in
+     favor of being sent to relieve the First Illinois at
+     Santiago."
+
+To this hearty dispatch came the following reply:
+
+     "The Secretary of War appreciates very much the offer of the
+     Eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry for duty in Santiago,
+     and has directed that the regiment be sent there by steamer
+     Yale, leaving New York next Tuesday. The main trouble with
+     our troops now in Cuba is that they are suffering from
+     exhaustion and exposure incident to one of the most trying
+     campaigns to which soldiers have ever been subjected."
+
+     "H.C. Corbin,
+     "_Adjutant-General_."
+
+This action on the part of the regiment is said to have so pleased the
+President that on hearing it he declared it was the proudest moment of
+his life.
+
+On the 9th of August the regiment left Springfield, and in passing
+through Illinois and Ohio was greeted with the most generous
+enthusiasm, the people supplying the men with free lunches at every
+station. This was the period when the sympathy of the whole country
+was turned toward the colored soldier in consequence of the reports of
+valor and heroism that had been circulated concerning the black
+regulars. On the afternoon of the 11th the Yale cast off her lines,
+and with the first American Negro regiment that the world has ever
+seen, steamed out of New York harbor amid the ringing of bells and
+shrieks of steam whistles, and four days later, August 15, landed in
+Cuba. The regiment remained in Cuba until March 10, performing
+garrison duty so well that General Breckenridge said it was "as fine a
+volunteer regiment as was ever mustered into the service," and that it
+was "a shame to muster out of service such an excellent regiment."
+
+The Twenty-third Kansas, made up in that State and officered as was
+the Eighth Illinois, by men of the same race, with the enlisted men,
+arrived in Cuba August 30, and in company with the Eighth Illinois
+Regiment, was stationed in the country about San Luis, with
+headquarters at that place, Colonel Marshall, of the Illinois
+Regiment, serving as commander of the post, and also as Governor of
+the Province of San Luis. A detachment of the Illinois Regiment,
+under command of Major Jackson, was sent to Palma Soriana, and did
+excellent work there in the preservation of order between the Cubans
+and Spaniards, who were living together in that place in outward peace
+but in secret resentful hostility. Major Jackson managed affairs so
+well that both parties came to admire him, and when he was called away
+expressed their regret. Captain Roots, who commanded the post after
+the departure of Major Jackson, was equally fortunate, especially with
+the Cubans, and when it was thought his command was to be removed, the
+citizens generally united in a petition to the General commanding,
+asking that both the Captain and his command might remain in the city.
+The fact is also noted by the chroniclers of the regiment that several
+marriages took place in Palma Soriana between soldiers of the Eighth
+Illinois and Cuban maidens.
+
+The Eighth Regiment was finally settled in San Luis, occupying the old
+Spanish barracks and arsenal, and under Colonel Marshall's supervision
+the city was put in fine sanitary condition, streets and yards being
+carefully policed; meanwhile under the reign of order and peace which
+the Colonel's just methods established, confidence prevailed, business
+revived and the stagnation which had so long hung like a fog over the
+little city, departed, and in its stead came an era of bustling
+activity.
+
+All was peaceful and prosperous, both with the citizens and the
+garrison, until the Ninth United States Volunteers came in the
+vicinity. Then a difficulty sprang up in which both regiments became
+involved, although it was in no sense serious, but it afforded a
+pretext for the removal of the Eighth Illinois from the city. The
+event turned out all the better for the Eighth, as it enabled them to
+establish Camp Marshall, about three miles from the city, in a healthy
+neighborhood, where they remained until ordered home to be mustered
+out. The regiment came back to Chicago in fine condition and was
+tendered an enthusiastic welcome by that great city. Thus two entire
+regiments represented the country abroad in this, its first, foreign
+war with a European power.
+
+It should also be recorded that although the Ninth United States
+Volunteers was composed of persons who were classed as immune, and had
+come chiefly from Louisiana, and notwithstanding that the officers of
+the regiment above lieutenants were white men, and the colonel an
+officer of the Regular Army of long experience, and was specially
+praised by so good a sanitarian as General Wood for having been,
+constant and untiring in his efforts to look after the welfare of his
+men, and that the surgeons of the regiment were white men, that deaths
+among the colored men numbered one officer and seventy-three enlisted
+men. In striking contrast with this record of the immune regiment is
+that of the Eighth Illinois, which was made up entirely of residents
+of that State and officered throughout by colored men. Its medical
+officers were men of high character, and its losses by death were just
+twenty, or but little over one-fourth the number that occurred in the
+immune regiment. An efficient auxiliary society to this regiment was
+formed of colored ladies of Chicago who forwarded to the sick in Cuba
+more than six hundred dollars worth of well chosen supplies, which did
+much for the comfort of those in the hospital; but this would not
+account for the great difference in the death rate of the two
+regiments. Though not immune, the Eighth Illinois fared very much
+better than the so-called immune regiment, although the latter had
+the benefit of white officers. The experience of the Twenty-third
+Kansas did not differ in any important respect from that of the Eighth
+Illinois. Both regiments returned to their homes in March, 1899, and
+were mustered out of the service, leaving behind them good records for
+efficiency.
+
+The Sixth Virginia Regiment consisted of eight companies and was under
+command of Lieutenant-Colonel Richard C. Croxton, of the Regular Army,
+white, with Majors J.B. Johnson and W.H. Johnson, colored. It was
+mustered into service during the latter part of the summer and went
+into camp near Knoxville, Tennessee. Here an order came from Corps
+Headquarters, at Lexington, Kentucky, directing that nine of the
+officers, including one major, should appear before a board of
+examiners in order to give evidence of their fitness to command. The
+officers named, regarding this as uncalled for, immediately tendered
+their resignations. The vacancies thus created were filled by the
+Governor of the State, the appointees being white men. These white
+officers on arriving at the camp and finding themselves unwelcome,
+immediately followed in the wake of their colored predecessors, and
+tendered their resignations.
+
+The difficulties arising from this friction were somehow adjusted, but
+in what manner the reports available at this time do not show. Moving
+to Macon, Georgia, the regiment remained in the service until some
+time in the winter, when it was mustered out. Much was said by the
+local papers to the detriment of the men composing this regiment, but
+viewing their action from the standpoint of the civilian and citizen,
+it does not appear reprehensible. They had volunteered with the
+understanding that their own officers, officers with whom they were
+well acquainted, and in whose friendship they held a place, should
+command them, and when they saw these officers displaced and white
+strangers put in their stead, they felt a pardonable indignation, and
+took their own way of expressing it. As soldiers, their conduct in
+resisting authority, cannot be commended.
+
+The Third North Carolina Volunteer Infantry was organized as were the
+regiments of Illinois and Kansas, above described. The officers of the
+North Carolina Regiment were all colored men of that State and were
+men of character and note. Its commanding officer, Colonel Young, had
+held responsible positions under both State and National Governments,
+had been editor of a paper and member of the State Legislature and
+Major in the State militia. In character, he was above reproach, being
+a strict teetotaler and not even using tobacco. The regiment made a
+good record, but did not see any active service.
+
+A peculiar regiment was organized in Alabama, known as the Third
+Alabama Volunteer Infantry, in which the enlisted men were all colored
+and the officers all white. The regiment saw no service and attracted
+no attention outside of its immediate locality.
+
+Two companies of colored men with colored captains were also mustered
+into the United States service from Indiana, and finally attached to
+Colonel Huggins' command, although not becoming a part of his
+regiment, the Eighth Immunes. They were stationed at Fort Thomas, Ky.,
+and at Chickamauga, and were mustered out early. Their officers were
+men of intelligence who had acquired experience by several years'
+service in the militia, and the companies were exceptionally well
+drilled. They were designated Companies A and B and were commanded by
+Captains Porter and Buckner, with Lieutenant Thomas as Quartermaster.
+
+The organization of the four immune regiments, already mentioned, gave
+opportunity for ninety-six colored men to obtain commissions as
+lieutenants. A few of these positions were seized upon by influential
+young white men, who held them, but with no intention of ever serving
+in the regiments, as they found staff positions much more congenial to
+their tastes. The colored men who were appointed lieutenants in these
+regiments were generally either young men of ability and influence who
+had assisted in getting up their companies, and who in many cases had
+received some elementary military instruction as cadets, in school, or
+men who had distinguished themselves by efficiency or gallantry in the
+Regular Army. Some exceptions there were, of course, and a few
+received commissions in consequence of personal friendship and
+political considerations. Before these regiments were mustered out of
+the service about one-half of the lieutenants were men from the
+Regular Army.
+
+I am sure the reader will be pleased to learn that Sergeants Foster,
+Buck and Givens, whose deeds in Cuba have already been related, were
+rewarded with commissions, and that the gallant Thomas C. Butler, who
+rushed forward from his company's line and seized the Spanish standard
+at El Caney, was afterward permitted to serve in Cuba with the rank of
+a commissioned officer. Besides those named above, there were others
+also of marked ability and very respectable attainments who received
+commissions on general merit, as well as for gallantry. Chief among
+the class promoted for efficiency was First Lieutenant James R.
+Gillespie, formerly Post Quartermaster-Sergeant. Gillespie had served
+several years in the Tenth Cavalry and had proved himself an excellent
+soldier. Both in horsemanship and as marksman he was up to the
+standard, while his character and business qualifications were such
+as to secure for him a staff position of responsibility. As
+Quartermaster-Sergeant he held positions of important posts and filled
+them with great satisfaction. Because of his efficiency as a soldier
+he was given a commission as First Lieutenant and executed the duties
+of his office with the same ability that had marked his career as an
+enlisted man. From the Tenth Cavalry also came First Lieutenant Baker,
+whose commission was a tribute to his fidelity and efficiency. A
+soldier of high type he bore his commission and its honors as worthily
+as any son of our Republic. In the same category must be placed First
+Lieutenant Wm. McBryer, formerly Sergeant in the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry. McBryer had served in the Tenth Cavalry and had won a Medal
+of Honor in conflict with the Indians. He was a soldier distinguished
+by strength of character, prompt executiveness, quick decision and
+courage. He was also possessed of considerable literary skill, was a
+good speaker and attractive writer, and a man of fine parts. He was a
+valuable acquisition to the volunteer service and would have made a
+fine captain.
+
+Of the colored sergeants from the Regular Army who were given
+commissions in the volunteer service it would not be extravagant to
+say that all were men of worth, well-tried in the service, and there
+was scarcely one of them but could have successfully commanded a
+company. Lieutenant A.J. Smith, formerly First Sergeant in the
+Twenty-fifth Infantry, was so well informed in the paper work of the
+army and in company administration particularly that he was regarded
+as an authority, and he was so well experienced in the whole life of a
+soldier, in camp, field, garrison and in battle, that it would have
+been difficult to find his superior in the army. To the credit of all
+of the enlisted men of the Regular Army referred to, who received
+commissions in the volunteer service, all served honorably and were
+mustered out without bringing any scandal of any sort upon the
+service.
+
+The colored volunteers in the service acquitted themselves as well as
+the average volunteer, and when mustered out proceeded to their homes
+about as others did. The treatment accorded them in some of the
+Southern cities, especially in Nashville, Tennessee, did not speak
+well for the loyalty of that section, nor was it such as might
+reasonably be expected from a people who had fared so well in the
+offices and honors of the short war. From the best sources available,
+it seems incumbent to say that the many charges alleged against the
+colored volunteers for excessive rioting and disorder were without
+proper foundation, and the assaults made upon them unjustifiable and
+cruel. The spirit of the assailants is best seen from a description of
+the attack made upon the unarmed discharged soldiers of the Eighth
+Immuners in Nashville, already alluded to. This description was made
+by the sheriff who participated in the brutality. An officer who was
+on the train, and who was asleep at the time, when aroused went into
+the car where the men were and found that they had been beaten and
+robbed, and in some instances their discharges taken from them and
+torn up, and their weapons and money taken from them by citizens. It
+was about one o'clock A.M. and the men were generally asleep when
+attacked. The sheriff gloats over it in language which ought not be
+allowed to disappear:
+
+     "It was the best piece of work I ever witnessed. The police
+     went to the depot, not armed with the regulation 'billy,'
+     but carrying stout hickory clubs about two and one-half feet
+     long.
