Advancing over such dangerous ground to gain their objective, it appears miraculous that the division was not wiped out, or at least did not suffer more heavily than it did. An explanation of this seeming miracle has been offered in the rapidity of the advance.
No two battles are ever fought alike. Offensives and defensives will be planned along certain lines. Then will suddenly obtrude the element of surprise or something that could not be foreseen or guarded against, which will overturn the most carefully prepared plans.
No soldiers in the world were ever trained to a higher degree of efficiency than the Germans. Mathematical precision ruled everywhere; the ultimate detail had been considered; and all students of military matters were forced to admit that they had reduced warfare seemingly, to an exact science. But it was a mistake. The Germans were the victims of surprise times innumerable. Some of the greatest events of the war, notably the first defeat at the Marne in its strategic features, was a complete surprise to them.
Everything about war, can, it seems, be reduced to a science except strategy. Certain rules can be laid down governing strategy, but they do not always work. Generally speaking, it is psychology; something which exists in the other man"s mind. To read the other man"s mind or make a good guess at it, defeats the most scientifically conceived strategy. Napoleon outwitted the best military brains and was himself the greatest strategist of his time, because he invariably departed from fixed military customs and kept his opponent entirely at sea regarding what he was doing or intended to do. Very seldom did he do the thing which his enemy thought he would do; which seemed most likely and proper according to military science. He thought and acted quickly in crises, relied constantly on the element of surprise and invented new strategy on the spur of the moment.
It was the big new strategy, the big new surprises, with which the Germans found themselves unable to cope. The strategy of Foch which developed in the offensive shortly after the battle of Chateau Thierry in July and was well under way in the early part of August, was a surprise to the Germans. Pershing surprised them in his St. Mihiel and following operations, especially the battles of Argonne Forest, and had a greater surprise in store for them in the Lorraine campaign had the war continued.
Perhaps the Germans figured at Metz, that owing to the extreme difficulty of the ground to be covered, their strong fortifications and great gun power, any advance, especially of Negro troops, would be slow. They accordingly timed their artillery action and their defensive measures for a slow a.s.sault.
But they were surprised again. Officers could not hold back the Negro fighters and German guns and soldiers could not stop them. They plunged on to Preny and Pagny, and they rushed into the Bois Frehaut, and held for thirty-six hours, this place from which picked Moroccan and Senegalese troops were forced to retreat in ten minutes after they had entered it. The Bois Frehaut was an inferno under the murderous fire of the Germans. Holding it for thirty-six hours and remaining there until hostilities ceased, it is surprising that the casualty list of the 92nd Division did not amount to many times 1,511.
It is not intended to convey the impression that the Negroes were entirely responsible for the victory before Metz. Many thousands of white troops partic.i.p.ated and fought just as valiantly. But this History concerns itself with the operations of Negro soldiers and with bringing out as many of the details of those operations as the records at this time will supply.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE LONG, LONG TRAIL.
OPERATIONS OF 368TH INFANTRY-NEGROES FROM PENNSYLVANIA, MARYLAND AND SOUTH-IN ARGONNE h.e.l.l-DEFEAT IRON CROSS VETERANS-VALIANT PERSONAL EXPLOITS-LIEUTENANT ROBERT CAMPBELL-PRIVATE JOHN BAKER-OPERATIONS OF 367TH INFANTRY-"MOSS"S BUFFALOES"-365TH AND 366TH REGIMENTS-THE GREAT DIVIDE-THEIR SOULS ARE MARCHING ON-PRAISED BY PERSHING-SOME CITATIONS.
When the history of the 92nd Division is written in detail, much prominence will necessarily be given to the operations of the 368th Infantry. This unit was composed of Negroes mostly from Pennsylvania, Maryland and the Southern states. They went abroad happy, light-hearted boys to whom any enterprise outside of their regular routine was an adventure. They received adventure a plenty; enough to last most of them for their natural lives. They returned matured, grim-visaged men who had formed a companionship and a comradeship with death. For months they were accustomed to look daily down the long, long trail leading to the Great Divide. They left behind many who traveled the trail and went over the Divide. Peril was their constant attendant, danger so familiar that they greeted it with a smile.
It has been noted that this unit of the division saw real service prior to the campaign leading from Pont Mousson to Metz. Their first action was in August in the Vosges sector. This was largely day and night raiding from front line trenches. A month later they were in that bit of h.e.l.l known as the Argonne Forest, where on September 26th, they covered themselves with glory.
They were excellent soldiers with a large number of Negro officers, princ.i.p.ally men who had been promoted from the ranks of non-commissioned officers in the Regular Army.
Their commander during the last six weeks of the war, the time when they saw most of their hard service, was Lieutenant Colonel T.A. Rothwell, a Regular Army officer. He went abroad as commander of a machine gun battalion in the 80th Division, later was transferred to the 367th infantry and finally to the 368th. Many of the officers of the latter organization had served under Colonel Rothwell as non-commissioned officers of the Regular Army. He paid them a high tribute in stating that they proved themselves excellent disciplinarians and leaders. He was also very proud of the enlisted men of the regiment.
"The Negroes proved themselves especially good soldiers during gas attacks," said Colonel Rothwell, "which were numerous and of a very treacherous nature. During the wet weather the gas would remain close to the ground and settle, where it was comparatively harmless, but with the breaking out of the sun it would rise in clouds suddenly and play havoc with the troops."
Green troops as they were, it is related that there was a little confusion on the occasion of their first battle, when the regiment encountered barbed wire entanglements for the first time at a place in the woods where the Germans had brought their crack gunners to keep the line. But there was no cowardice and the confusion soon subsided. They quickly got used to the wire, cut their way through and cleaned out the gunners in record time.
Every one of the enemy picked up in that section of the woods was wearing an iron cross; the equivalent of the French Croix de Guerre or the American Distinguished Service Cross. It showed that they belonged to the flower of the Kaiser"s forces. But they were no match for the "Black Devils," a favorite name of the Germans for all Negro troops, and applied by them with particular emphasis to these troops and others of the 92nd Division.
On October 10th, the regiment went to Metz and took part in all the operations leading up to that campaign and the close of the war. In the Argonne, before Metz and elsewhere, they were subjected constantly to gas warfare. They behaved remarkably well under those attacks.
Major Benjamin P. Morris, who commanded the Third Battalion, has stated that in the drive which started September 26th, he lost nearly 25 per cent of his men through wounding or ga.s.sing. The battalion won eight Distinguished Service Crosses in that attack and the Major was recommended for one of the coveted decorations.
The regiment lost forty-four men killed in action, thirteen died from wounds and eight were missing in action. The list of wounded and ga.s.sed ran over three hundred.
Individual exploits were quite numerous and were valiant in the extreme. Here is an instance:
It became necessary to send a runner with a message to the left flank of the American firing line. The way was across an open field offering no covering or protection of any kind, and swept by heavy enemy machine gun fire.
Volunteers were called for. A volunteer under such circ.u.mstances must be absolutely fearless. The slightest streak of timidity or cowardice would keep a man from offering his services. Private Edward Saunders of Company I, responded for the duty. Before he had gone far a sh.e.l.l cut him down. As he fell he cried to his comrades:
"Someone come and get this message. I am wounded."
Lieutenant Robert L. Campbell, a Negro officer of the same company sprang to the rescue. He dashed across the sh.e.l.l-swept s.p.a.ce, picked up the wounded private, and, with the Germans fairly hailing bullets around him, carried his man back to the lines. There was the case of an officer who considered it more important to save the life of a heroic, valuable soldier than to speed a message. Besides the wounded man could proceed no farther and there were other ways of getting the message through and it was sent.
WOUNDED NEGRO SOLDIERS CONVALESCING IN BASE HOSPITAL. IN THE PICTURE ARE TWO COLORED WOMEN AMBULANCE DRIVERS.
SAMPLE OF IDENt.i.tY CARD CARRIED BY SOLDIERS OF THE AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES. EACH IDENTIFICATION WAS PRINTED IN ENGLISH AND FRENCH AND INCLUDED A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE OWNER. THE NUMBER ON THE CARD CORRESPONDING WITH A METAL TAG ON THE MAN"S ARM.
NEGRO OFFICERS OF 366TH INFANTRY WHO ACHIEVED DISTINCTION IN FRANCE. LEFT TO RIGHT. LIEUT C.L. ABBOTT, CAPT. JOS. L. LOWE, LIEUT. A.R. FISHER, CAPT. E. WHITE.
DISTINGUISHED OFFICERS OF THE 6TH ILLINOIS (370TH INFANTRY). FIRST ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT, CAPT. D.J. WARNER, A.H. JONES. LIEUT. E.G. WHITE, LIEUT. J.D. RAINEY, LIEUT. BERNARD McGWIN. SECOND ROW-LIEUT. LUTHER J. HARRIS, LIEUT. ALVIN M. JORDAN, LIEUT. E.L. GOODLETT, LIEUT. J.T. BAKER. THIRD ROW, LIEUT. F.J. JOHNSON, LIEUT. JEROME L. HUBERT.
DISTINGUISHED OFFICERS OF 8TH ILLINOIS (370TH INFANTRY). LEFT TO RIGHT, LIEUT. LAWSON PRICE, LIEUT. O.A. BROWNING, LIEUT. W. STEARLES, CAPT. LEWIS E. JOHNSON, LIEUT. EDMOND G. WHITE, LIEUT. F.W. BATES, LIEUT. E.F.E. WILLIAMS, LIEUT. BINGA DISMOND.
COLONEL CHARLES YOUNG, RANKING NEGRO OFFICER OF THE REGULAR ARMY. ONE OF THREE WHO HAVE BEEN COMMISSIONED FROM THE UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY AT WEST POINT. A VETERAN OFFICER OF THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR AND WESTERN CAMPAIGNS. DETAILED TO ACTIVE SERVICE, CAMP GRANT, ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS. DURING THE WORLD WAR.
TWO NOTED PARTISANS OF THE ALLIES IN THE GREAT WORLD WAR: MRS. J.H.H. SENGSTACKE, AND HER FAMOUS SON, ROBERT SENGSTACKE ABBOTT, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER OF THE CHICAGO DEFENDER. IT WAS MRS. SENGSTACKE WHO, WHEN THE DEFENDER HAD REACHED THE ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND MARK OF ITS CIRCULATION, STARTED THE PRESS THAT RAN OFF THE EDITION, FLAMING WITH CHEER AN INSPIRATION FOR "OUR BOYS" IN THE TRENCHES "OVER THERE."
REUNITED AND HAPPY. LIEUT. COLONEL OTIS B. DUNCAN OF 8TH ILLINOIS (370TH INFANTRY), WHO CAME OUT OF THE WAR THE RANKING NEGRO IN THE AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES; HIS FATHER AND MOTHER.
MISS VIVIAN HARSH, MEMBER CHICAGO CHAPTER OF CANTEEN WORKERS, Pa.s.sING 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 sh.e.l.l fire to another part of the line. A sh.e.l.l 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.