Buffalo Soldiers in the Spanish-American War

Buffalo Soldiers at Camp Wikoff after returning from Cuba. U.S. Army.

With the American West declared "closed" in the 1890s, the Buffalo Soldiers, the Army's Black regiments, stayed at their frontier posts but turned to quelling labour disputes and keeping order. The Spanish-American War of 1898, short enough to be called "the splendid little war", sent them into battle again.

To Cuba

On February 15, 1898, the USS Maine blew up and sank in Havana Harbor, killing Americans aboard. Many in government and the press blamed Spain, then fighting to hold on to its empire, and with the cry "Remember the Maine!" the United States declared war on April 25.

The Buffalo Soldiers began moving within weeks, in March and April, to forts and camps in the South, and gathered with white troops at Tampa, Florida, to embark. In the South and aboard the transports they met open racism from local people and fellow soldiers. The Army was ordered to sail on June 7; to their surprise, the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry had to leave their horses and fight as infantry. The Twenty-fourth Infantry sailed on the City of Washington, the Twenty-fifth on the Concho, the Ninth Cavalry on the Miami, and the Tenth, split up, on the Leona and the Alamo, in a main flotilla of 32 ships.

The main force landed near Daiquiri on June 22, and the next day shifted the landings seven miles to Siboney, which had a better beach and facilities. The Buffalo Soldiers fought in all the main battles.

Las Guasimas, June 24

Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler sent the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, the Rough Riders of Col. Leonard Wood and Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt, up the left-hand trail toward Las Guasimas, a junction about three miles inland. He led the First Cavalry and the Tenth Cavalry's Buffalo Soldiers up the other, fainter trail, where they had to hack through the brush. Within 20 minutes they met Spanish troops, and after an exchange of fire the Americans drove the Spanish back, opening the way forward. The Tenth lost one man killed and eight wounded.

Tayabacoa, June 30

As the Tenth boarded ship on June 7, Lt. Carter P. Johnson picked 50 troopers for a special mission behind enemy lines, to reinforce and resupply Cubans fighting for independence. On June 30, Cuban fighters and some American volunteers from the USS Florida tried to land at Tayabacoa, ran into Spanish soldiers from a nearby blockhouse and fell back, leaving wounded men behind. After several failed rescue attempts, Pvt. Dennis Bell, Cpl. George H. Wanton, Pvt. Fritz Lee, Sgt. William H. Thompkins and Lt. George P. Ahern went ashore, surprised the Spanish, and brought every wounded man back to the ship. Bell, Wanton, Lee and Thompkins received the Medal of Honor in the summer of 1899.

El Caney, July 1

Meant to be a short fight before the main attack on San Juan Heights, El Caney lasted all day. The Twenty-fifth Infantry joined 6,600 other Americans against Spanish troops who were far outnumbered but well dug in, with a stone blockhouse. Arriving to find the Second Massachusetts falling back, the Twenty-fifth took its place in line and charged up the hill; a Spanish officer, Lt. Jose Muller, later described company after company rushing forward "with veritable fury" through the Spanish fire. The Twenty-fifth reached the blockhouse together with the Twelfth Infantry. Pvt. Thomas C. Butler of Company H was first inside and seized the Spanish flag, while the Twelfth, entering at the other end, took the white flag the panicking Spanish waved, and each unit believed it had taken the fort first. The Twenty-fifth lost eight killed and 27 wounded.

San Juan Heights, July 1

The Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, the Twenty-fourth Infantry, the First Cavalry and the Rough Riders held the far right of the American line, in tall grass along the San Juan River, under Spanish rifle fire from San Juan Hill and Kettle Hill that was finding its range. Edward L. Baker of the Tenth later wrote that the air "seemed perfectly alive with flying missiles".

Baker walked the line steadying the men. Hearing a groan, he saw Pvt. Lewis Marshall of C Troop wounded and face down in the river; ignoring warnings that it was too dangerous, he pulled Marshall out, carried him to safety and fetched the regimental doctor. Marshall lived, and Baker received the Medal of Honor in 1902. Baker then joined the advance, wounded by shrapnel in the left side and arm, picking his way through barbed wire under heavy artillery and rifle fire, until the Tenth and the Rough Riders reached the summit and drove the Spanish off. Twenty-six Buffalo Soldiers died taking the heights.

Praise, and a slight

Rough Rider Frank Knox said he had never seen braver men; Lt. John J. Pershing wrote that they had fought their way into the hearts of the American people. Roosevelt at first said no one could tell whether his Rough Riders or the men of the Ninth had shown the greater courage, but he later claimed the Black troops had shirked and gone only as far as white officers led them. Tenth Cavalry trooper Presley Holliday answered that the statement was uncalled for, uncharitable and ungrateful, given how the Tenth's advance had weakened the enemy facing Roosevelt's own regiment at Las Guasimas and San Juan Hill, and that not every Black company in the assaults had been led or urged on by a white officer.

The end of the war

After San Juan Heights the Americans surrounded the Spanish and forced their surrender. The Treaty of Paris, signed December 10, 1898, ended the war: the United States took Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, and Cuba gained independence from colonial rule.

More: Buffalo Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument.

Sources

• National Park Service, Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument, "Buffalo Soldiers in the Spanish-American War." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/busospanamwar.htm
• Words on this page from people and organisations outside the federal government are paraphrased; rewritten in hubnx's own words.