Buffalo Soldiers
(Click here for a printable PDF of full bibliography with embedded links)
Beattie, Ronald. (2018) Buffalo Soldiers Prove Bravery In Mexico. Army Magazine, 68(1), 41–43. Available via eJournal subscription
The article offers information on the bravery of the U.S. 10th Cavalry Regiment of Buffalo Soldiers in Battle of Carrizal, Mexico, on June 21, 1916.
Bolger, Daniel P. (2019). Black Soldiers fought Segregation, Germans. Army Magazine, 29(12), 53–55. Available via eJournal subscription
The article discusses the history of American Black soldiers who fought segregation, Germans. It mentions hardy Buffalo Soldiers who campaigned on the Great Plains during U.S. western expansion and formed the 10th Cavalry that fought atop San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War. It reveals that Black Americans have served in every war starting with the Revolution.
Bolger, Daniel P. (2018). Buffalo Soldier, secretly was a she. Army Magazine, 68(9), 51–52. Available via eJournal subscription
The article focuses on Cathay Williams, a Buffalo soldier who served in the Union Army's 8th Indiana Regiment during the American Civil War and in the new Company A, 38th Infantry Regiment, from 1866 to 1868 under the alias William Cathey. Topics include Williams working at Jefferson Barracks, enlisting as a private in Company A and contracting an unnamed disease, and guarding settlements including Cooke's Pass on the Butterfield Overland Mail Stage Line.
Carlson, Paul Howard. (2003) The Buffalo Soldier Tragedy of 1877. Available in eBook
The “Staked Plains Horror,” as the Galveston Daily News called it, quickly captured national attention. Although most of the soldiers eventually straggled back into camp, four had died, and others eventually faced court-martial for desertion. A routine army scout had turned into disaster of the worst kind. Although the failed expedition was widely reported at the time, its sparse treatments since then have relied exclusively on the white officers' accounts. Carlson has mined the courts-martial records for testimony of the enlisted men, memories of a white boy who rode with the Indians, and other buried sources to provide the first multifaceted narrative ever published.
Hazzard, CSM (Ret.) Milton B. (2018) Secret of the Buffalo Soldiers. Available in print
This book is one-part history text and one-part narrative. Readers will find a detailed look at the history of slavery and racism around the world intertwined with the story of a young man who took a chance, enlisted in the U.S. Army, and rose through the ranks to become one of the leaders of the Buffalo Soldiers.
Honders, Christine. (2016) Buffalo Soldiers. Available in eBook
These courageous men became known for their discipline, among other admirable qualities. Sadly, they continued to face great prejudice in their own country despite stellar military records. Photographs of the soldiers, accounts of their exploits, and a timeline highlighting important moments of service further reveal the bravery of these troops.
Kenner, Charles L. (1999) Buffalo soldiers and officers of the Ninth Cavalry, 1867-1898: black & white together. Available in print and eBook
The inclusion of the Ninth Cavalry and three other African American regiments in the post–Civil War army was one of the nation’s most problematic social experiments. The first fifteen years following its organization in 1866 were stained by mutinies, slanderous verbal assaults, and sadistic abuses by their officers. Eventually, a number of considerate and dedicated officers and noncommissioned officers created an elite and well-disciplined fighting unit that won the respect of all but the most racist whites.
Langellier, John P. (2016) Fighting for Uncle Sam; Buffalo Soldiers in the Frontier Army. Available in print
Over 150 images painstakingly gathered nearly a half century from public and private collections enhance the written word as windows to the past. Now, 150 years after Congress authorized blacks to serve in the Regular Army the reader literally can peer into the eyes of formerly enslaved men who bravely bought their freedom on the bloody battlefields of the Civil War, then trekked westward, carried the "Stars and Stripes" to the Caribbean, and pursued Pancho Villa into Mexico with John "Black Jack" Pershing.
Leckie, William H. (2007) The buffalo soldiers: a narrative of the Black cavalry in the West. Available in print
This revised edition delves further into the social impact of being an African American soldier in the nineteenth century. This work also explores the experiences of the soldiers' families at frontier posts. In a new epilogue, the authors summarize developments in the lives of buffalo soldiers after the Indian Wars and discuss contemporary efforts to memorialize them in film, art, and architecture.
Lee Billington, Monroe. (1991) New Mexico's Buffalo Soldiers, 1866-1900. Available in print
Buffalo soldiers were black soldiers who served in the U.S. Army. Approximately 4000 served in the New Mexico Territory; this book shares some of their stories.
Schubert, Frank N. (1993) Buffalo soldiers, braves, and the brass: the story of Fort Robinson, Nebraska. Available in print
The black Ninth and Tenth Cavalry Regiments, both of which earned reputations for skill and reliability in the Indian Wars before coming to the fort, spent several years on post. Thorough research, many historic photographs, and carefully designed maps, along with full documentation, round out this study. It contains a well throughout blend of traditional military history and modern concern for the families and civilians who appeared along with the American soldier on the Great Plains in the years after the Civil War.
Schubert, Frank N. (1995) On the trail of the buffalo soldier: biographies of African Americans in the U.S. Army, 1866-1917. Available in print
This book presents carefully documented biographical information on thousands of black servicemen, giving the researcher not only glimpses of individual lives but also documentation of the variety of African-American experiences within and outside the army.
Schubert, Frank N. (1997) Black valor: Buffalo Soldiers and the Medal of Honor, 1870-1898. Available in print
Several thousand African Americans served as soldiers in the Indian Wars and in the Cuban campaign of the Spanish-American War in the latter part of the nineteenth century. They were known as buffalo soldiers; twenty-three of these men won the nation's highest award for personal bravery, the Medal of Honor. Their remarkable stories-derived from extensive historical research-are told in this collected biography.
Schubert, Frank N. (2011) The 25th Infantry at Brownsville, Texas: Buffalo Soldiers, the “Brownsville Six,” and the Medal of Honor. Journal of Military History, 75(4), 1217–1224. Available via eJournal subscription
This article traces the emergence and content of a buffalo-soldier mythology and within the context of this myth examines the spread of a baseless claim that there were six holders of the Medal of Honor among the black soldiers dismissed after the August 1906 shooting affray in Brownsville, Texas. Despite the ease with which the story could be disproved, historians accepted it as credible, and it has migrated from the historical literature into the popular culture.
Sheffer, Debra J. (2015) The Buffalo Soldiers: their epic story and major campaigns. Available in print and eBook
Starting with the American Revolution, the book traces the heroic journey of these legendary servicemen from the period when Black Americans first sought full citizenship in exchange for military service to the integration of the military and the dissolution of all-black regiments. Several chapters highlight the special achievements of the 9th and 10th United States Cavalry and the 24th and 25th United States Infantry. The book also features the accomplishments―both of the unit and individuals―of the Buffalo Soldiers in battle and beyond.