Unfortunately the term “stevedores” came to mean to many people those who were physically or mentally unfit to be fighting men and they were looked upon as inferior to other soldiers. Sometimes this was true, but it is also true that there were thousands of stevedores who represented the best of the young manhood of America. In the beginning of the draft hundreds of Negro men who met all the physical qualifications could not meet the educational tests. Such men were usually transferred to stevedore organizations, and the rate of illiteracy in these ran from 35 to 75 per cent. Sometimes also those who because of physical unfitness were only partially able to serve their country when it needed them, nevertheless rendered some valuable service in American camps. Such a company was the 402nd Reserve Labor Battalion, stationed at Camp Hancock, Augusta, Ga. This was located fifteen miles from the camp in a wood, where it built roads and also kept in condition the range for the officers and men being trained for the battle fronts in France. The question naturally arises how it happened that some of the best of the Negro youth were placed in the stevedore regiments. In the beginning there was great need for men to do the manual work connected with supplying with food and equipment two million soldiers in France. The Negro was regarded by many army officials as specially adapted to this work because of his previous training and his cheerful disposition; and for one reason or another some other officials deemed it advisable to withhold from him regular military training. Accordingly, in the fall of 1917, colored draftees and volunteers were sent to various assembling camps and formed into stevedore and labor units. Thousands from the Southern states, many of them students in the schools and colleges, rushed to the colors with the hope of entering combatant units, only to find, to their great disappointment, that they had been assigned to service regiments.