| MISS VIVIAN HARSH, MEMBER CHICAGO CHAPTER OF CANTEEN WORKERS, PASSING OUT SMOKES TO RETURNED SOLDIERS OF 8TH ILLINOIS (370TH INFANTRY). |
| OFFICERS OF 8TH ILLINOIS (370TH INFANTRY). DECORATED BY FRENCH FOR GALLANTRY IN ACTION. LEFT TO RIGHT. LIEUT. THOMAS A. PAINTER, CAPT. STEWART ALEXANDER, LIEUT. FRANK ROBINSON. |
For the valor shown both were cited for the Distinguished Service Cross. Lieutenant Campbell's superiors also took the view that in that particular instance the life of a brave soldier was of more importance than the dispatch of a message, for as a result, he was recommended for a captaincy.
Another single detail taken from the same Company I:
John Baker, having volunteered, was taking a message through heavy shell fire to another part of the line. A shell struck his hand, tearing away part of it, but the Negro unfalteringly went through with the message.
He was asked why he did not seek aid for his wounds before completing the journey. His reply was:
"I thought that the message might contain information that would save lives."
Has anything more heroic and unselfish than that ever been recorded? Nature may have, in the opinions of some, been unkind to that man when she gave him a dark skin, but he bore within it a soul, than which there are none whiter; reflecting the spirit of his Creator, that should prove a beacon light to all men on earth, and which will shine forever as a "gem of purest ray serene" in the Unmeasurable and great Beyond.
Under the same Lieut. Robert Campbell, a few colored soldiers armed only with their rifles, trench knives, and hand grenades, picked up from shell holes along the way, were moving over a road in the Chateau Thierry sector. Suddenly their course was crossed by the firing of a German machine gun. They tried to locate it by the sound and direction of the bullets, but could not. To their right a little ahead, lay a space covered with thick underbrush; just back of it was an open field. Lieutenant Campbell who knew by the direction of the bullets that his party had not been seen by the Germans, ordered one of his men with a rope which they happened to have, to crawl to the thick underbrush and tie the rope to several stems of the brush; then to withdraw as fast as possible and pull the rope making the brush shake as though men were crawling through it. The purpose was to draw direct fire from the machine gun, and by watching, locate its position.
The ruse worked. Lieutenant Campbell then ordered three of his men to steal out and flank the machine gun on one side, while he and two others moved up and flanked it on the other side.