Buffalo Soldiers Museum example essay topic

Buffalo Soldiers The Buffalo Soldiers Museum has been opened approximately for 4 years now. The purpose of the museum is to explain the history and outstanding contributions the buffalo soldiers have made for the United States of America. The Buffalo Soldiers represented the first black professional solders in a peacetime army. The recruits came from several backgrounds including former slaves and veterans from service in the Civil War. These African Americans have served proudly in every great American war. In 1866, they created six African American army units.

The units were identified as the 9th and 10th cavalry and the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st infantry regiments. The white officers served with these regiments because the army would not let blacks command any troops. The Buffalo Soldiers were around many thousands of people of every race who helped to build the United. These soldiers were Americans serving their country. The soldiers served there country with pride when their country treated them unfairly for there skin color The Native Americans discovered the nickname for the soldiers. The Soldiers wore thick, furry buffalo hides in the wintertime.

They were wrapped up with their dark skin and curly hair they reminded the Indians of buffalo's. Also the Native Americans admired the strong and buffalo. The Buffalo Soldiers accepted their nickname with pride. The Buffalo Soldiers Museum had an exhibits demonstrating how the soldiers dressed. During that period the Buffalo Soldiers wore flannel shirts and a blouse of dark blue with light blue trousers tucked into over the knee boots.

The Buffalo Soldiers dressed for comfort in the filed. Most of the soldiers rode in their blue flannel shits. Some soldiers take off their shirts and ride in their gray knit undershirts. One of the common hats worn was a gray felt hat.

Also, the civil war hat adorned with crossed sabers bearing regimental and troop designation. All the soldiers were armed with a 45- 70 rifle, a Cold Army 45, caliber pistol and a saber. The horse was outfitted with slouch campaign hat, black then a light grayish brown. The Buffalo Soldiers didn't have neckerchief but they wore one of there own color of choice. They sometimes had yellow more often than red or white.

Each piece of the uniform was important especially for the men riding further back in the column needing protection from thick clouds of dust kicked up by the horses. The Buffalo Soldiers Museum also had amazing paintings of the Soldiers in War. Each painting told a story. One painting shows a band of Buffalo Soldiers riding together on a patrol. The soldiers were riding across the Great Plains from the Dakotas to Texas, from Kansas to the Rocky Mountains the Buffalo Soldiers defend people, settlements, and livestock. In this painting the soldiers were patrolling the western deserts.

They searched for outlaws who preyed upon the frontier dwellings. Another painting depicts a young Buffalo Soldier and a Seminole Indian Scout on the western plains. One last painting I looked at shows San Juan Hill with black and white soldiers together seizing the hill on a muggy, hot July day back in 1898. The 24th Infantry Regiment was organized in 1869 after the combing of two other black units, 38th and 41st Infantry Regiments. For more than twenty years, the unit occupied military post in the southwest, protecting and maintaining peace on the unrest frontier. The members of the regiment built roads, guarded stage stations, constructed and repaired telegraph lines, guarded waterholes, and took out supply trains, survey parties, freight wagons and mail coaches, was well as performing scouting patrols.

For the 25th Infantry Regiment it was organized at Jackson Barracks, Louisiana in April 1868, and composed of personnel from the all Black 39th and 40th Infantry Regiments. Most of the enlisted men came mostly from northern Virginia and Southern Louisiana, and all were seasoned union veterans. The regiment only spent a short time at Jackson Barracks before moving to the Texas frontier. For the month of May and June of 1870, the entire regiment went into camp for the last time as a unit for many years to come after which they were scattered to numerous posts in West Texas.

They established and operated a lumber camp and sawmill, managed food and supply routes, build roads, buildings, telegraph lines, and carried out scouting functions while engaging in conflicts with numerous warring factions. In the 1930's, most African American soldiers performed only care taking jobs. The 10th cavalry was stationed at Fort Leavenworth. Fort Leavenworth, like other Army posts at that time was segregated.

Black and white soldiers lived in separate quarters. The men of this regiment had fought with honor, bravery and skills, now worked as carpenters, clerks, cooks and mechanics. The buffalo Soldiers would take pride in their work, but they felt discouraged that the Army overlooked their abilities.