by African American, Buffalo Soldiers
[Buffalo Soldiers] [WWI] Archive of 13 stereoviews of African American Buffalo Soldiers including the 367th and 24th Infantry, 8th Regiment, and 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments participating in WWI's Western Front and Spanish-American War. Locations feature New York--Tuskagee, Alabama--Chickamanga Park, Georgia--Georgetown, South Carolina--Florida--Mariposa Grove, California-- Camp Alger, Virginia--and Marseilles, France. Many photographs show African American troops training at camp, in combat, and participating in parades and reviews, published by various makers including Keystone View Company, F.J. Jarvis, Strohmeyer & Wyman, and Griffith & Griffith. Each stereoview is titled in the lower margin of the mount. One highlighted title includes "Colored Veterans of the 15th Regt., 369th Infantry, Marching up Fifth Avenue, New York City" where they were nicknamed the "Black Watch" as they don decorations of the United States, France, and Britain for bravery under fire. Colonel Hayward was praised for their harrowing three month battle against a French sector on their own in the summer of 1918. Three photos feature the 8th Regiment of the Illinois National Guard, the first all-Black National Guard unit. One titled "Roosevelt Guard - A Company of Colored Troops, 8th Regiment" shows the troop of African soldiers lined up outside a U.S. Army building. The other shows a group of "Litter Bearers" in the medical detachment of the 8th regiment, as they stand in unison holding gurneys with the medic's cross flag, another shows the soldiers geared up and ready to embark on a ship for Cuba. Two photos of the 9th Cavalry regiment show two perspectives of the troops lined up atop horses on a fallen trunk of one of the Monarch trees of the Sequoias. One photo shows the 2nd Battalion E., G., A, and F of the 24th infantry seated with tripods and weaponry stationed at Chickamanga Park, Georgia. An interesting photo titled "The original Buffaloes, 367 Infantry Colored troops--Rifel Practice, Camp Upton, N.Y." shows a troupe of Black soldiers in action as they mimic a battle between one another as other soldiers stand by at the barracks. Another photo is titled "Industrial Parade, Booker Washington School, Tuskegee Ala., Mrs. McKinley in near carriage" which was likely taken after the visit of Spanish American War hero, Rear Admiral Winfield Schley. Minor edgewear to cardboard margins and minor dampstaining, photos and text are mostly crisp and clear. Overall very good condition. A thorough look at the role of African Americans at the turn of the century.
(Inventory #: 20133)