+
+Their idea was that a mahogany or lignum vitae billy was too costly a
+weapon to be broken over a Negro's head. The police were on board the
+train before it stopped even, and the way they went for the Negroes
+was inspiring. The police tolerated no impudence, much less rowdyism,
+from the Negroes, and if a darky even looked mad, it was enough for
+some policeman to bend his club double over his head. In fact after
+the police finished with them they were the meekest, mildest, most
+polite set of colored men I ever saw." This language is respectfully
+dedicated to the memory of the proud city of Nashville, and presents
+to the readers the portrait of her police.
+
+Despite this vile treatment, the colored soldier went on to his home,
+ready again to respond to his country's call, and to rally to the
+defence of his country's flag, and, incidentally, to the preservation
+of the lives and homes of the misguided, heartless beings who can
+delight in his sufferings. The hickory club belongs to one sort of
+warrior; the rifle to quite another. The club and rifle represent
+different grades of civilization. The Negro has left the club; the
+language from Nashville does honor to the club. Billy and bully are
+the theme of this officer of the law, and for a "darkey even to look
+mad" is ample justification for "some policeman to bend his club
+double over his head." Were these policemen rioters? Or were they
+conservaters of the peace? Judge ye!
+
+
+OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE NINTH (SEPARATE) BATTALION, OHIO VOLUNTEER
+INFANTRY.
+
+_By the Battalion Adjutant, Lieutenant Wilson Ballard._
+
+The Ninth Battalion, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, the only colored
+organization from Ohio in the Volunteer Army during the war with
+Spain, was, previous to the date of its muster into the United States
+service, known as the Ninth Battalion, Ohio National Guard. April
+25th, 1898, the battalion, consisting of three companies, A from
+Springfield, under Captain R.R. Rudd; B from Columbus, under Captain
+James Hopkins, and C from Xenia, under Captain Harry H. Robinson, was
+ordered into camp at Columbus, Ohio. The battalion was under the
+command of Major Charles Fillmore.
+
+May 14, 1898, the battalion was mustered into the volunteer service by
+Captain Rockefeller, U.S.A. Lieutenant Charles Young, U.S.A., then on
+duty at Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio, as professor of
+military science and tactics, was commissioned by Governor Bushnell as
+Major commanding the Ninth Battalion, O.V.I., relieving Major
+Fillmore. In order to enable Lieutenant Young to accept his volunteer
+commission, he was granted an indefinite leave of absence by the War
+Department.
+
+May 19, 1898, the command having been ordered to join the Second Army
+Corps at Camp Russell A. Alger, near Falls Church, Va., left Camp
+Bushnell and arrived at Camp Alger May 21, 1898.
+
+When Major-General Graham assumed command of the Second Army Corps and
+organized it into divisions, the battalion was placed in the
+provisional division. In June (exact date not remembered) the
+battalion was placed in the Second Brigade, Second Division, being
+brigaded with the Twelfth Pennsylvania and Seventh Illinois Regiments.
+The battalion was relieved from the Second Brigade, Second Division
+and placed in the Second Brigade, First Division, being brigaded with
+the Eighth Ohio and Sixth Massachusetts.
+
+A New Jersey regiment was relieved from duty as corps headquarters'
+guard late in June and the Ninth Battalion assigned to that duty. The
+battalion performed this duty until it was ordered South from Camp
+Meade, Penn., when it became separated from corps headquarters.
+Important outposts, such as the entrance to Falls Church and the
+guarding of the citizens' gardens and property, were under the charge
+of the command.
+
+When General Garretson's brigade (Second Brigade, First Division,
+consisting of the Eighth Ohio, Ninth Battalion and Sixth
+Massachusetts) was ordered to Cuba, General Graham, thinking that his
+entire Army Corps would soon be ordered to active service, requested
+the War Department, as the battalion was his headquarters guard, to
+let the battalion remain with him. (See telegrams Gen. Graham's report
+to the Secretary of War.) General Graham's request being honored by
+the department, the battalion was deprived of this chance of seeing
+active service in foreign fields. The battalion was then attached to
+the Second Brigade, Second Division, under Brigadier-General Plummer,
+being brigaded with the First New Jersey, Sixty-fifth New York and
+Seventh Ohio.
+
+In July the battalion was relieved from this brigade and attached
+directly to corps headquarters. When the Second Army Corps was ordered
+to Camp Meade, Penna., the battalion was one of the first to break
+camp, going with corps headquarters. The battalion left Camp R.A.
+Alger August 15, 1898, and arrived in camp at Camp George G. Meade,
+near Middletown, Penna., August 16, 1898. In camp the battalion
+occupied a position with the signal and engineer corps and hospital,
+near corps headquarters.
+
+When the Peace Jubilee was held in Philadelphia, the battalion was one
+of the representative commands from the Second Army Corps, being given
+the place of honor in the corps in the parade, following immediately
+General Graham and staff. When the corps was ordered South the
+battalion was assigned to the Second Brigade under Brigadier-General
+Ames. The battalion left Camp Meade November 17. Up to this time it
+had done the guard duty of corps headquarters and was complimented for
+its efficient work by the commanding general. The battalion arrived
+in Summerville, S.C., November 21, 1898. It was brigaded with the
+Fourteenth Pennsylvania and Third Connecticut.
+
+When the battalion arrived in the South the white citizens were not at
+all favorably disposed toward colored soldiers, and it must be said
+that the reception was not cordial. But by their orderly conduct and
+soldierly behavior the men soon won the respect of all, and the
+battalion was well treated before it left. November 28-29 Major Philip
+Reade, Inspector General First Division, Second Army Corps, inspected
+the Ninth Battalion, beginning his duties in that brigade with this
+inspection. He complimented the battalion for its work both from a
+practical and theoretical standpoint. Coming to the Fourteenth
+Pennsylvania he required them to go through certain movements in the
+extended order drill which not being done entirely to his
+satisfaction, he sent his orderly to the commanding officer of the
+Ninth Battalion, requesting him to have his command on the drill
+ground at once. The battalion fell in and marched to the ground and
+when presented to the Inspector orders were given for it to go through
+with certain movements in the extended order drill in the presence of
+the Pennsylvania regiment. This done, the Inspector dismissed the
+battalion, highly complimenting Major Young on the efficiency of his
+command. Just after the visit of the Inspector General, General S.B.M.
+Young, commanding the Second Army Corps, visited Camp Marion. Orders
+were sent to Major Young one morning to have his battalion fall in at
+once, as the General desired to have them drill. By his command the
+battalion went through the setting-up exercises and battalion drill in
+close and extended order. The General was so well pleased with the
+drill that the battalion was exempted from all work during the
+remainder of the day.
+
+The battalion was ordered to be mustered out January 29, 1899.
+Lieutenant Geo. W. Van Deusen, First Artillery, who was detailed to
+muster out the command, hardly spent fifteen minutes in the camp.
+Major Young had been detailed Assistant Commissary of Musters and
+signed all discharges for the Ninth Battalion, except for the field
+and staff, which were signed by Lieutenant Van Deusen. The companies
+left for their respective cities the same night they were paid. Major
+Bullis was the paymaster.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[25] See "Outline History of the Ninth (Separate) Battalion Ohio
+Volunteer Infantry," by the Battalion Adjutant, Lieutenant Nelson
+Ballard, following the close of this chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+COLORED OFFICERS.
+
+     By Captain Frank R. Steward, A.B., LL.B., Harvard,
+     Forty-ninth U.S. Volunteer Infantry--Appendix.
+
+
+Of all the avenues open to American citizenship the commissioned ranks
+of the army and navy have been the stubbornest to yield to the newly
+enfranchised. Colored men have filled almost every kind of public
+office or trust save the Chief Magistracy. They have been members of
+both Houses of Congress, and are employed in all the executive
+branches of the Government, but no Negro has as yet succeeded in
+invading the commissioned force of the navy, and his advance in the
+army has been exceedingly slight. Since the war, as has been related,
+but three Negroes have been graduated from the National Military
+Academy at West Point; of these one was speedily crowded out of the
+service; another reached the grade of First Lieutenant and died
+untimely; the third, First Lieutenant Charles Young, late Major of the
+9th Ohio Battalion, U.S. Volunteers, together with four colored
+Chaplains, constitute the sole colored commissioned force of our
+Regular Army.
+
+Although Negroes fought in large numbers in both the Revolution and
+the War of 1812, there is no instance of any Negro attaining or
+exercising the rank of commissioned officer. It is a curious bit of
+history, however, that in the Civil War those who were fighting to
+keep colored men enslaved were the first to commission colored
+officers. In Louisiana but a few days after the outbreak of the war,
+the free colored population of New Orleans organized a military
+organization, called the "Native Guard," which was accepted into the
+service of the State and its officers were duly commissioned by the
+Governor.[26]
+
+These Negro soldiers were the first to welcome General Butler when he
+entered New Orleans, and the fact of the organization of the "Native
+Guard" by the Confederates was used by General Butler as the basis for
+the organization of three colored regiments of "Native Guards," all
+the line officers of which were colored men. Governor Pinchback, who
+was a captain in one of these regiments, tells the fate of these early
+colored officers.
+
+"There were," he writes, "in New Orleans some colored soldiers known
+as 'Native Guards' before the arrival of the Federal soldiers, but I
+do not know much about them. It was a knowledge of this fact that
+induced General Butler, then in command of the Department of the Gulf,
+to organize three regiments of colored soldiers, viz: The First,
+Second and Third Regiments of Native Guards.
+
+"The First Regiment of Louisiana Native Guards, Colonel Stafford
+commanding, with all the field officers white, and a full complement
+of line officers (30) colored, was mustered into service at New
+Orleans September 27, 1862, for three years. Soon after General Banks
+took command of the department and changed the designation of the
+regiment to First Infantry, Corps d'Afrique. April 4th, 1864, it was
+changed again to Seventy-third United States Colored Infantry.
+
+     [Transcriber's Note: This footnote appeared in the text
+     without a footnote anchor:
+
+     "On the 23d of November, 1861, there was a grand review of
+     the Confederate troops stationed at New Orleans. An
+     Associated Press despatch announced that the line was seven
+     miles long. The feature of the review, however, was one
+     regiment of fourteen hundred free colored men. Another grand
+     review followed the next spring, and on the appearance of
+     rebel negroes a local paper made the following comment:
+
+     "'We must also pay a deserved compliment to the companies of
+     free colored men, all very well drilled and comfortably
+     uniformed. Most of these companies, quite unaided by the
+     administration, have supplied themselves with arms without
+     regard to cost or trouble. On the same day one of these
+     negro companies was presented with a flag, and every
+     evidence of public approbation was manifest.'"
+
+     (Williams's Negro Troops in the Rebellion, pp. 83-4)]
+
+"The Second Louisiana Native Guards, with Colonel N.W. Daniels and
+Lieutenant-Colonel Hall, white, and Major Francis E. Dumas, colored,
+and all the line officers colored except one Second Lieutenant, was
+mustered into service for three years, October 12, 1862. General Banks
+changed its designation to Second Infantry Corps d'Afrique, June 6,
+1863, and April 6, 1864, it was changed to Second United States
+Colored Troops. Finally it was consolidated with the Ninety-first as
+the Seventy-fourth Colored Infantry, and mustered out October 11,
+1865.
+
+"The Third Regiment of Louisiana Native Guards, with Colonel Nelson
+and all field officers white, and all line officers (30) colored, was
+mustered into service at New Orleans for three years, November 24,
+1862. Its designation went through the same changes as the others at
+the same dates, and it was mustered out November 25, 1865, as the
+Seventy-fifth Colored Infantry.
