A military poster promoting the work of stevedores at the St. Nazaire in December and performed labor duties before their onward integration and training for combat under French command in March However, at first, the African-American troops were ordered to unload supply ships at the docks for their first months in France, joining the mass of supply troops known as stevedores, working long hours in the port at St.
About , were sent to Europe. But more than half of those who deployed were assigned to labor and stevedore battalions. These troops performed essential duties for the American Expeditionary Force, building roads, bridges and trenches in support of the front-line battles.
In St. Nazaire, the New York National Guard soldiers learned they would work to prepare the docks and railway lines to be a major port of entry for the hundreds of thousands of forces yet to arrive in France. John J. They were committed to fighting the Germans and winning the war.
Hamilton Fish, according to the Harris book. This naturally upset our men tremendously. Regimental Commander Fights for Troops. William Hayward. While the regiment literally laid the tracks for the arrival of the 2 million troops deploying to France, the regimental band toured the region, performing for French and American audiences at rest centers and hospitals. The th Band was unlike any other performance audiences had seen or heard before, Harris noted. The regimental band is credited with introducing jazz music to France during the war.
Noble Sissle, band vocalist and organizer, in the Harris account, as the th Band would play as if they were in a jazz club back in Harlem. They also learned they had a new regimental number as the now-renamed th Infantry Regiment. Not that it mattered much to the soldiers; they still carried their nickname from New York, the Black Rattlers, and carried their regimental flag of the 15th New York Infantry everywhere they went in France.
