The Colored Regulars in the United States Army | Page 3

a brave army were driven from the thickets and jungles of an
almost inaccessible country. In the open field the troops stormed
intrenched infantry, and carried and captured fortified works with an
unsurpassed daring and disregard of death. By gaining commanding
ground they made the harbor of Santiago untenable for the Spanish
fleet, and practically drove it out to a speedy destruction by the
American Navy.
While enduring the hardships and privations of such campaign, the
troops generously shared their scanty food with the 5,000 Cuban
patriots in arms, and the suffering people who had fled from the
besieged city. With the twenty-four regiments and four batteries, the
flower of the United States Army, were also three volunteer regiments.
These though unskilled in warfare, yet, inspired with the same spirit,
contributed to the victory, suffered hardships, and made sacrifices with
the rest. Where all did so well, it is impossible, by special mention, to
do justice to those who bore conspicuous part. But of certain unusual
features mention cannot be omitted, namely, the cavalry dismounted,
fighting and storming works as infantry, and a regiment of colored
troops, who, having shared equally in the heroism as well as the
sacrifices, is now voluntarily engaged in nursing yellow-fever patients
and burying the dead. The gallantry, patriotism and sacrifices of the
American Army, as illustrated in this brief campaign, will be fully
appreciated by a grateful country, and the heroic deeds of those who
have fought and fallen in the cause of freedom will ever be cherished in
sacred memory and be an inspiration to the living.
By command of Major-General Miles:
J.C. GILMORE, Brigadier-General, United States Volunteers.

INTRODUCTORY.
To write the history of the Negro race within that part of the western
world known as the United States of America would be a task to which
one might devote a life time and still fail in its satisfactory
accomplishment. The difficulties lying in the way of collecting and
unifying the material are very great; and that of detecting the inner life
of the people much greater. Facts and dates are to history what color
and proportion are to the painting. Employed by genius, color and form
combine in a language that speaks to the soul, giving pleasure and
instruction to the beholder; so the facts and dates occurring along the
pathway of a people, when gathered and arranged by labor and care,
assume a voice and a power which they have not otherwise. As these
facts express the thoughts and feelings, and the growth, of a people,
they become the language in which that people writes its history, and
the work of the historian is to read and interpret this history for the
benefit of his fellow men.
Borrowing a second illustration from the work of the artist, it may be
said, that as nature reveals her secrets only to him whose soul is in
deepest sympathy with her moods and movements, so a people's history
can be discovered only by one whose heart throbs in unison with those
who have made the history. To write the history of any people
successfully one must read it by the heart; and the best part of history,
like the best part of the picture, must ever remain unexpressed. The
artist sees more, and feels more than he is able to transfer to his canvas,
however entrancing his presentation; and the historian sees and feels
more than his brightest pages convey to his readers. Nothing less than a
profound respect and love for humankind and a special attraction
toward a particular people and age, can fit one to engage in so sublime
a task as that of translating the history of a people into the language of
common men.
The history of the American Negro differs very widely from that of any
people whose life-story has been told; and when it shall come to be
known and studied will open an entirely new view of experience. In it

we shall be able to see what has never before been discovered in history;
to wit: the absolute beginning of a people. Brought to these shores by
the ship-load as freight, and sold as merchandise; entirely broken away
from the tribes, races, or nations of their native land; recognized only,
as African slaves, and forbidden all movement looking toward organic
life; deprived of even the right of family or of marriage, and corrupted
in the most shameless manner by their powerful and licentious
oppressors--it is from this heterogeneous protoplasm that the American
Negro has been developed. The foundation from which he sprang had
been laid by piecemeal as the slave ships made their annual deposits of
cargoes brought from different points on the West Coast, and basely
corrupted as is only too well known; yet out of it has