Robert W. Dixon Sr., the last known survivor of the U.S. Army’s all-Black regiments known as Buffalo Soldiers, died on Nov. 15 near Albany, N.Y. His wife, Georgia Dixon, said he died at a rehabilitation center. Created after the Civil War, the Army’s all-Black cavalry and infantry regiments were nicknamed “Buffalo Soldiers” by Native Americans who encountered them in the nation’s Western expansion. The name may have been a reference to the soldiers’ curly black hair or to the fierceness that buffalo show in fighting. During the Spanish-American War, the experienced horsemen of the 10th Cavalry led the way for Col. Theodore Roosevelt’s novice Roughriders in fighting in Cuba.

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Persons: Robert W, Dixon, Georgia Dixon, Theodore Roosevelt’s Organizations: Buffalo Soldiers, U.S . Military Academy, West, Ninth Cavalry Regiment, Buffalo, 10th Cavalry, Roughriders Locations: Albany, N.Y, Mississippi, Spanish, Cuba