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BUILDING 66050 RESTORATION COMMITTEE, Fort Huachuca, Arizona is requesting your assistance to Help Save a Historical Landmark:
Building 66050-Noncomissioned Black Officers/Mountainview Officers Club Restoration Project at Fort Huachuca (This building was used by the 24th and 25th Infantry Regiments; 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments; and 92nd and 93rd Infantry Divisions).
Go to: http://www.swabsinc.com
The regiment came into existence by virtue of an act of Congress approved by the President in July of 1866, and published in General Order 56 on August 1, 1866. In a letter of instruction dated August 13, 1866, Major General P.H. Sheridan, then commanding the Department of the Gulf with headquarters at New Orleans, La., was authorized to raise and organize one regiment of colored cavalry "to be designated the Ninth Cavalry."
Most of the 9th's officers and enlisted men came from colored volunteer regiments of the Civil War. The rest were recruits from the local area. Army recruiters centered their efforts on the nearby city of New Orleans and had no problem enlisting Black men to fill the ranks of the Regiment. These men were eager to sign up because the Army offered them a chance to better themselves both economically and socially.
Thirteen dollars a month, a place to live, food and clothing were considered a golden opportunity, knowing the alternative was trying to advance in a society all but closed to them. The soldiers of the 9th worked hard at discipline and organization throughout the winter of 1866 after their organization in August of that year.
In addition to Louisiana, recruits came from such places as Virginia, South Carolina, Kentucky and Texas. They joined in such numbers that there were not enough officers to train them, nor was there enough work to keep them busy even at routine tasks. Despite the shortage of officers, Edward Hatch, the first colonel of the regiment, managed to organize all twelve companies of the regiment by February 1867. On March 13, 1867, the 9th received orders to proceed to Headquarters, Department of Texas in San Antonio. From there, the companies of the regiment were sent to man various small forts in south and west Texas, while the regimental headquarters was dispatched to Fort Davis, Texas. Their duties were to protect settlers from numerous bands of Comanche, Apache, Kickapoo, and Lipan Indians, and lawless banditos and gun smugglers.
Hatch, who was a brevet Major General by the close of the Civil War, was an able and ambitious officer. He served admirably in this position until his death in 1889. Recruitment of white officers proved to be a serious problem for both the 9th and 10th Cavalry. Despite enticements of fast promotion, many officers, including George Armstrong Custer and Frederick Benteen, refused commissions with African-American units. The following advertisement from the Army and Navy Journal illustrates the dilemma: "A first Lieutenant of Infantry (white) stationed at a very desirable post ..... desires a transfer with an officer of the same grade, on equal terms if in a white regiment; but if in a colored regiment, a reasonable bonus would be expected."
It is gratifying to note, however, that as the Black regiments' reputation grew, more and more white officers fresh out of West Point began to volunteer to serve with them.
From 1867 to 1890, the unit saw constant field duty. Law and order were little more than a hope in the post-Civil War southwest, and civil authorities consistently relied upon the aid of the Army in rounding up undesirables who were the cause of many disturbances that could not be handled by local authorities. The all too common result was the cavalry to the rescue - and the 9th answered the call.
In 1875, the 9th Cavalry's headquarters moved to New Mexico. In 1877 the unit made a final contribution to peace and order in Texas. Quarrels over salt deposits near El Paso led to broad-scale violence and bloodshed that state authorities could not control, and Governor Richard B. Hubbard appealed for federal assistance. It came in the form of Colonel Hatch and three battalions of the Ninth on forced march from stations in New Mexico. Their arrival in San Elizario, center of the conflict, brought an abrupt end to the Salt War of San Elizario.
1881 brought about yet another move, this time to Fort Riley, Kansas where it was assigned the unpopular task of keeping settlers out of Indian territory. Four years later, the headquarters was moved to Fort McKinney, Washington. Studded with 18 Medals of Honor received between 1870 and 1890, the 9th left an enviable campaign record in the legacy of the frontier.
Until the early 1890s the 9th and 10th constituted 20 percent of all cavalry forces on the American frontier.
The 9th and 10th Cavalrys' service in subduing Mexican revolutionaries, hostile Native Americans, outlaws, comancheros, and rustlers was as invaluable as it was unrecognized. It was also accomplished over some of the most rugged and inhospitable country in North America. A list of their adversaries - Geronimo, Sitting Bull, Victorio, Lone Wolf, Billy the Kid, and Pancho Villa - reads like a "Who's Who" of the American West.
Lesser known, but equally important, the Buffalo Soldiers explored and mapped vast areas of the southwest and strung hundreds of miles of telegraph lines. They built and repaired frontier outposts around which future towns and cities sprang to life. Without the protection provided by the 9th and 10th Cavalry, crews building the ever expanding railroads were at the mercy of outlaws and hostile Indians. The Buffalo Soldiers consistently received some of the worst assignments the Army had to offer. They also faced fierce prejudice to both the colors of their Union uniforms and their skin by many of the citizens of the post-war frontier towns. Despite this, the troopers of the 9th and 10th Cavalry developed into two of the most distinguished fighting units in the Army.
In Cuba, during the Spanish-American War, the 9th again rose to the occasion as it captured one of the Spanish blockhouses at Santiago. Consequently, the blockhouse appears on the regimental crest. Like their brothers of the 10th, the 9th was in the thick of the action during the charge up San Juan Hill.
"The colored cavalry-men had already so accepted me; in return, the Rough Riders, although for the most part Southwesterners, who have a strong color prejudice, grew to accept them with hearty good-will as comrades, and were entirely willing, in their own phrase, 'to drink out of the same canteen.' "
Theodore Roosevelt, The Rough Riders, 1899
"It was not until the battle of Santiago, however, that the bulk of the American people realized that the standing army comprised regiments composed wholly of black men. Up to that time only one company of colored soldiers had served at a post east of the Mississippi. Even Major, later Brigadier-General, Guy V. Henry's gallop to the rescue of the Seventh Cavalry on December 30, 1890, with four troops of the Ninth Cavalry, attracted but little attention. This feat was the more remarkable because Major Henry's command had just completed a march of more than one hundred miles in twenty-four hours. But in the battle at Santiago, the four colored regiments won praise from all sides, particularly for their advance upon Kettle Hill, in which the Rough Riders also figured. From the very beginning of the movement of the army after its landing, the negro troops were in the front of the fighting, and contributed largely to the successful result.
Although they suffered heavy losses, especially in officers, the men fought with the same gallantry they had displayed on the plains, as is attested by the honors awarded. In every company there were instances of personal gallantry. The first sergeants especially lived up to the responsibilities placed upon them. The color sergeant of the Tenth Cavalry, Adam Houston, bore to the front not only his own flags, but those of the Third Cavalry when the latter's color sergeant was shot down. In several emergencies where troops or companies lost their white officers, the senior sergeants took command and handled their men in a faultless manner, notably in the Tenth Cavalry. "
THE NEGRO IN THE REGULAR ARMY
by Oswald Garrison Villard
The Experiences of Henry O. Flipper, first black cadet at West Point
