Part 5

Another backyard quarrel and fight occured 1916 between the United States and Mexico. The famous 10th Colored Cavalry, 24th and 25th Colored Infantries were sent with Chicago National Guards to help watch the American border. On the morning of June 21, 1916, two divisions of the 10th Cavalry, Companies C and K, wished to pass through Carrizal to reach Villa Alunado. They were invited to come nearer for a friendly parley with the Mexicans. As the American soldiers drew closer to the place many of the Mexicans slyly, slowly and seemingly unconcerned quietly fell back, spread out and in Indian style rapidly formed a circle around the little band of unsuspecting Americans before they had really noticed what had been done. At an unseen given signal the Colored troops were suddenly attacked. They were outnumbered eight to one and in the engagement lost fifteen killed, had nine wounded and twenty-three captured, who received much inhuman treatment from the hands of their captors. Among the many brave acts of heroism during the day’s fighting was the one of Peter Bagstaff, a trooper of the 10th Cavalry, who in the very face of the Mexicans’ hailing shots staid by the side of his mortally wounded Lieut. H. F. Adair, giving that officer physical aid until death ended his sufferings.

IN THE WORLD WAR

(1914-1918)

JAMES REESE EUROPE

All sing the praise of Europe’s Band That took such cheer to “No Man’s Land” His were the tunes that led in line The Colored bands of famed jazz time.

When life got “blue” to soldier lads, And thots of home made hearts so sad, Clownish slurs on “Jim’s” freak slides (trombones) Made big loud smiles in camps abide.

To kings and queens of “Over There”, He always played his jazziest air; And generals often sent for him To come and please their music whim.

From depths to heights he upward grew: Then sudden death shut out of view That Negro Sousa’s hidden chords A world has lost from Bandrom boards. --Harrison.

Regardless of their two hundred and ninety-eight years of unstained and unquestioned loyalty and patriotism in America, Colored people at the time the United States was about to enter the World War, were made to feel that they were not needed nor wanted in the conflict. And on many occasions they were even told that the World War was not their affair but was a “white man’s war.” Here is again shown where an inherited African instinct--that of usually being able to sense some big future happening--enabled the American Colored people to see far enough into the distance to fully realize that white people who made such remarks were sadly mistaken. Colored people then knew as all other people later found out that they were as much concerned and needed in that world conflict as any and all other races of people who took part in it.

But not until America was fearfully startled and sensibly awakened by the rapid and persistent progress of the Germans into France did this country reluctantly consent to give the Colored soldiers a half-fair chance and part in the war. And even then their acceptances had more the resemblances of the probationary trials of total strangers rather than the glad welcomings of life-long and never-failing friends. In other words, figuratively speaking, it was in the highly tempered crucibles of the World War’s whitehot furnaces of universal conflict that Negro Americanism was put through a retesting process, in order to determine the actual purity of its material and abstract composition. As to the outcome of that unnecessary and unjust retesting process, let the reader (like a minutely trained chemist) sum up in accurate notations the final results, but only after carefully weighing and reweighing the following analysis in the ever-balanced scales of impartiality.

Henry Johnson, Albany, N. Y. and Needham Roberts, of Trenton, N. J. were the first two Americans soldiers, Colored or white, who were honored by the French Government with the much coveted Croix de Guerre. These men were privates in the 369th Infantry, formerly the distinguished Fifteenth New York National Guard Regiment, that had been brigaded with French troops. It was during the loneliest and latest hours of a night in May, 1918 while Johnson and Roberts were on guard duty at an outpost on the Front near the German lines that they were suddenly surrounded and attacked by a raiding party of a score of German soldiers. Although the two colored boys used their firearms with quickness and deadly aim to keep the enemy off, the superior number of Germans, wounding Johnson three times and Roberts twice, closed in on them in a hand-to-hand death struggle. They soon had Roberts on the ground helpless, one German at his head and another at his feet. Johnson noticing the sad plight of his loyal friend, leaped forward like a wild cat at bay and with one mighty downward blow of his bolo knife split wide open the head of the enemy who was strangling Roberts. Then with a crouching pantherlike spring Johnson made a terrific sweep with his trusty knife that completely opened the stomach of the German at Roberts’ feet. Although on the ground covered with blood and gore, Roberts upon thus being released immediately began to hurl hand grenades among the enemy with telling effect. As the foe, with whose stomach Johnson’s bolo knife had made such a deep and lasting acquaintance, was the leader of the raiding party, the then thoroughly frightened Germans suddenly lost their nerve, dropped their weapons, picked up their helpless ones and made a hasty retreat. Some of the Germans had been killed and many of the party received such wounds and indelible marks that throughout their future lives they will always be reminded that American Colored is a guaranteed fast dye (slow die) that does not run.

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.

ON THE SEA

_“Of The People, By The People, For The People.”_

On U. S. Ships, Colored men deserve More than to cook or meals to serve; And some are worthy of better fates Than be only stewards and gunners’ mates.

Miss “Annapolis-Stevens” should never forget Foreign nations are looking in shocking regret At her vamping white boys, for caresses to get In this School where one Colored has studied but yet. --_Harrison._

In regard to the Colored men who took part in Naval strifes on the high seas, it has been estimated that at least ten thousand of them served in the Navy during the World War. While they were not allowed to advance in the Navy in proportion to their advancement in the Army, nevertheless, Colored college graduates and students, fully knowing such facts, put aside for the time being their educational ambitions and careers, entered the Navy and patriotically as well as unselfishly served in the menial positions of stewards, cooks and mess boys. And judging from the sleek full cheeks and plump round bodies of the officers and sailors aboard the vessels, those Colored boys, who were broad-minded and big-hearted enough to put down college pride and take up in its place national patriotism, went into galley and mess rooms and used the same kind of brain power in wrestling with pots and pans, foods and dishes as they had so brilliantly used in tussling with slippery mathematical, historical and linguistic problems when in their college class-rooms.

