The Buffalo Soldiers

In 1866, Congress approved legislation creating six all African-American Army regiments: two cavalry (the 9th and 10th) and four infantry (the 38th, 39th, 40th and 41 st). The units represented the first African-American professional soldiers to serve in a peacetime army. The unit mainly consisted mostly of former slaves. Others served in the Union Army during the Civil War. A later reorganization of the Army, merged four infantry regiments into two units, the 24th and 25th. The Cheyenne Indians originally gave the soldiers of the 10th Calvary Regiment the nickname 'Buffalo Soldiers". The nickname represented their fierce fighting in 1867. The Native-American term used was actually "Wild Buffaloes", which was translated to "Buffalo Soldiers." After a while, all African-American Soldiers were known as "Buffalo Soldiers." Despite second-class treatment these soldiers received, they made up first-rate regiments of the highest caliber and had the lowest desertion rate in the Army (The Buffalo Soldiers).