Buffalo Soldiers

 

 

In 1866, right after the close of the Civil War, Congress created six (later consolidated to four) regiments of African-American soldiers. These units, the 9th and 10th Cavalry, and the 24th and 25th Infantry, quickly became known as “The Buffalo Soldiers.”

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There are at least three different stories concerning how these units came by their nickname.

The most plausible in my mind is that the Plains Indians, who fought the Buffalo Soldiers, thought that their dark skin and black curly hair looked much like the coloring and fur of the buffalo.

A second theory is that they were named after the thick buffalo-hide coats the troops wore during the winter.

​A third theory is that they were awarded the name because of the ferocity and bravery of their actions. ​

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Regardless of how the name came to be, the soldiers themselves were proud of it and considered it high praise since buffalo were deeply respected by the Native peoples of the Great Plains. Eventually, the buffalo became the image on the 10th Cavalry's regimental crest.

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At first, regiments of Buffalo Soldiers faced a lot of racial prejudice. Because many whites didn't want to see armed black soldiers in or near their communities, the Buffalo Soldiers were assigned to forts west of the Mississippi River, where they supported the nation's westward expansion by protecting settlers, building roads and other infrastructure, and guarding the U.S. mail. They were also involved in many of the military campaigns of the Indian Wars. They served with distinction, earning an impressive 18 Medals of Honor during this period.

​​ Since there were no African American officers, the units were commanded by whites. Some officers, like George Armstrong Custer, were so opposed to allowing blacks into the Army that they refused to command black regiments even when it cost them promotions. Others, like John Pershing, accepted the command but were branded for it. Pershing got the nickname “Black Jack” for his time commanding the 10th Cavalry. At first, it was given to him derisively, but he managed to turn it into a badge of honor.

George Jordan, of  K Troop, 9th Cavalry Regiment, earned his prestigious medal for repulsing a force of more than 100 Indians while he and his detachment of 25 men were stationed at Fort Tularosa, N. M., and then for holding his ground in an exposed position so that a larger force of Indians could not surround his command in Carrizo Canyon.

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Eventually, the exceptional performance of the Buffalo soldiers led to their advancement into positions of authority. The first black officer to command soldiers in the regular U.S. Army, Henry O. Flipper, was born a slave in Georgia but graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1877, commissioned as a second lieutenant, and was assigned to the 10th Cavalry Regiment. He faced intense resentment from some white officers and became the target of a smear campaign that culminated in a court martial and his dismissal from the Army in 1882. He was posthumously pardoned by President Clinton in 1999.

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Buffalo Soldiers continued to serve their country, both in the west and abroad. They helped in the 1892 Johnson County War in Wyoming, which pitted small farmers against wealthy ranchers and a band of hired gunmen. They also fought in the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars, and served along the U.S.-Mexico border and in the Expedition to find Pancho Villa.  However, they continued to suffer racism.  Woodrow Wilson excluded black regiments from the American Expeditionary Force and placed them under French command. During World War II, most of the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments were moved into service roles. The two exceptions were the 92nd Infantry Division, which saw combat during the invasion of Italy, and the 25th Infantry Regiment, which fought in the Pacific. During the Korean War, the last of the segregated U.S. Army regiments were disbanded and their troops integrated into other units.

Important Irish-American Women

 

 

America has welcomed people from all over the world. During the nineteenth century, a large proportion of these people were from Ireland. In the 1840s, when the Potato Famine was ravaging the Emerald Isle, nearly half of the immigrants to America were Irish, and half of those Irish immigrants were single women.
Many of those newcomers to America entered domestic professions, where working as a maid, cook, nanny, or housekeeper helped them assimilate into American culture. A generation later, Irish women were entering professions at higher rates than any other immigrant group. They became teachers, bookkeepers, typists, journalists, social workers, and nurses. Irish American women represented the majority of public elementary school teachers in Providence, Boston, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco by 1910.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau. about 32 million Americans, or 9.7% of the total population, identifies as being Irish.  In honor of Women’s History Month and St. Patrick’s Day, here are four Irish American Women who have made significant contributions, plus a recipe for cookies that will put you into the spirit of the day..

