The Colored Regulars in the United States Army

by T. G. Steward

The period for him to set up for himself has not yet come, and he is still acquiring means and training within a realm controlled in all respects by a people who maintain toward him an attitude of absolute social exclusion. His is the history of a people marching from nowhere to somewhere, but with no well-defined Canaan before them and no Moses to lead. It is indeed, on their part, a walk by faith, for as yet the wisest among the race cannot tell even the direction of the journey. Before us lie surely three possible destinies, if not four; yet it is not clear toward which one of these we are marching. Are we destined to see the African element of America's population blend with the Euro-American element and be lost in a common people? Will the colored American leave this home in which as a race he has been born and reared to manhood, and find his stage of action somewhere else on God's earth? Will he remain here as a separate and subordinate people perpetuating the conditions of to-day only that they may become more humiliating and exasperating? Or is there to arise a war of races in which the blacks are to be exterminated? Who knows? Fortunately the historian is not called upon to perform the duties of prophet. His work is to tell what has been; and if others, building upon his presentation of facts can deduce what is to be, it is no small tribute to the correctness of his interpretations; for all events are parts of one vast system ever moving toward some great end. One remark only need be made. It is reasonable to presume that this new Afro-American will somehow and somewhere be given an opportunity to express that particular modification of material life which his spiritual nature will demand. Whether that expression will be made here or elsewhere; whether it will be higher or lower than what now surrounds us, are questions which we may well leave to the future.

No people can win and hold a place, either as a nation among other nations, or as an elementary component of a nation, merely by its own goodness or by the goodness of others. The struggle for national existence is a familiar one, and is always initiated by a display of physical force. Those who have the power seize territory and government, and those who CAN, keep possession and control. It is in some instances the backing up of right by might, and in others the substituting of right by might. Too often the greatest of all national crimes is to be weak. When the struggle is a quiet one, going on within a nation, and is that of an element seeking a place in the common social life of the country, much the same principles are involved. It is still a question to be settled by force, no matter how highly the claim of the weaker may be favored by reason and justice.

The powers by which a special people may emerge from an unhappy condition and secure improved social relations, using the word social in its broadest sense, are physical, intellectual and material. There must be developed manly strength and courage and a power of intellect which will manifest itself in organization and attractiveness, and in the aptitude of employing appropriate methods for ends in view. To these must be added the power that comes through wealth; and thus, with the real advancement of condition and character will come, tardily and grudgingly perhaps, but nevertheless surely, improved social standing. Once filled with the common national spirit, partaking of its thoughts, entering heartily into the common movements, having the same dress, language and manners as others, and being as able and as willing to help as to be helped, and withal being in fact the most intensely American element on the continent because constructed on this soil, we may hope that the Afro-American will ultimately win and hold his proper place.

The history made by the American Negro has been so filled with suffering that we have overlooked the active side. The world has heard so much of the horrors of the "Middle Passage"; the awful sufferings of the slave; the barbarous outrages that have been perpetrated upon ex-slaves; the inhuman and senseless prejudices that meet colored Americans almost everywhere on their native soil; that it has come to look upon this recital as the whole of the story. It needs to be told that these records constitute the dark side of the picture, dark and horrible enough, to be sure, but this is by no means the whole picture. If there are scenes whose representations would serve to ornament the infernal regions, pictures over which fiends might gloat, there are also others which angels might delight to gaze upon. There has been much of worthy action among the colored people of this country, wherever the bonds of oppression have been slackened enough to allow of free movement. There have been resistance to wrong by way of remonstrance and petition, sometimes even by force; laudable efforts toward self-education; benevolent and philanthropic movements; reform organizations, and commendable business enterprise both in individuals and associations. These show a toughness of fibre and steadiness of purpose sufficient to make the backbone of a real history.

