author
Warner A. Ross
b. 1879
Remembered for a vivid firsthand account of Black American soldiers in World War I, this Indiana lawyer and Army major wrote with the urgency of someone who had lived the story himself. His best-known book, My Colored Battalion, preserves the courage and strain of combat just before the Armistice.
1 Audiobook
My Colored Battalion
by Warner A. Ross
About the author
Born in 1879, Warner A. Ross was an American lawyer from Lafayette, Indiana, who also served in the U.S. Army during World War I. He is best known as the author of My Colored Battalion, first published in 1920.
Ross wrote the book from direct experience as a major in the 365th Infantry. In it, he recounts leading a battalion of Black soldiers in France, giving readers a close, personal view of military life, battlefield pressure, and the discipline and bravery of the men under his command.
Beyond his writing, Ross was known in Lafayette as an attorney, a veteran, and a civic figure. He died in 1940, but his book remains of interest to readers of military history and to anyone looking for firsthand accounts of African American service in World War I.