Frances M. A. Roe, born Frances Marie Antoinette Mack (22 August 1846 – 6 May 1920) was an American writer. She was the daughter of Ralph Gilbert Make and Mary Colton Mack of Watertown, New York. On August 19, 1871, she married U.S. Army officer Fayette Washington Roe, who ultimately became a Lieutenant Colonel, and was sent to Fort Lyon in Colorado Territory in 1871. She accompanied him and recorded her life during these years in a memoir. While her husband's career has been described as "unremarkable",[1] Roe continues to be known on the basis of her book for the accurate picture of Army life it painted.[2] Black soldiers from this period became known as the "Buffalo Soldiers"; Roe's was the first documented use of the name.[3][4][5] Roe said of the Buffalo Soldiers:
These ‘Buffalo Soldiers’ are active, intelligent, and resolute men; are perfectly willing to fight the Indians, whenever they may be called upon to do so, and appear to me to be rather superior to the average of white men recruited in time of peace.[3]
Roe died in Port Orange, Florida, and was buried with her husband at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia.[7][8]
Works
[edit]- Army letters from an officer's wife, 1871–1888, 1909
References
[edit]- ^ "West Point in the Making of America". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 7 April 2011.
- ^ Taylor, J. Golden (1987). Thomas J. Lyon (ed.). A Literary history of the American west. Texas Christian University. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-87565-021-0.
- ^ a b Logan, Jennifer (2006). "We Can, We Will". Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine. Retrieved 7 April 2011.
- ^ "The Buffalo Soldiers". National Park Service. Retrieved 7 April 2011.
- ^ Schubert, Frank N. (2003). Voices of the Buffalo Soldier: Records, Reports, and Recollections of Military Life and Service in the West. University of New Mexico Press. p. 47. ISBN 978-0-8263-2310-1.
- ^ Graduates, United States Military Academy Association of (1915). Annual Reunion. The Association.
- ^ "Burial Detail: Roe, Frances M. A. (Section 2, Grave 1025-1027)". ANC Explorer. Arlington National Cemetery. (Official website).
- ^ Humanities, National Endowment for the (1920-05-09). "Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854–1972, May 9, 1920, Image 5". Evening Star. p. 5. ISSN 2331-9968. Retrieved 2019-06-04.
External links
[edit]- Works by Frances M. A. Roe at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Frances M. A. Roe at the Internet Archive
- Works by Frances M. A. Roe at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- "Fayette Washington Roe". at ArlingtonCemetery.net. 2 March 2024. (Unofficial website).