Today’s post was written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, retired senior archivist from the National Archives at College Park.
This is the first post in a series about the 25th Infantry Regiment Bicycle Corps and their missions to test the effectiveness of bicycles for military use.
On November 3, 1917 United States Army Colonel James Alfred Moss, at Camp Upton, New York, took command of the newly organized 367th Infantry Regiment, a unit of the African American 92nd Infantry Division (“The Buffaloes”).[1] This would not be the first time Moss commanded Black soldiers. His first military assignment after graduation from West Point was with a segregated regiment, the 25th Infantry Regiment. [2] While assigned to that unit he and a small group of his soldiers formed a bicycle corps and participated in several long military expeditions to demonstrate the usefulness of the bicycle to the United States Army.
Moss was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, on May 12, 1872. He was a cadet at the United States Military Academy from June 17, 1890 to June 12, 1894, when he was graduated and promoted in the Army to Second Lieutenant of Infantry. Having graduated 54th and last in the 1894 class, he had no choice in his first military assignment. The Army assigned him to the 25th Infantry Regiment at Fort Missoula, Montana.[3]
Moss met the soldiers he would command and the commander of the regiment, Colonel Andrew Sheridan Burt on September 30, 1894. Colonel Burt had enlisted in the Army in April 1861, and served as an officer throughout the Civil War. He continued in service in the Army after the war and eventually, on July 4, 1892, was promoted to colonel and assigned to command the 25th Infantry Regiment, at Missoula, Montana.[4]
The town of Missoula, located at the confluence of the Clark Fork and Bitterroot River, was founded in 1864. When Fort Missoula was built in 1877, there were about 400 people living in Missoula. The arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1883 brought rapid growth and the maturation of the local lumber industry. In 1893, the state’s first university, the University of Montana, was established there. According to the 1890 census the city had a population of 3,426, and by the mid-1890s, the city had grown to nearly 4,0000 residents and had a full complement of hotels, restaurants, theaters, banks, shops, churches, professional services, and factories, as well as a horse-drawn streetcar line and even telephone service.[5]
Fort Missoula, established in late 1877, was located on the right side of the Bitterroot River at the mouth of Grant Creek, about four miles southwest of Missoula. Most of its nearly thirty buildings were oriented around a large parade ground. The soldiers stationed there were part of the community. Townspeople attended dances and concerts at the fort, and the soldiers spent much of their free time patronizing local businesses, especially taverns.[6] For the most part, Black soldiers did not have to deal with prejudice and discrimination in Missoula.[7] But there were instances.
Theophilus Gould Steward joined the Army on July 21, 1891, becoming the second African American chaplain in the regular army. He was assigned to Fort Missoula. He arrived there on August 24, 1891 and had fine relations with the officers, men, and townspeople. But he recorded an incident in 1894, when he was denied entrance to a hotel dining room when another army chaplain was visiting Missoula and staying at the hotel. Steward wrote letters to various newspapers explaining and condemning the incident. Col. Burt completely backed him. The proprietor of the hotel quickly apologized and pledged thereafter Black people would be accommodated in the hotel and dining room as the same conditions as others. [8]
The Congressional Act of July 28, 1866 provided for additional regiments for the United States Army. The law provided of the new regiments two cavalry regiments and four infantry regiments would be composed of African American soldiers. Accordingly, the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments and 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st Infantry Regiments were so composed. It would not be long before these regiments would be referred to as “Buffalo Soldiers.” The Congressional Act of March 3, 1869, provided for the consolidation of the forty-five infantry regiments into twenty-five, and also that “The enlisted men of two regiments of infantry shall be composed of colored men.” General Orders issued from Army Headquarters in May, 1869, directed the “Twenty-fifth Infantry (colored), to be composed of the 39th and 40th Regiments,” By the end of April, 1869, the organization of the regiment had been completed and the special return showed a full complement of officers and 1045 enlisted men.[9]
From its organization on April 20, 1869, until May, 1870, the 25th Infantry Regiment served in Louisiana and Mississippi. During that time the regiment was much depleted by the discharge of men on the expiration of their term of service, with few re-enlisting. By May 1870, the enlisted strength had dropped to 507. Little effort seems to have been made at recruiting and the strength of companies for the next twenty-eight years rarely exceeded fifty men each. [10]
During the 1870s, the 25th Infantry served in Texas. In May 1880, the regiment moved to the Dakota Territory, serving there for the next ten years.[11]
In May, 1888, the 25th Infantry Regiment was transferred to Montana. Headquarters and four companies were located at Fort Missoula, while the other companies were sent to various forts in Montana. For the most part the regiment was engaged in routine garrison life, but in the winter of 1890-1891, four companies were involved in the short but eventful campaign against the “hostile” Sioux. During the July, 1892, elements of the regiment where sent to nearby Idaho to deal with labor unrest issues involving protesting miners. During July and August 1894, labor troubles were rife among the employees of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and a considerable portion of the regiment was engaged in preventing disorders and guarding the trains and the mail. [12]
