The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Negro Cavalry in the West

by William H. Leckie

A Narrative of the Negro Cavalry in the West. 290 pp., illus., maps, softcover, in shrinkwrap.

Genres: History, Westerns, Nonfiction, American History, War, African American, Military History

290 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1975

Reviews

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

REREAD

“This book is an effort to tell the story of the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, in the conviction that they deserve recognition for what they were – first-rate regiments by any standards one wishes to apply and major spearheads in the settlement of the West. It is a story of significant achievement under many handicaps, and a record in which every American can take justifiable pride.” – William H. Leckie, The Buffalo Soldier.

The subtitle of the book when it was originally published in 1967 was A Narrative of the Negro Cavalry in the West. When it was revised in 2014 the subtitle was changed to A Narrative of the Black Cavalry in the West. This review is of the original book that I read many years ago. The revised edition is rather scarce and I haven’t been able to locate a copy.

The history of the Buffalo Soldiers begins in 1866 when General U.S. Grant directed that two regiments of black cavalry be organized in the western United States. After a year of recruiting white officers and black troopers, both regiments were moved to the west the following year.

The two regiments, the Ninth and the Tenth, were fortunate in that they were placed under the command of two extremely competent officers. Colonel Edward Hatch of Iowa became the commander of the Ninth, while the Tenth was placed under the command of Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson from Illinois.

Grierson was known for a famous cavalry raid that he led through the heart of Mississippi in 1863, one that had the effect of diverting Confederate troops from the defense of Vicksburg, thereby aiding Grant’s success in capturing that stronghold and giving Union forces complete control of the Mississippi River. Hatch, by the way, commanded a brigade in the raid.

The name “Buffalo Soldiers” was first given to the Ninth Cavalry by their Cheyenne antagonists, but eventually it was used to identify all the black troops in the West. Nobody knows for sure, but it is speculated that the nickname was due to the soldiers’ dark skin and tightly-curled black hair which reminded the Cheyenne of their sacred animal. At any rate, the soldiers embraced the name with pride and the regimental crest of the Tenth includes a prominent figure of a buffalo.

For twenty-four years the Ninth and Tenth campaigned throughout the West, on the Great Plains, along the Rio Grande, and in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and the Dakotas. The extremes in climate and topography that they encountered ranged all the way from the rugged and scorching Texas Big Bend country to the plains, badlands, and frigid temperatures of the Dakotas.

They fought Indians, outlaws, horse and cattle thieves, bootleggers, trespassers, even Mexican revolutionaries who often crossed the Rio Grande, as well as furnishing escorts for stages and supply trains. If that wasn't enough, they were also responsible for building the forts that they manned.

They overcame their antagonists, both human and natural, but they could not overcome the prejudice and discrimination that denied them recognition for their accomplishments. And yet, through it all, the Ninth and Tenth had the lowest desertion rates in the entire army.

There is great irony in the history of the black soldiers on the western frontier of the United States. For the most part they were newly emancipated slaves who were charged with the responsibility of protecting white settlers from Indians, who were the first victims of white racism on the continent. Here they were, African Americans protecting people who were in the process of violating treaties and stealing land from Native Americans who were attempting to protect their traditions, land, and lives.

They did this while receiving practically no respect or gratitude from the people they were defending. In fact, they often faced prejudice and the outright hostility of the very people they protected.

Leckie tells the story of one Texan who murdered a black soldier in Jacksboro, Texas and then killed the two black soldiers who were sent to arrest him. He was found not guilty by an all-white jury.

It is true that the Buffalo Soldier has received more recognition than the other black men and women who played important roles in the history and development of the American West, but it is also true that recognition was almost nonexistent prior to the publication of Leckie’s groundbreaking book.

[Ira Livingston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revised version, drops the word Negro from the title changing it more to the current public's preference of Black.

There are a few more subtle changes within the book, but it still is a great overall glance at the histories of the 9th and 10th cavalries in the west. The quick turnaround on this re-read was because I listened to the audiobook of it.

I would recommend either to history buffs, or those looking to expand their knowledge on the African-American military units of the west.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

I ran into a buffalo soldier from world war two at my local va in Chattanooga so I read this book about the origin of the soldiers I was in the fourth cav they got their name as Mackenzie s raiders during the Indian wars so this historical nonfiction book was really an eye opener really well written

[Adrian Simmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

An invaluable book about the history of the buffalo soldiers-- the black cavalry units of the 19th century. I'm glad that an otherwise forgotten piece of history has bene preserved in this book.

