Buffalo Soldiers and Officers of the Ninth Cavalry, 1867-1898: Black and White Together

by Charles L. Kenner Ph.D

Overview

The inclusion of the Ninth Cavalry and three other African American regiments in the post–Civil War army was one of the nation’s most problematic social experiments. The first fifteen years following its organization in 1866 were stained by mutinies, slanderous verbal assaults, and sadistic abuses by their officers. Eventually, a number of considerate and dedicated officers and noncommissioned officers created an elite and well-disciplined fighting unit that won the respect of all but the most racist whites.

Charles L. Kenner’s detailed biographies of officers and enlisted men describe the passions, aspirations, and conflicts that both bound blacks and white together and pulled them apart. Special attention is given to the ordeals of three black officers assigned to the Ninth: Lieutenants John Alexander and Charles Young and Chaplain Henry Plummer. The subjects of these biographies—blacks and whites alike—represent every facet of human nature. The best learned that progress could only be achieved through trust and cooperation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780806148083
Publisher:	University of Oklahoma Press
Publication date:	08/04/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	396
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Charles L. Kenner (1933–2011) was Professor of History at Arkansas State University. His numerous publications on the American Southwest include a study of the Pecos cattle trail and a social history of the 9th Cavalry, known as Buffalo Soldiers.

Read an Excerpt

Buffalo Soldiers and Officers of the Ninth Cavalry 1867â"1898

Black & White Together

---

By Charles L. Kenner

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS

Copyright © 1999 University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publishing Division of the University
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8061-4808-3

---

CHAPTER 1

All That Soldiers Should Be

On 23 July 1866, Congress established the framework for the post–Civil War army. In recognition of the contributions made by almost two hundred thousand black soldiers to the Union's victory, it mandated that two of the ten cavalry companies and four of the forty-five infantry companies (reduced to two out of twenty-five in 1869) were to consist of African American enlisted men. Although the race of the officers was not specified, it was assumed they would be white. All men initially commissioned as lieutenants and at least two-thirds of those at higher ranks were to have served with Civil War volunteer regiments and to have passed rigorous exams. Although regular officers who transferred to the black regiments received a one-grade promotion, Lieutenant Colonel Wesley Merritt (Second Cavalry) and Major James Wade (Sixth Cavalry) were the only regulars of note to switch to the Ninth Cavalry. As late as 1870, Merritt was the only West Point graduate in the regiment.

Although both Merritt and Wade reached the rank of major general, and five other original appointees attained brigadierships before retirement, many of the original appointees were lacking in competence, character, or physical fitness. Of the first thirty officers commissioned, five, including three captains, were cashiered, while others escaped disgrace only by resigning. Several resigned because of poor health, and another six died during the regiment's first six years.

Because the Ninth Cavalry was organized in Louisiana, it has been assumed that most of its early recruits were ignorant field hands. The basis for this misconception was a historical sketch written in 1896 by Lieutenant Grote Hutcheson, a West Point graduate who had never been on a single campaign with the buffalo soldiers. Ordered to prepare the manuscript because he was the regimental adjutant, he described the early recruits as "woefully ignorant, entirely helpless" blacks who "knew nothing, ... had no independence, no self-reliance, not a thought except for the present, and were filled with superstition." Some were so hapless that they had to be taught "how to care for themselves."

Providing no evidence for these assertions, Hutcheson lauded the officers for remaining "enthusiastic" even though they had to "assume nearly all the duties" of the noncommissioned officers, who "for years ... were such only in name." It was "related" that only one man could write well enough to serve as sergeant major.

In contrast to Hutcheson's unfortunate sketch, the companion essay on the Tenth Cavalry drafted by Lieutenant John Bigelow, who was noted both as a soldier and as a historian, emphasized that its officers recruited "colored men sufficiently educated to fill the positions of non-commissioned officers, clerks and mechanics" and other "superior men" who would be a "credit to the regiment." Although historians have accepted both essays as reliable, statistics suggest that recruiters for the Ninth were as selective as those in the Tenth. During the first year, 818 men were enlisted in the Ninth compared to 1,147 in the Tenth.

A study of Ninth Cavalry death statements for its first three years indicates that almost 40 percent of its recruits had prior military service. Although laborers and farmers constituted most of the remainder, more than 10 percent were artisans or domestic servants. Louisiana recruits predominated during 1866, but afterwards most were from Kentucky, Virginia, and the rest of the upper South.

