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“Though I had not desired the colored infantry . . . I have never regretted my service in that regiment.”
—Charles J. Crane (Class of 1877), on his assignment to the 24th Infantry
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After the Civil War, much of the army went to the West, stationed far from public view. The army’s chief
task was mediating between the swelling flood of white settlers and the Native Americans whose livelihoods,
ways of life, and lives themselves were threatened.
West Point provided most of the officers, with the rank and file recruited heavily from immigrants and African Americans. Hierarchy reigned in the frontier army.
Officers did not mingle socially with their men, nor did their wives and children have much to do with enlisted families.
Garrisons were usually small, rarely more than a few companies, and they were widely scattered. Isolated, poorly paid, often inadequately housed,
and very slow to win promotion, bachelor and married officers alike found life on frontier posts harsh, as did military wives and children.
Duty was mostly routine, and disability or death were far more likely from disease than combat.
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