by Paul R. Spitzzeri
In his article on Black soldiers for the special section on African-Americans in Los Angeles in the 12 February 1909 edition of the Los Angeles Times, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Allen Allensworth began his essay with the observation that “there is quite a difference between the negro and white soldier,” noting first that “organizations composed of negroes are the only purely American organizations in the army.”
This was because others contained members as “mixed as the colors of Joseph’s coat,” meaning from other countries, but “the enlisted negro proclaims proudly the fact that he is the only Simon-pure American child of the soil” and that “the only naturalization record in his family was written more than forty years ago from Sumter to Appomattox,” meaning during the Civil War in which Allensworth served in the Navy.
If these quotes sound familiar to readers of this post, it is because they are cited verbatim from Mabel Clare Craft’s 1899 article in the San Francisco Chronicle on the 24th Infantry Regiment, recently in Cuba for battle during the Spanish-American War and of which Allensworth was chaplain, though he remained stateside to recruit for the regiment. From there, however, he went on to discuss white officers returning after transfers to Black units “because he finds these negroes to be the best material to develop into efficient soldiers.” Allensworth added, though, that improved conditions and higher compensation made for “a better class of white men” in the Army.
The retired chaplain then examined the physical characteristics of Black men, writing that “the color of skin, texture of hair, solidity of cranium and perfect teeth were his safeguards against the malignant climate of Africa” and that “transplanted, he bore well the semi-tropical climate o the Southern States.” Slavery, moreover, did not reduce the “physical virtues” of African-Americans, “but rather enhanced them.” Heat, hunger and thirst, Allensworth asserted, did not prevent Black soldiers from doing their duty, while “his rapid recuperative powers” were seen from the transformation after the horrors of slavery to a return to the “magnificent heritage of his savage forefathers.”
There was, though, the statement that the African-American “has developed wonderfully in mentality, so that the “elongated head and peculiar forehead” evolved into “a normal head, with wide-apart intelligent eyes, nose and mouth finely chiseled and all the lines that tell of self-control and self-respect.” This was combined with “old traits” including excellent vision, strong teeth and bones, a “fine torso” and “good hips” along with long legs “with something of the elemental motion of the jungle warrior.” Allensworth also averred that,
He has an amiable disposition, a sunny nature and a happy-go-lucky spirit even under the most trying circumstances—indispensable attributes in a soldier. He is gentle, submissive, teachable, strongly attached to those who treat him with kindness, slow to anger, but not easily soothed when aroused. His devotion to sentiment, whether of friendship or religion, is intense. He is sentimental in the best sense. His bright fancy and romantic thoughts lead him to the enjoyment of fiction and poetry, and had he been trained in the schools, these departments of belles-lettres would have been his debtor. Such a man makes an ideal soldier.
Moreover, the chaplain continued, religion “appeals to the heroic” and the Black soldier “readily takes up his army cross to follow the flag” even as “he is conscious of the fact that the United States demands a foot from him to every inch demanded of a white man.” There was a philosophical acceptance of what was needed from a good soldier in obeying any order, whether it was just or not and he “leaves the final adjustment to God.”
In the late war, Allensworth proudly noted, the 24th Infantry drove the Spanish from San Juan Hill and “rushed forward to the credit of the flag it delighted to honor” and when Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders “were not rough enough,” it was the Black 10th Calvary that “went to their rescue.” The 25th Infantry also proved courageous at the Battle of El Caney “when it came time to storm the stone fort” there and it was added that African-American troops “have been and are always ready now to help their white comrades.” This led to the comment that,
If the country would but consider that the negro is a man and that he can do and will do as men of other nationality [sic], conditions being equal. As it is, every time he has been called to enter the army he has been considered an experiment.
Another coopting of Craft’s decade-old article was the statement that in all American wars Black men fought was for a flag “that represented to them stripes, with no gleam of stars.” Yet, despite serving in the Revolution and the War of 1812, African-Americans were only allowed to fight for the Union in the Civil War “after the fiercest possible opposition and in the midst of the doubts of all parties concerned” and “to take part in the conflict of which he was the innocent cause.” More than 186,000 Black men served with arms, with 20% of them killed, wounded or missing, while another 150,000 worked for engineers, quartermasters and in commissaries.
Allensworth called attention that African-American soldiers fought not as citizens, so they lacked love of country, as well as knowledge of military strategy and techniques, “but they did have a yearning for freedom, and a grateful heart to appreciate a liberty-loving people.” Their condition was such that there were serious challenges on the battlefield, but, when they became acclimated, they served with “tenacious fidelity” and “it did not take their officers long to learn that these men were to be relied upon wholly, that they fought with stubborn bravery.”
An unnamed writer was quote as remarking that Black troops in the Civil War was a phenomenon of “from passive submission to the cruel curse of slavery to the brilliant aggressiveness of the free soldier” and “from the shame of degradation to the glory of military exultation,” as well as “from deep obscurity to fame and martial immortality.” Still, the chaplain lamented, “the negro as a soldier is [still] an experiment,” though there were two each of infantry and cavalry regiments, along with some commissioned officers among staff departments.
Allensworth repeated the old canard that African-Americans were cowards because of submission to authority in slave times, but “there was never a greater mistake” made as “there is no longer room for argument about the courage of the negro soldier in battle.” Those antiquated views derived from “sentiment and prejudice” rather than “the saving salt of common sense.” But, while it was stated that “in some circles the negro is thought to be a better soldier than the white man,” this was “unfair to both” as “each have qualities superior to the other.”
