After the Civil War, the U.S. Army turned to the "Indian problem." In 1865, General James H. Carleton established Fort Selden, one in a network of forts used in an aggressive military campaign against the Apaches. The first troops assigned to Fort Selden were Black soldiers. Many had served in the Union Army during the Civil War. At war's end, they served in the west. The Indians called them Buffalo Soldiers because they thought the men's hair resembled a buffalo's mane and because the soldiers' shared the buffalo's tenacity in battle. Soldiers at Fort Selden saw little action. The fort closed in 1878. The pursuit of Geronimo caused its reactivation in 1880. It permanently closed in 1891.
Log only so please bring your own pen.