David Fagen.

This is coolbert:

“Fagen was a traitor, and died a traitor’s death, but he was a man, no doubt, prompted by motives to help a weaker side, and one to which he felt allied by ties that bind . . . He saw, it may be, the weak and the strong; he chose, and the world knows the rest.”

Here again with the type of blog entry that some might find troublesome. I can get in difficulty in some quarters for merely publishing this post?

Thanks to a variety of Internet web sites to include Socialist Action.

BEFORE THERE WAS SALT AND PEPPER THERE WAS DAVID FAGEN!!

Salt and Pepper perhaps the figment of a fevered imagination? David Fagen undeniably not so!!

David Fagen! American black troop with the 24th Regiment during the Philippine Insurrection deserting and rallying to the cause of the adversary, becoming a combat commander quite skilled. Treacherous and traitorous action causing considerable dismay among senior American military commanders.

See various Internet web sites the topic of which is David Fagen:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Fagen

http://www.blackpast.org/aaw/fagen-david-1875

http://www.academia.edu/242727/A_HOMAGE_TO_DAVID_FAGEN_AFRICAN-AMERICAN_SOLDIER_IN_THE_PHILIPPINE_REVOLUTION

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/black-american-anti-imperialist-fighters-philippine-american-war

Regarding desertions and defections from U.S. Army units fighting in the Philippines during that period:

“The desertions from the Negro regiments were large-much larger, I believe, than from the white organizations; and these desertions were invariably of a different character. The white man deserted because he was lazy and idle and found service life irksome. Sometimes he joined the insurgents; but he did so, evidently, because that was the only way in which he could obtain his dream of becoming a wild man in the woods. But the Negroes deserted in scores and for the purpose of joining the insurgents, and many of them, like the celebrated Fagan, became leaders and fought the white troops or their former comrades with zest and ability.” - - Stephen Bonsal.

Plus this bit of war poetry as written by the sister-in-law of General Funston, the subject of which was David Fagen and written in a mocking [?] tone:

"By Jimmy Christmas Fred
What’s this I see?
Poor old Fagen
Hanged to a tree?
How did it happen
This is queer
Tell us about it
We’re dying to hear"

coolbert.