Buffalo Soldiers: Intro

This is Thomas Wayne Riley and welcome to the American Southwest.

Episode 4, Part 1: The Buffalo Soldiers

I had wanted to open this episode with the Bob Marley song Buffalo Soldier but the music just doesn’t quite fit the theme of the American Southwest seeing as how it’s reggae but it’s a great song and everyone should listen to it as soon as this episode’s over. Speaking of this episode, my initial plan was for this to be the third and last in a series that highlighted blacks and African Americans in the west and southwest of the United States during its exploration and expansion. It was to be a fun and exciting telling of the cavalry troopers that have become known as the buffalo soldiers during the plains wars as they fought and died to protect the stages, railroad workers, prospectors, and general unstoppable force that was American westward expansion to the pacific. But it quickly grew into much more than that. I realized it was difficult to take their stories and the battles and the conquests out of context and just rehash them to you. I soon understood the only way to properly tell this story is to break it up into four episodes that best cover the history and incredible people and characters and settings that The Buffalo Soldiers entail. I will talk about the Buffalo Soldiers origins before talking in length about the 9th Cavalry, the 10th Cavalry, and finishing with their actions at the turn of the century when they were instrumental in the founding of our National Parks.

So without any further adieu, I’d like to introduce you to the Buffalo Soldiers.

Quote, The buffalo soldiers first fourteen years were marked by a series of ups and downs. Every success was followed by a defeat, every honor, by charges of unreliability. At times the bond between officers and men seemed near collapse. For every officer who valued his men there was a racist goading them to defiance. Every incident, however trivial, fed prejudices that permeated the military command structure. At times the very survival of the black regiments was in question. End quote. Charles Kenner says that in his book Buffalo Soldiers and Officers of the Ninth Cavalry 1867 to 1898 which is a fantastic and wonderful book and one of the many I used extensively for this episode. Obviously, besides being soldiers and facing the constant fear and reality of death, disease, and a difficult lifestyle, the Buffalo soldiers that made up the 9th and 10th US Cavalry faced the fun fact of being black in a world that had just gone to war over the slavery question. Kenner’s quote above highlights the struggles they faced not only on the battlefield but also in civilian life.

After the Civil War, a massive demilitarization of the entire newly reunited States of America began but it quickly became clear that some forces were still needed. Westward expansion was rapidly ramping up and with it, came constant conflict with the Native Americans who, for nearly four years, had enjoyed the United States’ reduced threat. But that threat was back with a vengeance and was about to be headed by men who had just fought their own brother’s in a terribly costly war.

In 1866, a year after that war, Congress passed the Army Reorganization Act which doubled the size of the regular army and included the addition of Six African American regiments, which would be the first professional black soldiers in the United States Army. It couldn’t be ignored that almost 200,000 black soldiers had fought with the Union Army and countless for the Confederates wether by choice or by force so despite some opposition, these regiments began recruiting and training. Obviously, all were commanded by white officers who were offered a promotion and it was insured that they held no prejudices against blacks.

For thirteen dollars a month, food, room, board, and clothing, the life of a soldier for the required five years didn’t seem that bad to many ex slaves who faced a bleak looking future. Many freedmen would end up going north to work in terrible factories with equally as racist people as they’d grown up with in the south or staying in the south where many of them would work for their old master on the same fields they’d been freed from. Not to mention joining the Army provided a chance at an education.

Mazique Sancho, a buffalo soldier said, quote, I felt I wasn’t learning enough, so I joined. End quote. In 1875 Chaplain George C Mullins reported, quote for the most part the soldiers seem to have an enthusiastic interest in the school. They are prompt in attendance, very orderly and cheerful. In learning to read and write many of them make astonishing progress. End quote.

In many cases, it was the Champlains that did the teaching but they spent as much time on the ABCs as they did holding religious services. And truthfully, they weren’t always easy to come by. The first two Champlains of the ninth cavalry were either so sick or so disinterested that they spent two thirds of their time on sick leave. In this case, officers and those within the ranks that were literate, often taught their comrades.

In doing research for this episode I came across a story in the comments section at the NationalParks. org website by a user who had a great story that reflects many experiences that the buffalo soldiers would have had. Quote, It was a particularly emotional moment for me when I visited the National Archives in DC and held in my hands my grandfather's first enlistment papers that he signed with an X because he was not able to read or write. My favorite uncle, grandfather's youngest child (now deceased) told me how superior officers taught illiterate Buffalo soldiers to write. By the time my grandfather re-enlisted for his second five-year tour, he was able to sign his name on the papers. End quote.

