THROUGH HELL AND SUFFERING.
Negro Officers Make Good--Wonderful Record of the 8th Illinois--"Black
Devils" Win Decorations Galore--Tribute of French Commander--His
Farewell to Prairie Fighters--They Fought After War Was Over--Hard to
Stop Them--Individual Deeds of Heroism--Their Dead, Their Wounded and
Suffering--A Poem.
In the past when the subject of the Negro's fighting ability was under
discussion, there were always found those whose grudging assent to his
merits as a soldier was modified by the assertion that he had to be
properly commanded; in other words must have white officers. Never
having been given a conspicuous opportunity to demonstrate his capacity
for leadership in battle, until the formation of the 8th Illinois
infantry in the Spanish-American war, the Negro was forced to rest under
the imputation that as a follower he did fairly well, but as a leader he
was a failure.
Let anyone who still holds that view study the record of the 8th
Illinois, or the 370th, as it was rechristened when entering the service
of the general government in the recent war. Seventy-one War Crosses
with special citations for valor and merit, and twenty-one Distinguished
Service Crosses were awarded officers and men of the regiment. Many men
in the 370th were veterans of the Spanish-American war as well as the
campaign of 1916 on the Mexican border, which, while not an actual war,
was for some months a locality of service and hard service at that; the
regiment passing through it with great credit.
It was organized as a single battalion in 1891, increased to a regiment
and sent to Cuba in 1898, every officer and man in the regiment being a
Negro. Upon its return, over half of the city of Chicago turned out in
greeting. Until July 12th, 1918, the regiment had never had a white
officer. Then its Colonel, F.A. Denison, was relieved on account of
illness and a white officer in the person of Colonel Thomas A. Roberts
for the first time was placed in command. Shortly before the armistice
two other white officers were attached to the regiment, in the persons
of Major William H. Roberts, a brother of the colonel, and Captain John
F. Prout; Second Lieutenant M.F. Stapleton, white, also served as
adjutant of the First battalion.
The 370th received brief training at Camp Logan, Houston, Texas, and
landed in France April 22, 1918; going within a few weeks into actual
service. Like nearly all of the new regiments arriving at that time its
operations were confined mainly to trench warfare.
Trench warfare continued until July 6, when the men got their real
baptism of fire in a section of the Argonne and were in all the
important engagements of their portion of the Champagne and other
fronts, fighting almost continuously from the middle of July until the
close of the war, covering themselves with a distinction and glory, as
Knights in the warfare for Mankind, that will endure as long as the
story of valorous deeds are recorded.
Like the other regiments of the 93rd Division, the 370th was brigaded
with the French; first with the 73rd French Division and later under
direct command of General Vincendon of the 59th Division, a part of the
famous 10th French army under General Mangin. Shortly after the signing
of the armistice, the division commander sent the regiment the following
communication:
Officers, non-commissioned officers and men:
Your efforts have been rewarded. The armistice is signed. The
troops of the Entente to whom the armies of the American Republic
have nobly come to join themselves, have vanquished the most
powerful instrument of conquest that a nation could forge--the
haughty German Army acknowledges itself conquered. However hard our
conditions are, the enemy government has accepted them all.
The 370th R.I.U.S. has contributed largely to the success of the
59th Division, and has taken in bitter strife both cannon and
machine guns. Its units, fired by a noble ardor, got at times even
beyond the objectives given them by the higher command; they have
always wished to be in the front line, for the place of honor is
the leading rank.
They have shown in our advance that they are worthy of being there.
VINCENDON.
"Black Devils" was the name the Prussian Guard who faced them gave to
the men of the 370th. Their French comrades called them "The
Partridges," probably on account of their cockiness in action (a cock
partridge is very game), and their smart, prideful appearance on parade.
A general outline of the service of the Illinois men after coming out of
the trenches, as well as an illustration of the affection and high
appreciation in which they were held by the French, is contained in the
following order issued by General Vincendon in December:
Officers and soldiers of the 370th R.I.U.S.:
You are leaving us. The impossibility at this time that the German
Army can recover from its defeat, the necessity which is imposed on
the people of the Entente of taking up again a normal life, leads
the United States to diminish its effectiveness in France. You are
chosen to be among the first to return to America. In the name of
your comrades of the 59th Division I say to you, au revoir. In the
name of France, I thank you.
