Controversial Monument: Gen. John B. Castleman, ex-Confederate Tells Soldiers it is Their Duty to Salute Black Officers

The New York Times
November 12, 1917

SALUTE NEGROES IN SOUTH.

Gen. Castleman, ex-Confederate, Tells Soldiers it is Their Duty.

LOUISVILLE, Ky, Nov. 11- Louisville, in which much of the spirit of the old South still lives, putting aside racial feeling and personal prejudice, has settled for itself, patriotically and unreservedly, the question of the propriety of white soldiers saluting negro officers. This question, which came to the fore recently, was on the first thought answered to reconcile inherent convictions with military regulations.

The solution was that an officer should not be regarded as a personality toward whom the salute homage to the country's uniform and to the things it typifies should be accepted.

An exposition of this viewpoint was voiced by General John B. Castleman, a Major of the Army of the Confederacy, later Colonel of a Kentucky National Guard regiment and a Brigadier General of Volunteers who saw active service in Porto Rico during the Spanish-American War. He said:

"The discipline of the army must be maintained, and non-commissioned officers understand little of the spirit of the army when they refuse to salute a negro officer. I have held several commissions in the military service, and I unhesitatingly say that I would or will, at any time salute an officer, superior or inferior, who salutes me without regard to the color of his skin. The regulations, the laws, and the fundamentals of courtesy and discipline upon which these regulations and laws are based prescribe this. It is no time to stand against them. I want to urge every soldier to be a soldier in the full sense of the term. We are at war, and soldiers are under the rules of the American Army. We are all one under the flag. We salute the rank, not the individual."

The incident which brought forth General Castleman's statement occurred here recently when two white soldiers refused to salute Captain Glass, a colored officer.

A Call for Unity under the flag of the Union: Colonel John Breckinridge Castleman Speech 1898, Spanish-American War

Colonel John Breckinridge Castleman, 1900

Speech of Col. John B. Castleman

"Gen. Henry, Mr. Alcade, Gentlemen: My esteemed commander has elected to refer to me in terms of commendation and to invite your attention to matters personal to myself in order to illustrate the liberality of the Government to whose protection you are assigned.

It is true that against the great republic beyond the seas, to which you are now united by the inseparable strength of governmental union, I fought a third of a century ago as a Confederate soldier. It is true that the Government whose commission I now hold is one which then I united in a common effort to destroy. But the spirit of patriotism which then animated a great people in an heroic struggle, now prompts the same people, through their survivors of that war, to demand that no effort of mankind shall cause to be effaced any star from the flag of the Union, but that where self-respecting, intelligent citizenship shall warrant it, those represented in that sisterhood of States shall aid other territorial communities in enjoying whatsoever privileges they may demonstrate that they are entitled to receive. Your position in the future is with yourselves. Your respect for law and your enforcement of order are matters which will determine your right to the respect and confidence of your new associates. You will be required to exercises courage and firmness and manhood in controlling the ignorant and vicious and the unwise. Every citizen of Porto Rico, no matter what his antecedents shall receive the protection and support of the constituted authorities of the United States. And every citizen shall be compelled to respect his neighbor's right to equal freedom. "

[General John Breckinridge Castleman, 1898]

Speech of Col. John B. Castleman
Saturday, October 29, 1898
The Courier-Journal