History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and Other Items of Interest by Edward A. Johnson
page 44 of 162 (27%)
page 44 of 162 (27%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
officers, when the only real test of this question happened around
Santiago and showed just the contrary of what he states? We prefer to take the results at El Caney and San Juan as against Colonel Roosevelt's imagination. COLONEL ROOSEVELT'S ERROR. TRUE STORY OF THE INCIDENT HE MAGNIFIED TO OUR HURT--THE WHITE OFFICERS' HUMBUG SKINNED OF ITS HIDE BY SERGEANT HOLLIDAY--UNWRITTEN HISTORY. _To the Editor of the New York Age_: Having read in _The Age_ of April 13 an editorial entitled "Our Troops in Cuba," which brings to my notice for the first time a statement made by Colonel Roosevelt, which, though in some parts true, if read by those who do not know the exact facts and circumstances surrounding the case, will certainly give rise to the wrong impression of colored men as soldiers, and hurt them for many a day to come, and as I was an eye-witness to the most important incidents mentioned in that statement, I deem it a duty I owe, not only to the fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers of those soldiers, and to the soldiers themselves, but to their posterity and the race in general, to be always ready to make an unprejudiced refutation of such charges, and to do all in my power to place the colored soldier where he properly belongs--among the bravest and most trustworthy of this land. In the beginning, I wish to say that from what I saw of Colonel Roosevelt in Cuba, and the impression his frank countenance made upon me, I cannot believe that he made that statement maliciously. I |
|