Chapter XXV: Quiet Heroes of the Brawny Arm

NEGRO STEVEDORE, PIONEER AND LABOR UNITS--SWUNG THE AXE AND TURNED THE WHEEL--THEY WERE INDISPENSABLE--EVERYWHERE IN FRANCE--HEWERS OF WOOD, DRAWERS OF WATER--NUMBERS AND DESIGNATIONS OF UNITS--ACQUIRED SPLENDID REPUTATION--CONTESTS AND AWARDS--PRIDE IN THEIR SERVICE--MEASURED UP TO MILITARY STANDARDS--LESTER WALTONS APPRECIATION--ELLA WHEELER WILCOX'S POETIC TRIBUTE.

Some went forth to fight, to win deathless fame or the heroes' crown of death in battle. There were some who remained to be hewers of wood and drawers of water. Which performed the greater service?

For the direct uplift and advancement of his race; for the improved standing gained for it in the eyes of other races, the heroism, and steadfastness and the splendid soldierly qualities exhibited by the Negro fighting man, were of immeasurable benefit. Those were the things which the world heard about, the exemplifications of the great modern forces and factors of publicity and advertising. In the doing of their "bit" so faithfully and capably, the Negro combatant forces won just title to all the praise and renown which they have received. Their contribution to the cause of liberty and democracy, cannot be discounted; will shine through the ages, and through the ages grow brighter.

But their contribution as fighting men to the cause of Justice and Humanity was no greater, in a sense than that of their brethren: "Unwept, unhonored and unsung," who 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.

It is known that a contingent of them accompanied the very first forces that went abroad from this country. In fact, it may be said, that the feet of American Negroes were among the first in our forces to touch the soil of France. It is known that they numbered at least 136 different companies, battalions and regiments in France. If there were more, the records at Washington had not sufficiently catalogued them up to the early part of 1919 to say who they were.

In the desire to get soldiers abroad in 1918, the policy of the administration and the Department seems to have been to make details and bookkeeping a secondary consideration. The names of all, their organizations and officers were faithfully kept, but distinctions between whites and blacks were very obscure. Until the complete historical records of the Government are compiled, it will be impossible to separate them with accuracy.

Negro non-combatant forces in France at the end of the war included the 301st, 302nd and 303rd Stevedore Regiments and the 701st and 702nd Stevedor Battalions; the 322nd and 363rd Butchery Companies; Engineer Service battalions numbered from 505 to 550, inclusive; Labor battalions numbered from 304 to 348, inclusive, also Labor battalion 357; Labor companies numbered from 301 to 324, inclusive; Pioneer Infantry regiments numbered 801, 809, 811, 813, 815 and 816, inclusive. These organizations known as Pioneers, had some of the functions of infantry, some of those of engineers and some of those of labor units. They were prepared to exercise all three, but in France they were called upon to act principally as modified engineering and labor outfits. They also furnished replacement troops for some of the combatant units.

Service was of the dull routine void of the spectacular, and has never been sufficiently appreciated. In our enthusiasm over their fighting brothers we should not overlook nor underestimate these. There were many thousands of white engineers and Service of Supply men in general, but their operations were mostly removed from the base ports.

Necessity for the work was imperative. Owing to the requirements of the British army, the Americans could not use the English Channel ports. They were obliged to land on the west and south coasts of France, where dock facilities were pitifully inadequate. Railway facilities from the ports to the interior were also inadequate. The American Expeditionary Forces not only enlarged every dock and increased the facilities of every harbor, but they built railways and equipped them with American locomotives and cars and manned them with American crews.

Great warehouses were built as well as barracks, cantonments and hospitals. Without these facilities the army would have been utterly useless. Negroes did the bulk of the work. They were an indispensable wheel in the machinery, without which all would have been chaos or inaction.

Headquarters of the Service of Supply was at Tours. It was the great assembling and distributing point. At that point and at the base ports of Brest, Bordeaux, St. Nazaire and La Pallice most of the Negro Service of Supply organizations were located. The French railroads and the specially constructed American lines ran from the base ports and centered at Tours.

This great industrial army was under strict military regulations. Every man was a soldier, wore the uniform and was under commissioned and non-commissioned officers the same as any combatant branch of the service.

The Negro Service of Supply men acquired a great reputation in the various activities to which they were assigned, especially for efficiency and celerity in unloading ships and handling the vast cargoes of materials and supplies of every sort at the base ports. They were a marvel to the French and astonished not a few of the officers of our own army. They sang and joked at their work. The military authorities had bands to entertain them and stimulate them to greater efforts when some particularly urgent task was to be done. Contests and friendly rivalries were also introduced to speed up the work.

