Addie W. Hunton

“ You have won the admiration of the population for the care that you have not ceased to give these black soldiers, who are wonderful children, with generous hearts, a spirit of good comradeship, possessing also a French trait—that of loving and making themselves beloved.
Touched by the welcome which is given them, their hearts are wounded because they cannot fraternize with their white comrades as they do with us, and they regret not to be able to express to us more than a promise to return to France, the country of fraternity. ”

“ At Aix-les-Bains the Young Men’s Christian Association had its activities in the Casino—one of the most luxurious and spacious places of amusement on the Continent. With a beautiful garden on one side and an imposing entrance on the other, this Grand Cercle, as it is called, was the Monte Carlo of France until the war came. It has a fine theatre, seating a thousand people; a sumptuous ball-room, grand salon and many other rooms, beautiful with their mosaics, rich carvings and stained glass windows. All of these were put to use for the entertainment of the soldiers. ”

“ But springtime had come again in France with its song-birds and blood-red poppies, and with it the quick consciousness that the dead lying en-masse on the battlefields must be given resting places befitting heroes.
Here was a tremendous task for the surviving American soldiers, but far more sacred than tremendous. Whose would be the hands to gather as best they could and place beneath the white crosses of honor the remains of those who had sanctified their spirits through the gift of their lifeblood? ”

“ As Lieutenant Colonel Duncan said, November 28th, in offering to me your regimental colors as proof of your love for France, as an expression of your loyalty to the 59th Division of our Army, you have given us your best, and you have given out of the fulness of your hearts.
“The blood of your comrades who fell on the soil of France mixed with the blood of our soldiers, renders indissoluble the bonds of affection that unite us. We have besides, the pride of having worked together at a magnificent task, the pride of bearing on our foreheads the ray of common grandeur. ”

“ The Salvation of Music Overseas THOSE who know the native love and ability of our race for music will not marvel at the statement that colored soldiers sang, whistled and played their way through the late war. There were days of hunger and thirst; days full of deathly fatigue; days filled with the dense smoke and deafening uproar of battle; days when terrible discriminations and prejudices ate into the soul deeper than the oppressors knew. But through it all there was salvation—the salvation of the music that welled so naturally in the souls of the colored soldiers. ”

“ The long dark form of the Louvre; the beautiful Notre Dame with the nearby Hotel de Ville, and the gold-domed Hotel des Invalides are among the dominating views of the famous little Seine, and in them is summed up much of the death and resurrection of a nation. But outside of Paris the footsteps of the world seemed to turn toward Rheims. Rheims with its far-famed cathedral, all war-despoiled, became a place of pilgrimage not only for the devoted French, but for the thousands of foreigners on their soil. ”

“ The men driving their cows and sheep on market day, the women and children riding in the carts or walking about the towns, all in the native costume of their class, close the door on the present and, for a time, make one a part of the past. Its old stone gateways and courts, its old squares and old passages and more than all else, its old men and women with their clattering wooden shoes, reveal how little the outer world has penetrated to that ancient spot. ”

“ They looked upon the relics left by a people long gone, and saw the picturesqueness of a great and wonderful country, as they took their way from the port cities to the front line trenches, or to the towering Alps, or through the farms and villages of a quaint and thrifty people. And while they traveled they learned that there is a fair-skinned people in the world who believe in the equality of races, and who practice what they believe. ”

“ To be in Brest in winter was to feel the gloom and penetrating chill of England with the addition during the war period of mud everywhere—earth ground into sinking mire such as only vast and constant movements of men and machinery could produce. It was the greatest port of the war, and men were always there by the thousands. We climbed high above the city one winter evening to visit the men at Camp Lincoln. ”

“ Never will the 157th Division forget the indomitable dash, the heroical rush of the American regiments up the Observatory Ridge and into the Plain of Monthois. The most powerful defenses, the most strongly organized machine-gun nests, the heaviest artillery barrages—nothing could stop them. These crack regiments overcame every obstacle with a most complete contempt for danger; through their steady devotion the Red Hand Division, for nine whole days of severe struggle, was constantly leading the way of the advance of the Fourth Army. ”

“ To those of us who went over to cast our lots with the boys in khaki, nothing was quite so inspiring and so helpful as to hear them tell of their faith in God, or to give utterance to a prayer that bespoke the upward groping of a soul, or to hear a thousand voices, deep and rich and rhythmic, bring heaven into a sacred and almost visible nearness, with singing that seemed nothing less than a special benediction to a peculiar people. ”

“ Officers, non-commissioned officers and men, I respectfully salute our glorious comrades who have fallen, and I bow to your colors, side by side with the flag of the 333rd Regiment of Infantry that have shown us the way to victory.
Dear Friends from America, when you will be back again on the other side of the ocean, don’t forget the Red Hand Division; our brotherhood has been cemented in the blood of the brave, and such bonds will never be destroyed. ”

