Buffalo Soldier, dreadlock Rasta

There was a Buffalo Soldier

In the heart of America

Stolen from Africa, brought to America

Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival

 

Yeah, I wasn’t gonna sing it, but you may recognize those words, they’re lyrics from Bob Marley’s 1983 song “Buffalo Soldier.” It will probably be stuck in your head all day now, sorry. It’s super catchy. But what’s the history behind it? Who were the Buffalo Soldiers really? Because I bet you wayyy more people know the song than the history. Let’s fix that. 

 

Hello, I’m Shea LaFountaine and you’re listening to History Fix where I discuss lesser known true stories from history you won’t be able to stop thinking about. As I continued my deep dive into all things Black History, I found myself fixating on this topic in particular. Because my dad is a Bob Marley fan. It was quite often the anthem of my youth. Hearing it now still brings me back to balmy summer evenings, cookouts on the porch, the smell of fried seafood and Skin So Soft and Bob Marley’s Buffalo Soldier blaring through the outdoor speakers he had rigged up in each corner of the porch. I would give up a lot to go back to one of those evenings now. So this song, it’s deeply ingrained in me, it’s a core memory, but for many many years I had no idea who the Buffalo Soldiers actually were or what they did. “Said he was a Buffalo Soldier, win the war for America.” Win the war? What war? What’s the story here Bob? Let’s dive in. 

 

As you can probably infer from the song, Buffalo Soldiers were African American men who served in the US military, specifically in the 9th and 10th cavalry and the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st infantry regiments. But really they did so much more than that. We’ll come back to that. Let me go back even farther real quick though. So, prior to 1866 Black men could only serve in the military during times of war, to defend the country. They couldn’t voluntarily join the military during times of peace. During the Revolutionary War, Black men, both enslaved and free, fought alongside white men in both the Continental army and the state militias. It was integrated. They were fighting side by side. And that’s how you know it was desperate times. They were desperate for men because typically troops were segregated. There were Black troops and white troops. But of course all of the commanding officers were white. 

 

Let’s jump back over to New Orleans for sec. Two battalions of Free Men of Color fought under Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 which was part of the War of 1812. Which, I’m just now realizing, how weird to call it the War of 1812 when it lasted until 1815? I always assumed it was just like a 1 year long war. Weird, anyway, this battle has been described as one of the greatest military victories of all time and it’s the reason Jackson’s statue stands in the center of Jackson Square. Side note, this battle was also completely unnecessary. Both sides, the British and the Americans, were unaware that a peace treaty had already been signed in Belgium a couple weeks before the battle. The war was over, they just hadn’t gotten word yet. It was on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic, I’m sure. But, it was still significant. According to the American Battlefield Trust, quote “The resounding American victory at the Battle of New Orleans soon became a symbol of American democracy triumphing over the old European ideas of aristocracy and entitlement.” end quote. So it was symbolically important, I guess. Not sure if that’s worth all the lives lost but anyway, whatever, my point is there were two battalions of Black soldiers who helped win this epic battle. 

 

In 1861, the Civil War broke out. I’ve heard southerners claim that the Civil War wasn’t about slavery, it was about state’s rights. Now I am a southerner so I’m allowed to say this, it was about slavery. Anyone claiming state’s rights is just trying to make themselves feel better, which is understandable, but it was always about slavery. It was about the state’s rights to have slavery. The south wanted it, the north didn’t. It was irreconcilable. They always knew it would be, which is why Thomas Jefferson’s anti-slavery passage was removed from an early draft of the Declaration of Independence. It’s why the word “slave” does not appear, not once, in the US Constitution, which was written when slavery was alive and well. They had known it was a problem for nearly a century. Talk about procrastination. But here we are. 1861 and the shish has officially hit the fan. 

