Roland Pendleton

AFRICAN AMERICAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE MILITARY

How would you feel if the very people whom you were supposed to protect hated you
and treated you harshly? Well thats what happened to many black soldiers. All throughout
Americas history black people have fought in Americas wars. From the birth of our nation to
the present, black soldiers have fought and shed blood to keep our nation free.
Blacks played important roles in Americas War for Independence. They fought with the
American patriots in important battles such as Lexington, Concord, Ticonderoga, and Bunker
Hill (PBS). In 1777 the United States Government decided to recruit black soldiers to help
replenish troop numbers in its armies. The blacks that fought for America fought with hopes to
gain their own freedom. It is estimated that 5,000 blacks fought on the side of the Americans
during the American Revolution (Rastatter). The war fostered ideas in the minds of many black
people. The black soldiers learned what the war was fought about and that the patriots cause
was for freedom. They also learned about freedoms values and what it did. The American
Revolution instilled in their hearts a yearning for freedom, liberty, and a longing for equality.
During the War of 1812, many blacks fought to help maintain Americas independence.
Blacks served in many support roles such as cooks, wagon drivers, sailors, engineers, and even
combat soldiers. Black Americans also helped fight alongside the French in naval battles against
the British (Binkin). Without the support of the blacks, America might have lost the war and
might have become a British colony again.

During the fight against Mexico there were blacks from New York who volunteered to
help fight. In Mexico they not only faced bullets, but they also faced the sweltering hot summers
and the frigid winters. Not only were the black soldiers dying from battles, but they were dying
from diseases as well. More soldiers were lost due to yellow fever than from Mexican bullets.
During that war, blacks served in important roles as musicians, cooks, and scouts (Davis).
When the Civil War started, the amount of black involvement with the war effort
increased even more. Black soldiers became an even larger and stronger force in the American
military. During the Civil War, many blacks wanted to pick up arms and fight for the America.
The very first and most famous black regiment organized in the Civil War was the 54
th

Massachusetts. The black soldiers worked hard even though they faced many social injustices.
After the Emancipation Proclamation, America was able to recruit and train thousands of black
soldiers. Many people thought that black soldiers are not as good as white soldiers because of
their poor performance in battles such as the Battle of the Crater. However, they are not to be
blamed for the poor outcome of that battle because the loss was a result of poor equipment and
poor military leadership from white officers (Davis).
Black soldiers fought bravely in battles such as the Battle of the Wilderness and
Spotsylvania. In battles such as those, black soldiers proved that they were just as good as white
soldiers. Many white soldiers admired their courage and complimented them by saying that they
fought like demons (Delaney). All throughout the war, blacks soldiers fought ferociously
because they knew that their freedom and the freedom of others was at stake. Black participation
in the Civil War helped tip the scale and brought the union to victory (Delaney).
After the Civil War, white southerners were afraid of armed black soldiers garrisoned
near their homes. They feared black soldiers might seek revenge for all the cruelty that they
received at the hands of southern slave masters (Davis). The United States needed soldiers to
fight the Indians, so the United States found a convenient way to both reassure white southerners
and recruit soldiers to fight the Indians in the west. The United States transferred black soldiers
garrisoned in the south to the garrisons out west. One of the most famous groups of black
soldiers was known as the Buffalo Soldiers (Davis).
The Buffalo Soldiers overcame many obstacles when they were working to keep America
safe. Many black people signed into the army because they were having a lot of difficulty as
civilians in finding jobs. Many of them were starving and homeless. The army provided an
opportunity for them to earn money, shelter, and food (Davis). Another reason why many people
joined the army was because many of them were sick and tired of ordinary civilian life. They
wanted to escape and search for adventure.
Life out west was full of adventures, but it was also followed by long weeks of boredom.
