Charles Young was a "Buffalo Soldier", an African American in the segregated United States Army of the 19th and early 20th century. In his time, Young was one of a very small number of Black military officers. These Black officers served their country in a time when racism and discrimination were rampant. Many White soldiers had difficulties taking orders from African American officers or non-commissioned officers. During his military career Young was often senior to subordinate White officers and troops, making his entire career a challenging tightrope walk, maintaining his authority as an army officer in a segregated society. During his thirty-seven years of military service, Young carried out a wide variety of assignments throughout the United States, Philippines, Haiti, Liberia and Mexico. As a Troop (Company) commander, Captain Young served at the Presidio of San Francisco in 1903. His duties that year included leading an escort of troops for the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, and serving as Acting Superintendent of Sequoia National Park.

Born in 1864, the son of former slaves, Charles Young attended the United States Military Academy at West Point. Graduating in 1889, he was only the third African American cadet to successfully complete the course and to be commissioned as an army officer. There were four black regiments in the United States army at that time: the 24th Infantry, 25th Infantry, 9th Cavalry and 10th Cavalry. In the 19th century, the Buffalo Soldiers served mostly in the Plains region. Second Lieutenant Young was restricted to duty with those units, serving first with the 25th Infantry at Fort Custer, Montana, and later with the 9th Cavalry at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, and Fort Duchesne, Utah. (1)

After five years on the Western Frontier, Lieutenant Young was appointed Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Wilberforce University, an African American college in Ohio. (2) Wilberforce President Samuel T. Mitchell described Young as "enthusiastic, energetic," and "eminently qualified for the position he occupies, teaching not only Military Science courses, but also French and mathematics." He was also able to put his love of music to good use by directing the college band. A talented musician, Charles Young played and composed music for piano, violin, and guitar. Young's closest friend on the faculty was the eminent scholar, Professor W.E.B. DuBois. They became lifelong friends. (3)

Lieutenant Charles Young on the Western Frontier.
Courtesy of the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center, Wilberforce, Ohio

When the Spanish American war broke out in 1898, Lieutenant Young was temporarily advanced to the rank of Major and given command of an African American National Guard battalion. Young and his troops spent the entire war stationed in the United States. (4) Young's first overseas assignment came in 1899, when he returned to regular army duty with the 9th Cavalry in the Philippines. For three years the 9th Cavalry was involved in the bloody war to suppress Filipino nationalists led by Emilio Aguinaldo. (5) Rotating back to the United States in the fall of 1902, the regiment was split and assigned to Fort Walla Walla, Washington, the Presidio of Monterey, and the Presidio of San Francisco, with detached duty at Yosemite, Sequoia, and General Grant (now King's Canyon) National Parks.

During President Theodore Roosevelt's visit to San Francisco in May 1903, Troops I & M served as a special Presidential escort. As Troop I commander, Captain Young was second only to the Squadron Commander as senior officer for the escort troops. Resplendent in their dress blue uniforms, the 9th Cavalry accompanied the President through the streets of San Francisco, ending with a review at the Presidio Golf Links. This was the first time African American soldiers served as a guard of honor for the President of the United States. (6)

Captain Young held the position of Acting Superintendent of Sequoia National Park in the summer of 1903. He was responsible for enforcing the rules and regulations of the Department of the Interior, and for protecting and securing the park and its wildlife from harm. Roads were also built and maintained by his cavalrymen. As Superintendent, Young hosted official visitors to the park, and he concluded his tour of duty with a giant outdoor feast for the summer road building crew and special guests. (7)

The beauty and grandeur of Sequoia National Park left a very great impression on Charles Young. His strong advocacy for park preservation was evident by his comments in his final official report. Young wrote, "The trees of the park consist of pines and cedars and firs in general and of the giant redwoods or sequoias in particular, all of which are well worth protecting...it is believed by many that even without the grandeur of the Giant Forest, which is matchless anywhere else in the world, there are enough beautiful mountain views, delightful camping sites, and water courses stocked with fish to constitute a national park where the overworked and weary citizens of the country can find rest, coolness, and quiet for a few weeks during the hot summer months, and where both large and small game can have a refuge and be allowed to increase. Indeed a journey through this park and the Sierra Forest Reserve to Mount Whitney country will convince even the least thoughtful man of the needfulness of preserving these mountains just as they are, with their clothing of trees, shrubs, rocks, and vines, and of their importance to the valleys below as reservoirs for the storage of water for agricultural and domestic purposes. In this, then, lies the necessity of forest preservation. The United States should learn its lesson in time…making roads and clearings only where absolutely necessary in order to preserve, if possible, the undergrowth as a shelter and protection for the snow, allowing its gradual melting, thus preventing floods and undue evaporation, followed by drought in the valleys." (8) The future of Sequoia National Park was well served by Captain Charles Young's administration.

Another significant event in 1903 would take place in Charles Young's life, the 39-year-old Captain married his sweetheart Aida Barr at Wilberforce, Ohio. They would have two children, Charles Noel, born in 1907 and Marie born in 1909. Whenever Young's duties involved a line assignment with the troops, Aida remained at home in Ohio. Young chose not to subject his family to the rigid and discriminatory social structure of the United States Army during that era. Because of his race, Young could be friendly with his fellow white officers, but they could never truly be friends. Because of his rank, Young could be friendly with subordinate Black enlisted men, but they could not be friends either. In addition, the wives of army officers were required to participate in a variety of social functions, and as one of only a few black officers, Young knew that his wife and family would be watched very closely for any mistake or social misstep, and that they always would be discriminated against. The army of Young's time was a segregated army, and that unjust experience applied to army families as well, regardless of a man's rank or position.

