The latest contributions to military action epics for cable television were recently aired with much fanfare on Turner Network Television (TNT). “The Roughriders,” a two-part cable television portrayal of then Col. Theodore Roosevelt’s charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba during the Spanish-American War of 1898, was widely hailed in critical reviews for its character portrayals and development, historically accurate uniforms, weapons, and equipment, and intense military action. Less publicized, TNT’s “Buffalo Soldiers,” was similarly well-received, if also historically inaccurate. Unfortunately, with all the chest-thumping and flag-waving by the largely white cast of “The Roughriders” (two Americans Indians and a Hispanic volunteer were included to “diversify” the movie), historical fact was, once again, allowed to fall victim to television hype. The all-black 9th and 10th United States Cavalry (fighting dismounted) and 24th and 25th Infantry Regiments were the real heroes at San Juan Hill, and in the battles for El Caney and Santiago De Cuba, earned five Medals of Honor in the IO-week Cuban Campaign. It was a black 10th Cavalry trooper, Sergeant Berry, who ran the first American flag up the flagpole at the famous blockhouse, despite being subjected to a hailstorm of Spanish rifle and machine-gunfire.

Rescued White Roughriders

The Turner movie would have viewers believe that the lily-white Roughriders, mostly civilian volunteers with little or no military training, charged selflessly and heroically up San Juan Hill, overcoming Spanish artillery and machine-gun fire, while veteran black and white Army units were mere “supporting cast.” In reality, Teddy Roosevelt blundered into a tactical trap, losing both his Colt machine-guns (inferior to the German-made Spandaus employed by the Spanish) and was in the process of having his unit pounded into bloody hamburger by Spanish marksmen and artillerymen who occupied the high ground.

Roosevelt’s men were saved only by the valiant flanking charge by the black troopers on his right who silenced the Spanish artillery (also German-manufactured), and suppressed the concentrated machine­gun and rifle enfilade to the degree that the Roughriders, aided by the timely arrival of two Army Gatling guns, were able to charge up San Juan Hill, only to be met by their black saviors, who had defeated the remnant of the Spanish force on the hill in hand-to-hand combat.

A grateful future president of the United States was heard to state, “A bond exists between us, black and white, officers and soldiers, a tie, I trust. that will never be broken.” Many black soldiers. at the time would view Theodore Roosevelt as a “second Abraham Lincoln” after his election.

“The Roughriders” would have been an excellent vehicle to portray positive race relations in the context of American history, but movie director John Milius simply dropped the ball. America does a very poor job of educating its citizens on their national history. Perhaps the African American soldier has suffered the most from this oversight.

From the thousands of free black men who fought for Gen. George Washington during the Revolutionary War, to the 179,000 black soldiers who fought for the Union in the Civil War, black servicemen have contributed to the defense of freedom often in greater proportion than their white countrymen.

For example, of the roughly 1,500 Blacks living in Iowa in 1863, nearly every African American male of service age volunteered for Army service at Keokuk. Some 700 black Iowa Volunteers combined with 423 Missouri Negroes to form the 1st Iowa Volunteers of African Descent (later redesignated the 60th United States Colored Troops), who fought in Arkansas. The regimental banner of the 60^th still stands in the Iowa Statehouse.

The 9^th and 10^th Cavalries and 24th and 25^th Infantry Regiments all had distinguished combat records during the Indian Wars and in Cuba and the Philippines. Eighteen soldiers from the 9th and 10th won the Medal of Honor between 1866 to 1898.

During the Civil War, 16 black soldiers won the nation’s highest award for bravery, as did eight black sailors. Thirteen white officers won the Medal of Honor in command of black troops during the War of the Rebellion, a rate in excess of any other branch of the Union Army as a whole.

From Fort Des Moines

From the 92nd and 93^rd Divisions in the Great War came hundreds of black officers trained at the Army’s 17th Provisional Training Regiment at Fort Des Moines in Iowa; men who would go on to become business, political. educational, and civic leaders in communities all across America. Larger numbers of black servicemen from World War Two, Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf War, formed the backbone of black communities from New York City to Los Angeles in all walks of life.

During the final scene in “The Roughriders” a black soldier who assisted a wounded white volunteer back to his unit embraces the white soldier at the end of the battle. As Tom Berenger, who portrays Roosevelt stands heroically with the American flag flying, martial music blaring, the black soldier drifts meekly off the screen, never to be seen again. The Roughriders in 1898 were beneficiaries of an American media desperate for heroes after the closing of westward expansion and the end of the Indian Wars. Not unlike the 7th Cavalry, lionized as an elite unit (they were far from it) after their demise in 1876 at the Little Big Horn River, Roosevelt’s volunteers were portrayed as a vanguard of a new generation at the dawn of the “American Century.”

Indeed, the rebuilt 7th Cavalry found itself again in dire straits during the Wounded Knee Massacre in December of 1890. A tense disarmament of Minneconjou Lakota (Sioux) under Chief Spotted Elk (known to whites as Big Foot) erupted into wild shooting after an Indian rifle accidentally discharged. Rapid firing Hotchkiss guns devastated the ranks of the Indians, and inflicted the majority of casualties by way of “friendly fire” on white soldiers who could not get out of the way. Dozens of Indian men, women, children, and the elderly were slaughtered in the ensuing melee, and many Lakota warriors were cut down trying to reclaim their surrendered rifles. Natives and soldiers scattered in a running battle that resulted in numerous atrocities mostly by soldiers against Indians. A group of Lakota warriors managed to secure their weapons and fell back to a ravine near Drexel mission where mounted cavalry were chasing fleeing women and children through deep snow. Springing a deadly ambush from the high ground the Sioux nearly routed the 7^th, but at the decisive moment, they all black 9th Cavalry, bugles blowing, guidons flapping in the freezing wind, came charging over the snowy hills to rescue their white counterparts. The 9^th, lacking any winter clothing, and mounted on the “poorest horseflesh in the Army”, had made an unprecedented 108 mile forced march north in blizzard conditions to rescue the late Lieutenant Colonel George Custer’s command. Not unlike Colonel Roosevelt’s reaction eight years later, Major Forsyth of the 7th was heard to say,” lucky for us you fellows showed up when you did…” But you won’t see it on TV.