Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-03-19
NEGROES IN THE ARMY


It is not necessary to revert to the civil
war to prove that American negroes are
faithful, devoted wearers of uniforms"
SAID washington man who has seen serv-
ice IN both the army and the navy. There
are at the present time four regiments of
negro soldiers In the regular army of the
United Sfates-twe outfits of cavalry and
Two OF infantry. All four OF these regi-
ments nave been under fire in important
indian campaigns, and there is YET TO be
recorded a single instance of man IN any
OF the Tour fayouts showing the white
leather-and the two cavalry regiments of
negroes have on several occasions found
themselves In very serious situations.
While the fact is well known out on the
frontier, cont remember ever having
seen II mentioned back here that an Amer
lean Indian has deadly fear of an Amer
ican negro. The most utterly reckless,
dare-devn savage Of the copper hue stands
nteTaiiy IN awe of a, negro, and the blacker
the negro the more the Indian uuails I
can't understood why this should be. for
the Indians decline to- give their reasons
Ior tearing the black men-but the fact
renalns That oeven "a very bad Indian will
give the mildsst-mennered negro imagina-
BILE all the rsem he wants, and to SPARE.
as any old regular army soldier who has
lrontlered VIII tell you. The Indians. 1
fancy, attrlblte Cncanny and eerie quail
ties to the blacks.
The cavalry troop to which belonged
soidiered alongside couple of troops of
the 9th Cavalry, a. black regiment, I'D in
the sioux country eight or nine years ago.
we were perft ming chain guard. hem
Inihs-in outySand it was our chief business
TO prevent the savages from straying from
the reservation We weren't under in
structions to riddle them if they attempted
TO pass our guard posts, but we were au-
han I'M "a
Die extent, short Of manning them, with
cur bayonets, If any Of them attempted to
plun past US. Well, the men of my troop
nao al! colors of trouble while on guard
IN noioing the savageS in. The ~Ogalalas
would hardly pay any attention to the
white sentries Of the chain guard. and
Wnen they wanted to pass beyond the
guard limits they would invariably pick
by white 'post-htmper. The result was
that we of the white troop had frequently
TO engage in the risky job of prodding
strapplng six-footers of Ogalallas with
that none Of US liked that sort of work
q little bit. not on humanitarian grounds,
either, except as the humanitarianism
concerned ourselves. But the guards of the
with the savages. The Indians made il a
point to remain strictly away from the
negro soldiers guard posts. Moreover,
the black soldiers got ten times as much
the teepees and wickieups as did we of the
white outfit. The Indians would fairly
jump to obey the Uniformed negroes. / re-
member seeing a black sergeant make a
minor chief go down to creek to get a
pail of water-dn unheard-of thing. for the
chiefs ard even the ordinary bucks among
the Sioux always make their sQuaws per-
form this sort of work. This chief was
summing himself reclining, beside his tee
pee. whsn his squaw started with the
bucket for the creek, some distance away.
The negro sergeant saw the move. He
walked up to the lazy, grunting savage.
Look a-yeah, yo' spraddle-noscd, yal-
luh voodoo nigguh, said the black SER
geant-he was as tlack as stove-pipe-to
the blinking chief, jes' shake. yo' no-count
boEes an tote dat wattuh yosef. Yo' ain
no bettuh to pack wattuh dan All am,
yo' heah me-.
1.-THE heap-much Indian chief didn't I'M
derstand word Of what the negro ser
geant said to him, but he understands pam
tomime all right, and when the black man
in Uniform grabbed the pail out of the
sQuaw's hand and thrust 1t into the dirty
paw of the chief the chief went after that
bucket OF water, and he went a-loping,
ton.
1.-The Sioux will and down to their chill
d; ems children the story of d charge that
a couple of the negro cavalry troops made
during the Pine Ridge troubles. II was at
the height of the fracas, and the bad In
dams were regularly lined UP for battle.
These two black. troops were ordered to
make the initial swoop upon them. You
know the noise one black man can make
when lie gets right down to the business of
yelling. Well, these two troops of blacks
started their terrific whoep in unison when
they were mile away from the waiting
Sioux, and they got warmed up and in bet
ter practice with every jump their horses
made l give you my solemn word that in
the ears of us, of the white outfit, stationed
three miles away The yelps those two ne
gro troops of cavalry gave sounded like
the carnival whooping of ten thousand
devils. The Sioux weren't scared little
bit by the approaching clouds Of alkaii
dust but. all the same, when the two black
troops were more than a quarter of a mile
away the Indians broke and ran as if the
old boy himself were after them, and it
was then an easy matter to round them
up and dlsarm them, The chiefs afterwarG
confessed that they were scared out by
the awful bowling Of the black soldiers
Ever since the war the United States
navy has had tair representation of ne
gro blueJackets. and they make frst-class
naval tars. There IS not ship in the navy
today that hasn't from six to a Dozen any
how, of negroes on its muster rolls The
negro sailors names very rarely get en-
rolled on the bad Conduct lists They are
obedient. sober men and good seamen.
There are many getty officers among