Color (military)

“ 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 [pg 283] 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. ”

“ It is haughtily asked, who will stand in the ranks shoulder to shoulder with a negro? I answer, no one in time of peace; no one when your musters and trainings are looked upon as mere pastimes; no one when your militia will shoulder their muskets and march to their trainings with as much unconcern as they would go to a sumptuous entertainment or a splendid ball. But, Sir, when the hour of danger approaches, your 'white' militia are just as willing that the man of Color should be set up as a [Pg 27] mark to be shot at by the enemy as to be set up themselves. ”

“ The Negro is able to adjust himself to the life of a soldier with comparative ease. His happy disposition and responsiveness to sincere, efficient leadership, his regard for discipline and love for his uniform, his sense of rhythm and his physical courage, are distinct military assets. The fact that many officers preferred to command Negro troops was a splendid tribute to their ability. In one camp where there were eight commands with Negro soldiers, one hundred and fourteen officers applied for the posts. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The venerable negro, with the deliberateness of his race, proceeds in the direction indicated, but is saved the necessity of much exertion, by the startling appearance of a young soldier in a motley uniform of gray and blue—his coat of one color—his nether garments of another! ”

“ Other Negro soldiers have had French wives here, and the color line is not regarded either by the French or the Germans as we regard it in America; to keep the white race pure. At Ludwigshafen, when the Seventh Tirailleurs left for Frankfurt, patrols had to be sent out to drive away the German women from the barracks, where they were kissing the colored troops through the window gratings. ”

“ I am afraid that word best makes it unjustly strong, for the colored soldier has many white friends. Nevertheless, I am glad I had the privilege and the opportunity to prove that my efforts in the common cause, the Allies’ cause, were not one bit hampered or lessened because my officers and men were colored. ”

“ We advocated blue for the soldier's dress, because tailors, professional and amateur, have still so potential a voice in our military councils, that we scarcely dare hope the adoption of less becoming tints; otherwise, grey, green, or brown mixtures, although not showy on parade, will be admitted by all military men who have seen service—especially skirmishing service in bush, mountains, or forest—to constitute by far the least visible uniform, and worst mark. ”

“ There are those who will ask,—why make a parade of the military services of Colored Americans, instead of recording their attention to and progress in the various other departments of civil, social, and political elevation? To this let me answer, that I yield to no one in appreciating the propriety and pertinency of every effort on the part of Colored Americans, in all pursuits, which, as members of the human family, it becomes them to share in; and, among these, my predilections are least and last for what constitutes the pomp and circumstances of War. ”

“ As a result of debates over increasing the size of the Army, Congress had provided "That no Negro because of race, shall be excluded from enlistment in the Army for service with colored military units now organized and to be organized." ”

“ Is there anything in existing legislation to prevent the enlistment of a colored person under the statute of 1861? To this I answer positively in the negative, and I challenge contradiction. There is no color in that statute. There is no color in any statute raising troops for the army of the United States, nor any color in any statute raising sailors for the navy of the United States. ”

“ The colored race constitutes more than ten per cent. of our population, and has, since the Civil War, furnished more than its quota of fighting men of the regular army. At home or on foreign soil the ranks of colored regiments are always full, while the white regiments have with difficulty been maintained at peace strength. To question the valor of the colored soldier is to betray ignorance of history. This is the first opportunity in his history to prove on an adequate scale his fitness or unfitness for command and leadership. ”

“ Equally important to race reform was the fact that the Navy was developing its own group of civil rights advocates during the war, influential men in key positions who had been dissatisfied with the prewar status of the Negro and who pressed for racial change in the name of military efficiency. ”

“ 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 [pg 326] 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. ”

“ During the battle many instances of unsurpassed bravery were shown by the common soldier, which proved that these heroic men were fighting for the freedom of their race, and the restoration of a Union that should protect man in his liberty without regard to color. No regiment did more towards extinguishing prejudice against the Negro than the patriotic Sixth. ”

“ In this battle it would be difficult to enumerate particular cases of great bravery, where all seem to vie with each other in the brilliancy and gallantry of their achievements. Colored non-commissioned officers fearlessly took command after their commandants (white commissioned officers) were killed, or borne severely wounded from the field, and led on the attack to the close. As each brave color bearer was shot down, another and another would immediately grasp the National emblem, all riddled with balls, and plant it further on the enemies line. ”

