WEBVTT - Who were the Buffalo Soldiers? 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:03.520 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of five 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:12.320 Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:18.280 I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles w. Action, Jackson Bryant, right, sure, 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:22.079 and then there's Jerry over there, the flash that makes 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:27.440 this stuff. You shure, that's right. If there's one thing 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:30.120 people say to me is how much I'm like Carl 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:35.040 Weathers and how speedy Jerry is. Why why do I 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:39.599 want to say that Carl Weathers had one arm in Action? Jackson? 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:43.120 I don't think that was the case. Has he ever 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:45.600 had one arm in any of his Oh? I think 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:49.040 his arm gets pulled off in Predator? Okay, then I'm 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.360 complaining the two. It sounds about right. I saw Predator, 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:53.200 but just once, like you know, when it came out. 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:56.760 I saw it within the last twelve months. Yeah, I 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:59.600 think it's even better now has a grown up. Oh yeah, yeah, 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.480 I can really feel the tension like you're in the 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:07.039 jungle there with everybody. It's amazing. Have you been singing 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:11.200 the Buffalo Soldier song like constantly in her head? Despite 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:14.600 my best efforts, I can't stop. Well, I looked up 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:16.760 the lyrics because I was just you know, I know 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.840 some of them, Uh, but I wanted to kind of 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:22.800 see where exactly he was probably talking about the soldiers, 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:26.039 and there were some kind of on the nose references. 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:30.480 Jerry mentioned San Juan mentioned San Juan. What else you know? 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:35.600 Fighting for America, fighting on arrival, fighting for survival. Always 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:37.440 I always got it wrong though. I thought he said 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:40.920 dreadlock rock star. No, he says dreadlock Rosta. I know. 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:44.200 I learned that today, Dreadlock rock star. I've been seeing well. 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:46.000 I thought he was talking about himself. That's hilarious. I 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:49.040 was singing it wrong. I mean he was singing about himself. No, 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:54.840 he's singing about the Buffalo soldiers. They weren't Rosta's. I 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:58.840 guess some of them could have been. Maybe we'll find out. Anyway. 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:02.880 I've been singing for forty years, Dreadlock rock star. That's 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:05.040 pretty good, like a dumb dumb Oh, that's all right. 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:07.360 It's pretty close, man, And it still makes sense. The 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:09.880 ones that don't make sense are the hilarious ones that 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:13.919 just seems like a very like, I don't know, white 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:18.119 college kid thing to sing dread like rock star, dreadlock. Yeah, 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:21.720 when you first started listening to Bob Marley. Okay, you're ready, 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.120 I'm ready. So we're talking Buffalo Soldiers. And then it 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:27.680 is not just a Bob Marley song. It's if anything, 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:29.840 that Bob Marley song is kind of like a his 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:34.200 story history lesson, which is kind of interesting. Um, but 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:38.600 the Buffalo Soldiers was the name of some all black 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:43.600 regiments and then eventually all black soldiers in the United 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:46.720 States fighting in the United States military. That's right from 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:48.920 right after the Civil War all the way up until 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:52.960 I think nineteen fifty one, when the last all black 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:58.800 regiment was disbanded and the military was impracticed desegregated. Yeah, 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.120 but when did you say that happen? I think nineteen 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:04.840 fifty one. Um, But they did not take on that 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:09.040 natal post Civil Civil War, right, And at first it 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:12.320 wasn't a name that they took on themselves. It was 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:14.120 a name that was given to them. And there's a 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:16.120 lot of dispute over where it came from, who's the 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:18.200 first to use it, that kind of stuff. But it's 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:21.359 a really interesting history and it's not just an interesting 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:25.679 like military history. There's a lot of like terrible tragic 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:31.919 irony involved. There's, um, there's this kind of overarching theme 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:35.760 where you can make a case that the Buffalo Soldiers 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:39.000 are the ones who actually paved the way for desegregation 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:42.400 throughout the entire United States. You can trace a direct 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:46.840 line from their service to desegregation. It's pretty pretty amazing stuff. 