Origin of the term "Buffalo Soldier"

by **Anita** » Thu Apr 18, 2002 11:27 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>

Actually there were quite a few black cavalry regiments in the Civil War. The best known were the 5th Mass Cavalry, in which one of Frederick Douglass' sons served (his other two sons served with the 54th Ma Infantry and took part in the assault on Ft. Wagner, both survived). They took part in the Petersburg and Appomattox campaigns and were one of the first regiments to enter Richmond after it fell. The 3rd USCT Cavalry was formed out of Tenn and MS exslaves. They had an extensive combat records, going tete a tete with Forrest's cavalry on numerous occasions mostly in MS, Tenn and LA. Like most of the USCT units (all were designated this way except black units that came out of New England, who mercifully kept their state designation). It is hard telling where a USCT unit came out of due to the infernal numbering system they used!!

<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>

I have to confess I was completely unaware that there were black cavalry regiments. How interesting. This helps demonstrate, I feel, why the term Buffalo Soldier should only apply to those black troops in US service from 1865 to 1900 or so. I frankly would have completely missed this fact had it not been posted here.

<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>
Dear Pat:
William Gladstone who is a member of the Co. of Military Historians has written two books on the USCT and I am having a brain fart on the exact names ;-(! One I believe is entitled US Colored Troops and it has a listing of all USCT units ever mustered in. He has an extensive CDV and document collection on the USCT and is probably one of the leading independent authorities on the USCT. I agree the term Buffalo Soldier should be narrowly applied as well to the frontier era/early 20th century.

Blacks have served in all US conflicts since the French and Indian Wars and served in integrated units until the CW.

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>

Taking for granted that the number of blacks in US service prior to the Civil War would have been relatively small, was it the case that free blacks could enlist in the US Army prior to the Civil War? As indicated, given the overall percentage of free blacks to the general population, that number would have been small, but I was unaware of that.

<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>
From sources I have read, the estimates for the American Revolution are about 5,000 black participants in both militia and Continental units. Of course this does not count blacks who were enlisted or impressed into the British service. I seem to recall in my readings, that there was an engagement between two all black American and British units! Sorry for the lack of documentation, but it is late and I cannot recall where I read it.

There was at least one or two companies of gens de couleurs(Black Creoles) at the Battle of New Orleans who fought with Jackson. As a general rule, blacks did not enlist in the regular Army during peacetime until the Civil War, but were included as combatants during a politcal/military crisis. I am sure there are exceptions to the rule but that is what I can deduce from my readings. Blacks were more an integral part in the Navy and a lot of that stems from their extensive involvement in peacetime maritime sailing from the 17th to the mid 19th century.

They served on board ship in the Navy in all capacities including combat in the CW, but were relegated to mess stewards during the 1890s which paralled the rise of Jim Crow and the resultant segrgation laws.

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>

I was aware that blacks in the US Navy, up to some point in WWII, tended to be mess stewards but I was also unaware that this was an assingment that had come on in the 1890s. Very interesting. WWII really saw the beginning of the end of this whole system. It seems to me that the relegation of blacks to mess steward status ended during WWII, and by wars end the USMC was admitting blacks, which it did not do prior to that time.

<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>
You are right about the restrictions ending on black swabbies at the end of WWII. I think this reflects the general societal change that was going on at the homefront and the eventual integration of the services in 1947 by executive order of Harry Truman. There is an excellent book entitled "Black Jacks" published a couple of years ago, sorry I can't recall the author's name. It chronicles the black sailor's involvement in maritime affairs in colonial and 19th century America.

Anita

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>

Most black troops in the CW were grossly underutilized and sometimes they were relegated to support or labor troops (ironically the same idiotic BS, question "can they fight?" was in operation during WWII, in which only 7% of the one million black men/women in uniform actually saw combat.) My dad was at DI at Ft. Lee, VA for ten months, then he shipped out in a quartermaster battalion in the Phillipines 1944-46 that did laundry, he was the buck sargeant clerk who ran the battalion. His two brothers were in a combat engineer's unit (my Aunt said he mostly dug latrines ;-)

!) and his other brother was a forward observer in an artillery battalion and saw combat service in Belgium (Battle of the Bulge) and Germany. His unit was decorated by Eisenhower. My late, maternal second cousin Lawrence Miller served in the 99th Pursuit Squaddron part of the Tuskegee Airmen in North Africa and Italy.

