FIRST FIGHT FOR THE 10th CAVALRY

In 1867 the mixed-grass prairie of the Saline Valley in north-central Kansas was coveted earth among the Cheyennes and Arapahos and rival Pawnees as one of the last prolific buffalo biomes on the central Plains. It was home. It had been familiar to their families for generations. But for a young yeoman farmer hailing from the fertile soil of far-off Pennsylvania, the vast grasslands presented a strange, foreboding landscape—and a lonely place to die and be forgotten. That was the fate of Sergeant William Christy, 10th U.S. Cavalry, on Aug. 2, 1867, the first buffalo soldier from that regiment killed in action.

Christy had enlisted on June 4 to serve his country in one of two post–Civil War black cavalry regiments authorized by Congress in the Army Reorganization Act of 1866. Less than two months after enlistment he was killed instantly by either a Cheyenne or Kiowa bullet to the head and buried in a dusty prairie ravine far from home. Not much else is known about this young soldier, but the 10th Cavalry would experience its first major Indian fight 19 days after Christy’s death, and his regiment, along with the 9th Cavalry buffalo soldiers, would go on to win glory and recognition in the Indian wars of the West.

in early summer 1867 under Colonel Benjamin Grierson, the 10th first moved out to Fort Riley and by late July was operating out of Fort Hays. The regiment’s orders were