HEADQUARTERS, FIRST ARMY,
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF SALVAGE OFFICER.
December 17, 1918.
_From:_ Chief Salvage Officer, First Army.
_To:_ Colonel C. B. Humphrey, Commanding Officer, 805th Pioneer
Infantry.
_Subject:_ Commendation.
1. I wish to express my appreciation of the very excellent work done
by you and your command, while I had charge of the Salvage Operations
in the Battle Area, First Army.
2. Your regiment by its intelligent co-operation and initiative has
been of the greatest assistance in carrying on operations, conducted
under very trying conditions.
JEREMIAH BEALL,
_Lieutenant Colonel, Ord. Dept.,
Chief Salvage Officer._
————————
HEADQUARTERS, 805TH PIONEER INFANTRY,
AMERICAN E. F.
January 17, 1919.
1. It is with pleasure that I publish herewith true copies of the
foregoing letters for the information of this command.
C. B. HUMPHREY,
_Colonel Infantry, U. S. A.,
Commanding._
Official:
PAUL S. BLISS,
_Capt. Inf., U. S. A., Adjutant._
The 805th had three men at the University of London during the
educational period, Sergeant Major Marriott, and Sergeants Walter
Powers and Leonard Barnett. This was another testimony to the worth of
its personnel.
The 806th formed at Camp Funston at about the same time as the 805th,
and the 815th and 816th, formed there later, were made up in much the
same way. Twelve hundred enlisted men of 158th Depot Brigade made the
foundation of the 802nd Pioneer Infantry, formed at Camp Sherman,
while other groups from the regular army were distributed through the
regiment.
The outstanding characteristic of these regiments was their rapid
mobilization and departure for France. Very brief, at best, was the
training they received in the American camps. In some instances it
was as highly intensive and thorough as time allowed. The great mass
of these men had known absolutely nothing of military life six weeks,
and, in some cases, three weeks, before taking transport for France.
But they went as others had gone, resolute and firm in faith. As they
sailed away, their folk knew that they had given the residue of their
strong young manhood. The last hope of the colored Americans had been
cheerfully placed upon the altar as their gift. It was their last grim
insistence on the triumph of the Great Cause for which the race stood
so desperately in need.
[Illustration: GROUP OF PIONEER INFANTRYMEN]
A wonderful sight were those convoys with their mighty hosts, as they
plowed their way across those three thousand miles of periled ocean!
More wonderful if we can really realize that for them death was ever
near, hiding its piratical and cruel head beneath the waves. Relative
to a voyage across at that time we quote from the history of one of the
regiments the following:
“At least once daily, and often three times, the bugle sounded ‘Boat
Call’ and thereupon everyone hurried to his assigned place. Fire
drills often accompanied boat drills.
“Each vessel bore a heavy gun astern and howitzers forward for firing
depth bombs. Details were told off to help serve the guns. During the
last four days out officers were posted alternately with enlisted men
on submarine lookout posts, so that there were five officers, and
five enlisted men continually on this duty in addition to the regular
guard.
“Portholes were closed at dusk throughout the entire voyage and no
smoking outside was permitted after dark. Silence on deck after dark
was also prescribed during the last four days. No bugle calls were
permitted during foggy weather.
“Good ships had gone down in the same area and there were times
when there was anxiety. Once a mine was sighted and passed at about
sixty feet. The matter was flashed to the destroyers who went to the
spot and dropped depth bombs. Two days out word was received that a
submarine had been sighted by a destroyer dead ahead. At the same
time the cruiser signalled and the whole convoy literally ‘went by
the left flank.’ From that time on the course was changed every few
minutes.”
So, not only that regiment but others crossed. And some others had far
more exciting and hazardous times fighting those German sea monsters.
On both sides of the Atlantic there was anxious waiting; and now and
then it was useless waiting, for as these brave sons journeyed across,
some found their graves in the deep gray fathomless deep. There white
crosses and poppies may not be found, but resting in that mysterious
sea world, new emblems of honor, beautiful and sparkling, will decorate
them for all time.