“ When you landed in France you were acclaimed as comrades in arms, brothers in a great cause. In the days that have passed, no man, no little child, has had cause to regret that first glorious welcome. Surrounded by new and unusual conditions, beset by subtle temptations, you have kept your hearts high, and with purpose fixed on the high ideal of service, you have put away those things that did not contribute strength for the task at hand. ”

“ After many months we went away from the confusion of war to beautiful southern France. There we worked to make happy the days of the men who came for rest and recreation to that wonderful Alpine region of Savoie. There in the Leave Area, by the side of shimmering Lake Bourget, we learned something more of the life of our soldiers as they fought or worked on French soil. Every week, for five months or more, a thousand or so men poured into Chambery and Challes-les-Eaux, and we saw in them the gladness or depression of their service. ”

“ No group of men had a deeper baptism of pain and loneliness in France than the Corps of Engineers. Although classed as non-combatant troops, they might, in an emergency, as at Chateau Thierry, become combatant. There, in the crisis of a struggle, they dealt the German invaders the decisive blow that not only sent them reeling to defeat, but caused the world in general to attach a new importance and appreciation to the work of the engineer.
The colored engineers, however, although sometimes trained with arms in the United States were, for the most part, not permitted the use of them in France. ”

“ Perhaps there in the camp one could comprehend better than in America that through mighty travail was being born to the world a New Day in which men would be conscious of their worth, assured of their liberty, and learn that right after all is might.
Over the canteen in France included not only a cozy reading room and the selection of books for the men to read, but it meant also, reading to them or with them in leisure moments. One must help, too, in educational work. ”

“ As they marched away from camp, they sang for her, cheered for her chocolate and crullers and left little tokens of affection, and while she had served them with a warm and willing heart, always she would be thinking, there are only three colored women in France for all the colored soldiers, and one of them serving white soldiers. ”

“ When on top of the military invasion of Paris there came an American delegation 1,400 strong, filling the air with principles and viewpoints, and amusing itself loudly and continuously, not the most civilized president in the world could quite cover with his professional mantle the nakedness of his countrymen. ”

“ This volume is written at a time when, after the shock of terrific warfare, the world has not yet found its balance—when, in the midst of confusion, justice and truth call loudly for the democracy for which we have paid.
If for all time the world is to be free from the murderous scourge called war, it must make universal and eternal the practical application of the time-worn theory of the brotherhood of man. ”

“ Whatever ultimate arrangements are made it is fairly clear that America will have more money than she knows what to do with, and that Europe will be, to an extent unknown before, an American playground and Europe will hate it to-morrow as Paris hates it to-day. ”

“ Later we learn that many of our own boys have been sent to another camp, and that most of those in our camp are in a distant part. We learn something else—influenza is raging—hundreds of men have died on the voyage—the hospitals are crowded, so are the barracks. Sick men could hardly be left in “pup” tents in the deep mud and constant rain of that season. That night another change comes over our hut. On all the benches, in all the corners and in what had been our cheerful reading room are sick men, many of them ill unto death. ”

“ The French people are affectionate and demonstrative, which corresponds to the deep emotional spirit which seems the heritage of the colored American. The colored soldiers were naturally musical, and many of them sang with a wonderful penetrating pathos, or with notes that brought forth joy that was unconfined; others were talented and accomplished pianists. These things appealed deeply to the artistic soul of our French comrades. ”

“ There were vales and grottoes, lakes and mountains to which we went, but there was always the soldier and one used these Stray Days largely to gather new strength, new vigor for the important task back in the Y hut. One might go many miles away from camp life, but the vision of those thousands of virile lads with soul and body steeled for the hour could not be lost and always sent one back to them with an eager longing to serve better than before. ”

“ For weeks at Romagne we watched these [237] men fare forth with the dawn to find the dead on the 480 square miles of battlefield of the Meuse-Argonne. At eventide we would see them return and reverently remove the boxes from the long lines of trucks and place them on the hillside beside the waiting trenches that other soldiers had been digging all the long busy day. Far into the night we would sit in our darkened tent looking out on the electric-lighted cemetery, watching the men as they lowered the boxes into the trenches. ”

“ Riding along the coast one day, looking out upon the long lines of warehouses, hearing the hum of the thousands of men at work, she said: “I have gained with the years a growing appreciation and love for the colored people, and I have seen nothing in France finer than the work of the stevedores. I have written and dedicated a poem to them.” That afternoon, after she had spoken for a few minutes to the thousands of swarthy soldiers, assembled to pay her homage, her companion read the poem as follows:
We are the army stevedores, lusty and virile and strong. ”