20-year-old Richard Combs was born in Fauquier County, Virginia around 1845. He enlisted November 28, 1863 at Worcester, Maryland, and mustered into the 19th Regiment at Camp Stanton on December 25, 1863. Combs was wounded in the right arm by an exploding shell at the Battle of the Crater, Petersburg, Virginia, on July 30, 1864, and spent several months in the Union Army Hospital for Colored Troops, Army of the Potomac, City Point, Virginia. He mustered out at Brownsville, Texas on January 15, 1867.

After the war, Combs lived in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. working as laborer. In 1883, he enlisted in the African-American 10th Cavalry, which has been popularized in histories of the American West as the Buffalo Soldiers who fought in the Indian wars of the late 19th century. Combs was issued Indian Wars Campaign Badge number 1155 on March 24, 1909.

In June, July, and August 1898, Combs went with the 10th Cavalry to Cuba where it fought and defeated Spanish troops alongside Teddy Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders” at the battles of Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill.

Combs retired from the Army on May 18, 1904, and settled in Omaha, Nebraska. He married Pearl Buford on April 20, 1910 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. He was 65. She was 24. He had a stepson and stepdaughter, Samuel and Blanche Gamble. Combs died on March 3, 1911, survived by his wife Pearl. He is buried at Old Fort Crook cemetery, now on Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha, Nebraska.