Colored troops

“ Their labors were so faithful and efficient, that a vote of thanks was tendered them by the committee. A battalion of Colored troops were at the same time organized in the city, under an officer of the United States army; and they were on the point of marching to the frontier when peace was proclaimed.
A Colored man, whom I visited in the hospital, called to see me to-day. He had just got out. He looked very pitiful. His head was bent down. He said he could not get it erect, his neck was so injured. He is a very intelligent man, and can read and write. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The states which gave colored troops to the service made special arrangements for recruiting them, for the simple reason that necessarily a great part of them had to come from other places than the state which organized them. The provisions made for recruiting white soldiers could not be successfully applied in the case of the colored. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Our evening parades converted thousands to a belief in colored troops. It was almost a daily experience to hear the remark from visitors, 'Men who can handle their arms as these do, will fight.' General Thomas paid the regiment the compliment of saying that he 'never saw a regiment go through the manual as well as this one.' We remained in 'Camp Whipple' from February, 1864, till August, 1865, a period of eighteen months, and during a large part of that time the regiment was an object lesson to the army, and helped to revolutionize public opinion on the subject of colored soldiers. ”

“ And this horror of theirs holds good not only with regard to the colored troops themselves, but it is even more bitter if possible when directed against the white officers who trained them in the art of war, and who led them on the battle-field. It is true that we have officers chosen from among ourselves, but then we are all one army, and we must go shares hand in hand with the rest in the general conflict. ”

“ Let your own heart answer this question, and no regiments of black troops will leave their bodies to rot upon the battle-field beneath a Southern sun—to conquer a peace based upon the perpetuity of human bondage—stimulating and encouraging the inveterate prejudice that now bars our progress in the scale of elevation and education.
I claim that the raising of black regiments for the war would be highly impolitic and uncalled for under the present state of affairs, knowing, as we do, the policy of the Government in relation to colored men. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Every account I have read regarding the engagement of colored men in fighting units and every case in which I had the opportunity to inquire personally regarding the bravery of colored troops has led me to believe our colored men were as good soldiers as could be found in either our own army or the armies of our allies, regardless of color. ”

“ 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. ”

“ War Department concern with the Negro is focused directly and solely on the problem of the most effective use of colored troops ... the Army has no authority or intention to participate in social reform as such but does view the problem as a matter of efficient troop utilization. ”

“ For men with no experience under heavy fire, who were not long ago working in the cotton fields and on the levees of the South, this was a trying assignment, which would have tested veterans. Never before had colored men under colored officers gone against a powerful trench system. All the British and French colored troops had white officers, and our other colored division, the 93rd, which was attached to the French Army through the summer and fall of 1918, had white officers. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The impression settles upon me that colored men have much over-rated the enlightenment, justice, and generosity of our rulers at383 Washington. In my humble way I have contributed somewhat to that false estimate. You know that when the idea of raising colored troops was first suggested, the special duty to be assigned them, was the garrisoning of forts and arsenals in certain warm, unhealthy, and miasmatic localities in the South. ”

“ Education THE chief educational work to be done among the colored troops overseas was that of teaching them to read and write, as large numbers were unable to sign the payroll. These men were drafted into the army often without regard to age or physical fitness. One man from Texas, upon delivering a company of men to a lieutenant whom he thought to be white, remarked that he had brought him a good bunch of Negroes, and had plenty more down there if he wanted them. ”

“ On every pleasant day our parades were witnessed by officers, soldiers and citizens from the North, and it was not uncommon to have two thousand spectators. Some came to make sport, some from curiosity, some because it was the fashion, and others from a genuine desire to see for themselves what sort of looking soldiers negroes would make.
"At the time that the work of organizing colored troops began in the West, there was a great deal of bitter prejudice against the movement, and white troops threatened to desert, if the plan should be really carried out. ”

“ It will play straight into the hands of men like Senator Vardaman who have been saying that it was dangerous to draft colored men into the army. And the feeling against having colored troops encamped in the South will be intensified. ”

“ 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. ”

“ To these troops we owe much for our splendid record in the World War. They summoned with superhuman strength the courage to overcome the galling and heart-breaking discriminations which they had known before they crossed the seas; the open and public discussion as to whether colored men should be allowed to fight; the tragedy of Houston, and the resulting discouragement at Des Moines;1 the impudence of the commanding officer at Camp Funston, and the pre-arranged and infamous plan to discredit colored officers on the battlefields ”

“ I can not commend too highly the spirit shown among the colored combat troops who exhibit fine capacity for quick training and eagerness for the most dangerous work.” When he visited any section of territory occupied by Americans, he always showed an interest in the Negro soldiers ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Bainbridge Colby.
[Telegram from American Ambassador at Paris, Jan. 29, 1921.]
The total number of troops in the French Army of occupation was 86,000 in December; 16,386 of this number were Moroccans and Algerians and 3,224 were Malgaches. The remainder were white. The figures for January are approximately the same.
Properly speaking, there are no black troops. The Moroccans and Algerians are Arabs of the Mussulman religion and are entirely distinct from the Negro race. The Malagaches are Malays from Madagascar. ”

“ General Grant set a high estimate upon his Negro troops, as some of his dispatches show, and President Lincoln said:
“By arming them we have added a powerful ally. They will make good soldiers, and taking them from the enemy weakens him in the same proportion as they strengthen us.” ”

“ Their ability, bravery and gentlemanly character, in the strictest sense, produced a happy effect upon the troop. When it is considered that in the face of threatenings of a merciless death by the Rebels, should the fortunes of war place them in their hands, and against a current of prejudice, extant almost everywhere, and the whispered doubts and fears even of friends to the cause, they assumed command of this troop in its experimental state, and led it on to victory; their high-toned and unselfish patriotism, in this respect, is only equaled by the bravery and gallantry of their services. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I was never sent away to schools or on special missions and was never on leave or in hospital but was on duty with fighting troops continuously.
I have mentioned these things to show you that I had had a large and varied experience under the new army organization and in the new methods of fighting that had developed during the Great War. It was just the sort of [15] training and experience to fit one for the hard and responsible task of commanding an infantry battalion in the front lines. I had been in direct command of both white and colored officers and men. I knew the colored enlisted man. ”