+
+"Soon after the organization of the Third Regiment, trouble for the
+colored officers began, and the department began a systematic effort
+to get rid of them. A board of examiners was appointed and all COLORED
+officers of the Third Regiment were ordered before it. They refused to
+obey the order and tendered their resignations in a body. The
+resignations were accepted and that was the beginning of the end. Like
+action with the same results followed in the First and Second
+Regiments, and colored officers were soon seen no more. All were
+driven out of the service except three or four who were never ordered
+to appear before the examining board. Among these was your humble
+servant. I was then Captain of Company A, Second Regiment, but I soon
+tired of my isolation and resigned."
+
+Later on in the war, with the general enlistment of colored soldiers,
+a number of colored chaplains and some surgeons were commissioned.
+Towards the close of the war several colored line officers and a field
+officer or two were appointed. The State of Massachusetts was foremost
+in according this recognition to colored soldiers. But these later
+appointments came, in most cases, after the fighting was all over, and
+gave few opportunities to command. At the close of the war, with the
+muster out of troops the colored officers disappeared and upon the
+reorganization of the army, despite the brilliant record of the
+colored soldiers, no Negro was given a commission of any sort.
+
+The outbreak of the Spanish War brought the question of colored
+officers prominently to the front. The colored people began at once to
+demand that officers of their own race be commissioned to command
+colored volunteers. They were not to be deluded by any extravagant
+praise of their past heroic services, which veiled a determination to
+ignore their just claims. So firmly did they adhere to their demands
+that but one volunteer regiment of colored troops, the Third Alabama,
+could be induced to enter the service with none of its officers
+colored. But the concessions obtained were always at the expense of
+continuous and persistent effort, and in the teeth of a very active
+and at times extremely violent opposition. We know already the kind of
+opposition the Eighth Illinois, the Twenty-third Kansas, and the Third
+North Carolina Regiments, officered entirely by colored men,
+encountered. It was this opposition, as we have seen, which confined
+colored officers to positions below the grade of captain in the four
+immune regiments. From a like cause, we know also, distinguished
+non-commissioned officers of the four regular regiments of colored
+troops were allowed promotion only to Lieutenantcies in the immune
+regiments, and upon the muster out of those organizations, were
+compelled, if they desired to continue soldiering, to resume their
+places as enlisted men.
+
+There is some explanation for this opposition in the nature of the
+distinction which military rank confers. Military rank and naval rank
+constitute the only real distinction among us. Our officers of the
+army and navy, and of the army more than of the navy, because the
+former officers are more constantly within the country, make up the
+sole separate class of our population. We have no established
+nobility. Wealth confers no privilege which men are bound to observe.
+The respect paid to men who attain eminence in science and learning
+goes only as far as they are known. The titles of the professions are
+matters of courtesy and customs only. Our judges and legislators, our
+governors and mayors, are still our "fellow citizens," and the dignity
+they enjoy is but an honorary one. The highest office within our gift
+offers no exception. At the close of his term, even an ex-President,
+"that melancholy product of our system," must resume his place among
+his fellow citizens, to sink, not infrequently, into obscurity. But
+fifty thousand soldiers must stand attention to the merest second
+lieutenant! His rank is a _fact_. The life tenure, the necessities of
+military discipline and administration, weld army officers into a
+distinct class and make our military system the sole but necessary
+relic of personal government. Any class with special privileges is
+necessarily conservative.
+
+The intimate association of "officer" and "gentleman," a legacy of
+feudal days, is not without significance. An officer must also be a
+gentleman, and "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman" is
+erected into an offence punishable by dismissal from the service. The
+word "gentleman" has got far away from the strict significance of its
+French parent. De Tocqueville has made us see the process of this
+development. Passing over to England, with the changing conditions,
+"gentleman" was used to describe persons lower and lower in the social
+scale, until, when it crossed to this country, its significance became
+lost in an indiscriminate application to all citizens[27]. A flavor of
+its caste significance still remains in the traditional "high sense of
+honor" characteristic of our military service. It was a distant step
+for a slave and freedman to become an officer and gentleman.
+
+While the above reflections may be some explanations _in fact_ for the
+opposition to the commissioning of Negroes, there was no one with
+hardihood enough to bring them forward. Such notions might form the
+groundwork of a prejudice, but they could not become the reason of a
+policy. It is an instinctive tribute to the good sense of the American
+people that the opponents of colored officers were compelled to find
+reasons of another kind for their antagonism.
+
+The one formula heard always in the campaign against colored officers
+was: Negroes cannot command. This formula was sent forth with every
+kind of variation, from the fierce fulminations of the hostile
+Southern press, to the more apologetic and philosophical discussions
+of our Northern secular and religious journals. To be sure, every now
+and then, there were exhibitions of impatience against the doctrine.
+Not a few newspapers had little tolerance for the nonsense. Some
+former commanders of Negro soldiers in the Civil War, notably, General
+T.J. Morgan, spoke out in their behalf. The brilliant career of the
+black regulars in Cuba broke the spell for a time, but the re-action
+speedily set in. In short it became fastened pretty completely in the
+popular mind as a bit of demonstrated truth that Negroes could not
+make officers; that colored soldiers would neither follow nor obey
+officers of their own race.
+
+This formula had of course to ignore an entire epoch of history. It
+could take no account of that lurid program wrought in the Antilles a
+century ago--a rising mob of rebel slaves, transformed into an
+invincible army of tumultuous blacks, under the guidance of the
+immortal Toussaint, overcoming the trained armies of three Continental
+powers, Spain, England and France, and audaciously projecting a black
+republic into the family of nations, a program at once a marvel and a
+terror to the civilized world.
+
+Not alone in Hayti, but throughout the States of Central and South
+America have Negroes exercised military command, both in the struggles
+of these states for independence, and in their national armies
+established after independence. At least one soldier of Negro blood,
+General Dumas, father of the great novelist, arose to the rank of
+General of Division in the French Army and served under Napoleon. In
+our day we have seen General Dodds, another soldier of Negro blood,
+returning from a successful campaign in Africa, acclaimed throughout
+France, his immense popularity threatening Paris with a renewal of the
+hysterical days of Boulanger. Finally, we need not be told that at the
+very head and front of the Cuban Rebellion were Negroes of every hue,
+exercising every kind of command up to the very highest. We need but
+recall the lamented Maceo, the Negro chieftain, whose tragic end
+brought sorrow and dismay to all of Cuba. With an army thronging with
+blacks and mulattoes, these Cuban chieftains, black, mulatto and
+white, prolonged such an harassing warfare as to compel the
+intervention of the United States. At the end of this recital, which
+could well have been extended with greater particularity, if it were
+thought needful, we are bound to conclude that the arbitrary formula
+relied upon by the opponents of colored officers was never constructed
+to fit such an obstinate set of facts.
+
+The prolonged struggle which culminated in permitting the Negro's
+general enlistment in our Civil War had only to be repeated to secure
+for him the full pay of a soldier, the right to be treated as a
+prisoner of war, and to relieve him of the monopoly of fatigue and
+garrison duty. He was too overjoyed with the boon of fighting for the
+liberation of his race to make much contention about who was to lead
+him. With meagre exception, his exclusive business in that war was to
+carry a gun. Yet repeatedly Negro soldiers evinced high capacity for
+command. Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson draws a glowing portrait
+of Sergeant Prince Rivers, Color-Sergeant of the First South Carolina
+Volunteers, a regiment of slaves, organized late in 1862. The
+Color-Sergeant was provost-Sergeant also, and had entire charge of the
+prisoners and of the daily policing of the camp.
+
+"He is a man of distinguished appearance and in old times was the
+crack coachman of Beaufort. * * * They tell me that he was once
+allowed to present a petition to the Governor of South Carolina in
+behalf of slaves, for the redress of certain grievances, and that a
+placard, offering two thousand dollars for his re-capture is still to
+be seen by the wayside between here and Charleston. He was a sergeant
+in the old 'Hunter Regiment,' and was taken by General Hunter to New
+York last spring, where the chevrons on his arm brought a mob upon him
+in Broadway, whom he kept off till the police interfered. There is not
+a white officer in this regiment who has more administrative ability,
+or more absolute authority over the men; they do not love him, but his
+mere presence has controlling power over them. He writes well enough
+to prepare for me a daily report of his duties in the camp; if his
+education reached a higher point I see no reason why he should not
+command the Army of the Potomac. He is jet-black, or rather, I should
+say, wine-black, his complexion, like that of others of my darkest
+men, having a sort of rich, clear depth, without a trace of sootiness,
+and to my eye very handsome. His features are tolerably regular, and
+full of command, and his figure superior to that of any of our white
+officers, being six feet high, perfectly proportioned, and of
+apparently inexhaustable strength and activity. His gait is like a
+panther's; I never saw such a tread. No anti-slavery novel has
+described a man of such marked ability. He makes Toussaint perfectly
+intelligible, and if there should ever be a black monarchy in South
+Carolina he will be its king."[28]
+
+Excepting the Louisiana Native Guards, the First South Carolina
+Volunteers was the first regiment of colored troops to be mustered
+into the service in the Civil War. The regiment was made up entirely
+of slaves, with scarcely a mulatto among them. The first day of
+freedom for these men was passed in uniform and with a gun. Among
+these Negroes, just wrested from slavery, their scholarly commander,
+Colonel Higginson, could find many whom he judged well fitted by
+nature to command.
+
+"Afterwards I had excellent battalion drills," he writes, "without a
+single white officer, by way of experiment, putting each company under
+a sergeant, and going through the most difficult movements, such as
+division columns and oblique squares. And as to actual discipline, it
+is doing no injustice to the line-officers of the regiment to say that
+none of them received from the men more implicit obedience than
+Color-Sergeant Rivers. * * * It always seemed to me an insult to those
+brave men to have novices put over their heads, on the ground of color
+alone, and the men felt it the more keenly as they remained longer in
+the service. There were more than seven hundred enlisted men in the
+regiment, when mustered out after more than three years' service. The
+ranks had been kept full by enlistment, but there were only fourteen
+line-officers instead of the full thirty. The men who should have
+filled these vacancies were doing duty as sergeants in the ranks."[29]
+
+Numerous expeditions were constantly on foot in the Department of the
+South, having for their object the liberation of slaves still held to
+service in neighborhoods remote from the Union camps, or to capture
+supplies and munitions of war. Frequently these expeditions came in
+conflict with armed bodies of rebels and hot engagements would ensue,
+resulting in considerable loss of life. Colored soldiers were
+particularly serviceable for this work because of their intimate
+knowledge of the country and their zeal for the rescue of their
+enslaved brethren.
+
+One of these expeditions, composed of thirty colored soldiers and
+scouts, commanded by Sergeant-Major Henry James, Third United States
+Colored Troops, left Jacksonville, Florida, early in March, 1865, to
+penetrate into the interior through Marion county. They destroyed
+considerable property in the use of the rebel government, burned the
+bridge across the Oclawaha River, and started on their return with
+ninety-one Negroes whom they had rescued from slavery, four white
+prisoners, some wagons and a large number of horses and mules. They
+were attacked by a rebel band of more than fifty cavalry. The colored
+soldiers commanded by one of their own number, defeated and drove off
+the rebels, inflicting upon them the heavy loss of thirty men. After a
+long and rapid march they arrived at St. Augustine, Florida, with a
+loss of but two killed and four wounded, the expedition covering in
+all five days. These colored soldiers and their colored commander were
+thanked in orders by Major-General Q.A. Gilmore, commanding the
+department, who was moved to declare that "this expedition, planned
+and executed by colored men, under the command of a colored
+non-commissioned officer, reflects credit upon the brave participants
+and their leader," and "he holds up their conduct to their comrades in
+arms as an example worthy of emulation."[30]
+
+It was no uncommon occurrence throughout the Civil War for colored
+non-commissioned officers to be thrown into command of their companies
+by the killing or wounding of their superior officers. On many a field
+of battle this happened and these colored non-commissioned officers
+showed the same ability to take the initiative and accept the
+responsibility, and conducted their commands just as bravely and
+unfalteringly as did their successors on the firing line at La Guasima
+and El Caney, or in the charge up San Juan Hill.
