Black units of the U.S. Army known as “Buffalo Soldiers,” which served in the West after the Civil War, will be spotlighted in history events Friday and Saturday.
• Friday at 6 p.m., Portland-based re-enactors will present the monthly military history lecture sponsored by the Vancouver Barracks Military Association. The free presentation will be at the 40 et 8 Chateau, 7607 N.E. 26th Ave., on the south side of 78th Street in Hazel Dell. The group is named for Medal of Honor recipient Moses Williams, who is buried in the Vancouver Barracks’ post cemetery.
• Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Veterans Museum in Vancouver will host six re-enactors from a Seattle Buffalo Soldier cavalry group, who will give a free presentation with their horses. The museum is on the Vancouver campus of the Portland VA Medical Center, Building 1819, 1601 E. Fourth Plain Blvd.
The Northwest Division Pacific Armor Corps will also host model tank battles at the museum. Visitors can learn to operate the remote control one-eighteenth scale models, navigate a battlefield and “shoot” other tanks.
• On Saturday, Buffalo Soldier groups from Seattle and Portland will be part of the “Campfires and Candlelight” living history event at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, 1001 E. Fifth St. They will be part of the Timeline of History from 4 to 10 p.m.
