he lot of the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry to prove
that the negroes could do as well under fire in the Indian wars as they
had when fighting for the freedom of their race. While the Twenty-fourth
and Twenty-fifth Infantry had merely garrison work to do, the Ninth and
Tenth Cavalry scouted for years against hostile Indians in Texas, New
Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas, always acquitting themselves honorably. In
September, 1868, a little over two years after their organization, three
troops of the Ninth Cavalry did well in an action against Indians
at Horsehead Hills, Texas. When General George A. Forsyth and his
detachment of fifty scouts were surrounded and "corralled" by seven
hundred Indians on an island in the Republican River, it was the troop
of Captain Louis H. Carpenter, of the Tenth Cavalry, which first came to
their rescue. Similarly when Major T. T. Thornburg's command was nearly
wiped out by Utes in 1879, it was Captain F. S. Dodge's Troop D of the
Ninth which succeeded in reaching it in time, losing all its horses in
so doing. This regiment alone took part in sixty Indian fights between
1868 and 1890, during which time it lost three officers and twenty-seven
men killed, and had three officers and thirty-four men wounded. The
Tenth Cavalry's casualties were also heavy during this same period, and
it fought for many years over a most difficult country in New Mexico and
Arizona, taking a conspicuous part in running to earth Geronimo's and
Victoria's bands of Apaches.

On one of these campaigns Lieutenant Powhatan H. Clarke gave effective
proof of the affection which the officers of colored regiments have
for their men. In the fight in the Pineto Mountains with a portion
of Geronimo's forces this young Southerner risked his life to save a
colored sergeant who had fallen wounded in an open space where both he
and his rescuer were easy marks for the Apaches. For this gallant act
Lieutenant Clarke rightly received a medal of honor. The Twenty-fourth
Infantry, on the other hand, has contributed a striking instance of the
devotion of colored soldiers to their officers. When Major Joseph W.
Wham, paymaster, was attacked by robbers on May 11, 1889, his colored
escort fought with such gallantry that every one of the soldiers was
awarded a medal of honor or a certificate of merit. Some of them stood
their ground although badly wounded, notably Sergeant Benjamin Brown,
who continued to fight and to encourage his men until shot th