Explore "Sidelights on Negro Soldiers" by Charles Williams on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
THE STEVEDORE
Very early in the war it was found that there was a serious shortage of common labor in the American army. France was unable to supply her own needs, and therefore not at all able to assist her allies. To supply the American need for common labor Negroes were suggested, G. K. Little, assistant engineer at Mobile, Ala., writing to the chief engineer that they were "loyal and willing to obey all orders irrespective of weather conditions or other hardships" and generally "peculiarly desirable. " It was the plan of these engineer service battalions to work wherever they could help and to do whatever was necessary. Forty-six such battalions were formed. The first four consisted of white men and the others of Negroes.