CHAPTER X

Resume--Why the American Government Does not Protect its Colored

Citizens-States Rights--Mobocracy Supreme--The Solution of the Negro

Problem is Mainly in the Race's Own Hands--The South a Good Place for

the Negro, Provided he can be Protected.

CHAPTER I.

THE CAUSE OF THE WAR WITH SPAIN.

Many causes led up to the Spanish-American war. Cuba had been in

a state of turmoil for a long time, and the continual reports of

outrages on the people of the island by Spain greatly aroused the

Americans. The "ten years war" had terminated, leaving the island much

embarrassed in its material interests, and woefully scandalized by the

methods of procedure adopted by Spain and principally carried out

by Generals Campos and Weyler, the latter of whom was called the

"butcher" on account of his alleged cruelty in attempting to suppress

the former insurrection. There was no doubt much to complain of under

his administration, for which the General himself was not personally

responsible. He boasted that he only had three individuals put to

death, and that in each of these cases he was highly justified by

martial law.

FINALLY THE ATTENTION OF THE UNITED STATES was forcibly attracted to

Cuba by the Virginius affair, which consisted in the wanton murder of

fifty American sailors--officers and crew of the Virginius, which was

captured by the Spanish off Santiago bay, bearing arms and ammunition

to the insurgents--Captain Fry, a West Point graduate, in command.

Spain would, no doubt, have received a genuine American thrashing on

this occasion had she not been a republic at that time, and President

Grant and others thought it unwise to crush out her republican

principles, which then seemed just budding into existence.

The horrors of this incident, however, were not out of the minds of

the American people when the new insurrection of 1895 broke out. At

once, as if by an electric flash, the sympathy of the American people

was enlisted with the Insurgents who were (as the Americans believed)

fighting Spain for their _liberty_. Public opinion was on the

Insurgents' side and against Spain from the beginning. This feeling of

sympathy for the fighting Cubans knew no North nor South; and strange

as it may seem the Southerner who quails before the mob spirit that

disfranchises, ostracises and lynches an American Negro who seeks his

liberty at home, became a loud champion of the Insurgent cause in

Cuba, which was, in fact, the cause of Cuban Negroes and mulattoes.

GENERAL FITZHUGH LEE, of Virginia, possibly the most noted Southerner

of the day, was sent by President Cleveland to Havana as Consul

General, and seemed proud of the honor of representing his government

there, judging from his reports of the Insurgents, which were

favorable. General Lee was retained at his post by President McKinley

until it became necessary to recall him, thus having the high honor

paid him of not being changed by the new McKinley administration,

which differed from him in politics; and as evidence of General

Fitzhugh Lee's sympathy with the Cubans it may be cited that he sent

word to the Spanish Commander (Blanco) on leaving Havana that he would

return to the island again and when he came he "would bring the stars

and stripes in front of him."

BELLIGERENT RIGHTS TO THE INSURGENTS OR NEUTRALITY became the topic of

discussion during the close of President Cleveland's administration.

The President took the ground that the Insurgents though deserving of

proper sympathy, and such aid for humanity's sake as could be given

them, yet they had not established on any part of the island such a

form of government as could be recognized at Washington, and accorded

belligerent rights or rights of a nation at war with another nation;

that the laws of neutrality should be strictly enforced, and America

should keep "hands off" and let Spain and the Insurgents settle their

own differences.

[Illustration: GENERAL FITZHUGH LEE.]

MUCH MONEY AND TIME was expended by the United States government in

maintaining this neutral position. Fillibustering expeditions were

constantly being fitted up in America with arms and ammunition for the

Cuban patriots. As a neutral power it became the duty of the American

government to suppress fillibustering, but it was both an unpleasant

and an expensive duty, and one in which the people had little or no

sympathy.

SPAIN TRIES TO APPEASE public sentiment in America by recalling

Marshal Campos, who was considered unequal to the task of defeating

the Insurgents, because of reputed inaction. The flower of the Spanish

army was poured into Cuba by the tens of thousands--estimated, all

told, at three hundred thousand when the crisis between America and

Spain was reached.

WEYLER THE "BUTCHER," was put in command and inaugurated the policy of

establishing military zones inside of the Spanish lines, into which

the unarmed farmers, merchants, women and children were driven,

penniless; and being without any visible means of subsistence were

left to perish from hunger and disease. (The condition of these people

greatly excited American sympathy with the Insurgents.) General Weyler

hoped thus to weaken the Insurgents who received considerable of

supplies from this class of the population, either by consent or

force. Weyler's policy in reference to the reconcentrados (as these

non-combatant people were called) rather increased than lessened

the grievance as was natural to suppose, in view of the misery and

suffering it entailed on a class of people who most of all were not

the appropriate subjects for his persecution, and sentiment became so

strong in the United States against this policy (especially in view of

the fact that General Weyler had promised to end the "Insurrection" in

three months after he took command) that in FEBRUARY, 1896, the United

States Congress took up the discussion of the matter. Several Senators

and Congressmen returned from visits to the island pending this

discussion, in which they took an active and effective part, depicting

a most shocking and revolting situation in Cuba, for which Spain

was considered responsible; and on April 6th following this joint

resolution was adopted by Congress:

"_Be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the

United States of America_, that in the opinion of Congress a public

war exists between the Government of Spain and the Government

proclaimed and for some time maintained by force of arms by the people

of Cuba; and that the United States of America should maintain a

strict neutrality between the contending powers, according to each all

the rights of belligerents in the ports and territory of the United

States."

"_Resolved further_, that the friendly offices of the United States

should be offered by the President to the Spanish government for the

recognition of the independence of Cuba."

THE INSURGENTS gained by this resolution an important point. It

dignified their so-called insurrection into an organized army, with a

government at its back which was so recognized and treated with. They

could buy and sell in American ports.

[Illustration: GENERAL ANTONIO MACEO.]

GENERAL ANTONIO MACEO about this time was doing great havoc along the

Spanish lines. He darted from place to place, back and forth across

the supposed impassable line of Spanish fortifications stretching

north and south across the island some distance from Havana, and known

as the _trocha_. Thousands of Spaniards fell as the result of his

daring and finesse in military execution. His deeds became known in

America, and though a man of Negro descent, with dark skin and crisp

hair, his fame was heralded far and wide in the American newspapers.

At a public gathering in New York, where his picture was exhibited,

the audience went wild with applause--the waving of handkerchiefs and

the wild hurrahs were long and continued. The career of this hero was

suddenly terminated by death, due to the treachery of his physician

Zertucha, who, under the guise of a proposed treaty of peace, induced

him to meet a company of Spanish officers, at which meeting, according

to a pre-arranged plot, a mob of Spanish infantry rushed in on General

Maceo and shot him down unarmed. It is said that his friends recovered

his body and buried it in a secret place unknown to the Spaniards, who

were anxious to obtain it for exhibition as a trophy of war in Havana.

Maceo was equal to Toussaint L'Overture of San Domingo. His public

life was consecrated to liberty; he knew no vice nor mean action; he

would not permit any around him. When he landed in Cuba from Porto

Rico he was told there were no arms. He replied, "I will get them with

my machete," and he left five thousand to the Cubans, conquered by his

arm. Every time the Spanish attacked him they were beaten and left

thousands of arms and much ammunition in his possession. He was born

in Santiago de Cuba July 14, 1848.

THE SPIRIT OF THE INSURGENTS did not break with General Maceo's death.

Others rose up to fill his place, the women even taking arms in the

defence of home and liberty. "At first no one believed, who had not

seen them, that there were women in the Cuban army; but there is no

doubt about it. They are not all miscalled amazons, for they are

warlike women and do not shun fighting. The difficulty in employing

them being that they are insanely brave. When they ride into battle

they become exalted and are dangerous creatures. Those who first

joined the forces on the field were the wives of men belonging in the

army, and their purpose was rather to be protected than to become

heroines and avengers. It shows the state of the island, that the

women found the army the safest place for them. With the men saved

from the plantations and the murderous bandits infesting the roads and

committing every lamentable outrage upon the helpless, some of the

high spirited Cuban women followed their husbands, and the example has

been followed, and some, instead of consenting to be protected, have

taken up the fashion of fighting."--_Murat Halsted_.

JOSE MACEO, brother of Antonio, was also a troublesome character to

the Spaniards, who were constantly being set upon by him and his men.

WEYLER'S POLICY AND THE BRAVE STRUGGLE of the people both appealed

very strongly for American sympathy with the Insurgent cause. The

American people were indignant at Weyler and were inspired by the

conduct of the Insurgents. Public sentiment grew stronger with every

fresh report of an Insurgent victory, or a Weyler persecution.

MISS EVANGELINA COSIO Y CISNERO'S RESCUE helped to arouse sentiment.

This young and beautiful girl of aristocratic Cuban parentage alleged

that a Spanish officer had, on the occasion of a _raid_ made on her

home, in which her father was captured and imprisoned as a Cuban

sympathizer, proposed her release on certain illicit conditions,

and on her refusal she was incarcerated with her aged father in the

renowned but filthy and dreaded Morro Castle at Havana.

[Illustration: MISS EVANGELINA COSIO Y CISNEROS.]

_Appeal after appeal_ by large numbers of the most prominent women in

America was made to General Weyler, and even to the Queen Regent of

Spain, for her release, but without avail, when finally the news was

flashed to America that she had escaped. This proved to be true--her

release being effected by Carl Decker, a reporter on the New York

Journal--a most daring fete. Miss Cisneros was brought to America and

became the greatest sensation of the day. Her beauty, her affection

for her aged father, her innocence, and the thrilling events of her

rescue, made her the public idol, and gave _Cuba libre_ a new impetus

in American sympathy.

SPAIN AND HAVANA felt the touch of these ever spreading waves

of public sentiment, and began to resent them. At Havana public

demonstrations were made against America. The life of Consul General

Lee was threatened. The Spanish Minister at Washington, Señor de Lome,

was exposed for having written to a friend a most insulting letter,

describing President McKinley as a low politician and a weakling.

For this he was recalled by Spain at the request of the American

government.

Protection to American citizens and property in Havana became

necessary, and accordingly the BATTLE SHIP MAINE was sent there for

this purpose, the United States government disclaiming any other

motives save those of protection to Americans and their interests.

The Maine was, to all outward appearances, friendly received by the

Spaniards at Havana by the usual salutes and courtesies of the

navy, and was anchored at a point in the bay near a certain buoy

_designated_ by the Spanish Commander. This was on January 25, 1898,

and on February 15th this noble vessel was blown to pieces, and 266

of its crew perished--two colored men being in the number. This event

added fuel to the already burning fire of American feeling against

Spain. Public sentiment urged an immediate declaration of war.

President McKinley counseled moderation. Captain Siggsbee, who

survived the wreck of the Maine, published an open address in which

he advised that adverse criticism be delayed until an official

investigation could be made of the affair.

The official investigation was had by a Court of Inquiry, composed of

Captain W.T. Sampson of the Iowa, Captain F.C. Chadwick of the

New York, Lieutenant-Commander W.P. Potter of the New York, and

Lieutenant-Commander Adolph Marix of the Vermont, appointed by the

President. Divers were employed; many witnesses were examined, and the

court, by a unanimous decision, rendered March 21, 1898, after a four

weeks session, reported as follows: "That the loss of the Maine was

not in any respect due to the fault or negligence on the part of any

of the officers or members of her crew; that the ship was destroyed by

the explosion of a submarine mine which caused the partial explosion

of two or more of her forward magazines; and that no evidence has been

obtainable fixing the responsibility for the destruction of the Maine

upon any person or persons."

Responsibility in this report is not fixed on any "person or persons."

It reads something like the usual verdict of a coroner's jury after

investigating the death of some colored man who has been lynched,--"he

came to his death by the hands of parties unknown." This report on

the Maine's destruction, _unlike_ the usual coroner's jury verdict,

however, in one respect, was not accepted by the people who claimed

that Spain was responsible, either directly or indirectly, for the

explosion, and the public still clamored for war to avenge the

outrage.

[Illustration: U.S.S. MAINE]

CONGRESS ALSO CATCHES the war fever and appropriated $50,000,000 "for

the national defence" by a unanimous vote of both houses. The war and

navy departments became very active; agents were sent abroad to buy

war ships, but the President still hesitated to state his position

until he had succeeded in getting the American Consuls out of Cuba who

were in danger from the Spaniards there. Consul Hyatt embarked from

Santiago April 3, and Consul General Lee, who was delayed in getting

off American refugees, left on April 10, and on that day the PRESIDENT

SENT HIS MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. He pictured the deplorable condition of

the people of Cuba, due to General Weyler's policy; he recommended

that the Insurgent government be not recognized, as such recognition

might involve this government in "embarrassing international

complications," but referred the whole subject to Congress for action.

CONGRESS DECLARES WAR ON APRIL 13 by a joint resolution of the

Foreign Affairs Committee of both houses, which was adopted, after a

conference of the two committees, April 18, in the following form:

Whereas, the abhorrent conditions which have existed for more than

three years in the island of Cuba, so near our own borders, have

shocked the moral sense of the people of the United States, have been

a disgrace to Christian civilization, culminating as they have in the

destruction of a United States battle ship, with 266 of its officers

and crew, while on a friendly visit in the harbor of Havana, and

cannot longer be endured, as has been set forth by the President of

the United States in his message to Congress of April 11, 1898, upon

which the action of Congress was invited: therefore,

_Resolved_, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United

States of America in Congress assembled--

First, that the people of the island of Cuba are, and of right ought

to be, free and independent.

