Spanish-American War Buffalo Soldiers

    Congressman Joe Wheeler volunteered to organize and command the Cavalry Division of the 5^th Corps during the Spanish American War of 1898. According to his daughter, Miss Annie Wheeler, he made the offer to serve on the morning of February 16, 1898, less than twelve hours after the USS Maine exploded in the harbor at Havana, Cuba. President McKinley accepted this offer of service on April 26 and Major General Wheeler was sent to Chickamauga, GA to begin organizing the cavalry division. Within a couple of days of his arrival, the cavalry units were ordered to report to Tampa, Florida in preparation for departure to Cuba. Setting sail from Tampa, Florida on June 14 1898, General Wheeler commanded a force of 2980 men consisting of five Regular and one Volunteer Cavalry Regiments.

    At the conclusion of the war, while stationed at Camp Wikoff at Montauk Point, Long Island, New York, General Wheeler spoke to the men of the Cavalry Division of the 5^th Corps at the mustering out ceremony on 7 September 1898 saying:

"The valor displayed by you was not without sacrifice. Eighteen per cent, or nearly one in five, of the cavalry division fell on the field either killed or wounded. We mourn the loss of these heroic dead, and a grateful country will always revere their memory.

"Whatever may be my fate, wherever my steps may lead, my heart will always burn with increasing admiration for your courage in action, your fortitude under privation, and your constant devotion to duty in its highest sense, whether in battle, in bivouac, or upon the march."

    General Wheeler later wrote that the cavalry's losses while in Cuba were higher than those sustained by any other division. Their losses, he wrote, were even higher than either the British or French in the Battle of Waterloo, again reinforcing his claim of exceptional bravery and heroism on the part of the men of the 5^th Corps Cavalry Division.

    The units under General Wheeler’s command consisted of the 1^st, 3^rd, 6^th, 9^th and 10^th Regular and the 1^st U.S. Volunteer Cavalries. Former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt resigned from office to help organize the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, a somewhat ragtag group of Ivy League and Cowboy Rodeo types, which was to become known as the Rough Riders.

    Two of the Regular Cavalry Regiments, the 9^th and 10^th, were the legendary "Buffalo Soldiers," African-American units formed in 1866 under a new law authorizing the creation of black cavalry and infantry units. For thirty-two years, the men of the 9^th and 10^th had fought in the Indian Wars in the west, taking part in almost 200 major and minor engagements. Indians gave the name "Buffalo Soldiers" to the men, first as a way of comparing their hair to that of the buffalo, but later as a sign of respect for their bravery and perseverance. Fourteen buffalo soldiers were awarded medals of honor, the army’s highest award for bravery.

Troopers of the 9th and 10th Cavalries at Camp Wikoff, following the Cuban Expedition

    The Buffalo Soldiers comprised a full 39% of the regular cavalrymen under General Wheeler’s command. At the outbreak of the Spanish American War, the 9^th and 10^th Cavalries consisted of 875 African-American soldiers. The two cavalries also included 42 officers who, by law, had to be white. Buffalo Soldiers were the first to reach the crest of San Juan Hill. Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders rushed from adjacent Kettle Hill to join the fighting on San Juan Hill after the Buffalo Soldiers were engaging Spanish forces along the crest.

    The turn of the twentieth century was marked by rapidly growing racial tension and hostility. Many examples can be found of attempts to discredit the service of African-American soldiers during the Spanish American War. For example, after of the battle of San Juan Hill, Col. Roosevelt stopped two black cavalrymen as they moved to the rear. Roosevelt accused the men of cowardice and ordered them, under threat of being shot, back to the front, whereupon he learned that they were under orders to get shovels and other implements to help dig fortifications for the expected Spanish counter-attack. Roosevelt apologized to the men for not believing their story and hands were shaken all around. Two months later, at the ceremony disbanding the 5^th Corps Cavalry Division at Camp Wikoff, Montauk Pt, N.Y., Col. Roosevelt shook hands and said farewell to every member of the Rough Riders as well as those of the 9^th and 10^th Cavalries.

    Imagine the Buffalo Soldier’s sense of dismay when, after the war, Roosevelt retold the incident at San Juan Hill in "The Rough Riders" as:

"Under the strain the colored infantrymen (who had none of their white officers) began to get a little uneasy and drift to the rear… This I could not allow."

    As commander of the Cavalry Division, General Wheeler made no racial distinctions in his praise of the men under his command. In his after action report following the battle of Las Guasimas, June 26, 1898, General Wheeler wrote:

"I was immediately with the troops of the 1^st and 10^th Regular Cavalry, dismounted, and personally noticed their brave and good conduct…"

    Following the protocol of the day, on July 25^th General Wheeler recommended to the Secretary of War promotions for officers of the 10^th Cavalry, recognizing the officers for the performance of the men under their command. This was unusual in the following respects: 1) most such recommendations singled out actions of individual officers rather than actions of the entire unit under their command, 2) this was the only such recommendation to be included in General Wheeler’s personal account of the war and, 3) it contained a rather strongly worded statement attacking the stigma placed on those white officers assigned to the black regiments.

    When asked to compare the Rough Riders performance with that of the regular units, including that of the Buffalo Soldiers, General Wheeler responded that the Rough Riders "were brave, determined, and chivalrous men, but the truth impels me to say that in effectiveness in battle they could not be expected to be equal to trained regular soldiers."

    Others were more direct in their praise of the Buffalo Soldiers. A young Rough Rider, Frank Knox, wrote

"… in justice to the colored race, I must say that I never saw braver men anywhere! Some of those who rushed up the Hill will live in my memory forever."

Frank Knox, was to become Secretary of the Navy during WWII.

    A young lieutenant, a white officer assigned to the 10^th, wrote of the battles in Cuba:

"White regiments, black regiments, regulars and Rough Riders, representing the young manhood of the North and South, fought shoulder to shoulder, unmindful of race or color, unmindful of whether commanded by an ex-Confederate or not, and mindful only of their common duty as Americans."

This young officer was John J. (Black Jack) Pershing, who later commanded the U.S. Forces in Europe in WWI.