9th Cavalry

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 Walley was born enslaved in 1856 in Maryland. He enlisted in the Ninth Cavalry in 1878. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for actions on August 16, 1881. He fought at the Battle of San Juan Hill during the Spanish American War in 1898. He died in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 9, 1938.

Brent Woods, who became a sergeant in the Buffalo Soldiers, was born enslaved in 1855. He earned the Medal of Honor for his valor in New Mexico on August 19, 1881. He is buried in Mill Springs National Cemetery in Nancy, Kentucky.

Throughout his life, Charles Young overcame countless obstacles in his ascent to prominence. 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. He was posthumously promoted to Brigadier General on November 1, 2021.

Charles Young’s first overseas deployment in a combat zone happened during the Philippine-American War. He successfully led I Troop, Ninth Cavalry, through numerous engagements and performed well under fire without losing a man to the enemy during this tour of duty. Young and I Troop returned to the United States on October 31, 1902.

Captain Charles Young and members of the Ninth Cavalry spent the summer of 1903 in Sequoia and General Grant national parks. Captain Young was the first African American superintendent of a national park. Young and the Ninth Cavalry accomplished more that summer than the army units that served there during the previous three summers combined.

Clinton Greaves was born in 1855 Virginia. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for actions in the Florida Mountains of New Mexico in January 1877. He died on August 18, 1906, in Columbus, Ohio. He is buried in Columbus at Green Lawn Cemetery, Section 27, Lot 88.

Edward Lee Baker, Jr., was a Buffalo Soldier who was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry during the Spanish American War in Cuba on July 1, 1898. He served in numerous units including the Forty-ninth Infantry, U.S. Volunteers. He was commissioned a captain in the Philippine Scouts in 1902. He died on August 26, 1913, at the age of 47 and was buried in Los Angeles, California.

Sergeant Emanuel Stance of the Ninth U.S. Cavalry was the first African American soldier to be awarded the Medal of Honor in the post-Civil War era. Stance was born into slavery in Carroll Parish, Louisiana, in 1844. He enlisted in the Ninth U.S. Cavalry on October 2, 1866. Stance received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, on June 20, 1870.

George Jordan came to the Army like many other African American young men of the time, illiterate and in search of meaning in their lives. Jordan would go on and become a well-respected leader among his men in his storied military career that spanned three decades.