Buffalo Soldier
Buffalo Soldiers were United States Army regiments composed exclusively of Black American soldiers, formed during the 19th century to serve on the American frontier. On September 21, 1866, the 10th Cavalry Regiment was formed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. According to legend, during the exodus of the 1870s, more than 20,000 African Americans migrated to Kansas. They hoped their journey would take them far away from poverty from the South. Others escaped by being soldiers. They served in the segregated army units and fought in the Western Indian Wars from 1867 to 1896. According to legend, the men were called "buffalo soldiers" by the Apache and Cheyenne. The soldiers adopted the name as a sign of honor and respect. Units of Buffalo Soldiers answered the nation's call to arms mainly in the West, however, also in Cuba, the Philippines, Hawaii, and Mexico. They had a huge impact on the Reconstruction era.
Although numerous Black Union Army regiments were raised during the Civil War, "Buffalo Soldiers" were established by the U.S Congress as the first all-black Army regiments in peacetime. The regiments were racially segregated, as the U.S. military would not desegregate until 1948. On November 15, 2024, Robert Dixon, the last surviving Buffalo Soldier, died aged 103. The oldest Buffalo Soldier, Mark Matthews, died in 2005 at the age of 111 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Etymology
Sources disagree on how the nickname "Buffalo Soldiers" began. According to the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum the name originated with the Cheyenne warriors in the winter of 1877, the actual Cheyenne translation being "Wild Buffalo". Writer Walter Hill documented the account of Colonel Benjamin Grierson, who founded the 10th Cavalry regiment, recalling an 1871 campaign against Comanches. Hill attributed the origin of the name to the Comanche, due to Grierson's assertions. The Apache used the same term as supported by other sources. Another possible origin credits the Plains Indians who gave them that name because of the bison coats they wore in winter. The phrase "Buffalo Soldiers" became a generic term for all black soldiers. It is now used for U.S. Army units that trace their direct lineage back to any of the African-American regiments formed in 1866.Service
During the Civil War, the U.S. government formed regiments known as the United States Colored Troops, composed of black soldiers and Native Americans. The USCT was disbanded in the fall of 1865. In 1867 the Regular Army was set at ten regiments of cavalry and 45 regiments of infantry. The Army was authorized to raise two regiments of black cavalry and four regiments of black infantry, who were mostly drawn from USCT veterans. The first draft of the bill that the House Committee on Military Affairs sent to the full chamber on March 7, 1866, did not include a provision for regiments of black cavalry; however, this provision was added by Senator Benjamin Wade prior to the bill's passing on July 28, 1866. In 1869 the Regular Army was kept at ten regiments of cavalry but cut to 25 regiments of Infantry, reducing the black complement to two regiments. The 38th and 41st were reorganized as the 25th, with headquarters in Jackson Barracks in New Orleans, Louisiana, in November 1869. The 39th and 40th were reorganized as the 24th, with headquarters at Fort Clark, Texas, in April 1869. The two black infantry regiments represented 10 percent of the size of all twenty-five infantry regiments. Similarly, the two black cavalry units represented 20 percent of the size of all ten cavalry regiments.During the peacetime formation years, the black infantry and cavalry regiments were composed of black enlisted soldiers commanded by white commissioned officers and black noncommissioned officers. These included the first commander of the 10th Cavalry Benjamin Grierson, the first commander of the 9th Cavalry Edward Hatch, Medal of Honor recipient Louis H. Carpenter, and Nicholas M. Nolan. The first black commissioned officer to lead the Buffalo Soldiers and the first black graduate of West Point, was Henry O. Flipper in 1877.
From 1870 to 1898, the total strength of the US Army totaled 25,000 service members, with black soldiers maintaining their ten percent representation.
History
Indian Wars
From 1867 to the early 1890s, these regiments served at a variety of posts in the Southwestern United States and the Great Plains regions. They participated in most of the military campaigns in these areas and earned a distinguished record. Thirteen enlisted men and six officers from these four regiments earned the Medal of Honor during the Indian Wars. In addition to the military campaigns, the Buffalo Soldiers served a variety of roles along the frontier, from building roads to escorting the U.S. mail. On April 17, 1875, regimental headquarters for the 10th Cavalry was transferred to Fort Concho, Texas. Companies actually arrived at Fort Concho in May 1873. The 9th Cavalry was headquartered at Fort Union from 1875 to 1881. At various times from 1873 through 1885, Fort Concho housed 9th Cavalry companies A–F, K, and M, 10th Cavalry companies A, D–G, I, L, and M, 24th Infantry companies D–G, and K, and 25th Infantry companies G and K.From 1879 to 1881, portions of all four of the Buffalo Soldier regiments were in New Mexico pursuing Victorio and Nana and their Apache warriors in Victorio's War. The 9th Cavalry spent the winter of 1890 to 1891 guarding the Pine Ridge Reservation during the events of the Ghost Dance War and the Wounded Knee Massacre. Cavalry regiments were also used to remove Sooners, who were squatting native lands in the late 1880s and early 1890s.
Buffalo Soldiers fought in the last engagement of the Indian Wars, the small Battle of Bear Valley in southern Arizona which occurred in 1918 between U.S. cavalry and Yaqui natives. In total, 23 Buffalo Soldiers received the Medal of Honor during the Indian Wars.
