The 369th enlisted men wearing their Croix de Guerre Medals.

    On June 2, 1913, a unit to be known as the Negro Regiment of Infantry was constituted. The unit was designated the 15th Infantry Regiment, New York National Guard on June 29, 1916 and was mustered into Federal Service at Camp Whitman, NY on July 25th, 1917. Designated the 369th Infantry Regiment (93rd Division) on March 1, 1918, the unit was sent to France.

     Upon arriving at St. La'Zaire, France, they were fired upon; some were killed by a detachment of US Marines who resented them being there. When soldiers of the 369th began firing back they were called "bloodthirsty". Angry, the white-commanding officer of the marines responded: "since they like to fight, send them to the front." Instead they were placed into a labor battalion unloading ships. The men complained to their white commanding officer, Colonel William Haywood, stating that they were assigned to the front to fight, and to send them back home if they couldn't be sent there. Colonel Haywood took their message to the allied command who at the time had lost 1.5 million men. Because none of the American units wanted to fight alongside them or to be assigned to their units, they subsequently were assigned to the French 4th Army.

     On April 13th 1918, after training under French command, they went into action at Bois d' Hauya, holding for two months an entire sector against withering German fire. The 369th also fought at Minacaurt and took part in the great attack at Maison en Champagne, which carried them to the Rhine River. Harlem's own, as they were affectionately called, also saw action at Meuse-Argone, Butte de Nesil, the Dormois, Sechault, Argonne Forest, Repont, Kuponase, Voges Mountains, the Aisne, the Turbe, Fountain and Bellevue Ridge and Somme offensives. The German's nicknamed them "Hellfighters."

     Credited with being the first group of musicians to introduce jazz to Europe, the 369th Regimental Band, led by Lieutenant James Reese Europe, became famous on the battlefronts. Its Drum Major was Sergeant Noble Sissle, later to become known on Broadway as a singer, conductor and composer. The band played for both American and French units in camps, hospitals, and for civilians behind the lines.

     The first American soldiers in World War I to receive the French Croix de Guerre with star and palm (France's highest military honor) were Sergeant Henry Lincoln Johnson a red cap from Albany, New York, and Needham Roberts of Trenton, New Jersey.

     Eleven times the 369th was cited for bravery and the entire regiment received the French Croix de Guerre for gallantry under fire. Individually 171 of its officers and enlisted men were decorated with Croix de Guerre or the Legion of Honor. On February 28th, 1919, the 369th demobilized at Camp Upton, New York.

The 369th had a distinguished record in World War I. It will be remembered for many things, namely:

• The only volunteer Regiment raised for the war that reached France.
• The only Regiment in History to carry a State Flag through the war.
• Was shipwrecked three times en route to Europe.
• First Regiment in US history to serve as an integral part of a foreign army (French).
• First Regiment of the Allies to reach Rhine.
• Served 191 days (almost 6 months) in action, longest of any American Regiment.
• Never lost a man to capture and never lost a foot of ground.
• First combat regiment to arrive home and march up 5th Avenue under the Victory Arch.

    On September 6, 1924, the 369th Infantry Regiment was federally recognized as a National Guard Unit, after having been reorganized at the end of World War I. One of their white officers, Captain Hamilton Fish, who later became a senator from New York, was a descendant of two signers of the Declaration of Independence; one was Nicholas Fish.