This compilation of biographical material focuses on buffalo soldiers as individuals. The entries demonstrate the variety of the experiences of African-American soldiers in and out of the Army and the wide range of sources available for the study of their lives and times.

Collects biographical material on "buffalo soldiers," members of all-black regiments in the United States Army between 1866 and 1917.

Read about the lives and experiences of the Buffalo Soldiers.

All students of the frontier army as well as aficionados with a special interest in the Buffalo Soldiers will find this an invaluable tool. Drawing on a wide variety of periodicals, military records, and letters, the book covers such key topics as the legislative origin of the inclusion of black soldiers in the army.

Originally published in 1967, William H. Leckie’s The Buffalo Soldiers was the first book of its kind to recognize the importance of African American units in the conquest of the West. Decades later, with sales of more than 75,000 copies, The Buffalo Soldiers has become a classic. Now, in a newly revised edition, the authors have expanded the original research to explore more deeply the lives of buffalo soldiers in the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry Regiments. Written in accessible prose that includes a synthesis of recent scholarship, this edition delves further into the life of an African American soldier in the nineteenth century. It also explores the experiences of 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.

The year 1877 was a drought year in West Texas. That summer, some forty buffalo soldiers struck out into the Llano Estacado, pursuing a band of raiding Comanches. Several days later they were missing and presumed dead from thirst. Although most of the soldiers straggled back into camp, four died, and others faced court-martial for desertion. Here, Carlson provides insight into the interaction of soldiers, hunters, settlers, and Indians on the Staked Plains.