The hard and brilliant battles of Chavigny, Leury and the Bois de
Beaumont having reduced the effectiveness of the division, the
American government generously put your regiment at the disposition
of the French High Command. In order to reinforce us, you arrived
from the trenches of the Argonne.
We at first, at Mareuil Sur Ourcq, in September, admired your fine
appearance under arms, the precision of your review and the
suppleness of your evolutions that presented to the eye the
appearance of silk unrolling in wavy folds. We advanced to the
line. Fate placed you on the banks of the Ailette in front of the
Bois Mortier. October 12 you occupied the enemy trenches at Acier
and Brouze. On the 13th we reached the railroad of Laon le Fere;
the forest of Saint Gobain, the principal center of resistance of
the Hindenburg line was ours.
November 5th the Serre was at last crossed and the pursuit became
active. Major Prout's battalion distinguished Itself at the Val St.
Pierre, where it captured a German battery. Major Patton's
battalion was first to cross the Hirson railroad at the heights of
Aubenton, where the Germans tried to resist. Duncan's battalion
took Logny and, carried away by their ardor, could not be stopped
short of Gue d' Hossus on November 11th, after the armistice. We
have hardly time to appreciate you and already you depart.
As Lieut. Colonel Duncan said November 28, in offering to me your
regimental colors as proof of your love for France and as an
expression of your loyalty to the 59th Division and our Army, you
have given us of your best and you have given it out of the
fullness of your hearts.
The blood of your comrades who fell on the soil of France mixed
with the blood of our soldiers, renders indissoluble the bonds of
affection that unite us. We have, besides, the pride of having
worked together at a magnificent task, and the pride of bearing on
our foreheads the ray of a common grandeur.
VINCENDON.
[Illustration: This is a facsimile reproduction of the original, printed
hurriedly near the field of battle and also translated hurriedly without
eliminating errors. Corrected on page 155.]
To the 370th belongs the honor of the absolutely last engagement of the
war. An objective had been set for the regiment on the morning of
November 11th. General Vincendon heard of the hour at which hostilities
were to end and sent an order to the regiment to shorten its objective.
The order failed to arrive in time and ten minutes after the fighting
was over Lieut. Colonel Duncan led the third battalion over the German
line and captured a train of fifty wagons. General Vincendon said:
"Colonel Duncan is the hardest man to stop fighting I ever saw. He
doesn't know when to quit."
One of the most daring exploits by a member of the regiment was that
performed by Sergeant Matthew Jenkins, a Chicago boy and member of
Company F. On September 20, at Mont des Singes, he went ahead of his
comrades and captured from the Boche a fortified tunnel which by aid of
his platoon was held for thirty-six hours without food or ammunition,
making use of the enemy machine gun and munitions until relieved. This
gained for Sergeant Jenkins the Croix de Guerre with Palm and the
Distinguished Service Cross.
A deed of remarkable bravery accompanied by clever strategy was
performed by Captain Chester Sanders and twenty men mostly of Company F.
It won decorations for three and the unbounded admiration of the French.
Captain Sanders and his men offered themselves as sacrifices in an
effort to draw the fire of about a dozen German machine guns which had
been working havoc among the Americans and French. The Illinois men ran
into the middle of a road knowing they were under German observation.
Instantly the Germans, suspecting a raid on their lines, opened fire on
the underbrush by the roadside, figuring the Americans would take refuge
there. Instead they kept right in the center of the road and few were
wounded. The ruse had revealed the whereabouts of the German guns, and a
short time later they were wiped out by French artillery.
Another hero of Company F was Lieutenant Harvey J. Taylor, who found
himself in a nest of machine guns on July 16 in the western part of the
Argonne forest. He received wounds in both legs, a bullet through one
arm, a bullet in his side, had a front tooth knocked out by a bullet and
received a ruptured ear drum by another. After all this he was back in
the lines October 24th at Soissons. The Germans were making a counter
attack that day and when the battling colored men needed supplies,
Lieutenant Taylor, who was regimental signal officer, proceeded to get
the supplies to them, though he had to pass through a German barrage. He
was badly gassed. He received the Croix de Guerre with a special
citation.
