Brian G. Shellum - Buffalo Soldiers in Alaska: Company L, Twenty-Fourth Infantry

Brian Shellum has a knack for unlocking stories of Black soldiers in our military. With Buffalo Soldiers in Alaska he takes us beyond the racism-tainted news blurbs of early twentieth-century newspapers and gives life to these veterans who guarded the Gateway to the Klondike and were part of the community. This is an important new chapter in Alaska history.

Jeff Brady, author of Skagway: City of the New Century

The history of Alaskas turn-of-the-century gold rushes has been told a hundred times in a hundred different ways. Brian Shellums Buffalo Soldiers in Alaska shines much-needed light on a part of the story that has received little attention from scholars: the Black soldiers sent to keep order in Skagway and their interactions with white citizens and Alaska Natives and with Canadians on the other side of the border. This important book is a must-read for anyone interested in Alaska history.

Ross Coen, editor of Alaska History

Brian Shellum provides a wealth of facts about the lives of the Buffalo Soldiers who served in Alaska. It should be essential reading for anyone interested in the history of African Americans, Alaska, or twentieth-century military history.

Catherine Spude, historian, author of Saloons, Prostitutes, and Temperance in Alaska Territory

The author pays particular attention to the Black enlisted men who served in Alaska during the halcyon days of the Klondike gold rush. As such, this well-illustrated and carefully researched study sheds new light on a little-known story in U.S. Army history.

John P. Langellier, author of Scouting with the Buffalo Soldiers: Lieutenant Powhatan Clarke, Frederic Remington, and the 10th U.S. Cavalry in the Southwest

A thoroughly researched and well-presented account of a little-known episode in Alaskan history. No grand themes, pivotal events, or outsized personalities. The book is a welcome expansion of the story of African Americans in the nations military.

Tom Phillips, independent historian, coauthor of The Black Regulars, 18661898

Here is an extensively researched and detailed account of a little-known piece of gold rush history. What I particularly enjoyed was reading portions of the narrative that I have investigated myself but from a Canadian perspective. Well worth the read.

Michael Gates, former Parks Canada curator and author of Daltons Gold Rush Trail and From the Klondike to Berlin

Shellum has added yet another important and crucial volume to his works of untold military history stories by penning this book exploring the lives of the African American soldiers who proudly served on the Alaskan frontier. Readers will gain an appreciation not only for military history but for the way Buffalo Soldiers used baseball to connect with the white citizens of Skagway.

Krewasky A. Salter, executive director of the First Division Museum

Brian G. Shellum

University of Nebraska Press | Lincoln

2021 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska

Cover designed by University of Nebraska Press; cover image is from the interior.

Author photo courtesy of the author.

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Shellum, Brian G., author.

Title: Buffalo soldiers in Alaska: Company L, Twenty-Fourth Infantry / Brian G. Shellum.

Other titles: Company L, Twenty-Fourth Infantry

Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021003600

ISBN 9781496228444 (paperback)

ISBN 9781496228864 (epub)

ISBN 9781496228871 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH : Skagway (Alaska)History, Military. | United States. Army. Infantry Regiment, 24th (18691951). Company L. | African AmericansAlaskaSkagwayHistory. | African American soldiersHistory20th century. | African American soldiersBiography. | AlaskaRace relationsHistory20th century. | United States. ArmyCivic actionHistory20th century. | Skagway (Alaska)Social conditions20th century. | Skagway (Alaska)Biography. | BISAC : HISTORY / United States / State & Local / West ( AK , CA , CO , HI , ID , MT , NV , UT , WY ) | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / American / African American & Black Studies

Classification: LCC F 914. S 7 S 38 2021 | DDC 979.8/2dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021003600

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

For my sister

Rolynn Anderson

A conference call planted the seed for this book. Years ago, I participated in a monthly Buffalo Soldier discussion facilitated by National Park Ranger Guy Washington. On one such call more than ten years ago, Tegan Urbanski of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park dialed in, surprising us with the news that a company of Black soldiers from the Twenty-Fourth Infantry had served in Skagway during the Klondike gold rush. She was searching for resources on the Buffalo Soldiers to tell their story to park visitors.

The seed germinated when I arranged a cruise along the Alaskan coast for a group of my West Point classmates in 2018. One of our port calls was Skagway, and I remembered the phone call from Urbanski. So I called Jason Verhaeghe at the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park (known by the National Park Service acronym of KLGO ) to ask if he wanted me to make a presentation the day I was in port. I did some preliminary research, wrote a paper, gave the talk, and discovered an intriguing story. This book is the fruit of the research conducted in the two years since.

After a preliminary investigation of the resources, I realized I could not build a narrative of the experiences of Company L, Twenty-Fourth Infantry, without visiting Skagway. Now as then, Alaska remains a far-off place unfamiliar to most Americans. Fortunately, I learned from former Skagway News editor Jeff Brady about a writer-in-residence program called Alderworks Alaska in Dyea, Alaska. I applied, was accepted, and spent a month in the summer of 2019 researching, writing, and exploring the area around Skagway.

I had the same sense of wonder and excitement as the Buffalo Soldiers surveying the natural beauty of the steep fjords on the ferry trip from Juneau to Skagway. I stepped off the gangplank wharf-side, feeling lost as they had. Likewise, the first night sleeping in a cabin thousands of miles from home felt extraordinarily lonely. The quadruple-wire electric fence that surrounded my compound to discourage grizzly bears added to the anxiety.

I was fortunate to have Jeff Brady, the owner of Skaguay News Depot and Books, as my host at Alderworks. He and his wife, Dorothy, whose great-grandfather was a Faro dealer at the Board of Trade Saloon during the Klondike gold rush, knew all the right people in Skagway.

KLGO was a rich resource of talent and information on the Buffalo Soldiers. Park Ranger Kira Pontius was always at the ready to answer my questions and provide encouragement. Park Historian Karl Gurcke possessed an almost encyclopedic memory of the history and buildings of Skagway, and he took me on a walking tour of the streets the soldiers had occupied. He also created an excellent historic photo essay of the Black regulars in Skagway, which he constantly updates as new discoveries are made. This photo essay was my starting point and handy reference as I wrote the narrative. I supplemented it with trips to the Skagway Public Library to survey issues of the local