On August 6, Private First Class William Thompson singlehandedly stymied an enemy attack while his platoon withdrew to reorganize. The incident demoralized the unit and made it the object of additional distrust and derision by white soldiers.ĭespite these problems individual soldiers in the 24th continued to show great courage. An outpour of public emotion succeeded in persuading President Harry Truman to commute Gilbert’s sentence to 20 years in prison although he would serve only five. Leon Gilbert, the lone black officer with the 24th, refused to follow the orders of his white commanding officer to return to the front with his men into positions he had just been forced to leave, Gilbert was arrested on the spot and sent to court martial proceedings where he was sentenced to death. Military Police units were stationed on the roads returning from the front to arrest deserters. Nonetheless they were branded as poor soldiers because of their race.īy July 31 as the 24th was engaged in heavy fighting, desertions reached pandemic proportions. The 24th experienced the same dismal performance common among many US Army units in the first few months of the Korean War as they all fought for survival against the numerically superior North Koreans. By July 18, the 24th Infantry Regiment along with the entire 25th Division had been thrust into combat around the South Korean port of Pusan. The 24th Infantry Regiment, at that time attached to the 25th Infantry Division of the US 8th Army stationed in Japan, was one of the first units assigned to Korea after the invasion. On Sunday, June 25, 1950, units of the North Korean Army crossed the 38th parallel and invaded the Republic of South Korea. The unit remained composed of black enlisted men and mostly white officers until 1951 when it was disbanded during the Korean War after claims of dissent and cowardice were made against the unit due to the race of the enlisted men. Authorized by Congress in 1866 and activated on November 1, 1869, the 24th Infantry Regiment was one of four all-black regiments created after the Civil War.
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