Second, that it is the duty of the United States to demand, and

the government of the United States does hereby demand, that the

government of Spain at once relinquish its authority and government in

the island of Cuba, and withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba

and Cuban waters.

Third, that the President of the United States be, and he hereby is,

directed and empowered to use the entire land and naval forces of

the United States, and to call into the actual service of the United

States the militia of the several states to such extent as may be

necessary to carry these resolutions into effect.

Fourth, that the United States hereby disclaims any disposition or

intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction or control over

said island, except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its

determination when that is completed to leave the government and

control of the island to its people.

THE PRESIDENT SIGNED THIS RESOLUTION at 11:24 A.M. on the 20th of

April, 1898. The Spanish Minister, Señor Luis Polo y Bernarbe, was

served with a copy, upon which he asked for his passports, and

"immediately left Washington."

"This is a picture of Edward Savoy, who accomplished one of the most

signal diplomatic triumphs in connection with recent relations

with Spain. It was he who outwitted the whole Spanish Legation and

delivered the ultimatum to Minister Polo."

"Edward Savoy has been a messenger in the Department of State for

nearly thirty years. He was appointed by Hamilton Fish in 1869, and

held in high esteem by James G. Blaine."

"He was a short, squat, colored man, with a highly intelligent face,

hair slightly tinged with gray and an air of alertness which makes him

stand out in sharp contrast with the other messengers whom one meets

in the halls of the big building."

[Illustration: EDDIE SAVOY.]

"Of all the men under whom 'Eddie,' as he is universally called, has

served he has become most attached to Judge Day, whom he says is the

finest man he ever saw."

"Minister Polo was determined not to receive the ultimatum. He was

confident he would receive a private tip from the White House, which

would enable him to demand his passports before the ultimatum was

served upon him. Then he could refuse to receive it, saying that

he was no longer Minister. It will be remembered that Spain handed

Minister Woodford his passports before the American representative

could present the ultimatum to the Spanish Government."

"Judge Day's training as a country lawyer stood him in good stead. He

had learned the value of being the first to get in an attachment."

"The ultimatum was placed in a large, square envelope, that might have

contained an invitation to dinner. It was natural that it should be

given to 'Eddie' Savoy. He had gained the sobriquet of the nation's

'bouncer,' from the fact that he had handed Lord Sackville-West and

Minister De Lome their passports."

"It was 11:30 o'clock on Wednesday morning when 'Eddie' Savoy pushed

the electric button at the front door of the Spanish Legation, in

Massachusetts avenue. The old Spanish soldier who acted as doorkeeper

responded."

"'Have something here for the Minister,' said Eddie."

"The porter looked at him suspiciously, but he permitted the messenger

to pass into the vestibule, which is perhaps six feet square. Beyond

the vestibule is a passage that leads to the large central hall. The

Minister stood in the hall. In one hand he held an envelope. It was

addressed to the Secretary of State. It contained a request for the

passports of the Minister and his suite. Señor Polo had personally

brought the document from the chancellory above."

"When the porter presented the letter just brought by the Department

of State's messenger, Señor Polo grasped it in his quick, nervous

way. He opened the envelope and realized instantly that he had been

outwitted. A cynical smile passed over the Minister's face as he

handed his request for passports to 'Eddie,' who bowed and smiled on

the Minister."

"Señor Polo stepped back into the hall and started to read the

ultimatum carefully. But he stopped and turned his head toward the

door."

"'This is indeed Jeffersonian simplicity,' he said."

"'Eddie' Savoy felt very badly over the incident, because he had

learned to like Minister Polo personally."

"'He was so pleasant that I felt like asking him to stay a little

longer,' said 'Eddie,' 'but I didn't, for that wouldn't have been

diplomatic. When you have been in this department twenty-five or

thirty years you learn never to say what you want to say and never to

speak unless you think twice.'"

"Wherefore it will be seen that 'Eddie' Savoy has mastered the first

principles of diplomacy."--_N.Y. World._

A COPY OF THE RESOLUTION BY CONGRESS was also cabled to Minister

Woodford, at Madrid, to be officially transmitted to the Spanish

Government, fixing the 23d as the limit for its reply, but the Spanish

Minister of Foreign Affairs had already learned of the action of

Congress, and did not permit Minister Woodford to ask for his

passports, but sent them to him on the evening of the 21st, and this

was the formal beginning of the war.

[Illustration: JOSE MACEO.]

A FATAL STEP WAS THIS FOR SPAIN, who evidently, as her newspapers

declared, did not think the "American pigs" would fight. She was

unaware of the temper of the people, who seemed to those who knew the

facts, actually thirsting for Spanish blood--a feeling due more

or less to thirty years of peace, in which the nation had become

restless, and to the fact also that America had some new boats, fine

specimens of workmanship, which had been at target practice for a long

time and now yearned for the reality, like the boy who has a gun and

wants to try it on the real game. The proof of the superiority of

American gunnery was demonstrated in every naval battle. The accurate

aim of Dewey's gunners at Manilla, and Sampson and Schley's at

Santiago, was nothing less than wonderful. No less wonderful,

however, was the accuracy of the Americans than the inaccuracy of the

Spaniards, who seemed almost unable to hit anything.

WHILE ACCREDITING THE AMERICAN NAVY with its full share of praise for

its wonderful accomplishments, let us remember that there is scarcely

a boat in the navy flying the American flag but what has a number of

COLORED SAILORS on it, who, along with others, help to make up its

greatness and superiority.

CHAPTER II.

THE BEGINNING OF HOSTILITIES.

A COLORED HERO IN THE NAVY.

History records the Negro as the first man to fall in three wars of

America--Crispus Attacks in the Boston massacre, March 5, 1770; an

unknown Negro in Baltimore when the Federal troops were mobbed in

that city _en route_ to the front, and Elijah B. Tunnell, of Accomac

county, Virginia, who fell simultaneously with or a second before

Ensign Bagley, of the torpedo boat _Winslow_, in the harbor of

Cardenas May 11, 1898, in the Spanish-American war.

Elijah B. Tunnell was employed as cabin cook on the _Winslow_. The

boat, under a severe fire from masked batteries of the Spanish on

shore, was disabled. The Wilmington came to her rescue, the enemy

meanwhile still pouring on a heavy fire. It was difficult to get the

"line" fastened so that the _Winslow_ could be towed off out of range

of the Spanish guns. Realizing the danger the boat and crew were in,

and anxious to be of service, Tunnell left his regular work and went

on deck to assist in "making fast" the two boats, and while thus

engaged a shell came, which, bursting over the group of workers,

killed him and three others. It has been stated in newspaper reports

of this incident that it was an ill-aimed shell of one of the American

boats that killed Tunnell and Bagley. Tunnell was taken on board the

Wilmington with both legs blown off, and fearfully mutilated. Turning

to those about him he asked, "Did we win in the fight boys?" The reply

was, "Yes."

He said, "Then I die happy." While others fell at the post of duty it

may be said of this brave Negro that he fell while doing _more_ than

his duty. He might have kept out of harm's way if he had desired, but

seeing the situation he rushed forward to relieve it as best he could,

and died a "volunteer" in service, doing what others ought to have

done. All honor to the memory of Elijah B. Tunnell, who, if not

the first, certainly simultaneous with the first, martyr of the

Spanish-American war. While our white fellow-citizens justly herald

the fame of Ensign Bagley, who was known to the author from his youth,

let our colored patriots proclaim the heroism of Tunnell of Accomac.

While not ranking as an official in the navy, yet he was brave, he was

faithful and we may inscribe over his grave that "he died doing what

he could for his country."

War between the United States and Spain began April 21, 1898. Actual

hostilities ended August 12, 1898, by the signing of the protocol by

the Secretary of State of the United States for the United States and

M. Cambon, the French Ambassador at Washington, acting for Spain.

The war lasted 114 days. The Americans were victorious in every

regular engagement. In the three-days battle around Santiago, the

Americans lost 22 officers and 208 men killed, and 81 officers and

1,203 men wounded, and 79 missing. The Spanish loss as best estimated

was near 1,600 officers and men killed and wounded.

Santiago was surrendered July 17, 1898, with something over 22,000

troops.

General Shatter estimates in his report the American forces as

numbering 16,072 with 815 officers.

CHAPTER III.

SERGEANT-MAJOR PULLEN OF THE 25TH INFANTRY DESCRIBES THE CONDUCT OF

THE NEGRO SOLDIERS AROUND EL CANEY.

THE TWENTY-FIFTH U.S. INFANTRY--ITS STATION BEFORE THE SPANISH

AMERICAN WAR AND TRIP TO TAMPA, FLORIDA--THE PART IT TOOK IN THE FIGHT

AT EL CANEY.

When our magnificent battleship Maine was sunk in Havana harbor,

February 15, 1898, the 25th U.S. Infantry was scattered in western

Montana, doing garrison duty, with headquarters at Fort Missoula. This

regiment had been stationed in the West since 1880, when it came up

from Texas where it had been from its consolidation in 1869, fighting

Indians, building roads, etc., for the pioneers of that state and New

Mexico. In consequence of the regiment's constant frontier service,

very little was known of it outside of army circles. As a matter of

course it was known that it was a colored regiment, but its praises

had never been sung.

Strange to say, although the record of this regiment was equal to any

in the service, it had always occupied remote stations, except a

short period, from about May, 1880, to about August, 1885, when

headquarters, band and a few companies were stationed at Fort

Snelling, near St. Paul, Minnesota.

[Illustration: SERGEANT FRANK W. PULLEN, Who was in the Charge on El

Caney, as a member of the Twenty-fifth U.S. Infantry.]

Since the days of reconstruction, when a great part of the country

(the South especially) saw the regular soldier in a low state of

discipline, and when the possession of a sound physique was the only

requirement necessary for the recruit to enter the service of the

United States, people in general had formed an opinion that the

regular soldier, generally, and the Negro soldier in particular, was

a most undesirable element to have in a community. Therefore, the

Secretary of War, in ordering changes in stations of troops from time

to time (as is customary to change troops from severe climates to

mild ones and _vice versa_, that equal justice might be done all) had

repeatedly overlooked the 25th Infantry; or had only ordered it from

Minnesota to the Dakotas and Montana, in the same military department,

and in a climate more severe for troops to serve in than any in the

United States. This gallant regiment of colored soldiers served

eighteen years in that climate, where, in winter, which lasts five

months or more, the temperature falls as low as 55 degrees below

zero, and in summer rises to over 100 degrees in the shade and where

mosquitos rival the Jersey breed.

Before Congress had reached a conclusion as to what should be done in

the Maine disaster, an order had been issued at headquarters of the

army directing the removal of the regiment to the department of the

South, one of the then recently organized departments.

At the time when the press of the country was urging a declaration of

war, and when Minister Woodford, at Madrid, was exhausting all the

arts of peace, in order that the United States might get prepared for

war, the men of the 25th Infantry were sitting around red-hot stoves,

in their comfortable quarters in Montana, discussing the doings of

Congress, impatient for a move against Spain. After great excitement

and what we looked upon as a long delay, a telegraphic order came. Not

for us to leave for the Department of the South, but to go to that

lonely sun-parched sandy island Dry Tortugas. In the face of the fact

that the order was for us to go to that isolated spot, where rebel

prisoners were carried and turned lose during the war of the

rebellion, being left there without guard, there being absolutely no

means of escape, and where it would have been necessary for our safety

to have kept Sampson's fleet in sight, the men received the news with

gladness and cheered as the order was read to them. The destination

was changed to Key West, Florida, then to Chickamauga Park, Georgia.

It seemed that the war department did not know what to do with the

soldiers at first.

Early Sunday morning, April 10, 1898, Easter Sunday, amidst tears of

lovers and others endeared by long acquaintance and kindness, and the

enthusiastic cheers of friends and well-wishers, the start was made

for Cuba.

It is a fact worthy of note that Easter services in all the churches

in Missoula, Montana, a town of over ten thousand inhabitants, was

postponed the morning of the departure of the 25th Infantry, and the

whole town turned out to bid us farewell. Never before were soldiers

more encouraged to go to war than we. Being the first regiment to

move, from the west, the papers had informed the people of our route.

At every station there was a throng of people who cheered as we

passed. Everywhere the Stars and Stripes could be seen. Everybody had

caught the war fever. We arrived at Chickamauga Park about April 15,

1898, being the first regiment to arrive at that place. We were

a curiosity. Thousands of people, both white and colored, from

Chattanooga, Tenn., visited us daily. Many of them had never seen a

colored soldier. The behavior of the men was such that even the

most prejudiced could find no fault. We underwent a short period of

acclimation at this place, then moved on to Tampa, Fla., where we

spent a month more of acclimation. All along the route from Missoula,

Montana, with the exception of one or two places in Georgia, we had

been received most cordially. But in Georgia, outside of the Park, it

mattered not if we were soldiers of the United States, and going to

fight for the honor of our country and the freedom of an oppressed and

starving people, we were "niggers," as they called us, and treated

us with contempt. There was no enthusiasm nor Stars and Stripes in

Georgia. That is the kind of "united country" we saw in the South. I

must pass over the events and incidents of camp life at Chickamauga

and Tampa. Up to this time our trip had seemed more like a

Sunday-school excursion than anything else. But when, on June 6th, we

were ordered to divest ourselves of all clothing and equipage, except

such as was necessary to campaigning in a tropical climate, for the

first time the ghost of real warfare arose before us.

