High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Buffalo Soldier tragedy of 1877 also known as the "Staked Plains Horror" was a tragic event in the hot dry Llano Estacado region of north-west Texas and eastern New Mexico during July of a drought year. Four soldiers and one buffalo hunter would die from the hot horror of the desert. The character and loyalty of the men involved would be severely tested as would their honor and duty. Some would be called heroes and others deserters, but most would later state they were happy just to have survived.