In 1866 congress passed an act to adjust the military peacetime after the United States Civil War.
             A senator in congress wanted to keep six regiments of blacks in the military after the Civil War. Another Senator, Senator Benjamin F. Wade, proposed that two Cavalry regiments be composed of black enlisted personel. After much debate and opposition, mostly from democrats, the legislation was passed to create six black regiments in the United States Army, four were to be infantry and two to be cavalry. These men were to be posted on the frontier. They were not ther first black men to be posted out on the frontier, because in 1865 and 1866 there were black regiments posted in New Mexico to protect white settlers from Indian raids. These men were known as the Buffalo soldiers.
             The Buffalo Soldiers had many duties on the Western frontier. These men were to protect white settlers on the plains from any hostile group, meaning outlaws, raiders, indians, or any other group. They were used as escorts for stagecoaches, or any high ranking government official. Because of the labor many of these ex-slaves had performed they were used to build forts, outposts, and many roads throughout the West. Many of the first telegraph lines were put into place by the Buffalo Soldiers in the West. They also guarded water holes, railroad construction workers, and horses and cattle. The Buffalo Soldiers led a very dangerous life on the open and unmanaged plains of the west. Another dangerous job they performed was mapping out unknown lands and exploring uncharted areas. This led to many losses of lives of men wandering into tribal lands of local indians, and not to mention the wild animals that got many men. The adversaries of the Buffalo Soldiers were certain hos!
             tile indian warriors, horse theives and cattle rustlers, schemeing or crooked politicians, heartless indian agents, land-hungry homesteaders, mexican revolutionaries, t
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