The Forgotten Heroes: The Story Of The Buffalo Soldiers - Softcover

Cox, Clinton

3.63

41 ratings by Goodreads

9780590451222: The Forgotten Heroes: The Story Of The Buffalo Soldiers

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0590451227 ISBN 13: 9780590451222

Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks, 1996

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The story of the Buffalo Soldiers, the African-American cavalry regiments used to fight Native Americans in the 1800s, recounts their heroic and ultimately tragic role in history and is accompanied by archival photographs. Reprint.

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From Publishers Weekly:

In this well-researched, revealing book, journalist Cox ( Undying Glory ) tells the story of the all-black units of the 9th and 10th Cavalry, also known as the Buffalo Soldiers. The book focuses on the years between 1866 and 1891, when the Buffalo Soldiers rode hundreds of thousands of miles on the western frontier, mapping uncharted territory and laying the groundwork for the creation of eight states. They achieved these goals despite consistently being treated as inferiors, receiving the poorest horses and equipment, and being assigned tasks considered too dangerous for white soldiers. Of equal interest is the role the Buffalo Soldiers played in removing Native Americans from their homelands; the author effectively argues that the American government--George Armstrong Custer and Theodore Roosevelt in particular--used one oppressed group to systematically destroy another in order to win land for white settlers under the guise of patriotism. Cox eloquently articulates the dilemma many soldiers faced as they were forced to choose between their jobs and their consciences. Although the narrative sometimes falls into a cataloguing of expeditions and battles, it provides new insights into a fascinating piece of American history and challenges traditional visions of westward expansion. Ages 8-14.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

In a follow-up to Undying Glory: The Story of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment (1991), Cox celebrates the essential role played by the 9th and 10th US Cavalry in the Indian Wars. Writing dramatically (and emotionally), he lays irony upon irony: recruits signed up to escape the dangers of post-Civil War civilian life but, made to do menial labor and sent on hundreds of dangerous missions, they received only poor quality mounts and supplies; they were despised by many of the settlers they protected, and by some of their own officers; most poignantly, having just won their own freedom, they were sent to subjugate a free minority. The author doesn't tell the whole story--he's nearly silent on the activities of the two regiments of black infantry created at the same time, as well as on the history of the Buffalo Soldiers after Wounded Knee; but his narrative is rich in carefully reconstructed episodes and acts of heroism. Send readers who want to know more to Reef's wider ranging if less detailed Buffalo Soldiers (p. 727). Index; large bibliography; several dozen b&w illustrations, mostly contemporary photos. (Nonfiction. 11-15) -- Copyright �1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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