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From my days of working at Fort Davis when I was in college, I have been curious about the army chaplains who served the soldiers of the four African American regiments, the Buffalo Soldiers. As one of those topics I thought about but never pursued, it came to the fore when I started having weekly coffee with Ken Hurst, retired Lieutenant-Colonel and Chaplain of the Second Infantry Division. I am only sorry for the fact that Ken is no longer with us and available to critique my work. It turns out that religion in the Regular Army of the 19th Century was never a priority and was usually secondary to other policies and issues. To the young men who served in the ranks, religion was often of little concern. Private Eddie Matthews, a devout Protestant, wrote, “A Christian in the Regular Army, accepting a few chaplains, and they are even doubtful, would be as great a curiosity as one of Barnum’s Cannibals.” The chaplains, few as existed in the army, were universally known as “Holy Joes.”