Military attaché Charles Young (back row, fourth from right) in either Haiti or Liberia.
Courtesy of the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center, Wilberforce, Ohio

Army officers often served as military attachés on the diplomatic staff in foreign countries, and African American officers were frequently given these assignments. During this era, the three African American line officers, Charles Young, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., and John E. Green, were given assignments that took them away from direct troop command and the possibility of being senior to white officers. Young, Davis, and Green often found themselves replacing each other as military science professors at Negro colleges such as Wilberforce and Tuskegee, and as military attachés assigned to American legations of the predominately Black nations of Haiti and Liberia. Captain Young spoke fluent French and Spanish and was well suited for assignments in those countries. Young spent three years as a military attaché in Haiti developing maps and gathering military intelligence information. He then served a brief tour of duty with the War Department in Washington, D.C., before returning to his cavalry regiment in the Philippines and Wyoming. Young was then promoted to Major and received another assignment as military attaché. This time his mission was in the Republic of Liberia. Besides gathering intelligence information, Young organized the constabulary and supervised the construction of roads. (9) In 1916 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) recognized Young's service in Liberia with its most prestigious award, the Springarn Medal. (10)

The United States-Mexico border was tense and volatile at this time. Troops under the command of Generals Frederick Funston and John J. Pershing were sent to protect American interests. When Pancho Villa raided the town of Columbus, New Mexico, President Woodrow Wilson responded by ordering Pershing to lead thirteen regiments, including the 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers, plus artillery and support troops into Mexico on a "Punitive Expedition" to chase and suppress Villa. Major Young was now a Squadron Commander with the 10th Cavalry, and as such, all of his subordinate troop commanders and Lieutenants were Caucasian. This significant milestone affected Young's career the following year when an officer who had served under Young complained to the War Department that, as a southerner, he found it "distasteful to take orders from a black superior."(11) Secretary of War Newton Baker ordered the officer to do his duty or resign, but a bigoted Woodrow Wilson overruled his secretary, giving a signal to several other prejudiced officers of the 10th to file similar complaints. This may have led to Young's removal from the active army in 1917.

Major Young led his men deep into Mexico, and they were cited for their actions at Aguas Calientes and Hacienda Santa Cruz before being withdrawn back to the United States. (12) In July 1916, Young was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in the 10th Cavalry, the second most senior position in the regiment, and the first time an African American would reach that grade in the regular army.

Major Charles Young with troops during Mexican Punitive Expedition.
Courtesy of the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center, Wilberforce, Ohio

Returning from Mexico, Lieutenant Colonel Young briefly served as post commander of Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The United States was about to enter the first World War in Europe. Many in the African American community felt that Charles Young would command Buffalo Soldier regiments to form the nucleus of an all-black Division in the expanding army. The War Department had other plans. All four regiments of Black regulars were kept out of the conflict. The 10th Cavalry and the 24th Infantry continued to serve on the Mexican border. The 9th Cavalry was garrisoned in the Philippines, and the 25th Infantry served in Hawaii. (13) During his annual medical exam, Lieutenant Colonel Young was diagnosed with high blood pressure and chronic kidney inflammation (Bright's Disease), and he was medically retired. Young returned to Wilberforce University and again took the position of professor of Military Science. He still wanted to lead troops in the war. At the end of the school term, Young rode on horseback from Xenia, Ohio, to Washington, D.C., a distance of 497 miles, to show he was still physically fit enough to be reinstated. (14)

Although denied an opportunity to serve in Europe, Young's ride had proved his fitness, and on November 6th, 1918, five days before the Armistice, he was promoted to Colonel and recalled to active duty with the Ohio National Guard. (15) In 1919, at the special request of the State Department, Colonel Young was again appointed as military attaché to Liberia. This was his last assignment. On January 8, 1922, while on a reconnaissance mission in Nigeria, Charles Young died from a kidney infection. Young was buried with full military honors by the British Colonial Administration in Lagos, Nigeria. In 1923, after several appeals by his wife Aida and the African American community, Young's body was exhumed and returned to the United States. On June 1st, 1923, a funeral entourage of veterans and cadets carried him to Arlington National Cemetery, where after a service attended by over 5,000 people, and a eulogy by his friend W.E.B. DuBois, Colonel Charles Young was again buried with full military honors. (16)

Colonel Charles Young was a hardworking soldier with many talents; he was both a good subordinate and leader. He played a very important role in giving all Americans an awareness that a Black man could be an outstanding soldier, teacher, diplomat, and patriot. Young had strong feelings about the African American experience. When he was asked to comment on a proposed monument in Washington D.C. to the memory of "Colored Soldiers and Sailors who fought in the wars of the United States," Young stated he was "opposed to a monument of bronze and stone in honor of the Negro war dead," but he did request of Congress, "a memorial to the Negro dead and that memorial be the thing for which these Negroes gave their lives, liberty, justice, equal opportunities and educational facilities, the suppression of lynching by making it a federal crime and the abolition of Jim Crow (train) cars." (17) Despite the difficult challenges he faced over the years, Charles Young always had strong positive feelings for the United States. In a speech he gave while serving as military attaché in Liberia, he stated, "America is the land of my race's forced adoption…the house is none the less loved and cherished by me. In that house the love of liberty, of the highest freedom, and of independence and fair play for all men, and the love of all men as such without distinction of race, color, or condition, entered into my heart. No greater spiritual revolution than the fact of universal brotherhood can come to a man here in this fine old world." (18) Charles Young (1864-1922)

Credit: Scott's Official History of the American Negro in the World War, by Emmett J. Scott, 1919.
National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center