When Moss arrived at Fort Missoula in 1894, there was present Headquarter Companies B, F, G, and H. [13] In December 1898, Moss, in a public address in his hometown, said “When I graduated from West Point in 1894, the Secretary of War assigned me to a colored regiment, the 25th U. S. Infantry, stationed at Fort Missoula, Mont. Being a Southern boy I did not at first, I must admit, like the idea of serving with colored troops, but I was a soldier and had received an order from a superior, and there was but one thing for me to do-obey! After having been with the regiment for a while I found the men to be respectful, obedient and good soldiers, and I liked to have such men under my command.” [14] The editor of the Anaconda Standard observed that “they are model soldiers when in garrison, and their conduct whenever they have been called into the field has been excellent.”[15]
Colonel George Hall Burton, Inspector General, Pacific Division, on September 3, 1895, filed a report on the 25th Infantry Regiment. He wrote”
It is rare in my experience, to find a battalion move with more precision, promptitude, and fine military bearing than the one composed of the four companies of the 25th Infantry at Fort Missoula.
Without an exception the interior economy of the companies and band is excellent. The cleanliness, good order, and arrangements of barracks is equal to the best I have seen in the Army…
The command is orderly, efficient and vigilant…
Fort Missoula with its choice location and surroundings, its fine drill and well disciplines garrison, its excellent official personnel, combined with its harmonious and contented inmates, impresses me most favorably.
The step, dress and turn of all the companies was superb. The military bearing and general appearance of the battalion were exceptionally commendable.
Among other things he noted was: “The men casually on the parade appear habitually in neat uniforms, with blouses button and bearing themselves in a soldierly manner. The officers without exception are temperate, zealous and professionally capable.” [16]
In April, 1895, A Fort Missoula correspondent of the Anaconda Standard wrote: “There is general satisfaction in Missoula over the fact that there is no probability of the transfer of the 25th lnf. from Fort Missoula this year. The officers and men of Col. Burt‘s command have many friends and admirers in Missoula, and if you ask the average resident anything about the them they will tell you that there is no better regiment in the service than the 25th, and that there is no Post that is better kept than Fort Missoula.”[17]
Col. Burt was an enthusiastic advocate of athletic sports among soldiers. In May 1894, he organized baseball activities at Fort Missoula, establishing company teams and a post team. They played games in Missoula and neighboring towns. Practices were in the evenings and games were played every Sunday. [18]
Furthermore, bicycles were used widely on the fort and in Missoula. In mid-April of 1894 the Daily Missoulian reported that “Like in Missoula, half of the people at the fort are on bicycles and a person without a wheel is out of the times as it were.” Within a month of Moss’ arrival informal bicycle drills were being practiced at the fort.[19]
A highlight of the Fourth of July program in 1895 was a bicycle drill by twenty soldiers of the 25th Infantry Regiment. It was possible that Moss was involved, because of his strong commitment to military cycling. In the fall of that year, in responding to an official request for information, Col. Burt reported that at Fort Missoula three officers and seventy-eight enlisted men could ride bicycles.[20]
On August 5, 1895, Mark Twain, on his two-year world-wide lecture tour, came to Missoula. Traveling with him were his manager, Major James B. Pond (a Civil War veteran) their wives, and Twain’s daughter. Almost as soon as they arrived, Colonel Burt sent Army four-mule ambulances and an invitation for the entire party to dine at the fort. The ladies accepted the invitation. Twain went to bed, and Pond looked after the arrangements for Twain’s lecture that evening. Twain gave his lecture that evening, and then socialized with the audience until past midnight. Pond would later write “the day has been one of delight to all of us. As we leave at 2 :30 P.M. tomorrow, all have accepted an invitation to witness guard-mounting and lunch early at the fort.” [21]
The next day Burt sent two ambulances to the hotel for the party, and for Brig. Gen. George D. Ruggles, Adjutant General of the U.S. Army, who was in Missoula on a tour of inspection. Twain decided to walk the four miles to the fort. The others took the ambulances. Everyone but Pond road in one ambulance and he took the other ambulance in order to complete the arrangements for all of the party to go direct from the fort to the railroad depot. On his way Pond, road along the road to the fort “enjoying the memory of like experiences on the plains when in the army,” when, about half-way to the fort, he and the driver of the ambulance found Twain coming toward them. “He had walked out alone and taken the wrong road, and after walking five or six miles on it, discovered his mistake, and was countermarching when he saw our ambulance…He was too tired to express disgust and sat quietly inside the ambulance until we drove up to headquarters, where were a number of officers and ladies, besides our party.” [22]
Pond describes what happened next:
“As ‘Mark’ stepped out, a colored sergeant laid hands on him, saying :
“’Are you Mark Twain”?
