The Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Washakie

I can’t remember when I first learned about the Buffalo Soldiers. As I discussed in my last post, my great-great-grandfather John S. Loud had a thirty-year career as an officer with the 9th Cavalry, one of the Buffalo Soldier regiments. I  did an 8th grade history fair project on his family, including his wife, Kate Mifflin Loud, some of whose experiences I described in an earlier post. My parents even had a painting from artist Burl Washington’s Buffalo Soldier series hanging in their living room. Stories of the Buffalo Soldiers were always a part of my world. And those stories are something everyone should hear.

Throwing a diamond hitch. 1895-7. Ft. Washakie, Wyoming. Photo from Loud family scrapbook.

After the Civil War, the enormous army that had been assembled to defend the Union was reduced to a small core of regular army regiments. Although nearly 200,000 Black men fought for their freedom during the Civil War as part of the segregated U.S. Colored Troops, the idea of enlisting Black men in the regular army was still highly controversial. Nonetheless, in July 1866, Congress passed legislation establishing four Black infantry regiments and two Black cavalry regiments. These troops, especially the 9th and 10th Cavalry regiments, became known as the Buffalo Soldiers (Johnson 1978)

The 9th Cavalry did not get off to a good start. With few officers, limited supplies, and a cholera epidemic in southern Louisiana, where the regiment initially formed, soldiers were lost to disease and desertion before they even really got started. In February 1867, the regiment was ordered to its first post in Texas (Johnson 1978). After several months at a training camp near San Antonio, the regiment’s troops were sent to the various forts that spanned the southwestern Texas frontier, covering a distance of more than 1,200 miles from Fort Bliss in the west to Fort Brown in the south. They were tasked with stopping raids by bandits and Native Americans, protecting the mail and stagecoach routes, and maintaining law and order in a region whose settlers were hostile to them both as U.S. soldiers and as Black men (Kenner 1999).

After eight grueling years in Texas, the 9th Cavalry was transferred to New Mexico Territory, where they spent another six years quelling the Apache Wars and trying to police an area notorious for banditry. Their next post found them on the other side of the plains wars, protecting Native Americans in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) from illegally encroaching settlers. From there, 9th Cavalry troops served in Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming and were among the U.S. Army regiments sent to the Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota in 1890 to quell the Ghost Dance movement, a campaign that ended in the massacre of Native Americans at Wounded Knee (Kenner 1999).

Humphreys, Andrew A., and Edward Freyhold. 1877. Map of the United States. Washington, DC: U.S. Army, Office of the Chief of Engineers. Image from the Library of Congress. Arrows indicate some of the posts of the 9th Cavalry, 1867-1897.

In recent years, the story of the Buffalo Soldiers has become better known, through movies and novels, museums and memorials, and of course, Bob Marley’s famous song. These remembrances tend to focus on the military actions undertaken by the Black regiments and on the heroism of their soldiers. Without doubt, the soldiers of the 9th Cavalry were effective and heroic. Over the first 30 years of the regiment’s existence, its soldiers enaged in many instances of combat, and 12 enlisted soldiers from the regiment were awarded the Medal of Honor for valor by the U.S. Army.

The photos my family took at Fort Washakie, Wyoming, in the 1890s show a different side of the Buffalo Soldiers—where they lived and how they spent their time away from the battlefield. [1] This added dimension helps bring to life the men who, as formerly enslaved people and the sons of formerly enslaved people, chose to serve their country as soldiers and as citizens.

Troop D, 9th Cavalry, on parade. 1895-7. Ft. Washakie, Wyoming. Photo from Loud family scrapbook.

Following Wounded Knee, organized Native American resistance to white occupation of the American west largely ended, although lesser incidents of violence continued into the 20th century. For Troop D of the 9th Cavalry, the comoany my great-great-grandfather commanded, this meant that their posting to Fort Washakie was relatively peaceful. Peace time postings had their own challenges, though, most notably the need to fend off boredom and the drinking, gambling, and fighting that often went along with it (Eales 1996). To keep the soldiers busy and to make sure they kept up their military skills, the army spent a lot of time in drilling. A correspondent to the Army and Navy Journal reported that, over the past six months, the troops at his Wyoming fort “had about 90 company drills, 15 regimental or battalion drills, 16 pack mule drills, besides target practice, dress parades, march to Camp Cook, review and brigade and division drills there” (“Xerxes” 1889).