We were with the soldiers in France, cut off almost entirely from
the outer world. One morning the word was flashed through camp that
a whole regiment of Pioneer Infantry had arrived. “What are Pioneer
Infantries?” everyone asked. Many answers were volunteered but none
very satisfactory. This ignorance was not altogether our own fault. We
had heard no mention of pioneers in those first days of mobilization
before we left the United States. Our “continental editions” of the New
York _Herald_, London _Times_, and Chicago _Tribune_ were just about
as meagre of information as they were of size. True, friends sent us
magazines and papers, but in those days they rarely reached us. So we
asked—“What are Pioneer Infantries?”
All were quickly at work preparing to receive the newcomers. An
addition of three thousand men meant extra work. Reams of paper and
thousands of envelopes had to be prepared for easy distribution,
because writing material was the very first demand of the soldier
landing on foreign soil. Above all other pressing needs was the need to
write the folk back home that, “I got over all right.” Not only were
letters hurried home, but the hands of the Y folk were quickly filled
with messages to be cabled. Extra gallons of chocolate had to be made
and canteen supplies enlarged; special “information bureaus” set up;
money made ready for exchange and other details arranged for prompt
service.
But as we worked we also wondered about these new soldiers. The word
“pioneer” embodied a wealth of courage and daring, so that long before
the 807th rushed our hut that September afternoon, we had woven about
them all the wonderful dreams of their achievements at the front that
it is possible for a woman’s fancy to fashion. And, although they never
had all the chance we had dreamed for them, they did not fail us.
Wherever an opportunity challenged them, they triumphantly answered it,
as attested below:
HEADQUARTERS, 807TH PIONEER INFANTRY,
M. T. C. RECEPTION PARK, 714,
Bourg (Haute Marne), France.
A. P. O. 714.
April 26, 1919.
General Orders No. 2.
1. The commanding officer takes pleasure in publishing to the command
the following letters received from General Headquarters, American
Expeditionary Forces, relative to participations of the 807th Pioneer
Infantry in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. It is desired that this
order be published to all troops, and that proper recognition of the
same be made on all records pertaining thereto. It is the intention
of the Commanding Officer to present this ribbon when the regiment
has again assembled. Service ribbons as prescribed, will be forwarded
as soon as received.
————————
France, April 19, 1919.
_From:_ The Adjutant General, American 3. 1.
_To:_ Commanding Officer 807th, Pioneer Infantry.
_Subject:_ Ribbons.
1. Herewith is a copy of the order issued at these Headquarters
on the subject of the award of silver bands to be engraved and
placed upon the Pike of Colors of Lance of the standards of the
organizations which have served in the A. E. F.; even if we get here
in France the prescribed silver bands, it would be impossible to have
the engraving done in time to present them to the divisions entitled
to them. For that reason each organization is given a ribbon which
shows which battle it participated in. This ribbon will be retained
until the proper silver band is presented by the War Department.
2. The Commander in Chief directs me to send the ribbons to you, and
to ask you to present them with appropriate ceremonies to the units
for which they are intended. He regrets that this cannot be done by
him in person.
By Command of GENERAL PERSHING.
J. A. JONES.
————————
France, April 19, 1919.
_From:_ Commander-in-Chief, American E. F.
_To:_ Commanding Officer 807th, Pioneer Infantry
_Subject:_ Battle Participation.
1. Following is a list of battle engagements of the 807th Pioneer
Infantry Regiment, during the War with Germany, including
organizations which are entitled to the silver bands awarded under
paragraph 244, Army Regulations. The ribbons furnished herewith are
in lieu of the bands which will be supplied by the Adjutant General
of the Army later.
(1) Meuse-Argonne Offensive, France, October 25 to November 11, 1918.
Organization entitled to silver band: 807th Regiment of Pioneer
Infantry.
By Command of GENERAL PERSHING.
J. A. JONES,
_Adjutant General_.
By Order of COLONEL CARY.
CHARLES W. ROOTH,
_Captain, 807th Pioneer Infantry,
Acting Adjutant_.
