Daily Writing Tips is my favorite newsletter. Great tips, great advice, and straightforward suggestions. —Beth

Let’s talk about the dos and don’ts of contractions, ’k?

(But first, this note: This punctuation mark is the same as the one used for apostrophes. However, if you use smart, or curly, quotes, your word processing program will probably incorrectly render an apostrophe not preceded by a letter — as in the last word in the opening sentence — as an open single quotation mark, so you have to outwit the witless program by copying and pasting a closed single quotation mark or an apostrophe, or typing a character followed by the proper mark, then deleting the first character.)

In a given piece of prose, the presence or absence (or relative prevalence) of contractions, or words in which one or more letters is elided or replaced — often but not always with one or more apostrophes as markers — is one of the primary determiners of formal or informal writing.

Some publications go so far as to prohibit ubiquitous contractions such as can’t, won’t, and related terms, as well as he’s and she’s, considering them inappropriate in authoritative composition. Meanwhile, some contractions are widely thought of as unseemly except when transcribing dialect or preserving archaic forms in the proper context. Here are some classes of contractions:

INFORMAL CONTRACTIONS

Gonna, wanna, and the like is considered appropriate in formal writing only when faithfully capturing colloquial speech. The same goes for such elisions as ’em (for them) and ’cept (for except). Other nonstandard forms of communicating nonstandard dialect, acceptable only in narrative or dialogue in informal contexts, include ’fraid, ’nother, s’pose, and t’other.

ARCHAICISMS

Venerable contractions such as ’twas are mostly seen in historical contexts, though they might be employed for humorous effect, such as to produce a faux-archaic sense. ’Tis time to get o’er it, e’en so. Others, seen usually in poetry, include ’gainst, heav’n, and wither’d, and many other words in which the -ed ending is so elided to conform to a poetic meter or prose rhythm. Similar constructions, like ha’e (have), i’ (in), th’ (the), and wi’ (with), are seen in the poetry of Robert Burns or other reflections of dialect.

TRADITIONAL CONTRACTIONS

A few words with contractions are incorrect any other way, and their elided forms must be honored even in the most formal contexts. These grandfathered elders include the o’ compounds cat-o’-nine-tails, jack-o’-lantern, o’clock, and will-o’-the-wisp. Ne’er-do-well is another phrase given a pass.

However, Halloween, formerly spelled Hallowe’en (from “Hallow evening,” referring to All Hallow’s Eve), has lost its contraction marker, and the maritime slang fo’c’s’le (pronounced FOKE-sul) is often spelled out in full (forecastle), though the latter use in most nautical dialogue would be clumsy and stiff. By the same token, boatswain is, outside technical contexts, spelled bosun or even bos’n. Cap’n, however, is an informal contraction of captain that, unlike bosun, is not generally seen outside dialogue.

CONTRACTIONS WITH MORE THAN ONE APOSTROPHE

He’d’ve and its feminine and plural equivalents, and wouldn’t’ve and similar words, are technically correct but inappropriate for formal writing. But in informal contexts, bring ’em on.

“Rock ’n’ roll” requires an apostrophe on each side of the letter n, to mark the preceding and following letters in and. Better yet, though, follow the spelling in most dictionary entries for the term and spell out and, just as in “rhythm and blues.”

CLIPPED FORMS

Full words such as copter or phone, formed by omitting one or more syllables from the beginning or end of a word (or, rarely, from both, as with flu being derived from influenza), do not feature an apostrophe, but some writers included the markers when the clipped forms first appeared in print, so this form is acceptable in limited usage, such as in a historical novel.

MISCELLANEOUS USAGE

Abbreviations of years, such as in the phrases “spirit of ’76” and “class of ’84,” require apostrophes.

’Til is acceptable in informal writing, but till is preferable, and until is more appropriate in formal contexts.

Two contractions are rarely seen outside column headings in charts or in newspaper headlines, where, because of space limitations, they are usually compressed, are ass’n (association) and ass’t (assistant).

Although terms like Mr., Jr., and Ltd. elide letters (and, outside American English, the periods are omitted), they are technically abbreviations, not contractions, because apostrophes are not used.

NOTES ABOUT THE FIRST PARAGRAPH

Let’s is the only contraction I can think of that is bereft of a viable full form; nobody writes “Let us” as the beginning of an invitation unless they intend to affect a stiff formality. Also, the treatment of “dos and don’ts” is correct; don’ts include an apostrophe only because don’t do. (Dos and don’ts are plural forms, not possessive ones.) Finally, ’k (or ’K) as a perky contraction of OK belongs only in social media contexts or as a snide parody of such usage.

