QUIET HEROES OF THE BRAWNY ARM
NEGRO STEVEDORE, PIONEER AND LABOR UNITS--SWUNG THE AXE AND TURNED THE
WHEEL--THEY WERE INDISPENSABLE--EVERYWHERE IN FRANCE--HEWERS OF WOOD,
DRAWERS OF WATER--NUMBERS AND DESIGNATIONS OF UNITS--ACQUIRED SPLENDID
REPUTATION--CONTESTS AND AWARDS--PRIDE IN THEIR SERVICE--MEASURED UP TO
MILITARY STANDARDS--LESTER WALTONS APPRECIATION--ELLA WHEELER WILCOX'S
POETIC TRIBUTE.
Some went forth to fight, to win deathless fame or the heroes' crown of
death in battle. There were some who remained to be hewers of wood and
drawers of water. Which performed the greater service?
For the direct uplift and advancement of his race; for the improved
standing gained for it in the eyes of other races, the heroism, and
steadfastness and the splendid soldierly qualities exhibited by the
Negro fighting man, were of immeasurable benefit. Those were the things
which the world heard about, the exemplifications of the great modern
forces and factors of publicity and advertising. In the doing of their
"bit" so faithfully and capably, the Negro combatant forces won just
title to all the praise and renown which they have received. Their
contribution to the cause of liberty and democracy, cannot be
discounted; will shine through the ages, and through the ages grow
brighter.
But their contribution as fighting men to the cause of Justice and
Humanity was no greater, in a sense than that of their brethren:
"Unwept, unhonored and unsung," who toiled back of the lines that those
at the front might have subsistence and the sinews of conflict.
The most indispensable cog in the great machine which existed behind
the lines, was the stevedore regiments, the butcher companies, the
engineer, labor and Pioneer battalions, nearly all incorporated in that
department of the army technically designated as the S.O.S. (Service of
Supply). In the main these were blacks. Every Negro who served in the
combatant forces could have been dispensed with. They would have been
missed, truly; but there were enough white men to take their places if
necessary. But how seriously handicapped would the Expeditionary forces
have been without the great army of Negroes, numbering over 100,000 in
France, with thousands more in this country designed for the same
service; who unloaded the ships, felled the trees, built the railroad
grades and laid the tracks; erected the warehouses, fed the fires which
turned the wheels; cared for the horses and mules and did the million
and one things, which Negro brawn and Negro willingness does so
acceptably.
Theirs not to seek "the bubble reputation at the cannon's mouth," that
great composed, uncomplaining body of men; content simply to wear the
uniform and to know that their toil was contributing to a result just as
important as the work of anyone in the army. Did they wish to fight?
They did; just as ardently as any man who carried a rifle, served a
machine gun or a field piece. But some must cut wood and eat of humble
bread, and there came in those great qualities of patience and
resignation which makes of the Negro so dependable an asset in all such
emergencies.
How shall we describe their chronology or write their log? They were
everywhere in France where they were needed. As one officer expressed
it, at one time it looked as though they would chop down all the trees
in that country. Their units and designations were changed. They were
shifted from place to place so often and given such a variety of duties
it would take a most active historian to follow them. In the maze of
data in the War Department at Washington, it would take months to
separate and give an adequate account of their operations.
[Illustration: BACK WITH THE HEROIC 15TH (369TH INFANTRY). LIEUT. JAMES
REESE EUROPE'S FAMOUS BAND PARADING UP LENOX AVENUE, HARLEM, NEW YORK
CITY. LIEUT. EUROPE SPECIALLY ENLARGED IN LEFT FOREGROUND.]
[Illustration: SERGEANT HENRY JOHNSON (STANDING WITH FLOWERS), NEGRO
HERO OF 369TH INFANTRY. IN NEW YORK PARADE. HE WAS THE FIRST SOLDIER OF
ANY RACE IN THE AMERICAN ARMY TO RECEIVE THE CROIX DE GUERRE WITH PALM.
NEEDHAM ROBERTS, HIS FIGHTING COMPANION, IN INSET.]
[Illustration: RETURNING FROM THE WAR. MUSICIANS OF 365TH INFANTRY
LEADING PARADE OF THE REGIMENT IN MICHIGAN BOULEVARD. CHICAGO.]
[Illustration: SOLDIERS OF 365TH INFANTRY MARCHING DOWN MICHIGAN
BOULEVARD. CHICAGO. THIS REGIMENT WAS PART OF THE CELEBRATED 92ND
DIVISION OF SELECTIVE DRAFT MEN.]
