From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)
Buffalo Soldiers reburied in New Mexico [Thomas Smith and David Ford]
Thomas Smith and David Ford were two of the three Buffalo Soldiers whose remains were reburied in the Santa Fe National Cemetery in New Mexico in July 2009; their remains had been left behind by the Army more than 130 years before.Smith, from New Market, KY, died in 1866. Ford, from Taylor County, KY, died in 1868. The third soldier, Levi Morris, from Akron, OH, died in 1877.
The soldiers had served in remote outposts on the Western frontier. Their bodies were found during a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation investigation of cemetery looting at Fort Craig in southern New Mexico.
For more see M. Dabovich, "Military welcomes home long-lost Buffalo Soldiers," Lewiston Morning Tribune, 7/19/2009, p. A2.