Foch.
By order of Colonel Hayward:
T. A. Ryan,
1st Lt., 369th Infantry,
Acting Adjutant.
While the regiment embarked for France with five colored officers, it returned with only one, Lieutenant James Reese Europe, of the famous 15th Infantry Band. The others were transferred to other organizations under the peculiar system that was used for the purpose of moving colored officers about like checkers on a checker board. Captain Marshall was sent to the 365th Infantry, while the other three were attached to the 370th. Captain Fillmore was decorated with the Croix de Guerre before leaving the 369th, and Lieutenants Lacey and Reid after they became members of the regiment from Illinois, a proof that the French recognized their ability.
The regiment returned to the States on February 12, 1918. They had made a splendid record all through their period of service, and—in the words of a tribute paid by the new 15th Regiment to the old—they “Never lost a prisoner, a trench, nor a foot of ground, and demonstrated for all time the bravery of the American Negro, his high quality as a soldier, and his devotion to the cause of liberty.”
The City of New York gave them a tremendous, whole-hearted, and royal welcome, and the New York Herald republished in their honor the following poem from “The Black Phalanx,” composed by George Henry Boker:
THE BLACK REGIMENT
Dark as the clouds even,
Ranked in the western heaven,
Waiting the breath that lifts