This Thursday, November 11, is Veterans Day. I thought I'd share some statistics about African-American soldiers as part of that commemoration.
- A sailor of African descent and a former slave, Crispus Attucks, is considered the first casualty of the Revolutionary War.
- During the Revolutionary War, over 5000 colonial soldiers were of African descent, and over 1000 British soldiers were of African descent.
- On March 3, 1813, Congress passed a bill allowing for the enlistment of free blacks into the US navy. Black sailors composed between 10 and 20 percent of the naval forces at the Erie and Huron Great Lakes during the War of 1812.
- During the Civil War, close to 180,000 black soldiers served in the Union Army. Thirteen earned the Medal of Honor, and over 38,000 of these men died for the cause.
- African-American soldiers who served in the final wars between the US and the Native Americans in the West were known as "buffalo soldiers," perhaps because of their fortitude in battle.
- African-American soldiers during World War I numbered 370,000, although only around 10 percent saw combat because of the virulent racism of the time. The experience was an important one as African American veterans returned having experienced less discrimination in France.
- During World War II, thousands of African-American women served in various capacities in the US armed forces; some worked as nurses, while others acted as clerks, cooks, or drivers.
- Over one million African-American men served in the US armed forces during World War II.
- First Lieutenant Dayton Ragland, an African-American air force pilot, was the first to shoot down a North Korean fighter jet in the Korean War.
- African Americans composed around eight percent of the US armed forces during the Korean War.
- The Vietnam War was the first war that was fought by a fully integrated US military. President Truman desegregated the armed forces in 1948, but the process of desegregation had been slow, and portions of the armed forces had still been segregated during the Korean War.
- During the Vietnam War, African Americans composed 11 percent of the US military, but 20 percent of combat deaths were African-American soldiers during the early years of the Vietnam War.
- During the First Gulf War, African-American soldiers made up 26 percent of the US military.
- Today, African Americans compose around 17 percent of the US military.
Comments
You didn’t mention the Tuskegee Airmen in WW11. Also I was wondering if there was any history or diaries about soldiers in the earlier wars relating to PTSD or how they received benefits, if any. I am interested in how they lived mentally after the Revoluntion and all the rest of the wars before America finally recognized that the war veterans in particular needed a lot of mental help after experiencing combat which effected their working and being productive citizens.
I am a retired VA nurse.
Thanks
This post wasn’t meant to be comprehensive; I was just trying to highlight some statistics throughout African-American military history.
As for the history of PTSD, I don’t know of anything. You might contact some historians of medicine or look through some history of medicine websites. The National Library of Medicine might be a good place to start.