toiled back of the lines that those
at the front might have subsistence and the sinews of conflict.

The most indispensable cog in the great machine which existed behind
the lines, was the stevedore regiments, the butcher companies, the
engineer, labor and Pioneer battalions, nearly all incorporated in that
department of the army technically designated as the S.O.S. (Service of
Supply). In the main these were blacks. Every Negro who served in the
combatant forces could have been dispensed with. They would have been
missed, truly; but there were enough white men to take their places if
necessary. But how seriously handicapped would the Expeditionary forces
have been without the great army of Negroes, numbering over 100,000 in
France, with thousands more in this country designed for the same
service; who unloaded the ships, felled the trees, built the railroad
grades and laid the tracks; erected the warehouses, fed the fires which
turned the wheels; cared for the horses and mules and did the million
and one things, which Negro brawn and Negro willingness does so
acceptably.

Theirs not to seek "the bubble reputation at the cannon's mouth," that
great composed, uncomplaining body of men; content simply to wear the
uniform and to know that their toil was contributing to a result just as
important as the work of anyone in the army. Did they wish to fight?
They did; just as ardently as any man who carried a rifle, served a
machine gun or a field piece. But some must cut wood and eat of humble
bread, and there came in those great qualities of patience and
resignation which makes of the Negro so dependable an asset in all such
emergencies.

How shall we describe their chronology or write their log? They were
everywhere in France where they were needed. As one officer expressed
it, at one time it looked as though they would chop down all the trees
in that country. Their units and designations were changed. They were
shifted from place to place so often and given such a variety of duties
it would take a most active historian to follow them. In the maze of
data in the War Department at Washington, it would take months to
separate and give an adequate account of their operations.

[Illustration: BACK WITH THE HEROIC 15TH (369TH INFANTRY). LIEUT. JAMES
REESE EUROPE'S FAMOUS BAND PARADING UP LENOX AVENUE, HARLEM, NEW YORK
CITY. LIEUT. EUROPE SPECIALLY ENLARGED IN LEFT FOREGROUND.]

[Illustration: SERGEANT HENRY JOHNSON (STANDIN