<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>

[quote]

I would also add that the "will they fight" attitude was not supported at all by the service of various black units in WWI. As I may have posted above, an all black unit of the New York National Guard was one of the highest decorated units of WWI, and as a rule the black units performed equally as well as the white ones in that war.

Regarding WWII service, quite a while back I stumbled upon an official US Army text soley dealing with the introduction of black combat troops to the front lines in WWII. I was looking for something entirely different, and as it was a reference work I couldn't check it out, but I should have written down its name.

Anyhow, it was soley a study of that period in which, in Europe, the decision was made to allow the introduction of black troops to the front lines. Of interest, the original order was not clearly given and the field commanders were uncertain as to how to impliment it, while black troops were naturally confused as to how it was to be applied. Many volunteered, even receiving reductions in grade in the hopes of getting into the action. One US commander (who I dimly recall was a Southerner), I've forgotten who, assumed that the order meant that he was to take black volunteers and integrate them at grade, and did. That experiment was short lived, but, according to the report, there was relatively few difficulties in that command in the brief period during which that was done. I think this study was one which preceeded full integration of the Army in the late 40s.

Pat
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>

by **Joseph Sullivan** » Fri Apr 19, 2002 7:28 am

Anita:

I am in Dallas.

The NS Haley Memorial Library is 350 miles west, in Midland. It is a wholly private research institution (no government money of any kind from any source), open to all legitimate researchers at no charge. It has over 30,000 volumes pertaining to range cattle, the cattle industry, the westward expansion, the military in the west, and general southwestern history. In addition it has a couple of hundred yards of archival material, and is the repository for certain other important documents, such as the UDC collection of Confederate WBS documents including Rip Ford's wartime manuscripts. The strongest influence in all the collections is Texas history, but we are by no means limited. For example, we have Dan Thrapp's papers and books. He wrote The Conquest of Apacheria, Juh! A Remarkable Indian, and other works tending to focus on Arizona and the Apaches.

We are just now in the process of re-cataloging the archives, and are completing a project to put our book catalogs on the computer, whereafter they will be searchable on the web site. We also have a good many interesting artifacts, including one of the original Alamo mission bells, art, and a remarkable photo collection. You can see more at the web site by following this link:http://www.haleylibrary.com/

We offer fellowships, by the way, for authors to produce books on aspects of Texas history, primarily researched out of our collections.

Joe

by **Texian** » Fri Apr 19, 2002 8:55 am

Anita,

You mention Bill Gladstone as if you might know him. I knew Bill very well up till about four years ago. We met at Saturday morning brunch at a restaurant in Westport, Connecticut.

As you may know, he's the man to call if you need 19th century photographs of African-American soldiers.

Tell him John said hi.

by **Texian** » Fri Apr 19, 2002 10:37 am

I agree that it is best to confine the "Buffalo Soldier" concept to the era of Indian warfare in the Southwest. Thus my citation of the Brownsville incident in 1906 is a decade or more beyond the end of the era.

At the same time, I think my personal "thread" on the subject derives more from random readings about Texas Ranger interventions/investigations of troubles between black troops and civilans since the end of the Civil War, and that is a different focus than the strictly defined "Buffalo Soldier" era.

I think there is a place for the "Disneyfication" of the Buffalo Soldiers, just so long as proper history is taught in high school and universities. Young black people need good cultural heroes without a lot of ifs, ands, and buts.

by **Pat Holscher** » Fri Apr 19, 2002 9:48 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>

I think there is a place for the "Disneyfication" of the Buffalo Soldiers, just so long as proper history is taught in high school and universities.

<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>

While I'm wondering away from John's point, as an opponent of Disneyification, I was subject to an instinctive cringe when I popped in a DVD of my son's and actually sat through the previews the other day, only to learn that Disney is coming out with a cartoon on wild horses in the pre settlement, I assume era. I'm dreading it.

Pat

by **Light Dragoon** » Sat Apr 20, 2002 9:35 am

Good Grief! What a far-ranging topic!

But on the subject of Black troops in the Mexican War, as well as other Blacks in the West, let me point out that at Bent's Fort (near La Junta, CO.), there lived a Black cook, Charlotte Green, wife of one of the servants of the Bent Brothers. Although they were the Bent's slaves in Missouri, in Mexican territory slavery was outlawed, so technically they were free. Anyway, one of the favorite stories with the Mountain Men had to do with the fact that all of the other women in the environs of the fort were either of Mexican or Indian heritage, and thus were only conversant with the dances of their own cultures. When there was a big "doins" at the fort and the American Frontiersmen wanted to dance American dances, they asked Charlotte Green to dance, since she was, in fact, thwe only American woman there. So the saying was that Charlotte Green, a Black woman, was "The only White Woman West of the Missouri River".

