FROM LEXINGTON TO CARRIZAL.
NEGRO IN WAR OF 1812--INCIDENT OF THE CHESAPEAKE--BATTLE OF LAKE
ERIE--PERRY'S FIGHTERS 10 PERCENT NEGROES--INCIDENT OF THE "GOVERNOR
TOMPKINS"--COLONISTS FORM NEGRO REGIMENTS--DEFENSE OF NEW
ORLEANS--ANDREW JACKSON'S TRIBUTE--NEGROES IN MEXICAN AND CIVIL WARS--IN
THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR--NEGROES IN THE PHILIPPINES--HEROES OF
CARRIZAL--GENERAL BUTLER'S TRIBUTE TO NEGROES--WENDELL PHILLIPS ON
TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE.
Prior to the actual war of 1812 and one of the most conspicuous causes
leading to it, was the attack on the Chesapeake, an American war vessel.
Here the Negro in the Navy figured in a most remarkable degree. The
vessel was hailed, fired upon and forced to strike her colors by the
British. She was boarded, searched and four persons taken from the crew
charged with desertion from the English navy. Three of these were
Negroes and one white. The charge against the Negroes could not have
been very strong, for they were dismissed, while the white man was
hanged.
The naval history of our second war with Great Britain is replete with
incidents concerning the participation of the Negro. Mackenzie's history
of the life of Commodore Perry states that at the famed battle of Lake
Erie, fully ten percent of the American crews were blacks. Perry spoke
highly of their bravery and good conduct. He said they seemed to be
absolutely insensible to danger. His fighters were a motley collection
of blacks, soldiers and boys. Nearly all had been afflicted with
sickness. Mackenzie says that when the defeated British commander was
brought aboard the "Niagara" and beheld the sickly and parti-colored
beings around him, an expression of chagrin escaped him at having been
conquered by such men.
The following extract is from a letter written by Commodore Nathaniel
Shaler of the armed schooner "Governor Tompkins", dated January 1, 1813.
Speaking of a fight with a British frigate, he said:
"The name of one of my poor fellows who was killed ought to be
registered in the book of fame and remembered with reverence as
long as bravery is considered a virtue. He was a black man by the
name of John Johnson. A twenty-four-pound shot struck him in the
hip and tore away all the lower part of his body. In this state the
poor brave fellow lay on the deck and several times exclaimed to
his shipmates: 'Fire away, boys; don't haul the colors down.'
Another black man by the name of John Davis was struck in much the
same way. He fell near me and several times requested to be thrown
overboard, saying he was only in the way of the others. When
America has such tars, she has little to fear from the tyrants of
the ocean."
With the history fresh in mind of the successful Negro insurrection in
St. Domingo, bringing out so conspicuous a military and administrative
genius as Toussaint L'Ouverture, it is not surprising that the services
of Negroes as soldiers were not only welcomed, but solicited by various
states during the War of 1812. Excepting the battle of New Orleans,
almost all the martial glory of the struggle was on the water. New York,
however, passed a special act of the legislature and organized two
regiments of Negro troops, while there was heavy recruiting in other
states.
When in 1814 New Orleans was in danger, the free colored people of
Louisiana were called into the field with the whites. General Andrew
Jackson's commendatory address read to his colored troops December 18,
1814, is one of the highest compliments ever paid by a commander to his
troops. He said:
"Soldiers!--when, on the banks of the Mobile, I called you to take
up arms, inviting you to partake of the perils and glory of your
white fellow-citizens, I expected much from you; for I was not
ignorant that you possessed qualities most formidable to an
invading enemy. I knew with what fortitude you could endure hunger
and thirst, and all the fatigues of a campaign. I knew well how you
loved your native country, and that you, as well as ourselves had
to defend what man holds most dear--his parents, wife, children and
property. You have done more than I expected. In addition to the
previous qualities I before knew you to possess, I found among you
a noble enthusiasm, which leads to the performance of great things.
"Soldiers! The President of the United States shall hear how
praiseworthy was your conduct in the hour of danger, and the
representatives of the American people will give you the praise
your exploits entitle you to. Your General anticipates them in
applauding your noble ardor."
