egiment to shorten its objective.
The order failed to arrive in time and ten minutes after the fighting
was over Lieut. Colonel Duncan led the third battalion over the German
line and captured a train of fifty wagons. General Vincendon said:

"Colonel Duncan is the hardest man to stop fighting I ever saw. He
doesn't know when to quit."

One of the most daring exploits by a member of the regiment was that
performed by Sergeant Matthew Jenkins, a Chicago boy and member of
Company F. On September 20, at Mont des Singes, he went ahead of his
comrades and captured from the Boche a fortified tunnel which by aid of
his platoon was held for thirty-six hours without food or ammunition,
making use of the enemy machine gun and munitions until relieved. This
gained for Sergeant Jenkins the Croix de Guerre with Palm and the
Distinguished Service Cross.

A deed of remarkable bravery accompanied by clever strategy was
performed by Captain Chester Sanders and twenty men mostly of Company F.
It won decorations for three and the unbounded admiration of the French.
Captain Sanders and his men offered themselves as sacrifices in an
effort to draw the fire of about a dozen German machine guns which had
been working havoc among the Americans and French. The Illinois men ran
into the middle of a road knowing they were under German observation.
Instantly the Germans, suspecting a raid on their lines, opened fire on
the underbrush by the roadside, figuring the Americans would take refuge
there. Instead they kept right in the center of the road and few were
wounded. The ruse had revealed the whereabouts of the German guns, and a
short time later they were wiped out by French artillery.

Another hero of Company F was Lieutenant Harvey J. Taylor, who found
himself in a nest of machine guns on July 16 in the western part of the
Argonne forest. He received wounds in both legs, a bullet through one
arm, a bullet in his side, had a front tooth knocked out by a bullet and
received a ruptured ear drum by another. After all this he was back in
the lines October 24th at Soissons. The Germans were making a counter
attack that day and when the battling colored men needed supplies,
Lieutenant Taylor, who was regimental signal officer, proceeded to get
the supplies to them, though he had to pass through a German barrage. He
was badly gassed. He received the Croix de Guerre with a special
citation.

Lieutenant Elmer D. Maxwell won his Cross in the Champag