Hills south of Stenay and forced the enemy into the plain. Meanwhile, my plans for further use of the American forces contemplated an advance between the Meuse and the Moselle in the direction of Longwy by the 1st Army, while, at the same time, the 2d Army should assure the offensive toward the rich coal fields of Briey. These operations were to be followed by an offensive toward Chateau-Salins east of the Moselle, thus isolating Metz. Accordingly, attacks on the American front had been ordered and that of the 2d Army was in progress on the morning of November 11th, when instructions were received that hostilities should cease at 11 o'clock A. M.

At this momenet the line of the American sector, from right to left, began at Port-Sur-Seille, thence across the Moselle to Vandieres and through the Woevre to Bezonvaux in the foothills of the Meuse, thence along to the foothills and through the northern edge of the Woevre forests to the Meuse at Mouzay, thence along the Meuse connecting with the French under Sedan.

For the forty-seven days of battle, progress was accomplished slowly and at terrific cost. The number of guns employed to dislodge the enemy numbered 2,417, firing 4,214,000 rounds of artillery ammunition. Eight hundred and forty airplanes dropped 100 tons of explosives on the lines of the enemy and 324 tanks waddled over the crude roads and over the waste spaces dealing death before them. In the American advance, 150 villages and towns were liberated, 16,059 prisoners were captured, 468 artillery pieces, 2,864 machine guns and 177 trench mortars were taken at a total cost of 120,000 casualties to the Americans.

COLORED TROOPS IN ACTION

The divisions participating in the drive as divisions were the 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, 26th, 28th, 29th, 32d, 33d, 35th, 37th, 42d, 77th, 80th, 82d, 89th, 90th and 91st, a total of nineteen divisions. The 1st, 5th, 26th, 42d, 77th, 80th, 89th and 90th Divisions were in the line twice in the course of the forty-seven days' campaign. A number of other divisions were used for purposes of replacement.

Shoulder to shoulder with the best shock troops were the colored soldiers of the 92d and 93d Divisions. Decorations singly and for entire units were awarded to the heroes of these divisions. The 369th, 370th, 371st and 372d Infantry Regiments of the 93d Division were brigaded with the French

and performed heroically throughout their service. The 369th was with the Fourth French Army, the 370th with the Second, the 371st and 372d with the Thirteenth French Army Corps. The battle service of these regiments was from July 1st to November 11th. The 92d, known as the "Buffalo" Division, was so eager for service that it overran its objectives in the Argonne.

The total number of colored soldiers participating in the war was nearly 400,000; over 200,000 served in France, Germany and Italy; colored commissioned officers numbered over 1,200, many of them college graduates.

Colored men served in all branches of the military establishment, cavalry, infantry, artillery (field and coast), signal corps (radio, or wireless telegraphy, etc.), medical corps, aviation corps (ground section), ambulance and hospital corps, sanitary and ammunition trains, stevedore regiments, labor battalions, depot brigades, engineers' regiments, and served as regimental clerks, surveyors, draftsmen, etc.

Negro soldiers fought with especial distinction in France in the Forest of Argonne, at Château-Thierry, in Belleau Wood, St. Mihiel district, Champagne sector, Metz, Vosges, etc., winning praise from French and American commanders. Colored troops were nearest the Rhine when the armistice was signed.

Entire regiments of colored troops cited for exceptional valor and decorated with the French Croix de Guerre-369th, 371st and 372d; groups of officers and men of the 365th, 366th, 368th and 370th were likewise decorated; first battalion of the 367th also decorated with the Croix de Guerre. Many individuals, like Harry Johnson, Needham Roberts and William Butler, were awarded Croix de Guerre and Distinguished Service Cross, and scores of officers earned promotions in their military units.

Sixty colored men served as chaplains; over three hundred and fifty as Y. M. C. A. secretaries; numerous colored men were attached to the War Community Service in cities adjacent to army camps.

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CHAPTER XVIII

SAVING THE WOUNDED AND SICK

O branch of military service courted greater triumph during the war than the medical organization. It cared for the men scientifically in cantonment and in the battle line. Sewers, latrines, bathing facilities, drinking water, camp epidemics, disease from unavoidable exposure to the elements, inhalation of poisonous gas and wounds on the battlefield all came under the ever watchful service of the Medical Department.

More than fifteen per cent of all the physicians of the United States enlisted in active service as medical officers of the army. Major-General William C. Gorgas and his associates worked out plans of sanitation, health preservation and care for the wounded which established a new record unprecedented in warfare.

Secretary of War Baker summarized the wonderful work achieved by this department of the army in this formal state

ment:

It must be a source of the deepest gratification to the country, as it is to me, that the health of the army has been so excellent, not only as compared with the army in other wars, but also as compared with the civilian population.

