The Service of the 320th Service Battalion

The Backbone of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF)

by Terri Bolden

On June 28, 1914, a Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the

Austria-Hungary throne and his wife. Austria-Hungary was allied with Germany and Serbia sought help from

Russia which was allied with France, dialog and demands between the two powers broke down, huge armies began to move. By August fourth most of Europe was at war. On February 10, 1915 President Woodrow Wilson warned Germany the United States would hold them to strict accountability for their part in the war.

A German U-boat torpedoed the British passenger liner named the Lusitania on May 7, 1915, killing an estimated 1,198 passengers including 128 Americans. President Wilson tried to keep the United States out of the war, but a very important piece of information, the Zimmerman Telegram, was intercepted by U.S. intelligence in January 1917. This was a German telegram sent to the Mexican government stating that if war broke out between the United States and Germany, Mexico should attack the United States.1

The final act that would bring the United States into the war was the sinking of five American ships between the dates of March 12 to March 21, 1917. On April 2, 1917 President Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany and its allies.2

At this time, the federal army had expanded to approximately 121,000, and the National Guard to 181,000, for a total of 302,000 men, the smallest army of the mobilized European powers. More men were needed. Congress passed the Selective Service Act on May 18, 1917 requiring men ages 21-30 to register with their local draft board.3

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My grandfather Jim Greer was born on March 27, 1891 to John and France Greer in Trenton, TN , twenty-six years after the Civil War had ended. He was 26 years old when he registered for the draft and 27 when he was inducted. I remember my grandfather for whom I fondly called "Grandpap." He was a tall, silvered haired man with a wonderful smile even if he had a few teeth missing. I remember him as a very proud man. We had the best of everything for a black family in the 1960s. I loved him very much. He was a very good marksman even well into his seventies. I recall him letting me help clean his double barrel shotgun. I was five years old when he died on August 4,1965, so I do not remember him talking about the war. I am quite sure that he did, but I was too young to realize what he was talking about. It would be later, through years of education, that I would learn a great deal about the war and the treatment of black people.

In modern warfare, a great organization of workers is needed behind the front lines where the fighting is going on. In World War I, such an organization was found inside the American Expeditionary Force (AEF).4 General

John J. Pershing, Commander of the AEF understood this need. The Service of Supply (SOS) was the organization that was formed; it was not glamorous like the combat service. The men of the SOS were the muscle power that loaded the supply ships headed to France, unloaded them when they got there, and reloaded them to bring materials and even dead bodies back to the United States. They had numerous jobs to perform; they got up early and went to bed late, their work was never done and the tasks were often dull and back- breaking.

My grandfather Jim Greer registered for the Service on June 5, 1917, which was mandated for all U.S. men age

21 to 31.5 He was among 3,619 Gibson County men who enlisted on that day. The other two enlistments were in

June and August 1918, when 429 men enlisted; and September 12, 1919, when 4,597 men enlisted. Out of a total of 8,645 enlisted men, 1,058 men were inducted. My grandfather was not called until ten months later. The first record of his service was the mention of his boarding a train in Trenton for Camp Lee, VA, on May 18,

1918. Initially he was assigned to the 155th Depot Brigade that was assigned to Camp Lee, VA.6 He left Trenton for Camp Lee, VA, on May 18, 1918. The departure of soldiers, black and white, from Trenton, was a big affair. The Trenton Herald Democrat ran weekly articles about the county’s young men being sent off to serve their country. There were separate departure times for white and black soldiers. On Saturday, April 27, 1918, for example, 46 white men were given a big sendoff by the community as they boarded a train for Camp Jackson,

SC. The next day, Sunday April 28, 1918, 31 African American men were given a sendoff also. This time the negro homes gave up their sons,” the newspaper quoted. A patriotic rally was held at the Gibson County

Courthouse. Dr. L. H. Crisp of Trenton presided over the rally, and Bishop Isaac Lane delivered a strong message to the crowd. After the rally, the men walked to the train station down the hill from the courthouse and boarded a train headed for Camp Lee in Petersburg, VA, and Camp Meade, MD. Among them was Jim Greer.7

