In both, the questions
of velocity, gravitation, wind and resistance are to be considered and
these are largely settled by mechanism, the adjustment of which is
readily learned; hence the assumption that a Negro cannot learn it is
purely gratuitous. Several of the best rifle shots known on this
continent are Negroes; and it was a Negro who summerized the whole
philosophy of rifle shooting in the statement that it all consists in
knowing _where_ to aim, and _how_ to pull--in knowing just what value
to assign to gravitation, drift of the bullet and force of the wind,
and then in being able to pull the trigger of the piece without
disturbing the aim thus judiciously determined. This includes all
there is in the final science and art of firing a rifle. If the Negro
can thus master the revolver, the carbine and the rifle, why may he
not master the field piece or siege gun?

But an ounce of fact in such things is worth more than many volumes of
idle speculation, and it is remarkable that facts so recent, so
numerous, and so near at hand, should escape the notice of those who
question the Negro's ability to serve the artillery organizations.
Negro artillery, both light and heavy, fought in fifteen battles in
the Civil War with average effectiveness; and some of those who fought
against them must either admit the value of the Negro artilleryman or
acknowledge their own inefficiency. General Fitz-Hugh Lee failed to
capture a Negro battery after making most vigorous attempts to that
end. This attempt to raise a doubt as to the Negro's ability to serve
in the artillery arm is akin to, and less excusable, than that other
groundless assertion, that Negro officers cannot command troops, an
assertion which in this country amounts to saying that the United
States cannot command its army. Both of these assertions have been
emphatically answered in fact, the former as shown above, and the
latter as will be shown later in this volume. These assertions are
only temporary covers, behind which discomfitted and retreating
prejudice is able to make a brief stand, while the black hero of five
hundred battle-fields, marches proudly by, disdaining to lower his gun
to fire a shot on a foe so unworthy. When the Second Massachusetts
Volunteers sent up their hearty cheers of welcome to the gallant old
Twenty-fifth, as that solid column fresh from El Caney swung past its
camp, I remarked to Sergeant Harris, of the Twenty-fifth: "Those men
think you