CHAPTER III.


SERGEANT-MAJOR PULLEN OF THE 25TH INFANTRY DESCRIBES THE CONDUCT OF
THE NEGRO SOLDIERS AROUND EL CANEY.


THE TWENTY-FIFTH U.S. INFANTRY--ITS STATION BEFORE THE SPANISH
AMERICAN WAR AND TRIP TO TAMPA, FLORIDA--THE PART IT TOOK IN THE FIGHT
AT EL CANEY.


When our magnificent battleship Maine was sunk in Havana harbor,
February 15, 1898, the 25th U.S. Infantry was scattered in western
Montana, doing garrison duty, with headquarters at Fort Missoula. This
regiment had been stationed in the West since 1880, when it came up
from Texas where it had been from its consolidation in 1869, fighting
Indians, building roads, etc., for the pioneers of that state and New
Mexico. In consequence of the regiment's constant frontier service,
very little was known of it outside of army circles. As a matter of
course it was known that it was a colored regiment, but its praises
had never been sung.

Strange to say, although the record of this regiment was equal to any
in the service, it had always occupied remote stations, except a
short period, from about May, 1880, to about August, 1885, when
headquarters, band and a few companies were stationed at Fort
Snelling, near St. Paul, Minnesota.