The Buffalo Soldiers

A Narrative of the Black Cavalry in the West, Revised Edition

William H. Leckie

Narrated by James McSorley

Available from Audible

Book published by University of Oklahoma Press

An expanded edition of Leckie’s groundbreaking narrative.

Originally published in 1967, William H. Leckie’s The Buffalo Soldiers was the first book of its kind to recognize the importance of African American units in the conquest of the West. Decades later, with sales of more than 75,000 copies, The Buffalo Soldiers has become a classic. Now, in a newly revised edition, the authors have expanded the original research to explore more deeply the lives of buffalo soldiers in the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry Regiments.

Written in accessible prose that includes a synthesis of recent scholarship, this edition delves further into the life of an African American soldier in the nineteenth century. It also explores the experiences of soldiers’ families at frontier posts. In a new epilogue, the authors summarize developments in the lives of buffalo soldiers after the Indian Wars and discuss contemporary efforts to memorialize them in film, art, and architecture.

William H. Leckie was the coauthor, with Shirley A. Leckie, of Unlikely Warriors: General Benjamin Grierson and His Family.

REVIEWS:

“The authors have improved on what was already a groundbreaking study that adds significantly to our knowledge of American expansionism and, more importantly, of African Americans in the West.”

—Oregon Historical Quarterly

“The Leckies ... have reinvigorated The Buffalo Soldiers, assuring the title will remain core reading for years to come.”

—The Journal of Arizona History