Daily Writing Tips is my favorite newsletter. Great tips, great advice, and straightforward suggestions. —Beth

Let’s talk about the dos and don’ts of contractions, ’k?

(But first, this note: This punctuation mark is the same as the one used for apostrophes. However, if you use smart, or curly, quotes, your word processing program will probably incorrectly render an apostrophe not preceded by a letter — as in the last word in the opening sentence — as an open single quotation mark, so you have to outwit the witless program by copying and pasting a closed single quotation mark or an apostrophe, or typing a character followed by the proper mark, then deleting the first character.)

In a given piece of prose, the presence or absence (or relative prevalence) of contractions, or words in which one or more letters is elided or replaced — often but not always with one or more apostrophes as markers — is one of the primary determiners of formal or informal writing.

Some publications go so far as to prohibit ubiquitous contractions such as can’t, won’t, and related terms, as well as he’s and she’s, considering them inappropriate in authoritative composition. Meanwhile, some contractions are widely thought of as unseemly except when transcribing dialect or preserving archaic forms in the proper context. Here are some classes of contractions:

INFORMAL CONTRACTIONS

Gonna, wanna, and the like is considered appropriate in formal writing only when faithfully capturing colloquial speech. The same goes for such elisions as ’em (for them) and ’cept (for except). Other nonstandard forms of communicating nonstandard dialect, acceptable only in narrative or dialogue in informal contexts, include ’fraid, ’nother, s’pose, and t’other.

ARCHAICISMS

Venerable contractions such as ’twas are mostly seen in historical contexts, though they might be employed for humorous effect, such as to produce a faux-archaic sense. ’Tis time to get o’er it, e’en so. Others, seen usually in poetry, include ’gainst, heav’n, and wither’d, and many other words in which the -ed ending is so elided to conform to a poetic meter or prose rhythm. Similar constructions, like ha’e (have), i’ (in), th’ (the), and wi’ (with), are seen in the poetry of Robert Burns or other reflections of dialect.

TRADITIONAL CONTRACTIONS

A few words with contractions are incorrect any other way, and their elided forms must be honored even in the most formal contexts. These grandfathered elders include the o’ compounds cat-o’-nine-tails, jack-o’-lantern, o’clock, and will-o’-the-wisp. Ne’er-do-well is another phrase given a pass.

However, Halloween, formerly spelled Hallowe’en (from “Hallow evening,” referring to All Hallow’s Eve), has lost its contraction marker, and the maritime slang fo’c’s’le (pronounced FOKE-sul) is often spelled out in full (forecastle), though the latter use in most nautical dialogue would be clumsy and stiff. By the same token, boatswain is, outside technical contexts, spelled bosun or even bos’n. Cap’n, however, is an informal contraction of captain that, unlike bosun, is not generally seen outside dialogue.

CONTRACTIONS WITH MORE THAN ONE APOSTROPHE

He’d’ve and its feminine and plural equivalents, and wouldn’t’ve and similar words, are technically correct but inappropriate for formal writing. But in informal contexts, bring ’em on.

“Rock ’n’ roll” requires an apostrophe on each side of the letter n, to mark the preceding and following letters in and. Better yet, though, follow the spelling in most dictionary entries for the term and spell out and, just as in “rhythm and blues.”

CLIPPED FORMS

Full words such as copter or phone, formed by omitting one or more syllables from the beginning or end of a word (or, rarely, from both, as with flu being derived from influenza), do not feature an apostrophe, but some writers included the markers when the clipped forms first appeared in print, so this form is acceptable in limited usage, such as in a historical novel.

MISCELLANEOUS USAGE

Abbreviations of years, such as in the phrases “spirit of ’76” and “class of ’84,” require apostrophes.

’Til is acceptable in informal writing, but till is preferable, and until is more appropriate in formal contexts.

Two contractions are rarely seen outside column headings in charts or in newspaper headlines, where, because of space limitations, they are usually compressed, are ass’n (association) and ass’t (assistant).

Although terms like Mr., Jr., and Ltd. elide letters (and, outside American English, the periods are omitted), they are technically abbreviations, not contractions, because apostrophes are not used.