And who but God has an accurate record of the noble deeds humbly performed by many of those entrapped and unrescued Colored firemen and stokers who to the very last possible moment kept up the motor powers of their vessels in trying to outspeed and outdodge the death dealing submarine torpedoes? Those swift snakelike missives were always aimed and usually struck at either the life-giving lungs (fire rooms) or the pulsating hearts (engine rooms) of their objects. And it was in those vital organs of several great sea-ploughing vessels where many feverishly working, loyally dying and unsung Colored heroes went down to forever sleep in the dark deep chambers of “Father Neptune.”

THE STEVEDORES

While their duties, not being on the battle fields nor firing lines, called forth no spectacular incidents, citations for bravery or award of medals, nevertheless, the work of the stevedores was as important and valuable as the efforts of any other division in the World War. And their giant strengths and swiftness of movements in loading and unloading supply transports on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean played a very very clever part in helping the world to finally get a Zbyszko “toe-hold” a Stecher “scissors-hold” and a Lewis “strangle-hold” upon Germany and gradually forcing her shoulders backward and flat upon the universal mat of democracy.

(For some of the facts and figures used in writing-up the actual military and naval actions of the different wars that have been recorded on the foregoing pages, the writer is reverently grateful to his deceased Father, who as a runaway slave served through the Civil War, and other veterans of the Civil, Spanish-American and World Wars. But for the remainder and majority of such war data herein used, the author is fully indebted to The National Benefit Life Insurance Company, through the generous courtesies of its President, Mr. R. H. Rutherford, Washington, D.C., whose personal permission the writer secured to use such data in this book.)

HIGHEST COLORED OFFICERS IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY

A BRUNETTE GENERAL

Through all the wars these States have gone, A million Colored their parts have borne, But never a General has one been made: Yet, Lafayette’s France have them so paid, For character there out-points darkest shade.

Colored taxes are yearly in dollars fed To help in the drilling of West Point’s tread: On kinder treatments Negroes should have dined, Who rarely got there and mostly resigned.

If length of service and training thorough, And physical fitness without a blur Mark Colored soldiers for station anew, “Uncle Sam,” they would fill them both brave and true; These nephews who never have treasoned you. --_Harrison._

Those who have been appointed the highest Colored officers in the United States Regular Army are as follows:

Colonel Charles Young (retired) Tenth Cavalry. Lieutenant Colonel Allen Allensworth (retired) deceased, Chaplain, Twenty-fourth Infantry. Lieutentant Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Ninth Cavalry. Lieutenant Colonel John E. Green, Militia Attache, Monrovia, Liberia. Major William T. Anderson (retired) Chaplain, Tenth Cavalry. Major John R. Lynch (retired) Paymaster. Major Richard R. Wright, Paymaster, 1898, Spanish-American War. Major George W. Prioleau, Chaplain, Twenty-fifth Infantry. Captain W. E. Gladden, Chaplain, (retired) Twenty-fourth Infantry. Captain T. G. Steward, Chaplain retired, Twenty-fifth Infantry. Captain Oscar J. W. Scott, Chaplain, Tenth Cavalry. Major Louis A. Carter, Chaplain, Ninth Cavalry. First Lieutenant A. W. Thomas, Chaplain Twenty-fourth Infantry.

Those who held the highest Colored commissions above captains in the United States Army during the World War are as follows:

“Colonels: Franklin A. Denison, 370th Infantry; Charles Young retired.

Lieutenant Colonels: Ollie B. Davis, 9th Cavalry; Otis B. Duncan, 370th Infantry; John E. Green, Military Attache, Monrovia, Liberia.

Majors: “Thomas B. Campbell; Milton T. Dean, 317th Ammunition Train; John C. Fulton, 372nd Infantry; William B. Gould, Jr., National Guard; Charles L. Hunt, 370th Infantry; William H. Jackson, 369th Infantry; Thomas H. Moffatt, 371st Infantry; Adam E. Patterson, Judge Advocate, 92nd Division; Rufus M. Stokes, 370th Infantry; James E. Walker, 372nd Infantry; Arthur Williams, 370th Infantry.”

(The above list of officers’ names are quoted from Work’s Negro Year Book, edition 1918-1919, pages 223-228.)

IN THE WORLD WAR

At Home

Relative to the willing sacrifices, unfaltering patriotism and loyalty of the millions of Colored people who remained at home in the United States during the World War, several books could be written but limited space herein will not permit but a few paragraphs covering their many activities.

After the white American men had enlisted or were drafted into the Army and Navy, there were left vacant thousands and thousands of responsible positions. The European foreigners who had previously immigrated here and were immediately given (even before they could understand the laws of the land or speak its language) full American opportunities and privileges, except the ballot, were now found unreliable. Great hordes of them showed their gratefulness to America for earlier throwing wide open her doors to them by refusing to come up to her test of one hundred percent Americanism. Even after all of the available mothers, wives, daughters and sisters of the departed white American soldiers were used in such places, there still remained many thousands of positions unfilled. All that time millions of Colored men and women who were loyally and willingly asking and waiting to fill such places were at first purposely ignored. Because of the lack of sufficient man power, the cog-wheels of industry all over the country began to stop. It seemed as though the American white sentiment of prejudiced feeling against the Colored people had become so bitter that the country was willing to commit industrial suicide while stopping to wallow in its mires of racial hatred.