Walker: Independence is a historical drama that takes place in the late 1800s. It tells the story of Abigail Walker, the first Walker in Texas, and details the beginnings of the Walker-Davidson feud. The events of this show will take place in and around the bustling town of Independence, Texas. Though Independence is a real town that still exists in Texas to this day, the Independence in Walker is a fictional composite of Independence and the original Waterloo, which Jared Padalecki mentioned during the Walker: Independence panel at ATX TV Festival in June. I wanted to spend a little time doing some background on the real history of both of these cities and speculate on what elements of these histories may be incorporated into the show.

History of Waterloo

If you look up Waterloo, Texas, you will find records of a present-day city with that name located in Williamson County. But that’s not the city we’re going to be talking about here.

There was another Waterloo once, in what is now Travis County. This was a small settlement that started with one man, Jacob Harrell, and his family in 1835. The current Congress Avenue Bridge sits in approximately the same spot as the original settlement.

A few years after this, the site was visited by Mirabeau Lamar, who decided it would make a good spot for the capital of the Republic of Texas. After being surveyed and reviewed in 1838-1839, the settlement (which had grown to house a few families) was officially incorporated and named “Waterloo”. The origins of this name are uncertain, but it has been speculated that it comes from the name of the battle where Napoleon was famously defeated by the English. Whatever its origins, this name was not to last as in March of 1839, Texas legislators changed the name of the capital to Austin in honor of Stephen F. Austin. Then, in August of 1839, the first plots of land in the town were auctioned off after a city plan was made.

Over the next few years, the population of Austin would grow as the capital of the Republic of Texas. By 1840, the population had grown to almost 900, a far cry from its one-family settlement origins. This would not last forever as Sam Houston, the first and only President of the Republic, would move the capital away from Austin to Houston, then Washington-on-the-Brazos. Following the first move, the population would dwindle to below 200. The city didn’t make a recovery until after 1846, when Texas was officially annexed into the United States and Austin was reinstated as the capital.

History of Independence

Independence, Texas is located in Washington County. It was founded in 1835 and became a major hub of religion, education and commerce in the Republic of Texas. Once the home of Baylor University as well as major Texas figure Sam Houston, it’s little wonder that Independence made its mark in the Lone Star State.

By the 1850s, Independence not only housed Baylor University, but had its own hotel, Baptist church, cemetery, jailhouse, stagecoach depot, and a minor commercial district. Alongside this, it was surrounded by cotton plantations. Independence was officially incorporated into its own city in 1852 and T.T. Clay became its first mayor. It seemed like there was nothing that could slow Independence down as more money and people flowed in to see what it had to offer.

Unfortunately, this was not to last. The Sante Fe railroad wanted to give business to Independence but the men in charge of the city declined their offer. By the 1880s, the city started to feel the consequences of this decision as the major railways bypassed it completely. Students had trouble getting to campus, so Baylor packed up and moved to Waco in 1885. Commercial trade was also going to cities that had allowed the railroads the right-of-way. Thus began the decline of Independence, Texas.

Despite all this, the farmland surrounding the city remained very productive and was a great boon for minority groups like European immigrants (mostly German) and former slaves from Washington county.

Nowadays, Independence exists as a rural area with a population of under 200. It is also home to many historical sites such as the Sam Houston homesite, Old Baylor Park, Independence Baptist church, and the remaining original homes and store structures of Independence.

Conclusion and Speculation

As of the writing of this article, all we have to go on for the content of Walker: Independence is the trailer (which you can watch here). However, I think there is still room to speculate about what elements of the real-world history of Texas may be incorporated into the show. We know based on the canon of Walker that in this universe, this Independence will eventually become Austin in place of Waterloo. We can also see in the trailer that this Independence is a bustling town with plenty of businesses and its own law enforcement, calling back to its IRL namesake. The diversity of the cast is also in line with history as the opportunities available in Independence drew in many disadvantaged groups. I do wonder if/how they will incorporate the rise of the railroads. There is also the matter of how, exactly, Independence will turn into Austin. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.

References:

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/waterloo-tx-travis-county

https://www.austinlibrary.com/ahc/faq1.htm

https://www.austinlibrary.com/ahc/faq2.htm

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2017/11/30/austin-answered-why-was-austin-originally-named-waterloo/10052312007/

https://medium.com/save-texas-history/original-austinites-identifying-the-citizens-of-waterloo-48e18cbca1c8

http://independencetx.com/history.htm

http://independencetx.com/HistoricSites.htm

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/independence-tx-washington-county

Walker: Independence is set during the 1870s. This puts the events of the show right around the midway point of the Reconstruction Era following the U.S. Civil War. Hearing this inspired me to brush up on my Texas history for this era as I knew little about it, even with my mandatory Texas History class in school. I learned a few new things on my research journey, and I wanted to share those things here to help us all better understand the historical context of Walker: Independence!

The show taking place during the Reconstruction Era is significant for a few reasons, the main one being that the Civil War is a major event in US history and it’s highly unlikely that the writers will just ignore the potential impact it would have on character dynamics and plot points. During this time, tensions between the North and the South were extremely high. This resulted in rampant political violence throughout the South, even after the final shots of the war were fired. Texas, in true Lone Star State fashion, had a unique set of issues due to being a frontier state at this time. Between political battles, racial violence, and economic struggles, nearly every character on the Walker: Independence call sheet would be affected by this era in Texas history. I’d like to take the time to talk about the Civil War, what the Reconstruction Era was, how it all affected Texas, and how all this could be integrated into the show.

Please note that this will not be an in-depth, detailed historical discussion about the morality of one side or the other. I’m going to try to simply discuss the facts, however messy they may be, and relate it to the Walkerverse as best I can. I would advise that you do your own research on this topic to cover anything that I may have missed or that you disagree with.

The "War of Northern Aggression"

Before we can have any real talk about the Reconstruction Era, I feel we need to discuss the Civil War. Many people in the South referred to it as “The War of Northern Aggression” both during the war and for many decades afterward. Looking at the history of the war from a Southern perspective, it’s not hard to see how it got that name.

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president and he made clear early on that he wanted to do away with slavery in the United States. This posed a threat to the economy of most places in the south as slave labor was the foundation of their most profitable industry: agriculture.

On December 20, 1860, South Carolina was the first state to secede over this issue. One by one, each state in the South would follow, and on February 4^th, 1861, the Confederate States of America would be formed with the intention of maintaining slavery and, arguably, states’ rights. It is worth noting that in many states, this decision had been made behind closed doors by the rich and influential before official votes were held.

The Confederate States of America was formed with the intention of maintaining white supremacy and slavery in the South. While not all individual southerners agreed with the idea (particularly in Texas), large plantation owners held much economic and political power during this time, and they weren’t keen on losing their positions.

This was not the start of the war. The first battle of the Civil War was the Battle of Fort Sumter, which took place in April of 1861. Fort Sumter was a federal military fort in Charleston, South Carolina. One can imagine how there would be conflict around a foreign nation having a fort on your soil. When South Carolina asked Washington D.C. to surrender Fort Sumter to them, they received a firm “No”. This created a problem for federal Major Anderson and his garrison, who were still stationed in the area. They were essentially in enemy territory and running out of supplies. When Abraham Lincoln announced his intention to send reinforcements and supplies to his troops at Fort Sumter, the citizens of Charleston took that as a declaration of war and mobilized troops to secure what they believed to be their fort.

It is important to note here that the territorial dispute is not the only reason why Charleston wanted Union troops out. After Lincoln’s election and statements about ending slavery in the United States, many slaves ran away from their owners and tried to turn themselves over to Union troops in the hopes of gaining freedom. However, many were simply turned over to the state marshals, or even directly back to their owners. Despite this, the citizens of Charleston worried about the rise of runaway slaves or the potential of a slave uprising (which never came to be).

On April 9^th, a delegation was sent to the fort to ask for Major Anderson’s surrender. Again, the answer was “No”, along with the helpful information that his men only had enough supplies to last until April 15^th.

On April 12^th, Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter and Major Anderson responded to the best of his ability. Hopelessly outgunned and outmanned, there was very little hope he would retain ownership of the fort. For 36 hours, Union and Confederate soldiers fired at each other over the walls of the fort until, after running out of resources, Major Anderson surrendered the fort to the Confederate forces.

While this battle ended quickly, it was only the beginning of a four-year war for the preservation of 1)state’s rights under the federal government and 2)the institution of slavery. This battle, along with the Union’s refusal to acknowledge the Confederacy as a sovereign nation, led the people in the South to view the North as the aggressor.

Outside the United States

Something that surprised me in my research was the international interest in the American Civil War.

Unlike the Union, Great Britain recognized the Confederate States of America as a sovereign nation. While Britain was never officially involved in the conflict, nor were any treaties signed, they did have an investment in the war as weapons suppliers and major bond holders to fund both the North and the South.

Both the North and the South expected the British to support them in the war as they both had trade with Great Britain. However, the British chose to remain politically neutral, which some historians speculate may have drawn out the war as the North couldn’t rely on the British navy to run interference on Southern ports and disrupt their supply chain.

Despite the lack of official involvement in the war, approximately 50,000 British men crossed the waters to involve themselves as soldiers and volunteers. Since they came over individually, they were not assigned to one side or the other and simply joined whichever side best matched their needs or ideology. As a result, a good number of these volunteers joined the fight down South. Some of these men joined the war for financial reasons as well.

The South During the Civil War

The Civil War shook the nation. It was a war that ripped the United States in half, turned families against each other, and killed over 600,000 of its own citizens. While I could write a separate article just talking about the horrors of the war and how it affected our country, I’m going to focus on just the effects it had on the South and Texas for now.

The initial reaction to the Civil War in the South was more positive than one would expect. After all, what dashing young man hadn’t heard of the glories and honor of war from their forefathers? Across the south, men were ready to put their lives on the line for what they believed were their rights and to keep those darn Yankees out of their business.

Texans were more of a mixed bag. The decision to secede from the United States was far from the unanimous decision it had been in Alabama or Virginia. Many people in Texas, particularly those in the northern region, had moved there to get away from the social, economic and political chokehold that plantation owners had in other areas of the south. Slavery, while present in Texas, did not support the economy like it did in most other Southern States. To some Texans, joining the Confederacy would put them right back in a situation that they’d sacrificed a lot to get away from. Sam Houston, a major historical political figure, was also strongly against this; he'd fought hard to get Texas into the Union and he wasn’t happy with them leaving less than thirty years later.