When a company recruited a literate African American, he was usually appointed as quartermaster sergeant and in charge of maintaining supplies. Literate soldiers were so sought after that the height requirement was waved. That height requirement, by the way, was five feet, four inches.

Eventually, by 1869, those six regiments created by Congress were consolidated into four units,: the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry. This episode is mostly about the 9th and 10th Cavalry which became known as the Buffalo Soldiers…

So how did they get that name anyways?

I saw a few theories but the most oft quoted one was that after Col Grierson’s Tenth Cavalry saw some intense action against the Cheyenne and Comanche, the Cheyenne bestowed upon them that nickname. The reason for the nickname? Another source of many theories. It could have been in response to the buffalo hide coats the men wore in cold weather. It could be because of their rugged and tireless marching and riding through the buffalos very terrain like the animal does in search of grass. But the most widespread belief is that they received the nickname because the troopers hair resembled the dark, curly hair of the buffalo.

In 1872, in a letter written by a Frances Roe, whose husband fought alongside the 10th Cavalry, Roe says that quote, the Indians call them buffalo soldiers because their wooly heads are so much like the matted cushion that is between the horns of the buffalo, end quote. Also in the letter, highlighting the prejudices of the time she notes that her husband and other officers say that quote, the negroes make good soldiers and fight like fiends, end quote. That’s not the prejudice though, the prejudice comes in when she says right after those compliments that the real advantage to fighting with the buffalo soldiers was that quote, one can always have good servants. End quote.

To my surprise, I learned that while aware of the nickname, the troopers rarely used it amongst themselves. But they did see it as a sign of respect that the Indians would give them that nickname seeing as how they so revered the creature I also love very much. If you haven’t checked out my episode on the buffalo, you should. At first the Indians didn’t care for the troopers calling them, quote, white soldiers with black faces, end quote. But eventually they’d come to respect them. Later, the buffalo would become incorporated into the 10th Cavalry’s Regimental crest, which I have a pin of on my cork board in my office.

Within the Army, the 9th and 10th Cavalry consistently had the lowest desertion rates, despite receiving some of the toughest assignments. Col Hutcheson of the 9th would later describe in detail how the troops often had no pillows or sheets, no bathtubs or even water to bathe with. They had no vegetables at first either and he quipped that if current, meaning 1895 recruits were given what these buffalo soldiers were in the early days there would, quote, be such a flurrying off of recruits that I doubt if the whole state of Kentucky could produce satisfactory material to fill the depleted ranks. End quote. The chaplain of the 10th Cavalry noted that the buffalo soldiers quote, are possessed of the notion that the colored people of the whole country are more or less affected by their conduct in the army. End quote. It appears the troopers meant to prove themselves and their critics wrong. And they had many critics. Especially among the Democrats. But even within the army. My favorite little general, General William Tecumseh Sherman once said of the black soldiers that they were too quote unquote docile to make good soldiers and that they lacked the quote, muscle, endurance, will, and courage… to combat the enemies of civilizations. End quote. He’d go on to suggest they should stick to patrolling the malaria-ridden areas of the country that were too dangerous and costly for white men. Despite that, the buffalo soldiers always seemed to perform exceptionally well and admirably and pages and pages of reports and first hand accounts attest to that. Not to mention all of the medals of honor administered.

During this period of the Indian Wars, 14 Troopers would receive the Medal of Honor. I’ll talk about some of their stories later. During the fifty year period after the Civil War, 25,000 black men would sign up to fight and the Buffalo Soldiers would fight in every conflict after the Civil War until the US Army was desegregated in 1948… yeah, 1948. They participated in more than 125 battles with various indigenous American groups throughout the west including the Sioux, apache, kiowa, Utes, Cheyenne, and that empire of the summer moon, the Comanche. Often times after these engagements they would then have to march the tribes back to their reservations which for a bunch of recently freed slaves must have been a pretty crappy part of duty.

Col Hutcheson did have himself some prejudices. In another quote about the early days of the buffalo soldiers he said, quote, it is difficult now-a-days fully to appreciate all the work and labor devolving upon the officers in those early days. The men knew nothing, and the non-commissioned officers but little more. From the very circumstances of their preceding life it could not be otherwise. They had no independence, no self-reliance, not a thought except for the present, and were filled with superstition. To make soldiers of such material was, at that time, considered more of an experiment than as a fixed principle. The Government depended upon the officers of those early days to solve the problem of the colored soldier. End quote.

But again, the Buffalo Soldiers proved themselves relentlessly.