Thought it was an interesting comment on society in the West.

Gordon

"After God, we owe our Victory to our Horses"

Gonsalo Jimenez de Quesada, 1543

by **Pat Holscher** » Sat Apr 20, 2002 9:50 am

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
Good Grief! What a far-ranging topic!

But on the subject of Black troops in the Mexican War, as well as other Blacks in the West, let me point out that at Bent's Fort (near La Junta, CO.), there lived a Black cook, Charlotte Green, wife of one of the servants of the Bent Brothers. Although they were the Bent's slaves in Missouri, in Mexican territory slavery was outlawed, so technically they were free. Anyway, one of the favorite stories with the Mountain Men had to do with the fact that all of the other women in the environs of the fort were either of Mexican or Indian heritage, and thus were only conversant with the dances of their own cultures. When there was a big "doins" at the fort and the American Frontiersmen wanted to dance American dances, they asked Charlotte Green to dance, since she was, in fact, thwe only American woman there. So the saying was that Charlotte Green, a Black woman, was "The only White Woman West of the Missouri River".

Thought it was an interesting comment on society in the West.

Gordon

"After God, we owe our Victory to our Horses"

Gonsalo Jimenez de Quesada, 1543
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>

Almost everything about the Bents, and Bent's Fort, is noteworthy. Very interesting group of characters. George Bent, for example, maybe the only person who can claim to have served against the US in two consecutive North American wars, one as a Confederate soldier (albeit only briefly), and secondly as a Cheyenne. George, of course, had a Cheyenne mother.

As this topic, ie., blacks in the west, has come up, I thought I would interject briefly. The example given above is an interesting one, and blacks appeared in the west nearly as early, or perhaps as early, as the first white Americans did (making a distinction here, between US citizens, and French Canadians). They fulfilled many important roles as well. One third of all cowboys were either blacks or Mexicans, and some black cowhands were legends. There were black owned ranches, I'm aware of one in my area, which was unfortunately drowned by the Bureau of Reclamation in the 20th Century, and I'm sure this was more common in other regions. Indeed, given as most blacks worked in agriculture up until probably the 1920s or 1930s, this isn't surprising. Blacks also did many of the average routine jobs of the west, worked on railroads, etc. In my town, a Civil War black veteran, who had lost a leg in the war, was the town's first coroner.

The record is mixed, however. It can't be suggested that there was not prejudice. There definately was. It was not of the same kind or degree found elsewhere, and the record was a mixed one. Joe has given the example of a black top hand, an important job in ranching. An unfortunate counter example can be given of a white boss actually assaulting and knocking out a black cowboy for merely sitting at his table at a bar in Cheyenne in the 1880s. Yet another counter to that can be given by the frequently missed fact that the jury that sat in Cheyenne, WY and convicted Tom Horn in the early 1900s featured men, women, and one black juror. Hard to imagine that occuring outside the west in that era, with a white defendant receiving death.

Pat

by **Light Dragoon** » Sun Apr 21, 2002 11:58 am

Pat, while we are on this subject of Blacks in the West, and their treatment, there is a great story from the town of Clayton, NM, where my Wife's family hails from.

The "nice place" in town, the Eklund Hotel, had, and still has, a rather nice dining room. Somewhere at the turn of the last century, a group of local cowboys came to town, and decided to blow their wages on a good meal. In their company was one Negro cowboy, who went by the not-then-uncommon sobrequet of "Nigger Charlie". They entered the restaurant and sat at a table, where upon the waiter came over and said:

"You can eat in here, but your friend there has to eat in the kitchen".

One of the White cowboys pulled out his .45, laid it on the table, and replied:

"Nigger Charlie eats with us at home, Nigger Charlie eats with us here",

putting the matter neatly to rest.

Fun story, but it does lay out just the kinds of daily indignities that many folks had to put up with in the course of their daily lives.

LD

"After God, we owe our Victory to our Horses"

Gonsalo Jimenez de Quesada, 1543

by **Anita** » Sun Apr 21, 2002 10:07 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
Anita:

I am in Dallas.

