The Roughest Riders: The Untold Story of the Black Soldiers in the Spanish American War

Biographer and novelist Tuccille (Art Heist) mines a mostly forgotten chapter of the 1898 Spanish-American War, documenting how contemporary racial attitudes dashed the expectations of the many African-American men who, post-Civil War, believed that military service would be the catalyst for equitable treatment. Believing blacks to be better suited to the tropics, U.S. military leaders tapped the “Buffalo Soldiers” for service in Cuba. But black troops fared no better than whites, suffering from the intense heat, disease, and menacing flora and fauna. Those who survived earned various accolades, yet their service was overshadowed by Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders. As the war moved to Puerto Rico and the Philippines, the contradiction of blacks fighting other men of color in American imperialistic campaigns drove some soldiers into the arms of rebel forces; while those who returned stateside found renewed hostility or death at the hands of whites. Roosevelt occasionally overwhelms this brief history, which is twinned with a lengthy coda that breezes through subsequent conflicts up through Gen. Colin Powell’s fateful decision to commemorate the legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers. Tuccille’s excellent descriptions give readers a graphic feel for the vicissitudes of jungle warfare and the grim racial and social realities that these men endured. Maps and b&w photos. [em](Sept.) [/em]