teers, the four
regular colored regiments have served in the Philippines. Here the work
was particularly trying and the temptations to misconduct many. The
Filipino women were especially attractive to the men because of their
color, and it is on record that several soldiers were tempted from their
allegiance to the United States. Two of these, whose sympathy and liking
for the Filipinos overcame their judgment, paid the full penalty of
desertion, being hanged by their former comrades. Both belonged to
the Ninth Cavalry. On the other hand, in a remarkable order issued
by General A. S. Burt in relinquishing command of the Twenty-fifth
Infantry, on April 17, 1902, on his promotion to brigadier-general,
he was able to quote the Inspector-General of the army as saying:
"The Twenty-fifth Infantry is the best regiment I have seen in the
Philippines." General Burt praised highly the excellent conduct of the
enlisted men while in the Archipelago, which proved to his mind that the
American negroes are "as law-abiding as any race in the world."

Three of General Burt's sergeants, Russell, McBryar, and Hoffman, were
promoted to the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Volunteers, and served,
as lieutenants, for several months with their old regiment, the
Twenty-fifth, until the arrival of their new regiments in Manila.
During this time they were frequently under fire. General Burt bore high
testimony to their soldierly bearing, their capacity and ability, and
expressed great regret when he was forced to let them go. McBryar had
won a medal of honor for gallantry against Indians in Arizona in 1890.
In the Forty-ninth Volunteers, Company L, composed wholly of colored
men, and commanded by Captain Edward L. Baker, a colored veteran of
Santiago, who had served for seventeen years in the Ninth and Tenth
Cavalry and in the Tenth "Immunes," made a wonderful record. According
to a statement which was widely published at the time and never denied,
this company had on its rolls during a period of twelve months one
hundred and six men who were fit for duty at all times and never lost
a day on account of sickness. No white company remotely approached
this record. More extraordinary still is the fact that during this same
period not one of these men ever went before a court-martial. This is
surely a striking illustration of what can be done by colored officers.
It is noticeable, too, that neither the officers nor the men of any
colored regiment have fi