Living out west was very difficult. As soldiers, they were constantly drilled and had long
continuous marches. While on their job, the Buffalo Soldiers were frequently harassed. They
were not only harassed by the Indians, but also by the very civilians that the Buffalo Soldiers
were protecting. Many of the towns where the Buffalo Soldiers stayed were filled with cruel
townsfolk. An example of such a town is San Angelo, Texas. In that small town, Private
Hiram Pinder of the Ninth Cavalry was shot and killed by a white gambler in a saloon. The
townspeople helped the killer escape and he was never captured (Buffalo Soldiers). Another
unfortunate example is the murder of Private William Watkins, a black soldier. When Watkins
refused to sing for a white rancher named Tom McCarthy, McCarthy became angry and shot and
killed Watkins. McCarthy was tried for murder in front of an all-white jury and was acquitted
(found not guilty) (Buffalo Soldiers). These are just two examples of the many injustices that
the white townsfolk committed against the Buffalo Soldiers.
Not only did the white civilians mistreat the Buffalo Soldiers, but many of the white
soldiers also treated the Buffalo Soldiers harshly. White soldiers jeered at black soldiers passing
by and would call them monkeys. Many of the white soldiers did not even want to work with
black soldiers. For many white soldiers, to work with a black soldier was thought as disgraceful
and below them. They believed that black soldiers were not even worthy to be around them.
White soldiers often beat black soldiers and the white officers did nothing to stop the beatings
(Delaney).
The Buffalo Soldiers worked very hard. The blacks had to do many jobs that the white
soldiers did not want to take. Out west, the Buffalo Soldiers guarded railroads and telegraph
lines, stagecoaches, arms shipments, towns, homesteads, whites and Indians (Davis). When they
fought out west, they were sent deep into enemy territory and were mostly assigned garrison
duty. The Buffalo Soldiers had garrison duty in San Francisco and parks such as Yosemite
National Park. While at Yosemite, the Buffalo Soldiers built many of its paths and hiking trails.
Their goal was to restore the parks and make sure that there was a natural area of preserved land
that the American people could enjoy. Even though the Buffalo soldiers fought bravely and
stayed loyal to America, they still faced discrimination (Restuccia).
One soldier who faced great discrimination was Lieutenant Henry O. Flipper.
Lt. Flipper was the first black graduate of West Point, and he later became the first black
commanding officer in the history of the United States Regular Army (Buffalo Soldiers). At
West Point, Flipper had a distinguished record and was a very gifted cadet. After he finished
college, he was sent out west. Even though he was an officer, Flipper never saw any significant
combat and was instead relegated to performing menial tasks such as supervising the erection of
poles for telegraph lines and maintaining law and order on the frontier (Buffalo Soldiers).
When Flipper entered into a relationship with a white woman, he became even more disliked
among white officers. The officers framed Flipper and claimed that he stole money from the
United States government. Even though people recovered the money and found another suspect,
Flipper was still found guilty and was dishonorably discharged from the army. In 1999, President
Clinton pardoned Flipper and Flippers name was cleared and honor was finally restored
(Buffalo Soldiers).
Not only were the Buffalo Soldiers treated unjustly and given the worst jobs, they were also
given the worst equipment. The Buffalo Soldiers constantly received the old and worn out
equipment that the white soldiers did not want. The government often sent the newest and most
advanced equipment to the white soldiers. The white soldiers had better uniforms, better boots,
better weapons, and better food. While the white regiments had their banners made of silk, the
Buffalo Soldiers banners were made out of rags (Davis). Even with all the hardships, the
Buffalo Soldiers continued to serve honorably and think positively. The morale in their camps
stayed high, and they had one of the lowest rates of desertion (Davis). Despite all the hardships,
the Buffalo Soldiers continued to serve their country with honor and distinction.
The buffalo soldiers worked incredibly hard and poured their hearts into everything that they
did. Even when under immense danger, black soldiers have served above and beyond the call of
duty. One such soldier who was willing to risk his own life for his duty is Sergeant Emanuel
Stance. On May 20, 1870, Stance spotted a band of Apache soldiers. The soldiers held two white
children prisoners. Stance and nine other soldiers charged the Indians and was able to rescue a
child and capture nine horses (Buffalo Soldiers).
