Child of the Fighting Tenth

"No one knew when the bugle sounded reveille what would happen before taps that night." Forrestine "Birdie" Cooper learned at an early age that growing up on the western frontier meant that each new day brought a fresh adventure. Birdie's father, Charles Cooper, was an officer in the Tenth U.S. Cavalry, known as the Buffalo Soldiers, one of four regiments of black troops with white officers.