Range Wars
The Buffalo Soldiers, specifically the 9th Cavalry, participated in two of the largest range conflicts in the American Old West. Range wars were battles fought between large cattle ranchers against smaller ranchers and farmers who competed for land, water, and livestock in the open range. Many of these conflicts resulted in military intervention to pacify and maintain peace. A lesser known action was the 9th Cavalry's participation in the Colfax County War in Colfax County, New Mexico in 1873. Buffalo Soldiers were among the units sent, and on one occasion, some of them had a shootout with a group of Texas cowboys in the St. James Hotel. Three soldiers died during the shootout and a few months later one of the cowboys, Davy Crockett, who was involved, was killed by the local sheriffs. Notorious gunfighter, Clay Allison, shot and killed a black sergeant in a bar where he was drinking.The 9th cavalry had a much larger participation in the fabled Johnson County War in Johnson County, Wyoming. It culminated in a lengthy shootout between local farmers, a band of hired killers, and a sheriff's posse. The 6th Cavalry was ordered in by President Benjamin Harrison to quell the violence and capture the band of hired killers. Soon afterward, however, the 9th Cavalry was specifically called on to replace the 6th. The 6th Cavalry was swaying under the local political and social pressures and was unable to keep the peace in the tense environment. The Buffalo Soldiers responded within about two weeks from Nebraska, and moved the men to the rail town of Suggs, Wyoming, creating "Camp Bettens" despite a hostile local population. One soldier was killed and two wounded in a gun battle with locals. Nevertheless, the 9th Cavalry remained in Wyoming for nearly a year to quell tensions in the area.
1898–1918
After most of the Indian Wars ended in the 1890s, the regiments continued to serve and participated in the 1898 Spanish–American War in Cuba, where five more Medals of Honor were earned.The men of the Buffalo Soldiers were the only African Americans that fought in Cuba during the war. Additionally, the 6th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment had a company of African-American soldiers, company L, that saw action in Puerto Rico. Up to 5,000 "Black men" enlisted in volunteer regiments in the Spanish–American War in Alabama, Illinois, Kansas, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia, and some had all black officers. Several other African-American regiments of United States Volunteer Infantry were formed and nicknamed "Immune Regiments", due to having more natural resistance to malaria, yellow fever & other tropical diseases, but only the 9th Immunes served overseas in the war.
The Buffalo Soldier regiments also took part in the Philippine–American War from 1899 to 1903 and the 1916 Mexican Expedition. There was strong opposition to war in the Philippines among African Americans. Many black soldiers established a rapport with "the brown-skinned natives on the islands," and an unusually large number of black troops deserted during the campaign, some of whom joined the Filipino rebels, of whom the most famous was the celebrated David Fagen.
In 1918, the 10th Cavalry fought at the Battle of Ambos Nogales during the First World War, where they assisted in forcing the surrender of the federal Mexican and Mexican militia forces. In 1917, after being stationed in Houston, Texas, members of the 24th Infantry Regiment participated in the Houston riot of 1917 in which soldiers mutinied and marched on the city of Houston, killing over a dozen whites.
Park Rangers
Another little-known contribution of the Buffalo Soldiers involved eight troops of the 9th Cavalry Regiment and one company of the 24th Infantry Regiment who served in California's Sierra Nevada as some of the first national park rangers. In 1899, Buffalo Soldiers from Company H, 24th Infantry Regiment briefly served in Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park, and General Grant National Parks.U.S. Army regiments had been serving in these national parks since 1891, but until 1899, the soldiers serving were white. Beginning in 1899, and continuing in 1903 and 1904, African American regiments served during the summer in the second and third oldest national parks in the United States. Because these soldiers served before the National Park Service was created in 1916, they were "park rangers" before the term was coined.
A lasting legacy of the soldiers as park rangers is the campaign hat they wore. Although not officially adopted by the Army until 1911, the distinctive hat crease, called a Montana peak, can be seen being worn by several of the Buffalo Soldiers in park photographs dating back to 1899. Soldiers serving in the Spanish–American War began to re-crease the Stetson hat with a Montana "pinch" to better shed water from the torrential tropical rains. Many retained that distinctive crease upon their return to the U.S. The park photographs, in all likelihood, show Buffalo Soldiers who were veterans from that war.
One particular Buffalo Soldier stands out in history: Captain Charles Young, who served with Troop I, 9th Cavalry Regiment in Sequoia National Park during the summer of 1903. Young was the third African American to graduate from the United States Military Academy. At the time of his death, he was the highest-ranking African American in the U.S. military. He made history in Sequoia National Park in 1903 by becoming Acting Military Superintendent of Sequoia and General Grant National Parks. Young was also the first African American superintendent of a national park. During Young's tenure in the park, he named a giant sequoia for Booker T. Washington. Recently, another giant sequoia in Giant Forest was named in Captain Young's honor. Some of Young's descendants attended the ceremony.
In 1903, 9th Cavalrymen in Sequoia built the first trail to the top of Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the contiguous United States. They also built the first wagon road into Sequoia's Giant Forest, the most famous grove of giant sequoia trees in Sequoia National Park.
In 1904, 9th Cavalrymen in Yosemite built an arboretum on the South Fork of the Merced River in the southern section of the park. This arboretum had pathways and benches, and some plants were identified in both English and Latin. Yosemite's arboretum is considered to be the first museum in the National Park System. The NPS cites a 1904 report, where Yosemite superintendent John Bigelow, Jr. declared the arboretum "To provide a great museum of nature for the general public free of cost..." Unfortunately, the forces of developers, miners, and greed cut the boundaries of Yosemite in 1905 and the arboretum was nearly destroyed.
In the Sierra Nevada, the Buffalo Soldiers regularly endured long days in the saddle, slim rations, racism, and separation from family and friends. As military stewards, the African American cavalry and infantry regiments protected the national parks from illegal grazing, poaching, timber thieves, and forest fires. Yosemite Park Ranger Shelton Johnson researched and interpreted the history in an attempt to recover and celebrate the contributions of the Buffalo Soldiers of the Sierra Nevada.