[Ira Livingston · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing piece of American history that is overlooked in most bigger textbooks. You can easily see why this book is still a main go-to for information, written in 1960s it still has the ability to keep modern readers enhanced by all of the stories within its pages.

Would highly recommend for any readers looking into history of the expansion towards the west after the American Civil War.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

While not exactly the history I was wanting for this subject, it's more a battle summary of the 9th & 10th, it was a good book. Recommended

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone interested in American Military, Frontier, or Black history should read this book. I still have my 1967 edition. BTW the cover shown is not the one I have.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid, if uninspired and problematic history of the Buffalo Soldiers, African-American soldiers who fought wars against various Native American Tribes from the 1860s to 1870s across the American Southwest.

Leckie wrote this in the early 1960s, so, enlightened as it is about black soldiers in most respects (especially for crusty old American historians) it is horrendously backward and racist concerning native tribes. He refers to them repeatedly in early chapters as "red men," "red raiders," and such, without seeming to square that with his own admonishment for those who treat black soldiers exactly how he treats Native Americans.

Depressing as that is, he is miles ahead of most Americans at the time, and certainly at the time the Buffalo Soldiers were fighting. It's no mystery or surprise that white Americans would send black Americans to fight Native Americans, or that by nearly all accounts, the black soldiers were treated poorly by white Americans in Texas, Oklahoma, etc., the very places where they were protecting the lives and property of white Americans.

That aside, they fought well and bravely, as the few reports and statistics of the time prove. They consistently had the lowest desertion rate in the entire U.S. Army, and impressive feat given the high rate in white units. Of course, part of that is where would they go? They would be treated horribly anywhere they turned up, most likely, so there was little incentive to run off. Still, their courage was unquestioned, as some of the more amazing exploits make clear.

One unit spends 80+ hours without water, wandering in the frontier, in uncharted, unmapped land, probably the first non-natives to be there, which is amazing. Others endure weeks-long marches in search of Native bands, crossing the Mexican border often, at much peril from bandits, revolutionaries, and natives.

Leckie's book suffers from its reliance on military reports, which isn't really his fault. Few narratives of the soldiers' exploits exist outside of formal reports, and as most of the black soldiers (if not all) were illiterate (intentionally, by white authorities, it should be noted) they left almost no record of their adventures.

It's a shame, Because first-person accounts, along the lines of what Lyn Macdonald did for British soldiers in World War I, would have been incredible to read. Sadly, it was not to be, and so we get dry reports with very little detail or poetry in the telling.

There are some interesting characters, but most Buffalo Soldiers are just names on a roster, and the white officers get all the credit in history books such as these. Of white officers, some were admirable, like Col. Benjamin Grierson, Col. Edward Hatch, Capt. Nicholas Nolan, and some were awful, like Lt. Col. N.A.M. Dudley.

Still, this is one of few solid histories of the 9th and 10th Cavalry, which certainly deserve all the acclaim they get--they were two of the best units in the history of the U.S. Army.

It's also worth noting (and Leckie does on occasion) that they only reason Buffalo Soldiers were needed at all was that the Native Americans were fighting for land that had been stolen from them, that they were killed if they returned to it, and that even when they did settle on reservations as requested, they were often starved by unscrupulous Indian agents, suppliers, and officers.

Most "raids" or "depredations" as Leckie calls them, were the direct result of tribes left to starve. Few ever got their full allotments of promised food, and can hardly be faulted for trying to hunt for food. Leckie does note that white settlers were more than happy to offload whisky, guns, and other trouble-making items at reservations for an ill-gotten profit.

It's also worth noting that every time Leckie records Native shelters, horses, or camps destroyed, he's talking about food and shelter for Natives, who were left to starve by the soldiers, including, pretty much every time, women and children, some of whom nearly always accompanied the groups that left in search of food, or were found and driven off their land.

U.S. history is filled with such contradictions and indignities, and a few famous ones are included here, such as Wounded Knee. Most don't even get names, such massacres were so common.

