Chapter I: Front Matter

Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Howard University, Washington D.C.]

KELLY MILLER'S HISTORY

OF

The World War

FOR

Human Rights

An Intensely Human and Brilliant Account of the World War; Why America Entered the Conflict; What the Allies Fought For; And a Thrilling Account of the Important Part Taken by the Negro in the Tragic Defeat of Germany; The Downfall of Autocracy, and Complete Victory for the Cause of Righteousness and Freedom.

INCLUDING

A Wonderful Array of Striking Pictures Made from Recent Official Photographs, Illustrating and Describing the New and Awful Devices Used in the Horrible Methods of Modern Warfare, together with Remarkable Pictures of the Negro in Action in Both Army and Navy.

BY

KELLY MILLER, A.M., LL.D.

The Well-Known and Popular Author of "Race Adjustment," "Out of the House of Bondage" and "The Disgrace of Democracy."

ALSO

Important Contribution by JOHN J. PERSHING, the Famous General, FREDERICK DRINKER, the Noted War Correspondent, and E.A. ALLEN, Author of "The History of Civilization."

Copyright, 1919
By
A. JENKINS

Copyright, 1919
By
O. KELLER

THE NEGRO'S PART IN THE WAR

BY PROFESSOR KELLY MILLER, THE WELL-KNOWN THINKER AND WRITER.

This treatise will set forth the black man's part in the world's war with the logical sequence of facts and the brilliant power of statement for which the author is famous. The mere announcement that the author of "Race Adjustment," "Out of the House of Bondage," and "The Disgrace of Democracy" is to present a history of the Negro in the great world conflict, is sufficient to arouse expectancy among the wide circle of readers who eagerly await anything that flows from his pen.

In this treatise, Professor Miller will trace briefly, but with consuming interest, the relation of the Negro to the great wars of the past. He will point out the never-failing fount of loyalty and patriotism which characterizes the black man's nature, and will show that the Negro has never been a hireling, but has always been characterized by that moral energy which actuates all true heroism.

The conduct of the Negro in the present struggle will be set forth with a brilliant and pointed pen. The idea of three hundred thousand American Negroes crossing three thousand miles of sea to fight against autocracy of the German crown constitutes the most interesting chapter in the history of this modern crusade against an unholy cause. The valor and heroism of the Afro-American contingent were second to none according to the unanimous testimony of those who were in command of this high enterprise.

The story of Negro officers in command of troops of their own color will prove the wisdom of a policy entered upon with much distrust and misgiving. It is just here that Professor Miller reaches the high-water mark. Here is a story never told before, because the world has never before witnessed Negro officers in large numbers participating in the directive side of war waged on the high level of modern science and system.

Professor Miller's treatise carries its own prophecy. He logically enough forecasts the future of the race in glowing colors as the result of his loyal and patriotic conduct in this great world epoch.

The author wisely queries: "When, hereafter, the Negro asks for his rights as an American citizen, where can the American be found with the heart or the hardihood to say him, Nay?"

The work will be profusely illustrated.

PUBLISHERS. March 27, 1919.

GENERAL PREFACE

While the underlying causes of the greatest war in all history must be traced far back into the centuries, the one great object of the conflict which was precipitated by the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria, in Bosnia, at the end of June, 1914, is the ultimate determination as to whether imperialism as exemplified in the government of Germany shall rule the world, or whether democracy shall reign.

Whenever men or nations disregard those principles which society has laid down for their conduct in modern civilized life, and obligation and duty are forgotten in the desire for self-advancement, conflict results.

Since the days of Athens and Sparta the world's greatest wars have in the main been conflicts of ideals--democracy being arrayed against oligarchy--men fighting for individual rights as against militarism and military domination.

In the World War, which terminated with the signing of the armistice, November 11, 1918, which painted the green fields of France and Belgium red with blood, and swept nations into the most significant and bitter struggle in all history, the fight was against the Imperial Government of Germany, by men and nations who claim that humanity the world over has rights that must be observed.

Germany has brought upon herself the destruction of her government by ruthlessly trampling upon her neighbors and assuming that "might is right."

The Imperial Government, led by the House of Hohenzollern, was suffering from an exaggerated ego. Her trouble was psychological. The men who study the strange workings and twists of the human mind which land some men in the institutions for the criminal insane, agree that when any man becomes obsessed with an idea and "rides a hobby" to the exclusion of all else, he loses his balance and develops an obliquity of view which makes him a dangerous creature.

Germany was obsessed with the spirit of militarism and almost everything else had been sacrificed to this idol. The very first appearance of Germans in history is as a warlike people. The earliest German literature is of folk-tales about war heroes, and these stories tell of the manly virtues of the heroes.