I also think that it’s important to note that the Texas Revolution, the war that freed Texans from the Mexican government, took place just three decades earlier. Many people, including men who would be called upon to fight in the Civil War, remembered the tragedies and horrors of that war all too well.

During the Civil War, soldiers and civilians alike were greatly affected, as well as the land that these people relied on for their survival.

War is a deadly act and the South felt that in a big way. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost on both sides. In some places, nearly a quarter of a generation of men were lost. Of those who survived, many were left with physical handicaps. Those who were left physically intact were still severely traumatized by what they’d witnessed on the battlefield. The loss of so many men had a negative effect on the birth rate as well as attempts to restart the economy since so many potential workers had been lost to battle.

Large plantations and smaller portions of fertile farmland were razed and destroyed by both individual battles and planned raids made by Union soldiers. Sherman’s March to the Sea, a military campaign led by Major William Sherman throughout Georgia, is a famous example of this. During this campaign, his soldiers followed a “scorched earth” policy where they destroyed farmland, personal property, military targets, industry, and infrastructure in order to disrupt supply lines to the Confederate armies.

The effects of the destroyed land were devastating to the Southern economy, which relied on agriculture, particularly the cotton plantations. Things were already going to be difficult to maintain without slaves to keep labor costs down. The destruction of crops, farmland, and shipping infrastructure crippled the South economically and they wouldn’t recover for over a century. Some historians argue that they never truly recovered.

Reconstruction Era

Walker: Independence is set in the early 1870s. This puts the show's story at a minimum 5 years after the end of the Civil War and smack in the middle of the Reconstruction Era. Let's talk about that.

Following the Civil War, the Confederacy was dissolved and the federal government of the United States of America took it upon itself to “rebuild” the South and reintegrate them into the Union. Despite the name of this era and the stated intention of this government, there was very little construction or rebuilding going on in the South. Rather, time and resources were allocated toward tearing down the remaining aspects of the Antebellum Era and instating new, progressive, “radical” cultural ideas such as equality between whites and blacks. Intentions may have been good, but it can’t be ignored that some policies brought a lot of harm to the people of the South.

The federal government seized control of the South to ensure everyone was going to follow the new established order. Part of that was turning the South into a military zone and imposing martial law. On top of that, the Reconstruction Act of 1871 stated that the individual state governments would be made provisional and defer to Washington D.C. until they complied with demands to write new state constitutions, which would have to include the 13^th and 14^th amendments of the US Constitution (which ensured the freedom of the former slaves and their rights). Until those demands were met, the South remained a military district and was subject to federal occupation. Once state constitutions were rewritten to not contradict or conflict with the overall US Constitution, state legislatures would be able to govern on their own again and regain their federal representation in Congress.

Further Reconstruction Acts included the disenfranchisement of former Confederate leaders, meaning that they could not vote on the new constitutions or in any elections, nor could they run for office. This gave lots of room for the opposing political party, the “Radical Republicans”, to seize political control at the state and local levels.

Outside of politics, there were social and economic opponents for the citizens of the South. These obstacles came in the form of individuals of “carpetbaggers” and “scalawags”.

“Carpetbagger” is a derogatory term for a Northerner who moved to the South in the hope of economic or political gain. Due to the devastation of the South’s agriculture-based economy, there was a lot of room for new industry and there were plenty of people from the North who wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. These opportunists also helped the Republicans gain a political stronghold in the South by growing their support voter base.

Northerners moving to the South were able to purchase land at a low price due to the economic struggles in the region. Many chose to lease out portions of their land for farming and some even partnered with troubled plantation owners in the hopes of getting involved in the cotton industry. Initially, they were welcomed as Southerners saw the need for the economic stimulus, but some saw them as “low class opportunists” taking advantage of the South’s poor condition. Though it’s likely true that some of these carpetbaggers were just sleazy opportunists, a good number of them came down to help “reform” the South and aid the newly freed slaves.

“Scalawags” were a slightly different story. These individuals were Southern natives who sided with the Republican party and the freed slaves. Some came to this party in the hopes of gaining favor with the North and avoiding punishment as Confederates. Others had been on the side of the Union even during the Civil War. Many of these people were small farmers and middle-class people who never owned slaves. Some of them had even served in the Union army. While not all of them were allies for African Americans, they wanted to join the fight in keeping “the rebels” down.

The South’s "Revenge"

The Reconstruction Era was a war in and of itself in some ways. It was an era full of political violence, social unrest, and economic strife. There were people in the South who felt oppressed and betrayed and weren’t going to take the government’s harsh treatment lying down. For many, their lives had been destroyed by war and systematically made worse by what they viewed as the punitive policies put in place by Washington D.C. Many people in the South wanted to move on and try to rebuild their lives. However, there was a select group who wanted revenge on those they believed had wronged them.

Much of this violence came at the hands of outlaws. Outlaw gangs ran rampant in the South. In a way, the former confederacy was a “safe haven” for them as they were able to murder and loot as they pleased, so long as they attacked the right people. They received the blessing of some members of the public and public officials to do as they pleased. Many a legendary tale was born of outlaws like Jesse James.

Attacking former slaves to “remind them of their place” was common and they did make easy targets for those who were looking for a fight. It wasn’t as easy to attack Republican politicians who had the backing to return the attack and the power to change things that certain Democrats didn’t want changed. This led to the formation of “terrorist” organizations like the KKK. These men joined forces and planned organized attacks on voting locations, politicians, and other individuals who crossed their path. These organizations focused most of their efforts on both the political and social areas and made it clear to those around them that if they weren’t supporting their efforts, they were the enemy.

There were federal troops in major cities to help combat the violence posed by these groups. It was a different story for smaller cities and towns, though they still dealt with their fair share of violence. White Unionists and African Americans alike dealt with regular threats of violence and murder as the KKK and outlaw gangs terrorized them. Without the support of the federal troops offered in the cities, there was very little they could do to defend themselves from these organized attacks. Even in the cities, federal troops could be overwhelmed and were often on the receiving end of attacks themselves. Many people reached out to Washington for additional aid, but their cries went unanswered.

The actions of the KKK, while not the sole cause, did have a part to play in lessening support for the Republican party in Texas as they threatened and discouraged both potential politicians and voters. However, even after the Democrats regained control of the Texas State legislature in 1873, the violence did not cease everywhere. Republicans were now shying away from running for state offices, but some were still willing to try their hand at the county and city levels. This did not sit well with the KKK and their allies in the political ring, and violence continued in these smaller areas, where there would be little to no resistance.

I do want to clarify that this violence was not approved by all Southerners. Many people in the South were looking to rebuild and even welcomed the Northerners to their cities. The people who went on the attack were an angry opportunist group that was dwarfed by the larger population.

Unique Issues of Texas

While Texas dealt with many of the same issues as other states in the South, they had their own unique issues as well. Not only is there recorded evidence that certain areas of Texas were still engaged in battle even after the end of the Civil war, but they also faced issues with the Tejanos and the Native American tribes.

The Battle of Palmito (Palmetto) Ranch, the last official battle of the Civil War, happened 34 days after a truce was called by Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Union General Ulysses S. Grant. While this did not end the war, it was generally accepted as an order to stop the fighting so that negotiations for a peace treaty could take place. Despite this, on May 12, 1865, a troop of Union soldiers attacked Confederate outposts despite having received words of a truce and the vanquish of Confederate armies. The goal was to scatter troops and possibly to gain a name for Union leader Colonel Theodore Barret. After meeting little resistance for most of their run, they were driven back by Confederate forces under the command of Colonel John S. “Rip” Ford and had to retreat after being dealt 100 casualties.

The Tejano population was made up of Mexicans who had either lived in Texas before and during the Texas Revolution or had immigrated there afterward. They had a rocky relationship with their white neighbors at the best of times. Racial tensions leftover from the Texas Revolution were left simmering for years. The Civil War stoked those flames, and the Tejanos became a target of violence during the Reconstruction Era. There is little evidence to suggest that the Tejanos actually did anything of their own accord to cause this reaction; it appears that they were just caught in the crossfire of a larger incident. In 1983, mimicking the derogatory racial language from the turn of the century, historian Arnoldo De León wrote: “Anglos throughout the state faced the most severe resistance from colored people- by riotous and uppity blacks in the old plantation region, by intransigent [Native Americans] making their last stand in the western frontier, and by unneighborly Mexicans. It was in this era that the colored thread of multiracial society posed the greater challenge to the white racial order...."* as part of a psycho-historical analysis on Mexican/Texan relations during this time.

Being a frontier state also came with its own set of issues. The biggest of these problems came in the form of conflicts with the Native American populations. It goes without saying that these two groups didn’t have the best relationship. Things only got more tense following the Civil War due to the lack of defense on frontier outposts. Ordinarily, those areas would have federal or state troops as defense but the War took them away to the battlefield. Following the end of the war, federal troops were relegated to the interior of Texas, where they were needed to defend the newly freed slaves from those who wanted to hurt them. State troops were prevented from going out there because of federal interference.

Possibly because of the lack of defense in these areas, there was an escalation in Native American raids on these outposts. The people living there turned to their state officials for aid, who then turned to Washington for permission (remember, the state government was provisional at this point and there was little they could do on their own). Their calls for help were not answered as some federal officials believed that Texas “exaggerating the violence on the frontier to lure federal authorities into removing their troops from the interior of the state where they were providing protection to the freed people.” This did little to ease the tensions between the North and the South and further aggravated the citizens of Texas.

Reconstruction Era of Walker: Independence

Now that we’ve discussed the real-world history of this era in time, I want to talk about how this could impact the show, its characters, and their dynamics.

Let’s start with the star of the show, Abigail Walker. She and her husband, Liam, are traveling from Boston to Independence so that Liam can fill in the sheriff position. The fact that they’re from Boston is already going to cause them problems. Northerners are hardly welcome down South, especially when they’re trying to enter positions of authority. It’s possible that this could’ve been the motivation behind Liam’s murder. This could also be a factor in why Hoyt is initially so cold to Abby.

There is also the matter of Augustus. Even though he is the deputy, he’s also African American, a very popular target for violence. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean he will become a victim. He is somewhat protected by his badge, though that won’t cover everything. It’s highly possible that, given they hadn't seen many African American citizens in Independence (thus far), there wasn’t enough of a risk of “Black Rule” for the white supremacists to concern themselves with him.

