In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Negro Bicycle Troops in 1870s Montana
dreher
Member Posts: 8,891 ✭✭✭✭
I fell into this topic in a book I was reading this week. It sounded interesting to me so I Googled it and found out that in the 1870s the Army decided to test bicycles to replace horses as bicycles don't eat![:D] Literally. That was part of the thinking. Since the Negro soldiers were much more expendable then the white soldiers back then the Negro soldiers were chosen for this experiment.
These were steel wheeled bikes. Oh my that must have been a joy to ride cross country since most of the ride was off road. If there was a road it would have been an unimproved pot holed maybe muddy mess.
So a group of Negro soldiers set off from Montana heading for St. Louis riding 1,900 miles in 41 days. Let's not forget this was before conveniance stores, motels and restaurants. These soldiers were way more man than I ever was on the best day of my life.
The army decided this was a failed experiment but I know enough about horses to know that without quite a few extra horses for the soldiers to ride never would the same number of horses and riders set out on a 1,900 mile 41 day trip and all riders/horses make it all the way.
Just an interesting little nugget of interesting history I thought I would pass on. More info plus pictures on line.
These were steel wheeled bikes. Oh my that must have been a joy to ride cross country since most of the ride was off road. If there was a road it would have been an unimproved pot holed maybe muddy mess.
So a group of Negro soldiers set off from Montana heading for St. Louis riding 1,900 miles in 41 days. Let's not forget this was before conveniance stores, motels and restaurants. These soldiers were way more man than I ever was on the best day of my life.
The army decided this was a failed experiment but I know enough about horses to know that without quite a few extra horses for the soldiers to ride never would the same number of horses and riders set out on a 1,900 mile 41 day trip and all riders/horses make it all the way.
Just an interesting little nugget of interesting history I thought I would pass on. More info plus pictures on line.
Comments
At Yellowstone.
Started the trip at Fort Missoula, and it was during the 1890s.
At Yellowstone.
Notice the enclosed chain guards..?...and the white overseer...
Notice the enclosed chain guards..?...and the white overseer...
Notice the rifles on the back of each soldier in the first picture..?... and what appears to be the lack thereof carried by the white guy?...??..?...???.....?
Never mind the fact that the chain guards were used to keep dust and debris away from the chains, and that the "white overseer" was likely the post surgeon.
No chuck wagon, ammo caissons, water barrels, baby howitzers, and everything else required for a functioning combat unit would need truck transport and that wouldn't be available for another 20 or so years.
The French and Germans had bicycle units later on, but with trucks too and they used regular roads.
At Yellowstone.
Mammoth Hot Springs. Bet'cha caint do that now.
Modern roads, lots of corner pantries to buy canned chili and beer, nice modern 10 speed bike. That was a tough trip, I was making about 75 miles a day.
These guys, on those primitive bikes on goat paths, making 41 miles a day? Those were a bunch of bad *. Damn.
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee