Tag Archives: buffalo soldiers

Casques Bleus

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20 July 1918 – Corre (Haute-Saône), African-American U.S. Soldiers under French command undergo training in the infirmary, working with a field stretcher.

Gustave Alaux/ECPAD/Defense Ref.: SPA 42 IS 1601

While the Doughboys of the AEF shipped out to go “Over There” to fight the Kaiser, the Blue Helmets (Casques Bleus— due to their blue French Adrian-style helmets) of the segregated 93rd Infantry Division did so under direct French command.

Harlem Hellfighters in the Meuse-Argonne, September 26-October 1, 1918. The 369th Infantry of the 93rd INF DIV fought valiantly in the Allied (Champagne) Offensive as part of the French 161st Division. U.S. Army painting by H Charles McBarron Jr

They suffered 3,167 casualties and earned an amazing 527 Croix de Guerres, many of them posthumously.

Meanwhile, the segregated units still under U.S. control during the Great War– the Buffalo Soldiers of the 92nd Infantry– would chiefly be relegated to support roles while three entire regiments of hard-bitten regulars– the 9th and 10th Cavalry as well as the 25th Infantry– were wasted in garrison roles in the Philippines, along the Mexican border, and in Hawaii, respectively.

Keeping em clean

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80 years ago today.

4 April 1944. Official caption, “Sgt. John C. Clark…and S/Sgt. Ford M. Shaw…(left to right) clean their rifles in the Bivouac area alongside the East-West Trail, Bougainville. They are members of Co. E, 25th Combat Team, 93rd Division.”

Signal Corps Photo 111-SC-364565, National Archives Identifier: 530707

The two NCOs in the above image are members of the famed 25th Infantry Regiment.

One of the four “Buffalo Soldier” units formed in 1866– immediately after the end of the Civil War– they were the legacy of the proven service of the USCT during that conflict. In fact, the units initially were staffed almost exclusively with veterans of those 175 assorted wartime segregated regiments.

The 25th had sweltered in decades of service along the southern border, spearheaded Shafter’s V Corps during the march on Santiago in 1898 (and getting closer to the city than any U.S. unit in the process), fought in the Philippines in the 1900s, and garrisoned Hawaii during the Great War.

When WWII came, the 25th was folded into the reformed 93rd Infantry Division, which had earned the nickname “The Blue Helmets” during the First World War because they wore horizon blue-colored Adrian helmets while in detached service with the French. As such, the 25th joined the reactivated 368th and 369th (“The Harlem Hellfighters”) Infantry Rgts, which had both seen service on the Western Front.

After training at Camps Coxcomb and Clipper in California, they shipped out for the Pacific and arrived at Guadalcanal in January 1944. Originally relegated to service (labor) and security tasks, the 25th entered combat on 28 March assisting in attacks on the enemy perimeter at Bougainville then reconnoitered across the Laruma River on 2 April, the slandered fight for Hill 250 and in the Torokina River Valley from 7–12 April 1944. The 25th RCT operated against the Japanese along the Kuma and East-West Trails during May 1944.

Official caption 1 May 1944. “Cautiously advancing through the jungle, while on patrol in Japanese territory off the Numa-Numa Trail, this member of the 93rd Infantry Division is among the first Negro foot soldiers to go into action in the South Pacific theater.” 111-SC-189381-S

The 93rd would receive campaign credits for the Northern Solomons, Bismarck Archipelago, and New Guinea, ending the war fighting on Morotai, and had the honor of capturing Col. Kisou Ouichi, the highest-ranking Japanese prisoner of war in the Pacific prior to the Empire’s surrender– bagged by a patrol from the 25th Infantry Regiment on 2 August 1945.

The Blue Helmets chalked up 175 days in combat in WWII and, after occupation duty in the Philippines, left for home on 17 January 1946.

Buffalo Soldiers Remembered at West Point

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Lost in the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 remembrances over the weekend was a small ceremony at the U.S. Military Academy where Gen. (Ret.) Vincent K. Brooks presided over the dedication of a monument honoring the service of the “Buffalo Soldiers” who served for 40 years at West Point.

Founded immediately after the Civil War to take advantage of a pool of over 140,000 surviving members of the segregated wartime USCT, which had been disbanded on October 1865, the 9th and 10th U.S. Cavalry Regiments, along with the four regiments black infantry (the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st– later amalgamated in 1869 to the 24th and 25th Infantry due to service-wide budget cuts) carried the legacy of some 175 regiments of freedmen who fought in the last two years of the War Between the States.

Fighting in virtually every campaign of the Plains Wars in between policing the border regions and patrolling Yosemite National Park in the days before the service’s armed rangers, the Buffalo Soldiers also went overseas to mix it up with the Spaniards in 1898 and serve in the Philippines against assorted insurgents. Notably, five members of the 10th Cavalry earned the Medal of Honor during the Spanish–American War.

