ne of the colored units that made good most decisively was the 325th
Field Signal Battalion of the 92nd Division. The men of this battalion
had to string the wires for telegraphic and telephonic connections at
times when the enemy guns were trained upon them. Therefore, in many
respects, their duty took them into situations fully as dangerous as
those of the combatant units.

This battalion was composed entirely of young Negroes excepting the
Lieutenant Colonel, Major and two or three white line officers. With few
exceptions, they were all college or high school boys, quite a number of
them experts in radio or electric engineering. Those who were not
experts when the battalion was formed, became so through the training
which they received.

Major Spencer, who was responsible for the formation of the battalion,
the only Negro signal unit in the American Army, was firm in the belief
that Negroes could make good, and he remained with it long enough to see
his belief become a realization.

After arriving at Brest, June 19, 1918, the battalion proceeded to
Vitrey, and from that town began a four-day hike to Bourbonne les
Baines. From that point it proceeded after a few days to Visey, where
the boys got their first taste of what was to be, later, their daily
duties. Here the radio (wireless telegraphy) company received its quota
of the latest type of French instruments, a battery plant was
established and a full supply of wire and other equipment issued to
Companies B and C. Here, too, the Infantry Signal platoons of the
battalion joined the outfit and shared in the training.

A courage test and their first introduction into real fighting in
addition to stringing wires and sending and receiving radio messages,
came on the afternoon of September 27th. A party including the Colonel,
Lieutenant Herbert, the latter a Negro, and some French liaison
officers, advanced beyond the battalion post and soon found themselves
outside the lines and directly in front of a German machine gun nest.

The colonel divided his men into small groups and advanced on the
enemy's position. The sortie resulted in the Signal boys capturing eight
prisoners and two machine guns, but it cost the loss of Corporal Charles
E. Boykin, who did not return. Two days later during a general advance,
Sergeant Henry E. Moody was mortally wounded while at his post. Boykin
was killed outright, while Sergeant Moody died in the hospital, these
being the first two o