24th Infantry

Aaron R. Fisher was born in 1892 in Lyles, Indiana. He enlisted in the Army in 1911. He served with the Buffalo Soldiers of the Twenty-Fourth Infantry during the Punitive Expedition into Mexico. He was an officer in the all-Black 366th Infantry in World War I. He received the Distinguished Service Cross and France’s Croix de Guerre for his actions in France. He was an ROTC instructor at Wilberforce University from 1936 to 1947. He died on November 22, 1985, in Xenia, Ohio.

Augustus Snoten served in the segregated military for nearly 30 years. His service took him from Puerto Rico to Alaska and many places in between.

Benjamin Brown was an early African American recipient of the Medal of Honor, and had a military career that took him throughout the United States and the world.

Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., was born in Washington, D.C. in 1912. He graduated from West Point in 1936. He was the fourth African American to graduate from West Point. During World War II, he led the renowned Tuskegee Airmen. He attained the rank of four-star general in 1998. He died in 2002 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

From 1899 to 1900, "Buffalo Soldiers" from Company B of the 24th U.S. Infantry Regiment were stationed at Vancouver Barracks. This marked the first time in the history of the post that a unit from one of the Army's four African American regiments comprised the post's regular garrison of troops.

Arriving in May of 1899, the men of Company L, 24th Infantry, United States Army served their country from northern Lynn Canal. These Buffalo Soldiers fought a war on two fronts: protecting the community of Skagway while facing discrimination from the same people they served.

Buffalo Soldier Sergeant Charles W. Grayson served at several U.S. Army posts, and overseas during the Spanish-American and Philippine Wars.

Charles Wilber Rogan, also known as “Bullet” Joe, was a pitcher and outfielder who played most of his baseball career for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Baseball Leagues. He was also a veteran of the Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Infantry of the famed Buffalo Soldiers. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998.

Cornelius H. Charlton was born in 1929 in West Virginia. He enlisted in the Army in 1946. During the Korean War he fought in the Twenty-Fourth Infantry. The Twenty-Fourth Infantry was the last of the segregated Buffalo Soldier regiments to be integrated. He was killed during the Korean War on June 2, 1951. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on March 12, 1952. He is one of two African Americans awarded the Medal of Honor during the Korean War.

Edward Bordinghammer was a soldier in the segregated military for nearly 30 years. He served his country from New York to Alaska to Texas. During his time at Camp Skagway, Alaska, he was a musician for Company L, 24th Infantry.