Like many of his fellow African American men, my grandfather may have been under the impression that they would be trained for battle, but they later found out that this was not to be. Months before my grandfather arrived at Camp Alexander, Black soldiers were treated very badly. They received provisions that would not have been fit even for a prisoner of war; they often went for long periods without shoes and overcoats. Whatever clothing they received was old civil war uniforms. They lacked access to bathing facilities for a period of four months. The camp commanders would cram up to thirty men in 16 X 16 ft tents, while the white service men lived comfortably in spacious barracks. During the winter of 1918, twenty black men froze to death in their tents because of inadequate housing and worst of all the color of their skin. In the winter months, the men were served their food outdoors, often the food would freeze before the mess attendants could serve it to the soldiers.8

As I try to picture in my mind the way my grandfather was treated by white men who felt that he was not worthy enough to be called an American soldier, it sickens me and makes me very, very sad. Many Black men had volunteered to join the army. I can only but imagine the anger they felt towards the southern commanders who treated them as second-class citizens, continuing plantation-type behaviors. Many white civilians were afraid of armed black service men in their towns and cities, feeling that this would empower them even more than the emancipation proclamation that had already given them freedom from slavery. Southern governors, mayors, and congressmen did not want black service men stationed at the camps in their states.

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Not all black service men faced this kind of horrible mistreatment, northern camps. One camp located in Des

Moines, Iowa, was constructed for the training of black service men. Some black men were so eager to serve that they tried to win over the respect of white civilians. In Logan, Texas, at another camp where blacks were trained, they tried to be upstanding citizens conducting themselves honorably. An officer of the 370th

Infantry remarked, "Hardly had we arrived at our training camp before we were impressed with the fact that it was up to us to make good by converting the whites of Houston from hate to love, to make a people who regarded the regiment as a bunch of lawless men, to realize that we would wade through the fires of hell to gain and hold for our race a large place in the sun."9 This quote may sum up the sentiments of many of the black soldiers who felt very passionate about protecting their families and their country.

My grandfather remained in the 155th Depot Brigade until June 19, 1918, at which time he was assigned to

Company D2, 320th Labor Battalion.10 The company numbered 123 men, among whom 3 white overseers, 2 white medical officers, 1 white clerk, 1 black mechanic, 4 black sergeants, and 1 black cook. On July 13, 1918, his unit was sent to Camp Alexander in Newport News, VA. This was an embarkation camp established in

September 1917 to house and train troops awaiting shipment overseas, near Norfolk, at the southern end of

Chesapeeke Bay, from which over two million US soldiers left for overseas during 1917 and 1918. Between

1917 and 1918, over 50,000 black stevedores and laborers passed through Camp Alexander before being sent overseas to France. From Camp Alexander, my grandfather’s unit was transported across the bay to Port of

Hampton Roads, where he embarked on July 18, 1918 on the USS Princess Matoika.11 Their trip would last two weeks.

The USS Princess Matoika, which made many voyages back and forth to dropoff andpick upsoldiers and supplies, has an interesting story. The ship’s intended names were Borussia up until October 1899, then in

November 1899, Teutonia. One year later, on September 14, 1900, she was renamed SS Kiautschou, then completed on December 14, and her maiden voyage took place on December 22,1900 as a Barbarossa-class ocean liner. She was sold to a German shipping company called North German Lloyd and sailed from

Bremen, Germany to the Far East. On February 20, 1904, she was renamed the SS Princess Alice. In 1914, she was interned in the neutral port of Cebu in the Philippines and there, she was seized by the United

States government in 1917 and renamed the USS Princess Matoika after a member of the Philippine Royal family. During the war and for ten months after the armistice (April 6, 1917 to September 16, 1919), she served as troop and transport supply for the United States Army. She was then turned over to the US

Shipping Board.12

On May 10, 1918 USS Prince Matoika sailed with her first load of soldiers to Europe. She was part of a large convoy of 13 ships, the Antigone, Kursk , Duca d' Aosta, Pastores , President Lincolin, Caserta,

Lenape, Wilhelmina, Covington, Devinsk, Rijndam and the Dante Alighieri. She was under the command of William Daniel Leahy who would win the Navy Cross as the commander of the USS Princess Matoika for transporting troops to France. On July 1, 1918, the USS Princess Matoika was part of a convoy of eight ships escorted by seven destroyers. They were traveling westbound about 150 miles southwesterly from

Brest, France, heading back to the United States after delivering a fresh group of soldiers to the Western

Front. After the Armistice, sailing from St. Nazaire, France, to New York by way of the Azores, she was bringing soldiers back to the United States. At least on one voyage, she arrived in Charleston, S.C. with

5,000 American troops on April 26, 1919. On the following voyage from Charleston, the USS Princess

Matokia sailed with 2,200 German prisoners who had been interned in the United States during war, to

Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The USS Princess Matoika then sailed to Brest, France, and returned to New

York with more American soldiers. During World War I the USS Princess Matoika transported 21,216

American servicemen to France.

