Last updated: March 3, 2023
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Charles Young's First Tour in Liberia
Courtesy of the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center, Wilberforce, Ohio.
Captain Young reported for duty to the U.S. Legation in Monrovia, Liberia on April 30, 1912. He immediately set up his living arrangements and made connections with the Liberian government. Traveling with Young was his family, Ada Young, his wife, and two children, Charles Noel and Marie Young. There was an active American legation community in Monrovia. The community included some traders, missionaries and even a school for the children.
Young’s main mission was to reorganize the Liberian Frontier Force (LFF). He acted in a military advisor capacity. When he arrived, there was a familiar face waiting for him. Richard C. Bundy was the deputy to the U.S. Minister at the Consulate. Bundy had grown up in Cincinnati, Ohio and graduated from Wilberforce University. Bundy and Young taught at Wilberforce University at the same time in the 1890s. They were also both active members of Beta Kappa Sigma, known as the Black Cats. They worked closely together throughout Young’s time in Liberia. Young often referred to Bundy as “the brains of our ministership here.”
Young selected three former Buffalo Soldiers to train and run the LFF. Young first selected Wilson Ballard. Ballard was the second in command behind Young. Ballard was born on June 17, 1877 is Concordia Parish, Louisiana. He attended Wilberforce University and was Young’s cadet adjutant there. During the Spanish-American War he was appointed lieutenant and adjutant in the Ninth Ohio Battalion commanded by Young. After the war he returned to Wilberforce and graduated in 1899. After graduation he accepted a commission as a first lieutenant in the all-Black Eighth U.S. Volunteer Infantry during the Philippine-American War from 1898 to 1901. After his time in the Philippines Ballard returned to Ohio to attend Ohio State University and earned a degree in dentistry. He opened his own dental practice in Louisville, Kentucky in 1904.
Arthur Browne was the second soldier Young selected. He served as a captain in the LFF. He was born on January 7, 1881 in Omaha Nebraska. He attended Wilberforce University and served as a military cadet under the leadership of Young. During the Spanish-American War he was appointed a corporal in the Ninth Ohio Battalion also commanded by Young. After the war he returned to his studies at Wilberforce University. He later completed teachers’ college at Howard University in Washington D.C. and pharmacy school at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. Before going to Liberia, he established a private podiatry practice in Chicago, Illinois.
The final soldier recommend by Young was Richard H. Newton. Newton served as a Captain in the LFF alongside Browne. Newton was born on August 1, 1879 in Baltimore, Maryland. He enlisted in the Ninth Cavalry in 1900. He served with L Troop, Ninth Cavalry in the Philippines before being commissioned a lieutenant in the Philippine Scouts from 1903 to 1907. Before going to Liberia he was a printing clerk with the U.S. Civil Service in Washington, D.C.
The first task for Young and his men was assessing and reorganize the LFF. The major problems were lack of funds to adequately fund, pay and supply the LFF along with bureaucratic red tape set up within the Liberian government. These limitations did not stop Young and his officers from training the LFF. By October 1912 the Liberian Frontier Force numbered 540 men and 17 commissioned Liberian officers. This was an increase of over 200 men since Young arrived. Young then assigned his three officers Browne, Ballard, and Newton to travel with detachments of the LFF to various frontier locations to help put down any border disturbances.
On November 23, 1912 Liberia President Daniel E. Howard wrote to Young asking if we would lead a relief party of 100 men. The party was organized to relieve Browne and the LFF in Tappi, deep in the interior of the country. They were surrounded by Gio and Mano fighters. Young’s 100 LFF soldiers were located in Zorzor on the border with French Guinea so he recruited more men along his way to relieve Browne. On November 25, Young left Monrovia with six dependable soldiers of the LFF. As Young and his men traveled through villages he hired local men as porters and soldiers and bought supplies. Young departed Zorzor on December 9 with a total force of 120 people including LFF soldiers, porters, and ten local chiefs and their warriors.
