To Be a Soldier

To Be a Soldier

By: Krista Cummings

Thinking about the hardships that soldiers went through during World War I can be near impossible, as only a handful of people have ever experienced something even similar to what these people faced. By the end of this blog post, I'm hoping that we can feel more connected to those soldiers who fought and make it easier to vision what their life was like during these times. 

Horace Pippin was a soldier for the Harlem Hellfighters, an infantry regiment of the New York Army National Guard. This regiment was filled with African Americans, and were the ones in combat more than any other troop on the United States side. Pippin was 30 years old when the war started and he soon after volunteered. Even after proving himself during training, it was still undecided whether black men should be able to fight in the war, or if they weren't skilled enough both mentally and physically. 

When it came time to fight, the troop out-did all expectations that were had for them. The Harlem Hellfighters served 191 days on the front, never had a man captured, and never let the Germans gain ground from them. They were also the first force to reach River Rhine, which ended up being a very important factor in the victory. 

When describing the conditions of where they were living, Pippin said they were "lonely, cooty, muddy trenches". He also talks about some of the horrifying moments he faced while in those trenches. “Soon as we came out of our dugout I could smell gas… I looked around me and I seen that they all had their gas mass on… Every step we took a shell would land somewhere near the trench.” It was not uncommon for these soldiers to then have to crawl around on the muddy ground, and find a different part of the trench that's safer. We know how Germans used gas to their advantage in WWII, but this happened during the First World War as well. Another thing to look out for was the airborne gunners. They would come unexpectedly and fire from the sky, taking out a lot of the American soldiers. 

“Men layeing all over wounded and dead, some was being carryed. We wished we could help the wounded by we couldn’t. We had to leave them there and keep advanceing, ducking from shell hole to shell hole all day." Pippin would make friends with those he fought alongside, just to watch many of them die with nothing he could do to stop it, and barely any time to honor those that fell. Losing a friend is traumatic, yet there's no time to mourn or else you'll be the next one gone.

After the war, Pippin went back to his old life with a mostly paralyzed arm and in a really awful emotional state. Around ten years after returning, he started painting and became wildly known for his artwork. A year before he died, he was recognized for all of his bravery and was rewarded with a Purple Heart in 1945. 

Click here to see each Journal Entry  that Pippin wrote.

In class we explained what effect the war had on women when the men left for war, but we never went in-depth on how the soldiers felt that were fighting. We talked about trenches, but Pippin gives us insight on what it's like to be in those trenches for long periods of time. Instead of focusing on just the facts, we can now turn our attention towards the emotional aspect and can further understand why someone in this situation may develop PTSD once back home. 

Sources: 

https://www.history.com/news/harlem-hellfighters-horace-pippin-tales-from-wwi-trenches

https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/articles/z8sssbk

https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/items/detail/horace-pippin-memoir-his-experiences-world-war-i-7434