A Buffalo Soldier’s story

Bowie City Council member William A. Aleshire’s research into Negro League baseball teams in Prince George’s County led him in a direction he never anticipated: writing a book about the forgotten war heroes known as the Buffalo Soldiers.

Mr. Aleshire’s book focuses on one soldier, Sgt. Thomas Boyne, of Prince George’s County, who was 18 when he became one of the 200,000 black men to join the Union Army to fight in the Civil War.

Following the Civil War, Boyne’s heroic actions in the Indian wars led him to receive the Medal of Honor, the country’s highest military award.

“I don’t want to be a storyteller,” says Mr. Aleshire, 57, as he sits amid stacks of books, documents and computer technographics in his Bowie home.

“I want to try to educate our youth,” he says, attributing much of his endeavor to his wife, Clara Roe, a Prince George’s County librarian. “History books don’t talk about these black troops.”

Mr. Aleshire’s book is titled, “Medal of Honor Winner Sgt. Thomas Boyne and His Comrades.” His book has not yet been published.

Mr. Aleshire is a Vietnam veteran who retired from the Metropolitan Police Department after 21 years. He did not know much about Buffalo Soldiers or Boyne in 1995 when he first began researching sandlot baseball teams and Negro League teams in Prince George’s.

His interest in those teams led him to help the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission prepare a Rough Diamonds Exhibit for the Tricentennial Celebration and the opening of the Prince George’s Stadium, home of the Baysox, in 1996.

In April 1997, Louis Fields, executive director of the African American Tourism Council of Maryland, asked Mr. Aleshire to assist him in preparations for a program held in Baltimore celebrating the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s arrival in the major leagues.

More black baseball celebrations led Mr. Fields to invite Mr. Aleshire to help prepare for the first Buffalo Soldiers Day in Maryland on Feb. 20, 1999.

That’s when Mr. Aleshire came across the names of several Prince George’s County black men who fought with the Buffalo Soldiers in the Western Fron

In 1866, Congress passed legislation establishing two all-black cavalry and four all-black infantry regiments, each consisting of about 1,000 men. The mounted regiments were the 9th Cavalry and 10th Cavalry, later called “Buffalo Soldiers.”

Their infantry and calvary outfits, commanded by white men, were moved west of the Mississippi River, mostly to fight renegade Indians. Because of their skill and reputation, the Buffalo Soldiers consistently received some of the most dangerous and difficult assignments the Army had to offer.

Story Continues →