Forming the Buffalo Soldier Regiments, 1866

African Americans have fought for the United States from the American Revolution to the present. Yet until 1866 they could not join the Regular Army; they could fight for liberty only in wartime.

Before 1866

• The Revolution. Enslaved and free African American men served in the Continental Army and state militias, mostly in integrated units.
• The War of 1812. Black soldiers served in both integrated and segregated units. Two battalions of "Free Men of Color" fought under Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.
• The Civil War. Enslaved African Americans freed themselves by reaching Union lines. About 200,000 African Americans served in the Union Army, 100,000 of them formerly enslaved, and thirty-eight thousand died in service.

The act of 1866

On July 28, 1866, Congress passed "An Act to Increase and Fix the Military Peace Establishment of the United States," which enlarged the infantry and cavalry. It created four segregated African American infantry regiments and two cavalry regiments: the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry and the Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, Fortieth and Forty-first Infantry. These were the Buffalo Soldier regiments. Their duties included keeping the peace in the South during Reconstruction (1865–1877), building roads and telegraph lines, escorting U.S. Mail carriers, and protecting both homesteaders and American Indians on their lands.

The cavalry

The Ninth Cavalry first recruited in New Orleans in 1866, adding a second office in Louisville, Kentucky, later that year. Its first commander was Colonel Edward Hatch. From 1867 to 1890 it was constantly on duty in the West, with headquarters at forts including Fort Riley, Fort Union and Fort McKinney. Charles Young, the third African American to graduate from West Point, spent most of his career as an officer in the Ninth, mentored there by John Hanks Alexander, the second. The regiment served in the Plains Wars, the Spanish-American War, the Philippine War, the Punitive Expedition into Mexico and the Second World War, and was deactivated in North Africa on March 7, 1944.

A Troop of the Ninth Cavalry, in a stereograph from 1898. Library of Congress.

The Tenth Cavalry was organised from September 21, 1866, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, under Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson. Grierson's trust in and support for the African American soldiers he led cost him, at times, the support and trust of his own superiors. Henry O. Flipper, the first African American graduate of West Point, was assigned to the Tenth. The regiment was stationed across the West, Fort Davis, Texas, among other posts, and served in the same campaigns as the Ninth, from the Plains Wars to the Second World War. It was deactivated in North Africa on March 20, 1944.

The infantry

The Thirty-eighth Infantry enlisted its soldiers at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, under Colonel William B. Hazen, and soon marched west to New Mexico. On November 15, 1866, a recruit named William Cathay joined it. Repeated illnesses sent the new soldier to the post hospital, where on one visit the surgeon discovered that William Cathay was a woman, Cathay Williams. Because women were barred from serving, she was honourably discharged. She is the only woman on record to have enlisted in the Buffalo Soldiers.

The Thirty-ninth Infantry recruited in Alexandria, Louisiana, under Colonel Joseph A. Mower, many of its first men coming from in and around New Orleans. It stayed in the region to keep the peace during Reconstruction.

The Fortieth Infantry was organised in Washington, D.C., under Colonel Nelson A. Miles and stationed in North Carolina during Reconstruction. Thomas Boyne was one of its original members; later, in the Ninth Cavalry, he received the Medal of Honor for his actions in New Mexico on September 27, 1879, during the Plains Wars.

The Forty-first Infantry was organised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on December 25, 1866, under Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie, and stationed along the Rio Grande.

Four infantry regiments become two

General Order Number 16 of 1869 cut the four infantry regiments to two:

• The Twenty-fifth Infantry. The Fortieth was sent south to New Orleans and combined there with the Thirty-ninth. Colonel Mower commanded the new regiment, which went on to serve with honour across the West.
• The Twenty-fourth Infantry. The Thirty-eighth and Forty-first were combined at Fort McKavett, Texas. Colonel Mackenzie was its first commander. It served on the Texas frontier until 1888, longer than any other infantry regiment in the Army, and it was the last Buffalo Soldier regiment to be integrated, remaining segregated until the Korean War.

Corrected: the NPS article spells the Texas post "Fort McKavitt"; it is Fort McKavett. The article also dates the Twenty-fifth's consolidation to March 10, 1869, while saying the Fortieth was sent to New Orleans, where the two were combined, on March 31; this page gives neither date.

Sources

• National Park Service, Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument, "Forming the Buffalo Soldier Regiments." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/forming-buso.htm
• Photograph: A Troop, Ninth Cavalry, stereograph, 1898, Library of Congress.