Buffalo Soldiers and Galvanized Yankees -- 3/23/2008

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By Jim McKee/For the Lincoln Journal Star

They protected construction work, mail routes and the trails, and also did actual construction.

   Although Gen. Henry Leavenworth proposed a transcontinental railroad as early as 1825, the idea did not begin to develop until the beginning of the Civil War, which also put implementation on hold.

   With the end of the war, westward migration, the Pacific telegraph line and the transcontinental railroad flourished, and these movements made clear the need for federal troops to protect their progress through Indian occupied areas.

   As military personnel were mustered out of the service, the number of available troops dwindled, and two imaginative ideas developed to fill the void.

   To attract men, the army instituted the U.S. Voluntary Infantry Regiments, or simply U.S. Volunteers, but most eligible men were interested in returning home at the end of the war.

   One of the proposals put forward was the Galvanized Yankees. This term was first used to identify Union prisoners who joined the Confederate Army, a la exchanging blue uniforms for gray - as when blued steel is dipped in molten zinc, or galvanized, to prevent rust, it fades to a gray color.

   It was perhaps Gen. Grenville Dodge, engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad, who used Galvanized Yankees in a new definition.

   At the end of the war, many prisoners of war simply were exchanged, and, as had been the case during hostilities, many were paroled if they agreed to return to their homes and not take up arms again.

   This still left a sizeable population of prisoners in Union detention. Recruiters were sent into the camps and prisons seeking men who would swear "allegiance to the Union and fight in the west upon the assurance that they would not be asked to fight their own brethren in the South."

   Because the prisoners supposedly had at least some training as soldiers and they had little expectations of employment if they did return to the South, six regiments of Confederate prisoners of war were given freedom in exchange for aiding U.S. troops in the west.

   The bulk of these Galvanized Yankees were sent to Plum Creek, Fort McPherson and Camp Mitchell in Nebraska. Unfortunately, the troops did not prove to be as well trained as hoped.

   Although they did provide some assistance in protecting trails, railroad and telegraph construction, as well as in some minor confrontations with the Sioux, most served only a short time. The last of the Galvanized Yankees were mustered out and replaced by Union troops by the 1870s.

   Buffalo Soldiers were so named by "Indian adversaries" as a term of respect in reference to the black soldiers' hair which the Natives thought "resembled the buffalo's."

   During the Civil War, it was estimated that about 175,000 black men fought in the Union Army. After the war, the same needs that sparked the Galvanized Yankees led to the formation of the Buffalo Soldiers.

   On July 28, 1866, the U.S. Congress authorized the establishment of four cavalry and two infantry regiments drawn from black troops about to be mustered out. A five-year enlistment entitled the men to a salary of $13 to $16 a month plus room, board and clothing, a sum considered a living wage or better at the time.

   The Buffalo Soldiers were stationed all over the west. In Nebraska, the 9th and 10th Cavalry units primarily were stationed at Fort Robinson and Fort Niobrara.

   Like the Galvanized Yankees, the Buffalo Soldiers protected construction work, mail routes and the trails. They also did actual construction, helping build Fort Robinson itself as well as other projects.

   During the Ghost Dance scare of 1890, they were sent to the Pine Ridge Reservation to quell potential uprisings.

   After a Buffalo Soldier was nearly lynched near Crawford while returning to Fort Robinson, citizens were warned that if attacks persisted "we will reduce your homes and firesides to ashes." Few problems actually arose.

   Although the Buffalo Soldiers stationed in Nebraska declined in number after the Pine Ridge campaign, they continued to serve with honor in the U.S. Army for decades. It was estimated that Buffalo Soldiers provided 20 percent of the army's manpower in the west and that they "spent more time fighting in the West than any other cavalry regiments in the United States Army."

   Historian Jim McKee, who still writes with a fountain pen, invites comments or questions. Write to him in care of the Journal Star or at jim@leebooksellers.com.