Such extensive practice could yield good results. When the 9th Cavalry was formally reviewed in 1895 by Lieutenant General John Schofield, commanding general of the U.S. Army, he was impressed. General Schofield sent a letter complimenting the regiment, in which he said:

 [I]t was highly gratifying to find your regiment so thoroughly instructed in all of the duties prescribed by the regulations for occasions of ceremony, and all of the complicated maneuvers attending the inspection and review of the troops, both in full dress uniform and in campaign dress and equipment and in battle exercises. Every portion of all those exercises was performed with great accuracy
(“9th Cavalry” 1895).

Daily life at Fort Washakie also involved simple matters of subsistence. The fort was so isolated that obtaining supplies could be challenging, and the food provided as army rations was neither particularly appetizing nor nutritious. Scurvy was a major concern at military posts in this era, due to the lack of fresh produce (Eales 1996). To combat that problem, Fort Washakie was built with extensive space for company gardens, where the troops could grow their own food, and both officers and enlisted men took any available opportunity to hunt or fish.

Obtaining wood for building was also a major undertaking. Rather than purchasing wood, Fort Washakie had its own sawmill, where logs from the forested mountain areas nearby could be milled, dried, planed, and shaped. Rock for building was obtained from a local quarry and processed on site (Wheeler 1923). For cavalry troopers, caring for their horses was also a crucial task, important enough that the post bugler would blow “stable call” twice a day to summon the soldiers to feed and groom their horses.

Processing wood. 1895-7. Ft. Washakie, Wyoming. Photo from Loud family scrapbook.

For relaxation, Fort Washakie had a library and canteen where enlisted men could drink beer and smoke cigars, play pool, and read newspapers or magazines. Baseball was a popular pastime of that era, and most forts fielded several teams made up of soldiers from different companies or regiments (Eales 1996). Fort Washakie also had a chapel where Sunday services were held. Although the post had no army chaplain, Episopalian missionary John Roberts ministered to the soldiers as well as to the Shoshone people.

9th Cavalry soldiers in their recreation room. 1895-7. Ft. Washakie, Wyoming. Photo from Loud family scrapbook.

Holidays at western forts were marked with special events (Eales 1996). In 1895, Fort Washakie celebrated Independence Day in style. As a correspondent to the Army and Navy Journal wrote:

Opening the day with National airs by our band, later on the National salute from our 2-gun battery, then fun among the men on the parade, horse and foot racing, high jumping, putting the shot, tug of war, potato race, sack race, patriotic songs, speeches, the first sergeant reading the Declaration of Independence, with hospital tent flies spread for shade, bunting in the shape of Old Glory all around. Everything was done in good style, and it looked quite like a good old-fashioned Fourth away back in a little old New England town (“Fort Washakie” 1895).

One year, at a Wyoming fort almost as isolated as Fort Washakie, Troop D of the 9th Cavalry had for Christmas dinner:

Oyster soup; roasts—turkey, chicken, beef, mutton and pork; saddle of venison; boiled ham; vegetables—potatoes, green corn and tomatoes; relishes—chow-chow, cold slaw and cheese; dessert—apple, peach, pumpkin and lemon custard pies, rice pudding, boiled duff, jelly cake, candies, nuts, beer, tea, coffee and cigars
(“Rocky” 1888).

These delicacies must have been a nice change of pace from the beef, beans, and potatoes that made up much of the army rations at 19th century western forts (Eales 1996).

Company D dining hall decorated for Christmas. 1895-7. Ft. Washakie, Wyoming. Photos from Loud family scrapbook.

[1] See my previous post for more details on Fort Washakie and how the 9th Cavalry came to be there.

Works Cited

“The Army. 9th Cavalry-Col. James Biddle.” 29 June 1895. The United States Army and Navy Journal and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces. p. 724.

Eales, Anne Bruner. 1996. Army Wives on the American Frontier: Living By the Bugles. Boulder, CO: Johnson Books.

“Fort Washakie.” 27 July 1895. The United States Army and Navy Journal and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces. p. 263.

Johnson, Harry. 1978. The Formation of the Ninth Cavalry Regiment: July 1866 - March 1867. Master’s Thesis. U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.

Kenner, Charles L. 1999. Buffalo Soldiers and Officers of the Ninth Cavalry. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.

“Rocky.” 19 October 1889. “Fort McKinney, Wyoming.” The United States Army and Navy Journal and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces. p. 463.

“Xerxes.” 7 January 1888. “Fort McKinney, Wyoming.” The United States Army and Navy Journal and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces. p. 143.

Wheeler, Homer W. 1923. Buffalo Days: Forty Years in the Old West. Indianapolis, IN: The Bobbs-Merrill Company.