Virginian Sheldon Colbert (1882-1916) grew up in Wythe County and worked as a day laborer as a young man. 

He married and was widowed between 1900 and 1910, and was an iron worker. In 1909, at age 26, Colbert enlisted in the U.S. Army, joining Company M, 10th Cavalry, in Ohio.

 The next year he was living in the Columbus Barracks with his regiment, followed by Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont, where he served in the early 1910s. 

The 10th Cavalry was one of the segregated regiments established for black soldiers in the nineteenth century, men who became known as Buffalo Soldiers. 

By 1916 Sergeant Colbert was in El Paso, Texas, where he died January 24. 

He is buried in Fort Bliss National Cemetery (Section PA, Site 15F).

SHELDON COLBERT

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