The contests were grouped under the general heading of "A Race to Berlin" and were conducted principally among the stevedores. Prizes, decorations and banners were offered as an incentive to effort in the contests. The name, however, was more productive of results than anything else. The men felt that it really was a race to Berlin and that they were the runners up of the boys at the front.

Ceremonies accompanying the awards were quite elaborate and impressive. The victors were feasted and serenaded. Many a stevedore is wearing a medal won in one of these conquests of which he is as proud, and justly so, as though it were a Croix de Guerre or a Distinguished Service Cross. Many a unit is as proud of its banner as though it were won in battle.

Thousands of Service of Supply men remained with the American Army of Occupation after the war; that is, they occupied the same relative position as during hostilities--behind the lines. The Army of Occupation required food and supplies, and the duty of getting them into Germany devolved largely upon the American Negro.

Large numbers of them were stationed at Toul, Verdun, Epernay, St. Mihiel, Fismes and the Argonne, where millions of dollars worth of stores of all kinds were salvaged and guarded by them. So many were left behind and so important was their work, that the Negro Y.M.C.A. sent fifteen additional canteen workers to France weeks after the signing of the armistice, as the stay of the Service of Supply men was to be indefinitely prolonged.

The Rev. D.L. Ferguson, of Louisville, Ky., who for more than a year was stationed at St. Nazaire as a Y.M.C.A. worker, and became a great favorite with the men, says that during the war they took great pride in their companies, their camps, and all that belonged to the army; that because their work was always emphasized by the officers as being essential to the boys in the trenches, the term "stevedore" became one of dignity as representing part of a great American Army.

How splendidly the stevedores and others measured up to military standards and the great affection with which their officers regarded them, Rev. Dr. Ferguson makes apparent by quoting Colonel C.E. Goodwin, who for over a year was in charge of the largest camp of Negro Service of Supply men in France. In a letter to Rev. Dr. Ferguson he said:

"It is with many keen thrusts of sorrow that I am obliged to leave
this camp and the men who have made up this organization. The men
for whose uplift you are working have not only gained, but have
truly earned a large place in my heart, and I will always cherish a
loving memory of the men of this wonderful organization which I
have had the honor and privilege to command."

Lester A. Walton, who went abroad as a correspondent for the New York Age, thus commented on the stevedores and others of the same service:

"I had the pleasure and honor to shake hands with hundreds of
colored stevedores and engineers while in France. The majority were
from the South, where there is a friendly, warm sun many months of
the year. When I talked with them no sun of any kind had greeted
them for weeks. It was the rainy season when a clear sky is a
rarity and a downpour of rain is a daily occurrence. Yet, there was
not one word of complaint heard, for they were 'doing their bit' as
expected of real soldiers. Naturally they expressed a desire to get
home soon, but this was a wish I often heard made by a doughboy.

"Members of the 'S.O.S.' will not came back to America wearing the
Distinguished Service Cross or the Croix de Guerre for exceptional
gallantry under fire, but the history of the great world war would
be incomplete and lacking in authenticity if writers failed to tell
of the bloodless deeds of heroism performed by non-combatant
members of the American Expeditionary Forces."

During the summer of 1918, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, the poetess, went to France to write and also to help entertain the soldiers with talks and recitations. While at one of the large camps in Southern France, the important work of the colored stevedore came to her notice and she was moved to write a poem which follows:

THE STEVEDORES

We are the Army Stevedores, lusty and virile and strong.
We are given the hardest work of the war, and the hours are long.
We handle the heavy boxes and shovel the dirty coal;
While soldiers and sailors work in the light, we burrow below like a mole.
But somebody has to do this work or the soldiers could not fight!
And whatever work is given a man is good if he does it right.
We are the Army Stevedores, and we are volunteers.
We did not wait for the draft to come, and put aside our fears.
We flung them away to the winds of fate at the very first call of our land.
And each of us offered a willing heart, and the strength of a brawny hand.
We are the Army Stevedores, and work we must and may,
The cross of honor will never be ours to proudly wear and sway.
But the men at the front could not be there, and the battles could not be won.
If the stevedores stopped in their dull routine and left their work undone.
Somebody has to do this work; be glad that it isn't you.
We are the Army Stevedores--give us our due.