John Blake

John Young Filmore Blake, also known as John Y.F. Blake and J.Y.F. Blake was an Irish-American soldier and writer. He was born October 6, 1856, in Bolivar, Missouri in the United States.

He died on January 24, 1907, in New York City. Blake served as a foreign volunteer for the Boers of the South African Republic during the Second Boer War.

He was the youngest of six children born to Thomas K Blake and Sinclair T."Clary" Chitty. They lived in Polk County, Missouri, when his mother died at the age of 41 on 25 Oct 1859. The family soon after moved to Denton County, Texas where his father farmed and John grew up cattle ranching and learned to ride horses.

John married Katherine Euphrasia Aldrich on the 14th October 1885 in Grand Rapids Michigan. They had two sons together. Aldrich was born on 5 November 1886 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and Ledyard on 19 July 1889 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They were divorced on 1 March 1897 by decree in Kent, Michigan. Katherine had filed for divorce on October 27th 1896 the year after John had arrive in South Africa due to non-support.

His father sent him to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1871. In 1876 while at University, he received an appointment to the US Military Academy at West Point and entered the Academy in September of that year. He graduated from West Point in June 1880,and Blake began his military career, assigned as a 2nd Lieutenant to the 6th U.S. Cavalry stationed at Fort Lowell, on the outskirts of Toucson, Arizona from Sep 29th 1880 to July 14th, 1881. He was sent to Fort Bowie, in Wilcox, Arizona and General Crook put him in command of Apache Indian scouts from Sep to Nov of 1882, "and with them I roamed the mountains." He was stationed at Fort Bowie till June 12, 1884 after which he was stationed at Fort Bayard in New Mexico to Feb 16 1885. He took a leave of absence till Aug 15, 1885 "when my troop was ordered to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. I passed through the Infantry and Cavalry school, and, on being promoted to the rank of 1st. Lieutenant in 1887, was ordered to Fort Wingate, New Mexico. Now General Miles put me in command of the Navajo Indian scouts. The Indians remained quiet and peaceful on their reservations. Post life became monotonous..." He was stationed at Fort Wingate till Feb 9, 1889 and was on leave of absence to Aug 19, 1889 at which time he resigned from the army.

The Apache Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the United States Army and various Apache tribal confederations fought in the southwest between 1849 and 1886, though minor hostilities continued until as late as 1924. After the Mexican–American War in 1846, the United States inherited conflicted territory from Mexico which was the home of both settlers and Apache tribes. Conflicts continued as new United States citizens came into traditional Apache lands to raise livestock and crops and to mine minerals.

The U.S. Army established forts to fight Apache tribal war parties and force Apaches to move to designated Indian reservations created by the U.S. in accordance with the Indian Removal Act. Some reservations were not on the traditional areas occupied by the Apache. In 1886, the U.S. Army put over 5,000 soldiers in the field to fight, which resulted in the surrender of Geronimo and 30 of his followers.[2] This is generally considered the end of the Apache Wars, although conflicts continued between citizens and Apaches. The Confederate Army briefly participated in the wars during the early 1860s in Texas, before being diverted to action in the American Civil War in New Mexico and Arizona.

After he resigned from the Army, Blake moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan to become a businessman. After about five years he soon found out that "'the tricks of the trade', were too deep for me"[3] and giving into his desire for adventure, headed to South Africa as a gold prospector.

While in South Africa he became involved in the Second Boer War on the side of the South African Republic, leading the Chicago Irish-American Corps, known as Blake's Irish Brigade into battle against British forces.[4][5] He returned to the United States after the war to a hero's welcome and toured on the lecture circuit. He subsequently published a memoir of his experience during the war, A West Pointer With The Boers.[6]

Irish Commandos

Two Irish Commandos, volunteer military units of guerrilla militia, fought alongside the Boers against the British forces during the Second Boer War (1899–1902).Irish support for the Boers can be traced back to 1877 when several Irish parliamentarians, such as Charles Stewart Parnell, opposed laws to annex the South African Republic under British rule. Although the annexation was successful, many Irishmen continued to show support for the Boers during the First Anglo-Boer War; especially in 1881 following the British defeat at the Battle of Majuba Hill where an Irishman Alfred Aylward served as an adviser to the Boer General Piet Joubert during the battle. When rumours of a second war with the Boers began to surface, protesters led by James Connolly took to the streets in Dublin in August 1899 and public meetings were held across Ireland in support of the Boers. Several weeks later in Dublin, nearly twenty thousand marched in protest against the planned invasion of the South African Republic.[1] War followed from President Paul Kruger's ultimatum of 9 October 1899, which gave the British government 48 hours to comply. He declared war on Britain on 11 October.

