Front and center: Buffalo Soldiers legacy lands Fort Stanton and Fort Union on Reconstruction Era network
author: Pipes, Richard
source date: 2025
availability: web

News article on Fort Stanton and Fort Union being added to the Department of Interior's Reconstruction Era National Historic Network. Features Oliver Horn, regional manager of Lincoln and Fort Stanton historic sites, and Bill Barley, chief of interpretation at Fort Union. Covers the 9th U.S. Cavalry's Medal of Honor recipients who served at Fort Union: Sergeant John Denny (1879) for rescuing a comrade under Apache fire; Sergeant George Jordan (1879) for defending civilians; Sergeant Thomas Shaw (1881) for bravery while outnumbered 2-to-1. Notes the 9th Cavalry Band performing for President Rutherford B. Hayes in Santa Fe in 1880; the laundress quarters built by black troops at Fort Stanton in 1876; Fort Stanton being the only New Mexico fort built of sandstone rather than adobe; and Blackdom, the first black community in New Mexico founded by 9th Cavalry veterans.