It is true that there are many scientists, poets, and musicians among the Germans, but their warlike side must never be forgotten. The entire race is imbued with the military spirit, the influence reaching to every phase of national life. All that was best in the nation was raised to its highest efficiency through military training, but in the accomplishment of its purposes the House of Hohenzollern, which is responsible for the development of the national fighting arm, neglected much and produced millions of creatures who are but human machines, taught to obey orders without consideration as to the effect their acts might produce, whether right or wrong.

In their criticisms of the Prussian militarism the world democracies defined militarism as an arrogant, or exclusive, professional military spirit, developed by training and environment until it became despotic, and assumed superiority over rational motives and deliberations.

This attitude was reflected in the conduct of the Kaiser, who, as illustrative of the point, is quoted at the dedication of the monument to Prince Frederick Charles at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder in 1891, as having said, "We would rather sacrifice our eighteen army corps and our forty-two millions inhabitants on the field of battle than surrender a single stone of what my father and Prince Charles Frederick gained."

His speeches were filled with similar bombastic and extravagant expressions which were the subject of international comment for many years. Other countries besides Germany have maintained great armies, but their maintenance has been but an incidental part of the general business of the nation and there was no submerging of the spirit which seeks and demands appropriate public ideals in government and action. So that while other elements have always tended to produce friction between neighboring countries, it was adamant, stubborn, military Prussianism which asserted itself in the middle of 1914 and set the world afire.

Enough is known at this writing to show that the cost in lives, money, morals and weakening of humanity as a whole, is staggering, and yet the whole truth can not be realized for years to come. In our own great struggle, which had for its object the liberation of the Negro, the scars which our country received have not yet been entirely eliminated. Portions of the country devastated by the soldiers still bear the marks of the invasion, but what was lost in money and material things was made up by the welding together of the two sections of the country. The Union was made a concrete, humanitarian body of citizens. The battle was for the right and liberty triumphed. And by the defeat of Germany liberty again triumphs and the world is made a safe place in which to live.

And just as America fought for liberty in the stirring days of 1776, and her peoples fought one another in the trying days of 1861-65, so America was drawn into the World's War that the principles of liberty, for which she has ever stood, might be perpetuated throughout the world, and that an international peace might be established, which has for its purposes the ending of such convulsions as have shaken the world since August, 1914, since the first shots were fired in fair Belgium by German invaders.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

CIVILIZATION AT ISSUE--THE GERMAN EMPIRE--CHARACTER OF WILLIAM II--THE GREAT CONSPIRACY--THE WAR BY YEARS--UNITED STATES IN THE WAR--TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILES OF BATTLE--THE DOWNFALL OF TURKEY--THE DEMOCRATIC CLOSE OF THE WAR 17

CHAPTER II

GEN. PERSHING'S OWN STORY

ORGANIZATION OF HIS GENERAL STAFF--TRAINING IN FRANCE--IN THE AISNE OFFENSIVE--AT CHATEAU THIERRY--THE ST MIHEIL SALIENT--MEUSE-ARGONNE, FIRST PHASE--THE BATTLE IN THE FOREST--SUMMARY 49

CHAPTER III

PRESIDENT WILSON'S REVIEW OF THE WAR

TROOP MOVEMENT DURING THE YEAR--TRIBUTE TO AMERICAN SOLDIERS--SPLENDID SPIRIT OF THE NATION--RESUME THE WORK OF PEACE--OUTLINE OF WORK IN PARIS--SUPPORT OF NATION URGED 79

CHAPTER IV

THE FLASH THAT SET THE WORLD AFLAME

TEUTON FIND IN A MURDER THE EXCUSE FOR WAR--GERMANY INSPIRED BY AMBITIONS FOR WORLD CONTROL--THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL SUPREMACY A FACTOR--THE UNDERLYING MOTIVES 89

CHAPTER V

WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR

THE IRON HAND OF PRUSSIANISM--THE ARROGANT HOHENZOLLERN ATTITUDE--SECRETARY LANE TELLS WHY WE FIGHT--BROKEN PLEDGES--LAWS VIOLATED--PRUSSIANISM THE CHILD OF BARBARITY--GERMANY'S PLANS FOR A WORLD EMPIRE 97

CHAPTER VI

THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD

GERMANY'S BARBARITY--THE DEVASTATION OF BELGIUM--HUMAN FIENDS--FIREBRAND AND TORCH--RAPE AND PILLAGE--THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN--WANTON DESTRUCTION--OFFICIAL PROOF 113

