The black sergeant waited until the Germans were close to his post, then opened fire upon them with his automatic rifle. He kept the stream of lead upon the raiders until ten of their number had been killed. Then he went forth and took the German lieutenant, who was slightly wounded, a prisoner, released the American lieutenant and five other prisoners, and returned to the American lines with his prisoner and the rescued party.
Fighting through predudice before fighting their country's enemies, soldiers of the all-black 369th Regiment of New York provided an example for all Americans. More than 400,000 black soldiers (367,710 draftees plus voluntary enlistments and those already in the Regular Army) were called to the colors and offered their lives in defense of the American flag in World War I.
Taken from: Scott, Emmitt J. "Scott's Official History of the American Negro in the World War." (Chicago: Homewood Press, 1919). Edited by Gary M. Bohannon.
On authority of General Pershing, Colonel Hayward himself presented the Distinguished Service Crosses to the heroes among his regiment, the all-black 369th. Then, from the hands of General Collardet, of the French Army, they received the medal of the Legion of Honor. But even among this list of distinguished heroes, those who knew of the exploits of Sergeant Butler insisted upon calling for him and making him the object of their attentions.
The 369th Regiment, that Sergeant Butler was part of, never lost a man captured, a trench, or a foot of ground. It was the only unit in the American Expeditionary Force which bore a State name and carried a State flag and was never in an American brigade or division. It saw the first and the longest service of any American regiment as part of a foreign army, even though it had less training than any American unit before going into action.
The first effort to organize a black National Guard regiment in New York City was sponsored by Charles W. Fillmore, a black citizen, who afterwards was commissioned a Captain by Col. Hayward, the regimental commander. The effort to secure proper approval of such a regiment was more or less abortive until Gov. Charles S. Whitman, following the gallant fight of black troops of the Tenth Cavalry against Mexican bandits at Carrizal, authorized the project.
By the first of October, ten companies of sixty-five men each had been formed, and the regiment was then recognized by the State and given its colors. The men needed were recruited in five days after the applicants had been subjected to a physical examination more stringent than that given in the regular army. "There is no better soldier material in the world," said Col. Hayward. "Given the proper training, these men will be the equal of any soldiers in the world."
Training the men presented some difficulty. At first they were drilled in Lafayette Hall in New York City. But the place was altogether too small and many of the fifty squads which drilled nightly had to take to the streets to carry out the maneuvers of their drill sergeants. Later they went for three weeks to Camp Whitman. An announced plan to send the regiment to train at Camp Wadsworth down south in Spartanburg, caused a storm of protest from the citizens of the South Carolina town. "The most tragic consequences," they insisted, "would follow the introduction of the New York Negro with his Northern ideas into the community life of Spartanburg." The Spartanburg Chamber of Commerce drafted resolutions protesting against the training of black troops at Camp Wadsworth, which were sent to New York State officials.
The resolutions, however, had less weight than the exigencies of war and, early in October, the 369th arrived at Camp Wadsworth. The "tragic consequences" did not materialize. Certain stores refused to serve black customers and were, in turn, boycotted by the white soldiers, but the chief result of the 369th's visit to Spartanburg was an increased respect in some measure, at least, for the black soldier.
Early in September the men of the 369th were Transferred from the 16th French Division, in which they had been serving, and made an integral part of the 161st French Division. And then, on the morning of September 26th, they joined with the Moroccans on the left and native French on the right in the offensive which won for the entire regiment the French Croix de Guerre and the citation of 171 individual officers and enlisted men for the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor, for exceptional gallantry in action. The action began at Maison-en-Champagne; it finished seven kilometers northward and eastward and over the intervening territory the Germans had retreated before the ferocious attacks of the 369th and its French comrades.
A month later a new honor came to the regiment: the honor of being the first unit of all the Allied armies to reach the River Rhine. The regiment had left its trenches at Thann, Sunday, November 17, and, marching as the advance guard of the 161st Division, Second French Army, reached Blodelsheim, on the left bank of the Rhine, Monday, November 18. The 369th is proud of this achievement. It believes also that it was under fire for a greater number of days than any other American regiment. Its historian will record:
A Prussian officer captured by the "Black Watch," as the 369th was called after they had reached the Rhine, is said to have remarked: "We can't hold up against these men. They are devils! They smile while they kill and they won't be taken alive."
It was on the night of August 12, 1918, while the fighting was raging in the Champagne District, that Sergeant Butler's opportunity came to him. A German raiding party had rushed the American trenches and, after firing a few shots and making murderous use of the short trench knives and clubs carried for such encounters, had captured five privates and a lieutenant. The victorious raiders were making their way back to their own trenches when Butler, occupying a lone position in a forward post, saw that it would be necessary for the party to pass him.
The black sergeant waited until the Germans were close to his post, then opened fire upon them with his automatic rifle. He kept the stream of lead upon the raiders until ten of their number had been killed. Then he went forth and took the German lieutenant, who was slightly wounded, a prisoner, released the American lieutenant and five other prisoners, and returned to the American lines with his prisoner and the rescued party.
Under the heading, "Trenton Has Nothing on Salisbury," The Afro-American of Baltimore said: "Trenton, New Jersey, may have her Needham Roberts, but it takes Salisbury, Maryland, to produce a William Butler. Roberts had his comrade, Henry Johnson, to help him in repulsing a raiding party of Germans, but Butler took care of a German lieutenant and squad of Boches all by himself. Herbert Corey, a white newspaper correspondent, in telling of the incident said that Butler came "a-roaring and fogging" through the darkness with his automatic, and "nobody knows how many Germans he killed."
It was for this that General Pershing awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross recently and the citation read: "Sergt. William Butler, Company L, 369th Infantry (A. S. No. 104464). For extraordinary heroism in action near Maison de Champagne, France, August 18, 1918. Sergeant Butler broke up a German raiding party which had succeeded in entering our trenches and capturing some of our men. With an automatic rifle he killed four of the raiding party and captured or put to flight the remainder of the invaders."
The New York Tribune, on April 28, 1919, said: "Bill Butler, a slight, good-natured black youth, who until two years ago was a jack-of-all-trades in a little Maryland town, yesterday came into his own as a hero among heroes. More than 5,000 men and women arose to their feet in City College stadium and cheered themselves hoarse while representatives of two Governments pinned their highest medals upon the breast of the nervous youth. Sergeant Butler was one of a list of twenty-three members of the famous [369th] Regiment upon whom both France and the United States conferred medals of honor because of extraordinary heroism on European battlefields. But by common consent his name comes first on the list—a list that was made up only after a careful comparison of the deeds of gallantry that finally resulted in the breaking of the Hun lines."