Buffalo Soldier Tragedy of 1877

4. Buffalo Soldiers and the Army in 1877

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Chapter4  Buffalo Soldiers and the Army in  S ome , African American soldiers fought in the Civil War, and from all accounts they fought well. Indeed, the United States Congress was impressed enough that in July  it created six new and permanent black regiments: four of infantry plus what became the Ninth and Tenth Cavalries. Although in  the War Department reduced the four infantry regiments to two (the Twenty-fourth and Twentyfifth Infantries), the segregated units remained an important part of the American military until World War II. The cavalry troops, particularly the Tenth Cavalry, became known as “buffalo soldiers,” from most points of view an honorary sobriquet. They spent the post–Civil War period at stations mainly in the Southwest. Soldiers of the Tenth guarded mail routes and railroad builders,built and maintained military posts, chased outlaws and cattle thieves, protected Indian Territory (Oklahoma) from white incursion, and like most western army units engaged in a number of other civilian-related activities. The buffalo soldiers are remembered most, however, for the role they played in Texas and the Southwest during the soldier-Indian wars of the post–Civil War period.1 Organized at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in , the Tenth Cavalry engaged in a number of activities in Kansas and Indian Territory before moving to Texas. With various white infantry regiments, it manned such stations as Forts Hays, Harker, Larned, and Wallace, all in Kansas. Its Troop H in September  helped to rescue men of Major George A. Forsyth’s command from the disastrous battle of Beecher’s Island on the Arikaree Fork of the Republican River, a place in northeastern Colorado where Cheyenne and Lakota warriors had pinned down the white soldiers for several days. In November the Tenth, now scattered to such places as Forts Arbuckle,         Cobb, and Gibson in Indian Territory and Fort Lyon in Colorado Territory , participated in the Washita campaign. The operation, occurring in western Indian Territory and in eastern portions of the Texas Panhandle, marked another of the army’s efforts to strike Indian villages during the winter months when Native Americans were hunkered down, less alert, and at a disadvantage. In the spring of  the army ordered six companies (troops) to Camp Supply and six to Camp Wichita, both in western Indian Territory.2 Headquarters for the Tenth Cavalry also shifted.From Fort Leavenworth, it moved to Fort Riley,Kansas,for the winter of – and to Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, for the following winter. In the spring of  the army ordered the Tenth’s headquarters shifted to Camp Wichita, located near Cache Creek in sight of the Wichita Mountains at modern Lawton, Oklahoma .In August the place became Fort Sill,and it remained the unit’s headquarters until March of , at which time the army moved the Tenth to Fort Concho at modern San Angelo in West Texas. Benjamin H.Grierson,a scar-faced,shaggy-bearded CivilWar hero from Illinois, was the African American unit’s colonel. A former music teacher who did not particularly like horses, Grierson was white. In fact, until Captain Henry O.Flipper arrived fromWest Point in ,all the commissioned officers of the Tenth Cavalry were white.They included,among others,Captains Henry Alvord, George Armes, Theodore A. Baldwin, Edward Byrne, Louis H.Carpenter,G.W.Graham,William B.Kennedy,Alexander B.Keyes, Thomas C. Lebo, Phillip L. Lee, Thomas Little, Nicholas M. Nolan, George T. Robinson, Charles Viele, and J. W. Welsh. John W. Davidson in December  joined the Tenth as lieutenant colonel . A West Point graduate who had participated in the Mexican War, Davidson had seen extended service in the West before the Civil War. During the war, he rose in rank from captain in the First Cavalry to brigadier general of volunteers, and in  he became Chief of Cavalry, Military Division of the West. By war’s end he was brevet major general, and the army on several occasions had recognized him for gallant and meritorious service . Called an able but erratic officer who was a strict disciplinarian, he remained with the regiment until . In , Davidson was in command at Fort Richardson near modern Jacksboro.3 Like Grierson and Davidson, most officers of the Tenth Cavalry were Civil War veterans who after the conflict had sought and obtained a permanent place in the United States Army. Most were Yankees. At first many of them resented their assignment with black troops, and in fact some rank- [3.138.101.95] Project...