The Northern Chesapeake Heritage Foundation (NCHF) is a 501c3 non-profit, with a two-fold mission dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of the Northern Chesapeake Bay region and to support and honor our military men and women in uniform. Our mission is also to identify and honor all veterans who have gone before us but lie forgotten in unmarked graves or rest among the missing and lost around the globe.
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Honoring Maryland’s veterans who do not have a headstone at their gravesite or cenotaph in remembrance, where their final resting place is known but to God.
Honoring Marylanders who made an indelible mark on the history of our state.
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We Honor the Memory of
Pvt. Clinton Augustus Mitchell
Soldiers of the 24th U.S. Infantry marching in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, c. 1898 Buyenlarge/Getty Images
Pvt. Clinton Augustus Mitchell – Co. F, 24th U.S. Infantry
Born in Montgomery County, MD to William E. and Leanna (Howard) Mitchell. Both William and Leanna were born into free Black families in antebellum Maryland. Clinton was raised alongside several brothers and sisters, but unfortunately, the family bloodline died out by the late 1970s.
The 24th US Infantry was a segregated regiment of Black enlisted men and white officers and was one of the four historic all-Black U.S. Army regiments famously known as the “Buffalo Soldiers”. The Moniker was originally bestowed by Western American Indian Tribes who likened the soldiers’ fierce, brave fighting style and dark, curly hair to the mighty buffalo. The Four Regiments that constituted the “Buffalo Soldier” Regiments were the U.S. Army’s 9th and 10th Cavalry, and the 24th and 25th Infantry.
The regiment fought heroically during the Spanish American War in Cuba, participating in the assaults on El Caney and San Juan Hill. Shortly after the war’s end, the 24th regiment was deployed directly to the Philippines in March1899 to help suppress the nationalist guerrilla movement led by Emilio Aguinaldo. The Army’s command originally deployed the 24thand 25th Infantry, and the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments, believing falsely that Black soldiers were better equipped to survive tropical diseases and climates.
While in the Philippines, Pvt. Mitchell fell ill and was left behind at Bayonbong, along with two other members of his company. They all disappeared while enroute to rejoin their company. The Army and War Department determined the date of death for all three soldiers to be 4 Dec 1899. Their status remains as “unaccounted for,” or MIA, in the official record.
Pvt. Clinton Augustus Mitchell served his state and country from22 Aug 1898 until 4 Dec 1899.
We have placed a memorial marker in our Garden of Remembrance in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, MD for Pvt. Mitchell, so that his memory will not fade, but will rest among other Marylanders who paid the ultimate sacrifice for state and country but never made it home.