While being stationed as Kenner put it, quote, at minuscule posts scattered across the west from border to border, end quote, the Buffalo Soldiers of the 9th and 10th Cavalry helped secure the West for the United States from the Canadian to the Mexican Border and from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. They protected and assisted with supply and mail routes. They guarded against outlaws, horse thieves, Mexican Revolutionaries, and Native American guerrilla leaders. They kept the post running, they protected travelers, freight wagons, and mail. They helped with Reconstruction in Texas, a highly unpopular undertaking. They built roads, bridges, saw mills, strung telegraph lines, pulled weeds, dug irrigation ditches… Fort sill in Oklahoma, near my beloved Wichita mountains was built by buffalo soldiers who had no prior experience building forts or really much at all. They made adobe bricks, became carpenters, stonemasons, painters, mechanics, cooks, and farmers. They planted fruits and veggies, manned posts and forts, guarded watering holes, protected railroad crews and miners, and so much more.

For every 5 cavalrymen, 1 of them was a black buffalo soldier and 8 to 10 percent of the infantry were black. The Two cavalry regiments made up 20 percent of the mounted troops in the West. In addition to everything I just said, they also learned survival skills, marching, riding, husbandry, weapon maintenance, basic war skills, military discipline, and marksmanship. Many troopers became great shots despite lacking adequate ammo for target practice.

They also learned how to drive supply wagons and ambulances, run stables, and make sure the animals they depended on were well cared for. If you listened to the previous episode about cowboys, you know it takes a lot of horses and a lot of work on those horses to effectively use them out west. And the west the buffalo soldiers operated in was some of the harshest climates. Nancy Williams in buffalo Soldiers on the Colorado Frontier says quote, Frontier service was hard on horses that traveled over miles of rough terrain, often at high speeds, lived on weeds and brush without enough water, and were exposed to freezing weather and blistering heat. Hard use, poor forage, dilapidated stables, shortage of veterinarians, and the mistakes made by beginning riders took a heavy toll on these animals. Horses were often deliberately wounded or killed by attacking Indians to eliminate the troopers' means of escape. Thousands of horses were lost during the Indian Wars, and keeping a cavalry regiment mounted was a constant problem for commanders. End quote.

In the field, the Buffalo Soldiers usually carried a single shot, breech loading .45 caliber Springfield rifle slung across his shoulder with a revolver, knife, canteen, and at least one hundred pounds of ammunition. They wore canvas pants with a buckskin reinforced seat, crotch, and legs, which they’d tuck into their leather riding boots. They’d wear a cotton shirt and a variety of wide-brimmed cotton or straw hats. They sat on an uncomfortable McClellan Saddle which they nicknamed the ball-crusher because of its poor design. I can’t imagine the pain with that one. They also carried weapon cleaning kits, gloves, personal items, a wool blanket, rain gear, and a cumbersome saber on their saddle. Here’s an extended quote from Williams…

An infantryman on foot was burdened with a rifle, a pistol, a canteen, ammunition, and the regulation backpack containing a spare uniform, socks, underwear, a tin cup and plate, a sewing kit, and rations rolled up in a blanket. They often marched over rugged terrain under a blistering sun, their boots in tatters, or through howling blizzards with frostbitten toes and fingers. When they were on scouting expeditions on the Great Plains, troops carried supplies, rations, ammunition, and supplemental feed for the animals in mule-drawn wagons or long pack trains. The army's large, slow-moving columns of men could be easily picked off by Indian marksmen, or they could simply be overrun by attacking war parties. Often, there was little water in the West's dried-up streams and waterholes, and there was only sparse forage for the horses. If a cavalry troop was outfitted with supplies for four days of scouting, any more time spent in this harsh environment worked against them. After days of hard riding over difficult terrain, their animals were usually in poor condition. Weakened horses without water and exhausted, hungry troops on half-rations did not fare well against the overwhelming war parties.

At home and in the field, the troopers ate fruits, citrus, leafy veggies, hash, beans, bacon, beef, a mixture called slumgullion stew, hard tack, coffee, molasses, cornbread, and sweet potatoes. I found on the line that slumgullion stew is commonly called American Goulash and nowadays consists of pasta, ground beef, onions, and tomatoes which… sounds delicious enough.

With as many duties as they had, there was little time for fun but hunting was a favored past time which also let them learn the surrounding terrain and hone their sharpshooting skills. They also found time for cards and gambling which does appear to be a rampant problem from time to time. I did read some stories about wild times of late night gambling that resulted in the following day’s punishment of carrying logs. Despite those stories, it was noted that unlike their white counterparts, the black buffalo soldiers didn’t suffer from alcoholism nearly as much.