 

The southern states secede, they leave the United States and form their own country, the Confederate States of America. How insane is that? Can you imagine? What if the midwest was all of sudden like, “yeah we’re not part of you guys anymore, we’re gonna do our own thing now.” It’s wild but it happened. So imagine you are an enslaved Black man in Georgia. Your state has just joined a new country that is dead set on keeping you enslaved. They are literally willing to die on that hill. Meanwhile, Union troops are advancing. They’re in Virginia, now they’re in North Carolina, they make their way down to Georgia, you know where they are. They’re just over those hills. There’s a whole Union camp just over those hills. You’ve seen the smoke from their fires. That’s how close they are. What would you do? Stay in this new country that’s fighting a war to keep you enslaved or go join the guys fighting for your freedom? Many enslaved Black men self-emancipated to join the Union army. They took advantage of the chaos of war to just slip away and they walked right up to Union lines where they were accepted with open arms. According to an American Battlefield Trust article by Sam Smith quote “vast columns of escaped slaves followed almost every major Union army at one point or another.” end quote

 

When President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, officially ending slavery in the United States, and I love this because technically, the states that had slavery weren’t even part of the United States anymore and Lincoln just couldn’t care less. They’re like “hey, but we’re the Confederate states now, we make our own laws, and Jefferson Davis, he’s our, he tells us…” and Lincoln is just like “No. I’m not playing your silly we’re a different country now game. Enough is enough.” Anyway, after that many more Black men joined the Union army. This included now emancipated formerly enslaved men from the South as well as already free Black men from the north. At this time, proportionally, more Black men were joining the Union army than white men. And, yeah, that makes perfect sense to me. The motive is definitely there. Plus the union army was actively recruiting and training Black soldiers during the Civil War. Which was smart and probably went a long way to helping them win the war. 

 

Because the Confederacy did not enlist Black men in their army. Now, that’s not to say that Black men didn’t help the Confederacy, some did. Stockholm Syndrome is real. No, I know it’s more complicated than that. Many were forced to accompany their enslavers, or former enslavers now, technically, to battle. But they weren’t in combat. They mostly served as laborers, cooks, that kind of thing. Smith reports quote “There were no black Confederate combat units in service during the war and no documentation whatsoever exists for any black man being paid or pensioned as a Confederate soldier.” end quote. It wasn’t until 1865 that the Confederate Congress passed a law allowing Black men to serve in combat roles but the war ended less than 3 weeks later so none ever actually got to. This law, even though it was to no avail, was very controversial. Robert Toombs, the Confederacy’s first Secretary of State and an army general said in a June 1865 edition of the Augusta Chronicle quote “In my opinion, the worst calamity that could befall us would be to gain our independence by the valor of our slaves, instead of our own. If we are conquered by the fortunes of war, we may save our honor and leave the cause to our descendants, who may be wiser and braver than we are and may avail themselves of accidents of human affairs, and yet win what we are ignominiously throwing away. The day that the army of Virginia allows a negro regiment to enter their lines as soldiers they will be degraded, ruined, and disgraced.” end quote. What an absolute idiot, I’m sorry, the guy’s an idiot. Like, I don’t understand. You are so principled, so determined to stick to your backwards racist principles that you would rather send your own entitled, rich, pampered, white son, your progeny, your heir, you’d rather send him to die in a war you are losing than a Black man you care nothing about because God forbid the Black man get any of the honor and glory. Uh, hate to break it to ya Toombs there is no honor and glory. Your son is dead and you’re losing the war because you let your own bigotry get in the way of common sense. No freaking wonder the Confederacy lost the war. What kind of strategy is that? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m very glad they didn’t force Black men to fight for the Confederacy. I just wish it was because they were decent humans and not the complete opposite. Meanwhile, 200,000 Black soldiers served in the Union Army. 38,000 made the ultimate sacrifice, giving up their lives for the country that saw them as humans capable of fighting and defending, and worthy of that honor and glory. 

 

But while incredibly significant in helping to create and defend our country, none of these soldiers were Buffalo Soldiers. Just after the Civil War, in 1866, Congress established 6 all Black regiments - the 9th, 10th, 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st, as I said before. A few years later, the last 4 of those were consolidated into the 24th and 25th infantry regiments. And to be honest, I don’t really know what that means, I’m just mentioning it because you might hear that there were 6 Buffalo Soldier regiments or 4, it’s all the same they just, like, shuffled some stuff around and changed some numbers to make it extra confusing. 