NOTES ABOUT THE FIRST PARAGRAPH

Let’s is the only contraction I can think of that is bereft of a viable full form; nobody writes “Let us” as the beginning of an invitation unless they intend to affect a stiff formality. Also, the treatment of “dos and don’ts” is correct; don’ts include an apostrophe only because don’t do. (Dos and don’ts are plural forms, not possessive ones.) Finally, ’k (or ’K) as a perky contraction of OK belongs only in social media contexts or as a snide parody of such usage.

How to Use Semicolons Correctly

By Sara Richmond, Nov 9, 2023 8:00:00 AM

“How hideous is the semicolon,” Samuel Beckett said.

If we had to guess, we’d say Sam received a particularly excruciating rejection letter from his first crush, complete with multiple semicolons.

We bear no such resentment. In fact, we think semicolons are incredibly useful. But let’s start at the beginning so everyone can join in the fun.

What Is a Semicolon?

A semicolon is a little punctuation person about to dance.

See here ; . Such incredible form! Such armless fluidity!

A semicolon is more forceful than a comma, but weaker than a period. It’s a way to separate two full sentences without breaking them apart, or a way to clarify a long sentence with two or more sections.

To be more specific, there are five common instances when you should use a semicolon.

5 Times to Use a Semicolon

Read more »

1. Between two full sentences (called “independent clauses”) not joined by a conjunction.*(An independent clause is a group of words containing a subject and related verb that expresses a complete thought.)

Example 1: Samuel Beckett hates semicolons; who hurt him?

Example 2: We all have our favorite punctuation marks; I’m partial to em dashes myself.

2. Between two independent clauses joined by adverbs “however,” “therefore,” and the like.

Example 1: Abraham Lincoln values the humble semicolon; however, Samuel Beckett hates it furiously.

Example 2: Sam hated semicolons thoroughly; therefore, he suggested people never use them.

3. Before an expression such as “that is,” “for example,” or “namely,” when it introduces an independent clause.

Example 1: Sammie told everyone how much he loathed semicolons; namely, that they were “hideous.”

Example 2: Sam had a pretty dire view of more than just semicolons; for example, “Dream of Fair to Middling Women: A Novel” explores his disgust with romantic relationships.

4. Before a conjunction introducing an independent clause (instead of a comma) to separate the clauses more effectively or when the second independent clause has internal punctuation.

Example 1: Abraham Lincoln wasn’t known for his looks; yet some modern afficionados refer to him as “Baberaham” Lincoln.

Example 2: Honest Abe professed an affinity for semicolons; but his most famous speech, “The Gettysburg Address,” doesn’t have a single one, though it’s rife with commas.

5. In a complex series to avoid confusion or ambiguity.

Example 1: The total gold medals awarded during the Winter Olympics were as follows: France, 3; China, 8; United States, 7; Germany, 3; Great Britain, 5.

Example 2: The defendant, in an attempt to mitigate his sentence, pleaded that he had recently, on doctor’s orders, gone off his medications; that his car—which, incidentally, he had won in the late 1970s on Let’s Make a Deal—had spontaneously caught fire; and that he had not eaten for several days.**

When Not to Use a Semicolon

If your sentence is a combination of two independent clauses joined by a conjunction, use a comma.
 

Example 1: I hate ice cream, but I still eat it every day.

Example 2: She will walk to school, and she’ll probably complain the whole way.

If there isn’t much of a chance you’ll confuse readers while writing a series, use commas.

Example 1: Don’t you just love learning about commas, semicolons, periods, and all things grammar?

Example 2: If the answer to the prior question wasn’t “Yes,” or “Yeehaw,” or “I like it. I love it. I want some more of it,” then I am sad.

If you could easily divide one sentence into two without hurting readability or flow or sense, do so with a period between them.

Example 1: He told me he’d seen a butterfly shaped like a semicolon; I’m not sure what to believe. = He told me he’d seen a butterfly shaped like a semicolon. I’m not sure what to believe.

Example 2: The gastroenterologist told me he’d seen a colon shaped like a semitruck; his nurse said he was exaggerating. = The doctor told me he’d seen a colon shaped like a semitruck. His nurse said he was exaggerating.

If you’d like more information about the use of semicolons in index entries, parenthetical text citations, or with a second subtitle of a work, please comment below, and we may include it in a future post! You can also dive into The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition, for details.

*These rules are summarized from The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition section on semicolons (6.56-6.60), which ProofreadNOW.com uses as the basis for our grammar style.

**This example was taken from The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition, Section 6.60, because it’s hilarious and perfect.