ON BOARD THE TRANSPORT.

The regiment went aboard the Government transport, No.

14--Concho--June 7, 1898. On the same vessel were the 14th U.S.

Infantry, a battalion of the 2d Massachusetts Volunteers and Brigade

Headquarters, aggregating about 1,300 soldiers, exclusive of the

officers. This was the beginning of real hardship. The transport had

either been a common freighter or a cattle ship. Whatever had been its

employment before being converted into a transport, I am sure of

one thing, it was neither fit for man nor beast when soldiers were

transported in it to Cuba. The actual carrying capacity of the vessel

as a transport was, in my opinion, about 900 soldiers, exclusive of

the officers, who, as a rule, surround themselves with every possible

comfort, even in actual warfare. A good many times, as on this

occasion, the desire and demand of the officers for comfort worked

serious hardships for the enlisted men. The lower decks had been

filled with bunks. Alas! the very thought of those things of torture

makes me shudder even now. They were arranged in rows, lengthwise the

ship, of course, with aisles only two feet wide between each row. The

dimensions of a man's bunk was 6 feet long, 2 feet wide and 2 feet

high, and they were arranged in tiers of four, with a four inch board

on either side to keep one from rolling out. The Government had

furnished no bedding at all. Our bedding consisted of one blanket as

mattress and haversack for pillow. The 25th Infantry was assigned to

the bottom deck, where there was no light, except the small port holes

when the gang-plank was closed. So dark was it that candles were

burned all day. There was no air except what came down the canvass air

shafts when they were turned to the breeze. The heat of that place was

almost unendurable. Still our Brigade Commander issued orders that no

one would be allowed to sleep on the main deck. That order was the

only one to my knowledge during the whole campaign that was not obeyed

by the colored soldiers. It is an unreported fact that a portion of

the deck upon which the 25th Infantry took passage to Cuba was flooded

with water during the entire journey.

Before leaving Port Tampa the Chief Surgeon of the expedition came

aboard and made an inspection, the result of which was the taking off

of the ship the volunteer battalion, leaving still on board about a

thousand men. Another noteworthy fact is that for seven days the boat

was tied to the wharf at Port Tampa, and we were not allowed to go

ashore, unless an officer would take a whole company off to bathe and

exercise. This was done, too, in plain sight of other vessels, the

commander of which gave their men the privilege of going ashore at

will for any purpose whatever. It is very easy to imagine the hardship

that was imposed upon us by withholding the privilege of going ashore,

when it is understood that there were no seats on the vessel for a

poor soldier. On the main deck there were a large number of seats,

but they were all reserved for the officers. A sentinel was posted on

either side of the ship near the middle hatch-way, and no soldier was

allowed to go abaft for any purpose, except to report to his superior

officer or on some other official duty.

Finally the 14th of June came. While bells were ringing, whistles

blowing and bands playing cheering strains of music the transports

formed "in fleet in column of twos," and under convoy of some of the

best war craft of our navy, and while the thousands on shore waved us

godspeed, moved slowly down the bay on its mission to avenge the death

of the heroes of our gallant Maine and to free suffering Cuba.

The transports were scarcely out of sight of land when an order was

issued by our Brigade Commander directing that the two regiments on

board should not intermingle, and actually drawing the "color line" by

assigning the white regiment to the port and the 25th Infantry to the

starboard side of the vessel. The men of the two regiments were on the

best of terms, both having served together during mining troubles in

Montana. Still greater was the surprise of everyone when another order

was issued from the same source directing that the white regiment

should make coffee first, all the time, and detailing a guard to

see that the order was carried out. All of these things were done

seemingly to humiliate us and without a word of protest from our

officers. We suffered without complaint. God only knows how it was we

lived through those fourteen days on that miserable vessel. We lived

through those days and were fortunate enough not to have a burial at

sea.

OPERATIONS AGAINST SANTIAGO.

We landed in Cuba June 22, 1898. Our past hardships were soon

forgotten. It was enough to stir the heart of any lover of liberty to

witness that portion of Gomez's ragged army, under command of General

Castillo, lined up to welcome us to their beautiful island, and to

guide and guard our way to the Spanish strongholds. To call it a

ragged army is by no means a misnomer. The greater portion of those

poor fellows were both coatless and shoeless, many of them being

almost nude. They were by no means careful about their uniform. The

thing every one seemed careful about was his munitions of war, for

each man had his gun, ammunition and machete. Be it remembered that

this portion of the Cuban army was almost entirely composed of black

Cubans.

After landing we halted long enough to ascertain that all the men of

the regiment were "present or accounted for," then marched into the

jungle of Cuba, following an old unused trail. General Shafter's

orders were to push forward without delay. And the 25th Infantry

has the honor of leading the march from the landing at Baiquiri or

Daiquiri (both names being used in official reports) the first day the

army of invasion entered the island. I do not believe any newspaper

has ever published this fact.

There was no time to be lost, and the advance of the American army of

invasion in the direction of Santiago, the objective point, was rapid.

Each day, as one regiment would halt for a rest or reach a suitable

camping ground, another would pass. In this manner several regiments

had succeeded in passing the 25th Infantry by the morning of June

24th. At that time the 1st Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders) was

leading the march.

THE FIRST BATTLE.

[Illustration: Charge on El Caney--Twenty-Fifth Infantry.]

On the morning of June 24th the Rough Riders struck camp early, and

was marching along the trail at a rapid gait, at "route step," in any

order suitable to the size of the road. Having marched several miles

through a well-wooded country, they came to an opening near where the

road forked. They turned into the left fork; at that moment, without

the least warning, the Cubans leading the march having passed on

unmolested, a volley from the Spanish behind a stone fort on top of

the hill on both sides of the road was fired into their ranks. They

were at first disconcerted, but rallied at once and began firing in

the direction from whence came the volleys. They could not advance,

and dared not retreat, having been caught in a sunken place in the

road, with a barbed-wire fence on one side and a precipitous hill on

the other. They held their ground, but could do no more. The Spanish

poured volley after volley into their ranks. At the moment when

it looked as if the whole regiment would be swept down by the

steel-jacketed bullets from the Mausers, four troops of the 10th

U.S. Cavalry (colored) came up on "double time." Little thought the

Spaniards that these "smoked yankees" were so formidable. Perhaps they

thought to stop those black boys by their relentless fire, but those

boys knew no stop. They halted for a second, and having with them a

Hotchkiss gun soon knocked down the Spanish improvised fort, cut the

barb-wire, making an opening for the Rough Riders, started the charge,

and, with the Rough Riders, routed the Spaniards, causing them to

retreat in disorder, leaving their dead and some wounded behind. The

Spaniards made a stubborn resistance. So hot was their fire directed

at the men at the Hotchkiss gun that a head could not be raise, and

men crawled on their stomachs like snakes loading and firing. It is

an admitted fact that the Rough Riders could not have dislodged the

Spanish by themselves without great loss, if at all.

The names of Captain A.M. Capron, Jr., and Sergeant Hamilton Fish,

Jr., of the Rough Riders, who were killed in this battle, have been

immortalized, while that of Corporal Brown, 10th Cavalry, who manned

the Hotchkiss gun in this fight, without which the American loss in

killed and wounded would no doubt have been counted by hundreds, and

who was killed by the side of his gun, is unknown by the public.

At the time the battle of the Rough Riders was fought the 25th

Infantry was within hearing distance of the battle and received orders

to reinforce them, which they could have done in less than two hours,

but our Brigade Commander in marching to the scene of battle took the

wrong trail, seemingly on purpose, and when we arrived at the place of

battle twilight was fading into darkness.

The march in the direction of Santiago continued, until the evening of

June 30th found us bivouacked in the road less than two miles from El

Caney. At the first glimpse of day on the first day of July word was

passed along the line for the companies to "fall in." No bugle call

was sounded, no coffee was made, no noise allowed. We were nearing the

enemy, and every effort was made to surprise him. We had been told

that El Caney was well fortified, and so we found it.

The first warning the people had of a foe being near was the roar of

our field artillery and the bursting of a shell in their midst. The

battle was on. In many cases an invading army serves notice of a

bombardment, but in this case it was incompatible with military

strategy. Non-combatants, women and children all suffered, for to have

warned them so they might have escaped would also have given warning

to the Spanish forces of our approach. The battle opened at dawn and

lasted until dark. When our troops reached the point from which they

were to make the attack, the Spanish lines of entrenched soldiers

could not be seen.

[Illustration: CORPORAL BROWN. (Who was killed at a Hotchkiss gun

while shelling the Spanish block-house to save the Rough Riders.)]

The only thing indicating their position was the block-house situated

on the highest point of a very steep hill. The undergrowth was so

dense that one could not see, on a line, more than fifty yards ahead.

The Spaniards, from their advantageous position in the block-house

and trenches on the hill top, had located the American forces in the

bushes and opened a fusillade upon them. The Americans replied with

great vigor, being ordered to fire at the block-house and to the right

and left of it, steadily advancing as they fired. All of the regiments

engaged in the battle of El Caney had not reached their positions

when the battle was precipitated by the artillery firing on the

block-house. The 25th Infantry was among that number. In marching to

its position some companies of the 2d Massachusetts Volunteers were

met retreating; they were completely whipped, and took occasion to

warn us, saying: "Boys, there is no use to go up there, you cannot

see a thing; they are slaughtering our men!" Such news made us feel

"shaky," not having, at the time, been initiated. We marched up,

however, in order and were under fire for nine hours. Many barbed-wire

obstructions were encountered, but the men never faltered. Finally,

late in the afternoon, our brave Lieutenant Kinnison said to another

officer: "We cannot take the trenches without charging them." Just as

he was about to give the order for the bugler to sound "the charge" he

was wounded and carried to the rear. The men were then fighting like

demons. Without a word of command, though led by that gallant and

intrepid Second Lieutenant J.A. Moss, 25th Infantry, some one gave a

yell and the 25th Infantry was off, alone, to the charge. The 4th U.S.

Infantry, fighting on the left, halted when those dusky heroes made

the dash with a yell which would have done credit to a Comanche

Indian. No one knows who started the charge; one thing is certain,

at the time it was made excitement was running high; each man was a

captain for himself and fighting accordingly. Brigadier Generals,

Colonels, Lieutenant-Colonels, Majors, etc., were not needed at the

time the 25th Infantry made the charge on El Caney, and those officers

simply watched the battle from convenient points, as Lieutenants and

enlisted men made the charge alone. It has been reported that the 12th

U.S. Infantry made the charge, assisted by the 25th Infantry, but it

is a recorded fact that the 25th Infantry fought the battle alone, the

12th Infantry coming up after the firing had nearly ceased. Private

T.C. Butler, Company H, 25th Infantry, was the first man to enter the

block-house at El Caney, and took possession of the Spanish flag for

his regiment. An officer of the 12th Infantry came up while Butler

was in the house and ordered him to give up the flag, which he was

compelled to do, but not until he had torn a piece off the flag to

substantiate his report to his Colonel of the injustice which had

been done to him. Thus, by using the authority given him by his

shoulder-straps, this officer took for his regiment that which had

been won by the hearts' blood of some of the bravest, though black,

soldiers of Shafter's army.

The charge of El Caney has been little spoken of, but it was quite as

great a show of bravery as the famous taking of San Juan Hill.

A word more in regard to the charge. It was not the glorious run from

the edge of some nearby thicket to the top of a small hill, as many

may imagine. This particular charge was a tough, hard climb, over

sharp, rising ground, which, were a man in perfect physical strength

he would climb slowly. Part of the charge was made over soft,

plowed ground, a part through a lot of prickly pineapple plants and

barbed-wire entanglements. It was slow, hard work, under a blazing

July sun and a perfect hail-storm of bullets, which, thanks to the

poor marksmanship of the Spaniards, "went high."

It has been generally admitted, by all fair-minded writers, that the

colored soldiers saved the day both at El Caney and San Juan Hill.

Notwithstanding their heroic services, they were still to be

subjected, in many cases, to more hardships than their white brother

in arms. When the flag of truce was, in the afternoon of July 3d,

seen, each man breathed a sigh of relief, for the strain had been

very great upon us. During the next eleven days men worked like ants,

digging trenches, for they had learned a lesson of fighting in the

open field. The work went on night and day. The 25th Infantry worked

harder than any other regiment, for as soon as they would finish a

trench they were ordered to move; in this manner they were kept moving

and digging new trenches for eleven days. The trenches left were each

time occupied by a white regiment.

On July 14th it was decided to make a demonstration in front of

Santiago, to draw the fire of the enemy and locate his position. Two

companies of colored soldiers (25th Infantry) were selected for this

purpose, actually deployed as skirmishers and started in advance.

