When the Civil War ended in 1865, many Black Union soldiers chose to remain in the army, whose two main missions were to pacify and reconstruct the South and to pacify the West.
In 1869, Congress decided it was too provocative to have Black soldiers occupying white communities and voted to move all Black military units west of the Mississippi River. These Black soldiers became known as Buffalo soldiers, and they played an important role in the development of the West.
University of California at Berkeley anthropologist Laurie Wilkie studies in depth the experience of these Buffalo soldiers at Fort Davis (named for Jefferson Davis) in southwestern Texas. Using the tools of historians and archaeologists, she skillfully examines the material and social interactions of these soldiers in a military and society dominated by racism. The mission of Fort Davis was to defeat and occupy Native Americans (Apache and Comanche) and to make the region safe for white American settlement, trade, and travel. Most of the residents of the area were classified as “Mexicans” having ended up north of the Rio Grande when Texas was annexed. In addition to soldiering, the Buffalo soldiers built roads and the fort itself. During this period, there were about 500 Buffalo soldiers and their families along with their white commissioned officers at Fort Davis.
Examining materials recovered from six archaeological locales as well as orphaned collections. Wilke uses the science of archaeology to flush out the documentary sources of military life at a frontier outpost. She weaves these elements into engaging stories of some of the Buffalo soldiers. The result is a fetching and entertaining study of Western history that illuminates and reinterprets a story often distorted by Hollywood movies and dime novels.
Fort Davis National Historic Site is managed by the National Park Service. Many of the historic building are restored or reconstructed, and there are educational exhibits illustrating the role of the Buffalo soldiers. It is located about four hours east of El Paso, Texas in the scenic Davis Mountains.