“’I am,” he replied.
“’I have orders to arrest and take you to the guardhouse”’
“All right.”
And the sergeant walked him across the parade ground to the guardhouse, he not uttering a word of protest.
Immediately…Burt and the ambulance hurried over to relieve the prisoner. Colonel Burt very pleasantly asked Mark’s’ pardon for the practical joke and invited him to ride back to headquarters. Mark said:
“Thanks, I prefer freedom, if you don’t mind. I’ll walk. I see you have thorough discipline here, ‘ casting an approving eye toward the sergeant who had him under arrest.
The garrison consisted of seven companies of the Twenty- seventh (25th) United States Colored Regiment. There was a military band of thirty pieces. Guard mount was delayed for General Ruggles’ and our inspection. The band played quite a programme (sic), and all declared it one of the finest military bands in America. We witnessed some fine drilling of the soldiers….”
Twain, Pond, and company left the fort and caught the 2:30 pm train bound for Spokane. [23]
Pond did not mention bicycles at Fort Missoula. But he most probably saw them, as the bicycle was not only becoming very popular with the American public, but also with the Army.
During the early 1890s, the Army was fortunate to have a general officer who was interested in and advocate for the military use of the bicycle. This was Maj. Gen. Nelson A. Miles, who had seen extensive duty in the American west between 1874 and 1890. Beginning in the fall of 1891, Miles, then commander of the Department of Missouri and stationed at Chicago, Illinois, began pushing for the testing the military value of cycling. On October 21, 1891, the New York Times carried a story in which Miles stated his interest in bicycle couriers for the U.S. Army. He noted that the bicycle was quiet, reliable, and unlike horses did not have to be fed and watered. The key question, he said, was whether riders should be light and slim like cavalry soldiers or large like the enlisted men in the infantry. Until the stamina of riders of bicycles in military exercises was demonstrated, the utility of bicycles in military activities remained uncertain.[24] During that winter Miles initiated bicycle tests at Fort Sheridan by the 15th Infantry Regiment, with a detachment of one officer and nine non-commissioned men, using bicycles provided by the Pope Bicycle Company at no expense to the government. Not that much accomplished, in part because of military red-tape and in part because of the winter weather. [25]
On May 18, 1892, Miles sent a message from his headquarters in Chicago to Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard at New York Harbor by relays of cycle riders posted by the League of American Wheelmen, a private organization of bicycle sportsmen. In spite of extremely bad roads and constant rains the distance of 975 miles was made in four days and thirteen hours. Several hundred miles of the distance were ridden on the Lake Shore railway track, the surrounding country being under water. One man rode six miles in twenty-one minutes, and dismounted to cross seven culverts and a railway bridge.[26]
General Miles on May 31, 1892, was the speaker at a banquet in Chicago honoring the president of the League of American Wheelmen. The subject of his speech was military cycling and Miles noted with some satisfaction that the day before men from the 15th Infantry Regiment had conducted a practice march on bicycles from Pullman to Chicago. The riders carried full military equipment and covered the fifteen miles in one hour and twenty-five minutes. Miles also noted that these bicycle experiments “demonstrated the wretched conditions of the American roads.” Such efforts, he asserted, “. . . have demonstrated to the country that we need good avenues in order that our people may move from one part of the country to the other, and that they may have means of bringing their products to the market.”[27]
Maj. Gen. Alexander M. McCook, at Denver, Colorado, on August 12, 1894, received from Brig. Gen. Adolphus W. Greely, Chief Signal Officer of the Army, at the hands of a cyclist courier a message brought all the way from Washington by bicycle relays. On receiving the message he telegraphed back this response: “Your wheeled greeting has rolled more than two thousand miles over mountain, valley and plain, through ten States, and ascended to a mile’s altitude, covering over one hundred days’ march for troops, thus accomplishing in six days and twelve hours (actual time six days, twelve hours, thirty-seven and one-half minutes) one of the most notable feats on record in transmitting in formation by human power alone, over the greatest space in the shortest time.”[28]
