Trooper Tales — page 21: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE RECRUIT IN THE BLACK CAVALRY. What his real name was, nobody remembered. It could be found somewhere in the troop-books. Because he could sing like a woman, the boys in the Black Horse troop called him “Sadie.” There are two colored cavalry regi- ments in Uncle Sam’s service. Both showed what great black demons they could be last summer in the hills back of Santiago. A train containing part of one of these regiments stopped in Tampa for a few minutes near a white cavalry camp. It is a wonder that there was no blood shed. There were many men from the South in the ranks of the white troops. They were in a frenzy of rage because the darkeys were under orders for the front, while they, were being slowly broiled under the canvas of a torrid camp. A month later, many of those same darkey cav- alrymen were brought back. They had been to the front.. They had heard the song of the Mauser. Many times the song had ended in a grunt from some sandy, sticky throat, and a hero was made. The wounded cavalrymen in the hospital train were deliriously happy. The battle fever fires one’s blood for weeks after. Eomichbooks (GO)