 

So the purpose of these all Black regiments was to help rebuild the country after the Civil War and to go fight out West during the Plains Wars. Because the US wasn’t just fighting itself during the mid 19th century, no, it was also waging decades long wars against the indigenous people of the Great Plains. Manifest destiny, right? And this is where it gets pretty sad. You know, sometimes I think we think about the end of the Civil War and we’re like, “yay! Slavery is over now so Black people can start living these awesome lives! They can go out and make money and really make something of their lives, they’re free now, yay!” But it wasn’t really like that at all. I talked about this in the Drowned Towns episode, episode 44, success is generational. You need a foundation on which to build your life. Many formerly enslaved Black Americans walked off these plantations with literally nothing. They started this new life of quote “freedom” with the clothes on their back. That’s it. They had no jobs, they had no houses, they had no food to eat. And, okay they’re not enslaved anymore but they’re still completely marginalized by society, treated as lesser, given fewer if any opportunities. That is a borderline impossible situation. So for a young Black man, joining the Buffalo Soldiers was looking pretty good. According to a National Park Service article quote “Although the pay was low, only $13 a month, many African Americans enlisted because they could earn more and be treated with more dignity than they often received in civilian life.” end quote. And, to put that into perspective, $13 in 1866 is around $250 today, for a month. But they were provided with food and shelter and clothing. You can begin to see why this looked like a good opportunity for these men. 

 

But what makes me sad is what they forced these men to do. They pitted one marginalized group against another. Using the Buffalo Soldiers, in their rock and a hard place position, to help violently force indigenous people off of their lands. According to the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, quote “Throughout the era of the Indian Wars, approximately 20 percent of the US cavalry troopers were Black, and they fought over 177 engagements.” end quote. It’s actually the Native Americans they were fighting against who gave them the name “Buffalo Soldiers.” It’s not totally clear why but most sources say it had kind of a dual meaning. First, the soldier’s dark curly hair resembled a Buffalo’s mane. But also, they were said to fight like the fierce Great Plains buffalo. The museum website says quote “The combat prowess, bravery, tenaciousness, and looks on the battlefield, inspired the Indians to call them Buffalo Soldiers. The name symbolized the Native American’s respect for the Buffalo Soldiers’ bravery and valor. Buffalo Soldiers, down through the years, have worn the name with pride.” end quote. So they were into it. It wasn’t like a name calling situation. They were digging the name. 

 

But the Buffalo Soldiers, after those initial battles in which the US just took whatever they wanted and formed this freakishly big country we can barely support the weight of, after that, they continued to serve in times of peace and this was the first time that Black Amerians served in the military during peacetime. The US has all this land now cause they just Manifest Destinied their way right in. So now they have to develop it and stuff, get some people over there, get some roads built, some infrastructure. They needed the Buffalo Soldiers for this too. They escorted settlers, cattle herds, and railroad crews westward, acting as guides and protection as Americans literally just marched their way across the whole dang continent. They helped build roads and telegraph lines, guarded waterholes, escorted supply trains, survey parties, freight wagons, and mail coaches. They also performed scouting patrols in attempts to maintain peace and order after all these years of conflict with native people. So not only did the Buffalo Soldiers help take half of America, they also helped build it, establish it, develop it after it was taken. We owe half our country to the Buffalo Soldiers.   

 

Something else significant, up until now, there had been Black regiments but they were always under the command of white officers. With the Buffalo Soldiers, we see the first Black officers rise up to command their own regiments. 

 

One Black officer of note was Brigadier General Charles Young. The National Park Service describes him as quote “a soldier, diplomat, and civil rights leader, Charles Young overcame stifling inequality to become a leading figure in the years after the Civil War when the United States emerged as a world power. His work ethic, academic leadership, and devotion to duty provided a strong base for his achievements in the face of racism and oppression. His long and distinguished career as a commissioned officer in the United States Army made him a popular figure of his time and a role model for generations of new leaders.” end quote. 

 

Charles was born to enslaved parents in 1864 in May’s Lick, Kentucky. And, I’m sorry, I don’t care who ya are, May’s Lick, Kentucky in 1864 is not my top pick if I were gonna hop into a time machine right now. But that’s the world Charles Young was born into. The same year he was born his father escaped enslavement and joined the Union Army. This is that weird time after the Emancipation Proclamation where he was free depending on who you asked. The Union considered him free. His enslaver may have had other ideas since Kentucky was part of the Confederacy. Charles and his mother went with his father to Ripley, Ohio which was just across the Ohio River from Kentucky but that hop over the river made all the difference. Ohio had not seceded from the Union, like Kentucky, and Ripley happened to be a major center for abolitionists. It was a final destination on the Underground Railroad where Presbyterian minister John Rankin helped over 2,000 enslaved people escape. His house in Ripley was situated at the top of a hill overlooking the Ohio River which separates Ohio, a free state, from Kentucky, a slave state. So Rankin would place a lantern in the window of his home to signal when it was safe to cross the river into Ohio and to let those attempting to escape enslavement in Kentucky know that they could seek refuge in his home. So that’s Ripley, Ohio. I feel like it should be called Rankin, Ohio, geez. Can we motion to rename this town? That is where Charles grew up thanks to his very brave and daring parents. 