In Kenner’s book he says quote, Chaplain Mullins was one of the few who sensed the characteristic that more than any other singled the blacks out from their fellow troops- an intense pride in wearing the uniform and a hunger for respect. In Mullins’s words, they ardently desired to quote be all that soldiers should be end quote because they were convinced that quote the colored people of the whole country end quote were affected by their conduct in the army. He was especially touched by their quote unquote manly anxiety for respect both from superiors and throughout the states as a result, he asserted, they gambled relatively little, seldom stole from one another, and were quote not at all given to quarreling and fighting month themselves. End quote. Of 395 black infantry and cavalrymen at Fort Davis, he reported in 1875, only three were under arrest. End main quote.

Obviously the Chaplain’s view was a little rosy because gambling and fighting definitely happened amongst the buffalo soldiers, but his observation of their pride and willingness to prove themselves was seemingly universal among those who actually worked with them.

Another past time that was beloved by the buffalo soldiers was music. Many of the troopers sang, some played the banjo, while others played the harmonica. Kenner says, quote, in the eyes of whites, their most pronounced trait was their affinity for music. End quote. I want to do an extended quote really quickly because it’s pretty great.

At Fort Concho, Post Surgeon William Notson observed that at quote every permissible hour, end quote, music from a wide variety of instruments could be heard. Many had a most extraordinary talent, and some could play with either hand. In sounding the bugle calls, they were quote disposed to improvise, and vary even upon the orthodox calls. End quote.

I’m continuing the long quote…

Notson was not alone in commenting on the troopers’ musical talents. Visitors to fort Bayard, New Mexico, in 1876 noted that quote the evening was whiled away listening to a squad of colored troopers who are well up

in plantation melodies as well as au fait in the jig and other dances. End quote. A report from Fort Riley, Kansas, six years later was much the same; quote, A fine minstrel troupe organized by Company M (Ninth) performed at the post

dance hall to the applause of a delighted audience of officers, soldiers, and civilians. End quote. At Fort Stockton, Texas, in 1872, the soldiers treated Emily and Maud Andrews, the visiting wife and daughter of Colonel George Andrews, to an extraordinary performance. Exhibiting only the most genteel overtones of racism, Mrs. Andrews described the "very funny entertainment” in which the quote, singing and dancing were something wonderful… Being

genuine darkies they entered into it with great zest. We sat in front, while behind us was row after row of the men who really made the room so dark with their bronze faces, that the lights seemed to have no effect. End quote.

On the same trip Mrs. Andrews enjoyed the impromptu singing that broke out after the day's march ended. The men seemed never quote too tired to dance and sing about their camp fires. End quote. Their voices were so  quote, rich and full of melody that I am very glad if I can hear them as I go to sleep. End quote.

Still with Kenner’s quote…

The penchant for singing contributed to an ability to maintain high spirits in the face of miserable conditions. After the suppression of Sioux resistance following the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1891; four troops of the Ninth remained behind to stand guard over the Pine Ridge Agency. Forced to sleep on the ground with nothing but Sibley tents, each holding fifteen men and heated by a single stove, for shelter from blizzards that piled up snow drifts twenty feet high, many contracted colds or pneumonia. Through it all they astounded their commanders by their ability each evening, after a Spartan repast of "bread and coffee, and sometimes

a little bacon." to settle down in their tents to quote have a good time… Song and story, with an occasional jig or a selection on the mouth-organ or the banjo. occupied the night hours till 'taps' sounded for bed; and the reveille. seemed to find these jolly fellows still laughing. End quote.

An even more striking example of the ability to handle adversity was noted by Lieutenant Walter Finley during a desert pursuit of Victorio’s Apaches in October 1879. In his first year of service with the regiment, the young West Pointer still regarded the troopers as curiosities:  quote, Darkeys are better on these long marches than white men. They ride along singing and even when they lose their horses they walk beside the column laughing and cracking jokes as if a 40 mile walk was a mere bagatelle. End quote.

While black troopers undoubtedly loved music, it is also likely that observers were predisposed to exaggerate. After thirty years' service in the Tenth Cavalry, Captain William H. Beck wrote that blacks might quote, sing

more than white troops, but I have not found the difference so very noticeable. End all quotes.

I do think Beck’s finding no noticeable difference is not quite accurate. Col Mackenzie of the forty first regiment, urged recruiters to enlist every musician they found, regardless of literacy so that they could have a more effective military band. Music clearly meant something and it was noted that the buffalo soldiers bands were the best in the army.

