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Colonel Charles Young

The Man, The Mission, The Facts.

Charles Young was born to enslaved parents Gabriel and Arminta Young in Mayslick, Kentucky on March
12, 1864.
He entered West Point in 1884 and became only the third African American to graduate from the United
States Military Academy in 1889. His military career spanned 33 years of segregated service. He was the
highest-ranking African American in the United States Armed Forces from 1894 until his death in
1922.

Newly commissioned Second Lieutenant Young was initially assigned to the Ninth U.S. Cavalry and served
at frontier posts at Ft. Robinson, Nebraska and Ft. Duchesne, Utah from 1889-94.

Young served as Professor of Military Science at Wilberforce University in Wilberforce, Ohio, on detached
duty 1894-98; while there he was promoted to First Lieutenant in 1896.

In 1898 during the Spanish-American War, Young was appointed Major, U.S. Volunteers, in the Ohio
National Guard to command its Ninth Infantry Battalion, but his unit was not sent overseas.

In 1899 Young was mustered out of the Ohio National Guard, returned to the Ninth Cavalry with his
Regular Army rank of First Lieutenant, and served again at Ft. Duchesne, Utah.

Promoted to Captain in 1901, Young commanded a cavalry troop in the Ninth Cavalry and lead his men in
combat in the Philippine Islands during the Philippine Insurrection from 1901-02.

While serving in San Francisco, Young was temporarily posted as Superintendent of Sequoia National Park
in 1903, the first African American appointed as a National Park Superintendent.

Young became the first African American officer appointed to duty as a military attaché, serving in
Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic) 1904-1907.

Young returned to the Ninth Cavalry and served at Camp McGrath in the Philippine Islands and Ft. D.A.
Russell, Wyoming from 1908-11.

Young served as military attaché to Liberia from 1912-15, where he was promoted to Major, developed the
Liberian Frontier Forces, built roads, and was wounded during a rescue mission.

For his exceptional work in Liberia, the NAACP awarded Young the Spingarn Award in 1916.

Young was reassigned to the Tenth U.S. Cavalry and served in the Punitive Expedition in Mexico with
General Pershing from 1916-17, where he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.

During his promotion board in 1917, Young was medically retired and promoted to Colonel. To prove his
fitness for duty, Colonel Young rode (and walked) nearly 500 miles from Wilberforce, Ohio to Washington,
D.C., but he was not recalled to active duty until days before the Armistice ending World War I was signed,
too late for him to command troops in combat or to be promoted to Brigadier General.

Young was recalled to active duty in 1919 as military attaché to Liberia; while on an intelligence mission he
became critically ill, died and was buried in Lagos, Nigeria on January 8, 1922. He was buried with
military honors rendered by British Troops. Upon the insistence of his family and members of the national
community, his body was exhumed and returned to the United States. He was re-buried in Arlington
National Cemetery on June 1st, 1923.

Many Americans past and present felt had it not been for the political/social climate of the times, Colonel
Young would have been the first black Brigadier General in the United States Armed Forces.