General Shafter, watching the movement from a distant hill, saw that

such a movement meant to sacrifice those men, without any or much

good resulting, therefore had them recalled. Had the movement been

completed it is probable that not a man would have escaped death or

serious wounds. When the news came that General Toral had decided to

surrender, the 25th Infantry was a thousand yards or more nearer the

city of Santiago than any regiment in the army, having entrenched

themselves along the railroad leading into the city.

The following enlisted men of the 25th Infantry were commissioned

for their bravery at El Caney: First Sergeant Andrew J. Smith, First

Sergeant Macon Russell, First Sergeant Wyatt Huffman and Sergeant

Wm. McBryar. Many more were recommended, but failed to receive

commissions. It is a strange incident that all the above-named men

are native North Carolinians, but First Sergeant Huffman, who is from

Tennessee.

The Negro played a most important part in the Spanish-American war. He

was the first to move from the west; first at Camp Thomas Chickamauga

Park, Ga.; first in the jungle of Cuba; among the first killed in

battle; first in the block-house at El Caney, and nearest to the enemy

when he surrendered.

Frank W. Pullen, Jr.,

_Ex-Sergeant-Major 25th U.S. Infantry_.

Enfield, N.C., March 23, 1899.

BUFFALO TROOPERS, THE NAME BY WHICH NEGRO SOLDIERS ARE KNOWN.

They Comprise Several of the Crack Regiments in Our Army-The Indians

Stand in Abject Terror of them-Their Awful Yells Won a Battle with the

Redskins.

"It is not necessary to revert to the Civil war to prove that American

Negroes are faithful, devoted wearers of uniforms," says a Washington

man, who has seen service in both the army and the navy. "There are at

the present time four regiments of Negro soldiers in the regular army

of the United States-two outfits of cavalry and two of infantry. All

four of these regiments have been under fire in important Indian

campaigns, and there is yet to be recorded a single instance of a man

in any of the four layouts showing the white feather, and the two

cavalry regiments of Negroes have, on several occasions, found

themselves in very serious situations. While the fact is well known

out on the frontier, I don't remember ever having seen it mentioned

back here that an American Indian has a deadly fear of an American

Negro. The most utterly reckless, dare-devil savage of the copper hue

stands literally in awe of a Negro, and the blacker the Negro the more

the Indian quails. I can't understand why this should be, for the

Indians decline to give their reasons for fearing the black men,

but the fact remains that even a very bad Indian will give the

mildest-mannered Negro imaginable all the room he wants, and to spare,

as any old regular army soldier who has frontiered will tell you.

The Indians, I fancy, attribute uncanny and eerie qualities to the

blacks."

"The cavalry troop to which I belonged soldiered alongside a couple of

troops of the 9th Cavalry, a black regiment, up in the Sioux country

eight or nine years ago. We were performing chain guard, hemming-in

duty, and it was our chief business to prevent the savages from

straying from the reservation. We weren't under instructions to riddle

them if they attempted to pass our guard posts, but were authorized to

tickle them up to any reasonable extent, short of maiming them, with

our bayonets, if any of them attempted to bluff past us. Well, the men

of my troop had all colors of trouble while on guard in holding the

savages in. The Ogalallas would hardly pay any attention to the white

sentries of the chain guard, and when they wanted to pass beyond the

guard limits they would invariably pick out a spot for passage that

was patrolled by a white 'post-humper.' But the guards of the two

black troops didn't have a single run-in with the savages. The Indians

made it a point to remain strictly away from the Negro soldiers' guard

posts. Moreover, the black soldiers got ten times as much obedience

from the Indians loafing around the tepees and wickleups as did we of

the white outfit. The Indians would fairly jump to obey the uniformed

Negroes. I remember seeing a black sergeant make a minor chief go

down to a creek to get a pail of water--an unheard of thing, for the

chiefs, and even the ordinary bucks among the Sioux, always make their

squaws perform this sort of work. This chief was sunning himself,

reclining, beside his tepee, when his squaw started with the bucket

for the creek some distance away. The Negro sergeant saw the move. He

walked up to the lazy, grunting savage."

"'Look a-yeah, yo' spraddle-nosed, yalluh voodoo nigguh,' said the

black sergeant--he was as black as a stovepipe--to the blinking chief,

'jes' shake yo' no-count bones an' tote dat wattuh yo'se'f. Yo' ain'

no bettuh to pack wattuh dan Ah am, yo' heah me.'"

"The heap-much Indian chief didn't understand a word of what the Negro

sergeant said to him, but he understands pantomime all right, and when

the black man in uniform grabbed the pail out of the squaw's hand and

thrust it into the dirty paw of the chief the chief went after that

bucket of water, and he went a-loping, too."

[Illustration.]

"The Sioux will hand down to their children's children the story of

a charge that a couple of Negro cavalry troops made during the Pine

Ridge troubles. It was of the height of the fracas, and the bad

Indians were regularly lined up for battle. Those two black troops

were ordered to make the initial swoop upon them. You know the noise

one black man can make when he gets right down to the business of

yelling. Well, these two troops of blacks started their terrific whoop

in unison when they were a mile away from the waiting Sioux, and they

got warmed up and in better practice with every jump their horses

made. I give you my solemn word that in the ears of us of the white

outfit, stationed three miles away, the yelps those two Negro troops

of cavalry gave sounded like the carnival whooping of ten thousand

devils. The Sioux weren't scared a little bit by the approaching

clouds of alkali dust, but, all the same, when the two black troops

were more than a quarter of a mile away the Indians broke and ran as

if the old boy himself were after them, and it was then an easy matter

to round them up and disarm them. The chiefs afterward confessed that

they were scared out by the awful howling of the black soldiers."

"Ever since the war the United States navy has had a fair

representation of Negro bluejackets, and they make first-class naval

tars. There is not a ship in the navy to-day that hasn't from six to

a dozen, anyhow, of Negroes on its muster rolls. The Negro sailors'

names very rarely get enrolled on the bad conduct lists. They are

obedient, sober men and good seamen. There are many petty officers

among them."--_The Planet._

THE CHARGE OF THE "NIGGER NINTH" ON SAN JUAN HILL.

BY GEORGE E. POWELL

Hark! O'er the drowsy trooper's dream,

There comes a martial metal's scream,

That startles one and all!

It is the word, to wake, to die!

To hear the foeman's fierce defy!

To fling the column's battle-cry!

The "boots and saddles" call.

The shimmering steel, the glow or morn,

The rally-call of battle-horn,

Proclaim a day of carnage, born

For better or for ill.

Above the pictured tentage white,

Above the weapons glinting bright,

The day god casts a golden light

Across the San Juan Hill.

"Forward!" "Forward!" comes the cry,

As stalwart columns, ambling by,

Stride over graves that, waiting, lie

Undug in mother earth!

Their goal, the flag of fierce Castile

Above her serried ranks of steel,

Insensate to the cannon's peal

That gives the battle birth!

As brawn as black--a fearless foe;

Grave, grim and grand, they onward go,

To conquer or to die!

The rule of right; the march of might;

A dusky host from darker night,

Responsive to the morning light,

To work the martial will!

And o'er the trench and trembling earth,

The morn that gives the battle birth

Is on the San Juan Hill!

Hark! sounds again the bugle call!

Let ring the rifles over all,

To shriek above the battle-pall

The war-god's jubilee!

Their's, were bondmen, low, and long;

Their's, once weak against the strong;

Their's, to strike and stay the wrong,

That strangers might be free!

And on, and on, for weal or woe,

The tawny faces grimmer go,

That bade no mercy to a foe

That pitties but to kill.

"Close up!" "Close up!" is heard, and said,

And yet the rain of steel and lead

Still leaves a livid trail of red

Upon the San Juan Hill!

"Charge!" "Charge!" The bugle peals again;

'Tis life or death for Roosevelt's men!--

The Mausers make reply!

Aye! speechless are those swarthy sons,

Save for the clamor of the guns--

Their only battle-cry!

The lowly stain upon each face,

The taunt still fresh of prouder race,

But speeds the step that springs a pace,

To succor or to die!

With rifles hot--to waist-band nude;

The brawn beside the pampered dude;

The cowboy king--one grave--and rude--

To shelter him who falls!

One breast--and bare,--howe'er begot,

The low, the high--one common lot:

The world's distinction all forgot

When Freedom's bugle calls!

No faltering step, no fitful start;

None seeking less than all his part;

One watchward springing from each heart,--

Yet on, and onward still!

The sullen sound of tramp and tread;

Abe Lincoln's flag still overhead;

They followed where the angels led

The way, up San Juan Hill!

And where the life stream ebbs and flows,

And stains the track of trenchant blows

That met no meaner steel,

The bated breath--the battle yell--

The turf in slippery crimson, tell

Where Castile's proudest colors fell

With wounds that never heal!

Where every trooper found a wreath

Of glory for his sabre sheath;

And earned the laurels well;

With feet to field and face to foe,

In lines of battle lying low,

The sable soldiers fell!

And where the black and brawny breast

Gave up its all--life's richest, best,

To find the tomb's eternal rest

A dream of freedom still!

A groundless creed was swept away,

With brand of "coward "--a time-worn say--

And he blazed the path a better way

Up the side of San Juan Hill!

For black or white, on the scroll of fame,

The blood of the hero dyes the same;

And ever, ever will!

Sleep, trooper, sleep; thy sable brow,

Amid the living laurel now,

Is wound in wreaths of fame!

Nor need the graven granite stone,

To tell of garlands all thine own--

To hold a soldier's name!

[In the city of New Orleans, in 1866, two thousand two hundred and

sixty-six ex-slaves were recruited for the service. None but the

largest and blackest Negroes were accepted. From these were formed

the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry, and the Ninth and Tenth

Cavalry. All four are famous fighting regiments, yet the two cavalry

commands have earned the proudest distinction. While the record of the

Ninth Cavalry, better known as the "Nigger Ninth," in its thirty-two

years of service in the Indian wars, in the military history of the

border, stands without a peer; and is, without exception, the most

famous fighting regiment in the United States service.]--Author.

[Illustration: COLONEL THEODORE B. ROOSEVELT.]

CHAPTER IV.

COLONEL THEODORE B. ROOSEVELT, NOW GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK, WHO LED THE

ROUGH RIDERS, TELLS OF THE BRAVERY OF NEGRO SOLDIERS.

When Colonel Theodore Roosevelt returned from the command of the

famous Rough Riders, he delivered a farewell address to his men,

in which he made the following kind reference to the gallant Negro

soldiers:

"Now, I want to say just a word more to some of the men I see standing

around not of your number. I refer to the colored regiments, who

occupied the right and left flanks of us at Guásimas, the Ninth and

Tenth cavalry regiments. The Spaniards called them 'Smoked Yankees,'

but we found them to be an excellent breed of Yankees. I am sure that

I speak the sentiments of officers and men in the assemblage when I

say that between you and the other cavalry regiments there exists a

tie which we trust will never be broken."--_Colored American_.

* * * * *

The foregoing compliments to the Negro soldiers by Colonel Roosevelt

started up an avalanche of additional praise for them, out of which

the fact came, that but for the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry (colored)

coming up at Las Guásimas, destroying the Spanish block house and

driving the Spaniards off, when Roosevelt and his men had been caught

in a trap, with a barbed-wire fence on one side and a precipice on

the other, not only the brave Capron and Fish, but the whole of his

command would have been annihilated by the Spanish sharp-shooters, who

were firing with smokeless powder under cover, and picking off the

Rough Riders one by one, who could not see the Spaniards. To break the

force of this unfavorable comment on the Rough Riders, it is claimed

that Colonel Roosevelt made the following criticism of the colored

soldiers in general and of a few of them in particular, in an article

written by him for the April Scribner; and a letter replying to

the Colonel's strictures, follows by Sergeant Holliday, who was an

"eye-witness" to the incident:

Colonel Roosevelt's criticism was, in substance, that colored

soldiers were of no avail without white officers; that when the white

commissioned officers are killed or disabled, colored non-commissioned

officers could not be depended upon to keep up a charge already begun;

that about a score of colored infantrymen, who had drifted into his

command, weakened on the hill at San Juan under the galling Spanish

fire, and started to the rear, stating that they intended finding

their regiments, or to assist the wounded; whereupon he drew his

revolver and ordered them to return to ranks and there remain, and

that he would shoot the first man who didn't obey him; and that after

that he had no further trouble.

Colonel Roosevelt is sufficiently answered in the following letter of

Sergeant Holliday, and the point especially made by many eye-witnesses

(white) who were engaged in that fight is, as related in Chapter V, of

this book, that the Negro troops made the charges both at San Juan and

El Caney after nearly all their officers had been killed or wounded.

Upon what facts, therefore, does Colonel Roosevelt base his

conclusions that Negro soldiers will not fight without commissioned

officers, when the only real test of this question happened around

Santiago and showed just the contrary of what he states? We prefer

to take the results at El Caney and San Juan as against Colonel

Roosevelt's imagination.

COLONEL ROOSEVELT'S ERROR.

TRUE STORY OF THE INCIDENT HE MAGNIFIED TO OUR HURT--THE WHITE

OFFICERS' HUMBUG SKINNED OF ITS HIDE BY SERGEANT HOLLIDAY--UNWRITTEN

HISTORY.