Most of the difficulties in the training camps were primarily a result of the scarcity of officers. With political maneuvering slowing the selection process, only fifteen officers were on duty with their companies at the end of 1867. It was human nature for them, overwhelmed by their work-load, to blame their troubles on their men. At least one officer later rated the original recruits as superior to later ones. Asked to evaluate the black recruits of the mid-1870s, Captain Lewis Johnson replied that they were the equals of "a good many" whites, but they were "not as good as they were immediately after the war closed." At that time, he explained, "many colored soldiers from the volunteer service joined the Army."

In striking contrast to the veterans was the youthfulness of many recruits. An analysis of regimental death certificates indicates that 15 percent had been teenagers at the time of their enlistment—some as young as sixteen. Fifty-five percent were aged twenty-one or below, and 87 percent, twenty-five or below. Less than 3 percent were above the age of thirty.

A tabulation of more than three hundred enlistments in the Ninth between 1868 and 1877 indicates that the emphasis on the upper South as a recruiting ground increased. By then, only one in six recruits was from the deep South (from Louisiana eastward through South Carolina). Approximately 40 percent hailed from Kentucky, while another 33 percent were from the balance of the upper South. Eight percent, predominately from Pennsylvania, came from nonslave states. Most surprising, five were born in Canada or the West Indies, while only four were from the southwestern states of Texas and Arkansas.

In accordance with regulations, recruiters carefully noted such items as complexion and color of eyes and hair. Almost two-thirds of the recruits were classified as "black," while the remaining third was segmented into such categories as "brown," "yellow," "mulatto," and "copper." Since many of those described as brown were also referred to as mulattos, the nonblack descriptions usually denoted mixed ancestry. Place of origin had more to do with success than did ancestry. Black and mulatto recruits of the 1870s had virtually identical failure rates.

While 15 to 20 percent of the recruits in each category either deserted or received dishonorable discharges during the initial five-year term of enlistment, southerners, especially those from the upper South, made the transition from civilian to military life much more successfully than their northern counterparts. A survey of L Company recruits shows that twenty-eight of the thirty-six Kentuckians who joined the company between 1871 and 1877 completed their initial enlistments in good standing, while only two deserted or received dishonorable discharges. Of the fourteen recruits from states north of the Mason-Dixon line, on the other hand, six completed their tours successfully while another six either deserted or received dishonorable discharges. (The remaining two received medical discharges.) Free-state African Americans found it more difficult to accept the harsh discipline and discrimination that pervaded army life and probably had more attractive prospects in civilian life than did those from the South. The Kentuckians, most of whom had enlisted at Lexington in the heart of the Blue Grass region, may also have found cavalry life especially attractive.

The troopers were far from imposing in stature. Less than 10 percent were five feet ten inches or more in height, while about the same percentage was below five feet four inches. The median height was five feet six inches. While weights were not listed, recruits were required to weigh less than 155 pounds to avoid placing undue burdens on their horses. Thus, all save the shortest were likely to have been of relatively slender build.

The rate of illiteracy varied widely from company to company. According to the 1870 census rolls, only five members of L Troop were literate; in contrast, in E Troop, twenty-seven of sixty-one claimed the ability to read and write. Whatever the rate, it usually increased whenever an opportunity for learning presented itself. At Fort Concho in 1869 an officer observed that a "limited number" of black troopers were "industriously and successfully studying," even though most, not surprisingly, were passing "their leisure in social amusements."

Opportunities for study were severely curtailed. Although the chaplains of black regiments were charged with instructing illiterate soldiers, they were few and far between. The Ninth Cavalry in 1869, for example, was dispersed in seven forts scattered from the mouth of the Rio Grande almost to El Paso. Its first two chaplains, John C. Jacobi and Manuel Gonzales, moreover, were in such bad health (or so uninterested) that they spent two-thirds of their time on sick leave. As a consequence, troopers rarely saw a chaplain, much less attended classes under one.

At a post with a dedicated padre, however, results could be striking. At Fort Davis, Texas, in 1876, Chaplain George Mullins, assigned to the Twenty-fifth Infantry, reported that some eighty black soldiers, none of whom had known the alphabet a year earlier, had learned to read and write. These included both infantry and cavalrymen. Many soldiers, such as E Troop's William Howard and Benjamin Hockins and K Troop's George Jordan, gradually progressed from almost total illiteracy to becoming quite proficient in grammatical skills.