The 9th and 10th U.S. Cavalry, fighting dismounted in the Battle of Las Guasimas, Cuba, 24 June 1898. Via the LOC LC-DIG-PGA-01889

One of the most unsung duties, at least until this week, that these professional horse soldiers performed, was in providing for the standing United States Military Academy Detachment of Cavalry.

Made up of 100 long-service black non-commissioned officers and senior enlisted who were considered among the best in the Army, the detachment formed 23 March 1907 to teach future officers at West Point riding instruction, mounted drill, and cavalry tactics, a mission they would perform by the numbers until 1947. The cadets who earned their spurs in such drill included George S. Patton Jr., Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Omar N. Bradley.

U.S. Army Photo by John Pellino/USMA PAO

Gifted to the academy by the Buffalo Soldiers Association of West Point, the 10-foot-tall bronze trooper mounted on horseback characterizes the level of horsemanship expertise that was provided to future Army officers. Nationally renowned sculptor Eddie Dixon was commissioned for the piece that bears a likeness to SSG (Ret.) Sanders H. Matthews Sr., a Buffalo Soldier stationed at West Point. Sanders, who founded the Buffalo Soldiers Association of West Point, Inc., worked tirelessly to pay tribute to their memory, and plans to erect the monument have been underway since 2017.

“These Soldiers embodied the West Point motto of Duty, Honor, Country, and ideals of the Army Ethic,” said the U.S. Military Academy 60th Superintendent Lt. Gen. Darryl A. Williams. “This monument will ensure that the legacy of Buffalo Soldiers is enduringly revered, honored, and celebrated while serving as an inspiration for the next generations of cadets.”

U.S. Army Photo by John Pellino/USMA PAO

120 years ago today, the rest of the picture

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Source Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, via 1898-07-03 Harper’s Weekly.

Here we see a group of U.S Army victors on Kettle Hill on about July 3, 1898, after the battle of “San Juan Hill(s).” Left to right are officers and men of the vaunted “Brave Rifles” of the 3rd U.S. Cavalry Regiment, center is the “Rough Riders” of the 1st Volunteer Cavalry Regiment (with former Asst. Scty of the Navy, Col. Theodore Roosevelt, center, with a revolver salvaged from the USS Maine in his holster) and the African-American Troopers (“Buffalo Soldiers”) of the 10th U.S. Cavalry to the right.

This photo is often shown cropping out all but the 1st Vol Cav and TR and billed as “Colonel Roosevelt and his Rough Riders at the top of the hill which they captured, Battle of San Juan.”

 

US PUNITIVE EXPEDITION, 1916, uniforms

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Click to big up

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1st Lieutenant, 7th Cavalry Regiment

This figure wears a typical uniform for US officers during the border fighting. The M1911 “olive drab” Montana-peaked hat has officers’ black and gold cords with two acorn tassels. His wool pullover campaign shirt in a similar shade has four dark brown buttons on the placket, and bears his rank bars on the collar; he chooses not to wear the black necktie. His wool riding trousers are a rather darker “olive drab” shade. He is armed with a .45 cal Colt M1911 semi-automatic pistol in a cavalry-type swiveling russet brown holster with “US” embossed on the flap, and secured by a long khaki lanyard looped diagonally around his torso. The M1912 belt also supports a double pistol magazine pouch, and is itself supported by a pair of leather suspenders.

Dispatch rider, 1st Provisional Motorcycle Company

The motorcyclist wears an M1911 olive drab knit wool service sweater with two open hip pockets, worn over the soldier’s campaign shirt and cavalry-style wool trousers. Bandanas were often sported by American soldiers. His goggles are commercially manufactured – the US Army never issued them for Mexican border service. His equipment is limited to the M1910 cartridge belt, leather cavalry-style gloves, and cavalry brown leather leggings worn over the russet brown shoes. Slung across his back is his M1903 Springfield, and on his right hip a non-regulation early model dispatch case of olive drab canvas. His mount is an early Harley-Davidson; the Army began using motorcycles as early as 1913, and in 1916 the Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Company’s product became the vehicle of choice during the pursuit of Pancho Villa. By 1917 roughly one-third of all Harley-Davidsons produced were sold to the US military. In the background is a US/Mexican border marker.

Sergeant, 24th Infantry Regiment

This NCO from the African-American US 24th Infantry wears the M1911 Montana-peak hat with light blue infantry cords, a well-worn OD campaign shirt, wool trousers and laced khaki canvas leggings, with the M1910 pack, cartridge belt and first aid pouch. The bayonet for his M1903 Springfield is carried in a scabbard covered with canvas and a leather chape. He is drinking from his M1910 aluminum canteen. In the foreground is the M1909 Benet-Mercie machine rifle, which made its combat debut with the US Cavalry during Pancho Villa’s raid on Columbus, New Mexico.
-Hattip (Stephen Walsh)

1916 villa expedition