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.