This is the transport on which my grandfather sailed on July 18, 1918, with other black soldiers.13 On July 5

31, 1918 the transport arrived at its port of debarkation in Brest, France. I wonder how they handled the two-week trip across the ocean. They were probably uncomfortable seeing that their accommodations were not as good as the white soldiers. After leaving the ship, they assembled on the pier. In 1918, 800,000 US soldiers would debark in Brest. They were trained in several camps nearby that were hastily constructed in the Brittany region.14 I do not know where my grandfather’s unit stayed. I quite sure they received instructions on what was expected of them and how they were to respect the commanders they were assigned to.

Six weeks before my grandfather’s unit left the United States, the American forces engaged in a major offensive at Belleau Wood. This is a wooded tract less than 1sq miles in area, located 5 miles northwest of

Chateau-Thierry, and about 40 miles northeast of Paris. A German drive toward Paris on June 1st had advanced across the Marne River, giving the battle its name as the second battle of the Marne, but the

Germans had been halted and were entrenched in Belleau Wood. On June 6, 1918, the Germans were attacked by a U.S. Marine brigade attached to the Second Division of the American Expeditionary Force

(AEF) and commanded by General James Guthrie Harbord. The marines attacked repeatedly, fighting through matted underbrush and over rocky ground. On June 24, they launched a final successful drive to capture Belleau Wood which they captured on June 26. The American casualties were more than 7800 officers and men killed, wounded, and missing.15

Belleau Wood set up the first mission that my grandfather’s unit would undergo. From Brest, the unit traveled by train 572 miles east to Bazoilles.16 This town was located approximately 148 miles from the frontlines. When it arrived in Bazoilles, the unit was assigned to the Fuelwood Project. This project was part of the responsibilities of the 320th Quartermaster Battalion, which was a part of the 20th Engineers.

This forestry unit began its service in 1917 and was in majority manned by Black troops:

With the exception of the first four companies, all the service units were composed of black troops

with white officers and sergeants. Most of them had thorough military training and were sent

overseas with the expectation of front-line duties. Considering the abruptness of their transition to

Forestry duties, their record is truly remarkable. The 15th Service Company was assigned a newly

completed mill of 10,000 capacity, built for the 45th Company at Bias in the Mimizan District. On a

few days’ notice the black men manned and operated the mill, the only outside assistance being a

filer and an engineer. The 16th Company performed a similar operation at Arengosse. In general,

however, the service companies were employed in loading lumber and in cutting and shipping fuel.

. . The black service troops were chiefly drawn from Alabama, Texas, and Mississippi, and were a

picked force, their comrades of lower physique gravitating to labor units. The morale displayed by

them was uniformly high, under circumstances which could not have been foreseen by those

responsible for their preliminary training.17

The importance of the Fuelwood Project is obvious and the feats performed by black labor battalions was remarkable. Reading the above passage this gave me some idea of what the 320th unit accomplished in the woods of eastern France. The service of the “laborers in uniform” is described in detail by Artur Barbeau and Henri Florette in their 1998 study of African American troops in World War I.18

Chateau-Thierry soon became the center of fighting which lasted from July 18 to August 6, 1918.19 This battle started on the day that my grandfather left the United States and lasted while his unit was deployed to

Bazoilles. The entire sector from Marne to Meuse remained active during the Meuse-Argonne engagement in the fall. My grandfather was transferred to Rimaucourt, Haute-Marne, some 14 miles to the west of

Bazoilles and some 100 miles from the front, on October 7, 1918. The Meuse-Argonne offensive lasted 47 days. It started on September 26, 1918 and ended on November 11, 1918. It broke the Hindenburg Line, causing the final breakdown of the German resistance, and it helped bring about the German request for an 7 armistice, which was granted on November 11, 1918. In this battle, 22 U.S. divisions were involved, of which there were 26,277 casualties. It was the largest and bloodiest battle fought by the AEF during World

War I. The spring, summer, and fall 1918 battles on the Western Front were won with the help of the U.S. forces. Thus my grandfather was a witness to the three most important military engagements of the AEF in the war.

