
Black
soldiers who wanted to remain in the United States Army after the Civil
War were organized into the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry Regiments. Their
service in controlling hostile Indians on the Great Plains during the next
twenty years was as invaluable as it was unrecognized.
The regiments, commanded by white
officers and operating under intense disadvantages - difficulty in obtaining
officers; prejudicial treatment by higher army officials concerning equipment,
assignments, and camp policy; and prejudice in frontier towns - nevertheless
developed into remarkable fighting units during their extensive engagements
on the Southern Plains. Called all sorts of names - most of them insulting
- by various groups, the men of these two regiments were dubbed "buffalo
soldiers" by their Indian opponents. They were proud of this title,
and the most prominent feature of the Tenth Cavalry's regimental crest
was the figure of a buffalo. The long-neglected story of their courage
and devotion to duty adds a new dimension to frontier history.
The Buffalo Soldiers ~ by William H. Leckie
290 pages/soft cover: $19.95 + $2.50 shipping = $22.45 Total Order # FH101
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