Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument
Youngsholm interprets Charles Young as Army officer, diplomat, educator, cartographer, family man, and pioneering Black public servant alongside the broader history of the Buffalo Soldiers.
Artwork inspired by Henry Ossawa Tanner
Charles Young was the third Black graduate of West Point and, by the end of his career, the highest-ranking Black officer in the U.S. Army. His assignments stretched from western forts and military intelligence to Haiti, Liberia, and the Philippines; he also led troops in a national park before the National Park Service existed. Youngsholm mattered because it was the family farm and intellectual refuge to which that global career returned.
The restored house now provides the essential interior experience, including exhibits and a short film. Treat the Buffalo Soldiers story as more than uplift: segregation, military opportunity, Indigenous displacement, imperial policy, and Young’s repeated battles against institutional racism coexist here. The monument operates on a limited Friday–Sunday schedule, and the grounds are easiest to understand with ranger interpretation.
- West Point
- Class of 1889
- National monument
- Established 2013
- Admission
- Free
Quick guide
- Watch the short film
- It gives the chronology needed to read the restored rooms.
- Ask about the 500-mile ride
- Young’s protest on horseback exposes both resolve and institutional exclusion.
How to read achievement inside constraint
- Begin with Youngsholm
- See the house as family base, working farm, and intellectual refuge.
- Map the assignments
- Trace how military service linked the West, Caribbean, Africa, and Ohio.
- Name the institution
- Distinguish Young’s achievement from the racism that made it exceptional.
- Expand to the regiments
- Use Young’s life as an entry into many Buffalo Soldier experiences.
Good to know
Youngsholm is a small, carefully restored historic house with limited weekly opening—not a large military museum. Large bags are prohibited inside, and the overflow gravel lot opens only with staff permission.
Notice these
- Restored Youngsholm interiors
- Buffalo Soldiers exhibits
- Wilberforce university landscape