Emanuel Stance

Biography

Before the War

Emanuel Stance was born around 1843 in East Carroll Parish, Louisiana. Almost nothing is recorded of his early life. He enlisted in the U.S. Army at Lake Providence in October 1866, shortly after Congress authorized the first peacetime Black regiments — units that the Plains Indians would come to call the Buffalo Soldiers. At twenty-three, and standing just over five feet tall, he was assigned to Company F of the newly formed 9th U.S. Cavalry.

The Action

By the spring of 1870, Stance was a sergeant patrolling the western Texas frontier from Fort McKavett. On May 20, he was leading a nine-man detachment toward Kickapoo Springs when they encountered a party of Apache raiders driving stolen horses. Stance charged, scattered the party, and recovered the herd. That afternoon, on the return march, his detail ran into a second, larger band attempting to recapture the animals. He charged again, drove them off, and brought every man and every horse back to the fort.

For those two actions in a single day, Stance became the first African American in the post–Civil War Army awarded the Medal of Honor — and the first of the Buffalo Soldiers ever recognized for frontier service.

After the War

Stance served out a long and difficult career in the 9th Cavalry, promoted, reduced, and promoted again across the hard years of the Apache campaigns. He was killed on the night of December 25, 1887, outside Fort Robinson, Nebraska, by one or more of the men under his command — the exact circumstances have never been established. He is buried at the Fort McPherson National Cemetery in Maxwell, Nebraska.