 

And I absolutely love Charles for this next bit. According to the National Park Service, quote “Charles flourished in Ripley in academics, foreign languages and in music. His public education was supplemented with generous amounts of help from his mother who was educated while she was a slave, a rarity for any slave during those times. At age 17 he graduated with academic honors from the integrated high school in 1881. After high school, Young taught at the African-American elementary school in Ripley for two years.” end quote. Do you guys have any idea how rare that is? A Black male elementary school teacher now much less in the 1880s. Charles is basically a unicorn. But he gets even cooler. 

 

In 1883, he took the entrance exam to attend West Point which, if you don’t know, is like the US military academy. He scored the second highest on the exam but he was still not admitted to West Point. Luckily, the following year, the candidate just ahead of him dropped out and Charles was given his spot at the academy. He was the 9th African American to attend West Point and only the third to graduate in the 80 plus years since the school was established. After graduating, Charles served in the 9th cavalry, which we know was one of the Buffalo Soldier regiments. He started as a second lieutenant but quickly rose through the ranks and eventually became a captain. He fought with distinction in the Philipine-American war and taught Military Science at Wilberforce University in Ohio where he became a distinguished professor and also helped start their marching band. He helped muster and train troops to send to Cuba during the Spanish American war and was named major and commander of the 9th Ohio Battalion. 

 

After all that, he’s not done guys. In 1903 he and his troops are sent to Sequoia National Park in northern California. At this time the army was in charge of managing the national parks. So they sent Charles to Sequoia where he and his troops constructed roads and trails that other previous troops had failed to construct. In less than a year he became the first African American national park Superintendent. 

 

But he’s still not done. Next he’s made military attache to Haiti and Dominican Republic. A military attache is like an expert attached to a diplomatic mission. So he goes to Haiti and the Dominican Republic joining 23 other all white officers. Then he went to Liberia also as military attache. After that he served as squadron commander during the Mexican Expedition against Pancho Villa where he distinguished himself in the battle of Agua Caliente when he came to the aid of a cavalry unit that had been ambushed. He was promoted to major in 1912 and lieutenant colonel in 1916. 

 

In 1917 at the age of 54 he was promoted to colonel and then medically retired against his wishes. In an attempt to prove to the army how physically fit he still was, he rode a horse 500 miles from his home in Wilberforce, Ohio to Washington DC. Like, “look at me now.” What a total bad ass. Can you guys picture this man, chiseled, statuesque, stony-faced striding into the capital on a horse after riding 500 miles just to prove a point. I get chills thinking about it. But they still don’t reverse the decision to retire him. They’re like “yeah that was pretty cool but, decision stands,” and they just send him away. He rides his horse right on back to Ohio, I mean probably not, I don’t know. 

 

But, you guys, he’s still not done. Because what else happened in 1917? Well, the US entered World War I and all of a sudden this majestic superhero on horseback practically begging them to let him keep fighting was looking pretty good especially considering they had resorted to drafting skinny, terrified boys and forcing them to fight. So Charles is put to work recruiting and training African American troops in Ohio and Illinois to fight in World War I. Then he’s sent to Liberia as military attache one more time. He becomes gravely ill while on a visit to Nigeria and dies there in 1922. He was actually buried in Nigeria per British law but his body was exhumed a year later and returned to American soil. Charles Young is buried in the Arlington National Cemetery near Washington DC. He was posthumously promoted to Brigadier General in 2021. 

 

Talk about an American hero you guys and I just want to bring you back to the beginning for a minute. Charles Young was born enslaved in Mays Lick, Kentucky in 1864. Quite a Cinderella story. And it’s not because he was the most beautiful gal at the ball thanks to his fairy godmother. It’s because he was a total bad ass who did not let anything get in his way. The National Parks Service concludes quote “In spite of overt racism and stifling inequality, Young rose through the military ranks to become one of the most respected leaders of his time. From leading men in combat on foreign soil to leading men domestically in our country's national parks, Young led by example and inspired a generation of new leaders.” end quote. 

