Episode 150: A Tale of Two Soldiers, Part II

 

When US Army Brigadier General Jacob Smith issued an order that authorized the genocide of Filipinos during the Philippine Insurrection, only one of his subordinates stepped in and tried to stop it - Marine Corps Major Littleton "Tony" Waller, but a massacre of a US Infantry Company at the hands of Moro rebels made stopping the deaths of innocent women and children much more difficult.

Episode 149: A Tale of Two Soldiers, Part I

 

There is only one person buried at Arlington that I believe should be disinterred and moved elsewhere, an Army Brigadier General named Jacob Hurd Smith who should have been drummed out of the military decades before he became a general, but since he wasn't, he was allowed an opportunity to commit genocide in The Philippines. Only one of his subordinates, a Marine named Littleton "Tony" Waller actively tried to stop him.

Episode 33: From Harlem to Tuskegee - Like Father, Like Son, Part I

After the 369th Infantry Regiment returned home from World War I, a terrible summer of racial violence spread across the South and into the Midwest. Several lynchings and riots broke out before something resembling peace - or at least a reduction in violence - was reestablished. At the same time, a cultural movement of African American literature, music, art, and entertainment took the United States by storm. Centered in Harlem, the movement - known as the Harlem Renaissance - was the first taste of African American culture for many everyday Americans

Langston Hughes was one of the big authors and political figures to emerge from the Harlem Renaissance that produced twenty six novels, ten books of poetry, and hundreds of short stories.

In addition to the literature boom, Bill "Bojangels" Robinson, the Nicholas Brothers (above), and others put on five black written, produced, directed, and starring Broadway plays and dozens, if not hundreds, of off-Broadway plays. For the first time, African Americans began appearing on stage and on the silver screen without black face makeup and ridiculous accents.

Arguably the most famous artists to come out of the Harlem Renaissance were musicians like Dizzy Gillespie (above), Harlem Hellfighter Nobel Sissle, Eubie Blake, Cab Calloway, Louie Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday, just to name a few, who were emblematic of the mixture of high class society, popular art, and virtuosity of jazz. The invention of the radio brought these performers into the homes of millions of Americans on a daily basis.

In addition to the fame and recognition that came with the Harlem Renaissance, the Roaring Twenties brought an era of prosperity and an increased standard of living to many Americans across many racial and ethnic groups. Unfortunately, the movement was unable to survive the Great Depression and many scholars mark the 1935 Harlem Riot as its demise.

It took several years but eventually the Harlem Hellfighters first commander, Colonel William Hayward's vision for the segregated unit was finally achieved when, on the eve of World War II, it became the first National Guard unit with an all-African American officer corps. The man who was the first black regimental commander in the 369th's storied history was Benjamin O. Davis, Sr.

Though his parents wanted him to attend Howard University in Washington, DC after high school, Davis instead enlisted in the army in 1898 at the outbreak of the Spanish American War and may have lied about his age to do so. He was made a temporary Lieutenant in the 9th Cavalry - the historic Buffalo Soldiers - but would not make it to Cuba before the war ended. 

After the war he was mustered out of service and applied to West Point, hoping to become just the fourth officer in the Military Academy's history. He was not admitted. Instead, he enlisted as a private in the army and within a year had risen to the rank of sergeant major... promotions worked a little different then than they do now! While a sergeant major, Davis served under Charles Young, the third black graduate of West Point. Young tutored Davis on everything he needed to know to become an officer and in 1901, just two years after enlisting as a private, Davis was commissioned a second lieutenant and sent to the Philippines during the Philippines insurrection.

Racial politics of the day not only kept Davis out of combat in World War I, but out of Europe all together. Despite this, and other policies that saw him and other minority officers treated differently, Davis continued to serve proudly. After his promotion to colonel, Davis was made the first African American commander of the Harlem Hellfighters regiment, and it was while serving in that capacity that he was promoted to brigadier general, becoming not only the first African American general officer in the history of the US Army, but the first African American flag officer in the history of the US military.

During World War II, Davis served as a special advisor for African American solders affairs and toured many segregated units in the US and in Europe, doing everything he could to ensure fair treatment of black soldiers. It was during this time that he also became a vocal proponent of full integration in the US military. This policy change wouldn't come until 1948 - six days after he retired.

Though he was out of uniform when the military was integrated, his advocacy and example helped a great many African American service members, including his own son, Benjamin O. Davis, Jr (right), who would be the fourth black graduate in West Point's history and the first general officer in the US Air Force, but that is a story for another day (next week to be exact).

Brigadier General Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. died on November 26, 1970 in the Great Lakes Naval Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Section 2, Grave 478-B.

Episode 7: Arlington Enters the 20th Century AKA Fighting Joe Wheeler - Confederate General, American General

The USS Maine was commissioned in 1895, depending on which source you read, is described as an armored cruiser or a second-class battleship. Either way, she represented a leap forward in modern warship design based on the latest ship-building techniques coming out of Europe.

The Maine in Havana Harbor before the Explosion

On February 15, 1898, at 9:40 pm, a catastrophic explosion occurred on the Maine. At the time, the Spanish were implicated in the explosion. Over the years, there have been several other investigations and while the exact cause of the explosion is still debated, it is widely believed the Spanish had nothing to do with it. Regardless of the cause, the outcome remained the same: 266 of her crew of 355 were killed and two months later the United States was at war with Spain.

The Maine sunk in Havana Harbor

The mast from the Maine was recovered in 1915 and is now the centerpiece for the Maine Memorial in Arlington's Section 24. It was being renovated when I was last there to take pictures, so the third picture is from www.arlingtoncemetery.mil

Immediately after the explosion, 61-year-old Alabama Representative and former Confederate Lieutenant General Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler offered his services to President McKinley and the US Army. Though McKinley, himself a Civil War veteran, tried to avoid war, he eventually accepted Wheeler help and appointed him one of only fifteen major generals in the US Army at the time.

Wheeler as a Confederate general in the 1860s

Wheeler (front) as a US major general in Tampa, FL in 1898 just before deploying to Spain with the staff of the 1st US Volunteer Regiment "Rough Riders" including its commander Colonel Leonard Wood (center) and executive officer Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt (right) 

After hostilities ended in Cuba, Wheeler sailed to the Philippines where he commanded the First Brigade in Arthur MacArthur's Second Division during the Philippine Insurrection until  January 1900. He then returned to the United States, was mustered out of the volunteer service, and commissioned a brigadier general in the regular army, reentering the service he had resigned from 39 years earlier. He went on to command the Department of the Lakes which oversaw military posts in the midwestern United States until his retirement on September 10, 1900.

After a long illness, Wheeler died in Brooklyn, NY on January 25, 1906, at the age of 69. Because of his service later in life, is one of the only Confederate officers buried in Arlington and maybe the only one outside of the later-established Confederate Section. This diminutive officer lies under one of the tallest obelisks in the cemetery in Section 2, Grave 1089.