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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Posted on 02/27/2003 5:33:37 AM PST by SAMWolf
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are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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New York National Guard The Regiment That Never Lost a Man Captured, a Trench, or a Foot of Ground The first effort to organize a colored National Guard regiment in New York City was sponsored by Charles W. Fillmore, a colored citizen, who afterwards was commissioned a Captain in the "15th" by Col. Hayward. The effort to secure proper approval of such a regiment was more or less abortive until Gov. Charles S. Whitman, following the gallant fight of Negro troops of the Tenth Cavalry against Mexican bandits at Carrizal, authorized the project and named Col. William Hayward, then Public Service Commissioner, to supervise the task of recruiting an organization. It was found that there were more than two hundred Negro residents of the city who had seen service in the regular army, or in the militia of other states. With these as a nucleus the work of recruiting began on June 29, 1916.  Colors of NY 15th Colored Infantry [369th Infantry, AEF; Known as the "Harlem Hellfighters"] By the first of October, ten companies of sixty-five men each had been formed, and the regiment was then recognized by the State and given its colors. By April 8, 1917, the regiment had reached peace strength, with 1,378 men, and was recognized by the Federal Government. Two weeks later the organization was authorized to recruit to war strength. The 600 men needed were recruited in five days after the applicants had been subjected to a physical examination more stringent than that given in the regular army. The first battalion of four companies was recruited in Manhattan; the second battalion was composed of Brooklyn men, and the third of men from Manhattan and the Bronx. "There is no better soldier material in the world," said Col. Hayward, following the organization of the regiment. "Given the proper training, these men will be the equal of any soldiers in the world." Training the men presented some difficulty. At first they were drilled in Lafayette Hall, 132nd street and Seventh avenue, New York City. But the place was altogether too small and many of the fifty squads which drilled nightly had to take to the streets to carry out the maneuvers of their drill sergeants. Later they went for three weeks to Camp Whitman. An announced plan to send the regiment to train at Camp Wadsworth, Spartanburg, S. C., caused a storm of protest from the citizens of the South Carolina town. "The most tragic consequences," they insisted, "would follow the introduction of the New York Negro with his Northern ideas into the community life of Spartanburg." The Spartanburg Chamber of Commerce drafted resolutions protesting against the training of Negro troops at Camp Wadsworth, which were sent to New York State officials. The resolutions, however, had less weight than the exigencies of war and, early in October, the 15th Negro Infantry detrained at Camp Wadsworth. The "tragic consequences" did not materialize. Certain stores refused to serve Negro customers and were, in turn, boycotted by the white soldiers, but the chief result of the Fifteenth's visit to Spartanburg was an increased respect in some measure, at least, for the black soldier.  Sergeant Henry Johnson While at Spartanburg the regiment was supplied with the latest things in trench shoes, heavy underwear, and other overseas supplies. This led the men to expect immediate transfer overseas. They were, indeed, ordered overseas, but as Colonel Hayward's memorandum quoted above indicates, the regiment made three distinct starts for France before it finally got away from America. The accident that caused the first turning back .occurred when still in sight of the Narrows. The vessel was disabled by a bent piston rod and had to put back to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for repairs. Four days later the ship put out again, only to halt when fire was found in the reserve coal bunker. Putting back to Hoboken, the sorely tried Fifteenth counted the hours until a new transport could be obtained. Hours became days, and days ---weeks, but still no other ship offered. Finally, oil December 3, 1917, the Navy Department notified the transport's commander to put to sea. But while the pier lines were being cast off a storm started to blow up, and by the time the "Pocahontas"---nameless at the time---reached the outer bay, the greatest blizzard of the year was raging. Clouds of snow, through which nothing could be seen, forced the "Pocahontas" to drop anchor. She had hardly done so when a huge hulk, appearing suddenly through the murk, bore down upon the transport's bow and cut a ten-foot hole in her side. then the storm abated in the bay, but a new one arose below decks, where 3,000-odd exasperated soldiers were maintaining their belief that no such place as France existed. The captain of the transport was for turning back again to the Navy Yard. The hole was above the water-line, be admitted, and there was no great danger impending as a result of the collision, he said. Nevertheless there would be an inquiry, and it was necessary that he be present to state his case. "I can see no reason for turning back except that of fear," said Col. Hayward to the captain. The captain did not turn back. There was an ambulance assembly unit on board with electric drills. Ten hours, it was said, would suffice to make sufficient repairs to enable the vessel to proceed. The bent plates were drilled out and double planking erected in their place. Concrete was then poured between the planks. The result was not elegant, but the ship was water-tight and best of all, still bound for France.  