A month into the expedition Young had still not arrived in Tappi. He made observations on the villages and people he passed. One thing that stuck out to him was the lack of government infrastructure. Maps were also poor as he was not exactly sure where Tappi was. He and his expedition made several wrong turns and followed false trails.
On December 24, Young and his men were led into an ambush by a local woman. Young wrote about the ambush in his diary. He wrote “We fought from town to town all day. Had three men shot and wounded. While leading the advance guard into the town, I myself was shot in the right arm. At about three o’clock in the afternoon we stopped in a town (name unknown) about fifteen miles from the place where we had started from in the morning. I was convinced that I was going in the wrong direction. I made up my mind to rest and capture some prisoners.” Young was wounded by a two-inch rusty cooking pot leg fired from an old muzzle loader. The leg entered below his elbow and was lodged in his shoulder. He did not receive medical care to remove the object for three weeks until he returned to Monrovia.
Young and his expedition reached Tappi on December 29, 1912. There waiting for him was Browne and his garrison numbering 78 men. Browne took command of all LFF troops and left the safety of the garrison and drove away the hostile Gio and Mano fighters. Young remained in Tappi for 7 days before he left for Monrovia on January 5, 1913. Young traveled back to Monrovia with 125 men, indigenous allies and prisoners. They were able to take a more direct route back and they arrived in Monrovia ten days later on January 15.
Young impressed President Howard with his performance and professionalism during the nine months Young was in Liberia. President Howard appointed Young ‘Military Advisor to the War Department of Liberia.’ This position gave Young broad powers and access to formulate plans, write regulations, and administer payrolls within the Liberia War Department. Young was also able to act in the place of War Department Secretary Wilmot Dennis when Dennis was unavailable. One of the first things approved by Young was increased accountability for funds used by the government. This was established to offset the irregularities and lax methods in which the government previously accounted for money and supplies in the war department.
In April 1913, Young was sick with malignant malaria, also known as blackwater fever. He most likely contracted it initially on the expedition to Tappi. On June 1, 1913 Young was sent home to Wilberforce, Ohio to recover from blackwater fever as well as his wounded right arm. Young traveled with an American missionary Emory Ross. Young was very sick and delirious in his cabin most of the voyage. Young spent the rest of the summer of 1913 recovering at Youngsholm in Wilberforce. By September 1913, Young recovered and returned to Liberia.
Liberia relied on Germany for three fourths of its international commerce. The outbreak of World War One caused almost zero trade between the two countries. Liberia stayed neutral during the war while many of the neighboring countries had allegiance to their colonial rulers. Young wrote numerous letters to those in Washington, D.C. on ways the United States could continue to support Liberia through loans and trade agreements.
Also, the war in Europe caused issues for Young personally. His children were attending boarding school in Pieton, Belgium. This was in the path of the advancing German army. Young had the US legation in Liberia write diplomatic dispatches to find where his children were. Ada Young left their Wilberforce home on the first available ocean liner heading to Europe. They found out their children were relocated to Rotterdam, Netherlands. Ada Young reunited with her children there and traveled with them to London, England. While in London the Young’s stayed with Nina duBois, the wife of W.E.B. DuBois. DuBois and Young taught together at Wilberforce University in the mid-1890s. In June 1915, Ada Young and the children left London and headed to Paris, France to enroll in another boarding school. Once Charles Noel and Marie Young were settled Mrs. Young returned to Youngsholm in Wilberforce.
On October 19, 1915 Major Charles Young was relieved of military attaché duties in Liberia and assigned to the Tenth Cavalry. Young spent his remaining time collecting his belongings and preparing to return to the United States. He left Monrovia on November 25, 1915. Young was replaced by Lieutenant John E. Green.
Courtesy of the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center, Wilberforce, Ohio.
Want to learn more about Charles Young and the other officers in Liberia? Read African American Officers in Liberia: A Pestiferous Rotation, 1910-1942, by historian and author Brian G. Shellum.