The segregated 95th came to Dawson Creek under command of Colonel David Neuman. I posted a few days ago about their sad reception . Their commander soon made things incomparably worse.
More on Racism and the 95th Engineers
When, in wartime, soldiers write letters, Army censors review them. And censors noticed a pattern in letters from the soldiers of the 95th. Pvt. Dulin, for example, wrote simply that Colonel Neuman “…was a problem.” Corporal Jonathan Welch wrote, “That old southern principal of keeping Negroes as slaves is still being practiced.”
The censors noticed, but nothing much happened.
But then Lt. Joseph J. Sincavage, a white officer in the 95th, recorded his disgust with his command in a letter to his wife. Some of his fellows were “dastardly punks. . .it was disgraceful.” He told her of one white officer who lolled in bed while his black platoon sergeant did his work. He ended his letter with this, “The Army works for the officer, but the colored man was his slave.”
The censors sent that letter up the chain of command. The chain had noticed the 95ths lack of progress. Rumors about Neuman had circulated. Sincavage’s letter made it all the way to General Sturdevant in Washington.
The excrement, as they say, hit the fan.
Neuman had officially injured his leg. His self-treatment consisted of secluding himself in his tent with a bottle—no, several bottles—leaving the 95th to fend for itself.
When that report made it back to Sturdevant, he relieved the Colonel of his command. The Army didn’t demote or prosecute him—the officer corps didn’t work that way. But they sent him “home for his health”.
On July 19, Lt. Colonel Heath Twichell, executive officer of the 35th Engineers, assumed command of the 95th and immediately set to work on their crushing morale problem.