Mr. McRae:

Glad to hear you know Harold Sayre, a fine fellow and one hell of a historian/researcher. His privately printed, Warriors of Color, I'm sure you would agree, is a "must read" for anyone interested in post-Civil War black regulars.

Re the origin.history.meaning and use of term "buffalo soldiers"--I have been gathering "buffalo soldier" sightings for better than 30 years(mostly from period newspapers and journals, and some from
personal letters and diaries). I'd have to use both my hands and both feet to count all these sightings, ca l866-98, but I think I'd have a few toes left over. As you may know, the first published use of the term by a black soldier, in this case the retired l0th Cavalryman Rueben Waller, did not come until l930 in the Beecher Island Annual (in a letter Waller wrote in l929)
I'd be happy to post all of my sightings on this board--but my explanations about these sources are lengthy and my posting would have to come in several (possibly as many as 5 or 6 parts)over a period of several weeks.

Say the word and I will post my sightings/findings as I am always happy to share.

Tom Phillips