Black Officer in a Buffalo Soldier Regiment: The Military Career of Charles Young

7. Fighting Guerillas in the Philippines

7. Fighting Guerillas in the Philippines By practicing hill-warfare exercises, we may be enabled, doubtless, to play at guerilla warfare as well as does the Boer, Spaniard, or Filipino, and perhaps bring more men from the fight. charles young, 1900 Y oung passed a professional milestone in early 1901 as he prepared to deploy to the Philippines. With a promotion to captain and twelve years of service he was no longer considered an inexperienced junior officer. The transition from lieutenant to captain was a major achievement in the professional life of a Regular Army officer. In the future Young would find himself increasingly in positions where he was the senior ranking man in authority. Moreover, he possessed far more leadership experience than his contemporaries in the Ninth Cavalry, having effectively commanded I Troop for more than a year and the Ninth Ohio Battalion before that. The only advantage some of the other troop commanders had over Young was combat experience in Cuba, which he would soon remedy in the Philippines. Young was deploying to a war in the Philippines for which the U.S. Army was not prepared. Early victories on sea and on land had led the United States to believe that taking and maintaining possession of the Philippines would be easy. But the 116 fighting guerillas in the philippines determination of the insurgents and a shortage of American soldiers caused the Philippine War to drag on for three bloody years. A desperate U.S. government deployed every military unit to the Pacific they could muster. This included black regular and volunteer units, in spite of political doubts about their reliability in combat against a people many African Americans called their “little brown brothers.” San Francisco to Manila Young and I Troop arrived in San Francisco by train in April 1901 with K Troop from Fort Duchesne. L and M Troops from Fort Apache joined them in San Francisco to complete the Third Squadron, Ninth Cavalry, the only portion of the regiment remaining in the United States. The rest of the Ninth Regiment, which comprised the headquarters and the First and Second Squadrons, had been in the Philippines since October 4, 1900. As a foreshadowing of what Young and I Troop could look forward to, the Ninth Regiment in the Philippines suffered its first death by drowning on October 8, first death due to dysentery on October 11, and first death from gunshot wounds in battle on November 9, 1900.1 While waiting in San Francisco, Sergeant Major Davis and Captain Young visited Dr. William Purnell, a physician Davis had met during his service with the Eighth Immunes during the Spanish-American War. Purnell showed them the sights of the city while they waited for their boat. Though Davis still waited for official word on his commission, both Young and Davis had much to celebrate: one a new captain and the other soon to be a second lieutenant. They could enjoy themselves in San Francisco in a style not possible at isolated Fort Duchesne , since the city had a small but active black population. Both were well aware that they might not see an American city for years.2 fighting guerillas in the philippines 117 Young and Davis may have read in African American newspapers about the ongoing debate concerning the wisdom of supporting the U.S. imperial venture in the Philippines. The general patriotic enthusiasm of the black community characterizing their early support of the Spanish-American War had cooled noticeably after the outbreak of the Philippine War. By mid-1899, African American reservations about imperial oppression had hardened into downright opposition, fueled by lynching and racial violence in the South. Many blacks felt sympathy for the Filipino nationalists, whom they identified as “our kinsmen” and “our colored brothers.” Booker T. Washington , who usually espoused an accommodating approach, voiced the majority black view when he said: “My opinion, is that the Philippine Islands should be given an opportunity to govern themselves. . . . Until our nation has settled the Indian and Negro problems, I do not think we have a right to assume more social problems.”3 Neither Young nor Davis left any record of what they thought about the debate within the black community, but they were professional officers and had to focus on the mission, whatever their private doubts. When it came time to embark a week later, Davis chose to ship out with Young...