[Illustration: THE SEVEN AGES OF MEN. CURBSTONE GROUPS IN NEW YORK
LINED UP TO GIVE THE HEROES WELCOME. THE SCENES WERE TYPICAL OF MANY IN
CITIES AND TOWNS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY.]
[Illustration: COLONEL FRANKLIN A. DENISON, FORMER COMMANDER OF 8TH
ILLINOIS (370TH INFANTRY), INVALIDED HOME FROM FRANCE JULY 12, 1918.]
[Illustration: FIRST COMMANDER OF THE 8TH ILLINOIS INFANTRY, COLONEL
JOHN R. MARSHALL, WHO INCREASED THE ORGANIZATION FROM A BATTALION TO A
REGIMENT, EVERY OFFICER AND MAN A NEGRO. UNDER COL. MARSHALL THE
REGIMENT SAW DISTINGUISHED SERVICE IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.]
[Illustration: FORMER OFFICERS OF 370TH INFANTRY (OLD 8TH). LEFT,
COLONEL FRANKLIN A. DENISON, COMMANDER UNTIL JULY, 1918; CENTER, COLONEL
T.A. ROBERTS (WHITE). SUCCEEDING COMMANDER; RIGHT, LIEUT. COLONEL OTIS
B. DUNCAN. APPOINTED COLONEL TO SUCCEED COLONEL T.A. ROBERTS.]
[Illustration: CROWD ON THE LAKE FRONT IN CHICAGO ALMOST SMOTHERS
RETURNING SOLDIERS OF "FIGHTING 8TH" (370TH INFANTRY).]
It is known that a contingent of them accompanied the very first forces
that went abroad from this country. In fact, it may be said, that the
feet of American Negroes were among the first in our forces to touch the
soil of France. It is known that they numbered at least 136 different
companies, battalions and regiments in France. If there were more, the
records at Washington had not sufficiently catalogued them up to the
early part of 1919 to say who they were.
In the desire to get soldiers abroad in 1918, the policy of the
administration and the Department seems to have been to make details and
bookkeeping a secondary consideration. The names of all, their
organizations and officers were faithfully kept, but distinctions
between whites and blacks were very obscure. Until the complete
historical records of the Government are compiled, it will be impossible
to separate them with accuracy.
Negro non-combatant forces in France at the end of the war included the
301st, 302nd and 303rd Stevedore Regiments and the 701st and 702nd
Stevedor Battalions; the 322nd and 363rd Butchery Companies; Engineer
Service battalions numbered from 505 to 550, inclusive; Labor battalions
numbered from 304 to 348, inclusive, also Labor battalion 357; Labor
companies numbered from 301 to 324, inclusive; Pioneer Infantry
regiments numbered 801, 809, 811, 813, 815 and 816, inclusive. These
organizations known as Pioneers, had some of the functions of infantry,
some of those of engineers and some of those of labor units. They were
prepared to exercise all three, but in France they were called upon to
act principally as modified engineering and labor outfits. They also
furnished replacement troops for some of the combatant units.
Service was of the dull routine void of the spectacular, and has never
been sufficiently appreciated. In our enthusiasm over their fighting
brothers we should not overlook nor underestimate these. There were many
thousands of white engineers and Service of Supply men in general, but
their operations were mostly removed from the base ports.
Necessity for the work was imperative. Owing to the requirements of the
British army, the Americans could not use the English Channel ports.
They were obliged to land on the west and south coasts of France, where
dock facilities were pitifully inadequate. Railway facilities from the
ports to the interior were also inadequate. The American Expeditionary
Forces not only enlarged every dock and increased the facilities of
every harbor, but they built railways and equipped them with American
locomotives and cars and manned them with American crews.
Great warehouses were built as well as barracks, cantonments and
hospitals. Without these facilities the army would have been utterly
useless. Negroes did the bulk of the work. They were an indispensable
wheel in the machinery, without which all would have been chaos or
inaction.
Headquarters of the Service of Supply was at Tours. It was the great
assembling and distributing point. At that point and at the base ports
of Brest, Bordeaux, St. Nazaire and La Pallice most of the Negro Service
of Supply organizations were located. The French railroads and the
specially constructed American lines ran from the base ports and
centered at Tours.
This great industrial army was under strict military regulations. Every
man was a soldier, wore the uniform and was under commissioned and
non-commissioned officers the same as any combatant branch of the
service.
