The Forgotten Heroes: The Story of the Buffalo Soldiers

This is a good basic read. I would recommend it. Again as I have stated with similar books on the Buffalo Soldiers, these are the men who opened the West for white settlers by assisting the US government in annihilating (killing) the natives or forcing them on reservations. These men suffered much and never got the recognition they deserved during their life times. They were hated by the very folks who benefited from the nearly wholesale slaughter of men, women and children. It is bittersweet. The injustice of it all simply saddens me. Lawd I need something fun and lite to read. This serious stuff is sure enough bringing me down. There is joy in being ignorant. Oh if only I was among the masses of the ignorant and oblivious, life would more joyous. Awww it's too late for me my fellow reader. I am hooked! The following are the words of General T. William Sherman regarding the native populations, i.e. Kiowas, Comanches, and Cheyennes: "The more we can kill this year, the less will have to be killed the next war," he said shortly after coming to the West, "for the more I see of these Indians the more convinced I am that they all have to be killed or maintained as a species of paupers." Please keep in mind that the same time the Buffalo Soldiers were primary ones being used to killed and subdue the native populations, while their own people were being hunted and killed and terrorized by the white folks all across the south. This caught my attention and I though I'd share it with y'all: "The Buffalo Soldiers had scouted almost ten thousands miles over incredibly rough terrain and had endured some of the harshest weather conditions in the United States. They had found and marked almost every source of water on the Staked Plains. Most of the scouting was through country had never been seen before by soldiers of the United States Army. The Buffalo Soldiers, for better or worse, had helped make it possible. But official reports never even mentioned them."