Third in a series of western paintings by Kadir Nelson, "Morning Patrol" pays homage to the African American soldiers who, after the end of the Civil War, were stationed in the west to protect mail routes, Pacific Railroad workers and payroll wagons, string miles of telegraph wire, build and maintain forts, and establish law and order in a vast area of outlaws, Mexican Revolutionaries and raiding hostile Indians. Possibly as a form of respect, Plains tribes named these worthy antagonists "Buffalo Soldiers," a name derived from the similarity they saw between the buffalo coats the soldiers wore and the texture of their hair. During an early morning patrol, this Tenth Cavalry soldier grabs his pistol as he hears something stirring in the background.