 

Buffalo Soldiers served in the Plains Wars, the Spanish American War, the Philippine Insurrection, the Mexican Expedition, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War at which point executive order 9981 signed by President Truman officially desegregated the military. He actually signed this before the Korean war started; it just hadn’t been carried out yet. I guess that kind of stuff takes a while, I don’t know. According to the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum quote “at the outbreak of hostilities in Korea, the 24th Infantry, 77th Engineer, and the 159th Field Artillery regiments (all black units) were among the first units deployed from Japan to Korea and achieved the first military victories in the war by recapturing the town of Yechon. At the same time, the U.S. army continued to advance its program of racial integration: basic training units on the home front were integrated and the army eventually integrated the segregated forces fighting in Korea in 1951. For the first time, black officers and black non-commissioned officers served as leaders in integrated units with direct command over whites” end quote. And to think it only took them 175 years. The oldest living Buffalo Soldier, Mark Matthews, died in 2005 at the age of 111 and the last surviving Buffalo Soldier, Robert Dixon is currently 101 years old and still alive. These guys are tough. 

 

There are many distinguished Buffalo Soldiers, Congressional medal of honor recipients and whatnot and I wish I could highlight them all Fitz Lee, Dennis Bell, Thomas Shaw, Moses Williams, Benjamin Brown, Augustus Walley, Henry Johnson, Isaiah Mays, and so many others. The Buffalo Soldier regiments had the lowest desertion and court-martial rates in the military at that time. Many of these men were born enslaved and persevered to positions of decorated military men, willing to give their lives for the love of a country that did not love them back. A National Museum of African American History and Culture article states quote “Because of their heroism, some Buffalo Soldiers were able to get better jobs, own property, and gain access to higher education. At the same time, some returning Buffalo Soldiers were lynched. African Americans realized that even their sacrifices for the war had not yet made them equal citizens.” end quote. 

 

I mean it, when I analyze the stench, to me it makes a lot of sense, how the dreadlock Rasta was the Buffalo Soldier. “When I analyze the stench,” that line sticks with me. Because there is a stench. There’s something rotten here, something toxic. It’s wrong on so many levels. These men who were themselves stolen from their own homelands. Right? “Stolen from Africa” and forced into slavery. They finally emerge from that, free men, air quotes on the word free because they aren’t actually free at all. They’re screwed. They’re living in a country that is intentionally designed to ensure their failure in society and the absolute best choice they have is to join the Buffalo Soldiers for $13 a month to go physically push another minority group off its homeland. They were stripped of their homeland and now the very people who stripped them are forcing them to go strip someone else. The Kiowa, the Comanche, the Cheyenne, the Arapahoe, the Apache, the Cree, the Ute - all forced off their ancestral lands with the help of the Buffalo Soldiers. And these men fought valiantly, there’s no denying that, so valiantly that even the Native Americans they were fighting against couldn’t help but respect them - fierce like the mighty Great Plains buffalo. It was a term of endearment. 

 

But shame on the US government. Shame on them for taking more than they needed, for their greedy land grabbing and complete lack of moral compass. And shame on them for taking advantage of the bad situation Black men found themselves in after the Civil War, a bad situation the government itself had created by sweeping the issue of slavery under the rug for so many decades without ever actively seeking solutions, thinking ahead. And then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, shame on them for exploiting that bad situation by providing those men a way out - $13 a month - to do their dirty work for them. There certainly is a stench, Bob, but I don’t want it to soil the memory of those men - the Buffalo Soldiers. Because they deserve all the honor and glory for devoting themselves so wholeheartedly, laying it all on the line for a country so undeserving of their honor.  

 

Thank you all so very much for listening to History Fix, I hope you found this story interesting and maybe you even learned something new. Be sure to follow my instagram @historyfixpodcast to see some images that go along with this episode and to stay on top of new episodes as they drop. I’d also really appreciate it if you’d rate and follow History Fix on whatever app you’re using to listen, and help me spread the word by telling a few friends about it. That’ll make it much easier to get your next fix.  

 

Information used in this episode was sourced from the National Parks Service, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Buffalo Soldier National Museum, history.com, Encyclopedia Britannica, American Battlefield Trust, and PBS. As always, links to these sources can be found in the show notes.