Buffalo soldiers were a real thing, not just a reggae song.
Buffalo Soldiers were some of the bravest and most decorated soldiers to serve in the
United States military, and yet their accomplishments aren't very well-known because of racism.
This is the untold truth of the Buffalo soldiers.
During the American Civil War, all-black regiments called the "United States Colored Troops"
made up roughly 10 percent of the Union Army.
Those troops were disbanded at the end of the war, and a lot of newly free blacks in
other parts of the nation found themselves facing difficult circumstances.
In 1866, Congress passed the Army Organization Act, which was mostly just a lot of fluff
about pay for soldiers and officers and organizational stuff.
But the act also allowed for the creation of four new cavalry regiments, two of which
would consist of black soldiers and white officers, and eight new companies of infantry,
four of which would consist of black soldiers and white officers.
Many free blacks saw this as a rare opportunity and perhaps their only one to make a decent
living.
These were considered peacetime regiments, but "peacetime" isn't really a super-accurate
word since there was still plenty of conflict happening in the American West, mostly against
the indigenous population.
The American Civil War freed blacks from slavery, but not from oppression.
They weren't equal under the law and they faced ugly, out-in-the open racism whether
they were in southern states, northern states, or the frontier.
A lot of blacks saw military service as a pathway to civil rights, if they could prove
themselves in uniform, surely equal rights and fair treatment would follow.
Unfortunately, military service post-Civil war meant fighting for the oppression of another
group: indigenous Americans.
According to History, the original purpose of the Buffalo Soldiers was to keep the natives
from causing trouble.
They were to help with westward expansion, which meant fighting and pushing back the
native people, though that wasn't their only task.
They had other responsibilities, too, like catching cattle rustlers and protecting settlers
on the frontier.
All nice, not-very-visible jobs, which was important because the white folks living in
populated communities might die from shock if they saw black men dressed in army uniforms
carrying weapons.
"Buffalo Soldiers" is a pretty odd name, and no one is really sure exactly why it was given
to black soldiers on the frontier.
According to History, the two all-black cavalry units were officially the 9th and 10th Cavalry
Regiments, and it was the Native Americans that the men were supposed to be controlling
who gave them the nickname "Buffalo Soldiers."
But their reasons for choosing that particular moniker are mostly a mystery.
One theory suggests that the natives thought the soldiers' thick, curly hair resembled
the fur of a buffalo, but that frankly seems like an idea someone might have pulled out
of their own backside.
The more popular and probably correct theory is that the Buffalo Soldiers fought courageously
and fiercely, so the plains people named them after the buffalo, an animal they had a deep
respect and reverence for.
Origins aside, it's clear that the soldiers themselves saw the nickname as one of respect,
and even incorporated the image of a buffalo into their coat of arms.
You will of course be absolutely shocked to hear that not everyone was cool with the idea
of all-black regiments and that there was a ton of racism thrown at the Buffalo Soldiers
for pretty much their entire existence.
According to Smithsonian, the first thing that happened was white officers including
the famous jerk George Armstrong Custer, refused to command them because they believed black
men would run when faced with danger.
Nice.
Some of the officers who refused to command Buffalo Soldiers even risked losing rank,
and that still wasn't enough to overcome their racism.
The all-black regiments would also get all of the worst food, the worst horses, and the
crappiest equipment, and most of their accomplishments went totally unrecognized.
They were often living in unsanitary conditions, and many of them died from disease related
to their living conditions and inadequate rations.
Meanwhile, the white officers got everything they needed, because of course they did.
"You really think you can keep 700 Union soldiers without proper shoes because you think it's
funny?"
Anyone who's ever watched a film about life in the army during the American Civil War
knows that according to Hollywood, white soldiers were mostly louts who drank a lot and got
court-martialed all the time.
"Come on, you prissy little school girl, you're the worst soldier in this whole company now
hit me!"
That's not entirely a figment of Hollywood's imagination, though, there's an element of
truth to it.
In both the Union Army and the Confederate one officers and soldiers drank to cope with
boredom and the general awfulness of fighting in a civil war, and whiskey was given to soldiers
as medicine to treat things like exhaustion and pain.
