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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.