b'All Over continued from page 45actions in 1898 and 1916, when the frontier fightingFor Black Americans who enlisted in the frontier Army, army was practically no more. there were several issues that caused them to join. One was the sickening prejudice they still experienced in the ENLISTMENT: South after the Civil War; a second would be gratitude to For many of the native-born men, like James Parker,the Union Army; and a third would be, as in the case of it was graduation from West Point and an automaticso many others, better opportunities. The men of the 9th lieutenant\'s commission in Colonel Mackenzie\'s 4thand 10th Cavalry would be later known as the "Buffalo Cavalry, reporting to his new command at Fort Sill inSoldiers" due to the Indian\'s description of their hair the Oklahoma Territory (James Parker, The Old Army,reminding them of that seen on a buffalo.Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, (reprint) 2003, p.13). Or a Lieutenant Hugh Scott, who arrivedAs one of those Buffalo Soldiers who join the cavalry at a certain fort in North Dakota in the mid-summerwould state after his time in the army had come to of 1876 to join the 7th Cavalry as a replacement foran end, "I got tired of looking mules in the face from one of the lieutenants killed at Little Big Horn. Scottsunrise to sunset. Thought there must be a better livin\' in ended up "occupying the drawing-room of the quartersthis world" (Clifton Cox, The Forgotten Heroes, Scholastic just vacated by the grieving Mrs. George A. Custer, sheBooks, New York, 1993, p. 7).departing from Fort Abraham Lincoln to live out almost sixty years expressing reverence for her husband" (GeneUnfortunately, for those black soldiers of the 10th Smith, Until the Last Trumpet Sounds, John Wiley andCavalry stationed in Texas, the prejudices of the white Sons, New York, 1998, p.150). Days, Bobbs and Merrill, Indianapolis, 1925, pp. 111- settlers were as virulent and violent as anything they 113, 130-147). had experienced in the South. During a particularly There was also a certain first captain of cadets at thebad incident in San Angelo, a town that was close to Point, class of 1886, who on one very hot summer day inAs for the junior officers and the enlisted men, many ifthe 10th Cavalry station at Fort Concho, Black troopers 1885 took out the entire cadet corps to stand at attentionnot most were Civil War veterans who chose to stay on,rushed into a town after one of their number had been at a railroad siding along the Hudson as a certain slow- hoping to serve long enough to eke out a pension onhumiliated by a gang of whites. A gun battle erupted, moving train came down the tracks. It was the trainwhich they could live on in their declining years. It wasand when the smoke cleared one of the mob and one of bearing the body of the former general of the Army andnot too surprising to note former brigadier generals andthe Buffalo Soldiers lie dead on the ground. The Texas 18th President of the United States U.S. Grant, to itscolonels of the Union Army serving on as lieutenantsRangers were summoned to Fort Concho, where they final resting place. This certain captain of cadets himselfand captains, even a few who held commissions endeddemanded that Sergeant George Goldsby be arrested would, like Grant, eventually become commander of theup in the rank and file. for arming his men and inciting a riot but the 10th\'s Army. But at that time, John J. Pershing was anticipatingcommander, Colonel Benjamin Grierson, one of the graduation and service at a dusty fort on the plainsGene Smith, in his outstanding biography of GeneralUnion Cavalry\'s most exalted officers during the Civil (Smith, Until the Last Trumpet Sounds, p. 23). John J. Pershing, wrote, "Anyone above the rank ofWar and a man who liked and sympathized with his lieutenant was a Civil War veteran spinning out theBlack troops, refused to hand him over. Still, Goldsby For others like Homer W. Wheeler, who had served withlong years since the days when the army was the Boyschose to desert rather than be tried in a Texas court. His distinction as a scout during the battle at Sappa Creekin Blue who saved the Union. One could be vergingtwo-year-old son grew into adolescence without a father in the Red River War, it was the recommendations ofon forty years\' service, have commanded a regiment- and would become one of the West\'s most notorious his commanders, including General John Pope, thenat Gettysburg (as Colonel John Brooke did. Brookeoutlaws - Clifford "Cherokee Bill" Goldsby.commander of the Department of the Missouri. Wheelerwould eventually attain the rank of major general was automatically commissioned a 2nd lieutenant,after service during the Indian Wars and the Spanish- Other Black troopers of the 10th were beaten, and after briefly serving in an infantry unit, he wasAmerican War when he commanded a brigade in Puertothreatened, and at least three more men were killed also transferred to Mackenzie\'s 4th just in time to seeRico - my notes) while holding temporary wartimebefore the men of the 10th had had enough. They action in the attack upon the encampment of Chief Dullrank, led charges at Lookout Mountain or seen Lee atwent back into San Angelo, and distributed a circular Knife and his Cheyenne warriors, many of whom wereAppomattox - and now be a gray-haired captain eachthroughout the town. It read "We, the soldiers of the veterans of the Custer fight, in the freezing cold of amorning inspecting horses\' hooves" (Smith, Until theU.S. Army, do hereby warn the first and last time all Montana winter (Colonel Homer W. Wheeler, BuffaloLast Trumpet Sounds, p.27). citizens and cowboys, etc., of San Angelo and vicinity to recognize our right of way as just and peaceful men. If we do not receive justice and fair play, which we must have, some will suffer - if not the guilty the innocent. It has gone too far. Justice or death. Signed U.S. Soldiers" (Cox, The Forgotten Heroes, pp. 115-116).Unfortunately, Black troopers in the segregated army would face additional prejudices, insults, and miscarriages of justice well into the beginning of the 20th century and thereafter, in some cases even at the hands of those who sympathized with them. There was the notorious case of Lieutenant Henry O. Flipper, the first Black graduate of West Point. Flipper was court-martialed by his colonel, William Rufus "Pecos Bill" Shafter (who later became the commander of 5th Army Corps in the Spanish-American War) on a dubious charge of embezzlement. Even Grierson had the men who had written the circular arrested - even though he would later release them, and Theodore Roosevelt, who served alongside "Black Jack" Pershing and the 10th Cavalry at San Juan Hill, would, as president, later court-martial an entire regiment of soldiers, some of whom had fought side-by-side with him in Cuba, in the aftermath of the Brownsville riots.For Black Americans who enlisted in the frontier Army, there were several issues The experiences of the white foreign-born recruits were vastly different. Many of them, like the Dane that caused them to join. One was the sickening prejudice they still experienced Chris Madsen, had already seen service in foreign in the South after the Civil War; a second would be gratitude to the Union Army; armies. Madsen would come to America, enlist in the 5th Cavalry serving alongside Buffalo Bill, and then and a third would be, as in the case of so many others, better opportunities. change careers to become one of the famed "Oklahoma Guardsmen" suppressing the Doolin-Dalton Gang. But 46 April 2020'