+
+In the battle of New Market Heights, fought on the 29th of September,
+1864, as part of a comprehensive effort to turn Lee's left flank, the
+great heroism of the black soldiers, and the terrible slaughter among
+them, impressed their commander, the late Major-General Butler, to his
+dying day, and made him the stout champion of their rights for the
+rest of his life. In that battle, to quote from the orders putting on
+record the "gallant deeds of the officers and soldiers of the Army of
+the James":--
+
+     "Milton M. Holland, Sergeant-Major Fifth United States
+     Colored Troops, commanding Company C; James H. Bronson,
+     First Sergeant, commanding Company D; Robert Pinn, First
+     Sergeant, commanding Company I, wounded; Powhatan Beaty,
+     First Sergeant, commanding Company G, Fifth United States
+     Colored Troops--all these gallant colored soldiers were left
+     in command, all their company officers being killed or
+     wounded, and led them gallantly and meritoriously through
+     the day. For these services they have most honorable
+     mention, and the commanding general will cause a special
+     medal to be struck in honor of these gallant soldiers."
+
+     "First Sergeant Edward Ratcliff, Company C, Thirty-eighth
+     United States Colored Troops, thrown into command of his
+     company by the death of the officer commanding, was the
+     first enlisted man in the enemy's works, leading his company
+     with great gallantry for which he has a medal."
+
+     "Sergeant Samuel Gilchrist, Company K, Thirty-sixth United
+     States Colored Troops, showed great bravery and gallantry in
+     commanding his company after his officers were killed. He
+     has a medal for gallantry."[31]
+
+"Honorable mention" and "medals" were the sole reward open to the
+brave Negro soldiers of that day.
+
+Not alone in camp and garrison, in charge of expeditions, or as
+non-commissioned officers thrown into command of their companies on
+the field of battle have Negro soldiers displayed unquestioned
+capacity for command, but as commissioned officers they commanded in
+camp and in battle, showing marked efficiency and conspicuous
+gallantry. The colored officers of the First and Second Regiments of
+Louisiana Native Guards, whose history has been detailed earlier in
+this chapter,[32] were retained in the service long enough to command
+their troops in bloody combat with the enemy. It will be remembered
+that of the Second Regiment of Louisiana Native Guards only the
+Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel were white, the Major, F.E. Dumas, and
+all the line officers, as in the case of the First Regiment of
+Louisiana Native Guards, being colored. On April 9, 1863, Colonel N.U.
+Daniels, who commanded the Second Regiment of Louisiana Native Guards,
+with a detachment of two hundred men of his regiment, under their
+colored officers, engaged and repulsed a considerable body of rebel
+infantry and cavalry at Pascagoula, Mississippi. The engagement lasted
+from 10 A.M. until 2 P.M. and was remarkable for the steadiness,
+tenacity and bravery of these black troops in this, their first
+battle, where they succeeded in defeating and beating off an enemy
+five times their number. The official report by the Colonel commanding
+declared: "Great credit is due to the troops engaged for their
+unflinching bravery and steadiness under this, their first fire,
+exchanging volley after volley with the coolness of veterans, and for
+their determined tenacity in maintaining their position, and taking
+advantage of every success that their courage and valor gave them; and
+also to their officers, who were cool and determined throughout the
+action, fighting their commands against five times their number, and
+confident throughout of success. * * *
+
+"I would particularly call the attention of the department to Major
+F.E. Dumas, Capt. Villeverd and Lieuts. Jones and Martin, who were
+constantly in the thickest of the fight, and by their unflinching
+bravery and admirable handling of their commands, contributed to the
+success of the attack, and reflected great honor upon the flag for
+which they so nobly struggled."[33]
+
+The battle which settled for all time the bravery of black troops, and
+ought as well to silence all question about the capacity of colored
+officers, was the storming of Port Hudson, May 27, 1863. For months
+the Confederates had had uninterrupted opportunity to strengthen their
+works at Port Hudson at a time when an abundance of slave labor was at
+their disposal. They had constructed defenses of remarkable strength.
+On a bluff, eighty feet above the river, was a series of batteries
+mounting in all twenty siege guns. For land defenses they had a
+continuous line of parapet of strong profile, beginning at a point on
+the river a mile from Port Hudson and extending in a semi-circle for
+three or four miles over a country for the most part rough and broken,
+and ending again at the river, a half mile north of Port Hudson. At
+appropriate positions along this line four bastion works were
+constructed and thirty pieces of field artillery were posted. The
+average thickness of the parapet was twenty feet, and the depth of the
+ditch below the top of the parapet was fifteen feet. The ground behind
+the parapet was well adapted for the prompt movement of troops.[34]
+
+On the 24th of May General Banks reached the immediate vicinity of
+Port Hudson, and proceeded at once to invest the place.
+
+On the 27th the assault was ordered. Two colored regiments of
+Louisiana Native Guards, the First Regiment with all line officers
+colored, and the Third with white officers throughout, were put under
+command of Colonel John A. Nelson, of the Third Regiment, and assigned
+to position on the right of the line, where the assault was begun. The
+right began the assault in the morning; for some reason the left did
+not assault until late in the afternoon. Six companies of the First
+Louisiana and nine companies of the Third, in all 1080 men, were
+formed in column of attack. Even now, one cannot contemplate unmoved
+the desperate valor of these black troops and the terrible slaughter
+among them as they were sent to their impossible task that day in May.
+Moving forward in double quick time the column emerged from the woods,
+and passing over the plain strewn with felled trees and entangled
+brushwood, plunged into a fury of shot and shell as they charged for
+the batteries on the rebel left. Again and again that unsupported
+column of black troops held to their hopeless mission by the
+unrelenting order of the brigade commander, hurled itself literally
+into the jaws of death, many meeting horrible destruction actually at
+the cannon's mouth.
+
+It was a day prodigal with deeds of fanatical bravery. The colors of
+the First Louisiana, torn and shivered in that fearful hail of fire,
+were still borne forward in front of the works by the color-sergeant,
+until a shell from the enemy cut the flag in two and gave the sergeant
+his mortal wound. He fell spattering the flag with blood and brains
+and hugged it to his bosom as he lay in the grasp of death. Two
+corporals sprang forward to seize the colors, contending in generous
+rivalry until a rebel sharpshooter felled one of them across the
+sergeant's lifeless body. The other dashed proudly forward with the
+flag. Sixteen men fell that day defending the colors.
+
+Black officers and white officers commanded side by side, moving among
+the men to prompt their valor by word and example, revealing no
+difference in their equal contempt of death. Captain Quinn, of the
+Third Regiment, with forty reckless followers, bearing their rifles
+and cartridge boxes above their heads, swam the ditch and leaped among
+the guns, when they were ordered back to escape a regiment of rebels
+hastening for their rear. Six of them re-crossed alive, and of these
+only two were unhurt, the brave Quinn and a Lieutenant. The gallant
+Captain Andre Cailloux, who commanded the color company of the First
+Louisiana, a man black as night, but a leader by birth and education,
+moved in eager zeal among his men, cheering them on by words and his
+own noble example, with his left arm already shattered, proudly
+refusing to leave the field. In a last effort of heroism, he sprang to
+the front of his company, commanded his men to follow him, and in the
+face of that murderous fire, gallantly led them forward until a shell
+smote him to death but fifty yards from the works.
+
+Cailloux, a pure Negro in blood, was born a freeman and numbered
+generations of freemen among his ancestry. He had fine presence, was a
+man of culture and possessed wealth. He had raised his company by his
+own efforts, and attached them to him, not only by his ardent pride of
+race, which made him boast his blackness, but also by his undoubted
+talents for command. His heroic death was mourned by thousands of his
+race who had known him. His body, recovered after the surrender, was
+given a soldier's burial in his own native city of New Orleans.
+
+When the day was spent, the bleeding and shattered column was at
+length recalled. The black troops did not take the guns, but the day's
+work had won for them a fame that cannot die. The nation, which had
+received them into the service half-heartedly, and out of necessity,
+was that day made to witness a monotony of gallantry and heroism that
+compelled everywhere awe and admiration. Black soldiers, and led by
+black officers as well as white, assigned a task hopeless and
+impossible at the start, had plunged into that withering storm of shot
+and shell, poured fourth by artillery and infantry, charging over a
+field strewn with obstacles, and in madness of bravery had more than
+once thrown the thin head of their column to the very edge of the
+guns. They recoiled only to reform their broken lines and to start
+again their desperate work. When the day was gone, and they were
+called back, the shattered remnant of the column which had gone forth
+in the morning still burned with passion. With that day's work of
+black soldiers under black officers, a part forever of the military
+glory of the Republic, there are those who yet dare to declare that
+Negroes cannot command.
+
+The assault on Port Hudson had been unsuccessful all along the line. A
+second assault was ordered June 13. It, too, was unsuccessful. The
+fall of Vicksburg brought the garrison to terms. The surrender took
+place July 9, 1863. In the report of the general commanding, the
+colored soldiers were given unstinted praise. General Banks declared
+that "no troops could be more determined or more daring."[35] The
+Northern press described glowingly their part in the fight. The
+prowess of the black soldiers had conquered military prejudice, and
+won for them a place in the army of the Union. And the brave black
+officers who led these black soldiers, they were, all of them, ordered
+forthwith before an examining board with the purpose of driving them
+from the service, and every one of them in self-respect was made to
+resign. In such manner was their bravery rewarded.
+
+In the four regiments of colored troops made a part of the Regular
+Army since the Civil War, colored soldiers, to say nothing of the
+three colored graduates from West Point, referred to earlier in this
+chapter, have repeatedly given evidence of their capacity to command.
+An earlier chapter has already set forth the gallant manner in which
+colored non-commissioned officers, left in command by the killing or
+wounding of their officers, commanded their companies at La Guasima,
+El Caney and in the charge at San Juan. On numerous occasions, with
+none of the heroic setting of the Santiago campaign, have colored
+soldiers time and again command detachments and companies on dangerous
+scouting expeditions, and in skirmishes and fights with hostile
+Indians and marauders. The entire Western country is a witness of
+their prowess. This meritorious work, done in remote regions, has
+seldom come to public notice; the medal which the soldier wears, and
+the official entry in company and regimental record are in most cases
+the sole chronicle. A typical instance is furnished in the career of
+Sergeant Richard Anderson, late of the Ninth Cavalry. The sergeant has
+long ago completed his thirty years of service. He passed through all
+non-commissioned grades in his troop and regiment, and was retired as
+Post Commissary-Sergeant. The story of the engagements in which he
+commanded give ample proof of his ability and bravery. It would be no
+service to the sergeant to disturb his own frank and formal narrative.
+
+The Sergeant's story:--
+
+     "While in sub-camp at Fort Cumming, New Mexico, awaiting
+     orders for campaign duty against hostile Indians (old
+     Naney's band), on the evening of June 5, 1880, my troop
+     commander being absent at Fort Bayard, which left me in
+     command of my troop, there being no other commissioned
+     officer available, a report having come in to the commanding
+     officer about 1 o'clock that a band of Apache Indians were
+     marching toward Cook's Canon, Troops B and L, under general
+     command of Captain Francis, 9th Cavalry, and myself
+     commanding Troop B, were ordered out.
+
+     We came upon the Indians in Cook's Canon and had an
+     engagement which lasted two or three hours. Three or four
+     Indians were killed and several wounded. We had no men
+     killed, but a few wounded in both L and B Troops. We
+     followed the Indians many miles that evening, but having no
+     rations, returned to Fort Cumming late that evening, and
+     went into camp until the following morning, when the two
+     troops took the trail and followed it many days, but being
+     unable to overtake the Indians, returned to Fort Cumming.
+
+     In August, 1881, while my troop was in camp at Fort Cumming,
+     New Mexico, awaiting orders for another campaign against
+     these same Apache Indians, my troop commander having been
+     ordered to Fort Bayard, New Mexico, on general court-martial
+     duty, and during his absence having no commissioned officer
+     available, I was in command of my troop subject to the
+     orders of the post commander. At 12 o'clock at night, August
+     17, 1881, while in my tent asleep, the commanding officer's
+     orderly knocked on my tent and informed me that the
+     commanding officer wanted me to report to him at once. I
+     asked the orderly what was up. He informed me that he
+     supposed a scout was going out, as the commanding officer
+     had sent for Lieutenant Smith, then in command of Troop H,
+     9th Cavalry.
