The
last living Buffalo Soldier passed away last
weekend at the age of 93, in Greenville,
South Carolina. Tomie L. Gaines served from
March 1943 to December 1945 with the 27th
Calvary, an all-Black unit, according to the
Daily Kos. Gaines is survived by his wife of
51 years, Clara.
The
Buffalo Soldiers included two regiments of
all-Black cavalries, the 9th and 10th
cavalries, which were formed after Congress
passed legislation in 1866 that allowed
African-Americans to enlist in the country’s
regular peacetime military. History.com
states that many of the men in these
regiments, commanded primarily by white
officers, were among the approximately
180,000 African-Americans who served in the
Union Army during the Civil War. The four
infantry units — the 38th, 39th, 40th and
41st regiments — were reorganized in 1868 as
the 24th and 25th infantry. Black soldiers
enlisted for five years and received $13.00
a month, far more than they could have
earned in civilian life, according to the
Buffalo Soldiers of the American West
website.
Although
women weren’t allowed to serve as soldiers
at the time, Cathay Williams posed as a man
and joined the United States Army. On
November 15, 1866, Williams became the first
African-American female to enlist and serve
in the 38th infantry, thus becoming the
first female Buffalo Soldier.
There
have been a few possibilities as to how the
Buffalo Soldiers got their name. First,
Archivist Walter Hill of the National
Archives reported that, according to a
member of the 10th Cavalry, in 1871 the
Comanche bestowed the name of an animal they
revered, the buffalo, on the men of the 10th
Cavalry because they were impressed with
their toughness in battle. Second, they were
given the name because their fierce, brave
nature reminded them of the way buffaloes
fought. Third, it may have been because they
wore thick coats made from buffalo hide
during winter, as stated on the Buffalo
Soldiers of the American West website.
In a period
when nearly a third of white army enlistees
deserted, Black soldiers had the U.S. Army’s
lowest desertion and court-martial rates,
Aaregistry.org mentions. From 1870 to 1890,
14 Buffalo Soldiers were awarded medals of
honor, the army’s highest award for bravery.
When they weren’t fighting, Buffalo Soldiers
built forts and roads, installed telegraph
lines, located water holes, escorted wagon
trains and cattle drives, rode “shotgun” on
stagecoach. Furthermore, soldiers from the
9th & 10th regiments fought in Cuba
during the War with Spain and participated
in the hunt for Mexican revolutionary Pancho
Villa. The last all-Black units were
disbanded during the first half of the
1950s.
According to the Carroll
County History Project, William Decatur is a
former Buffalo Soldier from the 10th Cavalry
and is still living.