How to Use Semicolons Correctly

By Sara Richmond, Nov 9, 2023 8:00:00 AM

“How hideous is the semicolon,” Samuel Beckett said.

If we had to guess, we’d say Sam received a particularly excruciating rejection letter from his first crush, complete with multiple semicolons.

We bear no such resentment. In fact, we think semicolons are incredibly useful. But let’s start at the beginning so everyone can join in the fun.

What Is a Semicolon?

A semicolon is a little punctuation person about to dance.

See here ; . Such incredible form! Such armless fluidity!

A semicolon is more forceful than a comma, but weaker than a period. It’s a way to separate two full sentences without breaking them apart, or a way to clarify a long sentence with two or more sections.

To be more specific, there are five common instances when you should use a semicolon.

5 Times to Use a Semicolon

Read more »

1. Between two full sentences (called “independent clauses”) not joined by a conjunction.*(An independent clause is a group of words containing a subject and related verb that expresses a complete thought.)

Example 1: Samuel Beckett hates semicolons; who hurt him?

Example 2: We all have our favorite punctuation marks; I’m partial to em dashes myself.

2. Between two independent clauses joined by adverbs “however,” “therefore,” and the like.

Example 1: Abraham Lincoln values the humble semicolon; however, Samuel Beckett hates it furiously.

Example 2: Sam hated semicolons thoroughly; therefore, he suggested people never use them.

3. Before an expression such as “that is,” “for example,” or “namely,” when it introduces an independent clause.

Example 1: Sammie told everyone how much he loathed semicolons; namely, that they were “hideous.”

Example 2: Sam had a pretty dire view of more than just semicolons; for example, “Dream of Fair to Middling Women: A Novel” explores his disgust with romantic relationships.

4. Before a conjunction introducing an independent clause (instead of a comma) to separate the clauses more effectively or when the second independent clause has internal punctuation.

Example 1: Abraham Lincoln wasn’t known for his looks; yet some modern afficionados refer to him as “Baberaham” Lincoln.

Example 2: Honest Abe professed an affinity for semicolons; but his most famous speech, “The Gettysburg Address,” doesn’t have a single one, though it’s rife with commas.

5. In a complex series to avoid confusion or ambiguity.

Example 1: The total gold medals awarded during the Winter Olympics were as follows: France, 3; China, 8; United States, 7; Germany, 3; Great Britain, 5.

Example 2: The defendant, in an attempt to mitigate his sentence, pleaded that he had recently, on doctor’s orders, gone off his medications; that his car—which, incidentally, he had won in the late 1970s on Let’s Make a Deal—had spontaneously caught fire; and that he had not eaten for several days.**

When Not to Use a Semicolon

If your sentence is a combination of two independent clauses joined by a conjunction, use a comma.
 

Example 1: I hate ice cream, but I still eat it every day.

Example 2: She will walk to school, and she’ll probably complain the whole way.

If there isn’t much of a chance you’ll confuse readers while writing a series, use commas.

Example 1: Don’t you just love learning about commas, semicolons, periods, and all things grammar?

Example 2: If the answer to the prior question wasn’t “Yes,” or “Yeehaw,” or “I like it. I love it. I want some more of it,” then I am sad.

If you could easily divide one sentence into two without hurting readability or flow or sense, do so with a period between them.

Example 1: He told me he’d seen a butterfly shaped like a semicolon; I’m not sure what to believe. = He told me he’d seen a butterfly shaped like a semicolon. I’m not sure what to believe.

Example 2: The gastroenterologist told me he’d seen a colon shaped like a semitruck; his nurse said he was exaggerating. = The doctor told me he’d seen a colon shaped like a semitruck. His nurse said he was exaggerating.

If you’d like more information about the use of semicolons in index entries, parenthetical text citations, or with a second subtitle of a work, please comment below, and we may include it in a future post! You can also dive into The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition, for details.

*These rules are summarized from The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition section on semicolons (6.56-6.60), which ProofreadNOW.com uses as the basis for our grammar style.

**This example was taken from The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition, Section 6.60, because it’s hilarious and perfect.

From the Houston Chronicle

More than a century has passed since 110 Black soldiers stationed at Camp Logan were convicted of mutiny, murder and assault in the 1917 Houston Riot, with 19 of them executed at Fort Sam Houston. Now those convictions have been overturned.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army Michael Mahoney has directed the Army Review Boards Agency to “set aside” the convictions of all soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, U.S. 24th Infantry Regiment. The Army will recognize the overturned convictions in a ceremony Monday at the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum in Midtown. Their service records will now reflect that they served honorably.