+
+     I dressed myself promptly and reported, and found Lieutenant
+     Smith and the commanding officer at the office on my
+     arrival.
+
+     The commanding officer asked me about how many men I could
+     mount for thirty days' detached duty, leaving so many men
+     to take care of property and horses. I told him about how
+     many. He ordered me to make a ration return for that number
+     of men, and send a sergeant to draw rations for thirty days'
+     scout; and for me to hurry up, and when ready to report to
+     Lieutenant Smith. By 12.45 my troop was ready and mounted,
+     and reported as ordered, and at 1 o'clock Troop's B and H
+     pulled out from Fort Cumming for Lake Valley, New Mexico;
+     and when the sun showed himself over the tops of the
+     mountains we marched down the mountains into Lake Valley,
+     thirty-five miles from Fort Cumming. We went into camp
+     hoping to spend a few hours and take a rest, and feed our
+     horses and men.
+
+     About 9 o'clock a small boy came running through camp crying
+     as if to break his heart, saying that the Indians had killed
+     his mother and their baby. Some of the men said the boy must
+     be crazy; but many of them made for their horses without
+     orders. Soon Lieutenant Smith ordered "Saddle up." In less
+     than five minutes all the command was saddled up and ready
+     to mount. We mounted and pulled out at a gallop, and
+     continued at that gait until we came to a high mountain,
+     when we came down to a walk. And when over the mountain we
+     took up the gallop, and from that time on, nothing but a
+     gallop and a trot, when the country was favorable for such.
+     When we had marched about two miles from Lake Valley we met
+     the father of the boy, with his leg bleeding where the
+     Indians had shot him. We marched about half a mile farther,
+     when we could see the Indians leaving this man's ranch. We
+     had a running fight with them from that time until about 5
+     o'clock that evening, August 18th, 1881. Having no rations,
+     we returned to Lake Valley with the intention of resting
+     that night and taking the trail the next morning; but about
+     9 o'clock that night a ranchman came into camp and reported
+     that the Indians had marched into a milk ranch and burned up
+     the ranch, and had gone into camp near by.
+
+     Lieutenant Smith ordered me to have the command in readiness
+     to march at 12 o'clock sharp, and said we could surprise
+     those Indians and capture many of them and kill a few also.
+     I went and made my detail as ordered, with five days'
+     rations in haversacks, and at 12 o'clock reported as
+     ordered.
+
+     About half-past 12 o'clock the command pulled out and
+     marched within about a mile and a half of the milk ranch and
+     went into camp; and at daylight in the morning saddled up
+     and marched to the ranch. The Indians had pulled out a few
+     minutes before our arrival. We took their trail and came up
+     with them about 10 o'clock, finding the Indians in ambush.
+     Lieutenant Smith was the first man killed, and when I heard
+     his last command, which was "Dismount," then the whole
+     command fell upon your humble servant. We fell back, up a
+     canon and on a hill, and held them until 4 o'clock, when a
+     reinforcement came up of about twenty men from Lake Valey
+     and the Indians pulled off over the mountains. The
+     following-named men were killed in the engagement:
+
+     Lieutenant G.W. Smith; Mr. Daily, a miner; Saddler Thomas
+     Golding; Privates James Brown and Monroe Overstreet.
+     Wounded--Privates Wesley Harris, John W. Williams and
+     William A. Hallins.
+
+     After the Indians ceased firing and fell back over the
+     mountains I cared for the wounded and sent Lieutenant
+     Smith's body to Fort Bayard, New Mexico, where his wife was,
+     which was about sixty miles from the battle-ground, and Mr.
+     Daily's body to Lake Valley, all under a strong detachment
+     of men under a non-commissioned officer; when I marched with
+     the remainder of the command with the dead and wounded for
+     Rodman Mill, where I arrived about 5 o'clock on the morning
+     of August 20 and buried the dead and sent the wounded to
+     Fort Bayard.
+
+     One thing that attracted my attention more than anything
+     else was the suffering of Private John W. Williams, Troop H,
+     who was shot through the kneecap and had to ride all that
+     night from the battle-ground to Brookman's Mill. Poor
+     fellow!
+
+     I buried all my dead, and then marched for Fort Cumming,
+     where we arrived about sunset and reported to General Edward
+     Hatch, then commanding the regiment and also the district of
+     New Mexico, giving him all the details pertaining to the
+     engagement.
+
+     General Hatch asked me about how many men I could mount the
+     next morning, the 21st. I informed him about how many. He
+     ordered me to have my troop in readiness by daylight and
+     report to Lieutenant Demmick, then commanding Troop L, and
+     follow that Indian trail.
+
+     My troop was ready as ordered, and marched. We followed
+     those Indians to the line of Old Mexico, but were unable to
+     overtake them. Such was my last engagement with hostile
+     Indians."
+
+The formula that Negroes cannot command, with the further assertion
+that colored soldiers will neither follow nor obey officers of their
+own race, we have now taken out of the heads of its upholders, and
+away from its secure setting of type on the printed page, and applied
+it to the facts. Negro soldiers have shown their ability to command by
+commanding, not always with shoulder-straps, to be sure, but
+nevertheless commanding. With wearying succession, instance after
+instance, where Negroes have exercised all manner of military command
+and always creditably, have extended for us a recital to the border of
+monotony, and made formidable test of our patience. In France and the
+West Indies, in Central and South America, Negroes have commanded
+armies, in one instance fighting under Napoleon, at other times to
+free themselves from slavery and their countries from the yoke of
+oppression. In our own country, from the days of the Revolution, when
+fourteen American officers declared in a memorial to the Congress,
+that a "Negro man called Salem Poor, of Colonel Frye's regiment,
+Captain Ames' company, in the late battle at Charlestown, behaved like
+an _experienced officer_, as well as an excellent soldier;"[36] from
+the first war of the nation down to its last, Negro soldiers have been
+evincing their capacity to command. In the Civil War, where thousands
+of colored soldiers fought for the Union, their ability to command has
+been evidenced in a hundred ways, on scouts and expeditions, in camp
+and in battle; on two notable occasions, Negro officers gallantly
+fought their commands side by side with white officers, and added
+lustre to the military glory of the nation. Upon the re-organization
+of the Regular Army at the close of the war the theatre shifted to
+our Western frontier, where the Negro soldier continued to display his
+ability to command. Finally, in the Spanish War, just closed, the
+Negro soldier made the nation again bear witness not alone to his
+undaunted bravery, but also to his conspicuous capacity to command.
+Out of this abundant and conclusive array of incontestable facts,
+frankly, is there anything left to the arbitrary formula that Negroes
+cannot command, but a string of ipse dixits hung on a very old, but
+still decidedly robust prejudice? There is no escape from the
+conclusion that as a matter of fact, with opportunity, Negroes differ
+in no wise from other men in capacity to exercise military command.
+
+Undoubtedly substantial progress has been made respecting colored
+officers since 1863, when colored soldiers were first admitted in
+considerable numbers into the army of the Union. At the period of the
+Civil War colored officers for colored soldiers was little more than
+thought of; the sole instance comprised the short-lived colored
+officers of the three regiments of Louisiana Native Guards, and the
+sporadic appointments made near the close of the war, when the
+fighting was over.
+
+More than three hundred colored officers served in the volunteer army
+in the war with Spain. Two Northern States, Illinois and Kansas, and
+one Southern State, North Carolina, put each in the field as part of
+its quota a regiment of colored troops officered throughout by colored
+men. Ohio and Indiana contributed each a separate battalion of colored
+soldiers entirely under colored officers.
+
+In 1863 a regiment of colored troops with colored officers was
+practically impossible. In 1898 a regiment of colored volunteers
+without some colored officers was almost equally impossible. In 1863
+a regiment of colored soldiers commanded by colored officers would
+have been a violation of the sentiment of the period and an outrage
+upon popular feelings, the appearance of which in almost any Northern
+city would hardly fail to provoke an angry and resentful mob. At that
+period, even black recruits in uniforms were frequently assaulted in
+the streets of Northern cities. We have seen already how Sergeant
+Rivers, of the First South Carolina Volunteers, had to beat off a mob
+on Broadway in New York city. In 1898 regiments and battalions of
+colored troops, with colored colonels and majors in command, came out
+of States where the most stringent black laws were formerly in force,
+and were greeted with applause as they passed on their way to their
+camps or to embark for Cuba.
+
+In Baltimore, in 1863, the appearance of a Negro in the uniform of an
+army surgeon started a riot, and the irate mob was not appeased until
+it had stripped the patriotic colored doctor of his shoulder-straps.
+In 1898, when the Sixth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers passed
+through the same city, the colored officers of Company L of that
+regiment were welcomed with the same courtesies as their white
+colleagues--courtesies extended as a memorial of the fateful progress
+of the regiment through the city of Baltimore in 1861. One State which
+went to war in 1861 to keep the Negro a slave, put in the field a
+regiment of colored soldiers, officered by colored men from the
+colonel down. To this extent has prejudice been made to yield either
+to political necessity, or a generous change in sentiment. Thus were
+found States both North and South willing to give the Negro the full
+military recognition to which he is entitled.
+
+With this wider recognition of colored officers the general
+government has not kept pace. In the four regiments of colored
+volunteers recruited by the general government for service in the war
+with Spain, only the lieutenants were colored. Through the extreme
+conservatism of the War Department, in these regiments no colored
+officers, no matter how meritorious, could be appointed or advanced to
+the grade of captain. Such was the announced policy of the department,
+and it was strictly carried out. The commissioning of this large
+number of colored men even to lieutenancies was, without doubt, a
+distinct step in advance; it was an entering wedge. But it was also an
+advance singularly inadequate and embarrassing. In one of these
+colored volunteer, commonly called "immune" regiments, of the twelve
+captains, but five had previous military training, while of the
+twenty-four colored lieutenants, eighteen had previous military
+experience, and three of the remaining six were promoted from the
+ranks, so that at the time of their appointment twenty-one lieutenants
+had previous military training. Of the five captains with previous
+military experience, one, years ago, had been a lieutenant in the
+Regular Army; another was promoted from Post Quartermaster-Sergeant; a
+third at one time had been First Sergeant of Artillery; the remaining
+two had more or less experience in the militia. Of the eighteen
+lieutenants with previous military experience, twelve had served in
+the Regular Army; eight of these, not one with a service less than
+fifteen years, were promoted directly from the ranks of the regulars
+for efficiency and gallantry. At the time of their promotion two were
+Sergeants, five First Sergeants and one a Post Quartermaster-Sergeant.
+The four others from the Regular Army had served five years each. Of
+the six remaining Lieutenants with previous military experience, four
+had received military training in high schools, three of whom were
+subsequently officers in the militia; fifth graduated from a state
+college with a military department; the sixth had been for years an
+officer in the militia. With this advantage at the start, it is no
+extravagance to say that the colored officers practically made the
+companies. To them was due the greater part of the credit for whatever
+efficiency the companies showed. Moreover, these colored officers were
+not behind in intelligence. Among them were four graduates of
+universities and colleges, two lawyers, two teachers, one journalist,
+five graduates of high schools and academies, and the men from the
+Regular Army, as their previous non-commissioned rank indicates, were
+of good average intelligence. There is no reason to believe that this
+one of the four colored volunteer regiments was in any degree
+exceptional.
+
+These are the officers for whom the War Department had erected their
+arbitrary bar at captaincy, and declared that no show of efficiency
+could secure for them the titular rank which they more than once
+actually exercised. For they were repeatedly in command of their
+companies through sickness or absence of their captains. They served
+as officers without the incentive which comes from hope of promotion.