I also read about baseball games being played between buffalo soldiers and other cavalry units by the 1880s where near riots broke out over calls and others where much money was changed hands. When envisioning the buffalo soldiers and reading the countless books and histories of their hardships and campaigns through the southwest desert, mountains, and endless prairies, I never thought of them playing baseball much less against white teams! It’s fun to think about. Baseball really is American’s past time.

Track and field contests were also popular during holidays. In these the buffalo soldiers, as Kenner puts it, quote, demonstrated that they were as adept on foot as in the saddle. End quote.

They also participated in some pretty awesome games that are unique to the cavalry. They’re pretty great and something I see nights of the medieval period doing, not 19th century US Army cavalrymen participating in.

As one would expect, living conditions for the black troopers weren’t as good as their white counterparts, but a lot of that was again, their being stationed far out on the periphery of civilization. And unfortunately they weren’t allowed to bring their wives which was rough and then when that policy was changed in the 1870s, they often weren’t allowed to live in houses with the white families which resulted in them living in shacks where diseases like cholera spread rapidly.

So life in the Army as a Buffalo Soldier wasn’t easy but it also wasn’t without incident. Here’s a great story in Williams’ Buffalo Soldiers on the Colorado Frontier, quote, In addition to cholera, there were other problems, like the rabid wolf that invaded the post hospital at Fort Larned, Kansas. With one bite, the large gray creature snapped off the finger of a corporal who was trying to chase him out of the building. Then the crazed animal attacked another soldier who was trying to run away and sank his fangs into the man’s foot and clamped down. Screaming wildly, the frantic man hit the wolf repeatedly with a chair and finally freed his badly chewed foot. Then the wild-eyed wolf, jaws dripping and foaming, raced around the hospital ward snapping at anything that moved. Drawn by the ruckus, a guard rushed in and took aim at the animal, but in the excitement, he missed his target, and the wolf escaped, dashing right between his legs. The wolf loped across the parade ground to the officers' quarters, where he darted in an open door and created more chaos, snapping and snarling as everyone scattered in fear. Then the wolf bit a lieutenant in the leg before racing off to hide in a haystack in the adjoining field. Troopers followed him there, and a lucky shot ended the creature's dangerous rampage. At this time, Louis Pastéur was working on a treatment for humans who'd been bitten by rabid animals, but it was still in the development stage. Unfortunately, The Medical History of Fort Larned does not report the treatment of these soldiers' bites or the outcome of their cases. End quote.

While I read that the black buffalo soldiers received worse or older or inferior arms and equipment, including horses, a study by Thomas Phillis of the University of Wisconsin in 1970 titled, “the negro regulars”, stated that the buffalo soldiers usually received quote the same arms and equipment and quality of horses end quote. The same meaning, as their white peers in the cavalry. The difference in food stuffs and lack of ammo is most likely contributed to the fact that they were usually stationed 100s of miles from railroads and in extreme isolation. But still, sometimes at some forts, the black soldiers were dishonorably discharged or punished at twice the rate of their white comrades and I read a story in Santa Fe of two troopers being arrested as they marched through the town they were protecting for possessing firearms… so racism and prejudice was real and unfortunate but it didn’t color all aspects of the buffalo soldiers lives.

I’d like to end this intro of the Buffalo Soldiers with this quote from Kenner…

Because of their low desertion rate, black units often developed a high esprit de corps. This helped to win the respect of most of their officers and to endure the most racist. Although officer-enlisted relations had improved greatly by the 1880s, racism was always a factor. A remarkably frank letter to the Army and Navy Journal by an unidentified officer illustrates the contradictory feelings held by the best of officers. After stressing that he was quote no admirer of the African, believing he will ultimately destroy the white race, end quote, the writer admitted he would have been as prejudiced as his peers in white regiments had he never served with blacks. His tenure with buffalo soldiers, however, had led him to quote, think the world of the men of my company. When I look at them I do not see their black faces, I see only something beyond. They are far ahead of white troops. They are more like a lot of devoted servants and retainers, faithful and trustworthy in every respect, and brave and gallant. End quote.

Next time we’ll dive into the adventures, battles, and history of the 9th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers as they shape the American Southwest.

History . Com

National Park Service Website

Charles River Editors the Buffalo Soldiers: The History and Legacy for the Black Soldiers Who Fought in the US Army during the Indian Wars

Buffalo Soldiers and Officers of the Ninth Cavalry 1867-1898 by Charles L Kenner

The Black West by William Loren Katz

The Apache Wars by Paul Andrew Hutton

Buffalo Soldiers on the Colorado Frontier by Nancy K Williams