Sidelights on Negro Soldiers

by Charles H. Williams

The organization of the 92nd Division made it necessary to train Negroes in other branches of service than the infantry. The mere suggestion of Negro artillery regiments brought laughter from some old Army men, and even officers assigned to train the soldiers in this branch of the service were dubious as to their success. However, three artillery regiments were organized and the experiment proved a success. After seven months of hard work at Camps Dix and Meade these regiments were ready to sail to France, where they were to receive additional training before doing combat duty. Specialist details, composed of “non-coms,” were given intensive training, and before leaving the States they were able to calculate firing data, to use the various American optical instruments, to connect up and use the field telephones, to signal, and to perform efficiently the work connected with the occupation of a position.

In the three machine-gun battalions—the 349th, 350th, and 351st, trained at Camps Funston, Grant, and Upton respectively—it was found that Negroes immediately grasped the intricacies of the machine-gun and soon excelled in its mechanical manipulation. Ignorant men, those unable either to read or to write, could take apart and assemble every part of a gun to the minutest spring. As in other branches, they worked with a will to succeed, and learned map-reading, trench-digging, the use of dug-outs, and the construction of shafts and camouflaged machine-gun emplacements, all of which knowledge was to be essential when they met the enemy in France. They also mastered the drill and made a splendid record on the range. In the Division overseas a machine-gun school was also started, in charge of Lieut. Benjamin H. Mosby, a Negro officer, one of the main objects being to make machine-gun officers out of infantry officers. More than two hundred men attended this course.

The organization of the 325th Signal Corps marked the first time in the history of the country when Negro men were placed in this branch of the service. Before the organization of this unit was completed, a representative of the War Department visited Negro educational institutions and explained the qualifications for this branch of the service. As a result, men with superior technical and academic training were inducted into it. The work was new to most of the men, but their training enabled them to master it rapidly, so much so that they surprised the higher officials. The corps was organized and trained at Camp Sherman, and six officers were raised from the ranks. The unit boasted of having one of the best health records in France; not one case of venereal disease was discovered in it. The story is told of one man who, though he could scarcely write his name when he entered the service, was able, at the time of the Armistice, to take messages at the rate of twenty-five words a minute.

The distribution of the troops in the Division handicapped the administration somewhat. Orders were delayed in transmission, and it was impossible to correlate the activities of the several arms of the service; nor could the Division assemble for a review. The first opportunity the different units had of meeting came when they were ordered to join the American Army in France and met at Hoboken, June 10, 1918, just before sailing. After an exciting voyage all the units arrived safely at Brest; and after a short stay at Camp Pontenazen, the headquarters troops and infantry regiments went on to Bourbonne-les-Bains, making the four-day trip in crowded French box cars.

Bourbonne-les-Bains is a beautiful old city, located in Haute-Marne at the end of a valley encircled by a picturesque chain of hills. The people were hospitable and welcomed the soldiers into their homes and places of amusement. While the atmosphere was restful, however, the task before the Division was eminently serious. Eight weeks of intensive training were given in the methods of modern warfare, and terrain exercises and tactical problems worked out. The men perfected themselves in shooting, in the use of the bayonet and grenades, and in signal work and trench-digging.

The three artillery regiments, comprising the 167th Field Artillery Brigade, on reaching France were stationed at different centers for six weeks of intensive training—the 349th and 350th at Montmorillion and the 351st at Lathus. Finally the brigade was mobilized at La Courtine. Here instruction was given in radio, telephone, and motor operations, dug-out construction, gun emplacement, and range work. Even after they reached France, there was still doubt in the minds of some as to whether the Negro men would make artillerymen. A French officer, however, came to test the barrage made by the 350th Artillery, and after it had been put over, he jumped up and clapped his hands, saying that it was the fastest and the most accurate he had ever seen put over. In all the training area of the 92nd Division unusually fine relations existed between the soldiers and the French people.

INFANTRY ENGAGEMENTS

From Bourbonne-les-Bains the infantry regiments and headquarters troops were moved to Bruyères, and it was here that they heard for the first time the roar of the big guns. Here also it was that the Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Forces, General John J. Pershing, first visited the division. After spending twelve days in securing necessary equipment, all moved to St. Die. Here the Americans were welcomed as deliverers. The Germans had occupied the city for fourteen days in 1914 and because of their treatment the people had learned to hate them. The bishop’s house and the church, more than six hundred years old, were used as headquarters.

Because of the nature of the terrain the St. Die sector was usually quiet and for this reason it was used for schooling divisions of recruits, who often got here their baptism of fire before leaving. There was a little bathing pool in “No Man’s Land,” and it was said that at certain times, by agreement between the Germans and the French, each had access to it without being fired upon. The 6th Division of the American Army, however, which occupied the sector before it was given over to the 92nd, fired on every German that ventured forth. When the French said that such action would precipitate offensive tactics, the Americans insisted that this was their purpose. The 92nd Division accordingly found the enemy active when it entered the sector. While there was no major offensive, raiding parties from both sides were frequent and patrol duty was very necessary.

The St. Die sector will always be remembered by the men of the 92nd Division because it was there that they received their first casualties. The first man killed was Private Moses Justice, Company H, 365th Infantry. He had worked as a farmer and enlisted from Marietta, Ohio. While on patrol duty September 2, 1918, Second Lieut. Thomas J. Bullock, Company D, 367th Infantry, was killed, the first officer in the division to fall. In this sector the Negro soldiers remained until September 21, 1918, when they were ordered to the Meuse-Argonne region, the 81st Division, known as the “Wildcats,” relieving the 92nd when it entrained.