_To the Editor of the New York Age_:

Having read in _The Age_ of April 13 an editorial entitled "Our Troops

in Cuba," which brings to my notice for the first time a statement

made by Colonel Roosevelt, which, though in some parts true, if read

by those who do not know the exact facts and circumstances surrounding

the case, will certainly give rise to the wrong impression of colored

men as soldiers, and hurt them for many a day to come, and as I was

an eye-witness to the most important incidents mentioned in that

statement, I deem it a duty I owe, not only to the fathers, mothers,

sisters and brothers of those soldiers, and to the soldiers

themselves, but to their posterity and the race in general, to be

always ready to make an unprejudiced refutation of such charges, and

to do all in my power to place the colored soldier where he properly

belongs--among the bravest and most trustworthy of this land.

In the beginning, I wish to say that from what I saw of Colonel

Roosevelt in Cuba, and the impression his frank countenance made

upon me, I cannot believe that he made that statement maliciously. I

believe the Colonel thought he spoke the exact truth. But did he know,

that of the four officers connected with two certain troops of the

Tenth Cavalry one was killed and three were so seriously wounded as to

cause them to be carried from the field, and the command of these two

troops fell to the first sergeants, who led them triumphantly to the

front? Does he know that both at Las Guasima and San Juan Hill the

greater part of troop B, of the Tenth Cavalry, was separated from its

commanding officer by accidents of battle and was led to the front by

its first sergeant?

When we reached the enemy's works on San Juan Hill our organizations

were very badly mixed, few company commanders having their whole

companies or none of some body else's company. As it was, Capt.

Watson, my troop commander, reached the crest of the hill with about

eight or ten men of his troop, all the rest having been accidentally

separated from him by the thick underbrush during the advance, and

being at that time, as was subsequently shown to be the firing line

under some one else pushing to the front. We kept up the forward

movement, and finally halted on the heights overlooking Santiago,

where Colonel Roosevelt, with a very thin line had preceded us, and

was holding the hill. Here Captain Watson told us to remain while he

went to another part of the line to look for the rest of his troop. He

did not come to that part of the field again.

The Colonel made a slight error when he said his mixed command

contained some colored infantry. All the colored troops in that

command were cavalry men. His command consisted mostly of Rough

Riders, with an aggregate of about one troop of the Tenth Cavalry, a

few of the Ninth and a few of the First Regular Cavalry, with a half

dozen officers. Every few minutes brought men from the rear, everybody

seeming to be anxious to get to the firing line. For a while we kept

up a desultory fire, but as we could not locate the enemy (he all the

time keeping up a hot fire on our position), we became disgusted, and

lay down and kept silent. Private Marshall was here seriously wounded

while standing in plain view of the enemy, trying to point them out to

his comrades.

There were frequent calls for men to carry the wounded to the rear,

to go for ammunition, and as night came on, to go for rations and

entrenching tools. A few colored soldiers volunteered, as did some

from the Rough Riders. It then happened that two men of the Tenth were

ordered to the rear by Lieutenant Fleming, Tenth Cavalry, who was then

present with part of his troop, for the purpose of bringing either

rations or entrenching tools, and Colonel Roosevelt seeing so many men

going to the rear, shouted to them to come back, jumped up and drew

his revolver, and told the men of the Tenth that he would shoot the

first man who attempted to shirk duty by going to the rear, that he

had orders to hold that line and he would do so if he had to shoot

every man there to do it. His own men immediately informed him that

"you won't have to shoot those men, Colonel. We know those boys." He

was also assured by Lieutenant Fleming, of the Tenth, that he would

have no trouble keeping them there, and some of our men shouted, in

which I joined, that "we will stay with you, Colonel." Everyone who

saw the incident knew the Colonel was mistaken about our men trying to

shirk duty, but well knew that he could not admit of any heavy detail

from his command, so no one thought ill of the matter. Inasmuch as the

Colonel came to the line of the Tenth the next day and told the men of

his threat to shoot some of their members and, as he expressed it, he

had seen his mistake and found them to be far different men from what

he supposed. I thought he was sufficiently conscious of his error not

to make a so ungrateful statement about us at a time when the Nation

is about to forget our past service.

Had the Colonel desired to note the fact, he would have seen that when

orders came the next day to relieve the detachment of the Tenth from

that part of the field, he commanded just as many colored men at that

time as he commanded at any other time during the twenty-four hours

we were under his command, although colored as well as white soldiers

were going and coming all day, and they knew perfectly well where the

Tenth Cavalry was posted, and that it was on a line about four hundred

yards further from the enemy than Colonel Roosevelt's line. Still when

they obtained permission to go to the rear, they almost invariably

came back to the same position. Two men of my troop were wounded while

at the rear for water and taken to the hospital and, of course, could

not come back.

Our men always made it a rule to join the nearest command when

separated from our own, and those who had been so unfortunate as to

lose their way altogether were, both colored and white, straggling

up from the time the line was established until far into the night,

showing their determination to reach the front.

In explaining the desire of our men in going back to look for their

comrades, it should be stated that, from the contour of the ground,

the Rough Riders were so much in advance of the Tenth Cavalry that,

to reach the latter regiment from the former, one had really to go

straight to the rear and then turn sharply to the right; and further,

it is a well known fact, that in this country most persons of color

feel out of place when they are by force compelled to mingle with

white persons, especially strangers, and although we knew we were

doing our duty, and would be treated well as long as we stood to the

front and fought, unfortunately some of our men (and these were all

recruits with less than six months' service) felt so much out of place

that when the firing lulled, often showed their desire to be with

their commands. None of our older men did this. We knew perfectly well

that we could give as much assistance there as anywhere else, and that

it was our duty to remain until relieved. And we did. White soldiers

do not, as a rule, share this feeling with colored soldiers. The fact

that a white man knows how well he can make a place for himself among

colored people need not be discussed here.

I remember an incident of a recruit of my troop, with less than two

months' service, who had come up to our position during the evening of

the 1st, having been separated from the troop during the attack on San

Juan Hill. The next morning, before the firing began, having seen an

officer of the Tenth, who had been sent to Colonel Roosevelt with a

message, returning to the regiment, he signified his intention of

going back with him, saying he could thus find the regiment. I

remonstrated with him without avail and was only able to keep him from

going by informing him of the Colonel's threat of the day before.

There was no desire on the part of this soldier to shirk duty. He

simply didn't know that he should not leave any part of the firing

line without orders. Later, while lying in reserve behind the firing

line, I had to use as much persuasion to keep him from firing over the

heads of his enemies as I had to keep him with us. He remained with us

until he was shot in the shoulder and had to be sent to the rear.

I could give many other incidents of our men's devotion to duty, of

their determination to stay until the death, but what's the use?

Colonel Roosevelt has said they shirked, and the reading public will

take the Colonel at his word and go on thinking they shirked. His

statement was uncalled for and uncharitable, and considering the moral

and physical effect the advance of the Tenth Cavalry had in weakening

the forces opposed to the Colonel's regiment, both at La Guasima and

San Juan Hill, altogether ungrateful, and has done us an immeasurable

lot of harm.

And further, as to lack of qualifications for command, I will say

that when our soldiers, who can and will write history, sever their

connections with the Regular Army, and thus release themselves from

their voluntary status of military lockjaw, and tell what they saw,

those who now preach that the Negro is not fit to exercise command

over troops, and will go no further than he is led by white officers,

will see in print held up for public gaze, much to their chagrin,

tales of those Cuban battles that have never been told outside the

tent and barrack room, tales that it will not be agreeable for some

of them to hear. The public will then learn that not every troop or

company of colored soldiers who took part in the assaults on San Juan

Hill or El Caney was led or urged forward by its white officer.

It is unfortunate that we had no colored officers in that campaign,

and this thing of white officers for colored troops is exasperating,

and I join with _The Age_ in saying our motto for the future must be:

"No officers, no soldiers."

PRESLEY HOLLIDAY,

Sergeant Troop B, Tenth Cavalry.

Fort Ringgold, Texas, April 22, 1899.

* * * * *

JACOB A. RIIS in _The Outlook_ gives the following interesting reading

concerning the colored troopers in an article entitled "Roosevelt and

His Men":

[Illustration: GENERAL NELSON A. MILES.]

"It was one of the unexpected things in this campaign that seems

destined to set so many things right that out of it should come the

appreciation of the colored soldier as man and brother by those even

who so lately fought to keep him a chattel. It fell to the lot of

General 'Joe' Wheeler, the old Confederate warrior, to command the two

regiments of colored troops, the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, and no one

will bear readier testimony than he to the splendid record they made.

Of their patience under the manifold hardships of roughing it in the

tropics, their helpfulness in the camp and their prowess in battle,

their uncomplaining suffering when lying wounded and helpless. Stories

enough are told to win for them fairly the real brotherhood with their

white-skinned fellows which they crave. The most touching of the many

I heard was that of a Negro trooper, who, struck by a bullet that cut

an artery in his neck, was lying helpless, in danger of bleeding to

death, when a Rough Rider came to his assistance. There was only

one thing to be done--to stop the bleeding till a surgeon came. A

tourniquet could not be applied where the wound was. The Rough Rider

put his thumb on the artery and held it there while he waited. The

fighting drifted away over the hill. He followed his comrades with

longing eyes till the last was lost to sight. His place was there,

but if he abandoned the wounded cavalryman it was to let him die.

He dropped his gun and stayed. Not until the battle was won did the

surgeon come that way, but the trooper's life was saved. He told of it

in the hospital with tears in his voice: 'He done that to me, he did;

stayed by me an hour and a half, and me only a nigger.'"

* * * * *

GENERAL NELSON A. MILES PAYS A TRIBUTE TO THE NEGRO SOLDIERS.

Major-General Nelson A. Miles, Commander-in-Chief of the army of the

United States spoke at the Peace Jubilee at Chicago, October 11th, and

said:

"While the chivalry of the South and the yeomanry of the North vied

with their devotion to the cause of their country and in their

pride in its flag which floated over all, it's a glorious fact that

patriotism was not confined to any one section or race for the

sacrifice, bravery and fortitude. The white race was accompanied by

the gallantry of the black as they swept over entrenched lines and

later volunteered to succor the sick, nurse the dying and bury the

dead in the hospitals and the Cuban camps."

"This was grandly spoken, and we feel gratified at this recognition of

the valor of one of the best races of people the world has ever seen."

"We are coming, boys; it's a little slow and tiresome, but we are

coming."--_Colored American._

At a social reunion of the Medal of Honor Legion held a few evenings

since to welcome home two of their members, General Nelson A. Miles,

commanding the army of the United States, and Colonel M. Emmett Urell,

of the First District Columbia Volunteers, in the course of his

remarks, General Miles paid the finest possible tribute to the

splendid heroism and soldierly qualities evidenced by the men of the

9th and 10th Cavalry, and 24th and 25th United States Infantry in the

late Santiago campaign, which he epitomized as "without a parallel in

the history of the world."

At the close of his remarks, Major C.A. Fleetwood, the only

representative of the race present, in behalf of the race extended

their heartfelt and warmest thanks for such a magnificent tribute from

such a magnificent soldier and man.--_Colored American_.

* * * * *

CLEVELAND MOFFITT, IN LESLIE'S WEEKLY, DESCRIBES THE HEROISM OF A

"BLACK COLOR BEARER."

"Having praised our war leaders sufficiently, in some cases more

than sufficiently (witness Hobson), let us give honor to some of the

humbler ones, who fought obscurely, but did fine things nevertheless."

[Illustration: SERGEANT BERRY, The first soldier who reached the Block

House on San Juan Hill and hoisted the American flag in a hail of

Spanish bullets.]

"There was Sergeant Berry, for instance, of the Tenth Cavalry, who

might have boasted his meed of kisses, too, had he been a white man.

At any rate, he rescued the colors of a white regiment from unseemly

trampling and bore them safely through the bullets to the top of

San Juan hill. Now, every one knows that the standard of a troop is

guarded like a man's own soul, or should be, and how it came that this

Third Cavalry banner was lying on the ground that day is something

that may never be rightly known. Some white man had left it there,

many white men had let it stay there, but Berry, a black man, saw it

fluttering in shame and paused in his running long enough to catch

it up and lift it high overhead beside his own banner--for he was a

color-bearer of the Tenth."

"Then, with two flags flying above him, and two heavy staves to bear,

this powerful negro (he is literally a giant in strength and stature)

charged the heights, while white men and black men cheered him as they

pressed behind. Who shall say what temporary demoralization there may

have been in this troop of the Third at that critical moment, or what

fresh courage may have been fired in them by that black man's act!

They say Berry yelled like a demon as he rushed against the Spaniards,

and I, for one, am willing to believe that his battle-cry brought

fighting energy to his own side as well as terror to the enemy."

"After the fight one of the officers of the Third Cavalry sought Berry

out and asked him to give back the trophy fairly won by him, and his

to keep, according to the usages of war. And the big Negro handed back

the banner with a smile and light word. He had saved the colors and

rallied the troop, but it didn't matter much. They could have the flag

if they wanted it."

"There are some hundreds of little things like this that we might as

well bear in mind, we white men, the next time we start out to decry

the Negro!"

* * * * *

PRESIDENT MCKINLEY RECOGNIZES THE WORTH OF NEGRO SOLDIERS BY

PROMOTION.

PROMOTIONS FOR COLORED SOLDIERS.

