The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-04-28


 sso1,adron of the Tenth cavalry in It's chase after Pancho Villa and his pan dits is "a full-blooded negro, Major J Charles Young, U. s. A., the only cor ored graduate of West Point, uhe o1ly .ro1ored field officer in the line Of the army dashine rider and expert In cavalry tactics, now for one or the rare occasions of his long and stirring military career permitted toe serve HIS country in active arms.
 France has raised and honored ne gro generals Negro soldiers bear for- ward the ensigns of that republic, or England of Germany and of many other nations. Negro troops EhaVe worn the, uniform of the United States since GAneral Benjamin F. Butler -raised 1isE first force of Freedom at New Orleans Finer fighting records than those held by the Ninth ana Tenth cavalry and. the Twenty-fo11rtn and Twenty-dfth infantry. the 4ons existing negro regiments or our L oN,A regular army, it would be hard to ma. Fs,It the negro officers of the Un1ted States is a rarity. He has made oc- casional appearahces mostly in the pay corps as a political appolntee' pul he has lasted only a little time Ma 5or Young is trained n1llilary sp9z cialist, graduated from the military school of the most severe requirements known to the world and holding held rank today, no more by the 1nexoratnle .l working of the system or pronaotlon bv seniority than by his high profes- ss;ona1 attainrnents. his masterly char acter and his traits of steadfastness which have made it possible Tor nln fo continue under the most irving conditions in a service to which his possession of shoulder straps IS III many instances an sffront
 Major Young's military career is one one of mingled pathos and heroics- pathetic because it has demanded his existence in continued social isolation and because it has not perhaps un-z fairly. but relentlessly. denied nm lne privilege of fighting service under his own flag: heroic because it has been powerIess to impair the black man skill, his fidelity, his dauntlessness
 2 Much as they may respect the negro soldier, they don't. they can't like the negro offfeer in the army. His pres ence there with his status rigidly de- Herrnfned by his rank provides most acute phase of that racial problem which has so long per- lexed the whole. nationA So a. tactful war department, ably assisted by an equally tactful Major Young has kept that officer much of his time detailed as military attache. in Hayd, where the op1ects Of military observation are purely hu- anrous,' or in Liberia, where Major Houng recently performed service which won for him not only the Spin szarn medal, but a painful wound from which he has only recently recovered And that service was performed not as an officer of the United States cav airy. but as a commander of the Libe- rian constabu1ary.
 Although he does not look his age. Major Young is 52 years old He en- tered West Point as cadet in 1884. It was not thought that he would re- main there long. The academy had before that housed coIored appointeeS and had treated them with scrupulous Justice, but the academic require rnents, supplemented by the socoal os- tracism imposed upon them by the corps of cadets-oStracism represented by the utmost of formal courtesy on all matters official and completely ig noring in anything e1se-had soon driven them back into civil life. Ca det Young stood it.; stood four years of 1t; four years of silence and abSo- Iute lack of companionship; stood it and did so well in riding hall and in fantry plain in the camp and in the section recitation rooms that he was graduated sufficiently high in his class Ito enjoy the privilege of choosing for anis branch of the service either the arr HiIIery, the cavalry or the infantry. EIs chose the cavalry.
 Duly commissionedlhew was assigned as an additional lieutenant to the Tenth cavalry in 1889. As a Nsecond lieutenant of course, and a shave tail
 
 mo white officers under him. There were only his veteran black non coms and privates. All the other officers were white. There continued the so- cial isolation which had been his at sitlae academy Young stuck to his work Subsequently he he was trans ferred as a second lieutenant to the iTwenty-f1fth infantry and then back again to the Ninth cavalry, where he remained until 1896. So far all his service had been with co1ored organi- zations.
 But in 1sse when he was made a first lieutenant, he was assigned> to the Seventh cavalry white regiment famous in the arrpy's story as Clusters s old command Just how well the white enlisted men, not a, few of them southern ~orn, took to the idea of obedience to the orders of a negro is rot related, but ct least it is known . that Lieutenant Young handled the delicate situation with such ability that there was never a hint of out break. never sign of dfsanection vis- 3bIe to the outside world. His term of service with the Seventh was but brief anyway. In October of '97 he was tranSferred back to the Ninth cavalry. where he served until 1912.
 In 1901 he was made a captain. Off, Acers Of E11e Connecticut National guard who were sent to the Texas mobilization camp in 1911 saw him there, troop commander of one of the best units in his regiments, with two white IieufenantS serving under him. He did not share the regfmental off, cers' mess. He ate aI~1e in his tent He took no part in such social oppor- tunfties as the camp afforded. But he did perform very efficiently every function of a troop commander and 3is white Heutenants, who treated him and were in turn treated by him with every fofnaI courtesy, never spoke of him save in terms of re- spect At one time he served very skiIlfH1ly as host to rather bump tious eolored colonel, of an Illinois Ma tiona1 Guard regiment. whose arrival as an observation officer seemed not