Thompson, Samuel K., fl. 1867-1869 [Diary of Samuel K. Thompson]

Officer diary of a Civil War veteran who had served as lieutenant in the 54th U.S. Colored Infantry during the war. The three diaries were written during service in one of four "buffalo soldier" regiments created after the war, comprising African-American volunteers and white commissioned officers, to occupy the South during Reconstruction and to man frontier forts on the Plains. Each diary includes additional notes and small newspaper clippings and a copy of his will (written April 1867). They provide great insight into the early history of one of the most celebrated "colored" regiments of the post-Civil War period. December 11, 1869, "…went to report to the Maj. He commenced a fuss about our inquiring into the shortness of the rations for the men. I soon dried him up but didn't say half I should have said."