buffalo soldiers

buffalo soldiers name given to the African-American U.S. army regiments commissioned by Congress to patrol the American West after the Civil War. Consisting of two infantry and two cavalry regiments, they were the first such units chartered in peacetime. The troops, which formed one fifth of the army's forces in the West, served as guards for pioneer wagon trains and helped in the development of Western towns. Still known as buffalo soldiers, the all-black regiments distinguished themselves in the Spanish-American War and World War II. They continued in army service until the U.S. armed forces were integrated in 1952. Largely unsung until the late 20th cent., they were memorialized in a 1994 bronze monument at Fort Leavenworth , Kans.

Buffalo soldiers the first black regiments in the regular army, established by Congress on July 1866. Originally the 9th and 10th Calvary and the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st Infantry Regiments, in 1869 the 38th and the 41st were merged into the 24th Infantry Regiment and the 39th and 40th were merged into the 25th Infantry Regiment. They served mostly at the frontier, but also fought in Cuba, in the Philippine War, and in Mexican border skirmishes.

The name “Buffalo” was first applied to the 10th Calvary Regiment about 1870 by the Cheyenne. Supposedly the Cheyenne of the time thought the curly-haired, dark-skinned soldiers resembled buffalo.