+They were forced to see the credit of their labors go to others, and
+to share more than once in discredit for which they were not
+responsible. They were, and in this lay their chief embarrassment,
+without the security and protection which higher rank would have
+accorded them. In case of trial by court-martial, captains and other
+higher officers filled the court to the exclusion of almost all
+others. These were white men. It is gratifying to record that the War
+Department recognized this special injustice to colored officers, and
+in the two regiments of colored volunteers recruited for service in
+the Philippines all the line-officers are colored men, the field
+officers being white, and appointed from the Regular Army in pursuance
+of a general policy. Thus far has the general government advanced in
+recognition of the military capacity of the Negro. In the swing of the
+pendulum the nation is now at the place where the hardy General Butler
+was thirty-seven years ago, when he organized the three regiments of
+Louisiana Native Guards with all line-officers colored.
+
+The way in which modern armies are organized and perfected leaves
+little necessity for an equipment of exceptional personal gifts in
+order to exercise ordinary military command. The whole thing is
+subordinate, and the field for personal initiative is contracted to
+the minimum. In our own army the President is Commander-in-Chief, and
+the command descends through a multitude of subordinate grades down to
+the lowest commissioned officer in the service. We have "Articles of
+War" and "Regulations," and the entire discipline and government of
+the army is committed to writing. There is no chance to enshroud in
+mystery the ability to command. For ordinary military command, with
+intelligence the chief requisite, little is required beyond courage,
+firmness and good judgment. These qualities are in no respect natural
+barriers for colored men.
+
+This last story of the Negro soldier's efficiency and gallantry, told
+in the pages of this book, teaches its own very simple conclusion. The
+Cuban campaign has forced the nation to recognize the completion of
+the Negro's evolution as a soldier in the Army of the United States.
+The colored American soldier, by his own prowess, has won an
+acknowledged place by the side of the best trained fighters with arms.
+In the fullness of his manhood he has no rejoicing in the patronizing
+paean, "the colored troops fought nobly," nor does he glow at all
+when told of his "faithfulness" and "devotion" to his white officers,
+qualities accentuated to the point where they might well fit an
+affectionate dog. He lays claim to no prerogative other than that of a
+plain citizen of the Republic, trained to the profession of arms. The
+measure of his demand--and it is the demand of ten millions of his
+fellow-citizens allied to him by race--is that the full manhood
+privileges of a soldier be accorded him. On his record in arms, not
+excluding his manifest capacity to command, the colored soldier,
+speaking for the entire body of colored citizens in this country, only
+demands that the door of the nation's military training school be
+freely open to the capable of his race, and the avenue of promotion
+from the ranks be accessible to his tried efficiency; that no
+hindrance prevent competent colored men from taking their places as
+officers as well as soldiers in the nation's permanent military
+establishment.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[26] Headquarters Department of the Gulf,
+     New Orleans, August 22, 1862.
+     General Orders No. 63.
+
+     "Whereas, on the 23d day of April, in the year eighteen
+     hundred and sixty-one, at a public meeting of the free
+     colored population of the city of New Orleans, a military
+     organization, known as the 'Native Guards' (colored), had
+     its existence, which military organization was duly and
+     legally enrolled as a part of the militia of the State, its
+     officers being commissioned by Thomas O. Moore, Governor and
+     Commander-in-Chief of the militia of the State of Louisiana,
+     in the form following, that is to say:
+
+     The State of Louisiana.
+     (Seal of the State.)
+
+     By Thomas Overton Moore, Governor of the State of Louisiana,
+     and commander-in-chief of the militia thereof.
+
+     "'In the name and by the authority of the State of
+     Louisiana: Know ye that ---- ----, having been duly and
+     legally elected captain of the "Native Guards" (colored),
+     first division of the Militia of Louisiana, to serve for the
+     term of the war,
+
+     "'I do hereby appoint and commission him captain as
+     aforesaid, to take rank as such, from the 2d day of May,
+     eighteen hundred and sixty-one.
+
+     "'He is, therefore, carefully and diligently to discharge
+     the duties of his office by doing and performing all manner
+     of things thereto belonging. And I do strictly charge and
+     require all officers, non-commissioned officers and privates
+     under his command to be obedient to his orders as captain;
+     and he is to observe and follow such orders and directions,
+     from time to time, as he shall receive from me, or the
+     future Governor of the State of Louisiana, or other superior
+     officers, according to the Rules and Articles of War, and in
+     conformity to law.
+
+     "'In testimony whereof, I have caused these letters to be
+     made patent, and the seal of the State to be hereunto
+     annexed.
+
+     "'Given under my hand, at the city of Baton Rouge, on the
+     second day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand
+     eight hundred and sixty-one.
+
+     (L.S.)                  (Signed) THOS. O. MOORE.
+     "'By the Governor:
+                             (Signed) P.D. HARDY,
+                                      Secretary of State.
+
+     (Wilson: Black Phalanx, p. 194.)
+
+[27] De Tocqueville: L'Ancien Regime et La Revolution, p. 125-6.
+
+[28] Thomas Westworth Higginson: Army Life in a Black Regiment, pp.
+57-8.
+
+[29] Thomas Wentworth Higginson: Army Life in a Black Regiment, p.
+261.
+
+[30] Williams's Negro Troops in the Rebellion, pp. 339-40, quoting the
+order.
+
+[31] Williams's Negro Troops in the Rebellion, pp. 334-6, original
+order quoted.
+
+[32] See pp. 351-6 MS.
+
+[33] Wilson: Black Phalanx, p. 211, original order quoted.
+
+[34] Campaigns of the Civil War. F.V. Greene. The Mississippi, p. 226
+et seq.
+
+[35] Williams's Negro Troops in the Rebellion, p. 221, original order
+quoted.
+
+[36] MS. Archives of Massachusetts, Vol. 180, p. 241, quoted in
+Williams's Negro Troops in the Rebellion, p. 13.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+The correspondence following shows the progress of the negotiations
+for the surrender of the city of Santiago and the Spanish Army, from
+the morning of July 3d until the final convention was signed on the
+sixteenth of the same month. This surrender virtually closed the war,
+but did not restore the contending nations to a status of peace.
+Twenty-three thousand Spanish soldiers had laid down their arms and
+had been transformed from enemies to friends. On the tenth of August
+following, a protocol was submitted by the President of the United
+States, which was accepted by the Spanish cabinet on the eleventh, and
+on the twelfth the President announced the cessation of hostilities,
+thus closing a war which had lasted one hundred and ten days. On the
+tenth of December a Treaty of Peace between the United States and
+Spain was signed at Paris, which was subsequently ratified by both
+nations, and diplomatic relations fully restored. The war, though
+short, had been costly. One hundred and fifty million dollars had been
+spent in its prosecution, and there were left on our hands the
+unsolved problem of Cuba and the Philippines, which promised much
+future trouble.
+
+Within a month from the signing of the convention, the Army of
+Invasion, known as the Fifth Army Corps, was on its homeward voyage,
+and by the latter part of August the whole command was well out of
+Cuba. Well did the soldiers themselves, as well as their friends,
+realize, as the former returned from that campaign of a hundred days,
+that war in the tropics was neither a pastime nor a practice march.
+The campaign had tested the powers of endurance of the men to its
+utmost limit. The horrors of war were brought directly to the face of
+the people, as the ten thousand invalids dragged their debilitated
+forms from the transports to their detention camps, or to the
+hospitals, some too helpless to walk, and many to die soon after
+greeting their native shores. Those who had been so enthusiastic for
+the war were now quiet, and were eagerly laying the blame for the
+sorrow and suffering before them upon the shoulders of those who had
+conducted the war. Few stopped to think that a good part of this woe
+might be justly charged to those who had constantly resisted the
+establishment of an adequate standing army, and who, with inconsistent
+vehemence, had urged the nation into a war, regardless of its military
+equipment. The emaciated veterans arriving at Montauk were spoken of
+as the evidences of "military incompetency;" they were also evidence
+of that narrow statesmanship which ignores the constant suggestions of
+military experience.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Headquarters United States Forces,
+     Near San Juan River, July 3, 1898--8.30 A.M.
+
+     To the Commanding General of the Spanish Forces, Santiago de Cuba.
+
+     Sir:--I shall be obliged, unless you surrender, to shell
+     Santiago de Cuba. Please inform the citizens of foreign
+     countries, and all the women and children, that they should
+     leave the city before 10 o'clock to-morrow morning.
+
+     Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+     WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,
+     Major-General U.S.V.
+
+Reply.
+
+     Santiago de Cuba, July 3, 1898.
+
+     His Excellency the General Commanding Forces of United States,
+     near San Juan River.
+
+     Sir:--I have the honor to reply to your communication of
+     to-day, written at 8.30 A.M., and received at 1 P.M.,
+     demanding the surrender of this city, or, in contrary case,
+     announcing to me that you will bombard this city, and that I
+     advise the foreigners, women and children that they must
+     leave the city before 10 o'clock to-morrow morning. It is my
+     duty to say to you that this city will not surrender, and
+     that I will inform the foreign consuls and inhabitants of
+     the contents of your message.
+
+     Very respectfully,
+
+     JOSE TORAL,
+     Commander-in-Chief, Fourth Corps,
+
+
+     Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,
+     Camp near San Juan River, Cuba, July 4, 1898.
+
+     The Commanding General, Spanish Forces, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba.
+
+     Sir:--I was officially informed last night that Admiral
+     Cervera is now a captive on board the U.S.S. Gloucester, and
+     is unharmed. He was then in the harbor of Siboney. I regret
+     also to have to announce to you the death of General Vara
+     del Rey at El Caney, who, with two of his sons, was killed
+     in the battle of July 1st. His body will be buried this
+     morning with military honors. His brother,
+     Lieutenant-Colonel Vara del Rey, is wounded and a prisoner
+     in my hands, together with the following officers: Captain
+     Don Antonio Vara del Rey, Captain Isidor Arias, Captain
+     Antonio Mansas, and Captain Manuel Romero, who, though
+     severely wounded, will all probably survive.
+
+     I also have to announce to you that the Spanish fleet, with
+     the exception of one vessel, was destroyed, and this one is
+     being so vigorously pursued that it will be impossible for
+     it to escape. General Pando is opposed by forces sufficient
+     to hold him in check.
+
+     In view of the above, I would suggest that, to save needless
+     effusion of blood and the distress of many people, you may
+     reconsider your determination of yesterday. Your men have
+     certainly shown the gallantry which was expected of them.
+
+     I am, sir, with great respect,
+
+     Your obedient servant,
+
+     WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,
+     Major-General, Commanding United States Forces.
+
+
+     Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,
+     Camp near San Juan River, Cuba, July 4, 1898.
+
+     To the Commanding General, Spanish Forces, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba.
+
+     Sir:--The fortune of war has thrown into my hands quite a
+     number of officers and private soldiers, whom I am now
+     holding as prisoners of war, and I have the honor to propose
+     to you that a cartel of exchange be arranged to-day, by
+     which the prisoners taken by the forces of Spain from on
+     board the Merrimac, and any officers and men of the army who
+     may have fallen into our hands within the past few days, may
+     be returned to their respective governments on the terms
+     usual in such cases, of rank for rank. Trusting that this
+     will meet with your favorable consideration, I remain,
+
+     Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+     WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,
+     Major-General, Commanding United States Forces.
+
+
+     Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,
+     Camp near San Juan River, Cuba, July 4, 1898.
+
+     To the Commanding Officer, Spanish Forces, Santiago.
+
+     Sir:--It will give me great pleasure to return to the city
+     of Santiago at an early hour to-morrow morning all the
+     wounded Spanish officers now at El Caney who are able to be
+     carried and who will give their parole not to serve against
+     the United States until regularly exchanged. I make this
+     proposition, as I am not so situated as to give these
+     officers the care and attention that they can receive at the
+     hands of their military associates and from their own
+     surgeons; though I shall, of course, give them every kind
+     treatment that it is possible to do under such adverse
+     circumstances. Trusting that this will meet with your
+     approbation, and that you will permit me to return to you
+     these persons, I am,
+
+     Your very obedient servant,
+
+     WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,
+     Major-General, Commanding United States Forces.