CHAPTER VII

THE SLINKING SUBMARINE

A VORACIOUS SEA MONSTER--THE RUTHLESS DESTRUCTIVE POLICY OF GERMANY--STARVATION OF NATIONS THE GOAL--HOW THE SUBMARINES OPERATE--SOME PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 135

CHAPTER VIII

THWARTING THE U-BOAT

NETS TO ENTANGLE THE SEA SHARKS OF WAR--"CHASERS" OR "SKIMMING DISH" BOATS--"BLIMPS" AND SEAPLANES--HUNTING THE SUBMARINE WITH "LANCE" BOMB AND GUN--A SAILOR'S DESCRIPTION 154

CHAPTER IX

THE EYES OF BATTLE

AEROPLANES AND AIRSHIPS--THEY SPY THE MOVEMENTS OF FORCESON LAND OR SEA--LEAD DISASTROUS BOMB ATTACKS--VALUABLE IN "SPOTTING" SUBMARINES--THE BOMBARDMENT AT MESSINES RIDGE 170

CHAPTER X

WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES

CHEMISTRY A DEMON OF DESTRUCTION--POISON GAS BOMBS--GAS MASKS--HAND GRENADES--MORTARS--"TANKS"--FEUDAL "BATTERING RAMS"--STEEL HELMETS--STRANGE BULLETS--MOTOR PLOWS--REAL DOGS OF WAR 185

CHAPTER XI

WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS

THE TERRIBLE RAPID-FIRE GUN--ARMORED AUTOMOBILES AND AUTOMOBILE ARTILLERY--HOWITZERS--MOUNTED FORTS--ARMORED TRAINS--OBSERVATION TOWERS--WIRELESS APPARATUS--THE ARMY PANTRY 205

CHAPTER XII

THE WORLD'S ARMIES

THE EFFICIENT GERMAN ORGANIZATION--THE LANDWEHR AND LANDSTURM--GENERAL FORMS OF MILITARY ORGANIZATION--THE BRAVE FRENCH TROOPS--THE PICTURESQUE ITALIAN SOLDIERY--THE PEACE AND WAR STRENGTH--AVAILABLE FIGHTING MEN--FORTIFICATIONS 224

CHAPTER XIII

THE WORLD'S NAVIES

GERMANY'S SEA STRENGTH--GREAT BRITAIN'S IMMENSE WAR FLEET--IMMENSE FIGHTING CRAFT--THE UNITED STATES' NEW BATTLE CRUISERS--THE FASTEST AND BIGGEST OCEAN FIGHTING SHIPS--THE PICTURESQUE MARINES: THE SOLDIERS OF THE SEA 243

CHAPTER XIV

THE NATIONS AT WAR

UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENTS--HOW THE WAR FLAMES SPREAD--A SCORE OF COUNTRIES INVOLVED--THE POINTS OF CONTACT--PICTURESQUE AND RUGGED BULGARIA, ROUMANIA, SERVIA, GREECE, ITALY AND HISTORIC SOUTHEAST EUROPE 259

CHAPTER XV

MODERN WAR METHODS

INDIVIDUAL INITIATIVE AS AGAINST MASS MOVEMENTS--TRENCH WARFARE A GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK--RATS AND DISEASE--SURGERY'S TRIUMPHS--CHANGED TACTICS--ITALIAN MOUNTAIN FIGHTING 281

CHAPTER XVI

WOMAN AND THE WAR

SHE HAS WON "HER PLACE IN THE SUN"--RICH AND POOR IN THE MUNITIONS FACTORIES--NURSE AND AMBULANCE DRIVER--KHAKI AND TROUSERS--ORGANIZER AND FARMER--HEROES IN THE STRESS OF CIRCUMSTANCES--DYING MEN'S WORK FOR MEN--EVEN A "BOBBIE" 298

CHAPTER XVII

THE TERRIBLE PRICE

A NATION OF MEN DESTROYED--MILLIONS IN SHIPPING AND COMMERCE DESTROYED--WORLD'S MAPS CHANGED--BILLIONS IN MONEY--IMMENSE DEBTS--NATION'S WEALTH--THE UNITED STATES A GREAT PROVIDER 316

CHAPTER XVIII

THE WORLD RULERS AT WAR

WOODROW WILSON, THE CHAMPION OF DEMOCRACY--THE EGOTISTICAL KAISER--THE GERMAN CROWN PRINCE--BRITAIN'S MONARCH--CONSTANTINE WHO QUIT RATHER THAN FIGHT GERMANY--PRESIDENT POINCARE--AND OTHER NATIONAL HEADS 328