“It can’t bring them back, but it gives them peace,” said Angela Holder, whose great-uncle, Cpl. Jesse Moore, was one of the executed soldiers. “Their souls are at peace.”

The decision, reached weeks ago by Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, restores each of the soldiers’ individual rights, privileges and properties lost — their descendants may now be eligible for benefits. An Honorable Discharge Certificate “as a testimonial for honest and faithful service” has been issued for each soldier.

The reversal is unlike any other in the Army’s history. 

“This is not only the largest murder trial in American history, this is also the largest court-martial in American history, and no case this large or this serious with this many death penalties has ever been completely overturned by the Army on review,” said historian John Haymond, who along with South Texas College of Law former professor and retired military officer Dru Brenner-Beck co-authored the petition that Wormuth based her decision on. Their work on the case was pro bono.

“In legal terms, you would say this case is sui generis, meaning that it stands alone. It is truly unique,” he added. “This is the Army recognizing it’s never too late to do the right thing and correcting its error of the past.” 

Members of the all-Black 24th Infantry Regiment, often referred to as Buffalo Soldiers, arrived on July 27, 1917, and were ordered to guard the construction of Camp Logan, a 7-acre training base that is now part of Memorial Park, after the U.S. declared war on Germany during World War I. 

Three African American soldiers pose against a fence at Camp Logan.

Soldiers marching from Camp Logan to a tabernacle on Vida Street, now Waugh Drive.

GIs’ tent city – World War I soldiers at Camp Logan. (Houston Chronicle Files)

The city they encountered was a hostile one. Houston strongly enforced the Jim Crow segregation laws of the South.

On the night of Aug. 23, 1917, Camp Logan soldiers clashed with whites. Seventeen people, including five police officers, would end up dead that night —  most of them white. 

The violence had roots in Houston’s racial strife. The regiment was staying near the construction site in the Washington Avenue area. Disputes at the site included insults involving white workers, police and soldiers; sometimes the encounters were violent, according to transcripts from the trial, preserved at South Texas College of Law. The soldiers were often met with racial slurs. Police were known to arrest and beat soldiers who stood up to them when words were exchanged. 

The match was lit on the morning of Aug. 23, when police officers Lee Sparks and R.H. Daniels raided a craps game led by young Black men. Police assaulted a Black woman; a soldier was arrested when he protested. A few hours later, a military police officer, Cpl. Charles Baltimore of Company I, talked with officers Sparks and Daniels about the arrest.

The conversation ended with Sparks pistol-whipping the corporal, who ran, was shot at three times, and was later arrested and beaten again. Rumor got back to the camp that Baltimore was dead, sparking talk of revenge among the soldiers. He later returned alive, though bloodied. That night a shot rang out and someone cried, “The mob is coming!” prompting soldiers to rush for their rifles and set up a defensive perimeter around the 24th’s camp.

The white battalion commander abandoned his post, leaving other officers to try to control the panicking troops. At that point, Sgt. Vida Henry ordered soldiers in Company I to march out of the camp in formation. Melee ensued.

Henry was later found dead. Pvt. Bryant Watson, Pvt. Wiley Strong and Pvt. George Bevens also were killed. 

Houston was placed under martial law the following morning.

Jason Holt, a New Jersey lawyer and descendant of Pfc. Thomas C. Hawkins, who was executed, likens sending Black soldiers into a southern town to waving a red flag. “The country was still in the throes of the Jim Crow era and not many years post-slavery,” he said. “With T.C. Hawkins, there’s conflicting testimony as to where he was and what happened during the course of the incident. I’m not suggesting that there was the appropriate amount of fairness with any of the soldiers.”

One officer, Maj. Harry Grier, represented all the defendants throughout three courts-martial. Grier, who was not an attorney, was reportedly given 10 days to prepare. Haymond’s research indicates that prosecutor Col. John Hull commended Grier for not raising issues of race during the trial. Grier also made public statements on day 2 of the trials that mutiny had been proven, contrary to his clients’ best interests.

Holder and Holt bristle at the word “mutiny.” They prefer the “incident.” 

In an excerpt from his summary of the historical and legal facts of the 1917 Houston Incident, Haymond explains why: “In the list of uniquely military crimes, mutiny holds a singular position… It is natural and entirely appropriate, then, that when military personnel today first encounter the history of the Houston Mutiny of 1917, their most common immediate reaction is to condemn the men who were accused of that crime.”

