Tucked away in the annals of history about Yosemite National Park is an all but forgotten footnote. The United States Cavalry was the first law in the park. They left one recognizable artifact: The Ranger Hat.
Recognizable to most of us as the Smokey Bear Hat, this headgear is descended from the cavalry troopers who re-formed a Montana Pinch into their Stetsons to shed torrential rains during their service in Cuba and the Philippines during the 1898 Spanish American War.
Among those troopers assigned to Yosemite were the Buffalo Soldiers, African-Americans who served in the US Cavalry and Infantry. In the late 1800's an Army wife at one of the outposts reported that during the Indian Wars these black troopers earned the nickname from their foes who likened their woolly hair and ferocity in battle to the mighty Buffalo of the Great Plains.
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Comments: 1
Read some great military history. The 7th Cavalry got their butts in a sling again after the Little Big Horn Massacre, fourteen years later, the day after the Wounded Knee Massacre. If it wasn't for the 9th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers, there would of been a second massacre of the 7th Cavalry. Read, and visit site/great military history, http://www.rescueatpineridge.com