The 371st Infantry was an all African-American regiment, with white officers, formed at Camp Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina, during the Fall of 1917. It was the only all-draftee regiment to participate in World War I. However, by the time it left for Europe in April 1918, it was declared to be the best-drilled unit at Camp Jackson.
A number of young men from Williamsburg County were part of the 371st for brief periods of time leading up to April 1918. However, for seven men from this county, the 371st Infantry was their only assignment during the Great War. Today, we will look at Sgt. Walter Paul, Ordnance Sgt. Henry Cleveland McClary, and Corporal Sandy Evander Jones. Sgt. Paul made the ultimate sacrifice, giving his life in battle, while Sgt. McClary survived the fierce fighting, only to die of pneumonia just days before he was scheduled to return home. Corporal Jones received the Distinguished Service Cross from President Woodrow Wilson for his heroism.
But first, let's get a general idea of what the 371st faced when it landed in France in 1918. All companies of the regiment sailed from Newport News, VA, on April 7, 1918, aboard the USS President Grant. Arriving in France, they were put under French command, in part because France desperately needed soldiers and in part because it was believed the French would more easily assimilate the Black troops.
What we know of their movements in Europe comes largely from Emmet J. Scott, Booker T. Washington's closest adviser at the Tuskegee Institute, who was called to Washington as Special Adviser of Black Affairs to the Secretary of War, and who wrote Scott's Official History of the American Negro in the World War in 1919.
After the unit arrived in France, they trained with French troops until June 12, 1918, when they were sent into the trenches. For over three months, they held the line in the Avocourt and Verrières sectors northwest of Verdun. Then, in September, they were thrown into the great Champagne offensive. "The regiment captured many German prisoners, 47 machine guns, eight trench engines, three 77mm field pieces, a munitions depot, many railroad cars, and enormous quantities of lumber, hay, and other supplies. It shot down three German airplanes by rifle and machine-gun fire during the advance."
Casualties were high, with 1,065 of the regiment's 2,384 men killed, wounded or captured between September 28 and October 1.
One of those killed on the morning of September 29 was Sgt. Walter Paul, who was a member of Company G. Born in Cedar Swamp in 1896, he was the son Anthony and Nelly Paul, although he and his younger sister were living with their grandparents, Sandy and Jane Paul, on Cedar Swamp Road in 1910. By the time he registered for the draft, Paul was working as a farm hand of J.G. McCollough. He was assigned to Company G of the 371st when he was inducted at Camp Jackson on October 6, 1917. He was promoted to Private First Class on February 1, 1918, to Corporal on March 16, 1918, and to Sergeant on May 4, after the regiment arrived in France. Sgt. Paul is buried in Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial near Lorraine, France, in Plot F, Row 36, Grave 30. His name also appears on the Monument to the 371st Infantry which is situated in France near the location of some of the fiercest fighting.
Henry Cleveland McClary was also born near Cedar Swamp, likely on Sims Reach Road, although he was 10 years older than Walter Paul. His parents were Sam and Susan Strong McClary. At one time McClary ran the barbershop at the Kellahan Hotel, and when he registered for the draft, he requested an exemption, stating that he was the sole support of his elderly father. However, he was inducted into Company E of the 371st Infantry at Camp Jackson on October 6, 1917. He was transferred to the 371st's Supply Company in December 1917 and became Ordnance Sergeant for that company on January 1, 1918. Sgt. McClary survived the battles in which the 371st was involved, and his name appeared on the passenger log of the USS Leviathan, scheduled to sail for the United States from Brest, France, on February 3, 1919. His name, however, is struck through, with the penciled notation that he did not sail as he had been admitted to a hospital. He died of pneumonia on January 27, 1919.
On August 19, 1920, a small notice appeared in The County Record, which read: The body of Henry McClary, a colored man of this county, a barber by trade, who at one time conducted a shop in the Kellahan Hotel, was returned here last week from France. McClary went to France as a soldier and died in a hospital there during the war.
The war story of Sandy Evander Jones is one of which we should all be proud. Born in Taft in the southern part of Williamsburg County on December 26, 1894, to James E. and Rosetta McCullough Jones, he was a student at Allen University when he registered for the draft in 1917. He was inducted into Company C of the 371st Infantry at Camp Jackson on October 28, 1917. By December 1, he had been promoted to Corporal. As company clerk for Company C, Corporal Jones was left behind to protect the records when his fellow soldiers went into battle. During the fierce fighting of September 28-29, 1918, word reached Corporal Jones that all the officers of his company were casualties and that the company was now scattered. He moved forward and began to round up and re-organize the scattered soldiers even as the battle continued to rage. In 1919, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by President Woodrow Wilson for his actions under very dangerous and trying circumstances.
The official citation reads: The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Corporal Sandy Jones, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism while serving with Company C of the 371st Infantry, 93rd Division, A.E.F., near Champagne, France, September 28-29, 1918.
There was no mention in The County Record of Cpl. Jones receiving this honor.
On November 20, 1918, he was promoted to Sergeant. He returned to the United States, landing in Hoboken, NJ, on February 11, 1919, and was honorably discharged on February 27. By 1920, he was working as a messenger for the War Department in Washington, DC, where he would live for the rest of his life. He later worked for the Census Bureau at the US Department of Commerce. He married Annie Laurie Moore, and they had a daughter, Helen. Helen's son, David Daniels, remembers his grandfather on Ancestry.com as a man who always told his grandchildren stories with morals for them to emulate. Daniels also notes that the old saying that "you can take the man out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the man" applied to Sandy Jones, who was always up and doing something by 6 a.m. before breakfasting on grits and gravy with biscuits. His grandson writes that in addition to his work for the government, his grandfather also did well in real estate, owning several properties in Washington, including one on which he planted a large garden.
Sandy Jones died at age 78 on August 24, 1972. He is buried in Block 6 at Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Brentwood, MD. State Representative Cezar McKnight is Sandy Jones' Great-Grand Nephew.
Next time we'll look at Arthur Burgess, Calvin Green, Emmanuel Morris, and John Richard Rigens.
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