For example, according to his enlistment paper, Charles Woods, born in New Orleans, enlisted for five years at Baton Rouge on September 1, 1866. According to the carded medical records, Woods at various times suffered from rheumatism, diarrhea, bronchitis, and gonorrhea. This changed once black cadets started graduating from the U.S. Army Military Academy. Three black graduates of West Point, Henry O. Flipper, John Alexander, and Charles Young, all served as Buffalo Soldiers. Flipper was commissioned in 1879 and served in the Tenth Cavalry.
Volume one contains a register of army officers, providing a brief history of their service.
There is a card index arranged by name of officer for each of these files. Returns Other records that may be of interest to researchers are post returns and regular army unit returns. Returns generally show units stationed at the post and their strength, the names and duties of officers, the number of officers present and absent, and a record of events. Unit returns are monthly returns of military organizations reporting stations of companies and names of company commanders, unit strength, including men present, absent, sick, on extra duty or daily duty, in arrest or confinement, and significant remarks. The court-martial records include the proceedings or testimony of a case, which contains common language used by black soldiers in the latter part of the nineteenth century.