The 9th Cavalry
On August 3, 1866, Gen. Phillip
Sheridan, commander of the Military Division of the Gulf, was authorized
to raise one regiment
of "colored" cavalry that was to be designated the 9th Regiment.
A recruiting office was established in New Orleans, Louisiana and later
that fall, a second office was opened in Louisville, Kentucky. Of the
original recruits, the majority came from these two states and were
veterans of the Civil War. Enlistment was for five years, with recruits
receiving thirteen dollars a month, plus room, board, and clothing.
Col. Edward Hatch was selected
to command the new regiment. Hatch, who was a brevet Major General by
the close of the Civil War, was an able and ambitious officer. He served
admirably in this position until his death in 1889.
Recruitment of White officers
proved to be a serious problem for both the 9th and 10th Cavalries.
Despite enticements of fast promotion, many officers, including George
Armstrong Custer and Frederick Benteen, refused commissions with African-American
units. The following advertisement from the Army and Navy Journal illustrates
the dilemma:
- "A first Lieutenant
of Infantry (white) stationed at a very desirable post.....desires
a transfer with an officer of the same grade, on equal terms if in
a white regiment; but if in a colored regiment, a reasonable bonus
would be expected."
 The
9th Cavalry was ordered to Texas in June of 1867. There it was charged
with protecting stage and mail routes, building and maintaining forts,
and establishing law and order in a vast area full of outlaws, Mexican
revolutionaries, and raiding Comanches, Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Apaches.
To compound their problems, many Texans felt that they were being subjected
to a particularly harsh form of post-war reconstruction by Washington,
and saw the assignment of the Black troopers as a deliberate attempt
by the Union to further humiliate them. As such, the relationship between
the troopers and locals was often at or near the boiling point. Despite
prejudice and the almost impossible task of maintaining some semblance
of order from the Staked Plains to El Paso to Brownsville, the 9th established
themselves as one of the most effective fighting forces in the Army.
The 9th was transferred to the
District of New Mexico during the winter and spring of 1875 and 76.
Over the next six years they were thrust into what had been a 300-year
struggle to subdue the fiercely independent Apaches. In 1874 - sparked
by pressure from greedy contractors supplying the reservations, and
by cattlemen, lumber men, and settlers hungry for Apache land - Washington
approved a policy of concentrating the Apaches on a select few reservations.
Unfortunately, the main reservation
was at San Carlos, Arizona, a
desolate wasteland despised by the Apache. The independent lifestyle
and culture of the Apaches and their hatred of the San Carlos reservation
insured the hostilities that were to come. The renegade Apaches that
periodically fled the reservations were highly skilled horsemen with
a superior knowledge of their ancestral lands. Under the command of
skilled warriors like Skinya, Nana, Victorio, and Geronimo, the Apaches
proved to be an illusive and worthy adversary for both the troopers
of the 9th and later the 10th Cavalries. As 1881 came to a close, the
battle-weary Buffalo Soldiers of the 9th Cavalry had been serving continuously
on the Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona frontiers for 14 years.
 That
November the headquarters of the 9th was transferred to Fort Riley,
Kansas, with portions of the regiment assigned to Fort Sill, Fort Supply,
and Fort Reno in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Over the next four
years, the troopers were primarily concerned with the unpleasant task
of evicting white settlers known as "Boomers," who were attempting
to settle on Indian land. The 9th's unpopular duty continued until the
regiment was transferred to Wyoming in June of 1885. From here companies
were stationed at Fort Robinson and Fort Niobrara, Nebraska, and Fort
Duchesne, Utah.
 In
1891 the 9th was called on to assist in subduing the Sioux in what became
known as the Ghost Dance Campaign. Once rulers of the northern plains,
the Sioux were desolate and poverty stricken on their North and South
Dakota reservations. In 1889 word spread of a messiah - a Paiute named
Wovoka - who had seen through a vision that the ghosts of Plains Indians
would return, bringing with them the buffalo herds slaughtered by the
whites. The new "religion" swept through the Indians, alarming
Dr. D. F. Royer, the newly appointed agent at the Pine Ridge reservation.
Royer over-reacted, pleading for troops to protect him and his staff.
By the end of November, one-half of the U.S. Army was concentrated on
or near the reservations. The Army's show of force was intended to scare
the Sioux into submission. However, many Indians, fearing a massacre,
bolted from the reservations and fled into the Badlands. The subsequent
actions of the Army to pacify and return the Sioux to their reservations
culminated in the massacre of 146 men, women, and children at Wounded
Knee on December 29th. The 9th played no role in the slaughter. This
was to be their last campaign on the frontier.
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