division, which was made up of the 369th, 370th, 371st and the
372nd regiments of infantry, was put into service green, so green they
did not know the use of rockets and thought a gas alarm and the tooting
of sirens meant that the Germans were coming in automobiles. The New
York regiment came largely from Brooklyn and the district around West
59th street in New York City, called San Juan Hill in reference to
certain notable achievements of Negro troops at a place of that name in
the Spanish-American war.

They learned the game of war rapidly. The testimony of their officers
was to the effect that it was not hard to send them into danger--the
hard part being to keep them from going into it of their own accord. It
was necessary to watch them like hawks to keep them from slipping off on
independent raiding parties.

The New York regiment had a band of 40 pieces, second to none in the
American army. It is stated that the officers and men in authority in
the French billeting places had difficulty in keeping the villagers from
following the band away when it played plantation airs and syncopations
as only Negroes can play them.

On April 12, 1918, the 369th took over a sector of 5-1/2 kilometers in
the Bois de Hauzy on the left of a fringe of the Argonne Forest. There
they stayed until July 1st. There was no violent fighting in the sector,
but many raids back and forth by the Negroes and the Germans, rifle
exchanges and occasionally some artillery action.

One important engagement occurred June 12th, which the soldiers called
the million dollar raid, because they thought the preparatory barrage of
the Germans must have cost all of that. The Germans came over, probably
believing they would find the Negro outfit scared stiff. But the Negro
lads let them have grenades, accurate rifle fire and a hail from some
concealed machine gun nests. Sergt. Bob Collins was later given the
Croix de Guerre for his disposition of the machine guns on that
occasion.

While holding the sector of Hauzy Wood, the 369th was the only barrier
between the German army and Paris. However, had there been an attempt to
break through, General Gouraud, the French army commander, would have
had strength enough there at once to stop it. About this time everyone
in the Allied armies knew that the supreme German effort was about to
come. It was felt as a surety that the brunt of the drive would fall
upon the 4th French Army, of which the 369th regiment and o