“ Their successors are the ones to continue the work of defence, and advance the lines still farther into the country of the enemy of humanity and morality.
The army and navy have had their share of brave Colored men, and has opened its ranks to more of them who are distinguishing themselves and ennobling their race. In the school of army and navy discipline, the Colored man has proven himself to be a man in every sense of the word. Faithful and true to his duty, he honors and loves the country under whose flag he is ready to draw his sword, and lay down his life. ”

“ Colours—the signa militaria still, though not of such importance as a rallying centre in these days of extended order and fire fight, as in the days of line formation and the Brown Bess—lost as these were lost reflect honour, and not discredit, on the history of a regiment.
Remarking on the use of colours in the past during battle, Sir Charles Napier writes: “Great is the value of the standard; it is a telegraph in the centre of the battle to speak the changes of the day to the wings. Its importance has therefore been immense in all ages, among all nations, and in all kinds of war. ”

“ While as the usual thing the corporals were colored, the sergeants were generally white men. Only in rare cases were the non-commissioned officers all white or all colored. Several reasons were given for placing white sergeants in these units. It was said that most of the Negroes forming such organizations had little or no knowledge of military tactics and that experienced white men were needed to organize them; moreover, that white officers could get more work out of labor units than could Negro “non-coms.” ”

“ I have not the least doubt that the negroes will make very excellent soldiers with proper management; and I will venture to pronounce, that they cannot be put into better hands than those of Mr. Laurens. He has all the zeal, intelligence, enterprise, and every other qualification, necessary to succeed in such an undertaking. It is a maxim with some great military judges, that, with sensible officers, soldiers can hardly be too stupid; and, on this principle, it is thought that the Russians would make the best troops in the world, it they were under other officers than their own. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In a month’s time the raw recruits were marching with heads up, eyes front, shoulders back, and with every arm swinging in line. As they marched to and from drill, the generals, colonels, and other officers as well as the men would stand along the “Golden Belt” and watch the black host as it passed. “This demonstration,” said one Negro captain, “changed everything. Now all men salute, and officers always try to salute first.” ”

“ In the beginning there was great need for men to do the manual work connected with supplying with food and equipment two million soldiers in France. The Negro was regarded by many army officials as specially adapted to this work because of his previous training and his cheerful disposition; and for one reason or another some other officials deemed it advisable to withhold from him regular military training. Accordingly, in the fall of 1917, colored draftees and volunteers were sent to various assembling camps and formed into stevedore and labor units. ”

“ Tracing his separate history in the Revolutionary War, is a task of much difficulty, for the reason that while individual instances of valor and patriotism abound there were so few separate bodies of Negro troops, that no separate record appears to have been made. The simple fact is that the fathers as a rule enlisted men both for the Army and Navy, just as now, is only continued by the Navy, that is to say, they were assigned wherever needed, without regard to race or color. ”

“ On the British side was a company composed of colored men, and historians like to tell of their cowardice compared with the colored men of the American side. [72] Evidently a scarlet coat does not well fit a colored skin. To the eternal credit of the State troops composed of the men of color, not one act of desertion or cowardice is recorded against them. There was a most lamentable exhibition of panic on the right bank of the river by the American troops, but the battalion of the men of color was not there. They were always in the front of the attack. ”

“ Moving about among the peasants were the regular soldiers in their white uniforms faced with blue, red, yellow, or violet, with black three-cornered hats, and black gaiters from foot to knee, and the militia in coats of white with black facings. Behind a great collar of dogskin a pair of jet-black eyes flashed out from under a pretty forehead; and presently one saw these same eyes grown sorrowful or dull under heavy knotted brows, which told of a life too vexed by care and labour to keep alive a spark of youth's romance. ”

“ The color line has about died out in the American army—in France. They play together, sing their songs together—the blacks and the white—and they go over the top together. They come back together, too, the wounded, and there is no thought of the color of a man's skin. They mix together on the convoy trains going up to the front, and all sing together, sharing each other's dangers and their joys. It is not an uncommon sight to see a crowd of white doughboys around a piano in some 'Y' or Red Cross hut, singing to beat the band, with a colored jass expert pounding the stuffing out of the piano. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Colored people as a class lacked devotion to principle, also initiative and endurance, whether mental or physical. Colored deputies, of whom there were many in various parts of the South, so long as they acted under white chiefs, were, like most colored soldiers, marvels of bravery, defying revolvers, bowie knives, and wounds, and fighting to the last gasp with no sign of flinching ”