The Colored Regulars in the United States Army | Page 6

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.
CHAPTER I.
SKETCH OF SOCIAL HISTORY.
The Importation of the Africans--Character of the Colored Population in 1860--Colored Population in British West Indian Possessions--Free Colored People of the South--Free Colored People of the North--Notes.
Professor DuBois, in his exhaustive work upon the "Suppression of the African Slave-Trade," has brought within comparatively narrow limits the great mass of facts bearing upon his subject, and in synopses and indices has presented all of the more important literature it has induced. In his Monograph, published as Volume II of the Harvard Historical Series, he has traced the rise of this nefarious traffic, especially with reference to