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:50.800 And yet there's still this kind of um cloud that 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:54.120 hangs over them historically because of one of the things 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.840 that they participated in, which was the genocide of Native 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:02.280 Americans at the behest of the white US government, right 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:06.400 because they were trying to earn a place in white 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:10.560 America and gained some status and prestige, and white America 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:13.520 was like, we want you to do something for us first, 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:17.720 and we'll still probably not grant you that respect. Yeah, 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:19.880 which is kind of par for the course from what 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:24.159 I understand as far as military service and being black 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:27.120 in America goes UM. In the Battle of New Orleans, 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:32.000 the Black Phalanx, this black regiment ended up pretty cool name. Yeah, 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:35.640 it really is. Um. They ended up basically winning the 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:39.320 battle UM against the British at the Battle of New Orleans, 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.200 which actually came ironically after the end of the War 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.520 of eighteen twelve, but it was still a decisive battle 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:48.800 UM and they had been Mustard, a lot of them 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:53.880 from local plantations by Andrew Jackson, and Jackson had promised 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:56.560 them their freedom if they came and fought in one. 0:04:57.040 --> 0:04:59.719 And they came and fought in one and Jackson said, yes, 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:01.760 are you have to go back to your plantations? I 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:04.760 was lying, yeah, and that's not a surprise. Yeah, but um, 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:07.240 imagine that And that was not the first time that 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:09.000 that had happened to him. That was pretty much par 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:12.280 for the course. While they were enslaved. They would be 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:16.200 promised freedom for fighting and then no, after the fact, 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:19.479 that's just not that's not gonna happen. Yeah. And you know, 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:23.000 like we said, the Buffalo soldiers post Civil War were 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:27.160 and we'll we'll get to um like their formal designation 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:29.840 and their regiments and stuff like that. But there had 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:34.480 been uh individuals enlisted in all the way back to 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:37.680 the Revolutionary War. There were you know, black individuals that 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:40.440 would go and fight, but they just weren't grouped in 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:44.800 their own regiments. The first one was the Black Regiment 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:48.839 in Rhode Island. I think. Yeah, in the Revolutionary War, 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:52.080 didn't we talk about them in a short stuff about 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:56.120 um the Black Revolutionary war fighters? And they moved up 0:05:56.120 --> 0:06:01.920 to Nova Scotia. We definitely did. So the Grabster put 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:03.839 this a lot of this together for us, which was 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:07.120 a big help. And it's important to look at what 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:11.159 was going on after the Civil War and this unique 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:14.120 set of circumstances that were created that kind of led 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:19.520 to these regiments being formed, which was about twelve thousand 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:22.240 maybe a little bit more black veteran soldiers from the 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:25.480 Civil War all of a sudden needed jobs and they 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:28.360 were soldiers at this point, so they were like, you know, 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:31.599 I'll keep doing this. This could be my career. Like 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:35.440 give us a job in reconstruction in the South, they 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:41.479 needed federal troops. Federal troops, well, yes, it was probably 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:44.040 not a good idea to send black troops for to 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:47.640 oversee reconstruction, so to occupy the South, can you imagine 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:50.600 it would not have been So they sent white troops 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:52.880 of course, but that created a vacuum elsewhere where they 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:56.280 could use and utilize these black troops. Um, there were 0:06:56.320 --> 0:07:01.160 four million slaves that were now free and uh ed 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:03.600 hazard a guess that you know, let's say a million 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:06.600 one and a half million of these were adult males 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:09.160 that were ready to go and serve and fight. If 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:13.200 need be. And then we were going west, and we 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:15.480 knew that there were Native Americans out there that we're 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:18.440 not going to go easily. There was Mexico looming on 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:22.480 the horizon as potential conflict. And because they were sending 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:26.600 white soldiers to the south, Uh, they needed people to 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:29.560 go out west and kind of you know, keep the 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:31.240 peace in a way and take care of business in 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:35.320 another way, or to remove Native Americans forcibly from their 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:40.560 ancestral lands. That's right. So um on July sixty six, 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:43.920 Congress did something really surprising. They said, we've got all 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:46.680 these kind of expansionist ideas. We've got the South that 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:49.320 we need to occupy. We need a bigger army. We're 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:53.080 going to raise a huge peace time army. And not 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:57.120 only that, we're going to form some all black regiments. 