"Look uh, have a drink."
Not much really changed after the war, either.
White soldiers continued to use alcohol, but the Buffalo Soldiers had much lower rates
of alcohol use even though they got the worst and most dangerous assignments and faced racism
from their superiors and from the citizens of the frontier towns they were assigned to
protect.
They had lower rates of court-martial and desertion, too, so even though life was a
lot more challenging for them, they were on the whole more disciplined than their white
counterparts were.
At first pretty much everyone was against the Buffalo Soldiers, except maybe for those
far-away people in Congress who wrote them into the law in 1866.
Out on the frontier, people were ruthlessly cruel.
According to Smithsonian, the people who were the primary beneficiaries of their service
were the most hostile of all, and sometimes black soldiers died violently at the hands
of ungrateful white settlers.
That didn't deter the Buffalo Soldiers, though, who took their jobs seriously and served valiantly.
During the Indian Wars, which lasted decades, 18 Buffalo Soldiers were given Medals of Honor.
Keep in mind, though, that there were 426 medals given in total during those years,
and black soldiers made up roughly 10 percent of the army at that time.
So clearly, a lot of valiant Buffalo Soldiers were overlooked, and the ones that did receive
medals had to do some pretty crazy-heroic things to get the attention of the military
leadership that was otherwise prone to overlooking them.
Nothing like working twice as hard to get half the recognition.
Henry O. Flipper was born into slavery in 1856.
According to the National Archives, Flipper overcame enormous odds, isolation, and the
near-constant harassment of classmates to become the first black graduate of the U.S.
Military Academy at West Point, and the first black commissioned officer in the United States
Army.
Flipper graduated in 1877 and was stationed on the frontier in Oklahoma and Texas.
He fought Apaches during the Indian Wars and helped build the infrastructure that made
life easier for settlers.
Unfortunately, Flipper's distinguished record couldn't protect him from racism, and in 1881
his commanding officer accused him of embezzling money from commissary funds.
He was cleared of the charges but the court found him guilty of "conduct unbecoming an
officer" and he received a dishonorable discharge.
Despite efforts to clear his name, Flipper died before the Army finally recognized its
error and granted him an honorable discharge.
In 1999 he was finally pardoned by then-president Bill Clinton.
No matter where they went, the Buffalo Soldiers got the crappiest, most thankless jobs going.
But some jobs were less terrible than others.
According to the National Parks Service, 500 Buffalo Soldiers got to do thankless work
in two of the most beautiful places in the world, Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks,
where they were tasked with catching timber thieves, confiscating firearms, kicking out
cattle found grazing on park lands, and stopping illegal poaching.
Many also served as firefighters, and were responsible for helping bring infrastructure
into the parks.
They built roads and trails, and constructed an arboretum in Yosemite National Park, which
became the first museum ever built in a national park.
In 1903, West Point's third black graduate, Charles Young, served as acting military superintendent
in Sequoia National Park.
Young and his all-black company were sent to Sequoia to work on a stalled road project;
by the end of the season Young and his men had built as much road as had been built in
three previous seasons.
And yet, most Americans today aren't even aware of what the all-black regiments accomplished
in their beloved national parks.
By the time the Spanish-American war broke out in 1898, blacks in America were still
nursing hope that distinguished service in the military was the key to obtaining equal
rights at home, even though more than 30 years later things had still not changed for the
Buffalo Soldiers.
There was a fierce debate about whether black soldiers were doing any good for black civil
rights.
Still, when the Army shipped 17,000 men to Cuba to fight in the new conflict, 3,000 of
them were Buffalo Soldiers.
The Spanish-American war marked the first time that black troops were stationed in the
southeastern part of America, where they faced the same bigotry that their unenlisted counterparts
did.
When they arrived in Cuba, they faced heat, mud, and tropical diseases.
Many of them served as nurses and orderlies.
Four earned Medals of Honor for rescuing wounded soldiers under enemy fire, being praised as
being "most gallant and soldierly."
But still, nothing really changed back home.