Somehow it seemed difficult for the above regiment and others, whom we
questioned from time to time, to know just why they had been honored
with their name. Many of them had the high hope at first, as one fine
soldier expressed it, that they were to be trained into the highest
type of combatant troops, who were to clear the way to victory. Their
record is abundant proof that they did clear the way to victory, but
it was hardly as combatant troops that they won their honors. Although
sharing the general hardships of the front, subjected to its shot and
shell, they had small chance for real fighting. When the Armistice came
several of these regiments had reached the trenches, and with another
week of war, their story would have been a very different one.
Most of these regiments as they reached France, were forwarded to the
Haute-Marne Training Area where they were given short but strenuous
instructions in French warfare. From there they were again sent
forward, this time to the aid of the various fighting detachments.
A notable exception to this general disposition of these Pioneer
Regiments was the 809th—a sturdy set of lads from the Middle and
Northwest. They arrived in France in early October, and almost
immediately were ordered to the front. Investigation showed that this
regiment had been formed about the first of September, sailed the 21st
of the same month, and that most of the men knew very little about
handling a rifle. The order was revoked and the regiment kept in the
rear, most of them being sent to Nantes, where they remained until
the following summer. And yet this regiment had a larger percent of
professional men and skilled artisans in their ranks than most of the
others. Three of the nine who went to the University of London were
from this organization. Howard Drew, the world-champion at a hundred
yards, Dismukes, Lyons, Malacher and Charleston of baseball fame were
a part of it. Lionel Artis, now Y. M. C. A. Secretary at Indianapolis
was one of its fine Regimental Sergeant Majors. An officer admitted
to the men that he had been requested to recommend some of them for
commissions, but preferred to keep them to build up the regiment.
[Illustration: Pioneer Infantrymen
Sergeants Baylis, Coleman and Freeman. Sergeant Majors Long, Armstead
and Clifford. Sergeants Carr and Johnson.]
The experiences of these Pioneer regiments in France, related in
their own unique expressions, would make a volume of much historical
value, rich in humor and pathos. Each regiment held a certain pride
for outstanding qualities peculiar to itself. Very often we found
“silence golden” as we sat in the midst of heated discussions relative
to the merits of these various “8s,” as they were often called, because
the regiments ranged in number from 801 to 816. But we did learn
by personal contact that each organization had its own distinctive
fineness and fitness, and all who served these men in France will ever
count it one of their greatest privileges as welfare workers.
The first of these regiments to reach France was the 808th, which
landed at Brest September 7th, 1918. There were many men in this group
of superior intellect and character—Maurice Clifford, a teacher of the
High School, Washington, D. C., and son of Honorable and Mrs. William
H. Clifford, was one of its regimental sergeant majors; Cornelius
Dawson, graduate of Lincoln University, had left his theological course
at Philadelphia to join the ranks. Warwick Johnson of Virginia Union
University fame was one of them, along with hundreds of others of the
same type. These men were called to help the 12th Engineers in the
construction of a narrow gauge railway at the front. As they worked,
shot and shell rained over them. In their dugouts they were tortured
by rats and “cooties.” Small wonder that an officer who had observed
it all should have remarked: “We cannot understand their make-up,
for under hardest conditions they hold themselves together and are
able to raise a song.” It seems after all that only black folk can
interpret the “Souls of Black Folk.” We went to look for the “808”
at Dombasle where they had their headquarters so long after the war
ended. But they had entrained, and there was left only the dreary waste
and desolation, that swept unbroken over many a mile, to tell us the
terrible isolation they had suffered in France.
One of the men of the “813” said: “We endured all the hardships of
the front but missed the thing we wanted most—some real whacks at the
enemy.” This was no doubt true, for this regiment was really bombarded
from one front to the other until it reached St. Remy a few miles from
Metz. Then the order came to fight! It was two o’clock in the morning,
and at four they were moving forward. For two days they were under
constant fire. This regiment held itself with a justifiable pride.