Many incidents are on record of the gallantry of Negro soldiers and
servants also serving as soldiers, in the war with Mexico. Colonel Clay,
a son of Henry Clay, was accompanied into the thick of the battle of
Buena Vista, by his Negro servant. He remained by his side in the fatal
charge and saw Clay stricken from his horse. Although surrounded by the
murderous Mexicans he succeeded in carrying the mangled body of his
master from the field.
It has been stated and the evidence seems strong, that a Negro saved the
life of General Zachary Taylor at the battle of Monterey. The story is
that a Mexican was aiming a deadly blow at the General, when the Negro
sprang between them, slew the Mexican and received a deep wound from a
lance. The Negro was a slave at the time, but was afterwards emancipated
by President Taylor.
Upwards of 200,000 colored soldiers were regularly enlisted in the
Federal army and navy during the Civil war. President Lincoln
commissioned eight Negro surgeons for field and hospital duty. Losses
sustained by the Negro troops amounting to upwards of 37,000 men, are
shown to have been as heavy in proportion to the numbers engaged, as
those of the white forces.
The record of the Negro troops in the Civil war is one of uniform
excellence. Numerous official documents attest this fact, aside from the
spoken and written commendations of many high officers. Their bravery
was everywhere recognized; many distinguished themselves and several
attained to the rank of regularly commissioned officers. Conspicuous in
Negro annals of that time is the case of Charles E. Nash, afterwards a
member of congress. He received a primary education in the schools of
New Orleans, but had educated himself largely by his own efforts. In
1863 he enlisted in the 83rd regiment, United States Chasseurs d'Afrique
and became acting sergeant-major of that command. At the storming of
Fort Blakely he lost a leg and was honorably discharged.
Another, William Hannibal Thomas, afterwards became prominent as an
author, teacher, lawyer and legislator. His best known book was
entitled, "The American Negro: What he was, what he is, and what he may
become." He served as a soldier during the Civil War and lost an arm in
the service.
The exploit of Robert Smalls was so brilliant that no amount of
unfairness or prejudice has been able to shadow it. It is well known to
all students of the War of the Rebellion and is recorded in the
imperishable pages of history.
Smalls was born a slave at Beaufort, South Carolina, but managed to
secure some education. Having led a sea-faring life to some extent, the
early part of the war found him employed as pilot of the Rebel transport
Planter. He was thoroughly familiar with the harbors and inlets of the
South Atlantic coast. On May 31, 1862, the Planter was in Charleston
harbor. All the white officers and crew went ashore, leaving on board a
colored crew of eight men in charge of Smalls. He summoned aboard his
wife and three children and at 2 o'clock in the morning steamed out of
the harbor, passed the Confederate forts by giving the proper signals,
and when fairly out of reach, ran up the Stars and Stripes and headed a
course for the Union fleet, into whose hands he soon surrendered the
ship. He was appointed a pilot in the United States navy and served as
such on the monitor Keokuk in the attack on Fort Sumter; was promoted to
captain for gallant and meritorious conduct, December 1, 1863, and
placed in command of the Planter, a position which he held until the
vessel was taken out of commission in 1866. He was a member of the South
Carolina Constitutional Convention, 1868; elected same year to the
legislature, to the state senate 1870 and 1872, and was a member of the
Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth Congresses.
Among the most inspiring pages of Civil War history written by the
Negro, were the campaigns of Port Hudson, Louisiana; Fort Wagner, South
Carolina and Fort Pillow, Kentucky. Negro troops participated in the
siege of the former place by the Federal forces under General Banks,
which began in May 1863, and ended in the surrender of the fort July 8,
1863. Fort Wagner was one of the defenses of Charleston. It was reduced
by General Gilmore, September 6,1863 and Negro troops contributed in a
glorious and heroic manner to the result. Fort Pillow had been taken by
the Federals and was garrisoned by a Negro regiment and a detachment of
cavalry. It was recaptured April 12, 1864 by the Confederates under
General Forrest. Practically the entire garrison was massacred, an act
that will stain forever the name of Forrest, and the cause for which he
struggled.