U.S. history, and this book, are also filled with impressive, if ultimately doomed chiefs like Satanta, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and Victorio, who did a masterful job just surviving as long as they did against hopeless odds, and, ironically, against racially segregated and mistreated men of immense merit like the Buffalo Soldiers, who helped wipe them out and take their land for white settlers.

If someone were to rewrite Leckie's history to acknowledge those issues, and eliminate the constant use of racial slurs used for Native Americans, literature, and this country, would be better for it.

One last ironic note about this book: I got it for free at my local library, which was giving it away. During Black History Month. Make of that what you will. I hope it was replaced by a better history of two of the best units in American military history.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Following the Civil War, Congress established two regiments of Negro cavalry to fight the Indians in the American West. This is their well told story.

[Jeffrey Powanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first book to recognize the importance of African American calvary regiments in fighting Indians, outlaws, cattle rustlers, and Mexican bandits after the Civil War. In addition to facing well-armed hostiles, they endured extreme weather, poor food and living conditions, constant discrimination, and arduous treks across rough terrain, while receiving little credit for their heroic actions (although several Buffalo Soldiers received the Congressional Medal of Honor).

This original edition, first published in 1967, sold 75,000 copies, a remarkable achievement for an academic history. The 2012 revised edition, which was co-authored by Leckie's wife Shirley, was updated and expanded to include an epilogue and several new photos of members of the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry Regiments.

Although the book is sometimes dry, it's never dull. It covers the period from 1866 to 1891, a quarter century. The combat record of the Buffalo Soldiers spoke for itself. As Leckie writes:

They had fought on the plains of Kansas and in Indian Territory, in the vast expanse of West Texas and along hundreds of miles of the Rio Grande and in Mexico, in the deserts and mountains of New Mexico and Arizona, in Colorado, and finally in the rugged grandeur of the Dakotas. Few regiments could match the length and sweep of these activities.

Leckie frequently quotes from officers' reports describing their military engagements, and it struck me how well-written and engaging these reports were. They shed light on how the officers perceived events. But what about the individual Buffalo Soldiers? Where are their firsthand accounts, either from diaries, journals, or letters to their family members? Such precious historical documents could have made the story of the soldiers much more compelling. It's likely that many of the Buffalo Soldiers were illiterate, but I expect that some of them could read and write because their records, reports, and recollections are contained in a book by Frank N. Schubert called Voices of the Buffalo Soldier. Such documentary material should have been included in the second edition of this book.

My favorite chapter of Leckie's book is Chapter 8, "The Victorio War," which is a gripping account of the war between the U.S., Mexico, and the Warm Springs Apaches led by Chief Victorio between 1879 and 1881. That story is fascinating and could be expanded into a separate book.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Military historian William Leckie has written a fine history of the black soldiers who served in the Army after the Civil. Dubbed buffalo soldiers by the Indians they fought, these tough, brave men served with distinction and honor in horrible conditions: drought, heat, cold, poor supplies, shoddy horses, and often lack of support from the Army command in Washington. And yet, by the early 1890s, their desertion rate was the lowest in the Army.

Many blacks - 180,000 - served in the Civil War on the Union side. After the war, Congress created six new regiments of black troops - four infantry and two cavalry. The cavalry regiments became the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry. Congress required that all offices were white - not so much out of racism, but because there weren't enough qualified blacks (that would quickly change, of course). And each regiment got its own chaplain, which taught the men reading, writing, and arithmetic, in addition to ministering to their spiritual needs.

On General Grant's recommendation, Generals Benjamin Grierson and Edward Hatch were appointed to lead the Tenth and Ninth Cavalries, respectively. By Leckie's account, both were honest, decent men who treated their black troops well and respected their fighting ability. The white officers they appointed were much the same.

The difficulties the black regiments faced came mainly from Washington. Grierson and Hatch had to fight, scratch, and claw for decent supplies and horses. The Ninth and Tenth often received the worst horses and leftover, substandard foodstuffs. They also faced opposition and outright hostility from white base commanders, who resented serving with black troops.

But despite the obstacles, and to their credit, the men's morale remained high, and their contribution was essential for making the American frontier safe for settlement. They fought against Comanches, Kiowas, Apaches, and other hostile tribes in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. They also confronted Mexican bandits and white horse thieves.

