; Whereas Araminta Ross, a Black woman, was the first woman to lead an armed expedition during the Civil War; Whereas Araminta Ross guided the Combahee River Raid, which liberated more than 700 slaves in South Carolina; Whereas Powhatan Beaty was born a slave in Richmond, Virginia, in 1837; Whereas when the Civil War broke out, Beaty enlisted in the Union army; Whereas Powhatan Beaty, a Black man, was quickly promoted to sergeant and oversaw 47 other Black recruits in noncombat jobs; Whereas in September 1864, Beaty’s division attacked the enemy at Chaffin’s farm, near Richmond, Virginia; Whereas with all of the unit’s officers and most of its enlisted men dead or wounded, Beaty took over and led a second charge, driving the enemy back; Whereas for his heroism, Beaty was awarded the Medal of Honor; Whereas during the Civil War, approximately 40,000 African Americans were killed in action; Whereas Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr., entered the military service on July 13, 1898, during the Spanish-American War as a temporary first lieutenant of the 8th United States Volunteer Infantry; Whereas on June 18, 1899, he enlisted as a private in the 9th Calvary of the Regular Army; Whereas Davis eventually came under the command of Charles Young, whom at the time was the only African-American Officer serving in the U.S. military; Whereas Young took Davis under his tutelage and helped him to prepare to take his officer candidate test; Whereas in only two years, he rose to sergeant major and earned a commission as a second lieutenant in 1901; Whereas Benjamin Oliver Davis, a Black man, rose through the ranks and became the first African American to achieve the rank of brigadier general in the U.S. military; Whereas during World War I, approximately 800 African Americans were killed in action; Whereas Doris Miller enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a Mess Attendant where he served on the USS West Virginia when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941