Brest was reached on December 27 without incident except for an epidemic of German measles which attacked the crew of the transport, but which was escaped by nearly all officers and men of the Fifteenth. From Brest the regiment was transferred to St. Nazaire, where the troops were put to work constructing a huge railroad yard, building roads, and unloading ships. The fact of being ill the country "where the war is" helped the impatient soldiers to endure their lot for awhile, but before long there was a general feeling that "while stevedoring may be all right, it is not war," and the officers were besieged with apologetic and respectful queries, "When do we fight?" The answer was assumed to have been supplied when, early in January, the Third Battalion was ordered to Colquidan, in Brittany, where there was a big American artillery camp. It turned out, however, that peace was still longer to bear down upon the spirits of the Fifteenth. At Colquidan, they found, as well as an American artillery camp, there was also a large German prison camp, and it was for the purpose of guarding this camp that their services were required. Three weeks passed, and then the Third Battalion received orders to join the rest of the regiment at Givry-en-Argonne, there to be formally transferred to the French high command and to be known as the 369th Regiment d'Infanterie Etats Unis (United, States Infantry). Actual fighting was still afar off, it seemed to the soldiers, for they were put to training under French officers. One hundred and twenty picked men and a number of officers were sent to the French Divisional Training School, where they were taught to use the French arms, including grenades, French bayonets, rifles and machine guns. Upon the completion of the course others of the former Fifteenth were sent to take this training.  They proved apt pupils. In grenade-throwing they easily outdid their instructors, and in bayonet work they demonstrated great skill. They surprised the French, also, with the manner in which they acquired the French language. Many of them were talking quite fluently after a week with their French comrades. It turned out, however, that many of the soldiers hailed from Louisiana, and that their new environment merely had revived forgotten memories of the French language. In May the regiment went to the Main de Massiges, a part of the French line which offered the greatest danger as well as the greatest opportunity for training in trench warfare and raiding. A small number of the Fifteenth's men were sent with each French company, with instructions to observe all regulations and familiarize themselves with the tactics of the French. The French "poilus" were delighted with their colored comrades and soon sought to teach them all they knew. After two weeks' experience obtained in the manner described, the 369th was sent into action in the Bois d'Hauze, Champagne, where the regiment, unassisted by the French, held a complete sector, which in length constituted 20 per cent of all territory held by American troops at the time. In this action, which lasted until July 4, 1918, when the colored soldiers, their ranks thinned by the deadly German fire and completely worn out, were relieved by the 4th French Chasseurs-à-pied. By this time the fighting effectiveness of the Negro troops from New York was recognized by the high command, and after resting behind the lines for a few weeks they were transferred and placed in the path of the expected German offensive at Minancourt, near Butte de Mesnil, where they bore the brunt of the German attacks of July 15 and thereafter. Against the enemy in this action the old Fifteenth was completely successful, holding against the German fire, repelling German attacks and by counter-attacks becoming possessed of the front line German trenches. At the end of July the regiment, after a three days march to the rear, went into training for open warfare, but had hardly started work when a hurry call was sent to them to take over the same place in the line which they had left a few days before. Motor lorries were impressed and the New York soldiers hastened back to the front, arriving in time to assist in repelling the most violent German attacks.  Lt. James Reese Europe, famous jazz band leader, back with the 369th Regiment During the action which followed it was the policy of the French strategists to retreat from the lines then held after having "gassed" all the dug-outs. The advancing Germans thereupon were met with such heavy shell fire that they were forced into the underground shelters and so fell by the hundreds, victims of the noxious fumes released by the French. The men of the 369th, advancing again after this defeat of the enemy, found enough Mauser rifles lying beside the dead Germans to equip an entire brigade. Finding the German Mauser to resemble the Springfield formerly used by the American troops and preferring it to the French weapon furnished them, the men of the Fifteenth promptly adopted the captured rifle, and it was with considerable difficulty that the French equipment was finally restored to them. Early in September the men of the 369th were transferred from the 16th French Division, in which they had been serving, and made an integral part of the 161st French Division. And then, on the morning of September 26th, they joined with the Moroccans on the left and native French on the right in the offensive which won for the entire regiment the French Croix de Guerre and the citation of 171 individual officers and enlisted men for the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor, for exceptional gallantry in action. The action began at Maison-en-Champagne; it finished seven kilometers northward and eastward and over the intervening territory the Germans had retreated before the ferocious attacks of the Fifteenth and its French comrades.  Members of the US 369th Infantry, awarded the Croix de Guerre for gallantry in action A month later a new honor came to the regiment---the honor of being the first unit of all the Allied armies to reach the River Rhine. The regiment had left its trenches at Thann, Sunday, November 17, and, marching as the advance guard of the 161st Division, Second French Army, reached Blodelsheim, on the left bank of the Rhine, Monday, November 18. The 369th is proud of this achievement. It believes also that it was under fire for a greater number of days than any other American regiment. Its historian will record: That the regiment never lost a man captured, a trench, or a foot of ground; that it was the only unit in the American Expeditionary Force which bore a State name and carried a State flag; that it was never in an American brigade or division; that it saw the first and the longest service of any American regiment as part of a foreign army; and that it had less training than any American unit before going into action.
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Excerpt:
Interest Grows in Music Pioneer James Europe, WWI Hero
By Rudi Williams
American Forces Press Service
The name "Lt. James Reese Europe" etched into a graying, weathered tombstone doesn't mean anything to most visitors to Arlington (Va.) National Cemetery. It's just an obscure name among thousands on grave markers throughout the huge military burial ground. Of Europe, the late ragtime and jazz composer and performer pianist Eubie Blake once said, "People don't realize yet today what we lost when we lost Jim Europe. He was the savior of Negro musicians … in a class with Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King Jr."
The French government called him a battlefield hero. Before the war, however, he was a household name in New York's music world and on the dance scene nationwide. According to books about ragtime and early jazz, James Reese Europe was the most respected black bandleader of the "teens" when the United States entered World War I. Both his battlefield heroism and his music fell into obscurity after his untimely and tragic death at 39 on May 9, 1919.
The son of a former slave father and a "free" mother, Europe was born in Mobile, Ala., on Feb. 22, 1881. Europe's compositions and arrangements of familiar tunes were played with a jazz twist long before the "Jazz Age." His style was between the syncopated beat of ragtime and the syncopated improvisation of jazz. He became popular in France using that same style as leader of the 369th Infantry Regiment band during World War I. He enlisted as a private in the 15th Infantry, a black New York National Guard outfit, on Sept. 18, 1916. Europe accomplished something only a few African Americans did in those days: He attended officers training and was commissioned a lieutenant.
The 15th Infantry was later redesignated the 369th Infantry, which the French nicknamed "The Harlem Hellfighters" after the black soldiers showed their mettle in combat. Europe's regimental commander, Col. William Hayward, asked the new lieutenant to organize "the best damn brass band in the United States Army." With the promise of extra money to attract first-class musicians, Europe recruited musicians from Harlem and reportedly put together one of the finest military bands that ever existed. He even recruited woodwind players from Puerto Rico because there weren't enough in Harlem. Europe also recruited singers, comedians, dancers and others who could entertain troops. He recruited the best drum major he could find -- Harlem dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.
When the 369th and its band arrived in France, they were assigned to the 16th "Le Gallais" Division of the Fourth French Army because white U.S. Army units refused to fight alongside them. Trained to command a machine gun company, Europe learned to fire French machine guns and became the first American officer and first African American to lead troops in battle during the war.
The Harlem Hellfighters would serve 191 days in combat, longer than any other U.S. unit, and reputedly never relinquished an inch of ground. The men earned 170 French Croix de Guerres for bravery. One of their commanding officers, Col. Benjamin O. Davis Sr., would become the Army's first black general in 1940.
Europe was gassed while leading a daring nighttime raid against the Germans. While recuperating in a French hospital, he penned the song "One Patrol in No Man's Land." Europe and his musicians were ordered to the rear in August 1918 to entertain thousands of soldiers in camps and hospitals. They also performed for high-ranking military and civilian officials and for French citizens in cities across France. After Germany surrendered, the Hellfighters Band became popular performing throughout Europe. When the regiment returned home in the spring of 1919, it paraded up New York's 5th Avenue to Harlem led by the band playing its raggedy tunes to the delight of more than a million spectators. Back in America, Europe found himself even more popular than before he went to war. He recorded "One Patrol in No Man's Land"; it became a nationwide hit.
Europe ironically survived being shot at and gassed in the trenches of France only to die on May 9, 1919, at the hands of one of his own men. A deranged drummer named Herbert Wright cut Europe's jugular vein with a penknife while the bandleader was preparing for a show at Mechanics Hall in Boston. Wright had been angry because he thought Europe favored his twin brother over him.
"One Patrol in No Man's Land"
I don't know what the French could have tought these brave men. They never did learn to retreat, and that's all the French know how to do. LOL
LOL, I just have to find it, and it ain't easy.
(The difference in color of the envelopes is due to PhotoShop editing I did to make the writing more legible.)
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