In 1866 Congress ordered the regular army to form a regiment of black soldiers, forming four infantry regiments and two cavalry regiments, the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments. A white officer commanded a black unit.

In 1871 Charles was assigned to Company A of the 10th U.S. Cavalry and sent to Fort Sill, Indian Territory. By now Forestine had his brother Harry. Her sister, Florence, was born in Fort Sill.

In her book Child of the Tenth Battle: On the Frontier with the Buffalo Soldiers, Forestine wrote about her adventures while traveling with the army, and vividly described the countless treks across the plains. is described. She recognized the toll these crossings had taken on both her family and soldiers.

“Buffalo herds were a common sighting for my brother, my sister and myself on the way from one border garrison to another with my parents,” she wrote. “I vividly remember a herd of buffalo swarming across the prairie towards us…while the soldiers fired at the herd in case it got too close to our wagons.” I was ready to do it.”

When she was old enough to attend school, Forestine was sent back to live with relatives in Philadelphia. was reunited with his family at Fort Grant, Arizona.

“[Fort Grant’s]garrison was at the foot of the Graham Mountains,” she said. Beyond the fertile valley facing the garrison lies the beautiful mountain range of the Galileos, and between her two mountains forming the valley, thousands of cattle spread across vast green pastures without fences. They were grazing as if they were on the ground. ”

Charles Cooper and his men were eventually sent to Camp Bonita in the Chiricahua Mountains. With his brother and sister absent from school, Forestin and his mother moved to Camp His Bonita. Their residence consisted of his one room, the walls of which were lined with newspapers. This was a source of fun entertainment as Forestine and her father competed to find articles that no one else had read.

“I would often climb into a chair and read a fresh article near the ceiling, read it aloud, and then turn around and see my father’s 6-foot-2 frame lay flat on the floor. As he answered my challenge: “It’s nothing new. I read it a long time ago, but here’s what you missed.” and the item at the junction of the wall and floor.”

When Forestin’s father asked a local rancher to lend a dairy cow, Forestin recalls: Forestine tethered a horse named Don and brought the cow home.

According to Forrestine, “The cows were driven out of the corral and I started driving them out to a camp three miles away. Until nightfall, the cow and I fought. When we got to the canyon entrance, she simply clambered sideways, and I decided to follow her and drop her off at camp.”

About this time, one of the soldiers saw a cow at the top of a cliff with Forestine running behind it. He immediately assumed that the Indian was chasing the girl.

“Immediately orders were given to saddle up, and the men, fully armed and ready to rescue me from the Apaches, raced up the steep slopes of the canyon. I managed to get the ox down just then. I called my father not to help.

“So the soldier and my father watched my struggle until the cow was actually in front of the house and took charge of the cow.”

In April 1886, a nearby ranch was attacked by warring Apaches. The army was ordered to leave Forrestine and her mother alone, with the exception of one soldier to protect them.

The next day, pony tracks were found around the house and an empty army tent. Charles Cooper sent his wife and daughter back to Fort Grant for safety.

At Fort Grant, Forestin met Edwin Hooker, son of Henry Hooker. Hooker owned the Sierra Bonita Ranch in the Sulfur Springs Valley, the largest ranch in Arizona Territory at the time.

Forestine and Edwin were married at Fort Grant on May 4, 1886.

Forestin lived on the Sierra Bonita Ranch from 1886 to 1903. She learned to handle ropes on the ranch, mark cattle, and eat wagon feed with the cowboys when on the pasture, contributing greatly to the success of her ranch.

The couple had two children, named Forestine or “Tots,” born in 1887, and Harry, born in 1888.

One of the many visitors to the Sierra Bonita Ranch was playwright Augustus Thomas, who wrote the play Arizona in 1900.

In 1907 Forestine and Edwin divorced. She moved to Los Angeles, where she worked as an editor for the Los Angeles Examiner, after which she worked for the Humanitarian Society for Children in the City and County of Los Angeles. During World War I, she helped promote the city’s Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Welfare Department.

Forestin is in her early fifties and is a successful children’s writer. She died on March 20, 1932 in Los Angeles at the age of 65.