Regimental Sergeant Major W. W. Tyler, fine in physique, intellect
and manners, was a fit leader and representative of the men under
him. Whether in field maneuvers under Sergeant Major Williams of the
24th Infantry, or in the office with men like Jay Dickinson, one was
conscious of the high intelligence of the soldiers of the “813th.” We
went one Sunday to visit some of this particular regiment. At that
time it had been distributed on the various battlefields to assemble
the American dead in cemeteries, and we were visiting the companies
at Belleau Wood and Fere-en-Tardenois, near Chateau Thierry. At
these places the men gathered in the huts to hear a word from the Y
secretaries. Each had received the hearty applause that only soldiers
know how to give. But there was one young lad in the party, formerly
a sergeant in the regiment, who had been released to the Y. M. C. A.
for service. It was when he modestly moved forward to say his word that
the men made the hut too small for their outburst. There were yells and
cries for “Sergeant Burwell! Burwell!” until, putting his hand to his
mouth, he yelled back, “Fellows, give me a chance!” He stood before
them with a wonderful light on his face, and drove home plain truths
about right living; he told them about those secret places of reward
for the hard things they were then doing. The men listened to him and
cheered, because they knew that he exemplified in his own life the
message he gave them.
The day was closing at Fere-en-Tardenois and we went to sit on a log
and eat supper out of a borrowed mess kit. It was then two of the
fellows said they wanted to tell us something. This is what they told
us. “We think you might be able to tell some of the Y men about our
condition here, and they could help change it. We find the French
villagers here have been told we are an aggregation of diseased men,
sent to dig these graves and bury the dead as a punishment!” It had
been a glorious day, full of the fun and joy to be found in the midst
of our young manhood, and we had realized all the delightful thrills of
being A. W. O. L. (absent without official leave). But now the cloud
came as it so often did in France. We looked out upon the war shattered
landscape about us, and wondered why the spirits of the thousands of
French, who had allowed themselves to be mowed down in that very place
rather than surrender the principles of right, did not rise up to
curse this awful wrong. With tears in our souls, but with brave eyes,
we talked to them. We did tell this case, but the soul that should have
been strong to vindicate them, proved but a weakling, and the young
Y man who made the attempt to help them, was not only thwarted, but
crushed for his effort.
Several of the Pioneer regiments touched foreign soil at Liverpool.
Some were held there for service as were some labor battalions. But
most of them crossed England to Southampton and landed at La Havre.
This was the route of the 802nd, who came largely from West Virginia,
Ohio and Pennsylvania. Making long and exhausting hikes, this regiment
also reached the First Army where it talked little and worked hard.
Says one of the men: “Our regiment was divided about October 1st into
three sections. The first battalion was given the task of helping
the engineers build a standard gauge railway from Aubreville to a
point north, half-way to Varennes—a distance of ten kilometers. The
second battalion was to connect up with the first battalion at this
point—thence northward five kilometers beyond Varennes. The third
battalion was given the task of furnishing rock from the stone quarries
for the repair of the highway. All this work was highly essential in
order to keep the firing line supplied with ammunition, rations, etc.
The conditions in the sector were at all times most trying. The men
were subjected to bombardment from enemy long range guns and aerial
attacks almost daily. But the railroad was completed in a short time,
and supplies were speeding up to the front for the final drive.”
November 18th, seven days after the Armistice was signed, the entire
802nd Pioneer Regiment was highly commended in general orders by the
Chief Engineer of the First American Army in which he declared their
services indispensable to the final drive. We must look behind this
record to the quiet, dignified, but wonderfully alert enlisted men who
made it. The ranking Regimental Sergeant Major, J. Emmet Armistead,
was not only an experienced army man of spotless record, cultured by
hard study and Old World travel, but a high type of Christian soldier.
Although still young, he carries the marks of Philippine fighting and
is an expert swimmer, horseman, marksman and athlete. But one learned
this only after many conversations and gentle probings. This spirit of
modesty went down through the regiment. We think of Sergeant Toney of
Ohio University, Sergeant Kenneth Pack of Virginia Union University,
and many others who made us conscious of the fineness of the regiment.
No two Pioneer regiments were quite so famed as hard workers and hard
fighters as the 801st and the 803rd. Both shared the toil and danger
of other regiments, but both seemed to have been determined to fight
for right treatment, although it meant continuous fighting. At Brest,
we saw evidence of the labors of the 801st in the transformation of
Pontanezen from a mudhole to the cleanest and most modern of camps.
