Charlie Bates (1878-1917) was born in Summerville, in northwest Georgia, and enlisted in the U.S. Army by 1901. 

Private Bates served in the 25th Infantry and transferred to Company M, 10th Cavalry in 1907, as a cook. Both regiments were segregated. 

Bates was one of many black enlisted men posted to the western frontier and to border fortifications who became known as Buffalo Soldiers in the late nineteenth century. 

Bates was in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Texas, and Vermont – the last home to the 10th Cavalry in the early 1900s. 

Bates died of pneumonia at Fort Bliss, Texas, in February 1917. He is interred at the Fort Bliss National Cemetery (Section PA, Site 3E).

CHARLIE BATES

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