The Colored Regulars in the United States ArmySteward, T. G. (Theophilus Gould)
History
The Colored Regulars in the United States Army
Steward, T. G. (Theophilus Gould)
African American soldiers; Spanish-American War, 1898 -- Participation, African American
The martial spirit is not foreign to the Negro character, as has been
abundantly proved in both ancient and modern times. Williams, in his
admirable history of the Negro as well as in his "Negro Troops in the
Rebellion," has shown at considerable length that the Negro has been a
soldier from earliest times, serving in large numbers in the Egyptian
army long before the beginning of the Christian era. We know that
without any great modification in character, runaway slaves developed
excellent fighting qualities as Maroons, in Trinidad, British Guiana,
St. Domingo and in Florida. But it was in Hayti that the unmixed Negro
rose to the full dignity of a modern soldier, creating and leading
armies, conducting and carrying on war, treating with enemies and
receiving surrenders, complying fully with the rules of civilized
warfare, and evolving finally a Toussaint, whose military genius his
most bitter enemies were compelled to recognize--Toussaint, who to the
high qualities of the soldier added also the higher qualities of
statesmanship. With Napoleon, Cromwell and Washington, the three great
commanders of modern times who have joined to high military talent
eminent ability in the art of civil government, we must also class
Toussaint L'Ouverteur, the black soldier of the Antilles. Thiers, the
prejudiced attorney of Napoleon, declares nevertheless that Toussaint
possessed wonderful talent for government, and the fact ever remains
that under his benign rule all classes were pacified and San Domingo
was made to blossom as the rose. In the armies of Menelek, in the
armies of France, in the armies of England, as well as in the
organization of the Zulu and Kaffir tribes the Negro has shown himself
a soldier. If the Afro-American should fail in this particular it will
not be because of any lack of the military element in the African side
of his character, or for any lack of "remorseless military audacity"
in the original Negro, as the historian, Williams, expresses it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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