Calian is also in a unique position to be a victim of aggression. Being Native American, he’s not exactly welcome in the town of Independence. He would be at odds with both social rejection and government authority if he veered too far into town. It makes me wonder just how helpful he would be to Abby in the fight against Tom Davidson.

Lucia Reyes comes from a similar position as Calian and Augustus. She’s an outsider in town and, as a Mexican, she’s a potential victim of Reconstruction Era violence. I think it’s likely that the trouble her family is facing comes from racial and economic tensions following the Civil War.

Hoyt Rawlins is a potentially interesting character. He’s described to us as an outlaw, and the Reconstruction Era is known for idolizing that particular breed of men. (Fun bonus: it’s possible that the modern day Hoyt Rawlins got his name from a famous Texan Folk Hero).

In Kate Carver’s initial announcement, she was described as a federal agent investigating things in Independence. While this descriptor hasn’t come up in recent press around the show, we are told that she’s very interested in Abby’s origins so I’d say it’s likely that she’s still involved in law enforcement somehow. She could be an agent of the North making sure the people of Independence are complying with the new order.

I do want to take a moment to talk about Hagan as well. As mentioned earlier, the British were heavily involved in the Civil War, including many volunteer soldiers fighting on the side of the South. We’ve also witnessed that he and Tom Davidson have a relationship, at least from a business perspective. I think it’s possible that Tom and Hagan are war buddies who remained close after the smoke cleared.

Conclusion

The history of the Civil War is a messy and complicated one. From the first bullet fired at the Battle of Fort Sumter to the final days of the Reconstruction Era, there were very few moments where anything could ever be considered black and white. It was a time ripe with violence, racial tensions, and political conflict. As a result, all the characters in the cast will be affected by this era. I’d be surprised if there is no mention of it within the show at all. I've speculated about how history may impact character dynamics, but even if the predictions I outlined above don’t come true, we’re going to see something for everyone.

Let me know what y’all think! Did you learn something new? Did Walker: Independence inspire you to brush up on your history as well? How do y’all think the writers will integrate Civil War history into the show? I look forward to seeing your comments!

[Editor's Note: Please restrict your comments to the show, its characters and the situation of the 1870s. We'd like this to remain a comfortable place to discuss Walker: Independence without straying into current state, national or global politics, parties or ideologies.]

References

https://www.americanheritage.com/first-secede

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/fort-sumter

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-unknown-contributions-of-brits-in-the-american-civil-war-2478471/

http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/usforeignrelations/exhibits/show/british-involvement-in-the-ame

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman's_March_to_the_Sea

https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-did-us-civil-war-affect-people-landscape-us-1084117

https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/Civil_War_AdmissionReadmission.htm

https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/carpetbaggers-and-scalawags

https://easttexashistory.org/items/show/165

Still the Arena of Civil War- Violence and Turmoil in Reconstruction Texas 1865-1874, edited by Kenneth Wayne Howell

Texas Confederate, Reconstruction Governor- James Webb Throckmorton by Kenneth Wayne Howell

* Originally appeared in They Called Them Greasers: Anglo Attitudes towards Mexicans in Texas, 1821-1900

The Pinkerton National Detective Agency, while not the first private detective force in America, is one of the more well-known. Pinkerton and his many operatives set the standard for private detective work, both in the real world and in the world of fiction. Though the agency was steeped in controversy from the very beginning, Pinkerton Inc. has survived 170 years and remains on the forefront of security and crime assessment to this day.

Today, I want to cover the history of the agency and see how the portrayal in Walker: Independence lines up with reality. I also want to talk about some prominent operatives that worked for the agency, especially the women, and see if there is any real-life inspiration for the character of Kate Carver.

Origins of Pinkerton

Allan Pinkerton started his work in law enforcement while living in his home country of Scotland. He wasn’t keen on the work, but his father needed someone to look after him and the work paid well. However, his outspoken political views on the rights of workers made him a target and, in the year 1842, he fled with his wife to the United States.

After a rough journey overseas during which they lost nearly everything due to a shipwreck, the Pinkertons landed in Canada and migrated south of the border to a small town outside of Chicago, Illinois called Dundee. There, Pinkerton opened an independent workshop and took on multiple apprentices while he and his wife focused on starting a family. He had no intention of entering law enforcement or dealing with crime in any way at first, but things changed when the world of crime hit his doorstep.

While there was a national currency in the US during this time, there were still many local bills and bank notes in the outer edges of the country and the territories. These local currencies were recognized as legal tender, but they were incredibly easy to counterfeit. When a gang of counterfeiters set up shop near Dundee, it didn’t cause any direct issues for Pinkerton, but it did hurt his suppliers and business partners. This was enough to spur him into action. He hunted the counterfeiters down, found their encampment, and brought the sheriff right to them the next day. This act of effective law enforcement (something the US hadn’t seen for quite some time) led the sheriff to offer him a position working part-time hunting down counterfeiters. Pinkerton was hesitant at first but agreed and soon became the bane of the existence of many a counterfeiter in the Midwest.

Pinkerton would’ve been content to remain working part time like that while maintaining his business in Dundee, but growing anti-abolitionist sentiment made him uncomfortable. Pinkerton was in favor of abolition and was very active on the Underground Railroad, helping runaway slaves cross the border into Canada and to freedom, even in the 1840s. He was drawn to the more abolitionist-friendly city of Chicago, where he moved into law enforcement full time. Soon after, he was offered and took the position of Deputy of Kane County, a position that made him “the terror of cattle thieves, horse thieves, counterfeiters, and mail robbers all over the state” (2017, Enss).

His work catching counterfeiters and other such criminals caught the eyes of both private businesses and the federal government and he found himself with many requests for private contracts to catch criminals that the public police were not able to. Calling upon individuals in law enforcement to work privately was not uncommon as, during this time, there were no state or federal law enforcement agencies and city-level law enforcement was largely ineffective outside of the city limits.

Pinkerton took on these contracts and, after receiving regular business from them for some time, decided to leave county law enforcement and create his own private detective agency in Chicago, Illinois called the North West Police Agency in 1850. The name “Pinkerton” would not enter the agency name until 1858.

Pinkerton’s reputation working for the federal government, both solo and as a part of his agency, meant that he was in good standing with them as the country ramped up for a Civil War. When he discovered a plot to assassinate the president-elect Abraham Lincoln on his victory tour to Washington, his warnings were taken seriously. Not only were he and his agents personally entrusted with the safety of the president, but he was given the opportunity to start the Secret Service in Washington in 1861. Here, he was able to further prove the capabilities of himself and his agents as they infiltrated the Confederacy and brought back information on battle plans, troop movements, weapons development and more. They were even able to bring down Rose Greenhow, a notorious Confederate female spy who used her connections in Washington and in the Union army to gain and send information to the Confederacy.

During this time, Pinkerton would open two more offices in Baltimore, New York, and later in Wisconsin. Thus began a 170-year legacy of crime fighting and surveillance ethics.

Business Practices

Though the Pinkerton National Detective Agency was doing decently before the war, the work done for the Secret Service and the president-elect Abraham Lincoln was a great boon for them, as well as a massive amount of publicity. The increase and business and employment were great for the agency and they had regular requests coming in, especially from the railroad industry.

As the railroads expanded west, they left the safety that came with the regular public police force. Not wanting to rely on the unreliable county authority, many railroad companies turned to Pinkerton both for guarding against railroad bandits to prevent theft and for testing the honesty of their employees to prevent embezzlement. However, as Pinkerton operatives had missions further and further away from home base, Pinkerton found himself dealing with many management and trust issues among his own agents.

Much like the railroads, Pinkerton had to trust his operatives to act in a manner befitting their employment. From the very early days of his agency, Pinkerton expected his operatives to act in a dignified manner, to be classy and well-mannered. He wanted them to be clever and subtle while doing their work. He needed them to be discreet and capable of memorizing details that could be notated in a full report after an event. But he could hardly keep an eye on his individual agents when they were miles away and he knew from experience dealing with embezzling conductors on the railroads that simply trusting his operatives to do the right thing wouldn’t cut it. It was time to implement some new management strategies.

From 1865-1875, Pinkerton shifted his focus away from detective work and into employee management. He started with publishing employee manuals for proper behavior on the job, starting with Special Rules and Instructions to be Observed in Testing Conductors after a string of his operatives getting caught spying on trains. The idea was to give them a list of specific rules and guidelines to follow so that they could learn how to properly spy without getting caught. He would expand on that idea in 1867, with the release of General Principles of Pinkerton’s National Police Agency as a general policy book for all employees in all situations. This handbook would go over many revisions over the next few decades as times, policies, and ownership changed.

Pinkerton believed that “the profession of the detective is a high and honorable calling” (Morn, 1982) and he expected his operatives to uphold that standard. His expectations for operative behavior included (but was not limited to):

• Recording both favorable and negative facts and behavior around suspected individuals. All reports must be completely factual with “no endeavoring…to over-color or exaggerate anything against any particular individual, whatever the suspicion may be against him” (Morn, 1982)

• Operating within a small budget provided by the agency and send in a detailed expenditure report

• Reporting on what they did during their time off

• Prohibited from excessive drinking, even when off the clock

• Most importantly, keep their identities and work a secret. If an operative was discovered as being a private detective on the job, they were considered useless and a danger to the agency.

Violation of any of these rules would result in termination of employment.

In 1872, Pinkerton was forced to scale down and eventually remove the railroad employee testing program because more and more operatives were being caught spying and some secret offices had been found by railroad Union men. This, among other incidents (including one of their own getting caught embezzling agency funds), led Pinkerton to face the reality of the situation: his operatives were not going to follow the rules on their own. It became necessary to spy on the spies.

In 1874, Pinkerton adopted a policy of internal spying. He would not hire outside help to oversee the inner workings of his business but he did assign a few trusted individuals, mostly those within upper management that he’d worked with for many years, to spy on his operatives. For example, Mrs. Stanton (the head of the female department at the time) spied on their female operatives and reported directly back to Pinkerton on their activities.

But untrustworthy employees were only the beginning of Pinkerton’s problems.

