1ST SGT. GEORGE JORDAN (MOH)
1849-1904
BUFFALO SOLDIER-CO. K., 9TH U.S. CAVALRY
George Jordan was born a Slave in Williamson County Tenn. After the Civil War, he joined the U. S. Army in Nashville, Tennessee in Company K., 9th U. S. Cavalry, known as the Buffalo Soldiers.
He was sent west with his until and served during the Apache Wars of the late 1870’s and 1880’s in the Warm Spring Apache uprising of 1880.
THE BATTLE FORT TULAROSA, NM
“On the 13th of May, 1880, Sgt. George Jordan led a detachment of 25 Buffalo Soldiers from the 9th Cavalry’s K Troop across the Mogollon Mountains of SW New Mexico on a desperate forced march to save the small settlement around the abandoned Ft. Tularosa from the Apache War Chief Victorio, who was leading raids against the settlements there.
Upon arriving at Ft. Tularosa, the exhausted Jordan and his men immediately began fortifying the abandoned fort and moved all of the settlers inside the safety of the stockade. Within hours of their arrival, Victorio, and a band of 100 warriors attacked the fort, shooting volleys of arrows and rifle shots into the small stockade.
Jordan and his men repeatedly repulsed the attacks by Victorio’s warriors and at one point during the attack, Sgt. Jordan made a daring rescue of the livestock and brought them back inside the stockade.
Due to Sgt. Jordan’s determination and leadership, Victorio’s attack on the settlement failed with dozens of Indian casualties while not a single Buffalo Soldier or citizen was injured.
THE BATTLE OF CARRIZO CANYON
Later, Sgt. Jordan was in command of a 19-man detachment of Buffalo Soldiers at the Battle of Carrizo Canyon, NM on the 12th of August 1881, when a superior force of Apaches came upon the Buffalo Soldier detachment leaving them in a very exposed position. Sgt. Jordan’s gallantry and leadership that day after he prevented the larger Indian force from surrounding his command.”
For his heroic actions while serving in Company K., of the 9th US Cavalry during the Warm Springs Apache Uprising and war of those years, Sgt. Gorge Jordan was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
His citation reads:
“While commanding a detachment of 25 men at Ft. Tularosa, NM, in 1880, Jordan held back a force of more than 100 Apache Indians. Then at the Battle of Carrizon Canyon, NM, three months later, Jordan and 19 of his men again held their ground while being attacked by a superior group of Apaches”.
His commanding officer tried to put him in for the Medal of Honor three times, but Jordan refused. Finally, after much persuasion from his commander, he accepted the Honor.
Late in life, he became ill and was denied entry into a Military Hospital in Washington DC. because he was Black. When the Jordan’s fact became known in the US Army, an order was issued that soldiers regardless of their Race could not be denied entry for treatment in any Military Hospital.
1st Sgt. George Jordan died in 1904 and was buried in the Ft. McPherson Natl. Cemetery, in Maxwell, Nebraska.