The Buffalo Soldiers

[txstate]

Visit the buffalo solider museum in Houston, very interesting place in Houston's 3rd ward.

[Taiko]

Originally Posted by noetsi

The 9th and 10th US were arguably the best cavalry regiments in the American Army after the Civil War, but got little attention in film or books because of their race.

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

The 10th was commanded by Benjamin Grierson, an Illinois music teacher who volunteered during the War of the Rebellion and found soldiering to his taste and became a regular after the rebellion. He was a very capable soldier most famous for the raid he led from Tennessee through Mississippi to Baton Rouge during Grant's Vicksburg campaign.

John Ford not only made a picture about Grierson's Raid called The Horse Soldiers but made a picture about the 9th Cavalry called Sgt. Rutledge with Woody Strode as Rutledge. The picture also had Billie Burke who'd played Glinda in The Wizard of Oz.

I'd say in ranking of Indian fighting cavalry units Ranald MacKenzie's 4th would be high on the list, maybe tops.

By the 60s they were turning up in TV Westerns. An episode of Rawhide and one of The High Chaparral. Along with Buffalo Soldier veterans characters turning up on the other big westerns. Later a 1979 TV movie. There have been a few low budget movies, especially from the blaxpoitation film era, of segregated units in WWII, but in the movie about the Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Go For Broke, instead of having the 442 attached to the "Colored" 92 Infantry Division "Buffalo Soldiers" they were attached to Texan's saving the secondary racial fight for recognition for a later date.

[Mr. In-Between]

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

The 10th was commanded by Benjamin Grierson, an Illinois music teacher who volunteered during the War of the Rebellion and found soldiering to his taste and became a regular after the rebellion. He was a very capable soldier most famous for the raid he led from Tennessee through Mississippi to Baton Rouge during Grant's Vicksburg campaign.

Grierson was one of the most fascinating characters of the Civil War, IMO. Not only was he a music teacher by profession, he hated horses because one had kicked him in the head when he was a child, but became one of the foremost cavalry commanders of the Civil War.

I think it was Grant who said that "Grierson's Raid" was the most brilliant campaign of the war. Grierson took 1700 men, led them 800 miles through 3 Confederate states, and ran rings around the entire Confederate Army. They had entire divisions chasing him because they had no idea where he was until he appeared out of nowhere and burned something down or tore it up. He drew so many rebel troops into the chase, they didn't have enough left to defend against Grant's assault of Vicksburg. The man destroyed 2 entire Confederate railroads, and lost only 3 of his men in the entire campaign while inflicting as many as 600 casualties on the rebs. An absolutely amazing feat, by a music teacher who hated horses.