Private Eyes in the Public Eye

Allan Pinkerton believed that he and his operatives were fulfilling a necessary service that the public police couldn’t provide. As true as that might be, not everyone agreed with that. Pinkerton had to spend just as much time proving his agency’s worth to the public as he did running his business.

Pinkerton was lucky in the early days of his business. While detectives did have a reputation for being just as bad- if not worse- than the criminals they captured, the public police force wasn’t held in high regard either. Many people viewed the mere existence of the police department as a form of government overreach and were more inclined to trust a similar force that was run as a private enterprise. Another reason people disliked the public police is, as I mentioned earlier, they were largely ineffective, and many considered them to be incompetent.

Prior to the 1840s, there were no public police in America. For the most part, individual citizens kept an eye out for crime during the day and a team of watchmen took over during the night. Most people would’ve been happy to keep this method going but the major population boom brought about by immigration (major cities like Boston got a 79% increase in population over 40 years) brought a crime surge with it. The usual methods just couldn’t keep up and New York brought the first city-level public police department into existence in 1844. In the coming years, other major cities followed their example.

These early police were a slight upgrade from the night watchmen. They worked during the day and they had the power to investigate and arrest suspicious individuals. However, they did not have any formal training or procedures, or even an official uniform until 1853. The uniforms were introduced as a way to hold the patrolmen accountable and prevent them from cowering behind their civilian clothes with inaction. While the public police did help deter crime, they also overloaded the justice system with increased arrests. Furthermore, the general public viewed them as an act of government overreach and treated them as mere puppets for whatever political powers were in place in the city (which was not entirely untrue).

On top of all this, the public police were only capable of acting within the city, leaving the areas outside the major metropolises lacking in ways to fight crime as there were no state police or federal institutions at the time. With all this in mind, it’s no wonder that people, from individual persons to businesses to the federal government themselves, turned to private law enforcement for aid. This dependence on private police to do what the public force could not is what helped Pinkerton thrive in the early years.

While business boomed during and after the Civil War, Pinkerton’s undercover operatives began to ruffle some feathers. While many people appreciated the hard work and courage displayed by Pinkerton operatives that crossed the Confederate border to spy on the rebels, they didn’t appreciate that the government continued to hire those operatives after the end of the war. There was no longer an enemy to fight and spy on and people didn’t like the idea of the government lying to them and invading their privacy (some things never change). Between this and the Pinkerton Police Patrol (patrolmen and guards for hire) being given the power to arrest citizens they caught committing crimes, people started to question whether or not a private business with no public accountability was the best way to cover the holes left behind by the public police. This is when things started to get rocky for the agency.

Despite criticism from both members of the general public and anti-detective lawmakers, Pinkerton made every effort to prove that detectives were trustworthy and that his detectives were more trustworthy than others. For example, he would not allow his operatives to take on cases that involved shadowing jurors or working for one political party against another. They would also reject cases that involved divorce or any other kind of public scandal. In order to avoid accusations of taking “blood money”, Pinkerton charged a flat rate for their operatives and would not take on any cases that involved reward money.

But all that effort would only go so far. More and more private detective agencies cropped up and some of them seemed all too happy to fit the brutish, underhanded detective stereotype. There were many detectives that seemed (from Pinkerton’s perspective at least) to be in the business purely for the sake of notoriety in the papers by being just as dastardly and underhanded as the criminals they chased after. There were also Divorce Detectives who specialized in trailing unfaithful spouses to gather evidence for divorce hearings.

The lack of accountability for private detectives is what got people most upset. Sure, the police were bad but at last they had a uniform you could identify them with. Private detectives got away with anonymity, which made some people uncomfortable, especially when they were carrying out government contracts.

The actions of other detective agencies did reflect poorly on Pinkerton, the actions of their own agents caused a fair amount of distrust in their agency. I mentioned earlier in the article that Pinkerton had to quit testing employees for dishonesty because they kept being found out. Pinkerton also regularly came under fire for their work stopping railroad bandits like the Jesse James gang. While railroads and many private citizens hailed them for their heroics in stopping bandits, there were just as many members of the public who supported the bandits. There were many outlaws who had gained the title of “social bandits” and were considered Robin Hood in comparison to the railroad executives and lawmen that chased them down.

One noteworthy scandal regarding Pinkerton and the Jesse James gang went down in 1874. During a confrontation with the gang, two Pinkerton agents had been killed. Pinkerton did not take this lightly and decided to work a little revenge into his justice. He wrote to a friend after this that if and when he found the gang again “it must be the death of one or both of us…my blood was spilt and they must repay” (Morn, 1982). Nine months passed and the James gang made a mockery of Pinkerton’s attempts to capture them. Then, on January 26, 1975, a group of Pinkerton agents surrounded the house on the James brothers’ mother’s home, following a rumor that they’d taken up residence there. One agent threw a fire bomb to see who was inside. The brothers were not there but the explosion from the bomb killed a small boy and severely wounded the mother. A pistol with the Pinkerton insignia was found by investigators afterward, tying the agency to the raid.

Not only did Pinkerton not deny that the raid happened, he never apologized for it. He firmly believed that what he did was justified. Naturally, the public did not take kindly to this and the reputation of the Pinkerton agency took a major hit.

But Pinkerton was already thinking of other ways to combat poor public image. If the newspapers wouldn’t provide him with the good publicity he needed, he’d just have to make it himself. So, from 1874 to 1884, he set about publishing detective novels featuring true events from the Pinkerton case files.

He published 16 novels in total, a feat he achieved by not actually writing the novels himself. Rather, he would dictate anecdotes and incidents from case files to a stenographer, send the transcript off to a real author, and make some edits to the final manuscript before publishing it for sale. His purpose with these books was not only to ride the popularity of detective novels at the time and gain the favor of the public, but also to correct the over glamorous perception of detective work portrayed in most detective novels.

For the most part, his plan worked. People ate up the Pinkerton novels and many appreciated the realistic look into the workings of detectives and the criminal underworld. However, these books ended up being a double-edged sword as some people questioned the methods used by the Pinkerton operatives.

Shortly after the publication of his last novel, Allan Pinkerton passed away in 1884, leaving the Pinkerton legacy to his sons to uphold.

Evolution of Pinkerton

Allan Pinkerton died in 1884, leaving the business to his sons, William and Robert Pinkerton. Both sons had a mind for the work, but they had different ideas on how to run the business. William had become a rather successful detective in his own right, earning him the moniker of “The Eye” in criminal circles, and he believed that the detecting side of the business was the most important. Robert, on the other hand, had always had an eye on the possibilities of expansion, specifically in their private security sector. He decided to expand the Pinkerton Patrol into Union Control services. This included spying on Union meetings and reporting back to the bosses, sending patrol men to control strike crowds, and even sending men in as strikebreakers. The one thing they agreed on was that women were no longer needed (they, like many outside the agency, believed the mere existence of female agents was proof of their father having an affair) and female operatives soon completely disappeared from employment records.

Business continued as usual, barring a few scandals regarding their work against workers unions. But, with the passage of time came progress and by the time we reached the early 20^th century, police reforms and advances in technology meant that the detective side of the Pinkerton agency was becoming obsolete. William tried to maintain it as long as possible but Robert’s son, Allan Pinkerton II, saw that there was no future in it. By the 1930s, he had transformed the Pinkerton National Detective Agency into a private security firm that guarded property and persons.

That business model remains to this day and Pinkerton Incorporated has grown into a global company concerned with cybersecurity and crime risk assessment in countries around the world. Not bad for a company that started with rooting out counterfeiters and chasing train bandits.

Pinkerton Men and Women

Allan Pinkerton believed that the only quality a person was required to have to be a detective was a good dose of common sense. Most other factors fell to the wayside, giving him the ability to see beyond race and gender in a way few others did at the time. Pinkerton operatives came from all walks of life and employment at the agency was rather fluid, with some operatives being lifers and many others working there as a steppingstone to police work, trying out a new vocation, or even just as something to do while in between jobs. It was actually a common practice for the wives of regular operatives to take on the odd railroad employee testing shift. Because of the flexibility of Pinkerton hiring practices, the operatives hired to work at the agency were an incredibly diverse group. I took a look at the histories of some of these men and women that made their mark on the agency, and I wanted to share some of their stories here.

Kate Warne

Kate Warne is credited with being the first female detective. She was hired at the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in 1856 after she responded to a newspaper ad for new detectives. Though Pinkerton was hesitant to hire her at first (who had ever heard of a woman detective?), she provided many sound arguments on how a woman could be useful in the field. During that initial interview she said that “Women could be most useful in worming out secrets in many places that would be impossible for a male detective…A woman would be able to befriend the wives and girlfriends of suspected criminals and gain their confidence. Men become braggarts when they are around women who encourage them to boast. Women have an eye for detail and are excellent observers.” (Enss, 2017). Pinkerton hired her the next day.

Kate Warne went on to become one of Pinkerton’s best detectives. She took on her many undercover roles with ease, including identities such as L.L. Lucillle the egyptian fortune teller (who unveiled both a successful and an attempted murder by an ambitious politician) and Mrs. M. Barkley (the identity she used to smuggle president-elect Abraham Lincoln past his would-be assassins in Baltimore). After more women were hired, she was placed in charge of all female operatives in 1861 and was responsible for training them and overseeing their work. Though female detectives were frowned upon and used to slander Pinkerton as a philanderer, Kate more than proved herself to be worth her pay. She was an excellent actress who used her skills to gain the confidence of suspects and their wives alike, leading to confessions and gleaning more evidence than some of her male coworkers. Pinkerton Pinkerton would write in his memoire that “she succeeded far beyond my utmost expectations.” (Enss, 2017).

Kate died in 1868. The cause of death is unknown but many believe it was a result of a lingering illness. When this was announced in the news, the Philadelphia Press noted that “As she lived, so she died, a fearless, pure, and devoted woman”. She is currently buried at the Graceland Cemetery in Chicago with other Pinkerton agents.

Hattie Lewis Lawson

Hattie Lawson was the second female detective hired by Pinkerton in 1860. Some historians believe she may have also been the first mixed-race female detective. There is no firm evidence of this, but some believe that Hattie and Pinkerton first met while he was sheltering her family as they prepared for the final leg of their journey on the Underground Railroad. However they may have met, Hattie proved herself to be a useful detective and spy for the Secret Service. Pinkerton considered her to be a key player in many investigations.

