Analysis: A Scout with the Buffalo Soldiers

Date: April 1889

Author: Frederic Remington

Genre: article; journal

Summary Overview

Frederic Remington was an emerging artist, who at one time aspired to be a magazine correspondent. Thus, his abilities in both areas were put to use in an 1886 assignment to travel to Arizona to observe the Tenth Cavalry. This African American unit, created by Congress after the Civil War, patrolled what was then a federal territory to enforce peace between the Native American tribes and the settlers, as well as to generally keep order. In this article, Remington described his experience as he joined a small detachment for a two-week scouting expedition. His illustrations, as well as the article, accurately portrayed the events of this trip. In this article and throughout his career, Remington presented a positive picture of the soldiers, rather than the negative racial stereotype of the unit, which prevailed in this era. His willingness to personally join them on this journey, and his respect for their dedication and ability, made the article stand out from others that were written by correspondents who stayed in the relative comfort of the forts.

Defining Moment

By the mid-1880s, the American West was becoming tame. The last of the major conflicts with Native Americans had ended, with the surviving leaders surrendering. Buffalo Bill's Wild West show started performing throughout the East. There was a growing interest both in the West as it was and for a nostalgic West of the past, as imagined by people who had never lived there. Thus, magazines such as The Century commissioned writers and artists to travel to the West to describe what they encountered. Frederic Remington, an emerging artist who already had a number of published illustrations to his credit, was sent to the Southwest as a part of the magazine's attempt to communicate its vision of America to its readers. (The magazine's editorial policy at that time was strongly conservative, with a pro-American, pro-Christian, pro-white, agenda.) Remington had traveled to that region several years earlier, for another publication, in a vain attempt to cover the struggle with Geronimo. Thus, he was familiar with the climate and the people of the region.

Writing for the magazine's readers, who were middle and upper class members of the general public, Remington used a descriptive literary style, as well as his illustrations, to communicate the hardships that soldiers faced in the Arizona Territory. Using common terminology of the day, Remington let the reader know that the Tenth Calvary was composed of African Americans, but he did not focus on this aspect of their lives. The term “Buffalo Soldier” had been given to the African American soldiers by Comanche and Apache warriors to describe the men they had fought. Different quotes from that time refer to the willingness of the soldiers to fight like a wounded buffalo and to their hair being like that of a buffalo. In either event, it was not created as derogatory designation, and the African American soldiers accepted it as a term for themselves and their units. While this article was well received in general, to African Americans back East, it represented a source of pride that even in that era of segregation and persecution, one could witness an African American unit serving the nation in the same manner as white army units did.

Author Biography

Frederic Remington was born in Canton, New York, to Seth and Clara Remington on October 4, 1861. He was a very active, non-academic child, who rode horses and drew from an early age. He had some formal training in art, although he did not apply himself to it. His father died when he was eighteen, and the next year, he traveled west, to invest his inheritance in something that would make more money without much effort. Over the next several years, he went through his money as he tried several jobs. None allowed him to make money without hard work. Eventually, in 1885, he fell back on his drawing, illustrating articles for magazines and newspapers. When The Century magazine hired him to illustrate articles by Theodore Roosevelt, it led to a contract to write and illustrate his own articles. From that time forward, Remington was able focus on the West, with more than 2,000 illustrations published in various magazines, as well as his more formal paintings and, eventually, bronze sculptures. Beginning in the early 1890s, in addition to his art, he became a regular on the lecture circuit, for which he adopted a western persona. Having had a full life as a correspondent, author, illustrator, painter, and sculptor, he died of appendicitis in 1909.

Document Analysis

With a flowing style and excellent illustrations, Frederic Remington described highlights of a two-week trip through rugged Arizona terrain with members of the Tenth Cavalry as his companions. Although Remington occasionally made reference to their race and accurately depicted them in his illustrations, he did not make an issue of the fact that they were African Americans. The unit endured the hardships of service in the Southwest's desert climate, just as members of other units did. Although the territory would become a state in less than twenty-five years, it was a very remote and undeveloped area. Remington came to understand that to survive in this environment, people had to work together, and that race made no difference on the trail. In addition to his description of the people and scenery, the readers of his account could gain further insight into the difficult lifestyle of the soldiers, by Remington's comments on his physical discomfort as compared to the lack of complaints by his companions. Due to his excellent reporting, Remington's readers could vicariously join with him in his travels.

The dual focus of environment and people made this a well-balanced article. Foreshadowing the trials that were to follow, Remington began by mentioning how comfortable he was at Fort Grant. However, once he accepted the challenge to join the expedition, this all changed. On a horse selected because of Remington's size (weight), he ventured into the wilderness. The dust, harsh sunlight, and unfriendly vegetation wore him down. Thus, he was glad to find a “soft” rock upon which to briefly rest. The transition from desert valleys to more temperate mountains was helpful, but getting up and down was not always easy, as Remington described the journey. As he recorded events, he made it clear that even though the major Indian wars had stopped, it was not a “lawn-party” for the Tenth Cavalry.

While Remington may have been sent to report on the West, the other focus of this journal was the people. The variety of those with whom Remington came into contact was clearly indicated in the article, and yet at the same time, the essential sameness of them came through strongly. In reference to the difficult conditions, Remington mentioned the dust, which resulted in a situation in which the “black man and white man wear a common hue.” In the 1880s, throughout American society, there was a strong inclination toward white supremacy resulting in segregation and discrimination. As Remington viewed the work being done by the Army on the frontier, he saw that the Buffalo Soldiers were as solid and dedicated as the white soldiers in other units. In fact, it seemed that he thought they were more content as they did not “see fit to augment their misery by finding fault.” While Remington went down steep mountainsides with great trepidation, the soldiers went down the same slopes unconcerned with the danger. Whatever his previous views of African Americans might have been, on this journey through the wilderness, his writing indicated that he accepted them as equals.

The illustrations that Remington created for this article were based on sketches he made during the trip. Some art historians believe that this trip was a turning point in Remington's ability to accurately transfer images from his sketchpad to print. These also illustrated what would become his trademark style. Using a style opposite to previous artists depicting the West, Remington made the people the focus of his work, not the scenery.

Bibliography and Additional Reading

Buckland, Roscoe L. Frederic Remington: The Writer. New York: Twayne, 2000. Print.

Glasrud, Bruce A., & Michael N. Searles, eds. Buffalo Soldiers in the West: A Black Soldiers Anthology. College Station: Texas A&M UP, 2007. Print.

Thayer, Tolles. “Frederic Remington (1861–1909)” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.

Utley, Robert M. “Buffalo Soldiers” Fort Davis National Historic Site. National Park Service, 2002. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.