His belief is the Army prosecution failed to prove that 63 soldiers participated in mutiny within the required standard of military law. Within 12 hours of Maj. Gen. John Ruckman’s sentencing in 1917, 13 condemned men were hanged. By September 1918, six additional soldiers were executed.

“If you have the largest courts-martial in the history of the United States, and you have one person representing 63 people who isn’t even a lawyer, any semblance of a fair trial kind of goes out the window,” Holt said. “Some were incarcerated, a few others were executed subsequently, but the first 13 did not have an opportunity to raise issues that could have mitigated the severity.”

On the morning of his execution, Hawkins wrote a final letter to his parents in North Carolina: “Dear Mother & Father, when this letter reaches you I will be beyond the veil of sorrow. I will be in heaven with the angels… I am sentenced to be hanged for the trouble that happened in Houston, Texas, although I am not guilty of the crime that I am accused of.”

Why did the Army’s action take more than 100 years? 

“That’s a fair question,” Haymond said. “So many of the records were classified for the longest time and not cleared for release until the 1970s. Military law is so different from civilian law.”

Holder submitted the original petition, a posthumous pardon request, through the Department of Justice in 2017, but that document only addressed the first 13 men who were executed. Much of her case was based on a presentation between Fred Borch, one of the few people publicly discussing Camp Logan at the time, and then-South Texas College of Law Houston professor Geoffrey Corn.

Corn took an interest in Holder. Within two years, he brought key players into the fold, including fellow former intelligence officer Brenner-Beck. In 2019, they presented their findings to regional NAACP representatives.

“We had two principal objectives — explain that they’d done it wrong, you have to go through the Secretary of the Army, and that the NAACP should endorse a resolution at the national level,” Corn said. “We were way too under-inclusive. Every one of those soldiers suffered an injustice, and the Army deserves to give them remedy for that.”

Approval was unanimous. The NAACP supplied funding, and South Texas College of Law designated Brenner-Beck an adjunct professor under the Actual Innocence Clinic, where dozens of students worked on a petition for clemency over a two-year period.

“We had students working on the project who were themselves veterans. They had a nuanced understanding of command structure, mutiny and the Army’s responsibility for what may have occurred,” says South Texas College of Law vice president, associate dean and clinical professor Cathy Burnett. “When they read the transcripts and saw what happened, their views changed.”

Brenner-Beck and Haymond’s petition for clemency landed on Mahoney’s desk of the Army Review Boards in January 2022. Three groups studied and reviewed files requested from the national records agency on the 110 convicted soldiers.

Mahoney never felt pressure to predetermine any outcome, he said. He was tasked to investigate and provide a recommendation, which is what the Army Review Boards did, following a process used for tens of thousands of cases prior.

“In the end, I recommended to the Secretary of the Army in May 2022 that the convictions be set aside and are now honorable discharges,” he said. “There’s no physical evidence. And eyewitness accounts, with 1917’s level of outdoor electrical lighting, produced inconsistent testimony. One, single defense attorney had to represent all 110 officers. We would not do that today obviously. None of the white officers were charged or convicted. None of the white citizens were charged or convicted of anything.”

Setting aside the convictions acknowledges they were never guilty, he said. 

Holder cried when she got the call that the decision had been made. 

As a young girl, she had vowed to find her great-uncle. In 2001, she finally visited the graves of Moore and his comrades at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio. A marker stands where 17 of the regiment’s soldiers are buried.

 “I remember going to each tombstone and saying, ‘I’m going to do something,'” she said. “The wheels of justice turn. They turn slowly, but they do turn. With this decision, the promise has been kept. It’s been a lifelong mission for me.”

Holder and Holt will attend the ceremony Monday where the Deputy Secretary of the Army and Under Secretary of the Army will discuss the 1917 Houston Incident and corrective action. The Army also will launch a website directing people to the National Records Agency to potentially identify more descendants, Mahoney said.

“One hundred and six years ago, when this happened, I would dare say the men of the 124th Infantry would not have thought this would be possible,” Holt said. “It’s a tremendous loss. At the same time, we’re gratified and grateful the clemency petition has been successful and the convictions have been set aside.”

