"Horace Waymon Bivins"(1862-1937)

A buffalo solider,as born on May 8,in Accomack County,Virginia.His father Severn S.Bivins and his mother Elizabeth Bivins were free black farmers on Virgina's Eastern Shore.His parents taught him to farm and at the age of 15 he was in charge of an 8-horse farm near Keller Station,Virginia.Horace however,yearned for a life away from farming and at 17 he entered Hampton Institute in Virginia where he was first introduced to military training.In 1887 He joined the U.S. Army as a private.Horace was ordered to Jefferson Barracks,Missouri and assigned to Troop E,10th U.S. Cavalry.He was eventually stationed with the regiment at Fort Grant in Arizona Territory.There he took part in the campaign against Geronimo during during the final days of the Apache wars in the Southwest.An expert marksman,Horace won eight medals and badges given by the War Department in shooting competitions between 1892&1894.In 1898,Corporal Bivins,now a gunner,went to war in Cuba with the 10thCavalry.During the battle of Santiago on July 1, 1898,Horace operated a three man Hotchkiss mountain gun alone and suffered a head wound as his fellow soldiers were pinned down under fire.Commended for his bravery,He soon became a hero of the Spanish American War as his actions were described in both military and civilian newspaper.In 1899,he wrote of his Cuban experiences which appearned in the book Under the Fire with Tenth Cavalry,one of the earliest and most popular of the Spanish American War accounts written by participating soldiers.Horace now a Sergeant served six months in the Philippines in 1901,often leading patrols against the forces of Emilio Aguinaldo.He left the Philippines in July 1901 and was stationed at a series of military posts in Montana,California, Wyoming,New York,and Vermont.He retired from the U.S. Army on July 19,1913 and settled in Billings,Montana.In 1917 Horace proposed organizing a unit of volunteers in Virginia for the U.S. Army as it prepared to embark for France to fight in World War 1.The Army turner down his proposal bit it did make the 55 year old former solider a Captain in the Infantry.For six months he served on active duty at camp Dix,New Jersey before retiting again and returing to Billings,Montana.Horace passed away in Billings.