Chaplain Mullins was one of the few who sensed the characteristic that more than any other singled the blacks out from their fellow troops—an intense pride in wearing the uniform and a hunger for respect. In Mullins's words, they ardently desired to "be all that soldiers should be" because they were convinced that "the colored people of the whole country" were affected by their conduct in the army. He was especially "touched" by their "manly anxiety" for respect both from superiors and "throughout the States." As a result, he asserted, they gambled relatively little, seldom stole from one another, and were "not at all given to quarreling and fighting among themselves." Of 395 black infantry and cavalrymen at Fort Davis, he reported in 1875, only three were under arrest.

Although isolated in frontier outposts, the buffalo soldiers maintained a keen interest in events affecting their race. On 11 March 1874, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, one of the foremost champions of black freedom, died. On learning of this, the men of L Troop, stationed at Ringgold Barracks on the Rio Grande, adopted a resolution deploring the demise of the "advocator of our equal rights with all men." With his death the country had lost "one of its most faithful servants" and "the colored people of the United States ... a true friend." Expressing sympathy for the family and friends of Sumner, they voted to send copies of their resolution to the New York Times and the Army and Navy Journal.

Charles Chinn, a Kentucky veteran of the Civil War with a reputation as a "most excellent soldier," wrote the tribute to Senator Sumner. More than two decades later he again made the pages of the Army and Navy Journal. A fifty-six-year-old ordnance sergeant in 1897, he was ordered to Fort McPherson, Georgia. Army regulations stated that noncommissioned officers serving as staff officers were entitled to sleeping car accommodations. As Georgia had recently enacted a Jim Crow law concerning railroad travel, Chinn was told that he could ride in a sleeper only if he "leased all the berths in the car." Upon reaching Atlanta, he engaged an attorney to sue both the state and the company. Although nothing could come of a suit in the wake of the Plessey v. Ferguson decision upholding segregation, the desire for equality that motivated him would show itself repeatedly among the black troopers.

Sumner was not the only champion of black freedom honored by Ninth Cavalrymen. In 1890, Sergeant Joseph Moore of F Troop spearheaded an effort to raise money to buy the site of John Brown's "fort" at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, hoping to create a monument to commemorate Brown's effort to liberate the slaves. Although the project was obviously beyond the troopers' modest means, Moore's idealism was not quenched. In 1895 he raised $150 from his troop to assist African American flood victims.

All, of course, was not seriousness among the troopers. Although few suffered from alcoholism, the bane of white regiments, they indulged in their share of vices. An unusually candid description of the aftermath of a paymaster's visit was penned by one signing himself "Africus." For two nights following payday, games of monte raged as "frantic 'buckers'" made the "night hideous with yells of 'turn down,' 'pay de jack,' 'two bits on that ace,' varied by a ... stampede and 'dousing of glims,'" when the officer of the day made an appearance."

Unfortunately, the "glims" were not doused quickly enough; the following morning, several men were "toting logs" as they paced "to and fro." The punishment reportedly resulted in a "vigorous alacrity" by the "remainder in the performance of duty."

It is likely that the rampant gambling usually went undetected. By chance, Africus's confession appeared in the Army and Navy Journal adjacent to a comment by the Ninth's most verbose booster, Major Guy Henry, that at his post (Fort Sill) "the arrival of the paymaster, with its glad welcome for the men," had been followed by "no drunks or confinements." Major Henry may have induced sobriety among his troops, but not even he asserted that they were averse to risking part of their pay at the monte table.

While black soldiers likely had little edge on whites in their proclivity for gambling, they excelled in at least one respect. In the eyes of whites, their most pronounced trait was their affinity for music. At Fort Concho, Post Surgeon William Notson observed that at "every permissible hour," music from a wide variety of instruments could be heard. Many had a "most extraordinary talent," and some could play with either hand. In sounding the bugle calls, they were "disposed to improvise, and vary even upon the orthodox calls."

Notson was not alone in commenting on the troopers' musical talents. Visitors at Fort Bayard, New Mexico, in 1876 noted that "the evening was whiled away listening to a squad of ... colored troopers who are well up in plantation melodies as well as au fait in the jig and other dances." A report from Fort Riley, Kansas, six years later was much the same: "A fine minstrel troupe organized by Company M (Ninth) performed at the post dance hall to the applause of a delighted audience of officers, soldiers, and civilians."