CHAPTER XIX

THE WAR'S WHO'S WHO

STRIKING FIGURES IN THE CONFLICT--JOFFRE, THE HERO OF MARNE--NIVELLE, THE FRENCH COMMANDER--SIR DOUGLAS HAIG--THE KAISER'S CHANCELLOR--VENIZELOS--"BLACK JACK" PERSHING 344

CHAPTER XX

CHEMISTRY IN THE WAR

SUBSTITUTES FOR COTTON--NITRATES PRODUCED FROM AIR--YEAST A REAL SUBSTITUTE FOR BEEF--SEAWEED MADE TO GIVE UP POTASH--A GANGRENE PREVENTATIVE--SODA MADE OUT OF SALT WATER--AMERICA CHEMICALLY INDEPENDENT 361

CHAPTER XXI

OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY

CANADA'S RECRUITING--RAISE 33,000 TROOPS IN TWO MONTHS--FIRST EXPEDITIONARY FORCE TO CROSS ATLANTIC--BRAVERY AT YPRES AND LENS--MEETING DIFFICULT PROBLEMS--QUEBEC AROUSED BY CONSCRIPTION 371

CHAPTER XXII

THE HEROIC ANZAC

FORCES THAT STIRRED THE WORLD IN THE GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN--FAMOUS AS SAPPERS--THE BLASTING OF MESSINES RIDGE--TWO YEARS TUNNELLING--30,000 GERMANS BLOWN TO ATOMS--1,000,000 POUNDS OF EXPLOSIVES USED--TROOPS THAT WERE TRANSPORTED 11,000 MILES 390

CHAPTER XXIII

AMERICA STEPS IN

PRESIDENT WILSON'S FAMOUS MESSAGE TO CONGRESS--THE WAR RESOLUTION--APRIL 6, 1917, SEES THE UNITED STATES AT WAR--REVIEW OF THE NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN GERMANY AND AMERICA--THE U-BOAT RESTRICTED ZONE ANNOUNCEMENT OF GERMANY--PREMIER LLOYD GEORGE ON AMERICA IN THE CONFLICT 399

CHAPTER XXIV

UNCLE SAM TAKES HOLD

MAKES WORLD'S BIGGEST WAR LOAN--SEIZE GERMAN SHIPS--INTRIGUE EXPOSED--GENERAL PERSHING AND STAFF IN EUROPE--THE NAVY ON DUTY IN NORTH SEA--FIRST UNITED STATES TROOPS REACH FRANCE--GERMANY'S ATTEMPTS TO SINK TROOP SHIPS THWARTED BY NAVY'S GUNS 427

CHAPTER XXV

A GERMAN CRISIS

THE DOWNFALL OF BETHMANN-HOLLWEG--THE CROWN PRINCE IN THE LIME LIGHT--HOLLWEG'S UNIQUE CAREER--DR. GEORG MICHAELIS APPOINTED CHANCELLOR--THE KAISER AND HOW HE GETS HIS IMMENSE POWER 444

CHAPTER XXVI

UNCLE SAM AND THE NEUTRALS

PRESIDENT WILSON PUTS EMBARGO ON FOOD SHIPMENTS--SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES FURNISHING SUPPLIES TO GERMANY INSPIRES ORDER--THE DIFFICULT POSITION OF NORWAY, DENMARK, HOLLAND AND SWITZERLAND 452

CHAPTER XXVII

THE ACTIONS OF THE WAR

FROM BOSNIA TO FLANDERS--MARNE THE TURNING POINT OF THE CONFLICT--THE CONQUESTS OF SERVIA AND RUMANIA--THE FALL OF BAGDAD--RUSSIA'S WOMEN SOLDIERS--AMERICA'S CONSCRIPTS 463

CHAPTER XXVIII

AMERICAN FORCES BECOME FACTOR

UNITED STATES SOLDIERS INSPIRED ALLIED TROOPS--RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT COLLAPSES--ITALIAN ARMY FAILS--ALLIED WAR COUNCIL FORMED--FOCH COMMANDS ALLIED ARMIES--PERSHING OFFERS AMERICAN TROOPS--UNDER FIRE--U-BOAT BASES RAIDED BY BRITISH 473

CHAPTER XXIX

AMERICANS TURN WAR'S TIDE

BRILLIANT AMERICAN FIGHTING STOPS HUN ADVANCE--FRENCH AND BRITISH INSPIRED--FAMOUS MARINES LEAD IN PICTURESQUE ATTACK--HALT GERMANS AT CHATEAU-THIERRY--USED OPEN STYLE FIGHTING--THOUSANDS OF GERMANS SLAIN--UNITED STATES TROOPS IN SIBERIA--NEW CONSCRIPTION BILL PASSED--ALLIED SUCCESSES ON ALL FRONTS 489