A Legacy of Service: USCT to Buffalo Soldiers

Members of the 25th United States Infantry pose for a photograph at Fort Keogh in Montana, c. 1890. A few members can be seen wearing bison robes.

Library of Congress

Civil War to Civil Rights

Colored troops will hold their place in the Army of the United States as long as the government lasts.
-Colonel Benjamin Grierson, 10th United States Cavalry, 1867

The National Park Service commemorates #BuffaloSoldiersDay marking the anniversary of the creation of the original segregated black Regular Army regiments known collectively as the Buffalo Soldiers, constituted by an act of Congress on July 28, 1866.

During the 1st Session of the 39th Congress, the US Army was dramatically reorganized and expanded following the end of the Civil War. The Regular Army now consisted of 60 regiments: 45 infantry; 10 cavalry; 5 artillery; and a corps of cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point, "to be known as the Army of the United States."

The Army Reorganization Act of 1866 was a seminal moment for African Americans in the US military. For the first time in the nation's history, the Regular Army featured permanent Black regiments. Prior to the Civil War, African American military service had a proud lineage, paralleling the country's origin during the Revolutionary War and continuing for the next half-century. African Americans saw action during the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War. Black soldiers served in volunteer regiments organized for the military emergency or were attached to Regular Army units.

It was not until the Civil War that a formal government organization was created to recruit and train African Americans for service: the Bureau of Colored Troops (United States Colored Troops). Over 210,000 African Americans served in the US armies and navies during the war. Of that number, 24,000 men were recruited in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, including 10,000 men at Camp Nelson. The 8 regiments organized at the camp were comprised mostly of enslaved men who enlisted in 1864-65. Others enlisted in the neighboring states of Tennessee and Ohio, including Gabriel Young, an enslaved man from May's Lick, Kentucky who self-emancipated by enlisting with the Co. F, 5th US Colored Heavy Artillery in Ohio. He was the father of Brigadier General Charles Young, born enslaved on March 12, 1864, who was the highest-ranked Black officer in the US Army at the time of his death in 1922.

The act authorized the organization and recruitment of six regiments (2 cavalry and 4 infantry) to "be composed of colored men" and led by white officers. The army designated the black infantry regiments as the 38th Infantry, 39th Infantry, 40th Infantry, and 41st Infantry. The 9th Cavalry and 10th Cavalry comprised the mounted arm. On March 3, 1869, Congress reduced the Regular Army from forty-five to twenty-five infantry regiments. The black infantry regiments were consolidated: the 39th and 40th became the 24th Infantry; the 38th and 41st became the 25th Infantry. The 9th and 10th cavalry regiments kept their original designations.

 

Members of the 24th US Infantry on horseback at Yosemite National Park in 1899.

NPS

Camp Nelson's
Buffalo Soldiers

The soldiers outside of the offifcers are colored gentlemen, whom the Cheyenne designate as Buffalo Soldiers. - Cheyenne Transporter (Darlington, Indian Territory), January 11, 1883

The first generation of the Regular Army regiments was composed of USCT veterans, formerly enslaved men, and freedmen from across the country, including Black Kentuckians who enlisted at Camp Nelson during the Civil War. For example, the 116th USCT, organized at the camp in June 1864, participated in the final campaigns of the war in Virginia at Richmond, Petersburg, and Appomattox. Following the war, the regiment was transferred west to serve along the Texas-Mexico Border before being mustered out of in January 1867. After their discharge, 120 men enlisted with the 9th US Cavalry and 39th US Infantry.

According to accounts, the black cavalrymen gained the sobriquet “Buffalo Soldiers” from Indigenous peoples for their physical appearance and fighting prowess. The nickname was applied to all African Americans in the army, 1870s-1950s. Their military campaigns included the Spanish American War; Philippine American War; and the Punitive Expedition in Mexico. The Buffalo Soldiers also served as the first park rangers, protecting America's national parks before the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916.

From enslaved to the USCT to the Regular Army, the lineage of service continued for decades.