MOORE’S LAW

Trooper Wallace C. Moore is a retired United States Army Sergeant Major. He is a cowboy poet, western reenactor, and an interpreter of history specific to African Americans during the Indian War period. He has been a living history interpreter of the Buffalo Soldiers at the Fort Sill National Historic Landmark and Museum for more than thirty years and took us on a tour of Fort Sill steeped in his knowledge of the impact of Buffalo Soldiers here.

Q: We’re here at Fort Sill. Could you tell me about where we’re standing now?

A: This is the Old Post Quadrangle. That’s what it’s called. This is the handiwork of the Buffalo Soldiers. So you have a hard time telling the Buffalo Soldier story without talking a little bit about this. They did all construction. All the labor. In 1869, the spring of that year, three regiments came here. They were the 19th Kansas, the 7th Cavalry under Custer—and of course the 10th Cavalry,

Ulysses S. Grant—then a war hero and eventually the president—telegraphed two division commanders in August 1866 with instructions that they organize a regiment of black cavalry in their divisions. So the 9th and 10th U.S. Cavalry were born, with the former established in Greenville, Louisiana, and the latter in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Despite this, racism and discrimination continued apace. Black veterans often were victims of violence during this time, and unemployment for blacks was very high, especially in the South. The army was an attractive alternative for many men, and now, their pay was equal to the white rank and file.

The 9th and 10th came into existence at the beginning of a twenty-year period of unceasing warfare, law enforcement, and hard labor in the Indian, Arizona, and New Mexico territories. Buffalo Soldiers regularly had to work with wornout horses and equipment that barely which was black soldiers. The end result was that General Sheridan put his camp down here on Medicine Bluff Creek. At first, it looked like that's what the Buffalo Soldiers were going to be used for: just a large labor force.

Q: How did the Buffalo Soldiers—the troops we remember today—emerge from that labor force?

A: It wasn’t African Americans who were pushing the Buffalo Soldier idea. It functioned, received as hand-me-downs from white regiments. But by August 1867, three companies of the 10th Cavalry were stationed in Indian Territory. The remaining companies joined them in 1869, and they were charged with protecting the Five “Civilized” Tribes, building forts, and maintaining order, which often set them against Indigenous people. The summer of 1870 brought an increased number of attacks near Fort Supply and Fort Dodge, Kansas. That June, a large group of Comanche warriors stole some horses from Fort Supply, only to find themselves in a losing battle with the 10th.

In total, Buffalo Soldiers participated in at least 177 conflicts, comprising almost 20 percent of the U.S. Cavalry troops during the Indian Wars. Nineteen of them earned medals of honor for fighting against Indigenous warriors between 1870 and 1890.

Soldiers of the 10th also removed Boomers from the territory—and often was whites. So when I tell the Buffalo Soldier history, I include white people. The reason I do is because, without certain white people putting their careers on the line, the Buffalo Soldier project would never have gotten off the ground.

In 1886, Allen Allensworth had the distinction of being the first black soldier to earn the rank of lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army.

Q: In your collection of poems, Ebony Horse Soldier , you not only talk about the heroism the Buffalo Soldiers demonstrated but also about the more difficult aspects of their service—daily hardship, loneliness, early death. What should we know about those darker parts of Buffalo Soldier life? And how did black soldiers confront the challenges they faced daily?

A: The biggest problem they had was garrison life. And, of course, where the post was built. The reason that there were always black soldiers here—there’s nothing else here. There was no Lawton. There was no civilian community. There was nobody to complain. There was no place for them to clash with white civilians when doing their off duty, as they did in Texas. Everything outside of Fort Sill was Indian Country. It was a lonely life. Blacks did something then that we don’t do real well today. That is co-op and look out for each other—necessity demanded that blacks in the cavalry and infantry stick together. Therefore, we had a low AWOL rate. You got a problem, somebody could help you resolve it: “Don’t run away. Don’t commit suicide. Let’s sit down and talk about this and figure it out. We’re all on your side. We’re all in this together.” prevented them from entering altogether. These mostly white settlers, who had campaigned for the land to be opened before the passage of the 1889 Indian Appropriations Act, often crossed the Kansas border to illegally stake claims. In 1872, the 10th Cavalry moved from Fort Sill to Fort Gibson in part to keep Boomers out and to drive away the ones who had already arrived. This work kept the Buffalo Soldiers increasingly busy, and in 1879, the swarms of intruders included hundreds of black Americans. In the summer of 1880, six companies of the 10th Cavalry were placed at the Kansas border. In the mid-1880s, more than two thousand Boomers streamed across the border, a migration crisis that taxed those six companies to their limit—and caused an explosion of racist sentiment and action. One Boomer referred to a black officer as “one of a litter of mud turtles born of a Negro woman.”