The present work deals with these elements of character as they are exhibited in the garb of the soldier. When men are willing to fight and die for what they hold dear, they have become a moving force, capable of disturbing the currents of history and of making a channel for the stream of their own actions. The American Negro has evolved an active, aggressive element in the scientific fighting men he has produced. Individual pugilists of that race have entered all classes, from featherweight to heavyweight, and have remained there; receiving blows and dealing blows; showing a sturdy, positive force; mastering and employing all the methods of attack and defence allowed in such encounters, and supporting themselves with that fortitude and courage so necessary to the ring. Such combats are not to be commended, as they are usually mere tests of skill and endurance, entered into on the principles of the gambler, and they are introduced here for the sole purpose of showing the colored man as a positive force, yielding only to a superior degree of force of the same kind. The soldier stands for something far higher than the pugilist represents, although he has need of the same qualities of physical hardihood—contempt for suffering and coolness in the presence of danger, united with skill in the use of his weapons. The pugilist is his own general and never learns the high lessons of obedience; the soldier learns to subordinate himself to his commander, and to fight bravely and effectively under the direction of another.

The evolution of the Afro-American soldier was the work of a short period and suffered many interruptions. When the War of the Revolution broke out the colored man was a slave, knowing nothing of the spirit or the training of the soldier; before it closed several thousand colored men had entered the army and some had won distinction for gallantry. Less than forty years later, in the war of 1812, the black man again appeared to take his stand under the flag of independence. The War of Secession again witnessed the coming forth of the black soldier, this time in important numbers and performing heroic services on a grand scale, and under most discouraging circumstances, but with such success that he won a place in arms for all time. When the Civil War closed, the American black man had secured his standing as a soldier—the evolution was complete. Henceforth he was to be found an integral part of the Army of the United States.

The black man passed through the trying baptism of fire in the Sixties and came out of it a full-fledged soldier. His was worse than an impartial trial; it was a trial before a jury strongly biased against him; in the service of a government willing to allow him but half pay; and in the face of a foe denying him the rights belonging to civilized warfare. Yet against these odds, denied the dearest right of a soldier—the hope of promotion—scorned by his companions in arms, the Negro on more than two hundred and fifty battle-fields, demonstrated his courage and skill, and wrung from the American nation the right to bear arms. The barons were no more successful in their struggle with King John when they obtained Magna Charta than were the American Negroes with Prejudice, when they secured the national recognition of their right and fitness to hold a place in the Standing Army of the United States. The Afro-American soldier now takes his rank with America's best, and in appearance, skill, physique, manners, conduct and courage proves himself worthy of the position he holds. Combining in his person the harvested influences of three great continents, Europe, Africa and America, he stands up as the typical soldier of the Western World, the latest comer in the field of arms, but yielding his place in the line to none, and ever ready to defend his country and his flag against any and all foes.

The mission of this book is to make clear this evolution, giving the historical facts with as much detail as possible, and setting forth finally the portrait of this new soldier. That this is a prodigious task is too evident to need assertion—a task worthy the most lofty talents; and in essaying it I humbly confess to a sense of unfitness; yet the work lies before me and duty orders me to enter upon it. A Major General writes: "I wish you every success in producing a work important both historically and for the credit of a race far more deserving than the world has acknowledged." A Brigadier General who commanded a colored regiment in Cuba says to me most encouragingly: "You must allow me—for our intimate associations justify it—to write frankly. Your education, habits of thought, fairness of judgment and comprehension of the work you are to undertake, better fit you for writing such a history than any person within my acquaintance. Those noble men made the history at El Caney and San Juan; I believe you are the man to record it. May God help you to so set forth the deeds of that memorable first of July in front of Santiago that the world may see in its true light what those brave, intelligent colored men did."

Both these men fought through the Civil War and won distinction on fields of blood. To the devout prayer offered by one of them I heartily echo an Amen, and can only wish that in it all my friends might join, and that God would answer it in granting me power to do the work in such a way as to bring great good to the race and reflect some glory to Himself, in whose name the work is undertaken.