Charles Young Appointed Military Attaché to Haiti (MAY 1904)

Photo By Lori Stewart | Capt. Charles Young a year before his deployment to Haiti.  

UNITED STATES

05.17.2024

Story by Lori Stewart 

U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence

by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian

CHARLES YOUNG APPOINTED MILITARY ATTACHE TO HAITI
In May 1904, then Capt. Charles Young was appointed military attaché to Haiti, making him the first black American to fill such a position in the U.S. Army. Young served more than thirty years in the Army before his death on 8 January 1922.

Born into slavery in Kentucky in 1864, Young grew up after the Civil War in Ripley, Ohio, where he graduated first in his high-school class. In 1889, he became the third African American to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy. During his career, he served with the 9th and 10th Cavalry in Nebraska, Utah, Wyoming, and Arizona; taught military science and tactics at Wilberforce University in Ohio; fought during the Philippine Insurrection and the Mexican Punitive Expedition; and was appointed acting superintendent at Sequoia and General Grant (now Kings Canyon) national parks in California before the National Park Service existed.

From May 1904 to April 1907, Captain Young served as military attaché to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where he put to work some of his impressive linguistic skills—he had a passable knowledge of French, German, Spanish, Greek, and Latin. While there, Captain Young made an extended military reconnaissance of the two countries, documenting their government and culture, compiling topographic reports and terrain maps, and noting the locations of military fortifications.

He served another tour as military attaché from May 1912 to November 1915, this time in Liberia. He advised the Liberian military and police forces and supervised the construction of new roads to provide military lines of communication. He even saw combat and was wounded when Liberian troops he was accompanying came under attack by hostile tribesmen. After contracting malaria, he recuperated in the U.S. but then returned to Liberia to finish out his tour. For his services there, in 1916, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People awarded Young the Spingarn Medal. Young and Gen. Colin Powell remain the only two U.S. military members to have received this award, which recognizes outstanding achievement by African Americans.

Gen. John J. Pershing, who had been impressed by Young during their year together in Mexico, recommended him for brigade command in the American Expeditionary Forces in 1917. Much to Young’s dismay, however, high blood pressure and possible kidney disease forced him into retirement. At the time, then Col. Young was the highest-ranking African American in the U.S. Army and one of only three black commissioned officers. Although not able to command during the war, Young was recalled to active duty in 1919 to serve again as military attaché in Liberia. He died during an intelligence mission in Nigeria. He was interred at Arlington National Cemetery in 1923.

Young was a fine soldier and leader known for his generosity, politeness even in the face of harsh racial discrimination, and dedication to his country and his race. Theodore Roosevelt marveled at the man who “by sheer force of character…overcame prejudices which would have discouraged many a lesser man…. He approached life with the single purpose of seeing what he could do for this nation….[W]hat he has done will remain with us in the country as a constant inspiration and guide of the generations to come.” Charles Young was inducted into the MI Hall of Fame in 1999. He was posthumously promoted to brigadier general on 29 April 2022.


New issues of This Week in MI History are published each week. To report story errors, ask questions, or be added to our distribution list, please contact: [e-mail].

• Date Taken: 05.17.2024
• Date Posted: 05.17.2024 14:22
• Story ID: 471607
• Location: US