During 1895, General Greely, who had great faith in the bicycle, and recognized it as a valuable auxiliary in his department, began experiments with half a dozen bicycles of different makes, purchased in the fall of 1894. for the use of signal sergeants in Texas and Arizona, who operated and maintained in repair the military telegraph lines in that part of the country. Three of the experimental bicycles were sent to Fort Riley, Kansas, where the school for sergeants of the Signal Corps was located. The men were taught to ride, care for and make repairs to the bicycles. Greely informed a young lieutenant who was writing an article about military bicycles, that the reports from the western lines as to their practical use were most favorable. Greely described a short line leading from El Paso, Texas, that seemed to be continually getting out of repair. “A lineman jumps on his wheel and carrying repair kit, rides out and repairs the injury and gets back to his station, often taking no longer time than it formerly took to hunt up a horse and wagon and get started.” “While the bicycle is at present confined in this department to repairing telegraph lines operated by the Signal Corps,” Greely said, “it is intended to use it for reconnaissance, topographical work, and the speedy delivery of messages at a distance when necessary.” [29]
In September 1895, 1st Lt. Rowland G. Hill, 20th Infantry Regiment, authored an article in a military journal that began:
“The year just passed has seen the greatest impetus given to bicycling, especially in the United States, England and France. All classes are taking it up, and those who do not ride the wheel lose a fine sensation of power and freedom. It has become an essential feature of modern life, and it is estimated that last year over a quarter of a million machines were sold in the United States and that there are in this country over a million riders of the wheel.“[30]
Hill then discussed for ten pages the capabilities and limitations of bicycles as a military machine. In his concluding remarks, Hill, among other things, wrote:
“Numerous cycle clubs already exist, and the common possession of the wheel forms a bond of union which should be taken advantage of by the general government and states. In time of war we would have at hand to draw upon, large numbers of our best and most vigorous young men for cycle organizations. There should be a really effective system of cycle drill regulations adopted, so that the widely dispersed knowledge of the wheel could be made effective as soon as possible, and this system should aim not at fancy evolutions, but at the serious problem of marching on roads without undue stringing out.
The bicycle is to-day a permanent feature in the world’s economy, and it is to be hoped that neither cold military conservatism, which judges too frequently almost with ferocity and without investigation, nor the blind enthusiasm which grasps at everything new with an equal lack of investigation, will exclude the wheel from its greatest function, viz.: to enable the infantry to have at hand, without expense and care for grooming, feeding and watering, a cheap, convenient and swift means of transportation from point to point.”[31]
In late 1895, 2nd Lt. Henry H. Whitney, 4th U.S. Artillery, authored a lengthy article in the Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States regarding the military usage of bicycles. He began his article by stating “It is a noteworthy fact that while being the most progressive nation on earth in matters civil, we are among the most conservative in affairs military. Old ideas are regarded almost as a fetish; we shrink from making new experiments.”[32] After spending nine pages discussing bicycle usage in European armies, he wrote “With our proverbial aversion to innovations in the army, we are the last to experiment with the wheel with a view to its military use.” He then discussed regular army and National Guard usage of bicycles. He noted that the Connecticut National Guard seemed to be the pioneers in military cycling in the United States, the regular organization as a corps dating with them from 1891, when they mounted a ten-man section of the Signal Corps. He noted that besides Connecticut military cycling had been take up systematically in Ohio, New York, Colorado, and Washington, D.C.[33]
Whitney spent six pages discussing mounted infantrymen using bicycles and such use as “mounted orderlies, messengers and couriers, scouts, topographers, signal men, etc.” He then addressed the specifications of a model for a military bicycle that would meet all the requirements of actual service. Finally, he asked the question “Shall we have such a military wheel and a regularly organized bicycle establishment in the army? A thorough trial could be made with very little, if any, outlay.”[34] He concluded his article by observing:
It is supposed to be a military principle with us that our army, although small, should be \kept in the highest state of efficiency so that, in the event of war, we shall have a nucleus that will compare in organization at least, with any power with whom we should be likely \to come in contact. All the great powers have experimented with the bicycle, as we have seen, and they have concluded that it can be made a valuable auxiliary in case of war, and most of them have well organized cyclist corps. It is certainly a more important matter than a change of uniform, and to effect an organization would cost no more than to change the head gear, or put braid on a blouse and then take it off.
