History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and Other Items of Interest Part 9

A Governor, appointed by the Crown, manages affairs. His palace is at San Juan, the capital, a town that has 24,000 inhabitants.

Upon the Rio Grande are prehistoric monuments that have attracted the attention of archaeologists.

Following the Spanish custom, men are imprisoned for debt.

In the towns houses are built with flat roofs, both to catch water and to afford the family a small roof garden.

All planters have town houses where they bring their families during the carnival season.

San Juan is filled with adventurers, gamblers, speculators and fugitives from justice.--New York World.

CHAPTER VII.

LIST OF COLORED REGIMENTS THAT DID ACTIVE SERVICE IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR,--AND VOLUNTEER REGIMENTS.

Regulars.--Section 1104 of the Revised Statutes of the United States Congress provides that "the enlisted men of two regiments of Cavalry shall be colored men," and in compliance with this section the War Department maintains the organization of the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, both composed of colored men with white officers.

Section 1108 of the Revised Statutes of Congress provides that "the enlisted men of two regiments of Infantry shall be colored men;" and in compliance with this section the War Department maintains the organization of the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry, both composed of colored men with white officers.

The above regiments were the only colored troops that were engaged in active service in Cuba. There is no statute requiring colored artillery regiments to be organized, and there are therefore none in the regular army.

A LIST OF THE VOLUNTEER REGIMENTS.

Third North Carolina--All colored officers.

Sixth Virginia--White officers, finally, the colored officers resigned "under pressure," after which there was much trouble with the men, as they claimed to have enlisted with the understanding that they were to have colored officers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OFFICERS OF THE NINTH OHIO--LIEUTENANT YOUNG IN THE CENTER.]

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Ninth Ohio--All colored officers; Col. Chas. Young, graduate of West Point.

Twenty-third Kansas--Colored officers.

Eighth Illinois--Under colored officers, and did police duty at San Luis, Cuba.

Seventh U.S. Volunteers.

Tenth U.S. Volunteers.

Eighth U.S. Volunteers.

Ninth U.S. Volunteers.

The conduct of the colored volunteers has been harshly criticised, and it is thought by some that the conduct of the volunteers has had some influence in derrogation of the good record made by the regulars around Santiago. This view, however, we think unjust, and ill-founded.

There was considerable shooting of pistols and drunkenness among some regiments of volunteers, and it was not confined by any means to those of the colored race. The white volunteers were as drunk and noisy as the colored, and shot as many pistols.

The Charlotte Observer has the following editorial concerning some white troops that pa.s.sed through Charlotte, N.C.:

"Mustered-out West Virginia and New York volunteer soldiers who pa.s.sed through this city Sat.u.r.day night, behaved on the train and here like barbarians, disgracing their uniforms, their States and themselves.

They were drunk and disorderly, and their firing of pistols, destruction of property and theft of edibles was not as bad as their outrageous profanity and obscenity on the cars in the hearing of ladies. Clearly they are brutes when sober and whiskey only developed the vileness already in them."

By a careful comparison of the reports in the newspapers, we see a slight excess of rowdyism on the part of the whites, but much less fuss made about it. In traveling from place to place if a white volunteer company fired a few shots in the air, robbed a fruit stand, or fussed with the by standers at railroad stations or drank whiskey at the car windows, the fact was simply mentioned in the morning papers, but if a Negro company fired a pistol a telegram was sent ahead to have mobs in readiness to "do up the n.i.g.g.e.rs" at the next station, and at one place in Georgia the militia was called out by a telegram sent ahead, and discharged a volley into the car containing white officers and their families, so eager were they to "do up the n.i.g.g.e.r." At Nashville the city police are reported to have charged through the train clubbing the colored volunteers who were returning home, and taking anything in the shape of a weapon away from them by force. In Texarcana or thereabouts it was reported that a train of colored troopers was blown up by dynamite. The Southern mobs seemed to pride themselves in a.s.saulting the colored soldiers.

While the colored volunteers were not engaged in active warfare, yet they attained a high degree of discipline and the CLEANEST AND MOST ORDERLY CAMP among any of the volunteers was reported by the chief sanitary officer of the government to be that of one of the colored volunteer regiments stationed in Virginia. It is to be regretted that the colored volunteers, especially those under Negro officers, did not have an opportunity to show their powers on the battlefield, and thus demonstrate their ability as soldiers, and so refres.h.i.+ng the memory of the nation as to what Negro soldiers once did at Ft. Wagner and Milikin's Bend. The volunteer boys were ready and willing and only needed a chance to show what they could do.

POLICED BY NEGROES.

WHITE IMMUNES ORDERED OUT OF SANTIAGO, AND A COLORED REGIMENT PLACED IN CHARGE.

Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., August 17, 1898.

Editor Colored American: The Star of this city published the following dispatch in its issue of the 16th inst. The Was.h.i.+ngton Post next morning published the same dispatch, omitting the last paragraph; and yet the Post claims to publish the news, whether pleasing or otherwise. The selection of the 8th Illinois colored regiment for this important duty, to replace a disorderly white regiment, is a sufficient refutation of a recent editorial in the Post, discrediting colored troops with colored officers. The Eighth Illinois is a colored regiment from Colonel down. The Generals at the front know the value of Negro troops, whether the quill-drivers in the rear do or not.

CHARLES R. DOUGLa.s.s.

The following is the dispatch referred to by Major Dougla.s.s. The headlines of the Star are retained.

IMMUNES MADE TROUBLE--GENERAL SHAFTER ORDERS THE SECOND REGIMENT OUTSIDE THE CITY OF SANTIAGO--COLORED TROOPS FROM ILLINOIS a.s.sIGNED TO THE DUTY OF PRESERVING ORDER AND PROPERTY.

Santiago de Cuba, Aug. 16.--General Shafter to-day ordered the Second Volunteer Regiment of Immunes to leave the city and go into camp outside.

The regiment had been placed here as a garrison, to preserve order and protect property. There has been firing of arms inside of the town by members of this regiment, without orders, so far as known. Some of the men have indulged in liquor until they have verged upon acts of license and disorder. The inhabitants in some quarters have alleged loss of property by force and intimidation, and there has grown up a feeling of uneasiness, if not alarm, concerning them. General Shafter has, therefore, ordered this regiment into the hills, where discipline can be more severely maintained.

In place of the Second Volunteer Immune Regiment, General Shafter has ordered into the city the Eighth Illinois Volunteer Regiment of colored troops, in whose sobriety and discipline he has confidence, and of whose st.u.r.dy enforcement of order no doubt is felt by those in command.

SKETCH OF SIXTH VIRGINIA VOLUNTEERS.

The Sixth Virginia Volunteer Infantry, U.S.V., consisted of two battalions, first and second Battalion Infantry Virginia Volunteers (State militia), commanded respectively by Maj. J.B. Johnson and Maj.

W.H. Johnson. In April, 1898, the war cloud was hanging over the land.

Governor J. Hoge Tyler, of Virginia, under instructions from the War Department, sent to all Virginia volunteers inquiring how many men in the respective commands were willing to enlist in the United States volunteer service in the war against Spain.

How many would go in or out of the United States.

COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA,