Among the three hundred thousand and more Colored soldiers who served in the United States Army during the World War, twenty thousand were already prepared and in fighting trim when America declared war against Germany. Those twenty thousand men were divided into the First Separate Battalion of the District of Columbia; Company G, Tennessee National Guards; First Separate Companies of Maryland and Connecticut; Company L, National Guards of Massachusetts; Ninth Battalion of Ohio; 15th New York National Guard; Eighth Illinois Regiment; 9th and 10th Cavalries; 24th and 25th Infantries. After spending the necessary time in undergoing the proper government training, 639 Colored men took and satisfactorily passed the required military examination, and on October 15, 1917 were commissioned at Fort Dodge as officers in the United States Army. They were divided into 106 Captains, 329 First Lieutenants and 204 Second Lieutenants.
During and at the close of the great war, leading white newspapers vied with each other in filling their columns about the unsurpassed bravery and patriotism of Colonel “Bill” Hayward, the clear-headed and nervy white commander and his seasoned Colored 15th Regiment of New York. It was the first Colored combat regiment to go overseas and was brigaded with the French fighting forces as the 369th Regiment. To his admiring Colored soldiers, “Fighting Bill” Hayward was known as “The Hell Man” and to the surprised Germans the Colored fighters of the old 15th Regiment were frightfully known as the “Bloodthirsty Black Tigers.”
A few years before that time William Hayward had been elected the youngest judge in Nebraska and was known in that state as her “Handsomest Man”. But with all of that previous civic and social honor and fame, “Fighting Bill” never forgot to be a real “white man” and gentleman as well as a strict and just commander at all times to his Colored troops. When resting in camp he regarded and treated them as human beings and full American citizens, and when in the thickest of battles he did not ask them to go where he dared not to venture, (if there ever was such a place). In battlefield action he always led his men—he never followed them. This explains why he and his “Black Tigers” won undying fame and glory by holding a certain sector of trenches at Bois d’Hause Champagne for ninety-one days and then charging in great victory over the top of Belleau Woods and the bodies of falling Germans. It was during a very dangerous charge that a French commander seeing Hayward and his Colored men about to plunge into what seemed to be a sure death trap, ordered the American fighters back. Big Bill Hayward was already in motion and shouted over his shoulder, “My men don’t come back! They will go through hell, but they won’t come back.” And with that parting farewell, the “Hell Man” and his impatiently waiting “Black Tigers” plunged forward and were soon busy serving to the open-mouthed enemy such a smoking hot dish of scrambled shots, shells, and bayonets that in swallowing them down those war-hungry Germans at once and for all times became completely filled and lost their appetites for everything. On their return after so quickly and efficiently serving such a well prepared menu, Hayward and his fighters were decorated with the Croix de Guerre.
At Metz, Argonne Forest and St. Dis in the Sectors of Marbacne, Meuse and Vosges, the newly trained 92nd Colored Division, mostly manned by Colored officers, went into the thickest of the battles with such telling effects that fourteen officers and forty-three non-officers were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. When those battles were over and the survivors learned that they had lost from among their chums 209 killed in action, 32 dead from wounds, 589 slightly or severely wounded, 700 overcome by the German’s scientific gases and 18 unaccounted for, the 92nd Division became even more convinced that it had well earned the many honors and distinctions accorded to it.
Those regiments that were brigaded with the French Army were; the 369th, 370th, 371st, and 372nd Infantries. In the engagements of Marson-en-Champagne, Minancourt and Bois d’Hause Champagne, the 369th Infantry (N. Y. 15th) took an active part and it was at Marson-en-champagne that the whole regiment was cited for deeds of valor and awarded the Croix de Guerre. It was at Soissons Front that the most formidable oppositions were successfully faced by the 370th Infantry (Illinois 8th) that was commanded by Negro officers from Lieut. Col. O. B. Duncan, down. The final capture of Hill 304 after a severe encounter by that regiment proved to the Germans that those Colored lads had not paddled across the “Big Pond” to learn the “Goose Step.” The loss of 1,065 out of 2,384 men signifies the serious activities of the 371st Infantry in the Champagne Sector between September 18th and October 6th, 1918. Besides the entire regiment receiving citation for extreme bravery, its regimental colors were decorated. It was this regiment that broke a standing record at that time by shooting down three German airplanes on the wing. The 372 Infantry took part in the fighting around Vacquois Sector and Argonne West, places not very far from the celebrated Verdun. For distinguished service all along the fighting lines the whole regiment was decorated with the Croix de Guerre.
While the 369th (New York 15th) enjoyed the distinctions of being the first Colored fighting organization to go overseas into action and the first Allied division (Colored or white) to reach the banks of the Rhine; it was the 370th (8th Illinois) Infantry that won the glory of probably fighting the last engagement of the World War. It appears that on the morning of November 11, 1918 the French commander sent word to the officer in charge of the 370th Regiment to cease firing at 11 a.m. as the Armistice would be signed at that hour. But the Colored troops were pressing forward so rapidly after the enemy that it was long past 11 a.m. before the messenger could overtake them. When he did finally ride up to the regiment, it was just putting on the finishing “frills and frazzles” in capturing a German army train and its crews of fifty supply wagons.
Through the untiring efforts of Dr. Joel E. Spingarn, one of the truest and most loyal friends the American Colored people have today, Dr. W. E. B. Dubois, Editor of the Crisis, Col. Charles Young, U. S. Army and many other prominent Colored leaders and friends of the race, the Secretary of War authorized on May 19, 1917 the establishment of an Officers’ Reserve Training Camp for Colored soldiers at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. This is the place where the 639 Colored men mentioned elsewhere in this article were trained before being commissioned into the United States Army. After being divided into as equal groups as possible these officers were ordered to report on November 1, 1917 for regular duty in the following named camps: Camp Dix, New Jersey; Camp Dodge, Iowa; Camp Funston, Kansas; Camp Grant, Illinois; Camp Meade, Maryland; Camp Sherman, Ohio; and Camp Upton, New York.
Special National Guards
It was just at that most critical time during the first months of this same year, (1917) before the United States declared war against Germany, and when no white man in America positively knew nor absolutely trusted any other white man as to his real one hundred percent Americanism, that the Administration called out the first Separate Colored Battalion of the District of Columbia. This group of well trained and true loyal American soldiers was made a Special National Guard to defend, from the enemies of the Government, the Capitol, White House and other important Federal buildings located in Washington, D.C. the Capital of the United States of America. The mere fact that the Administration did not select a white group of soldiers for such a purpose at such a critical time when spies of the enemy were everywhere in every form proves without a doubt that the American white people not only had to admit among themselves but were forced to acknowledge to the whole world that this was one time in the history of the country when they had not confidence enough in members of their own race to intrust to them the Nation’s most valuable and delicate assets and responsibilities, namely; its filed-away official records, its treasuries of monies, its cherished honors and its liberty-loving Government. And the necessary intrusting of such national assets and responsibilities to the care of Colored soldiers reminded the outside world (what American white people should never forget) that the Colored people in the United States form the backbone of the American nation; especially when the Nation is required to use that backbone in overthrowing such white traitors of this country as the despised Benedict Arnold and such white murderers of Presidents as the scorned J. W. Booth.
That Special Colored Guard of Honor was under a Colored commander, Major James E. Walker, who at all times intelligently and fearlessly directed and guided his men in so successfully carrying out that responsible and trustworthy task. And it was on account of his constant exposure to all kinds of early spring weather (They started guard duty March 25, 1917.) while daily and nightly directing and watching the movements of his men, that Major Walker contracted the incurable cold which resulted in his fatal illness and untimely death just in the flower of his youth and in the performance of one of the most confidential and mental-straining duties the Nation could impose upon a citizen; guarding the history, good name, wealth and liberty of one hundred ten million people.