Judging from the existing jealousies in international relations it would appear that the absolute brotherhood of man is as yet only an ideal of the philanthropist, and that peace on earth, good will toward men, must seek its fulfilment in the millennium of all things. The balance of power is so nicely adjusted that the chances in the coming conflict will be governed by efficiency in detailed preparation. The bicycle will weigh well in the scale. We are told somewhere that for want of a horse-shoe nail a battle was lost. In the next war for want of a bicycle the independence of a nation may be forfeited. [35]
I am sure both Hill and Whitney were pleased that Miles became Commanding General of the Army on October 5, 1895, and pleased with his fiscal year 1895 report to the Secretary of War, in which he wrote:
As very great progress is being made in European countries in the use of the bicycle and motor wagons, and as both have been found practicable in this country and would certainly be utilized to a great extent in case of war, I recommend that a force equal to one full regiment of twelve companies be equipped with bicycles and motor wagons and their utility thoroughly demonstrated by actual service. There are more than 4,000 officers and men in the Army who are able to use the bicycle as a means of transportation. The officers and men for such a regiment to be so equipped should be carefully selected from the most efficient and skillful in the use of this modern appliance, and I recommend that authority for such transfer be granted with as little delay as practicable.
The bicycle has been found exceedingly useful in reconnoitering different sections of the country, and it is my purpose to use to some extent troops stationed at different posts to make practice marches and reconnaissance’s, and thereby obtain a thorough knowledge of their own country, especially the topographical features, condition of roads, sources of supplies, and all information of military importance.[36]
About the time Miles was submitting his report, The United States Army and Navy Journal noted that:
The bicycle will be more extensively used in the future for Army work than has heretofore been the case. This will be especially true of the Signal Corps. There are already some dozens of bicycles now in use in this corps, and they have given such satisfactory results that Gen. Greely, Chief Signal officer, has practically decided to obtain an additional supply. They are naturally more economical than horses, and give just as good service, in some cases better. This is especially true of the Dept. of Texas, of which Capt. Thompson is Signal officer. Capt. Thompson has reported to the Department that along the Rio Grande one of his men uses a bicycle, and finds it more suitable for his work there than a horse. It may be that, as a result of these experiments of the Signal Corps, and those now being conducted by Gen. Miles, that a bicycle organization will be formed like those in service abroad. [37]
In September 1895, The United States Army and Navy Journal published extracts of a paper that a Mr. Hugh J. Barron was going to present at the first convention of U. S. Military Wheelmen.[38] After discussing the various uses of bicycles in military service, Barron wrote:
The evolution of the bicycle for military purposes will go through the same slow process that has marked all improvements in the art of war. Private initiative will produce volunteer bodies. Then the Government will try a company, then finally a regiment. There will be always scoffers, then after a while one Government probably the most advanced one in military art, will get some great success and it will be attributed, justly or unjustly, to the bicycle; then the other Governments will follow suit and adopt the bicycle. [39]
In the spring of 1896, an artillery officer in the Journal of the Military Service Institution of The United States, wrote about the military uses of bicycles in Europe:
During the past ten years the use of cyclists on reconnaissance and messenger duty has received attention throughout the military world. The training was largely voluntary at first, but now Spain has a permanent cyclist section in her railroad battalion, and a temporary section for instruction in each infantry regiment, Sweden has in each division ten infantry soldiers trained annually as cyclist messengers, Holland has a corps of seventy-five cyclists, France has two men per regiment detailed on this duty, Denmark has a school in bicycling, which a certain number of recruits annually attend, England trains about twenty each year at Aldershot, and the other nations encourage bicycling (by offering prizes) as a valuable military sport. In 1893 Germany, Russia and Portugal used cyclists in the autumn manoeuvres with excellent results, and it is expected that permanent sections will soon be organized in all armies.[40]
The United States Army Signal Corps was also interested in bicycle use. In June 1896, it was reported:
