<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnd in a later dispatch Mr. Tyler continued:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Realizing that there is nothing more encouraging to the race back in the States than to learn how bravely our colored soldiers over here are enduring and fighting. I made it a point to secure a fuller report of the bravery displayed by Captain J. Wormley Jones, of Washington, D. C., in one of the Argonne engagements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The place of honor, it appears, fell to Captain Jones’s regiment, and to the battalion to which he belongs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under cover of the night’s pitch-black darkness, the Captain led his men into the trenches overlooking No-Man’s-Land, that grim sepulcher that holds so many thousands of the Allies’ and the enemy dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Notwithstanding that Captain Jones and his men had just completed a forced march of some twenty kilometers, the men were in excellent condition and splendid spirits, and eager to demonstrate their fitness to try conclusions with the Huns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Captain Jones was supported by Lieutenants Frank Coleman, C. W. Marshall, D. J. Henderson, and Paul Jones, the last mentioned being a brother of the captain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These men were all of ‘the sterner stuff,’ and fit for the trying ordeal which awaited them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Space forbids dealing with the blackness of the night, or with the awful bombardment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Neither can I individualize respecting the magnificent valor of the men of the company led by Captain Jones in this engagement, which Secretary Baker himself praised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the awful bombardment died away, just as the gray streaks of early dawn pierced the night’s blackness, which was made grayer by a thick heavy fog, the Captain ordered a charge ‘over the top’ with fixed bayonets; through the treacherous fog and into no-man-knew-what or seemed to care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first wave, or detachment, went over with a cheer—a triumphant cheer—and the second wave followed their comrades with a dash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It may, perhaps, be best to let these boys and officers tell with their own lips of the terrific, murderous shell, shrapnel, gas, and machine-gun fire which baptized them, only to make them the more hardened and intrepid warriors; of how they contended every inch; fought with marvelous valor, never for an instant faltering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trench after trench of the enemy was entered and conquered; dugout after dugout was successfully grenaded and made safe for the boys to follow; wires were cut and communicating trenches explored; machine-gun nests were raided and silenced, and still the boys fought their way on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, as a natural sequence to such a daring raid, there were casualties, but the black soldiers, heroes as they were, never flinched at death, and the wounded were too proud of their achievements even to murmur because of the pain they endured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Captain Jones and his men took over a mile of land and trenches which for four years had been held by the Germans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The newspapers have given due and proper credit to the Americans for this daring raid, but the world has not been informed that it was the colored soldiers of America, under Captain J. Wormley Jones, a former Washington, D. C.,. policeman, who made the charge that was as daring, and more successful, than the Tennyson-embalmed charge of ‘The Light Brigade.’ “<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This excerpt is from Emmett J. Scott\u2019s book that was published in 1919: Scott\u2019s Official History Of The American Negro In The World War E.J. Scott republished accounts by Ralph W. Tyler, the African American war correspondent sent to cover the black regiments. The full text is available at the BYU website. I have edited … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1635"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1639,"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635\/revisions\/1639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Scott-WWI-book-cover.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n