Buffalo soldiers and officers of the Ninth Cavalry, 1867-1898 : black & white together

The inclusion of the Ninth Cavalry and three other African American regiments in the post-Civil War army was one of the nation's most problematic social experiments. The first fifteen years following its organization in 1866 were stained by mutinies, slanderous verbal assaults, and sadistic abuses by their officers. Eventually, however, a number of considerate and dedicated officers, including Major Guy Henry, Captain Charles Parker, and Lieutenant Matthais Day, in cooperation with capable noncommissioned officers such as George Mason, Madison Ingoman, and Moses Williams, created an elite and well-disciplined fighting unit that won the respect of all but the most racist whites.

Charles L. Kenner's detailed biographies of officers and enlisted men describe the passions, aspirations, and conflicts that both bound blacks and whites together and pulled them apart. Special attention is given to the ordeals of the three black officers assigned to the Ninth Cavalry, Lieutenants John Alexander and Charles Young and Chaplain Henry Plummer, whose presence directly challenged the doctrine of white supremacy.

The subjects of the biographies, whites and blacks alike, represent every facet of human nature. Heroes, intellectuals, sadists, and poltroons were present in the ranks of both. The best, however, learned that progress could be achieved only by trust and cooperation. Although a resurgency of racism in the 1890s undid much of their progress, they accomplished more than most thought possible and demonstrated that African Americans could be all that soldiers should be.

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Although they have not received the attention lavished on those of their Civil War predecessors, the experiences of black soldiers in the US Army during the last third of the 19th century are in their way equally revealing about matters of race relations and the military. Kenner explores the tale of the Ninth Cavalry, a unit usually overshadowed by its twin, the Tenth. In a detailed narrative buttressed by extensive archival research, he traces the persistence of racial conflict and prejudice by some companies, while highlighting areas where enlightened white officers preferred to evaluate their men by the color of the uniform rather than the color of the man wearing it. Eventually the Ninth became a solid unit, with a handful of black officers; at century's end a resurgent racism nullified much of what had been achieved. Kenner's wide-ranging narrative explores matters of personal conduct as well as professional performance, reminding readers of how little time soldiers spent engaged in campaigns and combat. The result is a telling and revealing portrait of race relations in the army. Upper-division undergraduates and above. B. D. Simpson; Arizona State University

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