In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

A Flag for the Tenth Immunes ( Russell K. Brown In July 1898 a regiment of African American volunteers for SpanishAmerican War service was organized at Camp Dyer near Augusta, Georgia. The unit was officially known as the Tenth U.S. Volunteer Infantry (USVI), but the men were popularly known as “Immunes” and the regiment was called the Tenth Immunes. The name came from the mistaken belief that the men were of such constitution, heritage or previous exposure that they would be immune to tropical diseases that might be encountered in the Spanish islands in the Caribbean or in the Philippine Islands. There were ten Immune regiments in all, six of white men and four of black. Each regiment had twelve companies, with about 82 men in each company. The regimental strength approximated 1,000 men. Unique in U.S. service up to this time, the junior officers in each company in the four black regiments would be black men. The regimental staff and all company captains would be white. While disappointed that more of its own would not be commissioned, America’s black community was thrilled at the opportunity to be afforded by the appointment of 96 African American lieutenants. In the event, about 30 percent of the positions went to active and retired regular army noncommissioned officers or black National Guard officers who would provide a leaven of experience for the raw recruits. The rest of the vacancies went to men with no military background but with known or perceived skills in education, intelligence and leadership. Most of the enlisted men would be right off the street or off the farm but some were colored state militia officers who accepted enlisted rank in order to serve on active duty.1 Augusta was not the army’s first choice for a camp for the Tenth Immunes, but after the governor of North Carolina refused to allow the basing of a 209 210 Russell K. Brown regiment of black men at his state capital, Irish-born Augusta Mayor Patrick Walsh stepped forward and offered his city. Walsh was a former U.S. senator, renowned editor of the Augusta Chronicle newspaper, a principled Roman Catholic layman, and most interesting, a former Confederate soldier. Walsh’s offer having been accepted, army officers came to Augusta in June 1898 and officials showed them several likely locations around the city. A local entrepreneur , Colonel D. B. Dyer, donated land at a place called Turpin Hill, two miles from Augusta, and the training facility was called Camp Dyer in his honor. Dyer owned the local streetcar line and soon had a spur built to the camp, facilitating visits by curious local citizens and enabling the soldiers to go downtown when they had money and free time. The city agreed to extend a water line to the camp if the federal government would pay for it.2 Black men in uniform were not unknown in Augusta. In 1865 two regiments of U.S. Colored Troops had each spent a couple of months on occupation duty in the city by the Savannah River. One had passed a relatively tranquil time and then moved on. The other, less well disciplined, had been engaged in some anti-social behavior before being mustered out of service.3 Beginning in 1873, so-called colored militia units had been organized in Augusta. At first there was only one company; by 1882 there were three companies, and by 1885 there were five companies organized as the Third Battalion, Georgia Militia. The five companies were the Douglass Infantry, the Georgia Infantry, the Augusta Light Infantry, the Augusta Cadets, and the Attucks Infantry. The first battalion commander was Lieutenant Colonel Augustus R. Johnson, a local school principal and the first state-certified black school teacher in Georgia. The companies held regular weekly musters and paraded frequently on holidays, particularly Emancipation Day and July Fourth. In one notable instance, the Augusta companies escorted former president U.S. Grant out of the city on January 1, 1880, when he departed following a visit. By 1898 the battalion commander was Isaiah Blocker, another school principal.When war broke out with Spain in 1898, all the black militia companies in Georgia, including Blocker and his battalion, volunteered for active duty but the state adjutant general did not accept them. Some states, such as Alabama, Ohio and Illinois, did allow black militia units to enter on active duty. In Georgia, many individual officers and soldiers volunteered for duty in the immune...

Share