Most of the nearly 400,000 African American soldiers who served in the U.S. Army during World War I worked in segregated labor battalions. But 20 percent fought on the front lines. The 93rd division, comprised of four African American infantry regiments, the 369th, 370th, 371th and 372nd who were attached to the French 157th (Red Hand) Infantry Division. The 372nd Infantry Regiment was staffed by 900 men from the 9th Separate Colored Infantry Battalion of the Ohio National Guard from Springfield, Ohio. It was organized in January 1918 at Camp Stewart, Virginia and initially assigned to the 93rd Division (Provisional). The 372nd Infantry also contained soldiers from Guard units from the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maryland.
In 1918, main American Expeditionary Force (AEF) refused to let Black and White Americans fight side by side, but French leaders had no such objection. Ironically, the commander of the AEF, General John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing had earned his nickname and reputation as an officer in the 10th Cavalry Regiment, then still a Black Buffalo Soldier regiment. While Pershing was an early supporter of having "colored" soldiers in the military, he seems to have bowed to political expediency in this case. So when the 372nd Infantry Regiment arrived in France they were immediately assigned to the 157th Infantry of the French Army—the renowned Red Hand Division—to help fight in the famous Meuse-Argonne offensive.
The 372nd embarked on the U.S.S. Susquehanna from Newport News, Virginia on the 30th of March 1918 for overseas duty. On April 13th, 1918, the 372nd arrived to port at Saint Nazaire and went into training with the French eleven days later. At 0700 hours they began a march in heavy rain and by 1400 hours the next day, the 372nd reached their destination of Conde-en-Barrois and began its training with the French XIII Corps until 26 May 1918. The instructors were in French and the lessons were hard and severe, but the instructors afterwards had much cause for pride in their pupils. After completing its training the 372nd joined the French 63rd Division, which had been holding the Aire Sector on the Meuse-Argonne front between the Aire River to the Le Four de Paris.
The 372nd Infantry took over the sector known as “Argonne West” and were officially on the front-lines trenches by the 4th of June 1918. On 29 June 1918, the 372nd change its sector and took over the Vacquois Sector (subsector of the Verdun) where a suspected German attack was to take place. The French 157th Division, of which the 371st and 372nd Infantry Regiments were attached, had been placed as the Reserve Division, and on July 1st July 1918, the 372nd assumed command of the Vaquois subsector, east of the Aire River. After occupying the Verdun sector between July to September, the 372nd moved with the French 157th Division to Hans, near Somme-Bionne, in preparation for the Meuse-Argonne (Champagne) Offensive with the French Fourth Army.
It had the distinction of being the first American outfit to take over that sector. The battalion fought doggedly and bravely at Ripont and succeeded in gaining much valuable territory, as well as enemy machine guns and supplies and ninety Hun prisoners. Later the battalion held a front line position at Monthois, and it finally formed a salient in the line of the 9th French Army Corps. Despite its small population, Monthois was important because the Germans controlled the railroad that went through the town and used it to supply their army. The Germans fought fiercely to keep Monthois and hand-to-hand combat between the American and German forces was frequent. The 372nd entered the town on October 2, but the Germans drove them back to a position just outside of Monthois.
It was subjected to a long period of grueling fire from the Boches' famous Austrian 88s and machine guns, and an incessant barrage from German weapons of high caliber. In late September and early October, the 372nd, 369th, 371st, and the 2nd Moroccan Division saw heavy combat in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, with American casualties of more than 2500 men (killed, wounded, and died of wounds). The Battle of Meuse-Argonne was the final major fight of World War I and is one of the largest battles in U.S. military history and had a total casualty count over 350,000 (over 26,000 being American). In two weeks of combat, the 372nd suffered 616 casualties and 107 deaths, but their advance was decisive in ending the war.
In the nine days' battle the 372nd Infantry Regiment not only proved their fighting qualities in an ordeal such as men rarely have been called upon to face, but these qualities in deadly striking power and stubborn resistance in crises, stood out with great distinction. The French awarded the 372nd Infantry with their prestigious Croix de Guerre and decorated the regimental flag. The French commanding general paid tribute, stating, “The ‘Red Hand’ sign of the Division, thanks to you, became a bloody hand. . . . You have well avenged our glorious dead.” The "Bloody Hand" became the logo of the 372nd Colored Infantry Regiment’s Company E for their battlefield heroics, incorporates the regiment’s official military uniform patch, a red hand inside an oval. The United States command never made any such acknowledgment.
First Lieutenant Urbane Francis Bass was one of the medical officers that was killed in action on October 6th, in the last days of the Meuse–Argonne offensive. On November 17th, 1918, the French 161st Division and the 369th Infantry advanced into Germany as part of the French Army of Occupation until the 369th was relieved from French command on 12 December 1918. In December 1918, the French 157th Division of which the 371st and 372nd Infantry Regiments served under, was disbanded. The 371st and 372nd Infantry Regiments went back under American command. In January 1919, they were relocated to the American Embarkation Station in Le Mans, France where they sailed from Brest, France on the 3rd of February 1919 and arrived in Hoboken, New Jersey on February 11th.
The 372nd Infantry understood the significance of their service, and wanted to leave a monument in France to their fallen comrades. The officers and enlisted men of the 372nd Infantry created a fund for the creation of such a monument. They raised more than 10,000 francs for the monument before leaving France. In a letter dated January 9, 1919, the Commanding Officer of the 372nd Infantry, Colonel Herschel Tupes, spelled out the 372nd's objectives for the monument. First, with French assistance, to erect a monument to the 372nd. Second, to detail a plain granite monument with the inscription, "In Memory of the Members of the 372nd U.S. Infantry, killed in Action September 26, 1918 to October 7, 1918." Third, the monument was to be erected on a public highway near the furthest point of the 372nd's advance. The monument is a lasting tribute to the sacrifice of the 372nd Infantry, and all-Black troops who saw combat in World War I.
During World War I, the 372nd Infantry Regiment was composed of the following segregated National Guard units as well as draftees:
▶ 1st Separate Battalion, Infantry, of the District of Columbia
▶ 9th Separate Battalion, Infantry, of Ohio
▶ Separate Company, Infantry, of Maryland
▶ Separate Company, Infantry, of Tennessee
▶ Separate Company, Infantry, of Massachusetts
▶ Separate Company, Infantry, of Connecticut
▶ 250 drafted men from Camp Custer, Michigan, recruited mainly from Michigan and Wisconsin