As the end of the training period drew near an extra month was added. This action raised doubts, not only in the minds of the candidates but with the colored people throughout the country. It was a trying season everywhere, for the extension of time came close upon the riots at Houston. A general from the War Department came to the camp and spoke in a most discouraging manner of the future of the candidates. He questioned the advisability of continuing the camp and raised doubts as to whether the candidates would ever be commissioned. A few days after his visit it was announced that all who wanted to leave might do so. Some of the more faint-hearted left, but most of the men continued their studies and gained further knowledge of the essentials of warfare. Gradually the clouds cleared away and those who remained looked forward to the time when they would be real officers in the Army of the United States. Then came the day of days, October 15, 1917, when 625 colored men were commissioned in the United States Army. As they came forward to receive their commissions they were deeply moved, and even the commanding officer showed visible signs of emotion as he gave to them words of farewell and impressed upon them the seriousness of the task before them. Dr. Emmett J. Scott, Special Assistant to the Secretary of War, said to them: “I know you will bear in mind that in a very real sense you and those who serve with you have in your keeping the good name of a proud, expectant, and confident people”; and each man went away with the feeling of responsibility that comes when life is dedicated to a great cause. Thus a new chapter was begun in the history of the Negro on this continent and the first skirmish to prove that Negro men could absorb the training required of officers was won with honors. * * * * * After a brief vacation of fifteen days, the new officers reported to the various camps and were assigned to their duties. While they had successfully completed the course of study at Fort Des Moines, the real test of making officers was still before them. This task was made more difficult by the assignments to duty which some of them received. Some were sent to the artillery and engineering corps and given tasks for which they had had no preparation. Having already absorbed army discipline, however, they went about their tasks with the hope of mastering them, though with opinion against them. The organization of the 92nd Division, composed entirely of Negroes drafted into the National Army, made it necessary to train officers and men in other branches than infantry and cavalry, with which Negroes had formerly served and for which they had been trained. Therefore engineer, artillery, and machine-gun regiments were formed along with the other branches required in the full organization of a division. While divisions were usually trained in one camp, the regiments of the 92nd were distributed in several groups.