These men came from Indiana and Kentucky, and the regiment was formed
at Camp Taylor, largely of the 157th and 159th Depot Brigades. The Y.
M. C. A. gained two secretaries from it, Sergeant Majors Eggleson and
Watkins, who gave fine service to their former comrades. Regimental
Sergeant Major U. S. Donaldson of this organization was among the
brightest and most popular of the soldier-students who went to the
British Universities.
Of all the Pioneer regiments, we knew the 803rd best—those “terrible”
Illinois lads, one thousand of whom came from Chicago. In fact they
were _our own_ regiment, for they christened us godmother with water
that flowed straight down from the far-famed Alps. It was for some of
the men of this regiment that we first cooked sausages and pancakes in
the Leave Area; for its band that we made our first ice cream there.
It was there that group after group told us of their lonely life at
St. Maurice, Vigneulies, and other points near Verdun. Afterward,
we were sent to serve them, but, alas, it was too late, as they had
entrained. However, we caught up with the whole regiment at Pontanezen,
and there, instead of our serving them, they served us. True, we gave
them ice cream, lemonade, cookies, “movies” and books. But whatever
of beauty and comfort came to the Y hut known as “Soldiers’ Rest” at
Camp Pontanezen, was largely due to the energy, time and money invested
by the 803rd in its remodeling. From Company M, with its wonderful
sergeants from the regular army, always alert to help us, we were
supplied the finest “detail” for work about the hut to be found in all
France. But the volunteer details were no less fine, and we can never
forget Taylor and James who constituted themselves our protectors as
well as hut carpenters.
[Illustration: MEN OF THE PIONEER INFANTRIES
1. Sergeant Sheridan. 2. Sergeant Roach. 3. Sergeant Chapman.
4. Sergeant Jeton. 5. Sergeant Dawnson. 6. Sergeant Gowdy. 7.
Sergeant-Major Hardy. 8. Sergeant-Major H. L. Coverdale with
Sergeants. 9. Sergeant Blackwell.]
We could fill a whole book with the names of men of this regiment
who throng our memory. There was Gowdy, Griffin, Williams, Jetton,
Sheridan, Harrison and Matthews all soldiers, but gentlemen first;
there was Curtis Kennedy, whose young face shone as he talked of his
wife, mother and baby back home; there was Sergeant Washington, who
knew so well the value of a balanced menu, and gave us our best mess in
France, then sailed away, leaving us to our leanest days. But memory
clings closest to the one, who in addition to the loneliness and
hardship of life at the front, had bitter gall sent him from home to
drink. For a time it seemed too much to endure, and he was ready for
the plunge of despair. Slowly but surely, we drew that man back from
the precipice, and lingered near till he was on sure ground, and the
strength of the real soldier had come once again into his veins. What
joy to know that for him there is still the grim determination to walk
the better way.
One afternoon, in our hut at the port, a whistle sounded and a sharp
command followed, “All men of the 804th report to their barracks at
once.” What did it matter that the most interesting pictures imaginable
were being passed over the screen! The “804th,” with its plenty of
brain and plenty of brawn—who had now and then sent an overbearing
military police into deep repose—the “804th,” with the isolations and
hardships of the front still haunting it, was going home that July
day. Oh, the gladness of them for this hard-earned reward! It was so
contagious that it filled not only their souls but those of their
comrades of other organizations, waiting for the same message.
Some one said that the order went forth, “only handsome men for the
806th.” Certain it was that everywhere they went in France one heard
their good looks mentioned. But it in no wise spoiled them for the
immense amount of work they did. At the front, at Montrichard, at
Orley, and last near Paris, where they helped to build the celebrated
Pershing Stadium, they carried themselves with honor. Many of the men
of this regiment, too, sought for training and commissions, but were
told that they were too badly needed by their regiment to encourage any
changes.