The NS Haley Memorial Library is 350 miles west, in Midland. It is a wholly private research institution (no government money of any kind from any source), open to all legitimate researchers at no charge. It has over 30,000 volumes pertaining to range cattle, the cattle industry, the westward expansion, the military in the west, and general southwestern history. In addition it has a couple of hundred yards of archival material, and is the repository for certain other important documents, such as the UDC collection of Confederate WBS documents including Rip Ford's wartime manuscripts. The strongest influence in all the collections is Texas history, but we are by no means limited. For example, we have Dan Thrapp's papers and books. He wrote The Conquest of Apacheria, Juh! A Remarkable Indian, and other works tending to focus on Arizona and the Apaches.

We are just now in the process of re-cataloging the archives, and are completing a project to put our book catalogs on the computer, whereafter they will be searchable on the web site. We also have a good many interesting artifacts, including one of the original Alamo mission bells, art, and a remarkable photo collection. You can see more at the web site by following this link:http://www.haleylibrary.com/

We offer fellowships, by the way, for authors to produce books on aspects of Texas history, primarily researched out of our collections.

Joe

<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>
Dear Joe:
Thanks so much for the information on this valuable archive resource! I am trying to write a nonfictional and a fictional account of the family history. My GGgrandfather Robert Eggleston escaped from slavery with his wife Susan after his two half brothers reneged on his father's (his owner) promise to free him. They left the Wanalaw plantation in Holmes County, MS sometime in the early 1850s as his first son Colon was born in Texas in 1855. I don't find them in the 1860 census but I fully expected him NOT to be there since an escaped slave hardly wants to be counted and potentially found!! I have the family localized in the 1880 census in Guadalupe County, TX after he retired from cowboying but don't know where they were in 1870, they moved around a lot and I am still looking for them. Family lore says my ancestor was a traildriver on the Chisholm Trail and settled down for a few years in the early 1870s and founded a town in the panhandle of Texas. I haven't been able to confirm the story with any documented evidence yet. Information on cowboys seems hard to pin down, since the trail drives weren't as well recorded as similar voyages such as whaling or slave ships on transoceanic voyages. So much seems to be done a handshake. I look forward to seeing what info you guys were will be putting online regarding the subject.

Anita L. Henderson

PS: who was Old Maude? Was she an alpha trail cow ;-)

!?

by **Anita** » Sun Apr 21, 2002 10:13 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>

Anita,

You mention Bill Gladstone as if you might know him. I knew Bill very well up till about four years ago. We met at Saturday morning brunch at a restaurant in Westport, Connecticut.

As you may know, he's the man to call if you need 19th century photographs of African-American soldiers.

Tell him John said hi.

<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>
Dear John:

I am only acquainted with Bill from having his books, his reputation and his gracious phone call to me when he found out I was researching Maria Lewis a black women who rode in disguise with the 8th NY Cavalry for the last 18 months of the Civil War. Joyce Henry a Petersburg interpretive ranger, had told him of my research at the Company of Military Historian conference a couple of years ago. He gave me some leads on where possibly to find other information in addition to the Julia Wilbur diary that records this woman for posterity. I base my military impression on her.

Anita L. Henderson

by **Joseph Sullivan** » Sun Apr 21, 2002 10:30 pm

Anita:

You might also try the Texas State Historical Association, where someone might well guide you to a trove of documents, and the Texas State Archives are pretty remarkable.

There seems to be more scholarship on the black contribution to Texas coming out these days, although some I have stumbled on has some regrettably obvious axes to grind. There is a book considered one of the foundation books on Texas (though it is rare and expensive, and I do not own it), called Black Texas. I have not read it, but you might snag a copy via interlibrary loan and scan it to see if it has much on the cattle industry.

Now that I think of it, the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, published by the Historical Association may well have some articles here and there that might help.

Actually, you have my curiosity up. I know some of the leading bookmen and women in the State, and as time permits, I'll inquire as to info on black cowboys.

Of course, you are right -- cowhands were rolling stones, and trail records are sketchy. It is a tough thing to document. On the other hand, IF you can locate a specific ranch or ranches, it gets easier as many of them had records. We have quite a few in the archives at the Haley, and the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum in Canyon (think Amarillo) Texas has more. You might also inquire at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. There is also a man named B. Byron Price who once ran the Cowboy Hall and then the Cody Museum. He is now a professor at U. of Oklahoma in Norman if I am not mistaken. I have not talked with him since his last move, so not dead sure. He is a good researcher, and might be very helpful.

