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* By permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons.
The Combatant Troops
IT was our greatest hope, when we left that great city of the Middle West, in May, 1918, that we might have the privilege of serving those soldiers whom we had seen march proudly away about six months before, and entrain for the city of the South, there to prepare to take their part on the great western front, in the world’s greatest war. It was at once a joyous and heart-aching privilege to follow them from the spacious 8th Regiment Armory, through the penetrating breeze from Lake Michigan, in order that we might see them bid a last adieu to those who loved them most; the mothers, wives, and sweethearts who clung to the car windows and steps for a last tearful embrace, as the train prepared to move slowly away, bearing its burden of human freight, some of whom were not to return, but were to remain resting in those fields whose blood-red poppies seemed death’s perfect emblem of crimson beauty.
But failing to have the privilege of serving them, we desired in all earnestness of heart to serve whatever other colored regiments were marshaled in battle array against the foe; those who were facing the shot and shell; the poison gas and liquid flame; the bombs from above and the mines from beneath; who were struggling through barbed wire entanglements, and sleeping in trenches and dugouts; who were suffering in all possible ways from the wicked ingenuity of the Germans; who went for days without food and drink; and who offered themselves as a supreme sacrifice to help to make the world safe for democracy.
To these troops we owe much for our splendid record in the World War. They summoned with superhuman strength the courage to overcome the galling and heart-breaking discriminations which they had known before they crossed the seas; the open and public discussion as to whether colored men should be allowed to fight; the tragedy of Houston, and the resulting discouragement at Des Moines;[1] the impudence of the commanding officer at Camp Funston, and the pre-arranged and infamous plan to discredit colored officers on the battlefields; all this was sufficient to sap their very life blood before it had a chance to crimson the soil of Flanders Fields; and it was to these troops that we felt we owed all that could be given of service and devotion.
But we were not permitted to do this service for which we longed so much, and consequently our chapter on Combatant Troops must be a record of facts which we have gathered from officers and men of the different organizations who have so kindly and willingly come to our assistance. True, it is a brief record; the full record must be left to those who write the histories; but we hope it is quite sufficient to establish for all time the fact that these troops lived up to the full measure of their opportunity; that whether under white or colored leadership, they fought bravely and with undaunted courage; that their spirit of patience and long suffering enabled them to overcome even the battle of prejudice, which had followed them even into that war-torn country, and which at times was more ominous and terrible than any war-weary conflict; and finally that they won for themselves a crown whose glory and beauty will increase with the passing of the years.
COLORED OFFICERS AND THE 92nd DIVISION
The American colored men had very small opportunity to get training that would fit them for officers before going overseas; there was only one graduate of West Point available, Col. Charles Young, of Wilberforce, Ohio; unfortunately the army found him physically unfit, and retired him from active service just one day before a long list of brigadier generals was made, among whom he was sixth in line for promotion. He was finally called back into active service, and since the war has ended has been sent to Africa. A white colonel remarked in his introduction of Colonel Young to a large meeting held at St. Mark’s M. E. Church, 53rd Street, New York City, in December, 1919, and in the hearing of the writer, that it was very plain that the only reason why this dark-skinned military officer had been retired, was that the army did not want a black general.