10th Cavalry Regiment Buffalo Soldiers Patch

The buffalo on this patch stands with its head turned toward you, the heraldic pose called statant guardant, on a twisted wreath of gold and black above the words READY AND FORWARD. That buffalo and that motto belong to the 10th Cavalry Regiment, the Buffalo Soldiers. The regiment was organized at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1866 with Black enlisted troopers and white officers, and Colonel Benjamin Grierson was its first commander. Plains Indians gave the troopers the name Buffalo Soldiers in the late 1860s, likening their short, tightly curled hair to buffalo fur. The troopers made the animal their own, and when the regiment adopted its coat of arms, the buffalo stood on top of it.

The 10th fought its first action at the Saline River near Fort Hays in 1867 and spent the following winters campaigning against the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Comanche. In 1868 troopers under Louis H. Carpenter rode to relieve Forsyth's scouts at Beecher Island. During Victorio's War in 1879 and 1880 the regiment blocked the Apache leader's return to New Mexico at Tinaja de las Palmas and Rattlesnake Springs, and in 1885 and 1886 it was in the field after Geronimo. In Cuba in 1898 it fought at Las Guasimas, at San Juan Hill and Kettle Hill on 1 July, and through the siege of Santiago, and five of its troopers received the Medal of Honor for that war. On 21 June 1916, during the Punitive Expedition, two troops of about 90 men fought Mexican Federal forces at Carrizal, Chihuahua.

This is a cut edge patch, trimmed to the outline of the buffalo, the wreath and the motto scroll, with no background panel around the design. It measures 3 inches wide by 3.5 inches tall and has an iron-on backing, and it can be sewn on as well. The buffalo is worked in two shades of brown, with a gold outline that picks out the horn, the eye, the beard and the line of the shoulder. Under its hooves the wreath alternates gold and black, the colors called for in the regiment's heraldry, and the black scroll beneath carries READY AND FORWARD in gold block letters. Because the edge follows the silhouette, the buffalo sits on whatever it is mounted to with nothing extra around it.

The 10th built its name on long patrols across Kansas, Texas and New Mexico, in weather and country that wore out horses and men alike. It went to Cuba as a veteran regiment and into Mexico with the Punitive Expedition. In World War II it trained at Camp Lockett, California, with the 2nd Cavalry Division, sent 153 NCOs to form the cadre of the 28th Cavalry, and was deactivated at Oran in North Africa in March 1944, with some of its men later fighting in Italy with the 92nd Infantry Division. Reactivated in 1958 as an integrated unit, the regiment continues today in the 4th Squadron, 10th Cavalry, at Fort Carson, Colorado. The motto on the scroll has been in use the whole way.

Mounted in a shadow box beside a trooper's photograph or a pair of crossed sabers, it tells the regiment's story at a glance. It also fits a jacket, a vest worn to a squadron reunion, or a range bag, and it is a fitting gift for anyone whose family history runs through the Buffalo Soldiers or the 4-10 CAV. It is a small piece of cloth carrying 160 years of cavalry history.