For the year ending August 30, 1918, the death rate from disease among troops in the United States was 6.4 per thousand; in the American Expeditionary Force it was 4.7; for the combined forces it was 5.9. The male civilian death rate for the age groups most nearly corresponding to the army age is substantially the same as the rate in the American Expeditionary Force. What this low figure means in lives saved is shown by comparing it with the rate of 65 per thousand in the Union Army during the Civil War, and the rate of twenty-six per thousand in the American Army during the Spanish War. Pneumonia, either primary or secondary to measles caused 56 per cent of all deaths among troops and 63 per cent of the deaths from disease.

About the middle of September the influenza epidemic which had been prevalent in Europe gained a foothold in this country. Begin

ning in the New England States it gradually spread south and west until practically the entire country suffered under its scourge. Naturally the camps and cantonments, with their closer concentration of men, provided especially favorable ground for the spread of the epidemic. In the eight weeks from September 14th to November 8th there were reported among all troops in the United States over 316,000 cases of influenza and over 53,000 cases of pneumonia. Of the 20,500 deaths during this period, probably 19,800 were the result of the epidemic. During eight weeks the epidemic caused more than twice as many deaths among troops in the United States as occurred during the entire year preceding the epidemic, and almost as many as the battle fatalities during the eighteen months of the war up to October, 1918. By the middle of November it was apparent that the epidemic had spent its force. The number of deaths was still above normal, but was showing a steady decline. The American Expeditionary Force suffered somewhat from the epidemic, but far less severely than the troops in the United States.

A vigorous campaign has been waged by the War Department for combating the great social evil of venereal disease. The program of attack has included the repression of prostitution and the liquor traffic in zones near cantonments, provision for proper social surroundings and recreation, education of soldiers and civilians in regard to venereal diseases, prophylactic measures against them, and prompt medical care. The Commission on Training Camp Activities has been very active in carrying forward this campaign and has received splendid co-operation from local authorities, and local and national health officials.

During the year ended August 30, 1918, among the troops in the United States the number of venereal admissions to sick report was 126 per thousand men. This figure includes duplicates and does not show the number of men sick at any given time. The great majority of these cases, moreover, were contracted before entering the army. Large increments of new recruits from the draft were generally followed by great increases in the admissions to sick reports on account of venereal diseases. A special study of all cases of venereal diseases reported at five typical camps (Dix, Lee, Meade, Upton, and Pike) during a typical period of thirteen weeks (June 22d to September 20th) shows that ninety-eight per cent of all cases were contracted before enlistment and only two per cent after enlistment.

Among the troops in France, where there were no recruits fresh from civil life, the record was even better than at home, and conditions improved steadily and rapidly until, in September of the year 1919, the cases were less than one among each thousand men. This is a showing unequaled in the records of any other army of modern times.

Figures as to the health of our soldiers, bear eloquent tribute to the efficiency of the Medical Department of the army. With the invaluable assistance of the American Red Cross, it found itself in a position to render great service from the very beginning. In this connection it is significant

to note that the first casualties in the American Expeditionary Force occurred in the Medical Corps, when, on September 4, 1917, one officer and three men were killed and three officers and six men wounded in a German airplane attack on one of our base hospitals.

On November 11, 1918, the army had eighty fully equipped hospitals in this country with a capacity of 120,000 patients.

There were 104 base hospitals and thirty-one evacuation hospitals in the American Expeditionary Force and one evacuation hospital in Siberia. In addition, a special hospital for head surgery, an optical unit, and eight auxiliary units operated abroad. The capacity of the hospitals attached to the Expeditionary Force is shown in the following table: CAPACITY OF ARMY HOSPITALS IN THE AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, NOVEMBER 11, 1918.

Army hospitals in the United States cared for 1,407,191 patients during the war; those with the American Expeditionary Force cared for 755,354, a total of 2,162,545.

In addition to furnishing its medical personnel for the operation of the above units, the War Department, through the chief surgeon, detailed 931 American officers to serve with the British forces and a further 169 for service in base hospitals that we turned over to the British. Furthermore, several ambulance sections have been operating with the Italian Army.

In order to provide properly trained personnel for the medical needs of the army outlined above, training camps were opened on June 1, 1917, at Fort Oglethorpe, Fort Benjamin Harrison, and Fort Riley. The need for similar facilities for colored officers and men was quickly recognized, and on July 21st a camp was opened at Fort Des Moines for the training of colored personnel. Simultaneously, special intensive training was given to all army medical officers, 1,724 receiving instruction in war surgery and six hundred in roentgenology.

The vital importance of good teeth has been fully realized by the department. On November 11, 1918, there were 4,429 dentists in the army and 5,372 in the Reserve Corps not yet called to active duty.

Up to the end of July about fifteen per cent of the entire civilian medical profession of the United States went into active duty as medical officers of the army. Probably no working force has ever been organized which contained more distinguished men of a single profession than were enrolled in the Medical Department of the United States Army.