Around this time, or perhaps later, I heard the name the Indian tribes termed the 10th Cavalry. The 10th was on the Prairies by then, making a name for themselves against the redmen, who called them Buffalo Soldiers. We heard many stories about the origin of the term, without any evidence of truth, but we thought that Buffalo Soldiers was a term of respect. Gradually, year by year, we of the 9th adopted the name, and we also became Buffalo Soldiers. It was a name I was to use all my life.
The 9th was based in West Texas and along the Rio Grande, which formed part of the border between the United States and Mexico. Nobody needed to tell the troopers of the 9th that we guarded one of the most dangerous frontiers of the American West, and one of the most volatile in the world.
“Well,” Willi
