Augustus Walley: Buffalo Soldier (and much more)

FPrice

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I generally refrain from any comments on Black History Month. I support the efforts to insure that history is not lost but I don't want to get caught up in any of the PC Bravo Sierra.

But there are exceptions and this piece from the American Legion Burnpit is one. This man deserves to be remembered and honored for his service. Tried to find the author's name but could not. You may have better luck in the link at the end.

Augustus Walley.jpg

"The other day I did a piece on African American war heroes, and naturally I missed this guy. In my defense, it was posted to Stripes after I wrote the post, but wow, this guy was some kind of special. Born a slave in 1856, he would later join the famous Buffalo Soldiers who fought in the Indian Wars. As Stripes noted:

As one of the fabled Buffalo Soldiers, members of all-black regiments formed in the years following the Civil War, the Maryland-born Walley was part of a segregated Army. Though they fought in the same battles as their white counterparts, their options were limited, their status unequal, their advancement hard-fought. They were fighting for civil rights before people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were born, and they laid the groundwork for much of what their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren would later achieve.

His heroism was astonishing:

Walley earned his Medal of Honor during an August 1881 engagement with Apaches in the Cuchillo Negro Mountains (known today as the Sierra Cuchillo), in what is now Southwestern New Mexico. Sent after a band of Apaches had attacked a nearby ranch, Walley was among a troop called upon to provide cover for a group of trapped soldiers. Although many were able to escape, one was too badly injured and remained behind.

“Walley grasped the situation,” reads a plaque hanging inside the armory, “and in the greatest tradition of the cavalry mounted his horse and galloped to the fallen soldier, rescuing him and withdrawing under enemy fire to the rest of his unit.”

And he wasn’t even close to done:

Discharged from the 9th Cavalry in November 1883, he re-enlisted the next day in the 10th Cavalry, another Buffalo Soldier regiment. While fighting in Cuba during the 1898 Spanish-American War, he helped rescue a squadron commander, Maj. James Bell, under similar circumstances. Nominated for a second Medal of Honor, he was awarded instead a “certificate for gallantry in the preservation of human life” from his regimental commander.

Not only did he fight there, he also fought in the Philippine–American War

Later, at the age of 61 (after retiring as a First Sergeant), Walley even volunteered for World War I, but being that old, they sent him to Camp Beauregard, La., to train draftees for the “War to End all Wars.”

Go to Stripes and read the whole thing, but what a hero."

Augustus Walley: Buffalo Soldier, veteran of Indian Wars, Spanish American War, World War I, and Medal of Honor recipient
 
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