The next day, Stance spotted a group of twenty Indians preparing to attack a group of
Americans soldiers guarding a herd of horses. Stance and his men charged the Indians and drove
them off. He was able to capture five more horses. As Stance and his men were heading towards
their fort, the Indians attacked Stance and his men but Stance was able to repel the attack. Stance
was able to reach the fort safely with a rescued child, fourteen captured horses, and all of his men
uninjured. Because of Stances great bravery during the skirmishes, his commanding officer,
Captain Henry Carroll praised him. On June 20, 1870, based on Carrolls recommendation,
Stance became the first black soldier in the U.S. Regular Army to receive the Congressional
Medal of Honor (Buffalo Soldiers). His courage and honor became an inspiration for other
black soldiers who fought after him.
Not only did black men help with Americas wars, but black women helped as well. They
served as cooks, surgeons, stagecoach drivers, seamstresses, and many other things. An example
of such a black woman is Cathay Williams. Like many other blacks, Williams was a former
slave who first began helping the war effort during the Civil War. She worked as a cook and a
laundress. When the war ended, Williams wanted to do something in her life besides working in
the plantations. She saw the army as a way to make a new life and experience adventure (Davis).
She decided that she wanted to get paid by working for the army again. She joined the army, but
this time she actually took it a step further. She disguised herself as a man and enlisted as a foot
soldier. During her two years in the army, Williams served her country with bravery and honor
as a uniformed soldier (Davis).
When the Spanish American War broke out, most of the American troops were stationed
in the forts out west. It just so happened that some of the few regiments that happened to be on
the east coast were four black regiments. At that time, many Americans believed that blacks
were more immune to tropical diseases. This was one of the many inaccurate views that they had
about black soldiers. So some of the first soldiers to go to Cuba were the four black regiments
(Powel). Many of the black soldiers were glad to have a chance to fight, but many of the black
civilians expressed concern for the blacks in Cuba. Many blacks were not sure if the blacks in
Cuba would be treated worse under the Americans than under the Spanish (Powel).
In the 20
th
century, blacks were not allowed to fight in the front lines. Due to racism
during WWI, many blacks were prevented from fighting in the Western Front. Many black
soldiers were stationed in the Philippines, Hawaii, and near the Mexican border. The few black
soldiers who did go to the front lines were the non-commissioned officers who oversaw the
engineering work (Delaney). During World War I, the black soldiers continued to receive poor
treatment. Discrimination extended from the highest levels of government. President Woodrow
Wilson did not believe that blacks should be in high military positions, so many of the black
officers were sent home and replaced by white officers. Many of the white officers who were put
to command the black soldiers were white officers from the south. In those days people believed
that white southerners would be the best officers for black soldiers, because southerners were
presumed to have knowledge of controlling blacks because of their regions history as slave
masters. There were many different reasons why people fought in WWI. Blacks fought in WWI
because that war was a war for global democracy; black Americans believed that if they
defended democracy abroad they were more likely to receive it at home (Delaney).
Many people believed that black soldiers were not as good as white soldiers and that they
would not survive the fighting in the front lines. There were many prominent civil rights leaders
such as W.E.B. Du Bois who fought hard to convince the government to let blacks fight in the
front lines. It took decades for the government officials to finally change their minds. In 1941,
after a long and hard struggle, the government finally decided to recruit black regiments and
allow them to fight in the front lines. For the government, allowing black soldiers fight in the
front lines was an experiment to see how well they might fare in action. Nearly one million
blacks served in the United States Army during WWII (Fletcher).
The black regiments served with great bravery and distinction. For all of their efforts,
many black soldiers received awards; some of them even received the Medal of Honor. Because
of the great success the black regiments had on the ground, the government decided that blacks
might have additional success in the air and allowed blacks to fly planes (Delaney).