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:01.560 Were going to let black people um enlist for the 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:05.600 first time ever as peace time soldiers. Yeah, and partially 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:09.240 because they just needed people, and partially because they thought 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:11.680 these black veterans that fought in the Civil War for 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:14.440 the Union they should be rewarded with jobs. Exactly. So, 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.680 for the first time, the federal government didn't reneg on 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.960 the offer of something better. After having served and fought 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:25.240 as a soldier. So there's a big deal and just 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:31.040 having you know, allowing soldiers, black soldiers to enlist during 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:33.600 peace time, but the fact that they could enlistment that 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:36.760 they could become officers as well, which meant West Point 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:40.440 was open to black UM soldiers for the first time, 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:44.160 which was a huge deal UM in eighteen So in 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:47.640 eighteen sixty six is when they expanded the army. Just 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:51.640 a few years later they wanted to shrink the army 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:55.240 a little bit, so they consolidated a bunch of regiments 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:58.640 down to five and the original I think it was 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:04.440 six uh for infantry and to cavalry were now shrunk 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:08.640 down and combined into the ninth Cavalry, the tenth Cavalry. 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:13.520 I'm saying both cavalry and cavalry, just covering all your bases, 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:16.559 even though only one of them is correct in this cavalry, uh, 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:20.760 the infantry in the infantry right. And the fact that 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:24.360 they survived this downsizing of the army because Congress want 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:26.280 we need a big army. It's too big, let's get 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:29.040 rid of some some soldiers. The fact that all black 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:34.120 regiments survived is really miraculous because in that downsizing decree 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:38.440 a few years later. It wasn't um. It wasn't included, 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.680 like and we still need to keep black regiments in 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:45.480 intact um And William two comes to Sherman was no 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:48.800 great friend to the black man by any stretch of 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:52.360 the imagination. And he was in charge of downsizing these troops. 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:55.360 And yet he knew enough that there were still congress people, 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:59.199 congressmen in Congress who had created the black regiments in 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:01.960 the first place. They would not be very happy if 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:04.079 he just dissolved them, so he kept him in tech 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:06.920 and actually just went from six to four. Yeah, and 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:11.079 but it's interesting because it was peacetime. You know. During wartime, 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:14.680 especially back then, it was really pretty easy to get 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:17.400 people to sign up and volunteer and fight for whatever 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:20.880 side they were on. But in peace time they found 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:23.440 that they could get the cream of the crop of 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:27.200 black soldiers because they didn't have as much opportunity, so 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:29.960 they could really be picky and get these really like 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:34.320 super capable fighters, whereas on the other side, uh, during 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:37.400 peace time, it was harder to get white soldiers that 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:39.520 were as capable because they had much more opportunities to 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:42.120 do other things beyond like hey, I got nothing going 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:44.760 on outside up for the army, right exactly. And in 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:49.120 the army to um, there's a lot of mythologizing about, um, 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:52.800 you know, how the black regiments were treated. It related 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:55.760 to white regiments as well, and it seems like, um, 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.000 some historians have shown if you trace the supply lines, 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:03.320 the black bagment's got the same shoddy and then increasingly 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.559 better supplies as the white regiments at the same time. 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:11.840 And in the army you had just opportunities, um that 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:14.720 just weren't afforded to you outside, like the opportunity to 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:19.120 make money, you know, and have savings and a pension, um, 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:22.000 things that you could you could kind of bank on 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:25.160 the future with that. That was just not part of 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:29.880 of the black experience of black men back then. You know. 