Buffalo Soldiers: Calvary Baseball Cap

The front patch features a Buffalo Soldier in full cavalry uniform, mounted on horseback against a frontier sky, with "BUFFALO SOLDIERS" arched above and the dates "1866" and "1944" anchoring the bottom. The left side panel carries the regimental crest of the 9th Cavalry, with the side detail of the 10th Cavalry's buffalo emblem on the opposite panel. The back is stitched with the three words that defined eighty-five years of service: "HONOR · VALOR · COURAGE." Each of the three has a story.

Honor was the foundation. From the moment Congress passed the Army Reorganization Act on July 28, 1866 creating six all-Black peacetime regiments, the men who enlisted in the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry served knowing they represented every Black American who would come after them. Many were veterans of the United States Colored Troops who fought in the Civil War. Many were formerly enslaved men who had just earned the right to wear the uniform of the country that had once denied them their freedom. They served with discipline, with dignity, and with a clear understanding that how they conducted themselves would shape what the nation believed Black servicemembers could do.

Valor showed up on the battlefield. Buffalo Soldiers served in the American Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War (including the charge up San Juan Hill alongside Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders), the Philippine-American War, the Mexican Border War, and both World Wars. Twenty-three Buffalo Soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration the United States can give. In World War II, the 92nd Infantry Division, known as the Buffalo Soldiers and bearing the buffalo as its divisional symbol, entered combat in Italy in the summer of 1944, becoming the only Black infantry division to see ground combat in the European theater. They crossed the Arno River, pushed through the German Gothic Line in the northern Apennine Mountains, and helped drive the Fifth Army toward victory.

Courage was carrying all of it. Buffalo Soldiers patrolled hostile territory, escorted wagon trains and U.S. Mail carriers, mapped uncharted frontier, strung telegraph lines, and built the roads that opened the West, all while facing the daily indignities of segregation, prejudice, and unequal treatment within the very Army they served. They earned their nickname from the Plains Indian tribes they encountered on the frontier, some say because their dark, curly hair resembled a buffalo's coat, others because their courage in battle reminded the tribes of how buffalo fought. Either way, the soldiers took the name as a mark of high praise, and the image of the buffalo eventually became part of the 10th Cavalry's regimental crest.

The 9th Cavalry Regiment was organized on September 21, 1866 in Greenville, Louisiana near New Orleans, recruited from Louisiana and Kentucky under Colonel Edward Hatch. The regiment's motto, "We Can, We Will," captured the spirit the men carried into the field. The 10th Cavalry was organized that same day, September 21, 1866, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, under Colonel Benjamin Grierson. Both regiments served continuously on the western frontier for more than two decades before fighting in the Spanish-American War, the Philippine-American War, and the Mexican Border War, then continuing into the world wars of the 20th century. A cavalry, by definition, is a military unit that fights on horseback, originally trained to scout, charge, and pursue with the speed and mobility that infantry alone could not match. For the Buffalo Soldiers, the horse was both weapon and partner, and the cavalry tradition of crossed sabers, gold trim, and yellow regimental colors carried over from the western frontier into the modern Army. The 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments still exist today, now part of armored and reconnaissance units stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. The "U.S. Cavalry" stitched in gold on the back strap of this cap honors that direct, unbroken lineage from 1866 to the present day.

Constructed from a durable 100% acrylic blend in deep black with a structured six-panel build, curved brim, and adjustable hook-and-loop back closure. The full-color woven Buffalo Soldiers front patch features the regimental rider in vivid detail with a gold border. Both side panels carry embroidered regimental imagery, and the back is finished with "HONOR · VALOR · COURAGE" in white and "U.S. Cavalry" in gold script on the strap.

Wear it for the 9th. Wear it for the 10th. Wear it for honor, valor, and courage.