Buffalo Soldiers

The Origin of “Buffalo Soldiers”

In the spring of 1866, a year after the end of the Civil War, Congress established the peacetime organization of the Army. The service of nearly 200,000 black volunteer soldiers during the war influenced the composition of this force: for the first time, blacks were permitted to enlist in the regular Army. Legislators specified that two cavalry regiments and four infantry regiments would be composed of “colored men.” Three years later the Army was again reorganized into the shape it would retain until the start of the Spanish–American War in 1898: some 25,000 troops formed into 10 regiments of cavalry, 25 of infantry, and five of artillery. These provisions, which became codified in federal law, stated that blacks would form the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry.

The name “Buffalo Soldiers” probably originated in the early 1870s in the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). The first published use of the name came in 1873, when a journalist noted that Indians compared the hair of black troops to the appearance of buffalo. Over time, the name gained some currency, mainly in the press but also in some private correspondence. Black soldiers probably knew of this name, but surviving records show that they did not use the term and instead used “colored” to describe themselves and the soldiers in their regiments. The name did not find wide use either inside or outside the Army until well into the 20th century.

Nearly half of the blacks who enlisted in the new regular regiments were Civil War veterans; most were former slaves. [Page 94]Many were illiterate, and few had acquired skills beyond their experience as field hands and laborers. Congress recognized this problem and provided for the assignment of a chaplain in each black regiment; chaplains were responsible for the religious and educational instruction of the soldiers. The success of the school program, however, varied with the efforts of the individual chaplains, the support of regimental officers, and the interest of the soldiers themselves.

Over time some changes occurred in the enlistment pattern in the black regiments. Most soldiers still came from the South, but many were from the District of Columbia and the border states of Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri. The Army had a minority of Northerners as well as a scattering of foreigners—mainly Canadians and West Indians. By the late 1870s, improved educational opportunities throughout the nation brought more literate recruits into the black units. The Army generally attracted the young, and most regulars were in their early twenties when they joined up. Most black regulars still listed “farmer” or “laborer” as their occupation before enlisting. Although some artisans joined the Army, the black units had difficulty meeting their need for soldiers with prior training as carpenters, blacksmiths, and saddlers.

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