On November 11, just before the signing of the Armistice, an enemy combat train of about fifty vehicles was captured, thus completing a record of continuous, difficult and vigorous warfare, every inch of the way from Antioch Farm, near the ruins of Vauxillion, to the Belgian border; Lieutenant Colonel Duncan won the name of the lieutenant colonel who would not stop fighting, because he led his troops into the Belgian Village of Gue D’Hossus, before he could be reached with the message that the Armistice had become effective.
The 370th Infantry carried with it a full staff of colored medical officers, composed of Major James R. White, in command, Captains Leonard W. Lewis, and Spencer Dickinson, and Lieutenants James F. Lawson, Dan M. Moore, Rufus Bacote, George W. Antoine, Claudius Ballard, and two dentists, Lieutenants Tancil and Roe.
With careful elimination of all soldiers who were not physically fit, the organization entered the service in excellent condition. During the winter of 1917 and 1918, much time was given by the medical department to the delivering of lectures, and a systematic course of training for the development of healthy and robust physiques was inaugurated. The result of this careful training was that only six men died of disease during the ten months in France, notwithstanding the fact that they suffered as many hardships and inconveniences as any other troops in the conflict. The medical detachment was composed also of 23 men, who were ever on the alert to give first aid to the wounded; because of this prompt attention on the battlefield there were only 96 out of the entire regiment who lost their lives. This, in addition to 425 who recovered from wounds, represents the entire list of casualties of the organization.
Major White was awarded the Croix de Guerre. In the words of the citation, “he visited daily the aid stations in the advanced area, and himself dressed many of the fallen men, thus giving to his subordinates the most noble example.”
Group of Officers of 8th Illinois (370th Inf.)
1. Capt. James H. Smith. 2. Lieut. Blaine G. Alston. 3. Lieut. George H. Murphy. 4. Capt. John H. Patton. 5. Lieut. William Andrews. 6. Lieut. A. Hugo Williams. 7. Lieut. George F. Proctor. 8. Lieut. Osceola A. Browning.
All told there were 33 officers and 57 men of this regiment who were awarded the Croix de Guerre, the Distinguished Service Cross, or both. Among the officers were Col. T. A. Roberts, Lieut. Col. Otis B. Duncan, Maj. James R. White, Captains Smith, Patton, Prout, Gwynne, Warner, Allen, Hall, Alexander, Jackson, Crawford, and Saunders; First Lieutenants Tancil, Browning, Lacey, Robinson, Ballard, Jackson, Warfield, Gordon, Hurd, Shelton and Lee; and Second Lieutenants Cheatham, Norvell, Tisdell, Painter, Price, Reid, and Jackson.
The colored soldiers were greatly loved by the French people, and while passing through the town of Laon, which had been in the hands of the Germans for four years, the French civilians knelt by the roadside and kissed the hands of the boys of the 370th Infantry, so grateful were they for their deliverance.
From the mayors of every village and town where the organization had any contact with the French people, they received testimonials setting forth their good behavior and splendid decorum; similar letters were secured with regard to our soldiers in nearly every section of France, and very frequently the writer was personally told that they were better behaved than the white soldiers; especially was this true in the Leave Area, where all army restrictions were removed; the absolute increase of disease among all of the colored troops was only 7 per cent., according to statistics from the surgeon general’s office, while among the white troops it was 88 per cent.; this in spite of the fact that a much larger per cent. of them were physically unfit when they entered the army; in the first draft 36 colored soldiers out of every hundred men were admitted, while there were only 24 out of every hundred white; this shows that there was more care exercised in getting in white men who were physically sound than there was for the colored. In the entire 92nd Division only one soldier was convicted of criminal assault; in fact the colored soldiers in all the organizations made such a splendid impression upon the French people that a recent issue of a widely published Paris paper asked that two million return to France, in order that they might assist them in building up their devastated regions, and become a part of their future civilization.