coveted decoration. A large number of
Distinguished Service Crosses were also distributed to the 93rd division
by General Pershing.

The verdict pronounced by critical French commanders may be considered
as an unquestionable confirmation that the Negro troops were under all
conditions brave fighters. This fact and the improved status of the
Negro as a result of it was pointed to by the New York Tribune, in a
leading editorial in its issue of February 14, 1919. It said:

"The bas-relief of the Shaw Memorial became a living thing as the
dusky heroes of the 15th cheered the Liberty statue and happily
swarmed down the gangplank. Appropriately the arrival was on the
birthday of the "revered Lincoln," and never was the young and
martyred idealist of Massachusetts filled with greater pride than
swelled in Colonel Hayward as he talked of his men the best
regiment, he said, with pardonable emphasis, 'of all engaged in the
great war.'

"These were men of the Champagne and the Argonne whose step was
always forward; who held a trench ninety days without relief, with
every night a raid night; who won 171 medals for conspicuous
bravery; who saw the war expire under their pressure in a
discouraged German cannonade. First class fighting men! Hats off to
them! The tribunal of grace does not regard skin color when
assessing souls.

"The boys cheered the Bartholdi statue. It makes some whites
uncomfortable. It converts into strange reading glib eulogies of
democratic principles.

"A large faith possesses the Negro. He has such confidence in
justice,--the flow--of which he believes will yet soften hard
hearts. We have a wonderful example of a patience that defies
discouragement; the "Souls of Black Folk"! When values are truly
measured, some things will be different in this country."

CHAPTER XVI.

THROUGH HELL AND SUFFERING.

Negro Officers Make Good--Wonderful Record of the 8th Illinois--"Black
Devils" Win Decorations Galore--Tribute of French Commander--His
Farewell to Prairie Fighters--They Fought After War Was Over--Hard to
Stop Them--Individual Deeds of Heroism--Their Dead, Their Wounded and
Suffering--A Poem.

In the past when the subject of the Negro's fighting ability was under
discussion, there were always found those whose grudging assent to his
merits as a soldier was modified by the assertio