All
along the route they were greeted with enthusiastic crowds, who fully
believed the war with Spain had begun. In St. Paul, in Chicago, in
Terre Haute, in Nashville, and in Chattanooga the crowds assembled to
greet the black regulars who were first to bear forward the Starry
Banner of Union and Freedom against a foreign foe. What could be more
significant, or more fitting, than that these black soldiers, drilled
up to the highest standard of modern warfare, cool, brave and
confident, themselves a proof of American liberty, should be called
first to the front in a war against oppression? Their martial tread
and fearless bearing proclaimed what the better genius of our great
government meant for all men dwelling beneath the protection of its
honored flag.
As the Twenty-fifth Infantry was the first regiment to leave its
station, so six companies of it were first to go into camp on the
historic grounds of Chickamauga. Two companies were separated from the
regiment at Chattanooga and forwarded to Key West where they took
station under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel A.S. Daggett. The
remaining six companies, under command of Colonel A.S. Burt, were
conducted by General Boynton to a choice spot on the grounds, where
they pitched camp, their tents being the first erected in that
mobilization of troops which preceded the Cuban invasion, and theirs
being really the first camp of the war.
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