It was necessary to watch them like hawks to keep them from slipping off on independent raiding parties.
The New York regiment had a band of 40 pieces, second to none in the American army.

It is stated that the officers and men in authority in the French billeting places had difficulty in keeping the villagers from following the band away when it played plantation airs and syncopations as only Negroes can play them.
On April 12, 1918, the 369th took over a sector of 5-1/2 kilometers in the Bois de Hauzy on the left of a fringe of the Argonne Forest.

There they stayed until July 1st.

There was no violent fighting in the sector, but many raids back and forth by the Negroes and the Germans, rifle exchanges and occasionally some artillery action.
One important engagement occurred June 12th, which the soldiers called the million dollar raid, because they thought the preparatory barrage of the Germans must have cost all of that.

The Germans came over, probably believing they would find the Negro outfit scared stiff.