As fighters, there were probably no superior cavalry forces in the army. These guys were tough, often marching hundreds and thousands of miles with little food and water, fighting Indians along the way. But they did their duty and did it well. Of course, there was the occasional troublemaker, and military discipline took care of them.

Leckie has written a fine book, giving these soldiers their long overdue credit.

[Royce Ratterman · Rating 3 out of 5]

An historical read - with ample footnotes, photographs, and index references for those seeking a basic overview of the days of the Buffalo Soldiers.
Overall, a good book for the researcher and enthusiast.
Read for personal research.
I found this book's contents helpful and inspiring - number rating relates to the book's contribution to my needs.

[K. G. Whitehurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good corrective to Haley, sometimes difficult to follow, especially in the beginning.

[Tyree Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome account of what the Buffalo Soldier did to shape this world and not being recognized for all they did and went through.

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

A part of our history more people need to know.

[kevin browning · Rating 3 out of 5]

William Leckie's Buffalo Soldiers is an excellent introduction into the contributions of the 9th/10th cavalry. It gives the reader a survey history of the African American contribution in post Civil War frontier: Red River War, Vittorio's War, Lincoln County War and the Massacre at Wounded Knee.

[The Grimm Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

The information in this book was very interesting, but (and this could have just been the edition I was reading on Kindle) there were FAR to many footnotes that broke up the narrative too much. The revised edition might be better. Review = format and organization, NOT content.

[Jim Greene]

In depth history of the soldiers who really won the West

[Thomas Isern · Rating 4 out of 5]

William Leckie's work is a landmark not only because of the salience of its subject but also because of the time of its publication: 1967. Some sections of the work lack narrative coherence, perhaps because the service of the 9th & 10th US cavalry regiments, the Buffalo Soldier regiments, was so arduous and pell-mell. The Red River Wars, the West Texas Frontier, the Mexican Border, the Lincoln County War, the Oklahoma District, Wounded Knee--these guys saw hard duty, extensive duty, heroic duty. Stay with this book, and you come to understand a lot about the situation of the Buffalo Soldiers and, in a way, America in their era. You come to see how hopelessly messed up Indian policy and military affairs both were, and how sadly bigoted were national attitudes. When I have time I intend to look deeper into the story of Medal of Honor winner George Jordan, who died in 1904 at Fort Robinson after being refused medical care at the post. The version of the book I just read is the one with revisions by Shirley Leckie, of which the epilogue is of particular value. I write this review on Independence Day, 2012, and feel moved today by the stories of the American heroes of the 9th & 10th cavalry regiments.

[Max R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: The title has been changed to substitute "Black" for "Negro" and some other material has been added in the most recent edition of this important and entertaining history.

Leckie is a good writer, but he's not the master of narrative history that Shelby Foote is, so (perhaps unfairly) I knocked off one star on my rating. One vital lesson from reading this book was the detail given on the everyday lives of black troopers, who faced additional challenges because of racial prejudice at every turn, as if frontier Army life wasn't tough enough; even so, the desertion rates for the 9th & 10th Cavalry was significantly lower than for white-only units.

One bit of firearms trivia I learned from this work is that the Spencer repeating carbine used by Union troops in the Civil War also became the standard long gun for the U.S. Cavalry after Lee's surrender at Appomattox in 1865, until adoption of the single-shot Springfield carbine circa 1873 (a step backward in firepower, but we can presume that the Springfield firm had lots of political support in Washington, D.C.). See: http://www.gunsandammo.com/historical...

I can highly recommend "Buffalo Soldiers" to all lovers of American history.

[Perri · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book club selection to follow The Big Burn, this has to be the definitive edition on everything you can possibly wish to know about how the Negro Cavalry helped to settle the west. You will amaze your friends and family with your depth of knowledge about this somewhat obscure piece of American history. I like a book with less history and more narrative, so just couldn't get through it. Since it's not my choice of book, probably unfair to rate, but for the two chapters I pushed myself through-snore

[Kiston · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a collection of actual military entries for about the first 25 years of the 9th and 10th calvary. Kind of a dry read, but an interesting view of their history.

[Craig Coleman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Superb!

[Gregory Scheib · Rating 4 out of 5]

Provides plenty of details about the activities of the Ninth andf Tenth cavalry in the soutwest, but little analysis of their important role in western history.