The first group of black soldiers to be trained by the Air Force were the Tuskegee
Airmen. Eighty-seven-year-old Woodrow Crockett was a part of that experiment . . . He flew
149 missions between 1944 and 1945, protecting harbors in Italy and American bombers from
German fighter planes . . . In 200 missions they never lost a bomber to enemy fire (VOA
News). While in Europe, blacks soldiers tasted equality and learned how life could be
desegregated. The black soldiers saw how well the blacks in Europe were treated and began to
question why the blacks back in America were treated so poorly.
Benjamin Davis was an army officer during WWII. Because he was black, the army
promoted him slower and gave him jobs where he would not be commanding white soldiers.
During his career in the military, there were only a handful of black army officers. He had to
work harder than a white officer in order to get promoted. His hard work paid off and he began
to slowly move up the chain of command. When WWII started, he was promoted and became
Americas first black general. Because of his influence as a general, he became a major
contributor to the integration of races within all of Americas armed forces (Fletcher).
While the black soldiers were in Europe, the towns people treated them with respect and
dignity. Even though American Generals advised the French not to form relationships with the
black soldiers, the French still befriended them and gave many of them medals for their bravery
(Delaney). This greatly increased the morale among the black soldiers and showed them how
other people thought differently of them and treated them as equals. When the war ended and the
black soldiers came back home, they brought with them the ideas of desegregation, equality, and
racial harmony. They began believing that they truly were equal to white people, that they
deserved more respect, and that they should be treated equally. The ideas that the soldiers
brought back home with them spread throughout black communities like wildfire. These ideas
planted a seed in the minds of many young black people who would soon become leaders during
the civil rights movement. One such young man was Martin Luther King (Delaney).
In the Korean War, blacks mainly played supporting roles. When the communists
invaded Korea, black soldiers helped slow the communist advance and protect the retreating
United Nations forces. Even through the Korean War the black soldiers were treated unfairly.
When black soldiers got in trouble, they were treated unjustly. There were records of trials, so-
called trials, in the middle of the night where the men were sentenced to life imprisonment in
hearings that lasted less than ten minutes. This is just one aspect of the many ways in which
blacks were mistreated during the Korean War. President Truman ordered the army to be
integrated, but many of the high-ranking officers just ignored Trumans orders (Korean War
Court Martial).
It would take many more years for the army to be completely integrated. Today, black
soldiers comprise a substantial percentage of our armed forces. Today there are an estimated
10,000 black officers serving in the United States Army (Fletcher). To this very day, black
soldiers have contributed greatly to the strength and power of the American might.
Many people would argue that after all of the accomplishments of Malcom X and Martin
Luther King, discrimination does not exist anymore. It is true that the amount of discrimination
has diminished considerably; however, discrimination is still something to be dealt with today.
Even though discrimination might not be as noticeable today is it was in the past, it still
continues to harm blacks and other minorities. There are still many acts of discrimination
occurring in and outside of the military. Nearly one out of three African Americans report they
have been unfairly stopped, searched and physically abused or threatened by the police,
according to findings from a new U-M study (Swanbrow). Discrimination does not only come
from a certain group of people; it can come from people of all races.
Throughout their history, black soldiers have helped serve our country in many different
ways. They fought with great courage and honor. Their sacrifices have helped carve and mold
America into what it is to this very day. Because of soldiers like these, America is the great and
free nation that it is today. Without the support of black soldiers, America might not have
survived its many armed conflicts. Although much has changed in America, the legacy that the
soldiers left behind still lives on.
Even though discrimination is not as prominent today as it was in the past, it is still a
problem needing attention. People today need to learn from the lessons of the past and work
together in the present so that the mistakes that our forefathers made should not be repeated. We
can work together and honor the memory of the brave men and women who fought and died to
keep our honorable country free.














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