From the Houston Chronicle

More than a century has passed since 110 Black soldiers stationed at Camp Logan were convicted of mutiny, murder and assault in the 1917 Houston Riot, with 19 of them executed at Fort Sam Houston. Now those convictions have been overturned.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army Michael Mahoney has directed the Army Review Boards Agency to “set aside” the convictions of all soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, U.S. 24th Infantry Regiment. The Army will recognize the overturned convictions in a ceremony Monday at the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum in Midtown. Their service records will now reflect that they served honorably.

“It can’t bring them back, but it gives them peace,” said Angela Holder, whose great-uncle, Cpl. Jesse Moore, was one of the executed soldiers. “Their souls are at peace.”

The decision, reached weeks ago by Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, restores each of the soldiers’ individual rights, privileges and properties lost — their descendants may now be eligible for benefits. An Honorable Discharge Certificate “as a testimonial for honest and faithful service” has been issued for each soldier.

The reversal is unlike any other in the Army’s history. 

“This is not only the largest murder trial in American history, this is also the largest court-martial in American history, and no case this large or this serious with this many death penalties has ever been completely overturned by the Army on review,” said historian John Haymond, who along with South Texas College of Law former professor and retired military officer Dru Brenner-Beck co-authored the petition that Wormuth based her decision on. Their work on the case was pro bono.

“In legal terms, you would say this case is sui generis, meaning that it stands alone. It is truly unique,” he added. “This is the Army recognizing it’s never too late to do the right thing and correcting its error of the past.” 

Members of the all-Black 24th Infantry Regiment, often referred to as Buffalo Soldiers, arrived on July 27, 1917, and were ordered to guard the construction of Camp Logan, a 7-acre training base that is now part of Memorial Park, after the U.S. declared war on Germany during World War I. 

Three African American soldiers pose against a fence at Camp Logan.

Soldiers marching from Camp Logan to a tabernacle on Vida Street, now Waugh Drive.

GIs’ tent city – World War I soldiers at Camp Logan. (Houston Chronicle Files)

The city they encountered was a hostile one. Houston strongly enforced the Jim Crow segregation laws of the South.

On the night of Aug. 23, 1917, Camp Logan soldiers clashed with whites. Seventeen people, including five police officers, would end up dead that night —  most of them white. 

The violence had roots in Houston’s racial strife. The regiment was staying near the construction site in the Washington Avenue area. Disputes at the site included insults involving white workers, police and soldiers; sometimes the encounters were violent, according to transcripts from the trial, preserved at South Texas College of Law. The soldiers were often met with racial slurs. Police were known to arrest and beat soldiers who stood up to them when words were exchanged. 

The match was lit on the morning of Aug. 23, when police officers Lee Sparks and R.H. Daniels raided a craps game led by young Black men. Police assaulted a Black woman; a soldier was arrested when he protested. A few hours later, a military police officer, Cpl. Charles Baltimore of Company I, talked with officers Sparks and Daniels about the arrest.

The conversation ended with Sparks pistol-whipping the corporal, who ran, was shot at three times, and was later arrested and beaten again. Rumor got back to the camp that Baltimore was dead, sparking talk of revenge among the soldiers. He later returned alive, though bloodied. That night a shot rang out and someone cried, “The mob is coming!” prompting soldiers to rush for their rifles and set up a defensive perimeter around the 24th’s camp.

The white battalion commander abandoned his post, leaving other officers to try to control the panicking troops. At that point, Sgt. Vida Henry ordered soldiers in Company I to march out of the camp in formation. Melee ensued.

Henry was later found dead. Pvt. Bryant Watson, Pvt. Wiley Strong and Pvt. George Bevens also were killed. 

Houston was placed under martial law the following morning.

Jason Holt, a New Jersey lawyer and descendant of Pfc. Thomas C. Hawkins, who was executed, likens sending Black soldiers into a southern town to waving a red flag. “The country was still in the throes of the Jim Crow era and not many years post-slavery,” he said. “With T.C. Hawkins, there’s conflicting testimony as to where he was and what happened during the course of the incident. I’m not suggesting that there was the appropriate amount of fairness with any of the soldiers.”

One officer, Maj. Harry Grier, represented all the defendants throughout three courts-martial. Grier, who was not an attorney, was reportedly given 10 days to prepare. Haymond’s research indicates that prosecutor Col. John Hull commended Grier for not raising issues of race during the trial. Grier also made public statements on day 2 of the trials that mutiny had been proven, contrary to his clients’ best interests.

Holder and Holt bristle at the word “mutiny.” They prefer the “incident.” 