The Negro Service of Supply men acquired a great reputation in the
various activities to which they were assigned, especially for
efficiency and celerity in unloading ships and handling the vast cargoes
of materials and supplies of every sort at the base ports. They were a
marvel to the French and astonished not a few of the officers of our own
army. They sang and joked at their work. The military authorities had
bands to entertain them and stimulate them to greater efforts when some
particularly urgent task was to be done. Contests and friendly rivalries
were also introduced to speed up the work.
The contests were grouped under the general heading of "A Race to
Berlin" and were conducted principally among the stevedores. Prizes,
decorations and banners were offered as an incentive to effort in the
contests. The name, however, was more productive of results than
anything else. The men felt that it really was a race to Berlin and that
they were the runners up of the boys at the front.
Ceremonies accompanying the awards were quite elaborate and impressive.
The victors were feasted and serenaded. Many a stevedore is wearing a
medal won in one of these conquests of which he is as proud, and justly
so, as though it were a Croix de Guerre or a Distinguished Service
Cross. Many a unit is as proud of its banner as though it were won in
battle.
Thousands of Service of Supply men remained with the American Army of
Occupation after the war; that is, they occupied the same relative
position as during hostilities--behind the lines. The Army of Occupation
required food and supplies, and the duty of getting them into Germany
devolved largely upon the American Negro.
Large numbers of them were stationed at Toul, Verdun, Epernay, St.
Mihiel, Fismes and the Argonne, where millions of dollars worth of
stores of all kinds were salvaged and guarded by them. So many were left
behind and so important was their work, that the Negro Y.M.C.A. sent
fifteen additional canteen workers to France weeks after the signing of
the armistice, as the stay of the Service of Supply men was to be
indefinitely prolonged.
The Rev. D.L. Ferguson, of Louisville, Ky., who for more than a year was
stationed at St. Nazaire as a Y.M.C.A. worker, and became a great
favorite with the men, says that during the war they took great pride in
their companies, their camps, and all that belonged to the army; that
because their work was always emphasized by the officers as being
essential to the boys in the trenches, the term "stevedore" became one
of dignity as representing part of a great American Army.
How splendidly the stevedores and others measured up to military
standards and the great affection with which their officers regarded
them, Rev. Dr. Ferguson makes apparent by quoting Colonel C.E. Goodwin,
who for over a year was in charge of the largest camp of Negro Service
of Supply men in France. In a letter to Rev. Dr. Ferguson he said:
"It is with many keen thrusts of sorrow that I am obliged to leave
this camp and the men who have made up this organization. The men
for whose uplift you are working have not only gained, but have
truly earned a large place in my heart, and I will always cherish a
loving memory of the men of this wonderful organization which I
have had the honor and privilege to command."
Lester A. Walton, who went abroad as a correspondent for the New York
Age, thus commented on the stevedores and others of the same service:
"I had the pleasure and honor to shake hands with hundreds of
colored stevedores and engineers while in France. The majority were
from the South, where there is a friendly, warm sun many months of
the year. When I talked with them no sun of any kind had greeted
them for weeks. It was the rainy season when a clear sky is a
rarity and a downpour of rain is a daily occurrence. Yet, there was
not one word of complaint heard, for they were 'doing their bit' as
expected of real soldiers. Naturally they expressed a desire to get
home soon, but this was a wish I often heard made by a doughboy.
"Members of the 'S.O.S.' will not came back to America wearing the
Distinguished Service Cross or the Croix de Guerre for exceptional
gallantry under fire, but the history of the great world war would
be incomplete and lacking in authenticity if writers failed to tell
of the bloodless deeds of heroism performed by non-combatant
members of the American Expeditionary Forces."
During the summer of 1918, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, the poetess, went to
France to write and also to help entertain the soldiers with talks and
recitations. While at one of the large camps in Southern France, the
important work of the colored stevedore came to her notice and she was
moved to write a poem which follows:
THE STEVEDORES
We are the Army Stevedores, lusty and virile and strong.
We are given the hardest work of the war, and the hours are long.
We handle the heavy boxes and shovel the dirty coal;
While soldiers and sailors work in the light, we burrow below like a mole.
But somebody has to do this work or the soldiers could not fight!
And whatever work is given a man is good if he does it right.
We are the Army Stevedores, and we are volunteers.
We did not wait for the draft to come, and put aside our fears.
We flung them away to the winds of fate at the very first call of our land.
And each of us offered a willing heart, and the strength of a brawny hand.
We are the Army Stevedores, and work we must and may,
The cross of honor will never be ours to proudly wear and sway.
But the men at the front could not be there, and the battles could not be won.
If the stevedores stopped in their dull routine and left their work undone.
Somebody has to do this work; be glad that it isn't you.
We are the Army Stevedores--give us our due.