hand, the 92nd Division
had been drawn from every possible corner of the United States where a
quota might be raised. It was the 92nd Division especially, however
great might be the deeds of local regiments of guard, that would decide
the great ultimate question. Regiments of Negro guard troops from New
York, Chicago, Washington, Baltimore, and the State of Ohio, and Negro
pioneers from the mountain regions of the Carolinas, might cover their
respective localities with the surpassing glory of their achievements.
And every regiment of them did. But the real issue was wrapped up in the
great 92nd Division, the Negro national army commanded in large measure
by Negro officers, which stepped into the international arena on that
fateful day in June, 1918.

They landed when the German had spent his third offensive and was at the
gates of Paris. Almost the first news which they received after they had
settled on foreign soil was that Paris, the magic city which they had
come so far to see, was destined to fall into the hands of the German.
Albeit Chateau Thierry, the turning point of the decisive struggle of
1918, was only achieved when, for the war, a total of more than a
million black men of four continents had been annihilated, the 92nd
Division was eager for the fray--was anxious to tread the field of
action for the sake of honor, and recognition and equality. It was at
Chateau Thierry, on a day soon after the arrival of the 92nd Division in
France, that Foch, the eminent generalissimo, but then an almost unknown
quantity, again gave voice to laconicism: "The offensive shall begin and
shall continue. Bring up the colonials!" America was thrown into battle
holding honored position beside Gouraud's invincible Africanders. The
Hun was halted in his tracks, thrown back across the second Marne, and
hunted like a wolf over the Hindenburg line and into his native lair.

Soissons, Rheims, Verdun, St. Dizier and Chemin des Dames, all saw Negro
troops of the United States in violent action. In the Marbache, at Belie
Farm, and in the Bois de Tege d'Or, the Negro guard regiments and the
Negro 92nd Division went over and at the Hun.

At Voivrette Farm and in the Bois de Frehaut, other troops of this same
division smote German super-man hip and thigh. In Voivrette Woods and in
the Bois de Cheminot, at Moulon Brook and Seilie Bridge and Epley the
92nd Division again victoriously contested the field of honor, against
the best soldiers Pr