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.