Washington, July 30.--Six colored non-commissioned officers who

rendered particularly gallant service in the actions around Santiago

on July 1st and 2d have been appointed second lieutenants in the two

colored immune regiments recently organized under special act of

Congress. These men are Sergeants William Washington, Troop F, and

John C. Proctor, Troop I, of the 9th Cavalry, and Sergeants William

McBryar, Company H; Wyatt Hoffman, Company G; Macon Russell, Company

H, and Andrew J. Smith, Company B, of the 25th Infantry, commanded by

Colonel Daggett. Jacob C. Smith, Sergeant Pendergrass, Lieutenant Ray,

Sergeant Horace W. Bivins, Lieutenant E.L. Baker, Lieutenant J.H.

Hill, Lieutenant Buck.--_N.Y. World._

These promotions were made into the volunteer regiments, which were

mustered out after the war, thus leaving the men promoted in the same

rank they were before promotion if they chose to re-enlist in the

regular army. They got no permanent advancement by this act of the

President, but the future may develop better things for them.

* * * * *

COMPETENT TO BE OFFICERS--THE VERDICT OF GENERAL THOMAS J. MORGAN,

AFTER A STUDY OF THE NEGRO'S QUALITY AS A SOLDIER.

COLOR LINE IN THE ARMY--DIFFICULTY IN MAKING AFRO-AMERICAN COMMISSIONED

OFFICERS--HEROISM ON THE FIELD SURE TO REAP REWARD--MORGAN PREFERS

NEGRO TROOP TO THE WHITES.

General Thomas J. Morgan belongs to that class of Caucasian observers

who are able to think clearly upon the Negro problem in all of its

phases, and who have not only the breadth of intelligence to form just

and generous opinions, but who possess that rarer quality, the courage

to give them out openly to the country. General Morgan contributes the

following article to the _New York Independent_, analyzing the motives

which underlie the color line in the army.

[Illustration: GENERAL, THOMAS J. MORGAN, LL.D., Who says Negroes are

Competent to be Officers in the Army.]

He has had wide experience in military affairs, and his close contact

with Negro soldiers during the civil war entitles him to speak with

authority. General Morgan says:

"The question of the color line has assumed an acute stage, and has

called forth a good deal of feeling. The various Negro papers in the

country are very generally insisting that if the Negro soldiers are to

be enlisted, Negro officers should be appointed to command them. One

zealous paper is clamoring for the appointment, immediately, by the

President, of a Negro Major-General. The readers of _The Independent_

know very well that during the civil war there were enlisted in the

United States army 200,000 Negro soldiers under white officers, the

highest position assigned to a black man being that of first sergeant,

or of regimental sergeant-major. The Negroes were allowed to wear

chevrons, but not shoulder straps or epaulets. Although four Negro

regiments have been incorporated in the regular army, and have

rendered exceptionally effective service on the plains and elsewhere

for a whole generation, there are to-day no Negro officers in the

service. A number of young men have been appointed as cadets at West

Point, but the life has not been by any means an easy one. The only

caste or class with caste distinctions that exists in the republic is

found in the army; army officers are, par excellence, the aristocrats;

nowhere is class feeling so much cultivated as among them; nowhere

is it so difficult to break down the established lines. Singularly

enough, though entrance to West Point is made very broad, and a large

number of those who go there to be educated at the expense of the

Government have no social position to begin with, and no claims to

special merit, and yet, after having been educated at the public

expense, and appointed to life positions, they seem to cherish the

feeling that they are a select few, entitled to special consideration,

and that they are called upon to guard their class against any

insidious invasions. Of course there are honorable exceptions. There

are many who have been educated at West Point who are broad in their

sympathies, democratic in their ideas, and responsive to every appeal

of philanthropy and humanity; but the spirit of West Point has been

opposed to the admission of Negroes into the ranks of commissioned

officers, and the opposition to the commissioning of black men

emanating from the army will go very far toward the defeat of any

project of that kind."

"To make the question of the admission of Negroes into the higher

ranks of commissioned officers more difficult is the fact that the

organization of Negro troops under the call of the President for

volunteers to carry on the war with Spain, has been left chiefly to

the Governors of states. Very naturally the strong public sentiment

against the Negro, which obtains almost universally in the South,

has thus far prevented the recognition of his right to be treated

precisely as the white man is treated. It would be, indeed, almost

revolutionary for any Southern Governor to commission a Negro as a

colonel of a regiment, or even a captain of a company. (Since this was

written two Negro colonels have been appointed--in the Third North

Carolina and Eighth Illinois.) Even where there are exceptions to this

rule, they are notable exceptions. Everywhere through the South Negro

volunteers are made to feel that they are not upon the same plane as

white volunteers."

"In a recent conversation with the Adjutant General of the army, I

was assured by him that in the organization of the ten regiments of

immunes which Congress has authorized, the President had decided that

five of them should be composed of Negroes, and that while the field

and staff officers and captains are to be white, the lieutenants may

be Negroes. If this is done it will mark a distinct step in advance of

any taken hitherto. It will recognize partially, at least, the manhood

of the Negro, and break down that unnatural bar of separation now

existing. If a Negro is a lieutenant, he will command his company in

the absence of the captain. He can wear epaulets, and be entitled to

all the rights and privileges 'of an officer and a gentleman;' he is

no longer doomed to inferiority. In case of battle, where bullets

have no respect of persons, and do not draw the line at color, it may

easily happen that a regiment or battalion will do its best work in

the face of the enemy under the command of a Negro chief. Thus far

the Government has been swift to recognize heroism and efficiency,

whether performed by Commodore Dewey at Manila or Lieutenant Hobson at

Santiago, and it can hardly be otherwise than that it will be ready

to recognize exceptional prowess and skill when performed by a Negro

officer."

"All, perhaps, which the Negroes themselves, or their friends, have a

right to ask in their behalf is, that they shall have a chance to show

the stuff they are made of. The immortal Lincoln gave them this chance

when he admitted them to wear the blue and carry a musket; and right

manfully did they justify his confidence. There was not better

fighting done during the civil war than was done by some of the Negro

troops. With my experience, in command of 5,000 Negro soldiers, I

would, on the whole, prefer, I think, the command of a corps of Negro

troops to that of a corps of white troops. With the magnificent

record of their fighting qualities on many a hard-contested field, it

is not unreasonable to ask that a still further opportunity shall

be extended to them in commissioning them as officers, as well as

enlisting them as soldiers."

"Naturally and necessarily the question of fitness for official

responsibility is the prime test and ought to be applied, and if

Negroes cannot be found of sufficient intelligence or preparation for

the duties incumbent on army officers, nobody should object to the

places being given to qualified white men. But so long as we draw no

race line of distinction as against Germans or Irishmen, and institute

no test of religion, politics or culture, we ought not to erect an

artificial barrier of color. If the Negroes are competent they should

be commissioned. If they are incompetent they should not be trusted

with the grave responsibilities attached to official position. I

believe they are competent."

[Illustration: GENERAL MAXIMO GOMEZ, OF THE CUBAN ARMY.]

CHAPTER V.

MANY TESTIMONIALS IN BEHALF OF THE NEGRO SOLDIERS.

A SOUTHERNER'S STATEMENT, THAT THE NEGRO CAVALRY SAVED THE "ROUGH

RIDERS."

Some of the officers who accompanied the wounded soldiers on the trip

north give interesting accounts of the fighting around Santiago. "I

was standing near Captain Capron and Hamilton Fish, Jr.," said a

corporal to the Associated Press correspondent to-night, "and saw them

shot down. They were with the Rough Riders and ran into an ambuscade,

though they had been warned of the danger. If it had not been for the

Negro Calvary the Rough Riders would have been exterminated. I am not

a Negro lover. My father fought with Mosby's Rangers, and I was born

in the South, but the Negroes saved that fight, and the day will come

when General Shafter will give them credit for their bravery."--_Asso.

Press_.

* * * * *

RECONCILIATION.

"Members of our regiment kicked somewhat when the colored troops were

sent forward with them, but when they saw how the Negroes fought

they became reconciled to the situation and some of them now say the

colored brother can have half of their blankets whenever they want

them."

The above is an extract from a communication to the Daily Afternoon

Journal, of Beaumont, Tex., written by a Southern white soldier:

"Straws tell the way the wind blows," is a hackneyed expression, but

an apt illustration of the subject in hand. It has been hinted by a

portion of the Negro press that when the war ended, that if there is

to be the millennium of North and South, the Negroes will suffer in the

contraction. There is no reason to encourage this pessimistic view,

since it is so disturbing in its nature, and since it is in the

province of the individuals composing the race to create a future to

more or less extent. The wedge has entered; it remains for the race to

live up to its opportunities. The South already is making concessions.

While concessions are apt to be looked upon as too patronizing, and

not included in the classification of rights in common, yet in time

they amount to the same. The mere statement that "the colored brother

can have half of their blankets whenever they want them," while

doubtless a figure of speech, yet it signifies that under this very

extreme of speech an appreciable advance of the race. It does not mean

that there is to be a storming of the social barriers, for even in the

more favored races definite lines are drawn. Sets and circles adjust

such matters. But what is desired is the toleration of the Negroes in

those pursuits that the people engage in or enjoy in general and in

common. It is all that the American Negro may expect, and it is safe

to say that his ambitions do not run higher, and ought not to run

higher. Money and birth in themselves have created some unwritten

laws that are much stronger than those decreed and promulgated by

governments. It would be the height of presumption to strike at these,

to some extent privileged classes. It is to be hoped that the good

fortunes of war will produce sanity and stability in the race,

contending for abstract justice.--_Freeman._

The testimony continues:

Private Smith of the Seventy-first Volunteers, speaking about the

impression his experience at Santiago had made upon him, said:

"I am a Southerner by birth, and I never thought much of the colored

man. But, somewhat, now I feel very differently toward them, for I

met them in camp, on the battle field and that's where a man gets to

know a man. I never saw such fighting as those Tenth Cavalry men did.

They didn't seem to know what fear was, and their battle hymn was,

'There'll be a hot time in the old town to-night. That's not a

thrilling hymn to hear on the concert stage, but when you are lying in

a trench with the smell of powder in your nose and the crack of rifles

almost deafening you and bullets tearing up the ground around you

like huge hailstones beating down the dirt, and you see before you a

blockhouse from which there belches fourth the machine gun, pouring a

torrent of leaden missiles, while from holes in the ground you see

the leveled rifles of thousands of enemies that crack out death in

ever-increasing succession and then you see a body of men go up that

hill as if it were in drill, so solid do they keep their formation,

and those men are yelling, 'There'll be a hot time in the old town

to-night,' singing as if they liked their work, why, there's an

appropriateness in the tune that kind of makes your blood creep and

your nerves to thrill and you want to get up and go ahead if you lose

a limb in the attempt And that's what those 'niggers' did. You just

heard the Lieutenant say, 'Men, will you follow me?' and you hear a

tremendous shout answer him, 'You bet we will,' and right up through

that death-dealing storm you see men charge, that is, you see them

until the darned Springfield rifle powder blinds you and hides them."

"And there is another thing, too, that teaches a man a lesson. The

action of the officers on the field is what I speak of. Somehow when

you watch these men with their gold braid in armories on a dance night

or dress parade it strikes you that they are a little more handsome

and ornamental than they are practical and useful. To tell the truth,

I didn't think much of those dandy officers on parade or dancing round

a ball room. I did not really think they were worth the money that was

spent upon them. But I just found it was different on the battlefield,

and they just knew their business and bullets were a part of the show

to them."

* * * * *

NEGRO SOLDIERS.

The Charleston News and Courier says:

It is not known what proportion of the insurgent army is colored, but

the indications are that the proportion of the same element in the

volunteer army of occupation will be small.

On the basis of population, of course one-third of the South's quota

should be made up of colored, and it is to be remembered that they

made good soldiers and constitute a large part of the regular army.

There were nearly 250,000 of them in service in the last war.

* * * * *

THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER--HIS GOOD MARKSMANSHIP--THE FIGHT AT EL

CANEY--"WOE TO SPANISH IN RANGE."

There has been hitherto among the officers of the army a certain

prejudice against serving in the Negro regiments. But the other day a

Lieutenant in the Ninth Infantry said enthusiastically:

"Do you know, I shouldn't want anything better than to have a company

in a Negro regiment? I am from Virginia, and have always had the usual

feeling about commanding colored troops. But after seeing that charge

of the Twenty-fourth up the San Juan Hill, I should like the best in

the world to have a Negro company. They went up that incline yelling

and shouting just as I used to hear when they were hunting rabbits

in Virginia. The Spanish bullets only made them wilder to reach the

trenches."

[Illustration: FIRST PAY-DAY IN CUBA FOR THE NINTH AND TENTH CAVALRY.]

Officers of other regiments which were near the Twenty-fourth on July

1 are equally strong in their praise of the Negroes. Their yells were

an inspiration to their white comrades and spread dismay among the

Spaniards. A Captain in a volunteer regiment declares that the

Twenty-fourth did more than any other to win the day at San Juan.

As they charged up through the white soldiers their enthusiasm was

spread, and the entire line fought the better for their cheers and

their wild rush.