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:35.120 I think that's a very robust set up in more, Oh, 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:37.800 we're still doing set up. No, let's beyond like That's 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:39.880 why I said and more. But I think what I'm 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:43.520 trying to say is it's a great time for a break. Okay, yeah, yeah, 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:45.400 all right, we'll be right back and we'll talk a 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:49.240 little bit about how this name came to be right 0:11:49.240 --> 0:12:12.280 after this. So there's a lot in here about how 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:15.560 this name came to be, right, But I think we 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:19.360 condense it um. We can condense it to just a 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:23.480 couple of versions, one of which was that the name 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:26.760 may have come from the Native Americans as sort of 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:31.320 an honor, like they're brave and they fight, They're like fierce, 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:35.040 like the buffalo and like Sasha fierce. I don't know 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:39.200 what that is. That's like Beyonce's weird alias. Why do stars, 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:42.120 when you get to this enormous, huge point, decided to 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:46.240 create an alter ego? That's always not good? Chris Gaines, Yes, 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:50.720 learn the lesson from Chris Gaines. Yeah, who else has 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:53.720 done that? It doesn't matter, Chris, Some of them have worked. 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:59.679 Zikky Starda certainly worked. Captain Fantastic worked fine. Chris Gaines, 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:02.480 N it's all though, No, I agree, I didn't know 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:07.920 that very short lived really and what was the persona 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:10.480 was it? I guess she was fierce, so I don't know. 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:12.840 I just heard her name a couple of times. Beyonce's 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:15.720 fear though, right right, you don't need an alter ego, Beyonce. 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:18.760 You're fierce enough. You don't want to go too much fiercer. 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:22.599 You should be her manager should you know all the 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:27.120 right moves. So that is that is one of the 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:30.200 stories was that it was honor, a name of honor 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:33.240 from the Native Americans. But this to me sounds like 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:35.360 it might have been just something kind of cooked up 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:38.199 in history books or it just kind of converted into that. 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:42.840 Maybe the Smithsonian Museum of African American History says, yeah, 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:46.960 that stands as popular lore. That's one um example. Another 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:50.520 is basically there's two competing ones, and that is that 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:54.960 the Native Americans did give this name to the black soldiers, 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:58.400 but that they were referring to the woolyness of the 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.719 black soldiers hair compared to white soldier's hair, and that 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:04.719 if you look between the horns of a buffalo, that 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:07.760 kind of like to pay almost that the buffalo is 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.640 wearing bears of vague resemblance to it, and that that's 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:13.280 where it initially came from. Yeah, and there's like direct 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:15.679 evidence from letters and stuff of the time of this 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:18.000 um whether or not it was true or not. It 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:20.880 was it was at least down in print as being 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:24.160 the reason, but we don't know for sure, uh, And 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:28.240 we don't know for sure how they felt about the 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:30.680 name other than it seems like as time went on, 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:34.760 they kind of embraced the name as a designation UM. 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:37.240 And in one case there was one troop that did 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:40.840 use a bison on a patch on their uniform, but 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:43.760 then bison were used on other patches on uniforms of 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:47.520 white soldiers too. I think it was strictly Black regiments really, 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:52.440 just later ones that weren't the ninth That that was 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:55.440 my interpretation, okay, but but yeah, by the time I 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:59.080 think nineteen eleven is when that first patch appears. But 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:01.840 so by the time teen eleven rolls around, the Black 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:05.720 regiments had UM had totally like taken on Buffalo soldiers 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:08.880 a name of honor. Yeah, and and Ed points out, 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.000 I think it's fair. It's easy now in to look 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:17.040 back at UM two uh, two ethnic groups that were 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:19.160 you know, kept under the thumb of the white man 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:22.800 and say that, oh, you know, the Native Americans respected 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:26.000 them as fierce fighters, and the Black soldiers respected the 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:34.240 Native Americans. But that's probably retroactive revisionist history, because you know, 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:37.400 there were plenty of cases where the Buffalo soldiers referred 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:40.480 to them as you know, savages, and one case of 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:45.200 one soldier you know, going as a costume party, dressed 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:47.760 