Show notes
Trooper John "JR" Bruce, President, and George Pettigrew, Executive Vice President of the Alexander/Madison Chapter, Kansas City Buffalo Soldiers and 9th & 10th (Horse) Cavalry Association, join Radio Active Magazine regular Spencer Graves to discuss their work to create a new "Frontier Museum" at Fort Leavenworth to honor all those who served in those units stationed at and out of Fort Leavenworth in the nineteenth century development of the Western US. This includes the famed 10th Cavalry Regiment, all Black enlisted men with White officers, first raised at Fort Leavenworth on September 21, 1866, as a result of the Army Reorganization Act of 1866 passed by Congress. These soldiers fell under the command of Colonel Benjamin Grierson who remained their commander for the next 20 years.
The US Army Reorganization Act of 1866 authorized four new cavalry regiments and eight new companies of infantry, with two cavalry (9th and 10th) and four infantry regiments (38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st) being all colored with white officers. In 1869, another act of congress consolidated the 38th and 41st into the 24th and the 39th and 40th into the 25th infantry regiments. The Plains Indians, who fought these African American units, called them "Buffalo Soldiers". That name was applied first to the 10th Cavalry, then later to the 9th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantries.[4]
When the 10th Cavalry was formed, the commander of Fort Leavenworth, Colonel William Hoffman, was openly opposed to African-Americans serving in the Regular Army. He made life difficult for the new troops;1 the other African American regiments were formed elsewhere. The commander of the 10th Cavalry, Colonel Benjamin Grierson, asked to have his regiment transferred. His request was approved, and the 10th Cavalry moved to Fort Riley, Kansas 1967, August 6 and 7.
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William Hoffman was breveted to Major General during the Civil War. However, when he was the garrison commander at Fort Leavenworth, he was a Colonel, according to Michael H. Hoffman, "William Hoffman’s Encounters with History: His Brief but Enduring Role in the Clara Barton Office Story", National Museum of Civil War Medicine, 2017-06-16 (https://www.civilwarmed.org/surgeons-call/hoffman/).
Copyright 2023-2024, George Pettigrew, John "JR" Bruce, and Spencer Graves, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license.
The US Army Reorganization Act of 1866 authorized four new cavalry regiments and eight new companies of infantry, with two cavalry (9th and 10th) and four infantry regiments (38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st) being all colored with white officers. In 1869, another act of congress consolidated the 38th and 41st into the 24th and the 39th and 40th into the 25th infantry regiments. The Plains Indians, who fought these African American units, called them "Buffalo Soldiers". That name was applied first to the 10th Cavalry, then later to the 9th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantries.[4]
When the 10th Cavalry was formed, the commander of Fort Leavenworth, Colonel William Hoffman, was openly opposed to African-Americans serving in the Regular Army. He made life difficult for the new troops;1 the other African American regiments were formed elsewhere. The commander of the 10th Cavalry, Colonel Benjamin Grierson, asked to have his regiment transferred. His request was approved, and the 10th Cavalry moved to Fort Riley, Kansas 1967, August 6 and 7.
_______
William Hoffman was breveted to Major General during the Civil War. However, when he was the garrison commander at Fort Leavenworth, he was a Colonel, according to Michael H. Hoffman, "William Hoffman’s Encounters with History: His Brief but Enduring Role in the Clara Barton Office Story", National Museum of Civil War Medicine, 2017-06-16 (https://www.civilwarmed.org/surgeons-call/hoffman/).
Copyright 2023-2024, George Pettigrew, John "JR" Bruce, and Spencer Graves, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license.