Episode Details

In 1866 Congress authorized the first peacetime all-Black regiments, the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry, with Black enlisted men under white officers. This episode covers competing origin stories for the name Buffalo Soldiers, from Cheyenne, Comanche and Apache accounts to the bison coats worn on winter patrols. They made up about 20 percent of the cavalry and 10 percent of the infantry in the West, built outposts and telegraph lines, escorted the mail, and were sent into the Colfax County and Johnson County range wars, where the 9th Cavalry replaced a white unit that had failed to restore order.

From 1899, troops of the 24th Infantry and 9th Cavalry patrolled Yosemite, Sequoia and General Grant National Parks, built the first trail to Mount Whitney's summit, and wore the creased Montana peak hat later adopted by park rangers. Captain Charles Young served as acting superintendent of Sequoia in 1903. The episode then turns to the Philippine-American War, where some Black soldiers deserted, the 1917 Camp Logan mutiny in Houston and the hanging of 19 soldiers, John J. Pershing's World War I decisions, and desegregation under Executive Order 9981.

• Buffalo Soldiers received 23 Medals of Honor, less than four percent of those awarded in the era.
• A shootout with Texas cowboys at the St. James Hotel during the Colfax County War left three soldiers dead.
• A detachment of the 9th and 10th Cavalry taught riding to West Point cadets from 1907 to 1947.
• David Fagan deserted in the Philippines and became a captain leading Filipino guerrillas.
• In November 2023 the Army overturned the convictions of 110 soldiers court-martialed after Camp Logan.