Voices of the Buffalo Soldier: Records, Reports, and Recollections of Military Life and Service in the West. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8263-2309-X. This anthology of contemporary eye-witness accounts comes from official correspondence, newspapers, interviews, articles, and even private letters. It covers combat actions, garrison and family life, and the complexities of race relations on the frontier. Click here to order from Amazon.com

In this collection of first-hand accounts of buffalo soldier life and service you will be able to read about:

• the infantry soldier who enlisted as a man and applied for a pension as a woman.(chapter 7)
• when and how the name "buffalo soldier" came into use.(chapter 10)
• the burning of Indian villages by black cavalry units. (chapter 17)
• how a future cavalryman fled slavery as a child. (chapter 30)
• the cavalryman who tried to crack the skull of a Medal of Honor recipient. (chapter 31)
• the buffalo soldier with three names. (chapter 53)

  Table of Contents

  1. A new kind of soldier for the post-Civil War regular army

  2. First skirmishes with plains tribes

  3. The 10th Cavalry in the summer of 1867: first battles and first casualty

  4. Sergeant Shropshire's observations on service in Kansas

  5. The battle at Beecher Island, September 1868

  6. The 9th Cavalry in Texas: Mutiny at San Pedro Springs, Texas, April 1867

  7. William Cathay/Cathay Williams: a woman in the 38th Infantry

  8. Sergeant Emanuel Stance and the Medal of Honor

  9 Recollections of active service in Texas, by Sergeant Jacob Wilks, 9th Cavalry

  10. The earliest known documented use of the name "buffalo soldiers"

  11. Two old soldiers recall their youth and service in the 25th Infantry, 1870-1880

  12. Captain J. Lee Humfreville's court-martial conviction, 1874

  13 A resolution of mourning

  14 Perry Hayman's recollections of service with the 10th Cavalry

  15 Lieutenant Bullis's report on the heroic behavior of four Seminole-Negro scouts

  16 Sergeant John Marshall of the 10th Cavalry reports on a scout from Fort Concho, Texas

  17 Destroying Indian villages

  18 Borderland operations: cattle thieves and civil authorities

  19 Borderland operations: depredations and refuge

  20 A chaplain's report: discipline, morals, and education

  21 Lieutenant Henry Flipper's competence, character and treatment by other officers

  22 Complaint about discrimination in selection of sergeants to non-commissioned staff positions

  23 Colonel George F. Hamilton's chronology of the 9th Cavalry during the campaign against Victorio

  24 Lieutenant George R. Burnett's account of a firefight between the 9th and Nana's band in August 1881

  25 The 10th Cavalry in the campaign against Victorio

  26 Colonel George Andrews pleads for a change of station for the 25th Infantry

  27 A borderland love triangle: white officer, black soldier, and latino woman

  28 Encounter with racism: the 10th Cavalry at San Angelo, Texas

  29 A soldier's love letters

  30 John Howerton's escape from slavery

  31 Moses Green's court martial, Fort Reno, Indian Territory, 1883

  32 Statement of Private Edward Hamilton, C/9 Cavalry

  33 Lieutenant Powhattan H. Clarke and the rescue of Corporal Scott

  34 Fifteen hard years: Sergeant John Casey's service in the 10th Cavalry

  35 24th Infantry soldiers censure some of their own

  36 Don Rickey's notes on his interview with Simpson Mann

  37 Protecting the payroll

  38 William Wilson, courage under fire, and desertion

  39 The poetry of Private W. H. Prather of the 9th Cavalry

  40 Chaplain Theophilus G. Steward on his relationship with the regimental commander

  41 The Suggs Affray, June 1892

  42 Chaplain Henry V. Plummer on life at Fort Robinson and his religious and educational duties

  43 Sergeant Barney McKay and "500 Soldiers with the Bullet or Torch"

  44 Recollections of a recruit

  45 A 24th Infantry masquerade ball

  46 The death of Lieutenant Alexander

  47 A matter of complexion

  48 Chaplain Allensworth and the post school

  49 A "glorious calling"

  50 Chaplain George Prioleau on a segregated railroad car through Texas

  51 Benjamin O. Davis qualifies for a commission in the Army

  52 Differing views of garrison life at the turn of the century

  53 The names of a soldier

  54 Mary Church Terrell, "A Sketch of Mingo Saunders"

  55 The racial climate in Brownsville, Texas, after the shooting incident

  56 Charles Young and African American heritage

  57 Violet Cragg's Pension Request

  58 Enduring patriotism

  59 An army widow's lot

  60 From Buffalo Soldiers to clergymen