Harlem's Rattlers and the Great War : the undaunted 369th Regiment and the African American quest for equality / Jeffrey T. Sammons and John H. Morrow, Jr.

When on May 15, 1918 a French lieutenant warned Henry Johnson of the 369th to move back because of a possible enemy raid, Johnson reportedly replied: "I'm an American, and I never retreat." The story, even if apocryphal, captures the mythic status of the Harlem Rattlers, the African American combat...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sammons, Jeffrey T. (Jeffrey Thomas), 1949-
Other Authors: Morrow, John Howard, 1944-
Language:English
Published: Lawrence, Kansas : University Press of Kansas, 2014.
Lawrence, Kansas : 2014.
Series:Modern war studies.
Subjects:
United States. > Army. > Infantry Regiment, 369th.
United States. > Army. > American Expeditionary Forces > African American troops.
France. > Armée > African American troops > History > 20th century.
World War, 1914-1918 > Regimental histories > United States.
World War, 1914-1918 > Participation, African American.
World War, 1914-1918 > Campaigns > Western Front.
African American soldiers > History > 20th century.
African Americans > Social conditions > To 1964.
Physical Description:xii, 616 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 24 cm.
Format: Book
Contents:
  • "He has a flag" : the relationship of the military to Black identity, community, and citizenship and the origins of the Black regiment movement
  • "Positions of honor and trust" : Charles Ward Fillmore, the Equity Congress, and the Byzantine politics of the Black regiment movement
  • "Second only to the Emancipation Proclamation" : the trying campaign from authorization to formation
  • "Mulligan's Guards" : the (re)-birth and growing pains of the 15th New York National Guard
  • War and expediency: the politics of federal recognition, regimental training, and the president's call to service
  • Race war at home or combat abroad? : tested in the white-hot crucible of camp life
  • "Over there" : the 15th New York/369th Regiment in France: from the AEF to the French Army, January-April 1918
  • Trial by fire: in combat with the French 16th Infantry Division, mid-April to June 1918
  • The battle of Henry Johnson and Neadom Roberts: the night two ordinary men became war heroes and race symbols
  • A midsummer's nightmare: race swirls above the 369th, May-August 1918
  • The big push: offensives in Champagne/Meuse-Argonne and the capture of Sechault, September 7-October 4, 1918
  • War's end: final campaign, first to the Rhine, occupation, and hasty departure
  • "War crossed abroad and double crossed at home" : triumphant heroes, objects of ridicule, or fearsome trained killers?
  • Your services are no longer needed: the War Department's postwar decimation and denigration of Black soldiers and the 369th's fight for survival and recognition
  • Winning the battle and losing the war: the renewed fight for a Black commander and the disfiguring transformations of the 369th
  • Henry Johnson and Neadom Roberts: cautionary tales
  • A brief look at postwar careers and lives of a few outstanding Black and White officers and men
  • Deaths in the 369th Infantry during service with the 93rd Division, AEF.