A competitive trial of bicycles has been inaugurated by the Signal Corps of the Army. All of the cycles bought some days ago, with the exception of one, which is on exhibition at the Department, have been sent, some to the Department of Texas, some to the Department of Colorado, and the remainder to the Department of the Dakota for thorough trial and report. The bicycle at the Department is a folding machine, of American invention, and it is being carefully examined by the War Department officials. When the examination is concluded, it is the intention of Gen. Greely. Chief Signal Officer, to ship the machine to 1st Lieut. Samuel Reber, Signal Officer, stationed at San Antonio, Tex., with instructions to thoroughly test the machine. It is, of course, impossible for the Signal Corps to buy bicycles for any but signal men, but Gen. Greely desires all the information possible on the subject, so that when the time comes when a regiment of cyclists will be formed, he will be in a position to state which make is best for Army use. [41]
The War Department, in its fiscal year 1896 report, General Greely reported:
Interruption to telegraph communication has been so infrequent during the year as to be practically nil. The most frequent cause of interruption has been maliciousness, through a tendency of lawless individuals to pull down poles, cut wires, or shoot off insulators. The speedy resumption of communication after such occurrence has been due, to a great extent, to the adoption of the bicycle as a means of transportation for repairmen in place of the more expensive horse and wagon. The bicycle affords the more rapid as well as more economical method of travel. Frequently breaks on a line have been repaired by the use of the bicycle in less time than would have been consumed in obtaining a horse and vehicle. At some stations in a single year the original value of the bicycle has been saved to the Government. Different types of bicycles from time to time have been selected for experimental test, with a view to the fact that they must carry heavy loads over the roughest ground at a moderate rate of speed. It is evident that no single bicycle will best fulfill all the requirements of a military wheel, imposed by differing climatic conditions and by roads varying from almost pure sand to the roughest rock. Experiments thus far indicate that a bicycle weighing from 25 to 30 pounds, with pneumatic tires, will do the best work. [42]
In the same report, Miles renewed his previous years’ recommendation concerning the use of bicycles and motor wagons. [43] In the meantime, Moss submitted his request to organize conduct military experiments with bicycles on April 13, 1896. In his endorsement, dated April 21, Colonel Burt noted that “I am desirous of seeing the plan submitted by Lt. Moss carried out. I think it will be a valuable experiment to the service under the conditions of the surrounding company.” Burt also noted that he had instructed Moss to correspond with the “large manufacturers of wheels in this country” regarding the use of bicycles for the proposed experiment. The Spalding Bicycle Company agreed to provide the bicycles at no cost to the government. On May 12, the project was approved by the Acting Engineer Office, Department of Dakota. [44] In two months, Moss organized the 25th Infantry Regiment Bicycle Corps.
Next: Part II
This year, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) has chosen Black Health and Wellness as the theme. We hope you enjoy blogs that reveal stories of Black health and wellness from the records of the National Archives.
[1] Emmett J. Scott, A.M., LL.D., Special Assistant to Secretary of War, Scott’s Official History of the American Negro in the World War (Chicago: Homewood Press, 1919),.p. 190.
[2] Regarding post-Civil War segregated regiments, readers may find interesting information provided by Trevor K. Plante and Walter Hill at “Researching African Americans in the US Army, 1866-1890” and “Exploring the Life and History of the Buffalo Soldiers“
[3] George W. Cullum, Biographical register of the officers and graduates of the U.S. military academy at West Point, N.Y., from its establishment, in 1802, to 1890; with the early history of the United States military academy, Supplement, vol. IV. 1890-1900, edited by Edward S. Holden (Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1901), p. 582; George W. Cullum, Biographical register of the officers and graduates of the U.S. military academy at West Point, N.Y., from its establishment, in 1802, to 1890; with the early history of the United States military academy, Supplement, VIA-VIB 1910-1920, edited by Colonel Wirt Robinson (Saginaw, Michigan: Seemann & Peters, Printers, 1920), p. 714. Black units were usually the last chosen by graduating cadets. Men like Moss got what was left over, usually a segregated regiment. Edward M. Coffman, The Old Army: A Portrait of the American Army in Peacetime, 1784-1898 (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), p. 231
[4] House of Representatives, 54th Congress, 2nd Session, Document No. 149, Official Army Register for 1897, Published by Order of the Secretary of War, In Compliance with Law, Adjutant-General’s Office, Washington, December 1, 1896, pp. 176, 298.
[5] Moore, The Great Bicycle Experiment: The Army’s Historic Black Bicycle Corps, 1896-97, pp. 268, 281-289.
