Have you ever wondered why the black soldiers were called Buffalo Soldiers?  The Plains Indians made the name given to the black soldiers, because the soldiers were black like the buffalo And also had curly hair like the buffalo.

The Buffalo Soldiers were made from the 9th and 10th Cavalry, and the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st Infantry Regiments.

The 9th Cavalry was organized September 21 in 1866 at Greenville, Louisiana.  The 9th Cavalry was under the command of Colonel Edward Hatch.

The 10th Cavalry was organized on September 21, 1866 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.  The command of the 10th Cavalry was Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson.

The 38th and 41st Infantry were also organized in 1866.  The 38th Infantry was commanded by Colonel William and the 41st Infantry was commanded by Colonel Ronald S. Mackenzie.

The 39th and 41st Infantries were also again organized in 1866.   In 1869 the 39th Infantry and the 40th Infantry combined to form the 25th Infantry.

The Buffalo Soldiers were an all black state of army except the officers.  They were white.

The duties of Buffalo Soldiers were mainly to help the Government. They did the following:

-Controlled hostile forces
-Escorted stage coaches
-Built roads
-Guarded water holes
 -Guarded horses and cattle

-Escorted wagon trains
 -Built forts
-Installed telegraph lines
-Guarded railroad construction workers
-Mapped uncharted areas

If you were a Buffalo Soldier work was very harsh.  During each month for the first ten months at least one soldier died due to diseases.  The diseases were mainly cholera and deadly dietary deficiencies.

The men’s barracks were poorly ventilated.  They were also vermin infested hovels.  The only bathing facilities cons assisted of creeks.  The foods the Buffalo Soldiers were mainly eating were a type of beef, bacon, potatoes, beans, and fresh vegetables.  The workweeks were seven days, and the only exceptions were the Fourth of July and Christmas.  When the troops weren’t on patrol they engaged in drills, parades, and inspections.

The Buffalo Soldiers were put upon a hard task.  The task was called the Great Bicycle Experiment.  The United States Army was looking for a way to replace the horses.  After word had gotten out, General Nelson Miles suggested the bicycle.  The army assigned this task to some of the 25th Infantry, who were stationed at Fort Missoula, Montana. 

The army was so unfair to the Buffalo Soldiers that the Buffalos Soldiers were given the oldest and most dirties equipment.  They were given the sick horse.  Some of the Buffalo Soldiers even had to walk to battle on foot.  Most of their weapons were broken.  The troops living homes were pitiful.  Most lived in the old wet tents.  The others lived in old shacks.  They made their beds out of sacks filled with moldy straw.  But even though they didn’t have nice settlements, the troops had one of the most decorated uniforms the whole century they were in.  The weapons the soldiers carried were the:

-Krag Model 1892
-Schofield Revolver
-Colt SAA Revolver

-Springfield Rifle Model 1873
-Krag Model Bayonet

The Buffalo Soldiers were very brave.  They didn’t care what happened as long as they beat the Indians.  Eighteen Buffalo Soldiers succeeded in hard work to earn the Medal of Honor.  In September of 1868, Major Forsyth lay stretched out by his rotting carcass of his dead horse on Beecher Island in Colorado Territory.  Among him were a lot of his soldiers lying there dead or wounded. On each of the riverbanks of the Arikaree River were the Cheyenne and Oglala warrior Indians.  They had had Forsyth's men circled for days.  Foryth's men figured they were going to be killed by the Indians.  Then one day they noticed that some of the Indians had drawn off.  Then a little bit later they saw some Cavalrymen coming across the horizon.  They noticed that the Cavalry was made up of all blacks.  The all black Cavalry was a part of the Buffalo Soldiers.  The Buffalo Soldiers had come to rescue them.  Forsyth was even rescued by the Buffalo Soldiers.

One of the last wars the Buffalo Soldiers fought in was the Spanish American War.  The Spanish American War was fought to get Cuba’s independence from Spain.  The Spanish wouldn’t cooperate with the United States so the United States sent the Buffalo Soldiers on them.  The Buffalo Soldiers fought as hard as they could.  The Buffalo Soldiers fought so hard that the Cuban’s won the war.  After that war the Buffalo Soldiers finally got what the respect they deserved. 

Chief Victoria was one of the biggest enemies of the Buffalo Soldiers.  He was an Apache.  One of the Buffalo Soldiers biggest tasks was to return the Apaches who had left the reservations.  They were also to protect Apaches on and off reservations from cowboys and other who killed Indians for sport.  Some whites made a living by selling Indian scalps to the Mexican Government.  The prices for the scalps were fifty dollars for a male, twenty-five dollars for a female, and ten dollars for a child.  One of Victoria’s bad decisions was to start mutilating whites.  The Buffalo Soldiers were mad at him and tried to kill him.  On August 6, 1880, at Rattlesnake Springs, Texas, Buffalo Soldiers fought Victoria’s band of warriors.  Victoria tried to attack but failed to do so.  The Buffalo Soldiers counter attacked temporarily halting the Indians.  Indians fled to Mexico before the Buffalo Soldiers could catch them.  On October 14, 1880, Buffalo Soldiers surrounded Victoria’s camp.  They killed Victoria, sixty warriors, and eighteen women and children.  They held sixty-eight women and children prisoner.  This was the end of Victoria’s Wars with Buffalo Soldiers and the end of Victoria’s domination.