Jones Morgan, 110; Served With Buffalo Soldiers

Jones Morgan, 110, who served with the black U.S. Cavalry unit known as the Buffalo Soldiers. Morgan, born to freed slaves on a Newberry County, S.C., farm on Oct. 23, 1882, ran off and joined the 9th Cavalry when he was 15. Although underage, he cooked meals and tended horses for the officers. The unit fought Indians on the western frontier and rode with Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders in Cuba during the Spanish-American War in 1898. Indians dubbed the black unit the Buffalo Soldiers because of the soldiers’ curly hair, thick coats and fierce fighting style. Morgan, whose military records were burned in a 1912 fire, considered his best years his last--as he spoke to students throughout Virginia and met with former President George Bush and Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Vigorous to the end, Morgan at age 105 drove off a would-be burglar with a hammer. On Sunday in Richmond, Va., of kidney failure.