The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-01-19

Citations galore have mentioned
omcerS ard men of the .,6oth In
fantry formerly the Fifteenth
New York;. and the regiment itself
has been decorated. The organiza.
non IS composed of negroes, and
was gathered together by William
hayward, former Public Service
Commissioner, who became its
Colonel. Here is Col. Hayward's
own story of the Champagne fight
ing as detailed liz letter TO a
relative:
FRANCE. Nov. .. 1918.
HaNe felt so upset from the 400"
haven't tried to write you or any one
else anything like coherent account
OF the big battle in the Champagne
starting September &c. l note in letter
Just received you guess us to be with
the fanks over Metz way. Now that we
are clear out and in another part OF
France l can. l believe, without yiolat-
ing censorship. tell you where we were.
We attacked in the assault wave of
Gen. Gouraud; splendid Fourth Arf1ee,
in which we served continuously from
March II TO recently. We had. con-
cededly the worst Boche stronghold from
Switzerland to the sea, few kilometers
west OF Argonne Forest, and attacked
from practically our own sector. the one
we last held. which was such a terror.
Our French division was composed OF
two white French regiments (both splen-
did units, and my regiment for the in
fantry, with the French artillery and
engineers. The division came out of
sector, all but two battalions. to he
| tuned up for the attack several days
before the party started was glad
because we needed the time and also
because ii gave US a chance to see the
wonderful preparations. the assemblage
OF shock units Of infantry I'VE were in
| .ast company, of artillery, pontoon
trains. aviators, ambulancss. &c.
All Prepared at Night.
Ammunition trains and supplies poured
In for days. or rather nights. because
| IT was all done under cover of darkness
and then everything was hidden by day
| in groves, ravines and villages. 1t was
| wonderful thing to watch going on
II went well and apparently with secrecy
until the last day or two, when IT got
| so big 1t just naturally overlooked into
the open spaces and all effort at con-
cealment appeared to me 10 have been
! abandoned.
All. this time we were well within
range of the Boche artillery, but oddly
/ enough they let us alone I did not see
! or hear half dozen German shells in
as many days. that is on our back areas
or roads. This was in marked contract
/ to their great attack in July. when for
| days Gen. Gouraud pounded them hard
with his big guns. They must have
known, too. for their planes were over
| us all the time.
Why one day a Boche plane came
| over. pounced down out OF cloud, set
fire to our observation balloon, shot and
| killed with machine gun the poor OBJ
server who leaped from the flaming bal
| loon and was peacefully descending in
! his parachute. This Boche scoundrel
| then came still lower and darted over
| our headquarters so low that some of
our men threw stones up at him. having
! 10 time 20 run and get rifles which were
| n few rods away.
Attacked With Full Equipment.
| We attacked in assault equipment.
! blanket roll, with emergency rations.
! chocolate. sardines, hard bread. &c, car
ried in musette bags dixie school book
! sltchels) slung over the shoulder. The
main burden the men had TO carry was
ammunition, cartridges, grenades. wire
! cutters and, OF course, the onn inrese mt
| gas mask and two canteens OF water.
Well, the fateful day drew near and
we finally moved up into position at
| night and slowed the men away in dug
outs. tunnels, boyaux and trenches. Still
very little Boche shelling. though our
| roads were congested with big guns,
wagons. motor trucks and every con-
ceivable form OF walking or rolling
transportation.
| The hours we waited were intermi-
na5le, or seemed so. The artillery prep
! aration of the French wing was to be
for 6 hours 25 minutes starting at IL
+. u, the assault to follow at :2J A. NJ.
| The French General told me we had the
| greatest concentration of artillery behind
our division ever assembled in one spot
In the worlds history, and when heard
ii believed him. At any rate I know
there were literally hundreds OF cannons
provided for our divisional artillery for
| the occasion. mobile guns such as we call
| field or horse artillery.
You could not have put them In a
| single line, hub to hub, behind us
| They were divided between the three
regiments and theoretically each third
| was under command of the infantry
Colonel after the tumpoff. Then In ad-
dition there was the heavy stuff of the
army corps and armee. and back OF al
the monster American railroad artillery
| with their SHOUTS up in the treetops, the
cnes that throw over boxcars and cook
stoves at Fritzey.
Counted the Crawling Minutes.
So we waited and counted the minutes
which crawled by, made our prayers
nibbled chocolate, looked at certain
photograph. yawned stretched and tried
10 appear cheerful and absolutely norma
and unconcerned.
There was the usual sector harass
ment fire by both artilieries, only a few
of our old and long stabilized batteries
however, firing. The great mass which
had crawled in night after night re
mained mute until the hour. There
seemed to come a lull even In this desul
tory FIRE for a few minutes before IL
and Just a few seconds. ten or f1fteer
maybe, before II, one big baby away VI
, westward toward Rheims spoke. then an
other and another and she rolled dowI
cur way.
Suddenly,a rs. which seemed to be a
, my elbow, spit out the nasty, sharI
crack they have. We all jumped lit
tie. and then-and then tho world lit VI
ike the Great White Way. and all tn
tall buildings in existence began falling
on tin roofs., Nature Slushed at he
. poor efforts at earthquake and the part,
Twas on.
do not think It was the unbelievable