No group of men had a deeper baptism of pain and loneliness in France
than the Corps of Engineers. Although classed as non-combatant troops,
they might, in an emergency, as at Chateau Thierry, become combatant.
There, in the crisis of a struggle, they dealt the German invaders the
decisive blow that not only sent them reeling to defeat, but caused the
world in general to attach a new importance and appreciation to the
work of the engineer.
The colored engineers, however, although sometimes trained with arms
in the United States were, for the most part, not permitted the use of
them in France. A corporal of the 546th Engineers writes, “Although
some of us worked quite close behind the lines, within range of shot
and shell, we did not see arms except such as lay discarded about the
woods and in the fields.”
There seems to have been little difference between the work done in
France by the colored Engineers and Pioneer Infantries. Both were
largely engaged in road building and general construction. However,
the non-commissioned officers of the Pioneers were largely, if not
entirely, colored and in many regiments, they retained their arms,
while the engineers were rarely accorded rank beyond that of corporal
and, as previously stated, rarely carried arms. But the colored
engineers were a part of that far-visioned phalanx of dark-skinned
men who went to France to fulfil a trust and who remained true to the
end.
[Illustration: An Engineers’ Camp in France. Representatives of the
Engineer Corps.]
Their work, too, was lightened by their ability to sing in the midst of
thunderous guns. Many of the war songs were made into parodies of the
shovel which the engineer jokingly made his emblem. The following is a
parody of the song, “Mother”:
=S= is for the soup they always give us
=H= is for the ham we never get;
=O= is for the onions in the gravy,
=V= is for the victory we’ll see yet.
=E= is for the end of our enlistment,
=L= is for the land we love so dear,
Put them altogether, they spell SHOVEL
The Emblem of the Engineer.
Wherever troops were fighting, the engineers could be found hard by and
their faithful and efficient service won for them praise. For instance,
the 37th who served as a part of a French Corps and afterwards with the
First American Army Corps was cited for the high efficiency of its work.
The 546th spent many months in various parts of the forest of the
Argonne and were also commended for their meritorious service; the same
might be said of the 505th and many others.
But viewing their record as a whole we might sum it up in the following
lines of Paul Laurence Dunbar:
Thou hast the right to noble pride
Whose spotless robes were purified
By blood’s severe baptism.
Upon thy brow the cross was laid,
And labor’s painful sweat beads made
A consecrating chrism.
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