The Irish Transvaal Brigade,also known as the Wreckers' Corps, was established days before the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Boer War and initially consisted of Irishmen who worked in the Witwatersrand. The Irish Transvaal Brigade, also known as the Wreckers' Corps, was organised by John MacBride, who was then employed at the Rand Mines. The Brigade of some 300 men was composed mostly Irish or Irish-American miners living in the Transvaal working on the mines and were willing to fight with the Boers against the British. Some were skilled in explosives having worked in the gold mines. They had a well-deserved reputation as demolition experts and were used to blow bridges etc, when the Boer forces were being driven across the Free State. The volunteers were given full citizenship and became Burghers of the Boer republics.

John MacBride wrote his own account of the Irish Transvaal Brigade, which can be found in Anthony J. Jordan's edited version of the writings of MacBride. Under the leadership of MacBride, the brigade was strengthened by volunteers travelling from Ireland who entered South Africa via Portuguese Mozambique. Recruitment of volunteers for the Boer cause was supported by representatives of the New York United Irish Societies while Dutch Americans organised to influence US foreign policy towards the Boers. Irishmen who enlisted in the British Army also fought in the Boer War, which symbolised one of many moments in Irish history in which Irishmen had divided loyalties. That ultimately led to them fighting each other.

The Brigade was bolstered during its campaign by a contingent of volunteers who came from Chicago and by a variety of Irish volunteers who travelled from America and Ireland to join the Brigade. Fifty-eight men of the Irish American Ambulance Corps travelled from Chicago to New York City, where they were welcomed as heroes for the purpose of joining the war effort. In South Africa, upon their arrival in April 1900, they were welcomed by fellow Irish American John Y. F. Blake, removed their Red Cross armbands and joined the Irish Transvaal Brigade. The two Irish Americans, Michael O'Hara and Edward Egan, who died in battle were described as "New Martyrs to Liberty" by the American press.[2]

The Brigade would come to be known as MacBride's Brigade, after their commander, John MacBride. It was operational from September 1899 to September 1900, when the brigade fought in about 20 engagements, with 18 men killed and about 70 wounded from a complement of no more than about 300 men at any one time. When it disbanded, most of the men crossed into Mozambique, which was a colony of neutral Portugal. Colonel John YF Blake, a former US Army officer was the brigade's commander. When he was wounded, his second-in-command, Major John MacBride, took command.[4][5] MacBride would hand control of the Tvl Irish to Blake who would become a Colonel.

  Until the Siege of Ladysmith, the commandos were involved in guarding the artillery under Carolus Johannes Trichardt. The brigade also provided signal service at the Battle of Modderspruit.[5] At the Siege of Ladysmith, they serviced the famous Boer artillery piece, called Long Tom, and they fought at the Battle of Colenso. They delayed the British advance on Pretoria by blowing up bridges. The brigade disbanded after the Battle of Bergendal. The brigade received letters of thanks before they left South Africa from State Secretary Francis William Reitz, Commandant-General Louis Botha and General Barend Viljoen.

The Second Irish Brigade was formed in January 1900 by former members of the Irish Transvaal Brigade. Former Le Journal correspondent Arthur Lynch was appointed as the unit's commander. The brigade consisted of 150 commandos from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. Including among others Irish, Australian, Greek, German, Boer and Italian members. The brigade remained attached to General Lukas Meyer's command in Natal, retiring to Laing's Nek after the siege of Ladysmith. The brigade fought in the rear guard, during the retreat from Ladysmith to Glencoe. The brigade was later ordered to Vereeniging but was disbanded while it was in Johannesburg. After the dissolution of the brigade, Lynch together with a small group of Irishmen joined various commandos along the Vaal River.

John's mother Sinclair T. Chitty married his father Thomas Kincaid Blake Jr. at the age of 15. In 1885 John married Katherine Euphrasia Aldrich in Grand Rapids while still in the service. Together they lived in the officers' quarters at Fort Leavenworth, where John's first son Aldrich Blake was born on November 6, 1885. In 1888 Katherine, being pregnant with John's second son, persuaded him to resign from the military and return to Grand Rapids. He agreed, and on September 19, 1889, Ledyard Blake was born.

Blake was found dead in his home in Harlem, New York City of gas asphyxiation on January 24, 1907. He had previously been tending a sick friend for three days. Some sources said the death was accidental, while others called it suicide.[1][7][8] He is buried at West Point, New York.