Buffalo Soldiers in the West: A Black Soldiers Anthology ed. by Bruce A. Glasrud, Michael N. Searles (review)

see interviews from Victorio’s descendants today used as sources.) Most of the first half of Chamberlain’s book is based on extrapolation of what was likely to have been his experiences growing up and as a young man. Much of the material is likely to be too general for the reader already knowledgeable about Apache history, and Western history buffs are certain to make up much if not most of the audience for this book. At times the work can even be a little dry and come close to a recitation of older works. Chamberlain also states her desire to move beyond straightforward military history and the biases in materials written by white agents, missionaries, and army officers. Unfortunately she is not entirely successful. Language reminiscent of the romanticizing of “noble savages” creeps into her writing a number of times. In sympathizing with Victorio, Chamberlain also holds the Apache scouts in low regard. It might surprise Chamberlain to know that many Chiricahua honor the memory of the Apache scouts, the very ones she mildly disparages in the passages in which she discusses them. On the San Carlos Reservation and elsewhere, Apache scouts are viewed today as part of a noble veterans’ tradition. The latter fourth of the book at times tends towards exactly the kind of straightforward recitation of military history she wanted to avoid. In the final chapter, Chamberlain does do some wonderful analysis that is interesting and useful. She discusses why Victorio is less known, despite being certainly as important a figure as Geronimo, perhaps more so. Victorio’s defeat and death came from a battle with Mexican troops. Since Victorio’s final end came from Mexican soldiers, largely of Native ancestry, historians supporting Manifest Destiny did their best to ignore or downplay this part of the narrative, which did not fit into their triumphalism. Though it is valuable to have a contemporary biography of Victorio, the work does not always entirely achieve the goals Chamberlain set out for herself. St. Phillip’s College, San Antonio Al Carroll Buffalo Soldiers in the West: A Black Soldiers Anthology. Edited by Bruce A. Glasrud and Michael N. Searles. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2007. Pp. 328. Notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 978-1-58544-612-4, $40.00, cloth; ISBN 978-1-58544-620-9, $19.95, paper.) The collection and publication of Buffalo Soldiers in the West: A Black Soldiers Anthology represents the maturation of an entire subfield of African American, military, and western history. For too long, historians ignored the role of black soldiers—more particularly the men of the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry Regiments, and the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry Regiments—in the post–Civil War history of the American West. William H. Leckie’s The Buffalo Soldiers (1967; revised edition, University of Oklahoma, 2003) was perhaps the most influential of the early books which ignited scholarly interest in the African American regulars . Since the original publication of Leckie’s classic, Arlen L. Fowler, Frank N. Schubert, Monroe Lee Billington, Charles L. Kenner, Marvin E. Fletcher, John D. Weaver, Garna L. Christian, James Leiker, and William A. Dobak and Thomas 332 Southwestern Historical Quarterly January *jan 09 11/26/08 12:00 PM Page 332 Phillips have, among others, contributed outstanding monographs about various aspects of the black military experience in the West. Edited by Bruce A. Glasrud and Michael N. Searles, Buffalo Soldiers in the West stands alongside these influential books by making some of the best scholarly articles on the subject more accessible to modern readers. In selecting and organizing these seventeen essays, all published between 1972 and 1999, the editors have done well. They have elected to limit each author to only a single article , a reflection of the overall vitality of the field. Particularly important is Glasrud’s thorough review of the literature, first published in 1999 and now completely updated to reflect more recent trends. The remaining essays are evenly grouped into four categories: officers and troops, the soldiers, discrimination and violence, and community. A brief introduction accompanies each group. The categories themselves are further indication of how far the scholarship has come. As was the case with the more...