One of her more dangerous missions involved posing as a married couple with Timothy Webster in order to learn information on Confederate military movements. After Timothy fell ill, she used her connections among her “husbands” Confederate “friends” to throw parties and gain access to forts and encampments where she might learn information. She was joined by John Scobell, who posed as a servant so he could blend in and hear more information.

Hattie was arrested on this mission after a previously captured Pinkerton agent revealed her and Timothy’s identities. She was sentenced to a year in prison and made friends with Elizabeth van Lew, who petitioned for her release. Near the end of 1862, Hattie was released with 3 other federal agents in exchange for Confederate spy Belle Boyd

John Scobell

John Scobell was a former slave who chose to risk his life as a spy for the Secret Service during the Civil War. Pinkerton hired him in 1861.

While Pinkerton may have been able to look past John’s race, most of the rest of society would not. John used this to his advantage while spying behind Confederate lines by posing as a servant. It was easy for him to blend into the background at parties or while visiting Confederate forts with his “masters” and overhear important conversations regarding plans for the future and military movements. He would make regular reports back to Washington on the information he uncovered.

In one case working with Hattie Lawson, he not only posed as her groom (horse attendant) but also acted as her bodyguard on a mission to meet with Union troops, a mission that was nearly jeopardized by a Confederate counterspy.

Timothy Webster

Timothy Webster was a brave Pinkerton Operative that tragically lost his life during the Civil War.

Webster had infiltrated the Sons of Liberty, a secret organization within the Confederacy, and was trusted enough among them to be made courier of important documents between members and chapters, documents that made it into the hands of both the Confederates and the Union. Unfortunately for him, long nights riding out in the cold and stormy weather did a number on his health and he fell ill after one too many trips. He was working with Hattie Lawson at the time, posing as her husband, and she was able to care for him, but his condition did not get better.

While he was ill, he started sending fewer and fewer reports back to Washington, both because his illness made him weak and because he simply wasn’t able to gather information anymore. Concerned about the drop-off in notes, Pinkerton sent two agents to check on things. Unfortunately, these agents were caught and put on trial for spying and treason. In order to save his own neck, one of them gave up the identity of Timothy and Hattie, leading to both of them getting arrested.

Timothy’s condition did not improve in prison. After a quick and unfair trial, he was sentenced to hang for treason. Hattie begged for his life, or at least for him to not be hanged like a common criminal, but her words fell on deaf ears. Timothy was hanged a few weeks after his trial in 1862 and the petition to allow his body to be buried in New York was denied.

Mary Touvestre

Mary Touvestre (sometimes referred to as Louvestre) was another former slave that risked her life spying behind Confederate lines. She posed as a seamstress and housekeeper for one of the Confederate naval engineers.

In 1861, the ironclad USS Merrimack was captured by Confederate soldiers despite Union attempts to destroy the grounded ship. The Merrimack was brought to Richmond, Virginia for repairs and restyling as the CSS Virginia. One of the engineers working on the ship was Mary’s employer. She overheard conversations about the plans to rebuild and fully outfit the ship with strong weapons, something that would be a strong threat to the Union. One night, she stole the blueprints for the ship, sewed them into her dress to hide them, and made the 190-mile trek to Washington on foot to deliver the news.

This spurred the Union on in their plans to build a new ironclad, speeding the process up by weeks if not months. As a result, when the Virginia hit the James river to clear the way for ships carrying supplies from Europe, the Union was ready with a blockade and a shiny new warship. Some historians speculate that the work of Mary Touvestre and Elizabeth Baker (who had also been in Richmond spying on new naval technology) may have shortened the war and possibly even impacted the outcome.

Elizabeth van Lew

Elizabeth van Lew came from a wealthy family in Richmond, Virginia. Unlike their neighbors, the van Lew’s were staunch abolitionists. Elizabeth’s father released his slaves long before the Civil War. As such, Elizabeth grew up with those same values and supported the Union throughout the Civil War. Part of that work was as a Pinkerton operative. She used her charity and mission work at the local federal prison (where many captured Union soldiers were held) to get information on Confederate troop encampment and missions to send out to Washington. She also had a contact in the Confederate white house that would pass information on to her. She also kept an eye out for Confederate female spies and even warned Washington that “All women ought to be kept from passing from Baltimore to RIcdhmond. They can do a great deal of harm.” (Enss, 2017).

Though her work made her and her family a target for harassment in the local community and she fully believed that she would one day be found out and tried for treason, she soldiered on because she believed it was the right thing to do. She sent messages to Washington in any way she could, including hidden in egg baskets and shoe heels, and wrote in ciphers to prevent information leakage.

Following the war, her efforts were rewarded and she was appointed Postmaster of Richmond, something she was eternally grateful for as she’d spent all of her family fortune on supporting the Union during the war and needed the money to care for herself and her brother, a disabled former soldier. When President Hayes relieved her of her position in 1877 due to political pressure, she was able to get support from her friends in the North to keep her out of total poverty.

Vinnie Ream

Pinkerton believed that Abraham Lincoln may have people conspiring against him in his own party, so he arranged for a spy to be placed within the White House. For his position, he chose sculptor Vinnie Ream, who could use her position as an artist to blend in and listen for any anti-Union conspiracies and plots against the president. Prior to her work as a sculptor, she was employed with the USPS, making her one of the first women to work in the federal government.

Vinnie Ream kept her connection to Pinkerton secret her whole life, not even mentioning him or their work together in her memoirs. Despite this, some members of Lincoln’s cabinet became aware that she had some influence and tried to force her to use it for their gain. Their efforts went into high gear after Lincoln was assassinated and Andrew Johnson took over and they tried to pressure her into getting them votes for an impeachment. She was threatened with exile from Washington when she refused and was only saved by the efforts of her fellow sculptors.

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker

Mary Walker was one of the first women in the United States to receive a Doctor of Medicine from a university. However, receiving the degree and technically having the ability to practice medicine did not mean she would be a success in doing so.

Her attempts to open a clinic with her husband fell apart with her marriage but she wasn’t going to give up. Shortly after the start of the war, Mary went to an Union enlistment office to offer her services as a field doctor. Despite the need for medical staff, she was denied a position. She was not deterred that easily and found herself working at several different volunteer hospitals that serviced both civilians and soldiers. She is noted as treating everyone with kindness and respect and doing everything she could with the resources she had available. It was while working at one of these hospitals that she met Allan Pinkerton.

Shortly after meeting him, she wrote a letter to Washington informing them that she would be performing spy duties on their behalf. She would be going out onto battlefields as a volunteer medic and crossing Confederate lines as a nurse to learn whatever she could. Anything she learned would be sent back to them in a cipher that Pinkerton could decode.

After a few months of her working as a spy, she was finally given the title of Major Surgeon and given a team of medics and soldiers to work with. The purpose of this was so that she could travel further behind Confederate lines and be captured in order to learn even more information. For four months, she was held captive behind enemy lines, learning all she could before she was rescued by Union soldiers.

Following the war, she was unable to find work. When she petitioned the Federal Pension Office for a small pension after her efforts during the war, citing her final title as Major Surgeon, she was told that she would not be receiving one because:

Your appointed as the contract surgeon was made for the purpose, not of performing duties pertaining to such an office, but that you might be captured by the enemy to enable you to obtain information concerning their military affairs; in other words, you were to act in the role of a spy for the United States military authorities. (Enss, 2017)

Despite the rejection, she kept writing letters in the hopes of getting some kind of compensation. In 1865, her efforts were rewarded, and she was given the Medal of Honor by President Andrew Johnson. She was the first woman to receive this award and the most decorated Pinkerton operative as a result.

52 years later, in 1917, she received a notice that, due to changes in requirements for the award, her Medal of Honor was being revoked and she, along with about 90 other recipients, was being asked to return their medals. She refused to do so and proudly wore hers for the rest of her life.

The Origins of Kate Carver

While looking through the stories of the men and women who worked for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, I didn’t find any stories that matched up with Kate Carver’s story 1-to-1. Going just with what we know (which isn’t much), the closest might be Kate Warne or Mary Elizabeth Walker; headstrong women who fought for a chance to show the world what they were made of despite all the doors that were slammed in their face. While she is a bit young to fit either of these women’s stories, I wouldn’t be surprised if the writers were messing with the timeline a bit to make their story fit. That said, I think we need to learn a bit more about Kate Carver before we can make any real judgments in this regard, and I do plan to revisit this topic later.

But even without knowing specifics, I think I can safely say that there’s some loose inspiration from all the brave women who decided to put themselves in danger for the sake of what they believed in, whether that be patriotism or the fact that they can do something just as well as their male coworkers. She has that strong fire and confidence and that desire to do work that’s a little more intellectually stimulating than most positions that would be available to her.

Historical Accuracy

Walker: Independence is a work of historical fiction. While the latter part of that genre title gives it some leeway in terms of the “historical” part, researching this topic highlighted some glaring inaccuracies that I can’t unsee. That being said, the writers did get a few things right. Let’s talk about that.

What they got right:

• Pinkerton’s personality: After Kate quit the agency, Ethan warned her that “the old man” wouldn’t let this go easily. This statement lines up with what we know of Pinkerton’s personality. He was headstrong and stubborn and would take great offense to Kate suggesting that he was acting in a corrupt manner. He probably wouldn’t fight to keep her employed but he would give her a piece of his mind for that.

• Independent in Independence: Kate working on her own in Independence wouldn’t be uncommon. She’s here to observe, not to investigate a specific case, so she wouldn’t necessarily need a partner.

• Working on the railroad: The 1870s did bring some financial strife for Pinkerton during the depression but it was also a time when they had contracts working for many different railroad lines (until they stopped in 1872). Pinkerton operatives were sent out to observe potentially dishonest railroad workers and to protect the railroad lines from bandits. It wouldn’t surprise me if they took a contract to ensure that railroads were properly established since not everyone would welcome a new railroad stop in their town.

• Ethan checking up on her: While they may not be official partners, Ethan makes it a habit to keep up with her activities and question her methods. It’s likely that he’s spying on her to see if she’s doing her job as required. It’s not as if Allen Pinkerton or Mrs. Stanton (the head of the female division at the time) could observe her directly from Chicago. While internal spying didn’t really start until 1874, it’s likely that some unofficial form of it went on earlier for operatives that were sent further away.