At Fort Stockton, Texas, in 1872, the soldiers treated Emily and Maud Andrews, the visiting wife and daughter of Colonel George Andrews, to an extraordinary performance. Exhibiting only the most genteel overtones of racism, Mrs. Andrews described the "very funny entertainment" in which the "singing and dancing were something wonderful.... Being genuine darkies they entered into it with great zest. We sat in front, while behind us was row after row of the men who really made the room so dark with their bronze faces, that the lights seemed to have no effect."

On the same trip Mrs. Andrews enjoyed the impromptu singing that broke out after the day's march ended. The men seemed never "too tired to dance and sing about their camp fires." Their voices were so "rich and full of melody that I am very glad if I can hear them as I go to sleep."

The penchant for singing contributed to an ability to maintain high spirits in the face of miserable conditions. After the suppression of Sioux resistance following the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1891; four troops of the Ninth remained behind to stand guard over the Pine Ridge Agency. Forced to sleep on the ground with nothing but Sibley tents, each holding fifteen men and heated by a single stove, for shelter from blizzards that piled up snow drifts twenty feet high, many contracted colds or pneumonia. Through it all they astounded their commanders by their ability each evening, after a Spartan repast of "bread and coffee, and sometimes a little bacon," to settle down in their tents to "have a good time.... Song and story, with an occasional jig or a selection on the mouth-organ or the banjo ... occupied the night hours till 'taps' sounded for bed; and the reveille ... seemed to find these jolly fellows still laughing."

An even more striking example of the ability to handle adversity was noted by Lieutenant Walter Finley during a desert pursuit of Victorio's Apaches in October 1879. In his first year of service with the regiment, the young West Pointer still regarded the troopers as curiosities: "Darkeys are better on these long marches than white men. They ride along singing and even when they lose their horses they walk beside the column laughing and cracking jokes as if a 40 mile walk was a mere bagatelle." While black troopers undoubtedly loved music, it is also likely that observers were predisposed to exaggerate. After thirty years' service in the Tenth Cavalry, Captain William H. Beck wrote that blacks might "sing more than white troops, but ... I have not found the difference so very noticeable."

(Continues...)

---

Excerpted from Buffalo Soldiers and Officers of the Ninth Cavalry 1867â"1898 by Charles L. Kenner. Copyright © 1999 University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publishing Division of the University. Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Table of Contents

Contents

List of Illustrations,
Acknowledgments,
Introduction,
Part One. THE REGIMENT AND ITS COMMANDER,
1. All That Soldiers Should Be,
2. The Colonel of the Buffaloes,
Part Two. YEARS OF CRISIS,
3. Victory, Slander, and Doubt: The Image of the Ninth Cavalry, 1866–81,
4. E. M. Heyl, the Genteel Racist of San Pedro Springs,
5. "Hoodoos" and Kangaroo Courts: The "Near Mutiny" at Fort Stockton,
6. "Humpy" Jackson, Racist Killer and Folk Hero of the San Saba,
7. Torment and Torture: Captain Ambrose Hooker and the Agony of E Troop,
Part Three. YEARS OF GLORY, 1879–91,
8. Major Guy Henry, Champion of the Buffalo Soldiers,
9. Death and Resurrection: Captain Charles Parker and K Troop,
Part Four. HONOR AND DISHONOR: Episodes from the Barracks and Officers' Row,
10. Medals and Courts-Martial: The Enigma of Sergeant Emanuel Stance,
11. Private Miller's Martyrdom and the Triumph of L Troop,
12. A Hero Named Daisy: Lieutenant Matthias Day,
13. From Asylum to Valhalla: The "Crazy" Lieutenant of G Troop,
14. Sergeant Brent Woods: The Odyssey of a Hero,
15. From Dishonor to Glory: Two Lieutenants of I Troop,
16. "Dear Cecilia": When a Hero Meets a Maid,
17. Sergeant Alexander Jones and the Demise of Captain Beyer,
18. "Too Indecent for Publication!" The Lonely Passion of Sergeant Dickerson,
Part Five. RACISM RESURGENT,
19. The Ordeal of Chaplain Plummer,
20. The Black Lieutenants: "A Dark Day for the Ninth Horse!",
21. The Failure of the Quest,
Notes,
Bibliography,
Index,

Editorial Reviews

Masterful. . . . A finely-tuned narrative that addresses the issue head-on. . . . A study long overdue.”—Western Historical Quarterly


“If one wants a glimpse of a little known facet of Western history, read this book.”—Journal of the West

From the Publisher