+
+
+     Army of the Island of Cuba,
+     Fifth Corps, General Staff.
+
+     To His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief of the American Forces.
+
+     Excellency:--I have the honor to reply to the three
+     communications of your Excellency, dated to-day, and I am
+     very grateful for the news you give in regard to the
+     generals, chiefs, officers and troops that are your
+     prisoners, and of the good care that you give to the wounded
+     in your possession. With respect to the wounded, I have no
+     objection to receiving in this place those that your
+     Excellency may willingly deliver me, but I am not authorized
+     by the General-in-Chief to make any exchange, as he has
+     reserved to himself that authority. Yet I have given him
+     notice of the proposition of your Excellency.
+
+     It is useless for me to tell you how grateful I am for the
+     interest that your Excellency has shown for the prisoners
+     and corpse of General Vara del Rey, giving you many thanks
+     for the chivalrous treatment.
+
+     The same reasons that I explained to you yesterday, I have
+     to give again to-day--that this place will not be
+     surrendered.
+
+     I am, yours with great respect and consideration,
+
+     (Signed) JOSE TORAL.
+
+     In Santiago de Cuba, July 4, 1898.
+
+
+     Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,
+     Camp near San Juan River, Cuba, July 6, 1898.
+
+     To the Commander-in-Chief, Spanish Forces, Santiago de Cuba.
+
+     Sir:--In view of the events of the 3d instant, I have the
+     honor to lay before your Excellency certain propositions to
+     which, I trust, your Excellency, will give the consideration
+     which, in my judgment, they deserve.
+
+     I inclose a bulletin of the engagement of Sunday morning
+     which resulted in the complete destruction of Admiral
+     Cervera's fleet, the loss of six hundred of his officers and
+     men, and the capture of the remainder. The Admiral, General
+     Paredes and all others who escaped alive are now prisoners
+     on board the Harvard and St. Louis, and the latter ship, in
+     which are the Admiral, General Paredes and the surviving
+     captains (all except the captain of the Almirante Oquendo,
+     who was slain) has already sailed for the United States. If
+     desired by you, this may be confirmed by your Excellency
+     sending an officer under a flag of truce to Admiral Sampson,
+     and he can arrange to visit the Harvard, which will not sail
+     until to-morrow, and obtain the details from Spanish
+     officers and men on board that ship.
+
+     Our fleet is now perfectly free to act, and I have the honor
+     to state that unless a surrender be arranged by noon of the
+     9th instant, a bombardment will be begun and continued by
+     the heavy guns of our ships. The city is within easy range
+     of these guns, the eight-inch being capable of firing 9,500
+     yards, the thirteen-inch, of course, much farther. The ships
+     can so lie that with a range of 8,000 yards they can reach
+     the centre of the city.
+
+     I make this suggestion of a surrender purely in a
+     humanitarian spirit. I do not wish to cause the slaughter of
+     any more men, either of your Excellency's forces or my own,
+     the final result, under circumstances so disadvantageous to
+     your Excellency being a foregone conclusion.
+
+     As your Excellency may wish to make reference of so
+     momentous a question to your Excellency's home government,
+     it is for this purpose that I have placed the time of the
+     resumption of hostilities sufficiently far in the future to
+     allow a reply being received.
+
+     I beg an early answer from your Excellency.
+
+     I have the honor to be,
+
+     Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+     W. R. SHAFTER,
+     Major-General, Commanding.
+
+
+     Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,
+     Camp near Santiago, July 9, 1898.
+
+     Hon. Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.
+
+     I forwarded General Toral's proposition to evacuate the town
+     this morning without consulting any one. Since then I have
+     seen the general officers commanding divisions, who agree
+     with me in that it should be accepted.
+
+     1st. It releases at once the harbor.
+
+     2d. It permits the return of thousands of women, children
+     and old men, who have left the town, fearing bombardment,
+     and are now suffering fearfully where they are, though I am
+     doing my best to supply them with food.
+
+     3d. It saves the great destruction of property which a
+     bombardment would entail, most of which belongs to Cubans
+     and foreign residents.
+
+     4th. It at once releases this command while it is in good
+     health for operations elsewhere. There are now three cases
+     of yellow fever at Siboney in a Michigan regiment, and if it
+     gets started, no one knows where it will stop.
+
+     We lose by this, simply some prisoners we do not want and
+     the arms they carry. I believe many of them will desert and
+     return to our lines. I was told by a sentinel who deserted
+     last night that two hundred men wanted to come, but were
+     afraid our men would fire upon them.
+
+     W.R. SHAFTER,
+     Major-General, United States Volunteers.
+
+Reply.
+
+     Washington, D.C., July 9, 1898.
+
+     Major-General Shafter, Playa, Cuba.
+
+     In reply to your telegram recommending terms of evacuation
+     as proposed by the Spanish commander, after careful
+     consideration by the President and Secretary of War, I am
+     directed to say that you have repeatedly been advised that
+     you would not be expected to make an assault upon the enemy
+     at Santiago until you were prepared to do the work
+     thoroughly. When you are ready this will be done. Your
+     telegram of this morning said your position was impregnable
+     and that you believed the enemy would yet surrender
+     unconditionally. You have also assured us that you could
+     force their surrender by cutting off their supplies. Under
+     these circumstances, your message recommending that Spanish
+     troops be permitted to evacuate and proceed without
+     molestation to Holguin is a great surprise and is not
+     approved. The responsibility for the destruction and
+     distress to the inhabitants rests entirely with the Spanish
+     commander. The Secretary of War orders that when you are
+     strong enough to destroy the enemy and take Santiago, you do
+     it. If you have not force enough, it will be despatched to
+     you at the earliest moment possible. Reinforcements are on
+     the way of which you have already been apprised. In the
+     meantime, nothing is lost by holding the position you now
+     have, and which you regard as impregnable.
+
+     Acknowledge receipt. By order of the Secretary of War.
+     (Signed) H.C. CORBIN, Adjutant-General.
+
+
+     Headquarters United States Forces,
+     Camp near San Juan River, Cuba, July 11, 1898.
+
+     To His Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish Forces,
+     Santiago de Cuba.
+
+     Sir:--With the largely increased forces which have come to
+     me, and the fact that I have your line of retreat securely
+     within my hands, the time seems fitting that I should again
+     demand of your Excellency the surrender of Santiago and your
+     Excellency's army. I am authorized to state that should your
+     Excellency so desire, the Government of the United States
+     will transport your entire command to Spain. I have the
+     honor to be,
+
+     Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+     WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,
+     Major-General, Commanding.
+
+Reply.
+
+     Army of the Island of Cuba, Fourth Corps,
+     July 11, 1898.
+
+     To His Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces of
+     the United States, in the Camp of the San Juan.
+
+     Esteemed Sir:--I have the honor to advise your Eminence that
+     your communication of this date is received, and in reply
+     desire to confirm that which I said in my former
+     communication, and also to advise you that I have
+     communicated your proposition to the General-in-Chief.
+     Reiterating my sentiments, I am,
+
+     Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+     (Signed) JOSE TORAL,
+     Commander-in-Chief of the Fourth Corps and Military Governor
+     of Santiago.
+
+
+     Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,
+     Camp near Santiago de Cuba, July 12, 1898.
+
+     To His Excellency, Commander-in-Chief of Spanish Forces,
+     Santiago de Cuba.
+
+     Sir:--I have the honor to inform your Excellency that I have
+     already ordered a suspension of hostilities, and I will
+     repeat that order, granting in this manner a reasonable
+     time within which you may receive an answer to the message
+     sent to the Government of Spain, which time will end
+     to-morrow at 12 o'clock noon.
+
+     I think it my duty to inform your Excellency that during
+     this armistice I will not move any of my troops that occupy
+     the advanced line, but the forces that arrived to-day and
+     which are debarking at Siboney require moving to this camp.
+
+     I wish that your Excellency would honor me with a personal
+     interview to-morrow morning at 9 o'clock. I will come
+     accompanied by the Commanding General of the American army,
+     and by an interpreter, which will permit you to be
+     accompanied by two or three persons of your staff who speak
+     English. Hoping for a favorable answer, I have the honor to
+     be,
+
+     Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+     WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,
+     Major-General, Commanding.
+
+
+     Army of the Island of Cuba, Fourth Corps,
+     Santiago de cuba, July 12, 1898--9 P. M.
+
+     To His Excellency, the General of the American Troops.
+
+     Esteemed Sir:--I have the honor to answer your favor of this
+     date, inform your Excellency that in deference to your
+     desires I will be much honored by a conference with his
+     Excellency, the Commanding General of your army, and your
+     Excellency, to-morrow morning at the hour you have seen fit
+     to appoint.
+
+     Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+     (Signed) JOSE TORAL,
+     Commander-in-Chief of the Fourth Army Corps.
+
+     Preliminary agreement for the capitulation of the Spanish
+     forces which constitute the division of Santiago de Cuba,
+     occupying the territory herein set forth, said capitulation
+     authorized by the Commander-in-Chief of the Island of Cuba,
+     agreed to by General Toral and awaiting the approbation of
+     the Government at Madrid, and subject to the following
+     conditions:
+
+     Submitted by the undersigned Commissioners--
+
+     Brigadier-General Don Frederick Escario, Lieutenant-Colonel
+     of Staff Don Ventura Fontan and Mr. Robert Mason, of the
+     city of Santiago de Cuba, representing General Toral,
+     commanding Spanish forces, to Major-General Joseph Wheeler,
+     U.S.V., Major-General H.W. Lawton, U.S.V., and First
+     Lieutenant J.D. Miley, Second Artillery, A.D.C, representing
+     General Shafter, commanding American forces, for the
+     capitulation of the Spanish forces comprised in that portion
+     of the Island of Cuba east of a line passing through
+     Aserradero, Dos Palmas, Palma Soriano, Cauto Abajo,
+     Escondida, Tanamo and Aguilera, said territory being known
+     as the Eastern District of Santiago, commanded by General
+     Jose Toral.
+
+     1. That pending arrangements for capitulation all
+     hostilities between American and Spanish forces in this
+     district shall absolutely and unequivocally cease.
+
+     2. That this capitulation includes all the forces and war
+     material in said territory.
+
+     3. That after the signing of the final capitulation the
+     United States agrees, with as little delay as possible, to
+     transport all the Spanish troops in said district to the
+     Kingdom of Spain, the troops, as near as possible, to embark
+     at the port nearest the garrison they now occupy.
+
+     4. That the officers of the Spanish Army be permitted to
+     retain their side arms, and both officers and enlisted men
+     their personal property.
+
+     5. That after final capitulation the Spanish authorities
+     agree without delay to remove, or assist the American Navy
+     in removing, all mines or other obstructions to navigation
+     now in the harbor of Santiago and its mouth.
+
+     6. That after final capitulation the commander of the
+     Spanish forces deliver without delay a complete inventory of
+     all arms and munitions of war of the Spanish forces and a
+     roster of the said forces now in the above-described
+     district, to the commander of the American forces.
+
+     7. That the commander of the Spanish forces, in leaving said
+     district, is authorized to carry with him all military
+     archives and records pertaining to the Spanish Army now in
+     said district.
+
+     8. That all of that portion of the Spanish forces known as
+     Volunteers, Movilizados and Guerillas, who wish to remain in
+     the Island of Cuba are permitted to do so under parole not
+     to take up arms against the United States during the
+     continuance of the war between Spain and the United States,
+     delivering up their arms.
+
+     9. That the Spanish forces will march out of Santiago de
+     Cuba with honors of war, depositing their arms thereafter at
+     a point mutually agreed upon, to await their disposition by
+     the United States Government, it being understood that the
+     United States Commissioners will recommend that the Spanish
+     soldier return to Spain with the arms he so bravely
+     defended.
+
+     Entered into this fifteenth day of July, eighteen hundred
+     and ninety-eight, by the undersigned Commissioners, acting
+     under instructions from their respecting commanding
+     generals.