The 320th Labor Battalion did not compile a history of its activities overseas, so we have to rely on similar experiences. With regards to the treatment of Black soldiers, signs of racism were evident in the camps. At

Rimaucourt, the camp commandant, Col. Doane, ordered a sign posted to indicate the presence of segregated YMCA facilities. The one located near the camp was for white troops, the one in town was for the colored troops. The sign reminded soldiers that “all men will be instructed to patronize their own Y.”20

One of the hardest duties in the entire army fell to the SOS. That was the reburial of American soldiers at the end of the war. Eight large cemeteries were set up in areas where American troops fought. Reburial squads removed the remains of American soldiers from fields, woods, shell holes, and hastily dug graves and reburied them in new cemeteries. Building coffins was one of the task of the service battalions. I sure my grandfather had the awful job of doing this. The SOS units did the reburying at Meuse-Argonne

Cemetery near Romagne, this was the largest cemetery containing more than 14,000 graves. The units worked had at this task, hurrying to get the job finished. Two days straight they reburied 2000 men.21 My grandfather stayed in Rimaucourt from October 7, 1918 to February 7,1919. During the entire time he was attached to the Telegraph Battalion Headquarters Ins. CG SOS where he was assigned to the Fuelwood

Project QMC.

On February 13, 1919, his unit arrived in Cherancé, Sarthe, approximately 304 miles west of Rimaucourt.

There, until February 24, my grandfather was attached to the Provisional Fuel and Forage service and assigned to Fuel duties for the Chérancé-Bouloire sector. From Cherancé, Sarthe the unit moved to Nonant- Le-pin, Orne, approximately 34 miles to the north of the city of Le Mans, where my granfather, remaining attached to the same unit, performed the same duties in the Nonant le Pin - Bouloire sector.

My grandfather’s unit was the last to leave for the United States. They stayed behind to do all the cleanup work. Their work did not go unnoticed by General Pershing who made a visit to the SOS unit at the sea port. He said he was asked at the start of the war if he wanted the colored men over there? His reply "Yes, of course, I want the colored men. Aren't they American citizens?"22

From Nonant-Le-Pin, Orne the unit traveled to Saint-Nazaire, 196 miles southwest of Nonant-Le-Pin. The journey of the 320th Service Battalion during World War I in France ends on June 22, 1919, when the unit boarded the transport ship USS Pocahontas, whose history was similar to that of the USS Princess

Matoika.23 The ship arrived in Newport News on July 2,1919. Jim Greer’s unit was transferred to nearby

Camp Alexander immediately upon arrival. His discharge papers were established on July 5 and signed on

July 9,1919 at Fort Oglethorpe Georgia by Major G. H. Blankenship, 46th Inf. Meanwhile, the unit was transferred to Camp Lee until final discharge was effected on July 31, 1919, with a note that the unit was to be transported back to Trenton, Tennessee. 24

ENDNOTES

1. Zimmerman Telegram natiomaster.com 2. Carol Berkin et al. Making America. A History of the United States. Vol. 2. Wadsworth, 6th ed. 458-465. 3. Mark E. Grotelueschen. The AEF Way of War: The American Army and Combat in World War I. Cambridge University Press, 2007. P. 11-12. 4. Organization of the Services of Supply. American Expeditionary Forces. Monograph No. 7. Prepared in the Historical Branch, War Plans Division, General Staff. Washington, D.C. Government Printing Office, June 1921. http://www.20thengineers.com/images/OrgOfSvcOfSupp-AEF.pdf 5. Paul T. Murray. “Black and the Draft: A History of Institutional Racism.” Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 2, Issue 1, September 1971 (57-76). https://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/Black%20Liberation%20Disk/Black%20Power!/SugahDat a/Essays/Murray.S.pdf 6. “Enlistment Record of Jim Greer, April 28, 1918 in Trenton.” Signed by R. E. Gilliam, 1st Sgt 46th Infantry. The copy was established on February 2, 1921 by the U.S. Army Recruiting Station in Nashville, TN, and specifies that a Victory Button was issued to Jim Greer. Certified Copy of War Records, Tennessee Military

