Explore a Legendary Life at the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument

The centerpiece of the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument in Wilberforce is an 1830s farmhouse, and mounted on its front door is a patriotically themed door knocker that depicts an American eagle holding both the arrows of war and olive branch of peace in its talons.

It echoes the nation’s Great Seal and gives visitors their first indication of why the house is a National Park Service site: It once belonged to Charles Young, a U.S. Army officer and buffalo soldier who battled discrimination throughout his career yet became the first African American to achieve the rank of colonel, be appointed a military attaché and act as a national park superintendent.

“People who come here gain an appreciation for someone who had resolve and determination,” says acting superintendent Jewel Harris. “Young’s example can be a modern-day motivation.”

Recently reopened after a two-year restoration, the handsome farmhouse provides an authentic backdrop for exhibits that salute the all-black Army units Native Americans nicknamed “buffalo soldiers” and tell Young’s remarkable story. Born into slavery in Kentucky in 1864, Young grew up in Ripley, Ohio, a famous Underground Railroad town where he excelled in school and earned admission to West Point. Though isolated and ostracized, Young persisted and graduated from the academy.

One of his early assignments was developing a curriculum for future black officers at what is now Wilberforce University. Because of the school’s rich cultural atmosphere, Young and his wife Ada purchased the nearby farmhouse as their permanent home and place of refuge between tours of duty. In 1918, it also became the starting point for Young’s legendary protest ride after the Army kept him out of World War I by forcing him to medically retire. To prove his fitness to serve, Young rode a horse from Wilberforce to Washington, D.C., traveling 497 miles in only 16 days.  

1120 U.S. Hwy. 42 E., Wilberforce 45384, 937-352-6757, nps.gov/chyo

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