+
+     (Signed)
+     JOSEPH WHEELER,
+     _Major-General U.S. Vols._;
+
+     H.W. LAWTON,
+     _Major-General U.S. Vols._;
+
+     J.D. MILEY,
+     _1st Lieut. 2d Art., A.D.C. to General Shafter._
+
+     FREDERICO ESCARIO,
+     VENTURA FONTAN,
+     ROBERT MASON.
+
+
+     Army of the Island of Cuba, Fourth Corps,
+     Santiago de Cuba, July 12, 1898--9 P.M.
+
+     To His Excellency, the General-in-Chief of the American Forces,
+
+     Esteemed Sir:--As I am now authorized by my Government to
+     capitulate, I have the honor to so advise you, requesting
+     you to designate the hour and place where my representatives
+     should appear, to concur with those of your Excellency to
+     edit the articles of capitulation on the basis of what has
+     been agreed upon to this date.
+
+     In due time I wish to manifest to your Excellency my desire
+     to know the resolution of the United States Government
+     respecting the return of the arms, so as to note it in the
+     capitulation; also for their great courtesy and gentlemanly
+     deportment I wish to thank your Grace's representatives, and
+     in return for their generous and noble efforts for the
+     Spanish soldiers, I hope your Government will allow them to
+     return to the Peninsula with the arms that the American army
+     do them the honor to acknowledge as having dutifully
+     defended.
+
+     Reiterating my former sentiments, I remain,
+
+     Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+     JOSE TORAL,
+     Commander-in-Chief of the Fourth Army Corps.
+
+
+     At Neutral Camp, near Santiago, Under a Flag of Truce,
+     July 14, 1898.
+
+     Recognizing the chivalry, courage and gallantry of Generals
+     Linares and Toral, and of the soldiers of Spain who were
+     engaged in the battles recently fought in the vicinity of
+     Santiago de Cuba, as displayed in said battles, we, the
+     undersigned officers of the United States army, who had the
+     honor to be engaged in said battle, and are now a duly
+     organized commission, treating with a like commission of
+     officers of the Spanish army, for the capitulation of
+     Santiago de Cuba, unanimously join in earnestly soliciting
+     the proper authority to accord to these brave and chivalrous
+     soldiers the privilege of returning to their country bearing
+     the arms they have so bravely defended.
+
+     JOSEPH WHEELER,
+     Major-General, U.S. Vols.
+
+     H. W. LAWTON,
+     Major-General, U.S. Vols.
+
+     First Lieut., 2d Art., A.D.C.
+     J. D. MILEY.
+
+
+     Army of the Island of Cuba, Fourth Corps,
+     Santiago de Cuba, July 16, 1898.
+
+     To His Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces of
+     the United States.
+
+     Esteemed Sir:--At half-past 11 I received your communication
+     of this date, and I am sorry to advise you that it is
+     impossible for my representatives to come to the appointed
+     place at midday, as you wish, as I must meet them and give
+     them their instructions.
+
+     If agreeable to you, will you defer the visit until 4 P.M.
+     to-day or until 7 to-morrow morning, and in the meanwhile
+     the obstacles to the entrance of the Red Cross will be
+     removed from the harbor.
+
+     I beg your Honor will make clear what force you wish me to
+     retire from the railroad, as, if it is that in Aguadores, I
+     would authorize the repair of the bridge at once by your
+     engineers; and if it is that on the heights to the left of
+     your lines, I beg you will specify with more precision.
+
+     I have ordered those in charge of the aqueduct to proceed at
+     once to repair it with the means at their command.
+
+     Awaiting your reply, I remain,
+
+     Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+     JOSE TORAL,
+     Commander-in-Chief of the Fourth Army Corps.
+
+
+     Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,
+     Camp, July 16, 1898.
+
+     To His Excellency, General Jose Toral, Commanding Spanish Forces
+     in Eastern Cuba.
+
+     Sir:--I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your
+     Excellency's letter of this date, notifying me that the
+     Government at Madrid approves your action, and requesting
+     that I designate officers to arrange for and receive the
+     surrender of the forces of your Excellency. This I do,
+     nominating Major-General Wheeler, Major-General Lawton, and
+     my aide, Lieutenant Miley. I have to request that your
+     Excellency at once withdraw your troops from along the
+     railway to Aguadores, and from the bluff in rear of my left;
+     also that you at once direct the removal of the obstructions
+     at the entrance to the harbor or assist the navy in doing
+     so, as it is of the utmost importance that I at once get
+     vessels loaded with food into the harbor.
+
+     The repair of the railroad will, I am told, require a week's
+     time. I shall, as I have said to your Excellency, urge my
+     Government that the gallant men your Excellency has so ably
+     commanded have returned to Spain with them the arms they
+     have wielded. With great respect, I remain,
+
+     Your obedient servant and friend,
+
+     WILLIAM R. SHAFTER,
+     General, Commanding.
+
+     Terms of the Military Convention for the capitulation of the
+     Spanish forces occupying the territory which constitutes the
+     Division of Santiago de Cuba and described as follows: All
+     that portion of the Island of Cuba east of a line passing
+     through Aserradero, Dos Palmas, Cauto Abajo, Escondida,
+     Tanamo and Aguilara, said troops being in command of General
+     Jose Toral; agreed upon by the undersigned Commissioners:
+     Brigadier-General Don Federico Escario, Lieutenant-Colonel
+     of Staff Don Ventura Fontan, and as Interpreter, Mr. Robert
+     Mason, of the city of Santiago de Cuba, appointed by General
+     Toral, commanding the Spanish forces, on behalf of the
+     Kingdom of Spain, and Major-General Joseph Wheeler, U.S.V.,
+     Major-General H.W. Lawton, U.S.V., and First Lieutenant J.D.
+     Miley, Second Artillery, A.D.C., appointed by General
+     Shafter, commanding the American forces on behalf of the
+     United States:
+
+     1. That all hostilities between the American and Spanish
+     forces in this district absolutely and unequivocally cease.
+
+     2. That this capitulation includes all the forces and war
+     material in said territory.
+
+     3. That the United States agrees, with as little delay as
+     possible, to transport all the Spanish troops in said
+     district to the Kingdom of Spain, the troops being embarked,
+     as far as possible at the port nearest the garrison they now
+     occupy.
+
+     4. That the officers of the Spanish Army be permitted to
+     retain their side arms, and both officers and private
+     soldiers their personal property.
+
+     5. That the Spanish authorities agree to remove, or assist
+     the American Navy in removing, all mines or other
+     obstructions to navigation now in the harbor of Santiago and
+     its mouth.
+
+     6. That the commander of the Spanish forces deliver without
+     delay a complete inventory of all arms and munitions of war
+     of the Spanish forces in above described district to the
+     commander of the American forces; also a roster of said
+     forces now in said district.
+
+     7. That the commander of the Spanish forces, in leaving said
+     district, is authorized to carry with him all military
+     archives and records pertaining to the Spanish Army now in
+     said district.
+
+     8. That all that portion of the Spanish forces known as
+     Volunteers, Movilizados and Guerillas, who wish to remain in
+     the Island of Cuba, are permitted to do so upon the
+     condition of delivering up their arms and taking a parole
+     not to bear arms against the United States during the
+     continuance of the present war between Spain and the United
+     States.
+
+     9. That the Spanish forces will march out of Santiago de
+     Cuba with the honors of war, depositing their arms
+     thereafter at a point mutually agreed upon, to await their
+     disposition by the United States Government, it being
+     understood that the United States Commissioners will
+     recommend that the Spanish soldier return to Spain with the
+     arms he so bravely defended.
+
+     10. That the provisions of the foregoing instrument become
+     operative immediately upon its being signed.
+
+     Entered into this sixteenth day of July, eighteen hundred
+     and ninety-eight, by the undersigned Commissioners, acting
+     under instructions from their respective commanding generals
+     and with the approbation of their respective governments.
+
+     (Signed)
+     JOSEPH WHEELER,
+       _Major-General U.S. Vols._;
+
+     H.W. LAWTON,
+       _Major-General U.S. Vols._;
+
+     J.D. MILEY,
+       _1st Lieut. 2d Art., A.D.C. to General Shafter._
+
+     FREDERICO ESCARIO,
+     VENTURA FONTAN,
+     ROBERT MASON.
+
+The following dispatch, sent by General Linares, will show how
+desperate were the straits into which he had been driven and how
+earnestly he desired to be granted authority to avoid further fighting
+by the surrender of his forces at Santiago:
+
+     Santiago de Cuba, July 12, 1898.
+
+     The General-in-Chief to the Secretary of War.
+
+     Although prostrated in bed from weakness and pain, my mind
+     is troubled by the situation of our suffering troops, and
+     therefore I think it my duty to address myself to you, Mr.
+     Secretary, and describe the true situation.
+
+     The enemy's forces very near city; ours extended fourteen
+     kilometres (14,000 yards). Our troops exhausted and sickly
+     in an alarming proportion. Cannot be brought to the
+     hospital--needing them in trenches. Cattle without fodder or
+     hay. Fearful storm of rain, which has been pouring
+     continuously for past twenty-four hours. Soldiers without
+     permanent shelter. Their only food rice, and not much of
+     that. They have no way of changing or drying their clothing.
+     Our losses were very heavy--many chiefs and officers among
+     the dead, wounded and sick. Their absence deprives the
+     forces of their leaders in this very critical moment. Under
+     these conditions it is impossible to open a breach on the
+     enemy, because it would take a third of our men who cannot
+     go out, and whom the enemy would decimate. The result would
+     be a terrible disaster, without obtaining, as you desire,
+     the salvation of eleven maimed battalions. To make a sortie
+     protected by the division at Holguin, it is necessary to
+     attack the enemy's lines simultaneously, and the forces of
+     Holguin cannot come here except after many long days'
+     marching. Impossible for them to transport rations.
+     Unfortunately, the situation is desperate. The surrender is
+     imminent, otherwise we will only gain time to prolong our
+     agony. The sacrifice would be sterile, and the men
+     understand this. With his lines so near us, the enemy will
+     annihilate us without exposing his own, as he did yesterday,
+     bombarding by land elevations without our being able to
+     discover their batteries, and by sea the fleet has a perfect
+     knowledge of the place, and bombards with a mathematical
+     accuracy. Santiago is no Gerona, a walled city, part of the
+     mother country, and defended inch by inch by her own people
+     without distinction--old men and women who helped with their
+     lives, moved by the holy idea of freedom, and with the hope
+     of help, which they received. Here I am alone. All the
+     people have fled, even those holding public offices, almost
+     without exception. Only the priests remain, and they wish to
+     leave the city to-day, headed by their archbishop. These
+     defenders do not start now a campaign full of enthusiasm and
+     energy, but for three years they have been fighting the
+     climate, privations and fatigue, and now they have to
+     confront this critical situation when they have no
+     enthusiasm or physical strength. They have no ideals,
+     because they defend the property of people who have deserted
+     them and those who are the allies of the American forces.
+
+     The honor of arms has its limit, and I appeal to the
+     judgment of the Government and of the entire nation whether
+     these patient troops have not repeatedly saved it since May
+     18th--date of first bombardment. If it is necessary that I
+     sacrifice them for reasons unknown to me, or if it is
+     necessary for some one to take responsibility for the issue
+     foreseen and announced by me in several telegrams, I
+     willingly offer myself as a sacrifice to my country, and I
+     will take charge of the command for the act of surrender, as
+     my modest reputation is of small value when the reputation
+     of the nation is at stake.
+
+     (Signed) LINARES.
+
+Thus surrendered to our forces about 23,500 Spanish troops, of whom
+about 11,000 had been in the garrison of Santiago, the others having
+been stationed in garrisons outside of the city, but belonging to the
+Division of Santiago. With them were also surrendered 100 cannon, 18
+machine guns and over 25,000 rifles. The troops were all sent back to
+Spain in vessels of their own nation and flying their own flag. We had
+lost in battles with them before the surrender 23 officers killed and
+237 men; and 100 officers and 1,332 men wounded.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Colored Regulars in the United
+States Army, by T. G. Steward
+
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