What they got wrong:

• Kate’s reports back to HQ: While Kate would’ve been expected to send regular, if not daily, reports of her observations and investigations back home, the one we did see her send doesn’t exactly match Pinkerton standards. It’s not nearly detailed enough, it’s written in plain English rather than code, and she’s sending it using Pinkerton’s real name rather than initials or fake names as would be proper practice. Pinkerton believed that secrecy was the key to being an undercover agent; sending a conspicuous, non-anonymous telegram clearly stating her observations is the exact opposite of that. (Note: I understand that was done for the purposes of TV but it’s still bad form)

• Kate’s spending: Not only would Kate be expected to report her observations, but she would also be required to submit a personal budget report detailing what she did with her money. Pinkerton would not accept a vague verbal comment about bribes and costumes and other necessities; she would need to specify how much money went to what. Lying about her spending would be a fireable offense.

• Secrets: Both Kate and Ethan have broken the sacred Secrecy rule of Pinkerton. While Kate was technically found out by Abby, bringing Calian and Hoyt into the fray was a big no-no. Ethan also revealed himself to Tom, which was prohibited by Pinkerton policy (unless he was specifically instructed to do so). Both of them would be in danger of termination if this was found out.

Conclusion

The Pinkerton National Detective Agency was ahead of its time in law enforcement and policing and resembled modern police far more than the public police did at the time. Even though the company has faded out of the public eye and works on a much larger, private scale than it used to, it’s important that we learn about and remember the impact that the men and women employed here had on our country’s history and society at large.

But we’re not just here to talk about the real-world story behind “The Eye That Never Sleeps”, though it is incredibly fascinating. We’re also here to discuss how Pinkerton fits into the world of Walker: Independence and how they could impact the story going forward.

Kate Carver may have quit the agency but that doesn’t mean Pinkerton is gone forever. We know there are plans in the works to get a railroad stop in Independence and now Pinkerton is a part of the effort. I have no doubt we’ll see Ethan again or possibly even some new agents (perhaps that’s another the mystery sister we saw in the trailer has come to town?) It’s possible our band of merry heroes may have to go against one of the most powerful and successful detective agencies in the country to bring the Davidsons to justice. I also think it’s possible that we’ll see Allan Pinkerton himself, or at least hear direct words from him. Beyond that, it’s highly possible that Tom, Augustus, or even Liam could’ve had some kind of history with the agency given their backgrounds in law enforcement. Even if they weren’t employed with Pinkerton, they could’ve had run-ins with operatives, both good and bad.

I’m not sure what the chances are of this happening, but I think it would be very cool if the writers were able to include a storyline based on a real Pinkerton case. Perhaps something in relation to Kate’s backstory and how she met all her contacts? At the very least, I would like to see a mention of them in the papers. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Introduction

When Philemon Chambers first mentioned that Augustus was once a Buffalo Soldier in an interview, I was intrigued. When we learned in “Random Acts” (1.06) of Walker: Independence that Augustus’ time in the Buffalo Soldiers was what led to him and Calian meeting and becoming friends, I was hooked and needed to learn more.

The Buffalo Soldiers were a sector of the US peacetime military following the Civil War made up entirely of black soldiers. Though slavery had officially ended during the war, equality and peace were still a long way off and many newly freed men saw joining the military as a way to make economic and social gains. These men, like many before them and even more in the generations to come, would put their lives on the line for their country in the hopes of being granted true equality and acceptance among the American people, a promise that would be made (and broken) time and time again.

I want to spend a little time talking about these men and the impact African American soldiers have had on US history. I’m going to do an overview of black soldiers in the military, which historians have traced back to the days of the American Revolution. I’m also going to do a more in-depth look at the origins of the Buffalo Soldiers and their time defending the American frontier. Then, I want to spend some time discussing how all of this could fit into the story Walker: Independence.

Before the Buffalo Soldiers

Traditionally, black soldiers were not allowed to enter military forces. It was believed that they would be cowardly, wouldn’t understand proper military functions, and would generally be a hindrance to the units they served. Despite that, during times of conflict, slaves would often try to volunteer in the hopes of gaining freedom. Typically, their pleas went unanswered until the situation on the battlefield was so dire that they feared they may lose. Even then, these men were usually relegated to labor positions and rarely allowed to carry a gun. Even if their freedom was promised in exchange for service, they would often be returned directly to their masters. This was a pattern that continued from times of colonial defense to the American Revolution and all the way through the War of 1812.

Then, the Civil War came along, and things shifted drastically for the US military.

Contrary to what some may believe, the slaves did not sit around twiddling their thumbs, waiting for freedom and equal rights to come their way during the Civil War era. Far from it.

[Artist rendition of the Louisiana Native Guard (a battalion of black men) in battle for the Union, courtesy of Harper’s Weekly]

From the beginning of the war, slaves and freedmen both volunteered to fight in the Union army and shed their blood for their country and their freedom. Frederick Douglass advocated for them to join, believing that this would be a chance for them to prove their worth as humans and Americans. Even in the heart of the Confederacy, hundreds of freedmen went to enlistment posts to volunteer their services, likely hoping to leverage freedom for their still enslaved friends and family. After some struggle, these men were allowed to serve in combat roles on both sides, showing their passion and bravery through their sacrifices on the field. (For more information about African American soldiers on both sides of the Civil War, check out this article!)

Following the war, the black soldiers finally had their freedom but equal rights were not guaranteed just yet. But, with African Americans being allowed to serve in the peacetime army for the first time in US history, change was on the horizon.

The Buffalo Soldiers in Texas

Origins

Following the Civil War, African American soldiers were allowed to be part of the peacetime army for the first time in US military history. Many of them chose to do so as there was little chance of fair employment anywhere else at the time. While some of these men were holdovers from the Civil War forces, there were many more fresh enlistments. It was a good thing too, because the United States had a new enemy to combat: the Frontier.

The Buffalo Soldiers got their name not from the US army but from the Native Americans with whom they clashed. While historians argue over the specific origins (Cheyenne or Comanche) or the reason behind it (respect for the noble buffalo or a comparison in skin tone), they agree that the name originated from there in the early 1870s. Buffalo Soldiers was never an official title within the US military but the Soldiers adopted the title regardless and the buffalo imagery worked its way into their symbols.

While black and white soldiers alike entered the frontier, the main contributors to frontier advancement and safety were the Buffalo Soldiers who served on the plains from 1869 to 1889. Thousands of men served on the frontier during this time, but by and large the troops who had the largest impact on taming the land, especially in Texas, were the 9^th and 10^th cavalries of the Buffalo Soldiers. I want to talk about the work they did, the hardships they endured, and the impact they had on US and Texas history.

Life on the Frontier

Working on the frontier was no easy feat. The Buffalo Soldiers were expected to handle many different tasks aside from their primary objective of protecting the settlers on the far reaches of the frontier. Soldiers were expected to scout unexplored areas and provide information to map the frontier and find new Native encampments to keep an eye on. They were expected to protect both white settlers in the area and the Civilized Tribes (five tribes- Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole- who had made economic ties with America and/or had started cultural assimilation) from hostile Natives and track down any attackers. They were also expected to help local law enforcement against the Natives and the white criminals who took advantage of lax law enforcement out in the West. From cattle thieves to train robbers, the Soldiers were kept on their toes. As America moved West, they were expected to help with constructing and maintaining new forts and roads and to protect new railway construction. Delivering mail in this area was so dangerous and life-threatening that no white man would dare volunteer for the position, so Buffalo Soldiers were often required to handle that too, or at the very least escort shipments of supplies and money. It was harsh and thankless work but there was no one else willing to do it, so the Buffalo Soldiers did it.

Cries for additional manpower and resources came from both individual Buffalo Soldiers and commanding officers, but the high-ranking officials in Washington (mostly men who had never been to the frontier) believed that conditions couldn’t possibly be that bad and denied their request every time.

The frontier was a massive area. From the Rio Grande to the south to Colorado in the north, there was a lot of ground to cover and not nearly enough men to do it. On top of that, it was a dangerous environment with harsh weather conditions and dangerous wild animals that didn’t like humans encroaching on their turf any more than the Native Americans liked the white man encroaching on theirs. The soldiers' isolation from society made disease and injuries a threat as well, as disease could spread very quickly within encampments and needed medical attention could be miles away.

There were plenty of human dangers, too, and not just from Native Americans. Mexican revolutionaries in the border states and Kickapoos from the other side of the river posed a threat to the Buffalo Soldiers and settlers alike. Outlaws also made a home on the lawless plains and stirred up trouble for just about everybody There were also plenty of southerners who didn’t appreciate black men in the Union blue running around their territory.

The long and short of it was that working the frontier was a very isolating and dangerous job. Many Buffalo Soldiers went months if not years without seeing their families and there was very little in the way of communication back to their homes. There weren’t many options for recreation either; settlements did pop up around their forts and encampments, but Buffalo Soldiers weren’t welcome in town and could very easily end up in trouble with the law or with the average citizen.

Then there was the matter of racism within the military. Punishments inflicted on Buffalo Soldiers for breaking the rules were often much harsher than those given to their white counterparts for similar infractions. The living conditions for Buffalo Soldiers were also much lower in quality than those given to white regiments. They were given poor food rations with near-spoiled bread and meats and none of the staples that could be found at a white encampment like jams and jellies or salt. Buffalo Soldiers were also paid less and had a harder time receiving recognition for their efforts; often the white commanding officers would be commended for their victories and the soldiers efforts ignored and swept under the rug.

Despite all that, the Buffalo Soldiers served their roles to the best of their ability and laid the foundations that helped build the American West.

The 9^th Cavalry

In February of 1867, Colonel Edward Hatch, the leader of the 9^th cavalry, had put together a sizable cavalry of just over 1000 men. However, properly training them was difficult as he lacked enough commanding officers to oversee them. Despite the success of African American soldiers in the Union Army during the Civil War, many people had a hard time accepting that they were capable of being good soldiers and not even the offer of a promotion could get past the racism. But, when the orders came in to move to the Texas frontier, Hatch had no choice but to move his ragtag cavalry of barely trained men westward.

While doing operations in Texas, the 9^th Cavalry was spread out across over 600 miles of territory between 7 scattered forts. As mentioned above, these men had a lot of territory to cover, a lot of responsibilities to tend to that no one else would, and not nearly enough men to do it.