[6] Robert W. Frazer, Forts of the West: Military Forts and Presidios and Posts Commonly Called Forts West of the Mississippi River to 1898 (Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965), p. 83; Kay Moore, The Great Bicycle Experiment: The Army’s Historic Black Bicycle Corps, 1896-97 (Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press Publishing Company, 2012), pp. 8-9.
[7] There was much prejudice within the Army regarding black soldiers. This prejudice sometimes lessened as white officers and enlisted men came to appreciate the ability and character of black soldiers. With the heightening of the reputation of the “Buffalo Soldiers” West Pointers of higher class rank in the classes from 1887 through 1891 began to choose service in the Colored 9th and 10th Cavalry regiments. Coffman, The Old Army: A Portrait of the American Army in Peacetime, 1784-1898, pp. 365-371.
[8] Theophilus Gould Steward, Fifty years in the gospel ministry from 1864 to 1914 : twenty-seven years in the pastorate; sixteen years’ active service as Chaplain in the U.S. Army; seven years professor in Wilberforce University; two trips to Europe; a trip to Mexico (Philadelphia: Printed by A.M.E. Book Concern, 1921), pp. 8-9.
[9] Lieut. Geo. Andrews, 25th Infantry, “Twenty-Fifth Regiment of Infantry,” in Theo[philus] F. [Francis] Rodenbough, Bvt. Brigadier General, U.S.A. and William L. Haskin, Major, First Artillery, eds., The Army of the US Historical Sketches of Staff and Line with Portraits of Generals-in-Chief (New York: Maynard, Merrill & Co. 1896), p. 697; John H. Nankivell, Buffalo Soldier Regiment: History of the Twenty-fifth United States Infantry, 1869-1926 (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2001), pp. 6, 11
[10] Nankivell, Buffalo Soldier Regiment: History of the Twenty-fifth United States Infantry, 1869-1926, p. 15.
[11] Lieut. Geo. Andrews, 25th Infantry, “Twenty-Fifth Regiment of Infantry,” in Theo[philus] F. [Francis] Rodenbough, Bvt. Brigadier General, U.S.A. and William L. Haskin, Major, First Artillery, eds., The Army of the US Historical Sketches of Staff and Line with Portraits of Generals-in-Chief, p. 698; Nankivell, Buffalo Soldier Regiment: History of the Twenty-fifth United States Infantry, 1869-1926, pp. 15-40.
[12] Lieut. Geo. Andrews, 25th Infantry, “Twenty-Fifth Regiment of Infantry,” in Theo[philus] F. [Francis] Rodenbough, Bvt. Brigadier General, U.S.A. and William L. Haskin, Major, First Artillery, eds., The Army of the US Historical Sketches of Staff and Line with Portraits of Generals-in-Chief, pp. 698-699; Clayton D. Laurie and Ronald H. Cole, The Role of Federal Military Forces in Domestic Disorders 1877-1945, Army Historical Series (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1997), pp. 155-159; Nankivell, Buffalo Soldier Regiment: History of the Twenty-fifth United States Infantry, 1869-1926, pp. 42-52, 53-54.
[13] John H. Nankivell, Buffalo Soldier Regiment: History of the Twenty-fifth United States Infantry, 1869-1926 (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2001), p. 58.
[14] The Lafayette (Louisiana) Gazette, December 17, 1898, in Chalk Courchane, “25th Infantry Regiment of Fort Missoula, the story of its service in the West, the Bicycle Corps, and adventures in Cuba and the Philippines. In the Pacific Northwest in 1888,” Library of Congress, Chronicling America
[15] Moore, The Great Bicycle Experiment: The Army’s Historic Black Bicycle Corps, 1896-97, p. 10.
[16] John H. Nankivell, Buffalo Soldier Regiment: History of the Twenty-fifth United States Infantry, 1869-1926 (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2001), p. 60.
[17] The United States Army and Navy Journal, and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces, Vol. 32, April 27, 1895, p. 572.
[18] Charles M Dollar, “Putting the Army on Wheels: The Story of the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps,” Prologue: Journal of the National Archives, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Spring 1985), p. 10; Nankivell, Buffalo Soldier Regiment: History of the Twenty-fifth United States Infantry, 1869-1926, p. 164.
[19] Charles M Dollar, “Putting the Army on Wheels: The Story of the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps,” Prologue: Journal of the National Archives, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Spring 1985), p. 10.
[20] Charles M Dollar, “Putting the Army on Wheels: The Story of the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps,” Prologue: Journal of the National Archives, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Spring 1985), pp. 10, 23, n. 9.
