Buffalo Soldiers in the West: A Black Soldiers Anthology

Improbable Ambassadors: Black Soldiers at Fort Douglas, 1896–99

michaelj.clark ImprobableAmbassadors blacksoldiersatfortdouglas,1896–99 Although the record is clear, few people know that on the east bench, overlooking Salt Lake City and touching the boundaries of the University of Utah, more than six hundred Black people—soldiers of the U.S. Twenty-fourth Infantry, wives, children, and others—lived, worked, and attended school for almost four years in one of the most attractive locations in the western United States. Twenty-one graves in the little Fort Douglas cemetery, with weatherworn markers that become less legible each year, serve as quiet reminders that Black people exceeded the geographical boundaries historians have generally assigned them. Two additional graves mark the resting place of Black cavalrymen from the famous Ninth Cavalry stationed at Fort Duchesne, Utah, prior to the turn of the century and at Fort Douglas following the departure of the Twenty-fourth Infantry. Although Black U.S. Army regiments were stationed throughout the West for almost a century after the Civil War, knowledge that they were a regular and integral part of the army is not widespread.1 During the Civil War, Black units served throughout the Southwest; and after 1866, members of the Twenty-fourth Infantry, Twenty-fifth Infantry, Ninth Cavalry, and Tenth Cavalry served as far north asVancouver, British Columbia, as far west as the Presidio in San Francisco, and as far south as Mexico. Black men in uniform, as well as their wives and children , were prominent in Fort Bayard, New Mexico; Fort Grant, Arizona ; Fort Douglas, Utah; Fort Duchesne, Utah; Fort Logan, Colorado, Fort Missoula, Montana; Fort Davis, Texas; and numerous other posts throughout the West and served in some cases to augment comparatively small Black civilian populations. The relative dearth of published material on the army’s Black rankand -file and the considerable difficulties involved in uncovering information may partially account for the limited attention given Black enlisted men. Additionally, officers and cavalry units have been considered more attractive by writers and historians. This does not mean that Black units and their men have gone entirely unobserved. Their critics appear to have been more vocal, if not more numerous, than their eulogizers . As late as 1900, Black soldiers continued to be characterized as “illiterate,” “lazy,” “a drinker,” “a gambler,” “set apart by nature,” “a natural horseman,” and inconsequential in the development of the West.2 Subsequent discussions by historians have challenged these characterizations , but the definitive study is yet to be made. In attempting to delineate in more detail the presence of the Twenty-fourth Infantry in Utah, the author’s examination of local newspapers and army records for that period raised several questions that warranted further investigation: why was the Twenty-fourth stationed in Utah? what impact did the unit have upon Salt Lake City? what was it like to be a Black soldier during this period? where did the men come from? how did the presence of Black soldiers affect the development of Salt Lake City’s Black community and its historical presence in Utah? were there any long-term effects of the regiment’s presence in Utah? During early September 1896 word circulated between military posts that the adjutant general was considering a plan to relocate several regiments . Although details of the proposed reassignment of troops were not fully known, there were those soldiers who wished for new duty assignments and those who were anxious to remain where they were. Some civilian populations refused to cheer the pending change. In Salt Lake City, for example, the Sixteenth Infantry, a white unit, grudgingly prepared to leave Fort Douglas for Boise Barracks and Fort Sherman in Idaho and Fort Spokane, Washington. According to a local newspaper report, the unit’s football and baseball teams were greatly disappointed because they had hoped to win championships in Utah.3 In addition, younger soldiers were probably concerned with leaving girl friends, and older soldiers faced the prospect of moving families and household effects . A group of Salt Lake City residents, after attending a dance at Fort Douglas, “went home happy and expressed sorrow at its being the last dance they would attend at the post for several years.”4 The Fifteenth Infantry, as luck would have it, was transferred from Illinois to forts in the Southwest that had been garrisoned by theTwenty222 michaelj.clark fourth Infantry. These New Mexico and Arizona posts had reputations for being “hellholes,” and members of...