In an excerpt from his summary of the historical and legal facts of the 1917 Houston Incident, Haymond explains why: “In the list of uniquely military crimes, mutiny holds a singular position… It is natural and entirely appropriate, then, that when military personnel today first encounter the history of the Houston Mutiny of 1917, their most common immediate reaction is to condemn the men who were accused of that crime.”

His belief is the Army prosecution failed to prove that 63 soldiers participated in mutiny within the required standard of military law. Within 12 hours of Maj. Gen. John Ruckman’s sentencing in 1917, 13 condemned men were hanged. By September 1918, six additional soldiers were executed.

“If you have the largest courts-martial in the history of the United States, and you have one person representing 63 people who isn’t even a lawyer, any semblance of a fair trial kind of goes out the window,” Holt said. “Some were incarcerated, a few others were executed subsequently, but the first 13 did not have an opportunity to raise issues that could have mitigated the severity.”

On the morning of his execution, Hawkins wrote a final letter to his parents in North Carolina: “Dear Mother & Father, when this letter reaches you I will be beyond the veil of sorrow. I will be in heaven with the angels… I am sentenced to be hanged for the trouble that happened in Houston, Texas, although I am not guilty of the crime that I am accused of.”

Why did the Army’s action take more than 100 years? 

“That’s a fair question,” Haymond said. “So many of the records were classified for the longest time and not cleared for release until the 1970s. Military law is so different from civilian law.”

Holder submitted the original petition, a posthumous pardon request, through the Department of Justice in 2017, but that document only addressed the first 13 men who were executed. Much of her case was based on a presentation between Fred Borch, one of the few people publicly discussing Camp Logan at the time, and then-South Texas College of Law Houston professor Geoffrey Corn.

Corn took an interest in Holder. Within two years, he brought key players into the fold, including fellow former intelligence officer Brenner-Beck. In 2019, they presented their findings to regional NAACP representatives.

“We had two principal objectives — explain that they’d done it wrong, you have to go through the Secretary of the Army, and that the NAACP should endorse a resolution at the national level,” Corn said. “We were way too under-inclusive. Every one of those soldiers suffered an injustice, and the Army deserves to give them remedy for that.”

Approval was unanimous. The NAACP supplied funding, and South Texas College of Law designated Brenner-Beck an adjunct professor under the Actual Innocence Clinic, where dozens of students worked on a petition for clemency over a two-year period.

“We had students working on the project who were themselves veterans. They had a nuanced understanding of command structure, mutiny and the Army’s responsibility for what may have occurred,” says South Texas College of Law vice president, associate dean and clinical professor Cathy Burnett. “When they read the transcripts and saw what happened, their views changed.”

Brenner-Beck and Haymond’s petition for clemency landed on Mahoney’s desk of the Army Review Boards in January 2022. Three groups studied and reviewed files requested from the national records agency on the 110 convicted soldiers.

Mahoney never felt pressure to predetermine any outcome, he said. He was tasked to investigate and provide a recommendation, which is what the Army Review Boards did, following a process used for tens of thousands of cases prior.

“In the end, I recommended to the Secretary of the Army in May 2022 that the convictions be set aside and are now honorable discharges,” he said. “There’s no physical evidence. And eyewitness accounts, with 1917’s level of outdoor electrical lighting, produced inconsistent testimony. One, single defense attorney had to represent all 110 officers. We would not do that today obviously. None of the white officers were charged or convicted. None of the white citizens were charged or convicted of anything.”

Setting aside the convictions acknowledges they were never guilty, he said. 

Holder cried when she got the call that the decision had been made. 

As a young girl, she had vowed to find her great-uncle. In 2001, she finally visited the graves of Moore and his comrades at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio. A marker stands where 17 of the regiment’s soldiers are buried.

 “I remember going to each tombstone and saying, ‘I’m going to do something,'” she said. “The wheels of justice turn. They turn slowly, but they do turn. With this decision, the promise has been kept. It’s been a lifelong mission for me.”

Holder and Holt will attend the ceremony Monday where the Deputy Secretary of the Army and Under Secretary of the Army will discuss the 1917 Houston Incident and corrective action. The Army also will launch a website directing people to the National Records Agency to potentially identify more descendants, Mahoney said.

“One hundred and six years ago, when this happened, I would dare say the men of the 124th Infantry would not have thought this would be possible,” Holt said. “It’s a tremendous loss. At the same time, we’re gratified and grateful the clemency petition has been successful and the convictions have been set aside.”