By the close of the Civil war, the value and fitness of the Negro as a
soldier had been so completely demonstrated that the government decided
to enlarge the Regular army and form fifty percent of the increase from
colored men. In 1866 eight new infantry regiments were authorized of
which four were to be Negroes and four new cavalry regiments of which
two were to be Negroes. The Negro infantry regiments were numbered the
38th 39th, 40th and 41st. The cavalry regiments were known as the 9th
and 10th.
In 1869 there was a general reduction in the infantry forces of the
Regular army and the 38th and 41st were consolidated into one regiment
numbered the 24th and the 39th and 40th into one regiment numbered the
25th. The strength and numerical titles of the cavalry were not changed.
For over forty years the colored American was represented in our Regular
Army by those four regiments. They have borne more than their
proportionate share of hard service, including many Indian campaigns.
The men have conducted themselves so worthily as to call forth the best
praise of the highest military authorities. General Miles and General
Merritt, actively identified with the Indian wars, were unstinting in
their commendation of the valor and skill of Negro fighters.
Between 1869 and 1889, three colored men were regularly graduated and
commissioned from the United States military academy at West Point and
served in the Regular Army as officers. They were John H. Alexander,
Charles Young and H.O. Flipper. The latter was dismissed. All served in
the cavalry. Alexander died shortly before the Spanish-American war and
up to the time of his demise, enjoyed the confidence and esteem of his
associates, white and black. Young became major in the volunteer service
during the Spanish-American war and was placed in command of the Ninth
Battalion of Ohio volunteers. After the Spanish-American war he returned
to the Regular Army with a reduced rank, but ultimately became a Major
in that service. Upon America's entry into the European war he was
elevated to the rank of Colonel.
At the breaking out of the Spanish-American war in 1898, Negro military
organizations existed principally in the Regular Army. These were soon
filled to their maximum strength and the desire of Negroes north and
south to enlist, seemed likely to meet with disappointment. Congress, to
meet the insistence of colored men for service, authorized the raising
of ten Negro volunteer regiments of "immunes"--men who had lived in
sections where the yellow fever and other malignant or malarial
visitations had occurred, and who had suffered from them or shown
evidences that they in all probability would be immune from the
diseases. The plan to place white men in all commands above the grade of
second lieutenant, prevented Negroes from enlisting as they otherwise
would have done. Four immune regiments were organized--the 7th, 8th, 9th
and 10th.
Several of the states appreciating the value of the Negro as a soldier
and in response to his intense desire to enlist, placed volunteer Negro
organizations at the disposal of the government. There were the Third
Alabama and Sixth Virginia Infantry; Eighth Illinois Infantry; Companies
A and B Indiana Infantry; Thirty-third Kansas Infantry, and a battalion
of the Ninth Ohio Infantry. The Eighth Illinois was officered by colored
men throughout. J.R. Marshall its first colonel commanded the regiment
during the Spanish-American war and did garrison duty in Santiago
province for some time after the war; being for a while military
governor of San Luis.
Gov. Russell of North Carolina, called out a Negro regiment, the Third
Infantry, officered by colored men throughout. Colonel Charles Young
commanding. It was not mustered into the service.
Company L. Sixth Massachusetts Infantry, was a Negro company serving in
a white regiment. John L. Waller, deceased, a Negro formerly United
States Consul to Madagascar, was a captain in the Kansas regiment.
About one hundred Negro second-lieutenants were commissioned in the
volunteer force during the Spanish-American war. There was a Negro
paymaster, Major John R. Lynch of Mississippi, and two Negro chaplains,
the Rev. C.T. Walker of Georgia and the Rev. Richard Carroll of South
Carolina.
Owing to the briefness of the campaign in Cuba, most of the service of
Negro troops devolved upon the Regulars who were fit and ready. But all
troops were at mobilization or training bases and willing and anxious to
serve. No pages in the history of this country are more replete with the
record of good fighting, military efficiency and soldierly conduct, than
those recording the story of Negro troops in Cuba. Colonel Roosevelt
said that the conduct of the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry reflected honor
upon the whole American people, especially on their own race. He could
hardly say otherwise in view of the splendid support given by those two
regiments that--such is, and will continue to be the verdict of history,
saved him and his "Rough Riders" from annihilation at San Juan Hill.
