The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1926-04-03
HON. MARTIN b. MADDENS
GRAFTON ON THE coLORED
SOLDIERS
CONTINUED from Page y

tAAS SAChhy OAC Vi thCAi DulSt IA lAiC
first platoon, killing three men and
wounding eight.
Captain Smith, of this company,
and his men pushed on under shell
and machine gun fire, capturing 20
Germans and machine guns by 10
P. M. The men were halted for the
night without cover, under high ex-
plosive and gas shell bombardment.
They stuck. At 5 A. NJ, September
Is, the first and third battalions, under
Majors Max Ellser and Norris, both
white, were ordered to advance. The
men of the third battalion had had
neither food nor water for two days,
but Company X, on the right, and
Company I, on the left, advanced
through the enemy's barrage Of ma
chine guns and shrapnel, arriving in
Morrow Valley, distance of mile
away. Here, because of the inability
of the captains of the third battalion
to keep in contact with Major Norris
(white), whose command post did not
advance with his line, decided to hold
consultation While doing so a shell
burst 20 feet away, fatally wounding
Captain Green, leaving Captain Smith,
Company K, to command the two
companies in the line without the as
sistance of single officer of his COM
pany, all Of whom had been wounded,
and with but two officers in Com
pany l.
Sergt. William Collier, of Company
K, captured on this day of the alleged
disorderly retreat 2 machine guns, IL
Germans, killing 3 others. The Sec
ond Battalion had not supported the
Third Battalion because their white
major, Max Ellser, had hidden in a
shell hole at the launching of the at
tack, surrounding himself with a pla-
toon of colored soldiers, and finally
after countermanding and rechanging
orders to his captains, he fed pre-
cipitately to the rear, destroying the
morale Of his battalion and making
them ineffective in this combat. De-
spite this, his captains held wherever
possible the terrain gained and where
impossible to do so retired.
Several days after this, Maj. Gen.
c. c. Bal1ou, in the presence of Judge
Advocate Maj. A. E. Patterson (col-
ored) said to Maj. Max Ellser, who
sat cringing before him, you cow
ardly , | ought to have you
court-martialed, but for the sake of
the division, /. shall send you to the
base hospital, where you stay three
weeks"
The inefficiency of Major Norris, of
the Third Battalion, was demon
strated by the fact that on the 9th
Of September while his troops were
engaged under heavy and severe ar
tillery and machine gun fire he issued
orders for all officers on the line to
report to Battalion Headquarters,
leaving his thousand soldiers without
a single officer while his colored Off
GERS had to come backward through
the enemy's barrage to his protected
dugout and then return through the
same enemy's barrage to their exposed
positions.
Only Colored Officers Tried for
Cowardice
Yes, the colored officers, including
Capt. Dan Smith, a veteran Of the
Twenty-seventh Infantry OF the
United States Army, who had been
awarded a congressional medal of
honor for bravery in action, hero Of
the Carizal and the Philippines, and
who had captured with his company
20 Germans and machine guns on
the 9th, were tried for cowardice
along with four others. Max Ellser.
cowardly major, was promoted after
his return from the base hospital to
lieutenant colonelcy and assigned to
command the Three Hundred and
Sixty-fifth Infantry when he was re-
lieved after two days. Major Norris.
of course, was the victim of circum-
stances of offering colored men.
However, in their precipitate retreat
the colored officers and men of the
Three Hundred and Sixty-eighth Bat
talon captured SO Germans, 8 ma
chine guns, killing Germans and
wounding others in hand to hand battle.
Four of these officers were tried. Cap
tain Smith was sentenced to be shot
but reprieved by President Wilson.
The other units of the Ninety-sec-
ond Division were not engaged, but
felt bitter because Of the turn of
events in the Three Hundred and
Si,rtvei0hth which we feel Were Dire