[21] Major J. B. Pond, Eccentricities of Genius: Memories of Famous Men and Women of the Platform and Stage (London: Catto & Windus, 1901, pp. 213-214.
[22] Pond, Eccentricities of Genius: Memories of Famous Men and Women of the Platform and Stage, pp. 214-215.
[23] Pond, Eccentricities of Genius: Memories of Famous Men and Women of the Platform and Stage, p. 215.
[24] Charles M Dollar, “Putting the Army on Wheels: The Story of the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps,” Prologue: Journal of the National Archives, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Spring 1985), p. 7.
[25] Lieut. Henry H. Whitney, 4th U.S. Artillery, “The Adaptation of the Bicycle to Military Uses,”
Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States, Vol. XVII (November 1895), p. 551; Charles M Dollar, “Putting the Army on Wheels: The Story of the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps,” Prologue: Journal of the National Archives, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Spring 1985), pp. 7-8.
[26] Lieut. Henry H. Whitney, 4th U.S. Artillery, “The Adaptation of the Bicycle to Military Uses,”
Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States, Vol. XVII (November 1895), p. 551.
[27] Charles M Dollar, “Putting the Army on Wheels: The Story of the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps,” Prologue: Journal of the National Archives, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Spring 1985), p. 8.
[28] Lieut. Henry H. Whitney, 4th U.S. Artillery, “The Adaptation of the Bicycle to Military Uses,”
Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States, Vol. XVII (November 1895), p. 551.
[29] Lieut. Henry H. Whitney, 4th U.S. Artillery, “The Adaptation of the Bicycle to Military Uses,”
Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States, Vol. XVII (November 1895), p. 552.
[30] First Lieut. R. G. Hill, 20th U. S. Infantry, “The Capabilities and Limitations of the Bicycle as a Military Machine,” Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States, Vol. XVII (September 1895), p. 312.
[31] First Lieut. R. G. Hill, 20th U. S. Infantry, “The Capabilities and Limitations of the Bicycle as a Military Machine,” Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States, Vol. XVII (September 1895), p. 322.
[32] Lieut. Henry H. Whitney, 4th U.S. Artillery, “The Adaptation of the Bicycle to Military Uses,”
Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States, Vol. XVII (November 1895), p. 542.
[33] Lieut. Henry H. Whitney, 4th U.S. Artillery, “The Adaptation of the Bicycle to Military Uses,”
Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States, Vol. XVII (November 1895), pp. 551, 552, 553.
[34] Lieut. Henry H. Whitney, 4th U.S. Artillery, “The Adaptation of the Bicycle to Military Uses,”
Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States, Vol. XVII (November 1895), p. 562.
[35] Lieut. Henry H. Whitney, 4th U.S. Artillery, “The Adaptation of the Bicycle to Military Uses,”
Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States, Vol. XVII (November 1895), p. 563.
[36] War Department, Annual Report of the Secretary of War for The Year 1895 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1895 (3 vols.) Vol. 1, p. 69.
[37] The United States Army and Navy Journal, and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces, Vol. 32, June 29, 1895, p. 726.
[38] Report of the Proceedings of the First Annual Convention of Military Wheelmen held at the Broadway Central Hotel, New York City on October, 1895, was published beginning at page 146 of The United States Army and Navy Journal, and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces, Vol. 33, November 2,, 1895.
[39] The United States Army and Navy Journal, and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces, Vol. 33, September 28, 1895, p. 52.
[40] First Lieut. J. P. Wisser, 1st U. S. Artillery, “A Decennium of Military Progress,” Journal of the Military Service Institution of The United States, Vol. XVIII, No. LXXX (March 1896), p. 254.
[41] The United States Army and Navy Journal, and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces, Vol. 33, June 27, 1896, p. 778.
[42] Report of the Secretary of War, Being part of the Message and Documents Communicated to the Two Houses of Congress at the Beginning of the Second Session of the Fifty-Fourth Congress (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1896) (3 vols.), Vol. 1, p. 597.
[43] Report of the Secretary of War, Being part of the Message and Documents Communicated to the Two Houses of Congress at the Beginning of the Second Session of the Fifty-Fourth Congress (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1896) (3 vols.), Vol. 1, p. 79.
[44] Charles M Dollar, “Putting the Army on Wheels: The Story of the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps,” Prologue: Journal of the National Archives, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Spring 1985), p. 23, n. 10.