up and I guess what you would call red face, 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:52.040 Oh yeah, and uh so, yeah, it seems like that's 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:53.960 sort of cooked up these days, like they really had 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:56.720 much respect for one another during their battles. But I 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:58.280 don't know if that's a case. No, but you can 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.040 understand how that would how people would want to do that, 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:07.880 you know, because I mean, the sending African American soldiers 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:13.040 out to remove Native Americans from their land with violence 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:18.000 at the behest of white people. It's not a good story. No, 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:20.440 it's a terrible story. Yeah, it takes a bad story 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:23.040 makes it worse, and then at the same time, um, 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:25.640 there's a real silver lining to it. There's that good 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:29.440 story that like black soldiers served as heroes for the 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:32.600 black community in America as a whole at a time 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:35.240 when they really needed some black heroes, you know, and 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:39.200 the Jim Crow South was really starting to to solidify. Um, 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:42.560 So it's not like an all bad story, but it's 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:45.320 definitely not an all good story either. So people want 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:48.080 like a nice storybook ending for sure, which is surely 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:50.760 where that came from. I think. So, so should we 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:55.800 talk a little bit about, um what they did? Yeah, yeah, 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:59.240 when they were um first assembled in I think that 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:05.080 late to mid eighteen sixties. Um, they were almost immediately 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:10.359 moved out to the frontier Kansas and Texas, New Mexico, UM, 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:13.879 and pushing further and further west as their work was 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:19.280 increasingly successful. Yeah, and usually under the command of white officers. UM. 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:22.560 It was not looked at as some great assignment if 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:26.440 you were a white officer, uh, to go west and 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.080 command one of the Buffalo Soldier regiments. Yeah, it would 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:31.920 have been like being stationed in Alaska or something like that. 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:36.520 Alaska is great. Although some some white commanding officers did 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:39.760 rise to the occasion, yeah, and had a lot of 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:42.159 great things to say about the soldiers too. Some of 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:45.080 them definitely did not rise to the occasion and actually 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:48.159 went the other way, right, you know. Yeah, and you 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:51.680 mentioned West Point. This was a huge deal because, like 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:56.320 you said, now, these young men could go attend West 0:17:56.359 --> 0:18:00.399 Point and come out officers upon entry into the army. Uh. 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:02.639 There were quite a few cases. One was a man 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:06.920 named Henry Flipper. He was the first black graduate of 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:09.760 West Point in eighteen seventy seven, came out as second 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:14.800 lieutenant in the tenth Cavy Cavalry and was basically set 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:16.960 up with a court martial. There was a case where 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:19.840 there was some He was put in charge of a 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:23.760 quartermaster safe to like guard it basically and take charge 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:28.320 of it. Money becomes missing, he uh kind of freaks 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:31.080 out and lies about it. It's kind of all evidence 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:32.680 pointing to the fact that he didn't take the money, 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:35.840 but he did lie about. How did he went? What 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:38.440 did he lie about? Thinks I couldn't I think that 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:41.720 the initial money was missing at all. Maybe I'm not 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:44.359 really sure, but it looks like it was a set up. 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:46.520 He was acquitted of the main charge even back then, 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:49.400 and was found guilty of an added charge of conduct 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:53.919 unbecoming of an officer right uh and was dismissed from 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:57.359 the army, which even back then was an overblown sentence 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.360 compared to the similar charges of white officers right into 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:02.960 the army at the time. He could have gotten his 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:07.560 discharge changed to honorable discharge, but the Army apparently didn't 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:10.040 have any procedure to do that, so it was up 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:13.359 to the commander in chief, Chester A. Arthur Uh to 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:15.920 decide yea or nay, And he just for he just 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:20.840 let it pass by. But he so um lieutenant. Was 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:23.639 he a lieutenant second lieutenant second lieutenant Flipper went to 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:28.200 his grave saying that he was innocent, and um he 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:34.520 In the nineties, Bill Clinton finally pardoned him. He did, 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:40.040 and Clinton that ghoul ordered him exhumed and reburied with 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:44.399 full military honors. But they suspect that Clinton just wanted 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:49.400 to see what the body looked like. Come on, he said, 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:53.080 let's do this, right. Yeah, he probably did say that. 