Spanish evidence to the effectiveness of the colored soldiers is not

lacking. Thus an officer who was with the troops that lay in wait for

the Americans at La Quasina on June 24th, said:

"What especially terrified our men was the huge American Negroes. We

saw their big, black faces through the underbrush, and they looked

like devils. They came forward under our fire as if they didn't the

least care about it."

THE CHARGE AT EL CANEY.

It was the Tenth Cavalry that had this effect on the Spaniards. At

San Juan the Ninth Cavalry distinguished itself, its commander,

Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton, being killed. The fourth of the Negro

regiments, the Twenty-fifth Infantry, played an especially brilliant

part in the battle of El Caney on July 1st. It was held in reserve

with the rest of Colonel Miles' brigade, but was ordered to support

General Lawton's brigade toward the middle of the day. At that hour

marching was an ordeal, but the men went on at a fast pace. With

almost no rest they kept it up until they got into action. The other

troops had been fighting hard for hours, and the arrival of the

Twenty-fifth was a blessing. The Negroes went right ahead through the

tired ranks of their comrades. Their charge up the hill, which was

surmounted by Spanish rifle pits and a stone fort, has been told. It

was the work of only a part of the regiment, the men coming chiefly

from three companies. Colonel Milts had intended having his whole

brigade make the final charge, but the Twenty-fifth didn't wait for

orders. It was there to take that hill, and take the hill it did.

One of the Spanish officers captured there seemed to think that the

Americans were taking an unfair advantage of them in having colored

men who fought like that. He had been accustomed to the Negroes in the

insurgent army, and a different lot they are from those in the United

States army.

"Why," he said ruefully, "even your Negroes fight better than any

other troops I ever saw."

The way the Negroes charged up the El Caney and San Juan hills

suggested inevitably that their African nature has not been entirely

eliminated by generations of civilization, but was bursting forth in

savage yells and in that wild rush some of them were fairly frantic

with the delight of the battle. And it was no mere craziness. They

are excellent marksmen, and they aim carefully and well. Woe to the

Spaniards who showed themselves above the trenches when a colored

regiment was in good range. MAGNIFICENT SHOWING MADE BY THE

NEGROES--THEIR SPLENDID COURAGE AT SANTIAGO THE ADMIRATION OF ALL

OFFICERS.

They were led by Southern Men--Black Men from the South Fought Like

Tigers and end a Question often debated--In only One or Two Actions of

the Civil War was there such a loss of Officers as at San Juan.

[TELEGRAM TO COMMERCIAL.]

WASHINGTON, July 6, 1898.

Veterans who are comparing the losses at the battle of San Juan, near

Santiago, last Friday, with those at Big Bethel and the first Bull Run

say that in only one or two actions of the late war was there such a

loss in officers as occurred at San Juan hill.

The companies of the Twenty-fourth Infantry are without officers. The

regiment had four captains knocked down within a minute of each other.

Capt. A.C. Ducat was the first officer hit in the action, and was

killed instantly. His second lieutenant, John A. Gurney, a Michigan

man, was struck dead at the same time as the captain, and Lieutenant

Henry G. Lyon was left in command of Company D, but only for a few

minutes, for he, too, went down. Liscum, commanding the regiment, was

killed.

NEGROES FIGHT LIKE TIGERS.

Company F, Twenty-fourth Infantry, lost Lieutenant Augustin, of

Louisiana, killed, and Captain Crane was left without a commissioned

officer. The magnificent courage of the Mississippi, Louisiana,

Arkansas and Texas Negroes, which make up the rank and file of this

regiment, is the admiration of every officer who has written here

since the fight. The regiment has a large proportion of Southern-born

officers, who led their men with more than usual exposure. These men

had always said the Southern Negro would fight as staunchly as any

white man, if he was led by those in whom he had confidence. The

question has often been debated in every mess of the army. San Juan

hill offered the first occasion in which this theory could be tested

practically, and tested it was in a manner and with a result that

makes its believers proud of the men they commanded. It has helped

the morale of the four Negro regiments beyond words. The men of the

Twenty-fourth Infantry, particularly, and their comrades of the Ninth

and Tenth Cavalry as well, are proud of the record they made.

THEY NEVER WAVERED.

The Twenty-fourth took the brunt of the fight, and all through it,

even when whole companies were left without an officer, not for a

moment were these colored soldiers shaken or wavering in the face of

the fierce attack made upon them. Wounded Spanish officers declare

that the attack was thus directed because they did not believe the

Negro would stand up against them and they believed there was the

faulty place in the American line. Never were men more amazed than

were the Spanish officers to see the steadiness and cool courage with

which the Twenty-fourth charged front forward on its tenth company (a

difficult thing to do at any time), under the hottest fire. The value

of the Negro as a soldier is no longer a debatable question.

It has been proven fully in one of the sharpest fights of the past

three years.

* * * * *

"OUR BOYS," THE SOLDIERS.

"What Army Officers and Others Have to Say of the Negroes Conduct in

War"--"Give Honor to Whom Honor is Due"--"Acme of Bravery."

It has been said, "Give honor to whom honor is due," and while it is

just and right that it should be so, there are times, however, when

the "honor" due is withheld. Ever since the battle of San Juan Hill at

Santiago de Cuba nearly every paper in the land has had nothing but

praise for the bravery shown by the "Rough Riders," and to the extent

that, not knowing the truth, one would naturally arrive at the

conclusion that the "Rough Riders" were "the whole thing." Although

sometimes delayed, the truth, like murder, "will out." It is well

enough to praise the "Rough Riders" for all they did, but why not

divide honors with the other fellows who made it possible for them,

the "Rough Riders," to receive praise, and be honored by a generous

and valorous loving nation?

After the battles of El Caney and San Juan Hill, many wounded American

soldiers who were able to travel were given furloughs to their

respective homes in the United States, and Lieutenant Thomas Roberts,

of this city, was one of them. Shortly after Lieutenant Roberts

arrived in the city he was interviewed by a representative of the

_Illinois State Register_, to whom he gave a description of the battle

of July 1st. He said: "On the night of June 30th the second squadron

of the Tenth Cavalry did outpost duty. Daylight opened on the

soon-to-be blood-sodden field on July 1st, and the Tenth was ordered

to the front. First went the first squadron, followed soon after by

the second, composed of Troops G, I, B and A. The Tenth Cavalry is

composed of Negroes, commanded by white officers, and I have naught

but the highest praise for the swarthy warriors on the field of

carnage. Led by brave men, they will go into the thickest of the

fight, even to the wicked mouths of deadly cannon, unflinchingly."

Lieutenant Roberts says further that "at 9 o'clock on the morning of

July 1st the order came to move. Forward we went, until we struck a

road between two groves, which road was swept by a hail of shot and

shell from Spanish guns. The men stood their ground as if on dress

parade. Single file, every man ready to obey any command, they bade

defiance to the fiercest storm of leaden hail that ever hurtled over a

troop of United States cavalry. The order came, 'Get under cover,' and

the Seventy-first New York and the Tenth Cavalry took opposite sides

of the road and lay down in the bushes. For a short time no orders

came, and feeling a misapprehension of the issue, I hastened forward

to consult with the first lieutenant of the company. We found that

through a misinterpreted order the captain of the troop and eight

men had gone forward. Hastening back to my post I consulted with the

captain in the rear of Troop G, and the quartermaster appeared upon

the scene asking the whereabouts of the Tenth Cavalry. They made known

their presence, and the quartermaster told them to go on, showing the

path, the quartermaster led them forward until the bend in the

San Juan River was reached. Here the first bloodshed in the Tenth

occurred, a young-volunteer named Baldwin fell, pierced by a Spanish

ball."

An aide hastened up and gave the colonel of the regiment orders to

move forward. The summit of the hill was crowned by two block-houses,

and from these came an unceasing fire. Lieutenant Roberts said he had

been lying on the ground but rose to his knees to repeat an order,

"Move forward," when a mauser ball struck him in the abdomen and

passed entirely through his body. Being wounded, he was carried off of

the field, but after all was over, Lieutenant Roberts says it was said

(on the quiet, of course) that "the heroic charge of the Tenth Cavalry

saved the 'Rough Riders' from destruction." Lieutenant Roberts says

he left Cuba on the 12th of July for Fort Monroe, and that a wounded

Rough Rider told him while coming over that "had it not been for the

Tenth Cavalry the Rough Riders would never passed through the seething

cauldron of Spanish missiles." Such is the statement of one of

Springfield's best citizens, a member of the Tenth Cavalry, United

States regulars.

[Illustration: FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE CUBAN REPUBLIC.]

Some days later, Lieutenant Roberts had occasion to visit Chicago and

Fort Sheridan, and while there he was interviewed by a representative

of the Chicago Chronicle, to whom he related practically the same

story as above stated, "You probably know my regiment is made up

exclusively of Negroes except for the commissioned officers, and I

want to say right here that those men performed deeds of heroism on

that day which have no parallel in the history of warfare. They were

under fire from six in the morning until 1:30 in the afternoon, with

strict orders not to return the hail of lead, and not a man in those

dusky ranks flinched. Our brigade was instructed to move forward

soon after 1 o'clock to assault the series of blockhouses which was

regarded as impregnable by the foreign attaches. As the aide dashed

down our lines with orders from headquarters the boys realized the

prayed-for charge was about to take place and cheered lustily. Such a

charge! Will I ever forget that sublime spectacle? There was a river

called San Juan, from the hill hard by, but which historians will term

the pool of blood. Our brigade had to follow the course of that creek

fully half a mile to reach the point selected for the grand attack.

With what cheering did the boys go up that hill! Their naked bodies

seemed to present a perfect target to the fire of the dons, but they

never flinched. When the command reached the famous stone blockhouse

it was commanded by a second sergeant, who was promoted on the field

of battle for extraordinary bravery. San Juan fell many minutes before

El Caney, which was attacked first, and I think the Negro soldiers can

be thanked for the greater part of that glorious work. All honor to

the Negro soldiers! No white man, no matter what his ancestry may

be, should be ashamed to greet any of those Negro cavalrymen with

out-stretched hand. The swellest of the Rough Riders counted our

troopers among their best friends and asked them to their places in

New York when they returned, and I believe the wealthy fellows will

prove their admiration had a true inspiration."

Thus we see that while the various newspapers of the country

are striving to give the Rough Riders first honors, an honest,

straightforward army officer who was there and took an active part in

the fight, does not hesitate to give honor to whom honor is due, for

he says, "All honor to the Negro soldiers," and that it was they who

"saved the Rough Riders from destruction." And right here I wish to

call the reader's attention to another very important matter and that

is, while it has been said heretofore that the Negro soldier was not

competent to command, does not the facts in the case prove, beyond a

doubt, that there is no truth in the statement whatever? If a white

colonel was "competent" to lead his command into the fight, it seems

that a colored sergeant was competent extraordinary, for he not only

went into the fight, but he, and his command, "done something,"

done the enemy out of the trenches, "saved the Rough Riders from

destruction," and planted the Stars and Stripes on the blockhouse.

Just before the charge, one of the foreign attaches, an Englishman,

was heard to say that he did not see how the blockhouse was to be

reached without the aid of cannon; but after the feat had been

accomplished, a colored soldier said, "We showed him how."

Now that the colored soldier has proven to this nation, and the

representatives of others, that he can, and does fight, as well as the

"other fellow," and that he is also "competent" to command, it remains

to be seen if the national government will give honor to whom honor is

due, by honoring those deserving, with commissions.

Under the second call for volunteers by the President, the State of

Illinois raised a regiment of colored soldiers, and Governor Tanner

officered that regiment with colored officers from colonel down; and

that, as you might say, before they had earned their "rank." Now the

question is, can the national government afford to do less by those,

who have earned, and are justly entitled to, a place in the higher

ranks? We shall see.

C.F. ANDERSON.

Springfield, Ill.

* * * * *

COLORED FIGHTERS AT SANTIAGO.

Testimony is multiplying of the bravery of the colored troops at

Santiago de Cuba July 1st and 2d, 1898.

Testimony is adduced to show that these "marvels of warfare" actually

fought without officers and executed movements under a galling fire

which would have puzzled a recruit on parade ground. The Boston

Journal of the 31st, in its account, gives the following

interview-Mason Mitchell (white) said:

"We were in a valley when we started, but made at once for a trail

running near the top of a ridge called La Quasina, several hundred

feet high, which, with several others parallel to it, extended in the

direction of Santiago. By a similar trail near the top of the ridge to

our right several companies of Negro troopers of the Ninth and Tenth

United States Cavalry marched in scout formation, as we did. We had an

idea about where the Spaniards were and depended upon Cuban scouts to

warn us but they did not do it. At about 8:30 o'clock in the morning

we met a volley from the enemy, who were ambushed, not only on our

ridge, but on the one to the right, beyond the Negro troops, and the

Negro soldiers were under a cross fire. That is how Capt. Capron and

Hamilton Fish were killed."

It says: "Handsome young Sergt. Stewart, the Rough Rider protege of

Henry W. Maxwell, when he was telling of the fight in the ambush, gave

it as his opinion that the Rough Riders would have been whipped out if

the Tenth Cavalry (colored) had not come up just in time to drive

the Spaniards back. 'I'm a Southerner, from New Mexico, and I never

thought much of the 'nigger' before. Now I know what they are made of.

