Black Officer in a Buffalo Soldier Regiment: The Military Career of Charles Young

3. New Start at Fort Duchesne

3. New Start at Fort Duchesne The thing then to be desired above all others is confidence in one’s self. charles young, 1894 L ieutenant Young must have felt relieved to have a new start at Fort Duchesne after a rough first year at Fort Robinson. By this time, he had mastered the essentials of practical cavalry tactics, leadership, and garrison duties, adding to the basic lessons he had been taught at West Point. Young learned these skills by himself, for the most part, with some help from his fellow officers in all things official. In all things unofficial and social, he remained largely isolated and without mentors. He did, however, receive help and encouragement from his men, who grew to admire his determination.1 One lesson Young learned at Fort Robinson was that the treatment offered him by his superiors and peers was not uniform; quite the contrary. Some, like Captain Taylor, treated him with undisguised contempt. Others, like his West Point classmate Alexander Piper, dealt fairly and kindly with him. Between those extremes ran the gamut of officiousness, apathy, and unease. In the end Young would have to prove himself at Fort Duchesne, a wild and isolated post in the mountains of Utah 32 new start at fort duchesne established just four years before his arrival. But he would do this in a better command climate, with friends and mentors. Fort Duchesne Young knew about Fort Duchesne from reading official reports prior to his departure and hearing stories from his men during the journey. He knew that Buffalo Soldiers had garrisoned Fort Duchesne since its creation in 1886. The key missions of the Buffalo Soldiers in Utah were patrolling the reservations, keeping the peace between the Indians and local whites, and blocking the Utes from slipping back into their old hunting grounds in Colorado. This was a complex mission that Young would come to know well during his tenure at the post.2 The War Department set up Fort Duchesne to guard the Indian frontier in eastern Utah, western Colorado, and southwestern Wyoming. It replaced Fort Thornburgh in the Uintah Basin to the northeast, which had been abandoned by the army during the winter of 1884/85. An outbreak of interband warfare among the Utes the following year caused the Interior and War Departments to reestablish a fort on the basin. The Ute Indians occupied two reservations and divided themselves into three groups: the Uintah, White River, and the Uncompahgre bands. According to one West Pointer stationed there shortly after it was created, early occupants of Fort Duchesne derided the post as Fort “Dushame” because of its isolation and primitive living conditions.3 When Maj. Frederick W. Benteen arrived with two troops of the Ninth Cavalry at the future site of the post in August 1886, four companies of white soldiers from the Twenty-first Infantry commanded by Capt. Joseph W. Duncan awaited them. Duncan and his infantry contingent barely escaped an Indian ambush by three hundred Utes due to a timely warning by a Ute tribal new start at fort duchesne 33 policeman. After taking a detour to avoid the trap, the soldiers of the Twenty-first quickly threw out a picket line, dug trenches, and awaited the arrival of the Ninth Cavalry.4 The day of Benteen’s arrival, Special Indian Agent Eugene E. White recalled how one old Ute Indian headman, named Sour, intercepted him at full gallop yelling “Buffalo Soldiers! Buffalo Soldiers! Coming! Maybe so tomorrow! Indians saw them at Burnt Fort yesterday, coming this way. Don’t let them come! We can’t stand it! It’s bad—very bad!” When Agent White asked through an interpreter about the Ute’s objection to the black troopers of the Ninth, Sour’s broken English response was “All over black! All over black, buffalo soldiers! Injun heap no like him!” After rubbing his head with his hand, he screamed, “Woolly head! Woolly head! All same as buffalo! What you call him, black white man?” This is one of the earliest documented uses of the term “Buffalo Soldier” by Native Americans.5 The soldiers endured the first winter in canvas tents and dugouts, but by the following summer, the soldiers had moved into more permanent barracks. President Grover Cleveland officially designated the six square miles of the reservation as Fort Duchesne on September 1, 1887. The War Department spent approximately $22,800 to...