Image Ownership: Public domain Isaiah Mays, a Buffalo Soldier awarded the Medal of Honor in 1890 for his actions during the Wham Paymaster Robbery, was born as a slave in Carters Bridge, Virginia, on February 16, 1858. Very little is known about his life other … Read MoreIsaiah Mays (1858-1925)
Tomie Louis Gaines was born on November 3, 1922 to Sally Gaines Glenn and Fred Glenn in Hartwell, Georgia. Gaines served in the early twentieth century with the last of the Buffalo Soldiers, the nineteenth century regiments commissioned immediately after the Civil War. Gaines served … Read MoreTomie Louis Gaines (1922-2016)
First Sergeant Mingo Sanders is best known as one of the leading figures in the Brownsville Affray in Brownsville, Texas in 1906. Sanders was a career soldier with the then-segregated U.S. Army’s 1st Battalion, 25th Infantry, when it was posted at Fort Brown, Texas in … Read MoreMingo Sanders (1857-1929)
Civil rights activist Osceola Enoch (“Mac”) McKaine was born in Sumter, South Carolina on December 17, 1892. In 1908, at the age of 16, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts where he attended classes at Boston College. Later he worked as associate editor of the Cambridge … Read MoreOsceola Enoch McKaine (1892-1955)
The Battle of Carrizal was fought between the Buffalo soldiers of the 10th Cavalry of the United States Army and Mexican army troops on June 21st, 1916. The battle nearly resulted in war between Mexico and the U.S., but with US-German relations souring because of … Read MoreBattle of Carrizal (1916)
Image Ownership: Public Domain Horace Waymon Bivins, a Buffalo Soldier, was born on May 8, 1862, in Accomack County, Virginia. His father Severn S. Bivins and his mother Elizabeth Bivins were free black farmers on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. His parents taught Bivins to farm, and … Read MoreHorace W. Bivins (1862-1937)
Nineteenth Century African American soldiers who served in the Western United States have generally been known a “Buffalo Soldiers.” In this article, however, military historian Frank N. Schubert, challenges modern popular perceptions of the soldiers, among them the significance of their name and the nature … Read MoreThe Myth of the Buffalo Soldiers
Edward “Sancho” Mozique was born a slave June 10, 1849, in Columbia, South Carolina. The family, a mother and six siblings, lived as slaves in Spartanburg, South Carolina between 1851 and the end of the Civil War. Now free, they returned to Columbia. Mozique believed … Read MoreEdward “Sancho” Mozique (1849-1951)
John Ralph Lyons was born February 22, 1888 in Lewistown, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania to James Levi and Harriet (Baptist) Lyons. His father was a barber and musician. He had four brothers and two sisters, and his mother died in childbirth when he was a teenager. … Read MoreJohn Ralph Lyons (1888-1941)
Anita Scott Coleman was a relatively unknown but important western contributor to the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico in 1890, Coleman’s mother, Mary Ann, met her father, William Henry Scott, near Fort Elliott, Texas where he served as a buffalo soldier. He retired … Read MoreAnita Scott Coleman (1890-1960)
