More than 41 million Veterans have served our nation since the American Revolution. They have valiantly carried forward the banner of American Liberty since the first shots were fired in its defense at Lexington and Concord. Generations of American Patriots have honored their sacred oaths “to support and defend” the Liberty “endowed by their Creator” as the unalienable Right of Man — the right of all people, affirmed in our Declaration of Independence and enshrined in our Republic’s Constitution.
They committed to extend the blessings of Liberty to future generations, and in doing so they endured tens of thousands of accounts of heroic actions that, at their core, speak to who we are as a nation.
Many of those accounts could only be told by survivors because those most directly involved did not return. More than 650,000 American Patriots have been killed in combat defending our great nation and its legacy of American Liberty.
There is one particular group of those Veterans who most know nothing about — the Harlem Hellfighters.
It was in World War I that they, officially the 369th Infantry Regiment from the Harlem section of New York, rose to fame.
In 1917, at the height of WWI, the U.S. passed the Selective Service Act, which required all men ages 21 to 30, including black men, to register for the draft. But the 369th had its origin much earlier as New York’s 15th Regiment, formed in 1864, notably to quell rebellions in New York by those rioting against the Civil War draft. It was re-designated the 369th in early 1918 when assigned to fight with the French.
According to the U.S. Army history of the Hellfighters: "In 1916, New York Gov. Charles S. Whitman authorized the creation of the 15th New York Infantry to be manned by African-Americans -- with white officers -- and headquartered in Harlem where 50,000 of the 60,000 black residents of Manhattan lived in 1910. ... The French Army needed soldiers and the U.S. Army was ambivalent about black troops. So the 15th New York, renamed the 369th Infantry, was sent to fight under French command, solving a problem for both armies."
The 369th was accepted as an equally qualified regiment by the French, whose forces included many non-white colonial units, and by March of 1918, the 369th was in combat under Gen. John J. Pershing.
The unit served 191 days in trench warfare combat, the longest combat deployment of any American unit, and suffered heavy losses in the American drive in the Meuse-Argonne in September of 1918, six weeks before the 11-11-11 Armistice.
When PVT Henry Johnson and PVT Needham Roberts won the French Croix de Guerre for fighting off a German patrol it was big news in the United States. A country hungry for war news and American heroes discovered the 369th.
Among the most celebrated of the Hellfighters was Henry “Black Death” Johnson, who suffered more than 20 injuries while refusing to give ground against the Germans. He was the first American to receive the French Croix de Guerre for gallantry. PVT Needham Roberts would also be awarded the French Croix de Guerre.
Johnson, would posthumously be awarded the Medal of Honor, and his citation notes on May 15, 1918: "While under intense enemy fire and despite receiving significant wounds, Private Johnson mounted a brave retaliation, resulting in several enemy casualties. When his fellow soldier was badly wounded and being carried away by the enemy, Private Johnson exposed himself to grave danger by advancing from his position to engage the two enemy captors in hand-to-hand combat. Wielding only a knife and gravely wounded himself, Private Johnson continued fighting, defeating the two captors and rescuing the wounded soldier. Displaying great courage, he continued to hold back the larger enemy force until the defeated enemy retreated leaving behind a large cache of weapons and equipment and providing valuable intelligence. Without Private Johnson's quick actions and continued fighting, even in the face of almost certain death, the enemy might have succeeded in capturing prisoners and the outpost."
On Feb. 17, 1919, the 2,900 men of the 369th Infantry Regiment were the first New York soldiers to return home to a roaring welcome. They marched from Washington Square Park Arch up Fifth Avenue to their Harlem armory.
News accounts in The New York Times noted: "New York City residents, both white and black - packed the streets as they paraded up Fifth Avenue. ... Thousands and thousands of rattlesnakes, the emblem of the 369th, each snake coiled, ready to strike, appeared everywhere, in buttonholes, in shop windows and on banners carried by the crowd."
The New York Sun noted: "By the time the men reached 135th Street they were decorated with flowers like brides, husky black doughboys plunking along with bouquets under their arms and grins on their faces that one could see to read by. The fathers and mothers and wives and sweethearts of the men would no longer be denied and they swooped through police lines like water through a sieve. The Soldiers were too well trained to break ranks but when a mother spied her son and threw her arms around his neck with joy at getting him back again, he just hugged her off her feet."
The Times estimated that 10,000 people waited outside the armory and "all the spaces about the Armory were packed with negro women and girls."
The men of the 369th anticipated that their service would alleviate some of the discrimination they suffered in New York, and it did. It certainly demonstrated that these men were as capable of valiant service as any men in uniform.
I salute the Hellfighters and their extended families a century later, and all generations of veterans before and since.
"Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for his friends." (John 15:13)
Live your life worthy of his sacrifice.
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate -- 1776
Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen -- standing in harm’s way in defense of American Liberty, and for Veterans, First Responders, and their families.
Please consider a tax-deductible gift to support our historic hometown National Medal of Honor Heritage Center. Make a check payable to National MoH Sustaining Fund and mail to: Patriot Foundation Trust, PO Box 407, Chattanooga, TN 37401-0407. Visit the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center at Aquarium Plaza. (
https://www.MOHHC.org)