Lieutenant Elmer D. Maxwell won his Cross in the Champagne, six miles
northwest of Laon. He led a platoon of men against a nest of machine
guns, taking four guns and eighteen prisoners, not to speak of leaving
behind a number of Germans who were not in a condition to be taken
prisoner.
Many of the officers of the regiment were wounded. The escape of many
from death, considering the continuous fighting and unusual perils
through which they passed, was miraculous. The only officer who made the
supreme sacrifice was Lieutenant George L. Giles of 3833 Calumet Avenue,
Chicago. He was the victim of a direct hit by a shell at Grandlut on
November 1 while he was heroically getting his men into shelter. Lieut.
Giles was very popular with the men and with his brother officers. He
was popular among the members of the race section in which he lived in
Chicago, and was regarded as a young man of great promise.
One of the engagements of the first battalion that received more than
honorable mention was on the morning of November 6th, when the battalion
crossed the Hindenburg line and after extremely hard fighting captured
on St. Pierre Mont, three 77 guns and two machine guns. Captain James H.
Smith of 3267 Vernon Avenue, Chicago, commanded the company, and
Lieutenant Samuel S. Gordon of 3842 Prairie Avenue, Chicago, the assault
forces making the capture. The battalion continued across the Serre
river and when the armistice was signed was at a small place in Belgium.
Several of the officers passed through practically all of the fighting
with hardly a scratch, only to be taken ill at the finish and invalided
home. These men would have been greatly disappointed had the war
continued after they were put out of action. Conspicuous among them was
Lieutenant Robert A. Ward of 3728 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago, of the
Trench Mortar platoon; Lieutenant Benjamin A. Browning of 4438 Prairie
Avenue, Chicago, and Lieutenant Joseph R. Wheeler, 3013 Prairie Avenue,
Chicago.
Major Rufus Stokes led the first battalion on the initial raid at
Vauquois. They fired 300 shells from six trench mortars and scored a
notable success. In that raid Private William Morris of Chicago, the
only man in the regiment who was captured by the Germans, was taken. He
was reported missing at the time, but weeks later his picture was found
among a group of prisoners portrayed in a German illustrated newspaper
found in a captured dugout.
Three men were killed and a large number of others had a miraculous
escape while entering Laon a few days prior to November 1st. A German
time mine exploded tearing up a section of railroad track, hurling the
heavy rails into the air, where they spun around or flew like so many
arrows.
First Lieutenant William J. Warfield, regimental supply officer, a
Chicago man, won the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary
heroism in action near Ferme de la Riviere, September 28th.
Sergeant Norman Henry of the Machine Gun company, whose home is in
Chicago, won the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism
in action near Ferme de la Riviere, September 30th.
Other members of the regiment upon whom the D.S.C. was conferred by
General Pershing were:
Captain William B. Crawford, home address, Denison, Texas; for
extraordinary heroism in action at Ferme de la Riviere, September 30th.
Sergeant Ralph Gibson, Company H, a Chicago man; for extraordinary
heroism at Beaume, November 8th.
Sergeant Charles T. Monroe, Headquarters Company; for extraordinary
heroism in action at Mont de Singes, September 24th. His home is at
Senrog, Va.
Sergeant Emmett Thompson, Company L, home in Quincy, Illinois; for
extraordinary heroism at Mont de Singes, September 20th.
Supply Sergeant Lester Fossie, Company M, home at Metropolis, Illinois;
for extraordinary heroism at Ferme de la Riviere, October 5th.
Private Tom Powell, deceased, Company H; for extraordinary heroism near
Beaume, November 8th.
Private Spirley Irby, Company H, home at Blackstone, Va.; for
extraordinary heroism in action at Beaume, November 8th.
Private Alfred Williamson, medical detachment, home at San Diego,
California; for extraordinary heroism in action near Beaume, November
8th.
Private William G. Hurdle, Machine Gun Company No. 3, home at Drivers,
Va.; for extraordinary heroism in action at Ferme la Folie, September
30th.
Private Harry Pearson, Machine Gun company No. 3, home at Portland,
Oregon; for extraordinary heroism in action near Ferme la Folie,
September 30th.
