The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-09-20
BUFFALO TROOPERS.
tbs NAME BY WHICH NEGRO COL.
DiGRS ARE KNOWN.

civil war to prove that American ne
groes are faithful, devoted wearers o
uniforms" says Washington maj
who has seen service in both the arm!
and the navy. There are at the pres
ent time four regiments Of negro sol
diers in the regular army of the Uni
ted states-two outfits of cavalry ant
two of infantry. All four OF these reg
iments have been under fire In import.
ant Indian campaigns, and there is vel
to be recorded single instance of 6
man In any of the four layouts show.
lug the white feather-and the two
cavalry regiments Of negroes have on
several occasions found themselves In
very serious situations. While the fact
is we'll known out on the frontier,
don't remember ever having seen II
mentioned back here that an American
Indian has deadly fear of an Ameri-
can negro. The most utterly reckless
daredevil savage Of the copper hue
stands literally in awe of a negro, and
the blacker the negro the more the
Indian quails. can't understand why
this should be, for the Indians decline
to give their reasons for fearing the
black men-but the fact remains that
even very bad Indian will give the
mildest-mannered negro imaginable all
the room he wants, and to spare, as
any old regular army soldier who has
frontiered will tell you. The Indians,
fancy, attribute uncanny and eerie
qualities to the blacks.
1.-THE cavalry troop to which I be-
longed soldiered alongside a couple of
troops Of the 9th Cavalry, a black reg
iment, up in the Sioux country eight
or nine years ago. We were perform
ing chain guard, hemming-in duty, and
1t was our chief business to prevent
the savages from straying from the
reservation. We weren't under in
structions to riddle them II they at
tempted to pass our guard posts, but
We were authorized to tickle them up
to any reasonable extent, short of
manning them, with our bayonets, il
any of them attempted to bluff past us.
Well, the men of my troop had all COL
ors of trouble while on guard in hold
ing the savages in. The Ogalallas
would hardly pay any attention to the
white sentries Of the chain guard, and
when they wanted to pass beyond the
guard limits they would invariably
pick out spot for passage that was
patrolled by a white 'post-humper.'
But the guards of the two black troops
didn't have single run-in with the
savages. The Indians made 1t point
to remain strictly away from the ne
gro soldiers guard posts. Moreover,
the black soldiers got ten times as
much obedience from the Indians loaf
ing around the teepees and wickleups
as did we of the white outfit. The In
dams would fairly jump to obey the
uniformed negroes. remember seeing
a black sergeant make minor chief
60 down to creek to get a pail of wa
ter-an unheard of thing, for the chiefs
and even the ordinary bucks among
the Sioux always make their squaws
perform this sort of work. This chief
was summing himself, reclining, beside
his teepee, when his squaw started
with the bucket for the creek some dis
lance away. The negro sergeant saw
the move. He walked up to the lazy,
grunting savage
Look a-yeah, yo' spraddle-nosed,
yalluh voodoo nigguh,' said the black
sergeant-he was as black as stove
pipe-to the blinking chief, Jes' shake
yo' uo-count bones an tote dat wattuh
yo'sef. Yo' ain no bettuh to pack
wattuh dan All am, yo' heah me-
1.-THE heap-much Indian chief didn't
understand a word of what the negro
sergeant said to him, but he under
stands pantomime all right, and when
the black man in uniform grabbed the
pail out of the squaw's hand and
thrust 1t into the dirty paw of the chief
the chief went after that bucket of wa
ter, and he went a-loping, too.
1.-THE Sioux will hand down to their
childrens children the story of
charge that couple Of the negro cav
airy troops made during the Pine Ridge
1t was of the height Of the fra
cas-, and the bad Indians were regular
|y lined up for battle. These two black .
troops were ordered to make the initial {
swoop upon them. You know the noise I
one black man can make when he gets
right down to the business of yelling.
Well, these two troops Of blacks start !
I'd their terrific whoop in unison when !.
hey were mile away from the wait
ng Sioux, and they got warmed up and n
n better practice with every jump a.
heir horses made. give you my SOL .,
,mn word that in the ears of us Of the
white outfit, stationed three miles
way, the yelps those two negro troops j
" cavalry gave sounded like the car >
lival whooping Of ten thousand devils,
The Sioux weren't scared little bit by =
he approaching clouds Of alkali dust,
tut, all the same, when the two black .
roops were more than quarter Of a II
nile away the Indians broke and ran =
Is II the old boy himself were after =,
hem, and it was then an easy matter
o round them up and disarm them.
The chiefs afterward confessed that D
hey were scared out by the awful
owing Of the black soldiers. q
Ever since the war the United
tates navy has had fair representa- :.
ion Of negro bluejackets, and they "
nake first-class naval tars. There is b
ot ship in the navy to-day that p
asn't from six to a dozen, anyhow, Of p
egroes on Its muster rolls. The negro !,
ailors names very rarely get enrolled a,
n the bad conduct lists. They are
bedient, sober men and good seamen. y
here are many petty officers among 3,
hem."