Mother Jones, Labor Agitator

Mother Jones, whose real name was Mary Harris Jones, was a tireless advocate for worker’s rights, the end of child labor, and for improved working conditions for miners. She was born in Cork, Ireland in 1837, but was still a child when the Harris family emigrated first to Canada and then to the United States.
Mary Harris married an iron molder named George E Jones in 1861. Six years later, he and all four of their children died in a yellow-fever epidemic. The trade union he had belonged to helped the new widow, leaving a lasting impression on her.
When the great Chicago fire of 1871 destroyed her home and all of her belongings, Mrs. Jones left behind her job as a dressmaker to enter political activism. She joined the Knights of Labor and the Socialist Labor Party and became a full-time union organizer, travelling constantly around Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia and Colorado as she organized marches, made speeches in the plain language of the working man, and deploying “broom and mop” brigades of workers’ wives to wage war against scabs and strike breakers.
 
Interestingly, although she believed in racial equality, she did not believe in equality of the sexes and opposed female suffrage. She believed in the traditional family, with a breadwinner husband and a wife who supported him.
 
Jones cultivated a grandmotherly persona, even lying about her age to appear older than she was. She made a lot of enemies.  One district attorney called her the most dangerous woman in the United States. The writer Upton Sinclair called the left-wing firebrand the walking wrath of God. But while she angered many people, she secured valuable nationwide press attention for the causes she championed.

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Kay McNulty, Computer Programmer

On February 12, 1921, important events happened to the McNultys of Donegal County, Ireland: Their daughter Kay was born, and the father was arrested for IRA membership. Two years later, when he was finally released from prison, the family left their farm and emigrated to Pennsylvania. The move turned out to be lifechanging for Kay, whose mother encouraged her to do her best “to prove that Irish immigrants could be as good, if not better, than anybody.” While only 37% of girls in Ireland were enrolled in school in 1929, Kay was able earn a scholarship while in High School that allowed her to attend Chestnut Hill College for Women. She graduated with a mathematics degree.
 
When World War II began, the US Army hired Kay as a “computer”, calculating missile trajectories. In 1945, she and five other women were moved to Aberdeen military base in Maryland to developing the processor for a top-secret 30-ton machine called the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC). Later, she worked at another programming job, which she only discovered later was testing the feasibility of the H-bomb.
 
In 1948 Kay married a computer developer named John Mauchly. As was usual at the time, she stopped her career. But throughout the time when she raised seven children,
Kay continued, unpaid and unnoticed, to program the new computers that her husband was developing.
 
It wasn’t until decades later, in 1997, that McNulty and the other five ENIAC women were inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame.

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Ella Fitzgerald, Singer

Ella Fitzgerald may not look Irish, but when she acknowledged her heritage, the people of Ireland were happy to have her. The First Lady of Song was born to a woman who was African American/Cherokee Indian. Her father, who was Irish enough to have a family crest, never married her mother, and abandoned the family when Ella was quite young. During a singing tour of Ireland in the 1960s, Fitzgerald told reporters that she had the family crest in her home, and the authorities used a special stamp on her passport to acknowledge her heritage.
 
Fitzgerald has a voice that continues to amaze and entertain listeners years after her death. She remains famous for her scat singing and her associations with other jazz greats such as Louie Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Her musical career spanned six decades and several genres, though she remained a jazz singer at heart.
 
Ella could be considered a symbol of the mixing of cultures that is distinctly American

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Eileen Marie Collins, AstronauT

Eileen Marie Collins was the daughter of Irish immigrants. She became interested in space flight at a young age. She began to pursue her dream by joining the air force and becoming a test pilot. In 1990, she was selected for astronaut training. Collins was able to pilot several space shuttle missions and was the first woman to serve as a commander on a space shuttle mission. She reached the rank of colonel in the United States Air Force. 

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Irish American women have come a long way since their days of domestic service. Some, like Collins are reaching for the stars. Others, like Fitzgerald, are stars. Some continue Mother Jones’ fight for the rights of the downtrodden, giving voice and hope to millions, and many are involved in STEM careers that they do not have to pursue in privacy in their own homes. These and many others have proven McNulty’s mother right in her assertion that Irish immigrants could be as good, if not better, than anybody.

