by Buffalo Soldier, Spanish American War
Archive of 7 stereoview photographs of Buffalo Soldiers during WWI. Published by the Keystone View Company. Photos depict the 9th U.S. Cavalry, the 8th Regiment Colored Troops, the 10th Cavalry, the Chicago Regiment of Colored Troops, and the 15th Regiment of the 369th Infantry. We see two shots of the Black troops in machine gun companies, manning the Lewis guns which tore up the battlefield in W.W.I. A light cavalry unit, Troop K of the 10th, is seen on the move on horseback in Camp Chickamauga, GA. W.W.I was the final major conflict where there was a sizable force of soldiers on horseback. Given that many Buffalo soldiers were skilled horsemen due to training in the West and during the Indian Wars, they found themselves in these units. Eventually, armor would take over and the cavalry charge would be a totally outmoded war tactic. Four stereoviews show Buffalo soldiers having returned from the European front, two of which they are marching down grand boulevards such as 5th Avenue in New York. In this moment, they were heroes, but black soldiers still faced widespread discrimination and racism while on duty and certainly after they took their uniforms off and returned to a deeply unequal society. Formed as a segregated African-American unit, the 10th Cavalry was one of the original "Buffalo Soldier" regiments in the post-Civil War Regular Army. It served in combat during the Indian Wars in the western United States, the Spanish-American War in Cuba,[2] Philippine-American War and Mexican Revolution. This black regiment was a trained as a combat unit. In very good condition overall.
(Inventory #: 20502)