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:56.760 So there were another couple of cases, John Hanks, Alexander 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:00.159 and Charles Young. Uh, they were West Point grads early on. 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:05.080 They went on to lead these regiments. And uh, that's 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:07.919 not to say that at West Point it was smooth Salem. 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:10.520 Of course. You know, they had a very hard time 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:14.639 there and still persevered extraordinarily. Um points out that in 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:17.560 the Tuskegee Airman Episode two, I think we talked about 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:21.000 how the um, those guys who went through West Point 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:24.480 had or the military academies had just an awful time 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:27.920 of it too. I mean that happened. I mean it 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:30.840 probably still happens to some degree. But I mean I 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:33.760 read The Lords of Discipline. I did too, and saw 0:20:33.840 --> 0:20:36.120 the movie. I don't know if I saw the movie 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:37.960 or not, and that was what year was that set 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.480 that was? It's probably sixties, wasn't. I don't know what 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:43.879 was the problem with that guy. He just was soft 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:48.480 or something, wouldn't it he like was was um ah, 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:53.960 he had feelings, you know, I don't remember. I haven't 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:56.879 seen it in a long time. But um, that was 0:20:57.000 --> 0:21:00.240 the Citadel, not West Point, which is Navy, I think, right, 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:07.720 Air Force Marines. The Citadel is National Guard. No cub Scouts, Yes, 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:12.080 it was cub Scouts. Citadel was cub Scouts where the break. 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:17.760 So uh, these regiments had about a thousand troops and officers. 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:24.879 But um, they were constantly under supplied. And like you 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:28.760 said earlier, it's there's no evidence that they were intentionally undersupplied. No, 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:31.000 but it's a myth that they were. Yeah, but kind 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:33.159 of everyone out west was because it takes a long 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:34.760 time to get stuff out there, and a lot of 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:39.600 those old Civil War weapons and equipment were pretty shoddy anyway. Yeah. Plus, 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:41.520 I mean it's not really easy to come by water 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:44.640 in the New Mexico desert or you're fighting the Cheyenne 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:48.720 or the Apache, um like, so you have horses that 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:52.240 need water too, because you're a cavalry unit. Um, and 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:54.360 the horses were breaking down. It was a really bad 0:21:54.480 --> 0:21:57.960 time as they were moving further and further west. Because 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:00.800 we tend to think of the United States military like 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:04.959 in the terms of today, this just incredibly well oiled, 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:10.680 logistical juggernaut. That was not the case after the Civil War. 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:12.919 As a matter of fact, until I believe the Spanish 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:16.959 American War, the United States military was looked upon internationally 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:20.280 is kind of like a not not the best around, 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:24.280 certainly not the best equipped the logistics. We didn't have 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:26.320 that kind of stuff down. You didn't hear it from me, 0:22:26.480 --> 0:22:31.560 but right exactly. But um, and this was you know, 0:22:31.760 --> 0:22:36.199 the army that these guys were enlisted in, So they 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:39.240 were dealing with an army that was not was finding 0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:43.399 its feet and then also on the frontier of the 0:22:43.480 --> 0:22:46.600 United States at a time when they're protecting the people 0:22:46.680 --> 0:22:49.719 building the railroads. So there's not even the railroads out 0:22:49.760 --> 0:22:52.920 there yet. One of their jobs was to protect railroad workers, 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:57.359 mail carriers, people who were on trattle drives. Yeah, um, 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:01.400 these were the jobs they were asked with. Uh. Well, 0:23:01.440 --> 0:23:03.320 they were also fighting, like we said, in what was 0:23:03.400 --> 0:23:06.440 known as the Indian Wars, uh, including some of the 0:23:06.600 --> 0:23:08.520 some of the big ones. I think we need to 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:11.360 do a big old episode on the any wars. Yeah, 0:23:11.720 --> 0:23:15.960 let's do it. Wounded Knee, the White River War. Yeah, 0:23:16.080 --> 0:23:18.320 I've never heard of that one. I looked it up. 0:23:18.480 --> 0:23:20.640 The war is not a term for most of these. 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:24.720 Should be massacre now, it should be straight up massacres. Yeah. 0:23:25.040 --> 0:23:27.280 Although here's the other thing too, This is really easy 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:30.639 for guys like us to do, especially in retrospect, is 0:23:30.880 --> 0:23:35.720 um what's called like mythologizing the noble savage right where 0:23:36.160 --> 0:23:38.639 the where we kind of make it seem like the 0:23:38.760 --> 0:23:41.840 Indians were just the people who, you know, kind of 0:23:42.440 --> 0:23:46.840 meekly accepted their fate and we're just rolled over by 0:23:46.920 --> 0:23:50.600 the US government through this westward expansion. That's not the case. 0:23:51.119 --> 0:23:53.760 In almost every case, the further west we got, the 0:23:53.840 --> 0:23:56.960