Henry Ossian Flipper became an officer in the 10th Cavalry only to be dishonorably discharged in 1882. More than a century later, he was pardoned by President Bill Clinton.

Another black officer, Chaplain Allen Allensworth, came to Fort Supply in 1886 assigned to the 24th Infantry. Allensworth believed black soldiers needed an education to work skillfully, so he taught U.S. History and English at the post and created a whole curriculum for black soldiers. Allensworth and Flipper were the only two commissioned black officers to serve in Indian Territory, but they were by no means the only notable black soldiers.

Buffalo Soldiers participated in at least 177 conflicts, comprising almost 20 percent of the U.S. Cavalry troops during the Indian Wars.

AMONG THE MOST notable Buffalo Soldiers in Indian Territory during this time was Second Lieutenant Henry Ossian Flipper, who in 1877 was the first black graduate of West Point. Flipper was assigned as an officer in the 10th Cavalry based at Fort Sill. There, he designed and constructed a drainage system—known as Flipper’s Ditch—that vanquished a malaria outbreak. He was transferred to Fort Davis, Texas, where he served until 1881.

At Fort Davis, Flipper was accused of embezzling commissary funds. He was acquitted at his court martial, but he was convicted of conduct unbecoming of an officer and dismissed from the army. He spent the next few years fighting to clear his name while working as an engineer and an expert in Spanish and Mexican land law. He died in 1940, but the army granted him an honorable discharge in 1976. President Bill Clinton granted him a full pardon in 1999.

Cathay Williams was the only female Buffalo Soldier and the first African American woman to serve in the U.S. Army. Williams was enslaved as a house servant in Jefferson City, Missouri, when Union soldiers took control of the city in 1861. As she was considered contraband at that point, she took a support role as a cook and washerwoman with the army. She then posed as a male to enlist, using the name William Cathay, and was only discovered to be a woman during a hospitalization due to complications from smallpox. She was honorably discharged.

Soldiers were no longer as needed in Indian Territory, and the 9th and 10th cavalries, along with the 24th and 25th infantries, were reassigned to Florida in the 1890s to engage in the brewing Spanish-American conflict that would, in 1898, erupt into full-blown war.

In this conflict, Buffalo Soldiers saw action—and continued to prove their valor—at the Battle of San Juan Hill, the Battle of El Caney, and the Battle of Las Guasimas. The 9th and 10th also served in the Philippines and were assigned to protect the Mexican border during World War I. But both the 9th and 10th were demilitarized in 1944, and in 1948, President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981, which eliminated racial segregation across the U.S. military. But the legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers continues to speak across the years. They had the lowest military court-martial and desertion rates of their era, and several of them received the Congressional Medal of Honor for their service. After leaving the army, many acquired better jobs, purchased land, built homes, and were able to access higher education thanks to their service. Others—including some in Oklahoma—were lynched, confirming once again that their journey toward equal citizenship had yet to end.

Cabin Creek Battlefield

› 442370 E 367 Road in Big Cabin

› okhistory.org/sites/cabincreek

Honey Springs Battlefield

› 423159 E 1030 Road in Checotah

› (918) 617-7125

› okhistory.org/sites/honeysprings

Fort Sill National Historic Landmark and Museum

› Preregistration is required before visiting.

THE END OF the nineteenth century saw a decimation of Indigenous people across the country and the creation of Indian boarding schools, reservations, agencies, and the Indian Bureau. As a result, the Buffalo

› sill-www.army.mil/vcc

Fort Gibson Historic Site

› 907 North Garrison Avenue in Fort Gibson

› (918) 478-4088

› okhistory.org/sites/fortgibson