I respect them. They certainly can fight like the devil and they don't

care for bullets any more than they do for the leaves that shower down

on them. I've changed my opinion of the colored folks, for all of the

men that I saw fighting, there were none to beat the Tenth Cavalry and

the colored infantry at Santiago, and I don't mind saying so.'"

The description which follows is interesting: "It was simply grand to

see how those young fellows, and old fellows, too, men who were rich

and had been the petted of society in the city, walk up and down the

lines while their clothes were powdered by the dust from exploding

shells and torn by broken fragments cool as could be and yelling to

the men to lay low and take good aim, or directing some squad to take

care of a poor devil who was wounded. Why, at times there when the

bullets were so thick they mowed the grass down like grass cutters in

places, the officers stood looking at the enemy through glasses as if

they were enjoying the scene, and now and then you'd see a Captain or

a Lieutenant pick up a gun from a wounded or dead man and blaze

away himself at some good shot that he had caught sight of from his

advantage point. Those sights kind of bring men together and make

them think more of each other. And when a white man strayed from his

regiment and falls wounded it rather affects him to have a Negro, shot

himself a couple of times, take his carbine and make a splint of it

to keep a torn limb together for the white soldier, and then, after

lifting him to one side, pick up the wounded man's rifle and go back

to the fight with as much vigor as ever. Yes, sir, we boys have

learned something down there, even if some of us were pretty badly

torn for it."

Another witness testifies: "Trooper Lewis Bowman, another of the brave

Tenth Cavalry, had two ribs broken by a Spanish shell while before San

Juan. He told of the battle as follows:"

"'The Rough Riders had gone off in great glee, bantering up and

good-naturedly boasting that they were going ahead to lick the

Spaniards without any trouble, and advising us to remain where we were

until they returned, and they would bring back some Spanish heads as

trophies. When we heard firing in the distance, our Captain remarked

that some one ahead was doing good work. The firing became so heavy

and regular that our officers, without orders, decided to move forward

and reconnoitre When we got where we could see what was going on we

found that the Rough Riders had marched down a sort of canon between

the mountains. The Spaniards had men posted at the entrance, and as

soon as the Rough Riders had gone in had about closed up the rear

and were firing upon the Rough Riders from both the front and rear.

Immediately the Spaniards in the rear received a volley from our men

of the Tenth Cavalry (colored) without command. The Spaniards were

afraid we were going to flank them, and rushed out of ambush, in front

of the Rough Riders, throwing up their hands and shouting, 'Don't

shoot; we are Cubans.'"

"The Rough Riders thus let them escape, and gave them a chance to take

a better position ahead. During all this time the men were in all the

tall grass and could not see even each other and I feared the Rough

Riders in the rear shot many of their men in the front, mistaking them

for Spanish soldiers. By this time the Tenth Cavalry had fully taken

in the situation, and, adopting the method employed in fighting

the Indians, were able to turn the tide of battle and repulse the

Spaniards."

He speaks plainly when he says:

"I don't think it an exaggeration to say that if it had not been for

the timely aid of the Tenth Cavalry (colored) the Rough Riders would

have been exterminated. This is the unanimous opinion, at least, of

the men of the Tenth Cavalry. I was in the fight of July 1, and it was

in that fight that I received my wound. We were under fire in that

fight about forty-eight hours, and were without food and with but

little water. We had been cut off from our pack train, as the Spanish

sharpshooters shot our mules as soon as they came anywhere near the

lines, and it was impossible to move supplies. Very soon after the

firing began our Colonel was killed, and the most of our other

officers were killed or wounded, so that the greater part of that

desperate battle was fought by some of the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry

without officers; or, at least, if there were any officers around, we

neither saw them nor heard their commands. The last command I heard

our Captain give was:"

"'Boys, when you hear my whistle, lie flat down on the ground.'"

"Whether he ever whistled or not I do not know. The next move we made

was when, with a terrific yell, we charged up to the Spanish trenches

and bayoneted and clubbed them out of their places in a jiffy. Some of

the men of our regiment say that the last command they heard was: 'To

the rear!' But this command they utterly disregarded and charged to

the front until the day was won, and the Spaniards, those not dead in

the trenches, fled back to the city."

[Illustration: CUBANS FIGHTING FROM TREE TOPS.]

But a colored man, Wm. H. Brown, a member of the Tenth Cavalry, said:

"A foreign officer, standing near our position when we started out to

make that charge, was heard to say; 'Men, for heaven's sake, don't

go up that hill! It will be impossible for human beings to take that

position! You can't stand the fire!' Notwithstanding this, with a

terrific yell we rushed up the enemy's works, and you know the result.

Men who saw him say that when this officer saw us make the charge he

turned his back upon us and wept."

"And the odd thing about it all is that these wounded heroes never

will admit that they did anything out of the common. They will

talk all right about those 'other fellows,' but they don't about

themselves, and were immensely surprised when such a fuss was made

over them on their arrival and since. They simply believed they had a

duty to perform and performed it."--Planet.

* * * * *

OUR COLORED SOLDIERS.

A FEW OF THE INTERESTING COMMENTS ON THE DEEDS PERFORMED BY THE BRAVE

BOYS OF THE REGULAR ARMY--SAVED THE LIFE OF HIS LIEUTENANT BUT LOST

HIS OWN.

"The Ninth and Tenth Cavalry are composed of the bravest lot of

soldiers I ever saw. They held the ground that Roosevelt retreated

from and saved them from annihilation."

To a Massachusetts soldier in another group of interviewers, the same

question was put: "How about the colored soldiers?"

"They fought like demons," came the answer.

"Before El Caney was taken the Spaniards were on the heights of San

Juan with heavy guns. All along our line an assault was made and the

enemy was holding us off with terrible effect. From their blockhouse

on the hill came a magazine of shot. Shrapnell shells fell in our

ranks, doing great damage. Something had to be done or the day would

have been lost. The Ninth and part of the Tenth Cavalry moved across

into a thicket near by. The Spaniards rained shot upon them. They

collected and like a flash swept across the plains and charged up the

hill. The enemy's guns were used with deadly effect. On and on they

went, charging with the fury of madness. The blockhouse was captured,

the enemy fled and we went into El Caney."

In another group a trooper from an Illinois regiment was explaining

the character of the country and the effect of the daily rains upon

the troops. Said he:

"Very few colored troops are sick. They stood the climate better and

even thrived on the severity of army life."

Said he: "I never had much use for a 'nigger' and didn't want him

in the fight. He is all right, though. He makes a good soldier and

deserves great credit."

Another comrade near by related the story as told by a cavalry

lieutenant, who with a party reconnoitered a distance from camp. The

thick growth of grass and vines made ambuscading a favorite pastime

with the Spaniards. With smokeless powder they lay concealed in the

grass. As the party rode along the sharp eye of a colored cavalryman

noticed the movement of grass ahead. Leaning over his horse with sword

in hand he plucked up an enemy whose gun was levelled at the officer.

The Spaniard was killed by the Negro who himself fell dead, shot by

another. He had saved the life of his lieutenant and lost his own.

A comrade of the Seventeenth Infantry gave his testimony. Said he:

"I shall never forget the 1st of July. At one time in the engagement

of that day the Twenty-first Infantry had faced a superior force of

Spaniards and were almost completely surrounded. The Twenty-fourth

Infantry, of colored troops, seeing the perilous position of the

Twenty-first, rushed to the rescue, charged and routed the enemy,

thereby saving the ill-fated regiment."

Col. Joseph Haskett, of the Seventeenth regular Infantry, testifies to

the meritorious conduct of the Negro troops. Said he:

"Our colored soldiers are 100 percent superior to the Cuban. He is a

good scout, brave soldier, and not only that, but is everywhere to be

seen building roads for the movement of heavy guns."

Among the trophies of war brought to Old Point were a machete, the

captured property of a colored trooper, a fine Spanish sword, taken

from an officer and a little Cuban lad about nine years old, whose

parents had bled for Cuba. His language and appearance made him the

cynosure of all eyes. He was dressed in a little United States uniform

and had pinned to his clothing a tag which read: "Santiago buck, care

of Col. C.L. Wilson, Manhattan Club, New York." His name is Vairrames

y Pillero.

He seemed to enjoy the shower of small coin that fell upon him from

the hotels. His first and only English words were "Moocha Moona."

These fragments were gathered while visiting at Old Point Comfort

recently. They serve to show the true feeling of the whites for their

brave black brother.

A.E. MEYZEEK, in the Freeman.

Louisville, Ky.

BLACK SOLDIER BOYS.

The following is what the New York Mail and Express says respecting

the good services being rendered by our black soldier boys:

"All honors to the black troopers of the gallant Tenth! No more

striking example of bravery and coolness has been shown since the

destruction of the Maine than by the colored veterans of the Tenth

Cavalry during the attack upon Caney on Saturday. By the side of the

intrepid Rough Riders they followed their leader up the terrible hill

from whose crest the desperate Spaniards poured down a deadly fire of

shell and musketry. They never faltered. The tents in their ranks

were filled as soon as made. Firing as they marched, their aim was

splendid, their coolness was superb, and their courage aroused the

admiration of their comrades. Their advance was greeted with wild

cheers from the white regiment's, and with an answering shout they

pressed onward over the trenches they had taken close in the pursuit

of the retreating enemy. The war has not shown greater heroism. The

men whose own freedom was baptized with blood have proved themselves

capable of giving up their lives that others may be free. To-day is a

glorious Fourth for all races 'of people in this great land."

* * * * *

THEY NEVER FALTERED.

The test of the Negro soldier has been applied and today the whole

world stands amazed at the valor and distinctive bravery shown by the

men, who, in the face of a most galling fire, rushed onward while

shot and shell tore fearful gaps in their ranks. These men, the Tenth

Cavalry, did not stop to ask was it worth while for them to lay down

their lives for the honor of a country that has silently allowed her

citizens to be killed and maltreated in almost every conceivable way;

they did not stop to ask would their death bring deliverance to their

race from mob violence and lynching. They saw their duty and did it!

The New York Journal catches inspiration from the wonderful courage of

the Tenth Cavalry and writes these words:

"The two most picturesque and most characteristically American

commands in General Shafter's army bore off the great honors of a day

in which all won honor."

"No man can read the story in to-day's Journal of the 'Rough Riders'

charge on the blockhouse at El Caney of Theodore Roosevelt's mad

daring in the face of what seemed certain death without having his

pulses beat faster and some reflected light of the fire of battle

gleam from his eyes."

"And over against this scene of the cowboy and the college graduate,

the New York man about town and the Arizona bad man united in one

coherent war machine, set the picture of the Tenth United States

Cavalry-the famous colored regiment. Side by side with Roosevelt's men

they fought-these black men. Scarce used to freedom themselves, they

are dying that Cuba may be free. Their marksmanship was magnificent,

say the eye witnesses. Their courage was superb. They bore themselves

like veterans, and gave proof positive that out of nature's naturally

peaceful, careless and playful military discipline and an inspiring

cause can make soldiers worthy to rank with Caesar's legions or

Cromwell's army."

"The Rough Riders and the Black Regiment. In those two commands is an

epitome of almost our whole national character."

THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER.

HIS GOOD NATURE--HIS KINDHEARTEDNESS--EQUALLY AVAILABLE IN INFANTRY OR

CAVALRY.

The good nature of the Negro soldier is remarkable. He is always fond

of a joke and never too tired to enjoy one. Officers have wondered to

see a whole company of them, at the close of a long practice march,

made with heavy baggage, chasing a rabbit which some one may have

started. They will run for several hundred yards whooping and yelling

and laughing, and come back to camp feeling as if they had had lots of

fun, the white soldier, even if not tired, would never see any joke in

rushing after a rabbit. To the colored man the diversion is a delight.

In caring for the sick, the Negro's tenderheartedness is conspicuous.

On one of the transports loaded with sick men a white soldier asked

to be helped to his bunk below. No one of his color stirred, but two

Negro convalescents at once went to his assistance. When volunteers

were called for to cook for the sick, only Negroes responded. They

were pleased to be of service to their officers. If the Captain's

child is ill, every man in the company is solicitous; half of them

want to act as nurse. They feel honored to be hired to look after an

officer's horse and clothing. The "striker" as he is called, soon gets

to look on himself as a part of his master; it is no "Captain has been

ordered away," but "We have been ordered away." Every concern of his

employer about which he knows interests him, and a slight to his

superior is vastly more of an offence than if offered to himself.

Indeed, if the army knew how well officers of the colored regiments

are looked after by their men, there would be less disinclination to

serve in such commands. After years with a Negro company, officers

find it difficult to get along with white soldiers. They must be much

more careful to avoid hurting sensibilities, and must do without many

little services to which they have been accustomed.

* * * * *

MRS. PORTER'S RIDE TO THE FRONT.

For many years she has known and admired Miss Barton and against the

advice of her friends had resolved to help Miss Barton in her task of

succoring the sufferers in Cuba.

During the second day's fighting Mrs. Porter, escorted by a general

whom she has known for many years, rode almost to the firing line.

Bullets whistled about her head, but she rode bravely on until her

curiosity was satisfied. Then she rode leisurely back to safety. She

came back filled with admiration of the colored troops. She

described them as being "brave in battle, obedient under orders and

philosophical under privations."