Reporting this fight, General Naulin, commanding the Corps of which the
2d and 36th Divisions were parts, said "the 36th Division, a recent
formation not yet completely organized, was ordered into line on the
night of October 6-7 to relieve, under conditions particularly delicate,
the 2d Division, and to dislodge the enemy from the crest north of St.
Etienne and throw him back to the Aisne. Although being under fire for
the first time, the young soldiers of Maj. Gen. W. R. Smith, rivaling in
combative spirit and tenacity the old and valiant regiment of General
LeJeune, accomplished all the tasks set for them." Every American knows
full well the bright record of the 2d Division of Infantry, the regulars
of which were composed of the 5th and 6th Marines and the 9th and 23rd
Infantry. These are the boys who stopped the Germans up in Belleau Wood
when the boches were headed for Paris and cocksure of getting there,
blandly unaware that they were goose-stepping toward an American
knock-out.
OUR COLORED TROOPS WIN CREDIT
American negro troops had a considerable share in the last few months of
fighting, and acquitted themselves in a highly creditable manner. They
were great trench diggers and trench fighters, and their endurance on
the march was a marvel to the allied armies. They were very popular with
the French people, who were delighted with their good nature and their
never-ceasing songs. Regular negro melodies these songs were, nearly all
of them of the camp-meeting variety--and sung with that choral beauty
which especially distinguishes all of their musical performances. The
negro notion of war and indifference to death was instanced in the case
where a white officer overheard one of them at the zero hour call out,
"Good night ol' world! Good mawin,' Mistah Jesus!" as he went over the
top.
"The colored boys," said Charles N. Wheeler, a distinguished
correspondent with the American armies, "are great fighters, and
are no better and no worse than any other group of American soldiers
in France, whatever the blood strain. They do take pardonable pride
in the fact that 'Mistah' Johnson, a colored boy, was the first American
soldier in France to be decorated for extraordinary bravery under
fire.
THEY CAN FIGHT AND SING
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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