It was recorded that there were frequent protests of the posting of Black regiments in certain areas, including when Allensworth’s 24th Infantry were sent from Fort Bayard in New Mexico to Fort Douglas near Salt Lake City, but a paper in the Utah capital, just a year later, protested the sending of the regiment to the Philippines for postwar duty and it asked “is there any other regiment in the United States, or any other in the world, that performed such duty as this regiment performed after the surrender [of the Spanish after San Juan Hill]?”
With respect to the question of the ability for African-American soldiers to be good officers, Allensworth cited a report from late June 1898 that, with up to 10,000 men to be enlisted for war service, it was recalled that the Civil War had those large numbers of troops solely under the command of white officers. It was continued that, when there was discussion of having Black officers for regiments of soldiers of the same race, a major issue appeared to have been “how the officers’ mess [dining and social spaces] would be arranged when there were white and colored officers in the same regiment.” The conclusion was,
Army experts regard the officering of negro regiments with negroes as an experiment which my or may not turn out well. The negro needs to be led well, they say, to make a good fighter, and there is some doubt whether colored troops will follow one of their own race as well as they would a white officer.
Allensworth followed by remarking that “the experiment was made and the records of a number of these officers show that a negro can be an officer and a gentleman as well as a man and soldier.” This included those in the regular Army as well as in the Phillippines as part of the military police force. This led him to declare,
The negro soldier asks no favors, he accepts a rigid discipline when it is just. No one need think that the negro doesn’t know when he is imposed upon because of his silence; they know and appreciate the responsibilities of their officers and are ever willing to contribute their share of mirth to lighten their burdens. Their wives have also been willing to help burden the domestic burdens of the officers’ wives, especially those who are considerate of their necessity and human characteristics.
A local example of a stellar Black soldier cited by Allensworth as he concluded his article was Capt. Floyd H. Crumbly (1855-1929), who, in 1909, was a realtor in the Angel City. Crumbly enlisted in his native Georgia in the Army in 1876 as served with the 10th Cavalry Regiment for half a decade, with promotions to corporal and sergeant, becoming quartermaster sergeant and then company clerk for two years.
Crumbly reenlisted in 1887 with the 2nd Georgia Battalion as an adjutant to the commander of the Black volunteer force. After that officer resigned, Crumbly assumed command as lieutenant colonel and remained in that position from 1892 to 1898 and, while his offer of sending the battalion to service in the Spanish-American War was rejected, he became a first lieutenant for the 10th Volunteer Infantry, which was a so-called “immune regiment,” because it was believed that its Black troops were immune from tropical diseases found in Cuba and the Philippines—tragically for many men this found to be far from the case.
After service from July 1898 to March of the following year, Crumbly was discharged, but again sought a commission and, in September 1899, was made a captain of the 49th Volunteer Infantry, for which he recruited before the regiment was shipped to the Philippines. There, he briefly served as a municipal court judge and then commanded a battalion in several battles against an insurrection before he was honorably discharged at the end of June 1901. Allensworth recorded that a white colonel in the 49th Infantry told him “it was a shame that such a noble set of men as composed that regiment could not be retained in the service.”
Four months after this article was published, the Times of 4 June reported on the grand opening of the town named for Allensworth and which was part of an ambitious colony founded on 5,000 acres in southern Tulare County in the San Joaquin Valley. The founder lamented that Blacks “are considered by a large number of the people of this country as a disturbing element, by reason of our activity in pursuing those things that develop men into desirable citizens” and he added that “a large number of our fellow country-men have been taught for generations that the negro is incapable of the highest development of citizenship.”
Countering this destructive perception and attitude, the founder continued, meant that African-Americans had to establish “our efforts and achievements . . . where they will stand out distinctively and alone.” So,
To do this people of our race must be in a community where the responsibilities of its municipal government are upon them and them alone. This cannot be the case in a city controlled by Caucasians . . . They build for themselves and their children; we must do as they did—settle upon the bare desert and cause it to blossom as a rose.
Here you can do that; here you can show pioneer enterprise, heroic sacrifice, united effort and concentration of moral influence. In your simple and small homes you can show artistic taste, and refined accomplishments. In your various stores, where you give employment to your sons and daughters, you can demonstrate the negro’s ability to buy and sell. By the adoption of the very latest methods of municipal government you will show friend and foe that you possess the capacity for self-government . . .
In addition to the colony, Allensworth also continued his work with churches and other social issues. On Sunday, 13 September 1914, he took the train from Los Angeles to the San Gabriel Valley foothill town of Monrovia to preach at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church. Walking on the paved roadway instead of the dirt walk on the side, he headed north from the depot towards the church, when a pair of local men on a motorcycle approached.
Apparently disoriented, Allensworth seems to have stepped in front of the machine as it started to pass him and was struck. Despite terrible injuries, including both legs broken, an arm broken, his collarbone splintered, the skull fractured in three places, internal injuries and bruising, which, remarked the Monrovia News would have quickly killed a half-dozen other men, the 72-year old lingered for more than 36 hours before succumbing in a hospital. The motorcycle riders, both white men, were arrested on a charge of manslaughter but a preliminary examination did not find sufficient evidence to hold them to answer to the Superior Court and they were freed.
Allen Allensworth was a remarkable figure in many ways, particularly his long military service and as founder of the colony that bore his name, though it eventually declined, in large measure to a decline in water supply and poor crop yields. In 1974, however, the State of California purchased some of the land and established the Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, commemorating the colony and its founder.
We’ll look to return to this special section and other articles at a later date, so keep an eye out for those future posts.