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Department. Tennessee State Library and Archives. Also see WWI Military Portraits, 155th Depot Brigade, Milwaukee Public Library. The record of Richard F. Salomon who was assigned to this brigade mention that he was mustered out of Camp Lee, VA. http://content.mpl.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/WWI/id/29621/rec/1. 7. Trenton Herald Democrat. Thursday, May 2, 1918. 8. National Historic Context for DoD Installations, 1790-1940. Volume 3 of 4. Report by R. Christopher Goodwin and Associates, 1995. http://www.denix.osd.mil/cr/lrmp/factsheets/reports-and-other- products/national-historic-context-for-dod-installations-1790-1940-volume-iii-of-iv-legacy-92-0075/ 9. “Houston Riots Timeline: History of African-American Servicemen.” Prairie View A&M University. http://www.pvamu.edu/tiphc/research-projects/the-1917-houston-riotscamp-logan-mutiny/houston-riots- timeline-history-of-african-american-servicemen/ 10. Johnathan Sutherland. African Americans at War: An Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO, 2004. [Available online from GoogleBooks]. 11. National Archives and Records Administration, Unit History Card, Records of the Adjutant General's Office (407). Also see “Camp Alexander (1).” http://www.fortwiki.com/Camp_Alexander_(1) 12. The USS Princess Matoika’s story can be found online at: http://www.freepages.miIitary.rootsweb.com/-cacunithi stories/Princess_Matoika.html . And also in Benedict Crowell and Robert Forrest Wilson. The Road to France: The Transportation of Troops and Military Supplies, 1917-1918. Yale University Press, 1921. 13. National Archives and Records Administration , Historical Section, Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs (Record Group 165). 14. “Les archives de la presence americaine en Bretagne (1917-1919).” En Envor. http://enenvor.fr/eeo_actu/sources/les_archives_de_la_presence_americaine_en_bretagne_1917_1919.html . Harry Truman, future U.S. President, was trained at the famous French military camp in Coetquidan in 1918. 15. "Château-Thierry: The Battle for Belleau Wood". The Great War Society. Duffy, Michael (15 December 2002). "Battles: The Battle of Belleau Wood". First World War.com. 16. “Station List of Unit Since Arrival in the American E. F.” “Company D2, 320th Labor Division, QMC, July 31, 1919. National Archives and Records Administration Historical Section , Record s of the War Department General and Special Staffs (Record Group 407). This document contains all the assignment of my grandfather’s unit. 17. Simon Perez, ed. Twentieth Engineers. France 1917-1918-1919. 1920. 18 Arthur E. Barbeau, Florette, Henri. The Unknown Soldiers. African-American Troops in World War I. Temple University Press, 1974. Reprinted by Da Capo Press, 1996. 19 For detailed battle maps on the Western Front, search http://www.worldwar1.com/ . 20. W. Allison Sweeney. The Basic Afro-American Reprint Library (New York: Johnson Reprint), 1970. 148. Also see Addie W. Hunton and Kathryn M. Johnson. Two Colored Women With The American Expeditionary Force. Brooklyn Eagle Press, 1920. 21. Chris Dickon. The Foreign Burial of American War Dead: A History. McFarland. 2011. Henri Florette. Bitter Victory: A History of Black Soldiers in World War I. Doubleday,1970. 22. Henri Florette. Bitter Victory. 1970. 52-53. J. A. Jamieson, G. I. Williams, H. White, Jack Allen, and John Graham. Complete History of the Colored Soldiers. Authentic Story of the Greatest War of Civilized Times and What The Colored Man Did to Uphold Democracy and Liberty. New York: Bennett & Churchill. 1919. 23 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pocahontas_(ID-3044) 24. “320th Tennessee Battalion.” This document indicates the sea voyages of the battalion from their departure on July 18, 1918, to their arrival on July 2, 1919. National Archives and Records Administration Historical Section , Record s of the War Department General and Special Staffs (Record Group 407)