page_title: Charles Young (United States Army)
section_title: Other military assignments
hierarchical_section_title: Charles Young (United States Army) / Military service / Other military assignments
caption_attribution_description: Scope and content: Colonel Charles Young - with biographical paragraphs. General notes: English: 1943 cartoon about the life of Colonel Charles Young, by Charles Alston. Charles Young was the third African American graduate of West Point, the first black U.S. National Park Service superintendent, the first African American military attaché, and the highest ranking black officer in the United States Army until his death in 1922.
context_page_description: Charles Young was an American soldier. He was the third African-American graduate of the United States Military Academy, the first black U.S. national park superintendent, first black military attaché, first black man to achieve the rank of colonel in the United States Army, and highest-ranking black officer in the regular army until his death in 1922.
context_section_description: With the Army's founding of the Military Intelligence Department, in 1904 it assigned Young as one of the first military attachés, serving in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He was to collect intelligence on different groups in Haiti, to help identify forces that might destabilize the government. He served there for three years.
  In 1908 Young was sent to the Philippines to join his Ninth Regiment and command a squadron of two troops. It was his second tour there. After his return to the United States, he served for two years at Fort D.A. Russell, Wyoming.
  In 1912 Young was assigned as military attaché to Liberia, the first African-American to hold that post. For three years, he served as an expert adviser to the Liberian government and also took a direct role in supervising construction of the country's infrastructure. For his achievements, in 1916 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) awarded Young the Spingarn Medal, given annually to the African American demonstrating the highest achievement and contributions.
  In 1912 Young published The Military Morale of Nations and Races, a remarkably prescient study of the cultural sources of military power. He argued against the prevailing theories of the fixity of racial character, using history and social science to demonstrate that even supposedly servile or un-military races (such as Negroes and Jews) displayed martial virtues when fighting for democratic societies. Thus the key to raising an effective mass army from among a polyglot American people was to link patriotic service with fulfillment of the democratic promise of equal rights and fair play for all. Young's book was dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt, and invoked the principles of Roosevelt's "New Nationalism".
  During the 1916 Punitive Expedition by the United States into Mexico, then-Major Young commanded the 2nd Squadron of the 10th United States Cavalry. While leading a cavalry pistol charge against Pancho Villa's forces at Agua Caliente (1 April 1916), he routed the opposing forces without losing a single man.
  Because of his exceptional leadership of the 10th Cavalry in the Mexican theater of war, Young was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in September 1916. He was assigned as commander of Fort Huachuca, the base in Arizona of the Tenth Cavalry, nicknamed the "Buffalo Soldiers", until mid 1917. He was the first African American to achieve the rank of colonel in the US Army.
caption: Charles Young cartoon by Charles Alston, 1943
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