The “811th” and “814th” had their regiments split up from the beginning
and used at many points—chiefly in the S. O. S. We believe that some
companies of the “814th” saw service in England. These men were rushed
across the ocean at the last moment, but they did great service in
salvaging and reconstruction after the Armistice came. We recall an
amusing incident in connection with one company of the “814th.” It
had but recently reached our area, and was at mess in one of the huge
mess halls, constructed towards the end of the war. We were bravely
plunging through the deep mud so common to the camps in France,
and wearing high boots, the novelty of which had long since been
forgotten. We were startled by a sharp whistle, followed by the camp
expression—“Oo-la-la!” that brought men and mess kits to the doors and
windows. One exclaimed, “It’s a genuine brown!” while another in most
sympathetic voice added, “And it’s got on boots too!” For a moment
embarrassment swept over us, but we knew how genuine was the surprise
of colored soldiers at first sight of their own women in France,
so we laughed back and waved them a welcome to the Y hut. From the
“811th,” Sergeant Ulysses Young, and from the “814th,” Sergeant Everett
Brewington, were among those who went to King’s College in England.
We had been waiting among the ruins of Verdun a whole week, by order of
the Regional Secretary of the Y. M. C. A.; he was trying to convince
the colonel in charge of Camp Romagne that women would help to better
the conditions in that camp. But the colonel was not easily convinced.
He told us afterward, that it was not colored women, but just women
that he felt should not be with the soldiers in the camps. “War was
stern and men ought to be hard at such times.” He was not alone in this
opinion, for not only did colonels feel that way, but many soldiers and
welfare workers were of that opinion. However, we finally rode from
Verdun to Romagne in a wonderfully uncertain Ford, through thirty-six
kilometres of blinding dust that bit and stung for several days.
But it was all well worth while, for it gave us the chance to share
the life of the 815th and 816th Pioneers, with the labor battalions
who were there in the camp, and that of some of the companies of the
“813th” who came later.
We reached the camp on Mother’s Day, and as many of the men as could
crowd the “hanger,” as the tent auditorium was called, were there.
After a year among soldiers, we had become quite accustomed to
whistles, calls, applause and shouts; otherwise the noise occasioned by
a woman’s advent among the thousands of men, might have overwhelmed us,
and made it impossible to reach the rostrum.
The work of these stalwart California lads of the “815th,” and of the
“816th,” so many of whom came from the Central West, is told elsewhere
in the chapter Reburying of the Dead. Their record, with that of the
“813th,” and labor battalions who helped at the task, is the most
sacred of all the Pioneer regiments. They were “our boys” at Romagne,
and again at Brest! They were the very last of the Pioneers to reach
France and the last to reach America again. It was a picture to linger
in the memory, as with packs on back, bags in hand and heads erect,
we saw these men march at the dawn of the day out of the camp, down
the long dusty road, over the city streets to the waiting transports.
They were not permitted to look to the right or left, but as they
passed slowly by, a lifting of the eyes, a movement of the hand, or
in some small way, the women who had served them recognized through
tear-dimmed eyes a warm adieu.
Those Pioneer regiments, so quickly mobilized to meet an emergency,
were just as quickly demobilized with the return of the men to America.
But the strengthening and unifying processes through which they passed
as a result of the hard work, hard sacrifices, and in many cases, hard
treatment of the war, can never be demobilized. There will be little
whining from these men who are even yet Pioneers. But certain of their
power of achievement, keen and courageous for truth and justice, they
will hold fast to their vision of the future, and with strong, sure
hands, build toward that future.
——————————————————
Ye Queens, who bear the birth-pangs of a world,
To whom the nations in this hour of stress,
For succor look, and for the truth to bless,
Ye great, whose fondled darlings, combed and curled,
Are in the shell-torn, shamble-trenches hurled,
To stay the hellish Hun, who else would press,
The cup of degradation and distress,
To lips of men with freedom’s flag unfurled—
Ye valiant mother-band who gladly gave,
The first fruits of your riven wombs to save,
The world from horrors darker than the grave,
_Ye are the Brave_, who in your Country’s need
Did sow the trenches with your precious seed—
The greatest gift of war, and valor’s noblest deed.