“Negroes had little, at the turn of the century, to help sustain
our faith in ourselves except the pride that we took in the
Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth
infantry … They were our Ralph Bunche, Marian Anderson, Joe
Louis and Jackie Robinson.” –Prof. Rayford Logan, Howard
University, Washington, D.C. It remains a mystery why the
Indians called the Black cavalrymen Buffalo Soldiers. Some say
it was because the men were rugged as buffalo; others say it was
because the Indians saw a resemblance between the soldiers’ hair
and the buffalo’s shaggy coat. Also, many of the soldiers wore
long buffalo robe coats. The name was primarily applied to the
cavalry but sometimes included the Black infantry. The infantry,
Black and White, were also called “Walk-a Heaps.” More than
180,000 Blacks served in the Union Army and of these more than
33,000 died. After the war, the future of Blacks in the Army was
not certain. In 1866 Congress passed legislation establishing
two cavalry and four infantry