WWI Yard Long Photograph - Are the Mounted Orderlies Buffalo Soldiers?

My neighbor asked for help with this yard long photograph of WWI Black Soldiers. The only information I could find was on a Buffalo Soldier page. I think the "Mounted Orderlies" were considered Buffalo Soldiers and wanted to see if someone could tell me if that is correct. Here is a link to the page.

http://www.nps.gov/prsf/historyculture/world-war-i-and-the-buffalo-soldiers.htm

Printed on the lower right hand corner on the photo:

"Machine Gun Co. and Mounted Orderlies 25th Inft. U.S.A. Schoenfield Barracks, H.T. 1916"

Printed on the lower left hand corner of the photo (I think Noggle is the name of the photographer) :

"1149 Noggle Photo Army and Navy News Staff"

Sorry, the photographs are a bit blurry because I was in low light. Thank you.

 

I don't think it has anything to do with Buffalo Soldiers.
An orderly is someone of lower rank who takes orders. The fact that that they are called mounted orderlies, means they have horses for whatever reason.
Also orderlies are sometimes associated with medical services.

The fact that they are all black may account for the times. I believe blacks and whites were still segregated in military units.

I found this. Doubt it helps, but it is interesting. Note the columns for "Colored". Also note they have the lowest pay scale on page 29.

Helps if I add the link LOL
https://books.google.com/books?id=F...AA#v=onepage&q=1916 mounted orderlies&f=false

 

This is interesting
Mentions the 25th infantry baseball team

http://www.hakes.com/item.asp?Auction=202&ItemNo=96963

Can you find any of those guys in your picture?

 

Thank you for the link. The blacks were definitely in segregated units back then.

This is the section from that Buffalo Soldier Page that made me think this might be part of that veteran group.

"The veteran Buffalo Soldier regiments of the Regular Army were also denied the opportunity to go into battle on the Western Front. The 24th Infantry had been on the Mexican border since 1916 and remained there. The 10th Cavalry was also assigned to patrol along the border. The military justified this action by saying that the country needed a dependable force on the border with Mexico.

The 9th Cavalry spent the war years in the Philippines (39). The 25th Infantry was garrisoned in Hawaii."

 

That is interesting. I will try and compare those tomorrow when I have better light. Thank you!

 

I have Buffalo Soldier friends who do reenactments and they dress to the period. They do the Rose Parade every year.

Here is some history too.

http://www.abuffalosoldier.com/index.html



PS
They always have one white guy to form the group like during the Civil War.

 

The Buffalo Soldiers in their personal lives are a doctor,farrier,retired Fire Capt.civil Engineer,and the list goes on.

 

> Buffalo Soldier regiments <

The term Buffalo Soldier was originally the US 10th Calvary regiment that fought in the Indian Wars in the 1860s-c1880. The term eventually became a generic term/nickname of the African American regiments that were formed in 1866. Those regiments were
9th Cavalry Regiment
10th Cavalry Regiment
24th Infantry Regiment
25th Infantry Regiment

History of the 25th Infantry Regiment:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25th_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)#World_War_I
https://suite.io/christopher-eger/c5z27m

Our military was segregated until the Korean War; however, it was ***not*** segregated during the Revolutionary War. It was Truman's Executive Order 9981 of 1948 abolishing racial discrimination in the military that eventually desegregated the military. The last all African-American units were abolished in 1954.

Here are other pics of the 25th Infantry Regiment:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25th_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)#mediaviewer/File:Buffalo_soldiers1.jpg

http://www.ebay.com/itm/c1912-HAWAI...-SCHOFIELD-BARRACKS-H-T-US-Army-/291279671123

http://www.historynet.com/the-buffalo-soldiers-who-rode-bikes.htm

BTW, at least up to the 1930s it was not unusual for a ranking officer to have 1 or 2 orderlies. One was his horse orderly and the other his house orderly. Page 82 in the following *.pdf.
http://huachuca-www.army.mil/Files/History_Illustrated_BuffaloSoldiersPartIII.pdf

As another has pointed out there were also hospital and ambulance orderlies, and probably Quartermaster Corp orderlies. Ambulance may have fallen under the Quartermaster Corp???

These orderlies have also become known as "Batmen" in both the English and US military and possibly other countries. James Garner in the The Americanization of Emily was referred to as a "batman."

"...a soldier or airman assigned to a commissioned officer as a personal servant. Before the advent of motorized transport, an officer's batman was also in charge of the officer's "bat-horse" that carried the pack saddle with his officer's kit during a campaign."

During WWI, the 25th was garrisoned at Schofield Barracks in the Hawaiian Territory ( HT) as no African American units were permitted into combat. The 1st African American regiment allow into battle during WWI was the 369th Infantry Regiment (AKA 15th NY National Guard Unit) nicknamed the "Harlem Hell Fighters." This nickname was given them by the Germans.

--- Susan

 

I replied to Shiloh and Susan and I don't see it now. After I posted, I got a message to sign in even though I thought I already had. ?

 

Shiloh, thank you for the link and the video. After watching it, it made me want to keep my promise to myself that I would go to Concord and watch the Revolutionary War Reenactments. I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't made it yet even thought it is so close by.

 

Susan, thank you so much for all that information. I just finished reading and following all the links. I'm always in awe of your research capabilities.

Mill

 

Mill Cove, there was a thread about a month ago on this happening to others. For a while it was happening to me, then it stopped, now it started again. Probably has something to do with some setting on my computer. (Bottom line, if you have answered a post and you get the "log-in request" notice when you hit "post reply", copy your text because when you log-in it will erase it.)

Here is the thread:

https://www.antiquers.com/threads/what-happens-to-replies-you-create-when-you-arent-logged-in.2186/

 

The Indians called them the Buffalo soldiers becaues their hair was like buffalo fur