“The Negroes proved themselves especially good soldiers during gas attacks,” said Colonel Rothwell, “which were numerous and of a very treacherous nature.  During the wet weather the gas would remain close to the ground and settle, where it was comparatively harmless, but with the breaking out of the sun it would rise in clouds suddenly and play havoc with the troops.”

Green troops as they were, it is related that there was a little confusion on the occasion of their first battle, when the regiment encountered barbed wire entanglements for the first time at a place in the woods where the Germans had brought their crack gunners to keep the line.  But there was no cowardice and the confusion soon subsided.  They quickly got used to the wire, cut their way through and cleaned out the gunners in record time.

Every one of the enemy picked up in that section of the woods was wearing an iron cross; the equivalent of the French Croix de Guerre or the American Distinguished Service Cross.  It showed that they belonged to the flower of the Kaiser’s forces.  But they were no match for the “Black Devils,” a favorite name of the Germans for all Negro troops, and applied by them with particular emphasis to these troops and others of the 92nd Division.

On October 10th, the regiment went to Metz and took part in all the operations leading up to that campaign and the close of the war.  In the Argonne, before Metz and elsewhere, they were subjected constantly to gas warfare.  They behaved remarkably well under those attacks.

Major Benjamin P. Morris, who commanded the Third Battalion, has stated that in the drive which started September 26th, he lost nearly 25 per cent of his men through wounding or gassing.  The battalion won eight Distinguished Service Crosses in that attack and the Major was recommended for one of the coveted decorations.

The regiment lost forty-four men killed in action, thirteen died from wounds and eight were missing in action.  The list of wounded and gassed ran over three hundred.

Individual exploits were quite numerous and were valiant in the extreme.  Here is an instance: 

It became necessary to send a runner with a message to the left flank of the American firing line.  The way was across an open field offering no covering or protection of any kind, and swept by heavy enemy machine gun fire.

Volunteers were called for.  A volunteer under such circumstances must be absolutely fearless.  The slightest streak of timidity or cowardice would keep a man from offering his services.  Private Edward Saunders of Company I, responded for the duty.  Before he had gone far a shell cut him down.  As he fell he cried to his comrades: 

“Someone come and get this message.  I am wounded.”

Lieutenant Robert L. Campbell, a Negro officer of the same company sprang to the rescue.  He dashed across the shell-swept space, picked up the wounded private, and, with the Germans fairly hailing bullets around him, carried his man back to the lines.  There was the case of an officer who considered it more important to save the life of a heroic, valuable soldier than to speed a message.  Besides the wounded man could proceed no farther and there were other ways of getting the message through and it was sent.