After a few years working in this region, Hatch saw a way to decrease the workload for his men, at least in regard to the Native American threat. He saw how the Natives would attack in quick “hit and run” style robberies that would only serve to scatter the Buffalo Soldiers forces as they tried to chase the thieves down. He believed that he could decrease the threat if they could simply scout out where the Natives were camped out and make offensive attacks. His first attempt at a plan like this was in the spring of 1868, but he was moved out before he could enact it and his successor, despite being eager to go through with the plans, was faced with a summer full of quick hit and run attacks and battles that left the 9^th scattered across the Texas plains and he didn’t have the time or manpower to do it.

Hatch returned to his post at the 9^th in 1870, when attacks from the Lipans and Kickapoos from Mexico were on the rise while attacks from tribes in the US were slowly decreasing thanks to smaller scale offensive campaigns from the Buffalo Soldiers. Here, he hatched a second plan to attack the Natives at their home base. The only issue was that he needed permission from both the US and Mexican government to follow these Natives across the border. While the US had no issue giving that permission, the Mexican government refused. Unable to do anything against the tribes from Mexico, the 9^th turned their efforts toward the White Sands region, where many American tribes were hiding.

In summer of 1871, a large campaign was launched to track down these “hostiles” (Leckie, 1967) and drive them out of Texas. It was a hard march for the soldiers under scorching heat and barren landscape. For two months, they marched and scouted the land until they were too exhausted and too low on supplies to go any further, then they turned around and headed back to Fort Davis to recover.

Though this march initially seemed a failure as they had little interaction or success against the Natives, it did serve to be useful for mapping the region and preparing it for future settlers. The Buffalo Soldiers were also able to find evidence that the Sands were a common place for the Comancheros to trade. This campaign also helped to dispel the myth that the Buffalo Soldiers wouldn’t be able to survive in such harsh conditions, which rattled the Natives that had hidden away in what they thought was a safe place.

For years, the 9^th Cavalry battled against harsh weather conditions, hostile Natives of all tribes, the disapproval of the post Civil-War, and uncooperative law enforcement officials. Though Hatch and his men were able to make a noticeable decrease in cattle thefts and took out a few bands of outlaws, the local law enforcement didn’t appreciate their involvement and took to blaming the Buffalo Soldiers for anything they thought they could get away with. This became so common that, in 1875, the US Secretary of War William Kelknap informed Governor Coke that, if this harassment against the Buffalo Soldiers didn’t stop, the federal troops and their support against the Natives and outlaws would be removed from the problematic localities. To prove his point, he ordered Hatch to move the headquarters of the 9^th to Fort Clark and to take any outlying companies with him. This turned out to be a prequel to removing the 9^th from Texas altogether a few months later.

Then, it would be the 10^th’s turn to look after the Texas frontier.

The 10^th Cavalry

Like Hatch, Colonel Benjamin Grierson of the 10^th cavalry had trouble finding commanding officers for his troops, but he also had issues finding recruits to train. Unlike Hatch, who recruited nearly any man who was willing, Grierson was looking for men who displayed intelligence and good physical composition among other qualities that he believed would make good soldiers. Pressure from Washington to move his men out West and the poor living conditions he and his men were forced into pushed him to increase his recruitment efforts. The 10^th Cavalry set out on the trail to the Western Frontier shortly after the 9^th. They spent their early years serving in Kansas and Indian Territory to protect the expanding railroads, but some individuals would move to Texas early to make up for the lack of federal presence to protect the more recent settlers. In 1875, following the Red River War, the entire unit would be moved to West Texas to help finish the work that the 9^th had started in taming the west and the Natives who lived there.

Things did not get off to a great start. When the 10^th arrived, they had to deal with Comanches, Kickapoo, and Lipans harassing settlers along the Rio Grande, as well as bands of Mescalero and Warm Springs Apache further west. While Buffalo Soldiers ran themselves ragged handling the Natives’ hit and run attacks on farms and ranches, white outlaws and Mexican criminals were more than happy to take advantage of the distracted Buffalo Soldiers to take cattle and horses for themselves.

Much like the 9^th, the 10^th Cavalry found themselves dealing with the serious problem of not having enough men to cover all the (literal) ground and responsibilities they had to take care of, and, also much like the 9^th, their pleas for reinforcements were ignored.

In May of 1875, General Ord had finally had enough of the hit and run raids and ordered a campaign to clear out the Staked Plains regions. Six companies of Buffalo Soldiers were included in this mission; the remainder of the 10^th was preparing and guarding new railroad tracks and guarding the border from unwelcome Native raiders and Mexican revolutionaries. The purpose of the Stakes Plains Campaign was to scout out and map this largely unexplored region and expel any hostile Natives they came across. This campaign was difficult and lasted until November of 1875. It was a largely successful campaign as they were able to map the majority of the region and prepare it for new settlers and prove to the Natives that remained in the Staked Plains that it was no longer a safe haven for them

But this did not end Native troubles in Texas as there were still plenty of Lipans and Kickapoos coming up from Mexico. The Buffalo Soldiers still did not have the ability to follow them across the border, so any attempted interceptions of horse and cattle thefts usually ended in frustration and failure. But, for once, the US government listened to their soldiers and gave General Ord and his Buffalo Soldiers permission to cross the Mexican border to follow the “red phantoms” (Lecki, 1967) and put an end to the madness.

And cross the border, they did. From July to November of 1877, the 10^th Cavalry ran campaigns south of border in which they followed the Native raiders back to their home tribes and attacked them on their own turf. They were able to kill a number of warriors, destroy encampments and supplies, and send a clear message to the tribes who made their home further south. They were even able to escape back to America without a single run-in with the Mexican Army (who weren’t exactly happy to have another country’s military on their turf). The only recorded death from this campaign was a single soldier who drowned while crossing the Rio Grande back into America.

Following this campaign, the Buffalo Soldiers were able to take a quick break and recuperate over the winter, but, as the only cavalry force in West Texas, they couldn’t rest for too long and were back in the saddle in January of 1877. Even with the decreased threat from below the border, there was still plenty of work to do, and now they had a new enemy: the Texas Rangers

With many Native tribes moved onto the reservations, the US government was paying for buffalo to be hunted and arranging for the meat to be sent as food rations to these reservations. However, in 1877, the buffalo were nearing extinction, resulting in these rations being lowered and starving Native peoples. Native peoples begged to be allowed to leave the reservations in small hunting parties to find their own food and, after much negotiation, they were given permission to do so under supervision from the Buffalo Soldiers.

It should come as no surprise that the American citizens living in the areas these Natives hunted in weren’t exactly happy to see them running about with guns, supervised or not. Though there were no reports of cattle thefts or kills from these friendly hunting parties, fear and racial tensions caused an uproar among the settlers in Texas, an uproar that was loud enough to reach the ears of the Texas Frontier Battalion, a frontier defense force put together at the recommendation of Governor Coke in 1874. The Frontier Battalion sent a unit of Texas Rangers down to investigate the situation under orders to kill any armed Natives they saw.

Buffalo Soldiers often butted heads with these Texas Rangers as they had a habit of attacking peaceful Natives who were simply on a supervised hunting trip instead of the actual hostiles that still roamed the plains. Texas Rangers would argue that the Buffalo Soldiers weren’t doing a good enough job of supervising their charges and that they were just following their own orders. Disputes like this continued to happen until the 10^th Cavalry was moved out of Texas just before the 1880s.

Though the 9^th and 10^th Cavalries didn’t get to witness the final taming of the frontier in Texas, they deserve a lot of credit for managing Native American activity and for scouting and mapping many previously unexplored areas so that they could be prepped for settlers. Though they may not have received much recognition for it at the time, or even after, their legacy lies in the civilized American west.

Beyond the frontier

After their time in Texas, the Buffalo Soldiers and other units of the US peacetime army continued their journey westward to tame and contain the remainder of the frontier. Coming toward the end of the 19^th century and into the 20th, they were given a different calling: fighting wars against foreign forces.

Beginning with the Spanish-American War in 1898, Buffalo Soldiers and newer African American enlistments were called to the battlefield. They served well, as they always had, though they were largely used as support for the white units and rarely given battles and missions of their own until World War II. These soldiers, men and women alike, slowly worked their way into all the branches of the military during this time, though they remained in their own segregated units. Though there was talk of desegregating the military after witnessing the success of black units in Europe, many lawmakers and higher-ups in the military argued that racial tensions were just too strong to allow blacks and whites to work together.

President Truman forced the issue with an Executive Order in 1948 as the Cold War was on the horizon. Every branch of the military drug their feet over the issue and created mostly-black and mostly-white units within their forces, only desegregated in name rather than in spirit. It wasn’t until the Korean War in 1950 that the military saw true integration among their forces out of strategic necessity.

The Korean War proved to everyone that blacks and whites were perfectly capable of working alongside each other civilly, despite any lingering racial tensions. This paved the way for further civil rights legislation in the United States.

Buffalo Soldiers of Note

Though Buffalo Soldiers are largely ignored by historians and the current (and past) public consciousness, a good number of them did receive recognition for their valor and bravery on the battlefield. These men were awarded with the Medal of Honor, one of the highest military commendations at the time. The specific policy for a soldier to earn a Medal of Honor was “special and distinguished service in Indian warfare…some act of conspicuous bravery or service above the ordinary duty of a soldier” (Schubert, 2009). Over the course of the late 19^th and early 20^th century, 23 Buffalo Soldiers earned this award. I want to talk about some of those honored men here.

Emanuel Stance: Sergeant, F Troop 9^th Cavalry- Texas Raid, 1870

Sergeant Emanual Stance was the first Buffalo Soldier to receive the Medal of Honor. Though he had a rough, bullheaded personality and was prone to drinking, he made a fine soldier and an excellent leader, often being tasked with leading one small detachment or another on scouting missions, or, the case he was awarded a medal for, a rescue mission.

In May of 1870, the step-children of Phillip Buckmeier were kidnapped by Apache raiders. Word was sent for help and two detachments of men, one of which was lead by Stance, went to Kickapoo Springs to search for and hopefully rescue the children.

Stance was the first one to spot the Apache raiders on the trail and he made the call to attack. There was a quick and dodgy battle that resulted in the Apache abandoning their horses and their precious cargo. The youngest of the children was rescued on the spot; the other, William, had been knocked from his horse when his Apache captors ran off and he hid until the fighting was over. The Buffalo Soldiers took the horses to an encampment in Kickapoo Springs to rest the horses and themselves and William made the trek on foot to join them.

