The citations of which I am incomparably more proud than of the citations I did get or the medals I didn’t get were not printed with ink nor stamped on metal. They were written with a point of fire into the brave, true hearts of my colored soldiers.
And who knows (if I may indulge in a little sentiment)? Who can tell? Perhaps those who bravely endured the tourtures of hell, because of the foolishness of vain oppressors in this wicked world and who uncomplainingly and unselfishly gave all they had, all any one could give—gave their lives—in defense of our great nation and in the cause of Democracy. Perhaps, I say, some of the spirits of that Battalion’s dead have already whispered in the glorious Realm beyond where the great, all-powerful God of justice, of love, of peace reigns supreme and with Whom man’s character is the only thing that counts. Perhaps they have whispered or will whisper, “Our Commander not only braved the fury of the Hun, but he scorned the petty prejudices of a few white persons and treated us like officers and men.”
Officers designated for service with the Eighty-sixth Division, which was to be formed at Camp Grant, Illinois, were ordered to report for duty August, 28th, 1917. I so reported and was assigned to the Three Hundred and Forty-first Infantry. Being a captain I was selected to command “G” Company. I received my quota of the first drafted men to arrive, on the second of September. They continued to arrive and in a few weeks I had two hundred and ninety-two men in addition to my five training camp lieutenants. The new organization had just gone into effect. Arms and equipment arrived slowly. There was more or less confusion; no one was right sure what to do and a company commander had a real job on his hands. Day and night I labored—drilled, studied, taught, did paper work, and then after three months or a little over, just when I was beginning to pride myself, like all the other captains, on having the best company in the regiment, and when we were all seeing visions of entraining for France, they began transferring our men—thirty or forty from a company at a time—to other divisions, and our hearts sank.
I tried to get transferred myself, for like many others, I wanted to soldier in France, not at Camp Grant. Company commanders were not being transferred to other camps, but just before Christmas I was ordered to report to the One Hundred and Eighty-third Brigade, a part of which was attached at Camp Grant. I was then assigned to the Three Hundred and Sixty-fifth Infantry, a regiment of that Brigade and of the Ninety-second Division (colored). I felt sure that the Ninety-second Division, since it was the only complete colored division, and there was not much danger of its men being transferred, would go to France long before the Eighty-sixth—and it did.
For a time I was with the supply company. Then I was transferred to the headquarters company, a rather uncertain and complicated organization in those days, with an authorized strength of seven officers and three hundred and fifteen men. I remained with that company until after our arrival in France.
In the infantry regiments of the Ninety-second Division the lieutenants and captains were colored with the exception of the regimental staff captains and the captains of the headquarters and supply companies. The majors commanding the battalions and the lieutenant-colonel and the colonel were old regular army white officers.
We had been in training in France but a short time when I was made regimental intelligence and operations officer. Here again was another phase of the actual war game to learn. I was in charge of a large number of selected and specially trained men who made up the intelligence and scout sections, and at the same time was the regimental commander’s assistant in preparing our own movements and operations. I had direct charge of all that had to do with our knowledge and information of the enemy. I was also a member of the highest division court-martial—the one that had power to inflict the death penalty.
I received orders to take the battalion intelligence and scout officers and part of the intelligence and scout personnel into the line several weeks ahead of the Division’s final arrival there, to study and learn the sub-sector our regiment was later to occupy. I was never sent away to schools or on special missions and was never on leave or in hospital but was on duty with fighting troops continuously.
I have mentioned these things to show you that I had had a large and varied experience under the new army organization and in the new methods of fighting that had developed during the Great War. It was just the sort of training and experience to fit one for the hard and responsible task of commanding an infantry battalion in the front lines. I had been in direct command of both white and colored officers and men. I knew the colored enlisted man. And I knew the recently-made colored officers as well, fully as well, as did any white officer in our army.