Cuba, in her struggles for freedom, had among her own people two
splendid Negro leaders, Antonio and Jose Maceo.
Following the Cuban campaign, Negro troops saw distinguished service in
the Philippine Islands uprisings. They have from time to time since
garrisoned and preserved order in those possessions. A very limited
number of Negro officers have been attached to their racial contingents
in the Philippines, and there will be found but a few of competent
military authority in this country, who will deny that educated,
intelligent and qualified Negroes, are fitted for positions of
leadership and command.
The Negro of this country is primarily and essentially concerned with
the destiny and problems of his race. His work encouraged as it must be,
by the laws and spirit of the age, will determine his future and mark
the commencement of the elimination of the shameful prejudice against
him in the land, for which, from Lexington to the bloody trenches of
France, he has given of his blood to preserve.
Before leaving the subject of the Negro in previous wars, it is highly
fitting to review the heroic incident of June 21, 1916, at Carrizal,
Mexico. Here is a tale of daring that to duplicate, would tax the
imagination of war fiction writers, and among incidents of fact will
range along with the Texans' defense of the Alamo, where men fought and
perished against great odds.
The occasion was the celebrated expedition conducted by General J.J.
Pershing into Mexico in pursuit of the bandit leader Villa. A picked
detachment consisting of portions of Troops C and K of the colored Tenth
Cavalry, was dispatched from Pershing's main force towards the town of
Villa Ahumada. The force was commanded by Captain Charles T. Boyd of
Troop C and Captain Lewis Morey of Troop K. Lieutenant Adair was second
in command in Troop C to Captain Boyd. Including officers and civilian
scouts, the force numbered about 80 men.
Early on the morning of June 21, the detachment wishing to pass through
the garrisoned town of Carrizal, sought the permission of the Mexican
commander. Amidst a show of force, the officers were invited into the
town by the commander, ostensibly for a parley. Fearing a trap they
refused the invitation and invited the Mexicans to a parley outside the
town. The Mexican commander came out with his entire force and began to
dispose them in positions which were very threatening to the Americans.
Captain Boyd informed the Mexican that his orders were to proceed
eastward to Ahumada and protested against the menacing position of the
Mexican forces. The Mexican replied that his orders were to prevent the
Americans from proceeding in any direction excepting northward, the
direction from which they had just come.
Captain Boyd refused to retreat, but ordered his men not to fire until
they were attacked. The Mexican commander retired to the flank and
almost immediately opened with machine gun fire from a concealed trench.
This was quickly followed by rifle fire from the remainder of the force.
The Mexicans outnumbered the troopers nearly two to one and their most
effective force was intrenched. The Americans were on a flat plain,
unprotected by anything larger than bunches of cactus or sage brush.
They dismounted, laid flat on the ground and responded to the attack as
best they could. The horses were mostly stampeded by the early firing.
The spray of lead from the machine gun had become so galling that
Captain Boyd decided to charge the position. Not a man wavered in the
charge. They took the gun, the Captain falling dead across the barrel of
it just as the last Mexican was killed or put to flight. Lieutenant
Adair was also killed. The Mexicans returned in force and recaptured the
position.
Captain Morey had been concerned in warding off a flank attack. His men
fought no less bravely than the others. They finally were driven to seek
refuge in an adobe house, that is; all who were able to reach it. Here
they kept the Mexicans at bay for hours firing through windows and holes
in the walls. Captain Morey seriously wounded, with a few of his
survivors, finally escaped from the house and hid for nearly two days in
a hole. The soldiers refused to leave their officer. When they finally
were able to leave their place of concealment, the several that were
left assisted their Captain on the road towards the main force. Arriving
at a point where reinforcements could be summoned, the Captain wrote a
report to his commander and sent his men to headquarters with it. They
arrived in record time and a party was sent out, reaching the wounded
officer in time to save his life.
About half of the American force was wiped out and most of the others
were taken prisoners. They inflicted a much heavier loss on the
Mexicans. Among the killed was the Mexican commander who had ordered the
treacherous attack.
It may be that "someone had blundered." This was not the concern of the
black troopers; in the face of odds they fought by the cactus and lay
dead under the Mexican stars.