When the rescue party returned, with 15 horses, two rescued children, and no injuries (aside from Stance’s horse), his commanding officer was impressed and recommended him for the Medal of Honor for this and previous encounters with Natives.

Adam Payne: Private, 24^th Infantry- Comanche Campaign, 1874

Adam Payne was a Seminole Scout (a descendant of runaway slaves that found safety with the Seminole tribe and ran away to Mexico to escape the reservations in the 1830s; some felt safe enough to return to the US after the Civil War) that worked alongside the Buffalo Soldiers to help with tracking the Native Americans.

Payne was the first Seminole Scout to receive a medal of honor thanks to his efforts during the Red River War. The Red River War was an unusual alliance between the Comanches, Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Natives against the American forces as a protest against the systematic killing off of buffalo herds and the failure of the US government to deliver on the promised food rations to their tribes.

Payne was part of a group of four scouts walking a few miles ahead of Colonel Mackenzie and a detachment of the 4^th Cavalry on a trail along the Texas-New Mexico border. A group of approximately 25 Comanches saw them and attacked. Though they were outnumbered, Payne and his men fought valiantly and just barely managed to escape their attackers. They ran back to the 4^th Cavalry’s encampment to warn them and started tracking the Comanches the next day. 6 days later, the men found a Kiowa and Comanche camp near Palo Duro Canyon near the Red River and attacked, destroying the camp and the Natives’ supplies, a rough blow just before winter.

Payne was among eight men involved in this battle who were recommended for the Medal of Honor. Colonel Mackenzie reported him “for gallantry…when attacked by a largely superior party of [Comanche]” and called him “a scout of great courage”.

Isaac Payne: Trumpeter, 24^th Infantry; Pompey Factor: Private, 24^th Infantry; John Ward: Sergeant, 24^th Infantry- Staked Plains Expedition, 1875

Ward, Payne, and Factor all served on a recon mission with Lieutenant Bullis looking for Natives who had stolen 75 horses near the Pecos River Basin. They found the encampment within a few days of searching and, although they were only supposed to be doing reconnaissance, Bullis couldn’t resist the urge to engage with the Natives there. Bullis had them dismount and they slowly approached the encampment. Bullis fired the first shot from about 40 yards away, which turned out to be a mistake as not only did the Natives outnumber them, but they were armed with Winchester rifles.

For nearly an hour, the Buffalo Soldiers and the Natives were engaged in battle. Twice, the Buffalo Soldiers managed to chase the Natives back and secure the horses, and twice the Natives pushed back against them and recovered their stolen goods. Despite the difference in numbers, they were fairly evenly matched, but ultimately they needed to make a full retreat. Bullis was only able to escape by jumping onto Ward’s horse and the scouting group just managed to make it out with their lives.

Bullis recommended all of them for the Medal of Honor after this incident and all three of them received their awards within the year.

Clinton Greaves: Corporal, C Troop 9^th Cavalry- Apache Campaign, 1877

The first Apache Campaign in the late 1870s was an attempt to move the Apache tribes to the reservations in San Carlos, New Mexico, a move that the Apache themselves did not agree with in the slightest and fought their hardest against. In late January of 1877, a group of Natives escaped the existing reservations in San Carlos and hid with the Chiricahua Apache in northern New Mexico. Lieutenant Henry Wright and his men were tasked with hunting them down and bringing everyone back with the aid of some Navajo Scouts.

When they found the encampment, Wright led six of his men, including Corporal Clinton Greaves, into the camp with the hope of negotiating the movement of all the Natives onto the reservation. However, as they went further and further into camp to speak with the chiefs, it became increasingly clear that negotiations were not on the table as they were strategically surrounded by warriors.

It should come as no surprise that fighting broke out and being surrounded and outnumbered was not a good situation for the Buffalo Soldiers. Greaves fired his carbine until it was emptied of ammunition, then he used his gun as a club to beat the warriors down. By doing this, he was able to create a hole in the circle of warriors and give his fellow soldiers a chance to escape.

Following this, Wright recommended Greaves and three other men for the Medal of Honor. However, due to some bureaucratic requirements not being met, Greaves was the only one to receive the award.

John Denny: Private, C Troop 9^th Cavalry- Victorio Campaign, 1879

The Victorio Campaign was a military effort to take down Apache leader Victorio. Though there were plenty of peaceful Apache tribes already housed without reservations, approximately 6000 Apache still roamed the west in an expanse of land known as Apacheria, and they looked to Victorio for inspiration. He was considered to be the embodiment of “Apache resistance to white encroachment” (Shcubert, 2009).

During one of many confrontations with Victorio, Private John Denny proved his bravery and valor by aiding a wounded soldier. Under heavy fire from the Apache, he carried Private Freeland across the battlefield to a place where he could receive medical care. His commanding officer, Lieutenant Day, admired his unwillingness to leave his fellow man behind and it was later reported that Denny’s actions were “[an act] of most conspicuous gallantry” in the face of danger.

Due to some bureaucratic oversight, Denny would not receive his Medal of Honor for this until 16 years later, but his tale of gallantry was still spoken of almost two decades later by the men of the 9^th Cavalry.

William O. Wilson: Corporal, I Troop 9^th Cavalry- Pine Ridge Campaign, 1890

Corporal Wilson’s ride to the Medal of Honor wasn’t as exciting as some of the other tales on this list but his work was just as important. He was the last Buffalo Soldier to win his Medal of Honor on American soil and the only one to desert his post afterward.

He received this award for volunteering to deliver a warning message from Lieutenant Powell to Major Henry, warning him of an ongoing Sioux attack on a supply train. This mission was dangerous as it would take him away from the safety of the wagon train and leave him alone in the harsh winter conditions of the frontier. None of the men in Lieutenant Powell’s troop would take the message and Wilson was the only one among his troop brave enough to take the risk.

So what does it all mean?

Now we’ve reached the part of the show where I talk about the impact that historical fact could have on the work of historical fiction known as Walker: Independence. It’s difficult for me to discuss historical accuracy as we have yet to see any Buffalo Soldiers in the show, but there’s still plenty of room to discuss Augustus’ background as a Buffalo Soldier and the potential future impact on the plot of the show.

Augustus’ Backstory

We know that Augustus was a member of the Buffalo Soldiers and that he spent at least some of that time working on the Texas frontier; this is how he met Calian, after all. So that tells us he was either a member of the 9^th or 10^th cavalry. I’m leaning towards the 9^th as they had more responsibilities near where Walker: Independence takes place but, given all the (literal) ground that Buffalo Soldiers were required to cover as part of their basic duties, he could’ve been officially stationed somewhere else and just been sent on a mission to this area, so it’s hard to say for sure.

Next, let’s talk about how Calian and Augustus met. We know that Calian took Gus back to his camp to heal when he was injured, and that Gus decided to stick around after he had healed. What we don’t know for sure is how Augustus got this injury. Given the various number of tasks Buffalo Soldiers were required to handle and the mountain of dangers that came along with their station, there’s a nearly unlimited number of possibilities. I do have to say that I think the least likely cause of this was a confrontation between Calian’s tribe and Buffalo Soldiers.

Though the Buffalo Soldiers were mainly on the frontier to keep the Natives at bay, actual confrontation between the groups wasn’t that common (at least not before the Natives were being rounded up for the reservations) given how spaced out the Soldiers were required to be. On top of that, most confrontations ended with the Natives being untraceable or just running across the Mexican border. On the occasions that violent confrontations did happen, there are no records that indicate injured soldiers would’ve been left behind, nor that the Natives would’ve made the effort to take care of them.

Based on that information, it’s more likely that Augustus was injured in some other way and Calian came across him on a scouting mission. As to the source of the injury, there are a lot of options there. It could’ve been a wild animal, a run-in with outlaws, or a hazardous mail run.

Though desertions among the Buffalo Soldiers weren’t common, it would’ve been easy to get away with one like Augustus did. The frontier was a dangerous place and there are many cases of men going missing only to turn up dead a week or so later. Even if it became known that he deserted, it’s unlikely there would’ve been spare time or resources to chase him. Augustus could have very easily ditched his blue uniform for a deputy star without getting in too much trouble.

Buffalo Soldiers in Independence

Walker: Independence takes place during the beginning years of the Buffalo Soldiers and their war against the frontier. Against all logic, the Soldiers would’ve continued on without Augustus in their ranks. With a tribe of Apache next door, it’s likely that Independence would get a visit from them. Even without Calian’s tribe nearby, there are many reasons why Buffalo Soldiers would make an appearance in Independence.

The approaching railroad stop means that Buffalo Soldiers would be called to guard the railway from Natives and outlaws alike. Buffalo Soldiers were also tasked with doing mail runs all over the frontier, along with constructions projects for the government. They could come to town as a rest stop or to get supplies. Solders would also be asked to supplement current law enforcement so there’s room for a group of them to come in and step on Tom’s toes if it is decided that Independence needs help managing law enforcement.

With all that in mind, it’s likely that any Buffalo Soldiers we do meet could be a part of Augustus’ old regiment. Whether they would be friend or foe is another matter altogether.

Conclusion

The Buffalo Soldiers were brave volunteers who put their lives and sanities on the line for a country and a people who cared little for them. They helped lay the foundations in the West on which the country we know today was built and it’s a shame they didn’t get more recognition for it. While their impact on the United States is certain and recorded in various archived military documents, their impact on Walker: Independence remains to be seen. I, for one, can’t wait to see them represented on our small screens.

References

The Buffalo Soldiers: A narrative of the Negro Cavalry in the West, William Leckie, 1967

Civil War Special Forces: The Elite and Distinct Fighting Units of the Union and Confederate Armies, Robert P. Broadwater, 2014

Buffalo Soldiers: African American Troops in US forces, Ron Field, 2008

Black Valor: Buffalo Soldiers and the Medal of Honor, Frank Schubert, 2009

The Buffalo Soldiers: Their Epic Stories and Major Campaigns, Debra Scheffer PhD, 2015

Five Civilized Tribes: North American Indian Confederacy, The Editors of Encyclopedia Brittanica, March 2017. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Five-Civilized-Tribes

Frontier Battalion, The Texas State Historical Association, 1952. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/frontier-battalion