Thomas Boyne

NPS Image / T. Engberg

Quick Facts

Significance:

Buffalo Soldier and Medal of Honor recipient

Place of Birth:

Prince Georges County, Maryland

Date of Birth:

1849

Place of Death:

Washington D.C.

Date of Death:

April 21, 1896

Place of Burial:

Washington D.C.

Cemetery Name:

United States Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery

Thomas Boyne was born enslaved in Prince Georges County, Maryland in 1849. Boyne enlisted with the Second Colored Light Artillery on February 5, 1864, at Point Lookout, Maryland. His enlistment documents state that he previously had been a laborer and house servant. Boyne and his fellow African American enlistees in Battery B were transferred to Fort Monroe, Virginia, for artillery training. They were attached to Fort Monroe for most of the war and participated in the battles of Wilson’s Wharf and City Point. In June 1865, Battery B was transferred to Texas. Boyne mustered out of federal service on March 17, 1866, in Brownsville, Texas.

In January 1867, Boyne enlisted in the U.S. Army and was assigned to the Fortieth Infantry, one of the original Buffalo Soldier regiments. The Army consolidated the Fortieth with the Thirty-ninth Infantry to create the Twenty-fifth Infantry in 1869. Boyne served with the Twenty-fifth from its inception until he transferred to the Ninth Cavalry in 1875. The Ninth Cavalry was transferred from Texas to Fort Bayard, New Mexico, in 1876.

By May 1879, Boyne, then a sergeant, had almost 15 years of military service with experience in infantry, artillery, and cavalry. That month, Boyne set out with the other members of C Troop, Ninth Cavalry, to pursue Chief Victorio of the Warm Springs Apaches and other members of his tribe who refused the government’s efforts to relocate them to the San Carlos Reservation in southeastern Arizona. 

C Troop traveled more than 400 miles trying to apprehend Victorio and his followers. On May 25, Boyne and C Troop, led by Captain Charles D. Beyer, again left Fort Baynard in pursuit of Victorio. It took two days for the troopers and their Navajo scouts to pick up Victorio’s trail. On May 29, Beyer and his men caught up with Victorio and the Warm Springs Apaches in a steep fortified canyon in the Mimbres Mountains. Just before noon, Beyer ordered his men forward to pressure the Apache position. As the Buffalo Soldiers exchanged gunfire with the Apaches, they moved up the mountain using every tree and boulder as cover. Before long, the Buffalo Soldier advance caused Victorio and his men to retreat. In his after-action report, Beyer cited several troopers for gallantry and bravery, including Boyne.

After the Apaches’ retreat, Victorio’s trail went cold for four months. Throughout September, the Ninth Cavalry had several clashes with Victorio and his men. On September 24, along the Cuchillo Negro Mountains, the Apaches surprised Lieutenant Henry H. Wright, Boyne, and the rest of C Troop. In the exchange of gunfire, the Apaches shot and killed Wright’s horse. The fallen horse trapped Wright as the Apaches closed in. Boyne and his detachment of troopers charged to Wright’s defense, driving off the Apaches and freeing Wright.

During the Victorio campaign, Boyne participated in eight engagements and routinely showed signs of gallantry and bravery. Major Albert P. Morrow of the Ninth Cavalry stated, “I have seen him repeatedly in action and in every instance, he has distinguished himself. If any soldier deserves a Certificate of Merit or Medal of Honor, Sergt. [sic] Boyne does and I hope he may so be rewarded.” Boyne received the Medal of Honor on January 6, 1882. His citation reads “Bravery in action” on May 29, 1879, and September 27, 1879.

The harsh winter of 1884-85 was very difficult for Boyne. Along with other members of the Ninth Cavalry, he was transferred to Indian Territory, in present-day Oklahoma, to keep American settlers off lands designated for American Indians. During that winter’s patrols, Boyne along with 50 other men of the command suffered from severe frostbite. He was transferred to the post hospital at Fort Caldwell, Kansas in January 1885.

Boyne sufficiently recovered from frostbite to reenlist in July 1885 and transferred to the Twenty-fifth Infantry, stationed at Fort Meade in the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory. Nevertheless, his health continued to decline; he took sick four times and developed a hernia in October 1888.

Boyne was medically discharged from the army in January 1889. He died on April 21, 1896, at age 50 at the U.S. Soldier’s Home in Washington, D.C. He is buried at the United States Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery, Section J, Grave #5859 in Washington, D.C.