As I approached the display of books and documents on the table, the words 9th and 10th Calvary in a title stirred my memory.
Weren’t those the African American soldiers who charged with Teddy Roosevelt, I asked a woman dressed smartly in a navy uniform with gold buttons and a hat during the Black Memorabilia Collectors Fair at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore, MD. I was correct, she said.
I remembered from researching another blog post that Buffalo Soldier regiments had fought with the future president of the United States during the Spanish American War at the end of the 19th century. I had seen a print of their exploits as part of an exhibit in June of war propaganda posters owned by University of Pennsylvania professor Dr. Tukufu Zuberi, a co-host of PBS’ “History Detectives.”
More importantly, I had bought a framed print of the assault on San Juan Hill at auction a few months ago that showed the battle and the black soldiers’ contribution to it in life and limb.
When I first saw the print at the auction house, I knew that I wanted it, although it was listed among the last items to be sold that day and I was in for a long wait. But I knew it’d be worth it because of the history that it held. (Another auction-goer bidded hopefully for it, too.)
It was a chromolithograph print titled “Charge of the Colored Troops – San Juan,” copyrighted in 1907 by the James Lee Co. of Chicago. It showed some soldiers dying and dead with specks of blood on their bodies, while others were fighting and racing towards the Spanish enemies. One soldier carried an American flag during this short-lived battle, fought from July 1-3, 1898.
America was pulled into the war against Spain a few months earlier as it sought to help Cuba secure independence, and to protect its own economic and political interests. The sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor in February 1898 cemented its involvement in the war. The U.S. Navy was there first, followed by Army troops, whose orders included the takeover of the village of El Caney, where the 25th Colored Infantry of the Buffalo Soldiers fought with other troops, and then to Santiago.
The Spanish, though, put up a tough fight at El Caney, so some regiments of U.S. soldiers trudged on to San Juan heights, whose two hills the American soldiers named Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill.
I had always heard, read or saw prints of Teddy Roosevelt on his horse with his Rough Riders in tow charging up San Juan Hill. That apparently was the romantic view set forth by Roosevelt and his supporters. Other historians have questioned that account. It seemed that Roosevelt, his Rough Riders, the 9th and 10th regiments of the Buffalo Soldiers and another regiment charged Kettle Hill and tamped the American flag there.
Roosevelt apparently also took credit for planting the American flag on Kettle Hill, but there is some dispute about who did. Others have said that Sgt. George Berry of the Buffalo Soldiers picked up the flag from a soldier who had been shot, carried it up the hill and planted it.
After taking Kettle Hill, Roosevelt looked over and saw the assault on San Juan Hill that was devastating the regiment of white troops fighting alongside other members of the 9th and 10th, and the 24th Infantry of the Buffalo Soldiers. He ordered his men to follow him, but only five did so because most did not hear him. He regrouped and set out for San Juan Hill, joining a mixed contingent of soldiers (including Native Americans who were part of the Rough Riders) and officers to capture it. The Spanish then surrendered the city of Santiago and gave up the fight for Cuba.
Black and white soldiers fought together in both assaults, which appeared to have been more chaotic than planned, but they got lost in the Roosevelt version of the story. Apparently, the debate continues about who arrived first, who did what and who was the hero in the San Juan Hill battle. One thing is for sure: The United States’ victory in squashing Spain made it a major player in the world.
As evidenced by the print, the bravery of the Buffalo Soldiers – whom the Spanish dubbed “Smoked Yankees” in much the same way the Native Americans had named them “Buffalo Soldiers” in the mid-19th century – in Cuba was eventually recognized. In a historical paper presented in 1998, Frank N. Schubert quoted a statement contained in a 1965 book by African American historian Rayford W. Logan:
“Black newspapers and magazines tracked their movements and reported their activities. Poetry, dramas, and songs all celebrated their service and valor. As Rayford Logan, dean of a generation of black historians … later wrote, ‘Negroes had little, at the turn of the century, to help sustain our faith in ourselves except the pride that we took in the 9th and 10th Cavalry, the 24th and 25th Infantry. Many Negro homes had prints of the famous charge of the colored troops up San Juan Hill. They were our Ralph Bunche, Marian Anderson, Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson.'”
Five soldiers from the 10th received Medals of Honor (the regiment lost a greater proportion of its men). A monument to the Buffalo Soldiers was installed in 1992 in Fort Leavenworth, KS, where the 10th was originally formed.
