Buffalo Soldiers During the Spanish American War

On February 15th, 1898, over 250 American sailors were killed when the battleship USS Maine blew up and sank in Havana harbor. The war with Spain began in April 1898 when Major General William Shafter, a former commander of the Twenty-fourth Infantry, led an expeditionary force of over 17,000 men, including nearly 3,000 Black regulars, into Cuba. All four Buffalo Soldier regiments, Ninth Cavalry, Tenth Cavalry, Twenty-fourth Infantry, and Twenty-fifth Infantry, participated in the fighting in Cuba.