Private Alonzo Walton, Machine Gun Company No. 3, home at Normal,
Illinois; for extraordinary heroism in action at Rue Lamcher and Pont
D'Amy, November 7th and 9th.
Private Leroy Davis, Company L, home at Huntsville, Missouri; for
extraordinary heroism in action at Mont de Singes, September 18th.
[Illustration: NEGRO WARRIORS ADMINISTERING COLD STEEL. GERMANS UNABLE
TO STAND THE ATTACK. SURRENDERING. IN THE ARGONNE FOREST FRANCE.]
About fifty percent of the 370th met casualties of some sort during
their service in France. Like the New York regiment heretofore
mentioned, they were singularly free from disease. Only 65 men and one
officer were killed in action and about thirty died from wounds. The
total number wounded and missing was 483. Probably 1,000 men were gassed
and incapacitated at times, as the regiment had three replacements,
necessary to make up its losses. The regiment went to France with
approximately 2,500 men from Chicago and Illinois, and came back with
1,260. Of course, many of the wounded, sick and severely gassed were
invalided home or came back as parts of casual companies formed at
hospital bases. The replacement troops which went into the regiment were
mostly from the Southern states. A few of the colored officers assigned
to the regiment after its arrival in France, were men from the officers
training camps in this country and France.
The 370th boasted of the only race court martial in the army. There were
thirteen members, Lieutenant Colonel Duncan presiding. Captain Louis E.
Johnson was the judge advocate, and Lieutenant Washington was his
assistant. It is not of record that the findings of the court martial
were criticized. At least there was no scandal as there was concerning
court martial proceedings in other divisions of the army. The fact is
that there was very little occasion for court martialing among the men
of the 370th. The behavior of the men was uniformly good, as is attested
by the fact that every town mayor in France where the men passed through
or were billeted, complimented the officers on the splendid discipline
and good behavior shown.
Colonel Roberts, a veteran cavalryman, was very fond of his men. He has
repeatedly paid them the highest compliments, not only for their valor
and soldierly qualities, but for their quick intelligence, amenity to
discipline, and for the clean living which made them so remarkably free
from disease. He has stated that he would not know where to select a
better group of men for everything that goes to make up efficient,
dependable soldiers. Colonel Roberts received the Croix de Guerre, with
the following citation:
"A commander entirely devoted to duty, he succeeded by dint of working
day and night in holding with his regiment a difficult sector, though
the officers and men were without experience, under heavy shelling. He
personally took charge of a battalion on the front line on October 12
and led it to the objectives assigned by the crossing of the Ailette
canal."
American historians may not give the Negro fighters the place to which
their records entitle them; that remains to be seen. From the testimony
of French commanders, however, it is evident that the pages of French
history will not be printed unless they contain the valiant, patriotic,
heroic deeds of the Illinois and New York regiments with their comrades
of the 93rd and 92nd Divisions.
In the various sectors to which they were assigned, they were in
virtually every important fight. They met the flower of the Kaiser's
forces, held them and on more than one occasion made them retreat. The
Hun had misjudged them and it was fortunate that he had. They endured
their share of hardship, marching many weary miles, day after day,
without sufficient food. Nothing could affect their spirit and dash.
When the call came, they went over the top, that the world might be made
safe for democracy.
Among the officers and men of the 370th were represented about every
calling in which the Negro of this day engages. There were men of
professional pursuits; lawyers, doctors and teachers; students,
mechanics, business men, farmers and laborers. The poet of the regiment
was Lieutenant Blaine G. Alston. The following little poem, if properly
digested and understood, tells volumes within itself:
"OVER THERE"
Did you ever hear a bullet whiz,
Or dodge a hand grenade?
Have you watched long lines of trenches dug
By doughboys with a spade?
Have you seen the landscape lighted up
At midnight by a shell?
Have you seen a hillside blazing forth
Like a furnace room in hell?
Have you stayed all night in a ruined town
With a rafter for a bed?
With horses stamping underneath
In the morning when they are fed?
Have you heard the crump-crump whistle?
Do you know the dud shell's grunt?
Have you played rat in a dugout?--
Then you have surely seen the front.
--Lieut. Blaine G. Alston, 370th U.8. Troops.