Lincoln Battalion (American intervention)

 The Lincoln Battalion (also wrongly known as Abraham Lincoln Brigade) was the 17^th (later the 58^th) battalion (it was an infantry battalion) of the XV International Brigade, that formed part of the International Brigades at the Spanish Civil War. With its headquarters in Albacete, it was formed by a group of American volunteers who served as soldiers, technicians, medical personnel and aviators that fought in the conflict, who were totally around 3,000 volunteers, of which around 700 died at the battle field or also by wounds or sickness.

Lincoln Battalion's flag

 The Lincoln Battalion was integrate like successor of the Lincoln-Washington Battalion. A great part of the volunteers came from the Mackenzie-Papineau, also known as "Mac-Pap" Battalion (a Canadian Brigade) which suffered heavy losses and transfered 1,891 men. Many of the soldiers were either first or second generation immigrants, and the battalion was overwhelmingly white.

 Americans usually entered Spain by first emigrating to France because the United States Government was not issuing visas to Spain as part of its non-intervention policy. Few American soldiers arrived after September 1937. Battalion members fought for many different reasons. For the 85 African-American members of the battalion, the Nationalists represented all the injustices they faced back in the US. Furthermore, Franco was supported by Mussolini's Fascist Italian army and air force which had only recently conquered the African nation of Ethiopia, a beacon of Black nationalism around the globe.

Lincoln Battalion's volunteers, with Oliver Law (first African-American commander of the American army)

  The units that composed the Lincoln Battalion were:

*20^th Battalion, 86^th Brigade: This unit fought on the Cordoba front, being most of the American volunteers transferred from this unit to the XVth International Brigade.

*George Washington Battalion (2^nd American battalion): Joint with the Lincoln Battalion during the Brunete Campaign, this unit was commanded by Mirko Markovics, with Dave Mates as its commissar.

Mirko Markovics (left, with the sovietic Lieutenant-Colonel Vladimir Copic)

*Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion (“Mac-Pap” Battalion)

*2^nd Squadron, 1^st Regiment de Tren (transportation unit): Commanded by Durward Clark.

*The John Brown Battery (14^th Battery, 2^nd Group, 11^th Regiment): Heavy artillery unit.

*4^th Group, 35^th Battery.

 It was associated with the Lincoln Battalion the American Medical Bureau (AMB), an humanitary institution organised by the Dr. Edward K. Barsky that provided medical assistance to the Republican band, recruiting doctors, dentists, nurses, administrators and ambulance dirvers.

AMB's armband

Dr. Edward K. Barsky

 On the 50's, after the end of the Spanish Civil War, many of the Lincoln Battalion's members were persecuted by the McCarthyism (they were accussed of disloyalty, subversion and treason against the USA, without the respect of having a fair trial). One of these cases affected to Delmer Berg (died on February 28, 2016, at the age of 100), a communist union and volunteer soldier that also served at the WWII. In some interviews, he told that they were considered as bastards or "rats" (between other similar things), but he kept believing "in the humanitarian value of communism".

Delmer Berg on 2015

Oliver Law

 Oliver Law (Texas, 23 de octubre de 1900 - Villaviciosa de Odón, Madrid, 9 de julio de 1937) fue un sindicalista, comunista y activista social afroamericano que estuvo primeramente en el ejército estadounidense entre 1919 y 1925, sirviendo de soldado raso en el 24º Regimiento de Infantería. Tras ello, probó suerte en otros empleos, estando muy activo en el desempleo, así como en el activismo social.

 Tras este periplo por el mundo laboral, se unió al Batallón Abraham Lincoln en 1936, llegando a España en  enero de 1937 para servir en una compañía de ametralladoras, de la que llegaría a ser comandante tras su buena actuación en la Batalla del Jarama (6-27 de febrero de 1937); algunas semanas después, sería ascendido a comandante del batallón. A principios de junio, cuando las tropas republicanas se trasladaban a Brunete para llevar a cabo una gran ofensiva contra los nacionalistas, Law murió abatido en el Cerro del Mosquito cuando lideraba a sus hombres.