The Nine Men in the Harlem Hellfighters' Homecoming Photograph

Nine men of the 369th Infantry, the Harlem Hellfighters, photographed on their return home, February 12, 1919. Public domain.

This photograph was taken on February 12, 1919, as soldiers of the 369th Infantry Regiment waited to come ashore in New York, home from the war in Europe. It is one of several well-known pictures of the regiment, but few of them came with captions saying who the men were. The National Park Service set out to find out.

The 369th, whose men called themselves Harlem's Rattlers, was the most famous all-Black regiment of World War I. France awarded the regiment the Croix de Guerre, and one hundred seventy-one of its men received the medal individually; several also won the Distinguished Service Cross, and in 2015 Henry Johnson was awarded the Medal of Honor, posthumously. Every man in this photograph wore the Croix de Guerre.

The back row, left to right

Henry Davis Primas Public domain.

Henry Davis Primas (far left). Born May 26, 1894, in Pittsburgh, he graduated in pharmacy from the University of Pittsburgh in 1914 and enlisted on November 16, 1917; his training took him to the regiment’s medical detachment. Discharged on February 24, 1919, he went home to work as a pharmacist, later retired from the U.S. Post Office, and died on May 3, 1961, at 66. He is buried at Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh.

Daniel W. Storms Jr. Public domain.

Daniel W. Storms Jr. (second from left). Born in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1885, he had worked as a hostler, tending horses at an inn, and as a house cleaner. He enlisted on May 8, 1917, at 33, and was made sergeant on December 4, 1918. After his discharge on February 24, 1919, he worked in New York City as an elevator operator and janitor. He died of complications from tuberculosis on February 28, 1922, at 36, and is buried in Woodland Cemetery in Stamford.

Joe Williams Public domain.

Joe Williams (third from left). Born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1896, he served in Company C and was wounded on November 10, 1918. He was discharged on reaching New York, and nothing has been found about his life after that.

Alfred S. Manley Public domain.

Alfred S. Manley (fourth from left). Born in Powhatan, Virginia, in 1895, he had moved with his family to New Jersey by 1910 and joined Company B on July 13, 1917, at 19. The regiment knew him as “Kid Buck.” After the war he drove for a laundry company in Newark, where he died on April 16, 1933; he is buried in Fairmount Cemetery there.

Tyler William Taylor Public domain.

Tyler William Taylor (far right). Born July 5, 1895, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, he moved to New York City and by 1915 was driving for the Post Office. He joined Company B in the summer of 1917 and was made corporal in December 1918. Discharged on February 24, 1919, he married that April. In the 1930s and 1940s he was a cook on the SS Seminole and a butler in Fairfield, Connecticut. He died on February 24, 1983, at 87, in Bayonne, New Jersey.

The front row, left to right

Ed Williams Public domain.

Ed Williams (far left). Born February 5, 1898, in Charlotte, North Carolina, he joined Company C in New York and was badly wounded on September 30, 1918, in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive near Séchault, France. He was called “Eagle Eye.” After his discharge in February 1919 he moved to Greenville County, South Carolina, and married there; by 1940 the family was back in New York. He died in Brooklyn on April 21, 1993, at 95.

Herbert Taylor Public domain.

Herbert Taylor (second from left). Born December 15, 1899, in Newark, New Jersey, he served in Company B and was wounded on September 29, 1918, in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. He stayed in New York City, and in 1942, at 43, while working as a laborer, he joined the New York National Guard for two years. He died on December 6, 1984, at 87, and is buried at Calverton National Cemetery.

Leon E. Fraiter Public domain.

Leon E. Fraiter (third from left). Born November 11, 1892, in Charleston, South Carolina, he was living in New York City by 1911 and enlisted in August 1917. He married in 1924 and had two sons, and worked after the war as a salesman in a New York jewelry store. He died on December 9, 1974, at 82, and is buried in Long Island National Cemetery.

Ralph Hawkins Public domain.

Ralph Hawkins (far right). Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1898, he joined Company C in the summer of 1917 at 19. Known as “Kid Hawk,” he received the Croix de Guerre and the Bronze Star. Discharged on February 24, 1919, he re-enlisted in the New York National Guard in April 1919 and October 1922, and in the late 1930s and early 1940s worked for the Works Progress Administration. He died in Philadelphia on January 8, 1951, and is buried in Merion Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

The regiment

The 369th began in 1913 as the 15th New York, an all-Black unit of the New York Army National Guard, segregated as the military then required. When the United States entered the war it was called into federal service, renamed the 369th Infantry and assigned to the 93rd Division, one of the two divisions of African American troops. General John J. Pershing, commanding the American Expeditionary Forces, kept Black units off the front lines and in labor and supply roles, reflecting the military leadership's belief that African Americans could not be effective combat soldiers.

In March 1918 Pershing assigned the 369th to the French, who badly needed combat troops and were used to fighting alongside their own Black colonial soldiers. The Americans warned the French not to treat Black troops as equals; the French ignored them, armed and trained the 369th with French weapons, and sent it to the Argonne Forest in Champagne. There it began 191 straight days in the front-line trenches during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. The Germans called its men Höllenkämpfer, hellfighters, which gave them the name Harlem Hellfighters; they called themselves Harlem's Rattlers, after the snake on the Revolutionary-era Gadsden flag.

Sources

• National Park Service, "Who Are They? Men in the 369th Infantry Iconic Photo," Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument; rewritten in hubnx's own words. Photographs: public domain.