By World War I, the Buffalo Soldiers had an impressive list of honors and accomplishments
and still weren't considered equal to their white counterparts.
According to the National Park Service, when the United States entered the First World
War, there were Buffalo Soldiers stationed in the Philippines, on the U.S.-Mexican border,
and Hawaii, and the Army just kind of left them there, because despite all the evidence
to the contrary, they didn't think they were capable enough to send to the front lines.
But as the war grew uglier and nastier and longer, the military finally conceded to a
simple fact: The war wasn't going to be won if the U.S. didn't enlist the help of everyone,
regardless of color.
The Buffalo Soldiers themselves remained in the United States and the Philippines, but
thousands of African-Americans were eventually recruited to join the war overseas, and it's
safe to say that the distinguished history of the Buffalo Soldiers helped make that possible.
One of the two divisions that shipped to France during the First World War was nicknamed "Buffalo
Soldiers," even though it wasn't part of the original regiments that bore that name.
The other unit became known as "Blue Helmets."
Both fought in France during WWI, and both served so valiantly that France awarded honors
and medals to soldiers in each division.
And still, black soldiers weren't taken seriously back home in America.
By World War II there were 909,000 enlisted blacks in the Army, but only one division
saw combat.
The rest of them were assigned to menial jobs like construction or graves registration,
because of the enduring belief that black soldiers weren't brave enough or motivated
enough for combat.
The 92nd Infantry Division, the last racially segregated unit in the United States military,
was the only exception.
And surprise, they fought just as valiantly as all the Buffalo Soldiers who came before
them.
The Buffalo Soldiers had a long, proud history, but they couldn't continue to exist in a world
that was finally starting to recognize the fundamental injustice of segregation.
And the desegregation of the military had an unlikely champion, Harry S. Truman, who
grew up with racist ideas and eventually evolved into a person who genuinely believed that
all people were equal.
According to the Washington Post, he had a deep change of heart upon learning of an attack
on a decorated black World War II veteran named Isaac Woodard, who was beaten and blinded
by a South Carolina police chief.
"He wasn't drunk at all, but he got hit over the head with a blackjack and hit across the
face with a billy club, and blinded him for life."
Truman signed Executive Order 9981 in 1948, which desegregated the United States military,
the same day he signed an executive order for the desegregation of the federal workforce,
saying:
"There shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services…without
regard to race, color, religion or national origin."
The history of black men in the United States military is remarkable, but what about the
history of black women in the military?
Well, for a long time that entire history was limited to just one person, Cathay Williams,
the only female Buffalo Soldier.
Williams was born into slavery in 1844.
According to the National Park Service, after Union soldiers captured her hometown in 1861,
Williams served as an Army cook and laundress and spent time traveling with the Union Army,
where she learned the routine of life on the front lines.
At the end of the Civil War, Williams realized that one of the best employment opportunities
open to blacks was soldiering.
That opportunity wasn't open to her, though, just as it wasn't open to any women.
But instead of finding work as a cook or laundress elsewhere, she traveled to St. Louis, changed
her name to William Cathay, and became a Buffalo Soldier.
Willams successfully passed as a man for two years.
She never saw combat, but she learned to use a musket, went on scouting missions, and served
as a guard.
It wasn't until a series of illnesses that she was finally outed as a woman in 1868.
Even after she'd been found out, though, her superiors had enough respect for her accomplishments
that she was granted an honorable discharge.
The last Buffalo Soldier was Mark Matthews, who died at the age of 111 in 2005.
According to the L.A. Times, Matthews was already an accomplished horseman when he joined
the 10th Cavalry in Lexington, KY at the age of 15.
Matthews served along the U.S.-Mexican border during World War I, and in 1931 he transferred
to Fort Myer, VA, where he taught horsemanship to new recruits.
He retired from the army in 1949 and after working as a security guard, finally retired
for good in 1970 after becoming chief of the guards.
When Matthews died, he was the last surviving Buffalo Soldier and also the oldest at 111,
and it's pretty cool that the Buffalo Soldiers made it to the 21st century, after such a
long and impressive history of valor and patriotism.
Thank you for your service.
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