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Chocolate Mint Shamrock Cookies

These festive cookies can be adapted to different holidays. Change the color of the topping, pipe it out in a different shape, and vary the flavor of the extract to serve any time of year.
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup shortening
½ tsp. mint extract
3 TBS cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 ¾ cup flour
¾ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
 
Sugar to roll cookies in
 
Topping
¼ cup flour
¼ cup butter, softened
1-1 ½ tsp warm water
2 drops green food coloring
 
Preheat oven to 375°
In large bowl, beat 1 cup sugar and shortening until light and fluffy. Add extract, cocoa and eggs and blend well. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt.
Shape into 1” balls and roll in sugar. Place 2” apart on a cookie sheet. Flatten with the bottom of a glass. If the glass sticks to the cookies, dip it in sugar.
To make topping, combine flour and butter until smooth. Add warm water until the paste is soft enough to extrude easily from a pastry bag with a small round tip. (If you don’t have a pastry bag, put mixture in a zip lock sandwich bag and snip a small hole in one corner.) Pipe shamrock design on top of each cookie.
Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes or until set. Makes 6 dozen cookies.

Starvation Peak

 

 

A few weeks ago I got an email from a woman whose father had read my Civil War Novels Where Duty Calls and The Worst Enemy and was anxious to know when The Famished Country, the third and final book in the series, would be out. 

I had to admit to her that teaching was taking up far too much of my time these days, and that my work has stalled. I have written through Chapter 8, and outlined the rest of the novel, but it’s not going to be finished until the end of summer at the earliest.  

She then asked me if I knew of any other stories set in the Starvation Peak area, or near Bernal. I was flummoxed. Although I knew where Bernal was, I’d never heard of Starvation Peak. The name intrigued me, and I began digging for answers. 

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The village of Bernal is one of many created after Governor Juan Bautista Anza forced marauding Comanches to sign the Comanche Peace Treaty in 1786. Prior to this, the area around Pecos Pueblo had been too vulnerable, a reason the inhabitants of Pecos Pueblo abandoned their home in the 1830s to live with their cousins in Jemez.
 
In November 1794, Lorenzo Marquez asked Spanish Governor Fernando Chacón to make a land grant for him and 51 other families from Santa Fe. Marquez said in the petition that the families were large, but had only small parcels of land in Santa Fe, and not enough water.

He noted that thirteen of the fifty-two petitioners were Indians, probably from the Pecos Pueblo.  Since most of the outlying grants were given, according to Fray Angélico Chávez, to “Spanish military personnel and the genízaro colony of Santa Fe [1] , it is likely that most of the other families in the group were either Genízaros or mestizos. Historians speculate that Marquez had been a presidio soldier stationed around Pecos Pueblo and was therefore familiar with the area.

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Genízaros are Indigenous people who had assimilated into Spanish culture. They included Puebloans from Pecos, San José and San Miguel, plus converts from the Comanche and other Plains tribes. More than fourteen percent of the population of Santa Fe was made up of Genízaros.
 
The 315,000-acre grant, which became known as San Miguel del Vado Land Grant, was approved. Soon a number of new communities, including Bernal, were established in the Pecos River Valley.
 
Towering over the village of Bernal is a 7,031-foot flat-topped butte that is named Starvation Peak. The legend is that, during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, 36 Spanish colonists took shelter at the top of this mesa. Some accounts say they eventually tried to leave and were slaughtered and buried at the foot of the mesa. Other accounts say the colonists died of thirst and starvation while still atop. The story is documented in an 1884 edition of the Detroit Free Press, but has grown.  the years.  When writers from the Works Progress Administration were documenting the region in 1939, they recorded 120 colonists had died.  

Starvation Peak became a way-finder point along the Santa Fe Trail when it opened in 1821. It was distinctive enough to help guide travelers. Major William Anderson Thornton, a member of an 1855 military expedition that passed through reposted that General Kearny had wanted to place a flag atop the peak when he marched through the area during the Mexican American war, but after walking around its base, declared the task impossible.  
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At the base of the peak lies Bernal Springs, which became a campsite and stage stop along the trail. There is little doubt that Bernal profited from trading with travelers. When the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad laid its tracks through the Pecos Valley in the early 1880s, it bypassed the town, which has become a sleepy little village set in a spectacularly beautiful land. 

[1] Fray Angelico Chavez, Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, 1678-1900 (Academy of American Franciscan History: Washington D.C., 1951), 205.
 
https://www.legendsofahttps://newmexicohistory.org/2012/06/29/san-miguel-del-bado-grant/merica.com/bernal-new-mexico/
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8213241/pretty-good-starvation-peak/

Jennifer Bohnhoff teaches New Mexico History in a rural New Mexico Middle School. She is the author of Rebels Along the Rio Grande, a trilogy of novels about the Civil War battles in New Mexico. You can read more about Mrs. Bohnhoff and her books at her website, where you can also sign up to receive emails about her work and upcoming sales and giveaways.