I’ve generally regarded the reputation of the Buffalo Soldiers as a sort of historical hype. Not that they were bad, or worse than White cavalry troopers but they are generally described in glowing terms because they were Black, whereas we have no problem objectively assessing White troopers, Custer’s immigrant crew a prime example.
Well, some of the Buffalo Soldiers must have been good, good enough that a 2nd Lt Bullis would lead four of them into a fire fight against five to one odds.
on September 1, 1871, [two years before he would command the Scouts at Ft. Clark] Bullis and four black troopers of the Ninth Cavalry’s M Company encountered a group of 25 or so Indians driving several herds of cattle near Fort McKavett, Texas.
After a fierce fire fight with the hostiles who held the high ground, Bullis found it impossible to dislodge them with the number of men he had with him. Nevertheless, they recovered 200 of the stolen livestock. He ended his report of the action by saying “my men done well.”
Bullis himself would trend to clean-shaven and heavier during his later years, but in the 1870’s was described as Thin and spare…. a small wiry man with a black mustache…. his face burned red as an Indian.”
Black Seminole Scout Joe Phillips later said of Bullis He was a good man…. he look after his men…. he didn’t stand back and say, go yonder; he would say, Come on boys let’s go get ‘em
As to the Black Seminoles, photos taken in the 1880’s show the in regular US Cavalry uniforms, short hair. Upon arrival at Fort Duncan they presented a different appearance. The men usually dressed as they had while living in Florida and Mexico…. clothes good enough for an Indian…. Ebony faces, flat noses, full lips, but with the characteristic high cheekbones of the Indian……. long black crinkly hair…. There was a considerable range of physical strains in the group, from full blooded blacks to those with strong Native American strains.
During their time at Fort Clark, other non-Seminole individuals were added to the Scoutd…. Trinidad Mariscal, a Mexican, married to a Black Seminole…. William Miller, son of a German father and a mulatto mother “looked like a white man and acted like an Indian”…. Joe Remo, a black Cherokee…. had been a slave and was a Union Army veteran.
1878, the former Comanchero trader Jose Tafoya, the same guy who had been hung from a wagon tree in ‘74 by Ranald MacKenzie to convince him to guide them to Palo Duro Canyon, enlisted in the Scouts.
