The Black Regulars 1866-1898 by Dobak and Phillips

The Black Regulars 1866-1898 by Dobak and Phillips

Introduction

Plains Indians used to call the black men of the ninth and tenth Cavalry regiments and the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth Infantry regiments "buffalo soldiers" (Dobak & Phillips, 2001). Infantrymen and troopers, a number of them slaves in the past, supposedly took up the name with arrogance and pride while they crusaded on the Western frontier between the Spanish-American and Civil wars (Dobak & Phillips, 2001). However, that supposition has been challenged by well known historians Thomas D. Phillips and William A. Dobak in their book “The Black Regulars 1866-1898.” The expression achieved an extensive circulation by means of Frederic Remington, who utilized it in a magazine article's title in the year 1889. Though, its recognition seems to have been restricted to journalists only. Soldiers who discussed military life in their letters to black newspapers did not point out the expression, and the men appeared to have utilized the word 'buffalo' merely as an offense or insult (Dobak & Phillips, 2001). The black recruited men who prepared and combated on the post-Civil War Western frontier got their orders first and foremost from white officers. Thus, the authors Phillips and Dobak attempted to have the black soldiers narrate their own chronicle. Since a number of them were uneducated, journals and newspaper letters are scarce, however; as a result the authors have depended a lot on the correspondence of official Army, court-martial transcripts and pension applications. The authors present a thought-provoking, well-documented, highly readable, if controversial description of army life on the border. They are not writing revisionist times gone by; however they did arrive at a number of conclusions that could turn a few heads: thus the Black regiments were not methodically singled out against and provided horses and sub-par equipment; and low desertion rates and high re-enlistment did not push the black regiments into “cream of the crop” units of the military. Hence the book “The Black Regulars 1866-1898”provide plenty interest on the subject of often-forgotten characteristics of the nineteenth century U.S. army.

Discussion

Dobak and Phillips look at both cavalry and infantry units to draw together all characteristics of African American services in the United States Army between 1866 and 1898. In doing so, they amend two historical declarations: that the Army's bureau (ordnance, commissary, and quartermaster) discriminated in opposition to black regiments, and that the outstanding reenlistment rates of blacks made their units best, with very effective, extremely professional and experienced people. With wide-ranging documentation derived from archival research counting pension, service, court-martial records, letters, memoirs and newspaper articles, the authors present persuasive facts that the Army as an institute did not exhibit prejudice in opposition to African Americans, however that the civilians and individual service members did show evidence of discrimination. They also made obvious that while the rates of black reenlistment were outstanding, the unit performance was comparable to white units, and therefore the black units had to prevail over scarcities of literate and skilled ...