ON OCTOBER 2, 1866, Emanuel Stance, the man who was to win the
Medal of Honor for action in the post-Civil War period, approached a
U.S. Army recruiting officer in Lake Providence, Louisiana. The
recruiter, Lieutenant John Maroney, would record Stance's eyes as
"black," his hair as "black," and his complexion as "black." His age
would be recorded as 19 and his occupation as that of a "farmer." A
more accurate description of his occupation would probably have been
"sharecropper."
Most of the men like Stance who filled the ranks of the 9th and
10th U.S. Cavalry and the 24th and 25th U.S. Infantry, the four
segregated regiments whose African American enlisted men would
become known as "Buffalo Soldiers," were fomer slaves. After
emancipation, many ex-slaves remained on the same plantations as
sharecroppers.
Stance, a native of Carroll Parish, La., was many things:
bright-eyed, hardnosed, intelligent, well-spoken and wiry. One thing
he was not, however, was tall. Because Stance was little more than 5
feet, Maroney hesitated before allowing him to enlist. But
eventually Stance was allowed to sign his name, and he became a
member of Company F of the 2-month-old 9th U.S. Cavalry. His
occupation was now that of "soldier," and he would remain a soldier
for the rest of his life.
Stance likely saw the U.S. Army as the easiest way to a new life
out West. At New Orleans, he joined the rest of the green recruits
of the 9th Cavalry and began six months of intensive training. In
the winter of 1866-67, the organization of the regiment was put into
high gear. By the end of February, Stance had been promoted to
corporal and his company had been transferred to Carrollton, La.
His promotion undoubtedly came about because he could read and
write. Education of slaves had been illegal in the South before
emancipation, so literacy was a rare thing among Buffalo Soldiers
during the early years of their regiments' existence. Literate
Buffalo Soldiers like Stance were made noncommissioned officers,
since paperwork came with those positions.
In March 1867, the 9th Cavalry was reassigned to San Antionio,
Texas, where the men received two months of field instruction and
got their first taste of frontier duty. That duty included policing
American Indian tribes and American settlers, and protecting stage
and mail routes. In June, Stance's Company F was among six companies
of the regiment transferred to Fort Davis, Texas. In July, Stance
was promoted to sergeant. That December, a detachment from Stance's
company saved a stage attacked by 100 Mescalero Indians. In driving
off the attackers, the Buffalo Soldiers lost one private and three
horses.
In January 1868, Company F completed a change of station to Camp
Quitman, which would later become Fort Quitman. That month, the
company was among those besieged by a large band of Indians, Sixteen
attacks were repelled by the men of the garrison.
On September 14, a detachment from Company F was among 60 members
of the 9th Cavalry to successfully carry off a surprise attach
against 200 Indians near Horsehead Hills. The Buffalo Soldiers
killed 25 indians, wounded many more, and captured 200 horses and a
large amount of winter stores. Only one soldier was wounded in the
fight. Some months later Company F was transferred again, this time
to Fort McKavett, Texas.
On September 16,1869, a detachment from Stance's company, along
with detachments from three other companies, skirmished with some
200 Comanche and Kiowa on the Salt Fork of the Brazos River. In an
eight-mile running fight, three Buffalo Soldiers were wounded while
the Indians suffered 25 casualties. After being reinforced by
another detachment from their regiment, Stance and his unit again
skirmished with the Commanche-Kiowa party on the 20th and 21st.
In 1870 Emanuel Stance received the Medal of Honor, but his
discipline problems plagued his long military career.
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