In closing this outline of the Negro's participation in former wars, it
is highly appropriate to quote the tributes of two eminent men. One,
General Benjamin F. Butler, a conspicuous military leader on the Union
side in the Civil War, and Wendell Phillips, considered by many the
greatest orator America ever produced, and who devoted his life to the
abolition movement looking to the freedom of the slave in the United
States. Said General Butler on the occasion of the debate in the
National House of Representatives on the Civil Rights bill; ten years
after the bloody battle of New Market Heights; speaking to the bill, and
referring to the gallantry of the black soldiers on that field of
strife:
"It became my painful duty to follow in the track of that charging
column, and there, in a space not wider than the clerk's desk and
three hundred yards long, lay the dead bodies of 543 of my colored
comrades, fallen in defense of their country, who had offered their
lives to uphold its flag and its honor, as a willing sacrifice; and
as I rode along among them, guiding my horse this way and that way,
lest he should profane with his hoofs what seemed to me the sacred
dead, and as I looked on their bronzed faces upturned in the
shining sun, as if in mute appeal against the wrongs of the country
whose flag had only been to them a flag of stripes, on which no
star of glory had ever shone for them--feeling I had wronged them
in the past and believing what was the future of my country to
them--among my dead comrades there I swore to myself a solemn oath,
'May my right hand forget its cunning and my tongue cleave to the
roof of my mouth, if I ever fail to defend the rights of those men
who have given their blood for me and my country this day, and for
their race forever,' and, God helping me, I will keep that oath."
Mr. Phillips in his great oration on Toussaint L'Ouverture, the Black of
St. Domingo; statesman, warrior and LIBEEATOR,--delivered in New York
City, March 11, 1863, said among other things, a constellation of
linguistic brilliants not surpassed since the impassioned appeals of
Cicero swept the Roman Senate to its feet, or Demosthenes fired his
listeners with the flame of his matchless eloquence;
"You remember that Macaulay says, comparing Cromwell with Napoleon,
that Cromwell showed the greater military genius, if we consider
that he never saw an army till he was forty; while Napoleon was
educated from a boy in the best military schools in Europe.
Cromwell manufactured his own army; Napoleon at the age of
twenty-seven was placed at the head of the best troops Europe ever
saw. They were both successful; but, says Macaulay, with such
disadvantages, the Englishman showed the greater genius. Whether
you allow the inference or not, you will at least grant that it is
a fair mode of measurement.
"Apply it to Toussaint. Cromwell never saw an army until he was
forty; this man never saw a soldier till he was fifty. Cromwell
manufactured his own army--out of what? Englishmen--the best blood
in Europe. Out of the middle class of Englishmen, the best blood of
the island. And with it he conquered what? Englishmen--their
equals. This man manufactured his army out of what? Out of what you
call the despicable race of Negroes, debased, demoralized by two
hundred years of slavery, 100,000 of them imported into the island
within four years, unable to speak a dialect intelligible even to
each other. Yet out of this mixed, and, as you say, despicable
mass, he forged a thunderbolt, and hurled it at what? At the
proudest blood in Europe, the Spaniard, and sent him home
conquered; at the most warlike blood in Europe, the French, and put
them under his feet; at the pluckiest blood in Europe, the English,
and they skulked home to Jamaica."
The world is acquainted with the treacherous infamy inspired by the
great Napoleon, that inveigled the Black Chieftain and liberator of his
people on shipboard, the voyage to France, and his subsequent
death--STARVED!--in the dungeon of the prison castle of St. Joux.
Whittier, the poet evangelist, whose inspired verse contributed much to
the crystallization of the sentiment and spirit that finally doomed
African slavery in America, thus referred to the heartless tragedy and
the splendid Black who was its victim:
"Sleep calmy in thy dungeon-tomb,
Beneath Besancon's alien sky,
Dark Haytien!--for the time shall come,
Yea, even now is nigh--
When, everywhere, thy name shall be
Redeemed from color's infamy;
And men shall learn to speak of thee,
As one of earth's great spirits, born
In servitude, and nursed in scorn,
Casting aside the weary weight
And fetters of its low estate,
In that strong majesty of soul,
Which knows no color, tongue or clime,
Which still hath spurned the base control
Of tyrants through all time!"