One final point -- towns and villages were VERY scarce in the Panhandle in the '70s. It was Commanche country, with some Apache and Kiowa presence as well. The great bison herds moved freely by the tens of thousands. The early '70 were a time of indian wars, which were finished by the bisonhunters in the late '70s. Many of the present towns were built on the lands owned by the Capitol Land Syndicate- a group lead by the Farwell family of Chicago who built the State Capitol building n exchange for more or less 10 counties of land in the panhandle -- the largest ranch in US history. These towns were not begun until much later. You might try to zero in on panhandle settlements of the period in question and then work backwards.

Joe

Edited by - Joseph Sullivan on 04/21/2002 23:38:24

by **Pat Holscher** » Tue Apr 30, 2002 10:09 pm

Here's a good photo of a Buffalo Soldier at Pine Ridge in 1891. This is also a good example of a frontier soldier in the early 1890s. Note the private purchase items. Photograph courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection.

<img src="http://www.militaryhorse.org/uploads/holscher/images/10031308.jpg" border=0>

Pat

by **Pat Holscher** » Tue Apr 30, 2002 10:15 pm

The 10th Cavalry as part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, approx 1901. Photo courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection.

<img src="http://www.militaryhorse.org/uploads/holscher/images/00105733.jpg" border=0>

Pat

by **Joseph Sullivan** » Wed May 01, 2002 5:43 am

The guy at Pine Ridge is especially interesting. In addition to the arms, note the breast strap, the mustang look of the horse, and the mexican influence in the blanket and the hat.

Joe

by **Pat Holscher** » Wed May 01, 2002 7:28 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
The guy at Pine Ridge is especially interesting. In addition to the arms, note the breast strap, the mustang look of the horse, and the mexican influence in the blanket and the hat.

Joe

<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>

What is the cloth item beneath the blanket?

Pat

by **Anita** » Thu May 02, 2002 12:11 am

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
Here's a good photo of a Buffalo Soldier at Pine Ridge in 1891. This is also a good example of a frontier soldier in the early 1890s. Note the private purchase items. Photograph courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection.

<img src="http://www.militaryhorse.org/uploads/holscher/images/10031308.jpg" border=0>

Pat
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>

Dear Pat:

This guy was one of the 9th US Cavalry that was originally stationed outof Ft. Robinson, Nebraska. This is one of my favorite photos of a Buffalo Soldier due to the detail it shows. I believe the 9th was in the Wounded Knee Campaign.

Anita

by **Texian** » Thu May 02, 2002 9:37 am

Simply in terms of composition, this photo is perfectly executed.

by **Rick Throckmorton** » Thu May 02, 2002 8:17 pm

I've often looked at this photo over the years. At first, I thought it was a jumble of issue and private purchase equipment. Really, the only thing that wasn't issue is the cloth item over the saddle pommel. In looking closely at it, I think it is either a blanket lined slicker/duster or a blanket lined horse cover. Notice the leather straps and keepers on the forward edge of the item. The breast strap wasn't necessarily an item of issue, but troop saddlers of the period made them up as needed out of leather stock kept on hand. Everything else seems to be issue, including the holster, which is merely spun around to the side nearest the camera with the gun posed sticking out of the top which is fairly common to do during this period of military photos (other periods as well!). Great photo. The horse sure looks rangey for the winter. Surely they tried to put some weight on them before the onset of winter up there. I wonder what happened here.
Rick Throckmorton

by **Pat Holscher** » Thu May 02, 2002 9:12 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>

I believe the 9th was in the Wounded Knee Campaign.

<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>

The 9th was indeed at Wounded Knee. Here is a photo of them there, courtesy of the Denver Public Library.

<img src="http://www.militaryhorse.org/uploads/holscher/images/10031418.jpg" border=0>

Pat

by **Pat Holscher** » Thu May 02, 2002 9:15 pm

Another photo of the 9th at Pine Ridge, courtesy of the Denver Public Library:

<img src="http://www.militaryhorse.org/uploads/holscher/images/10031372.jpg" border=0>

Pat


	Board index ‹ Public Discussions ‹ Public Forum - General Topics Change font size Print view


	Who is online Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests


	Board index The team • Delete all board cookies • All times are UTC - 6 hours

Origin of the term "Buffalo Soldier"

Who is online