Gouraud in my belief, turned the tide of the war, and I am proud that the New York City colored boys had a share of that vital fight.
"Right here I may say that this orphan, urchin regiment of ours placed in the pathway of the Boche in the most significant battle the world has ever known, had only thirty-seven commissioned officers, and four of those wounded, had to be carried in stretchers to their positions in the trenches in order to direct the fighting." Colonel Hayward was himself in the hospital with a broken leg.
Disregarding the orders of the surgeons he went to the front line on crutches and personally directed his men in the fight.

In all of his written and quoted utterances since the war, he has refrained from mentioning this fact, but it is embodied in the regimental records.
Shortly after the French national holiday, the 369th was sent about 15 kilometers west to a position in front of the Butte de Mesnil, a high hill near Maison en Champagne, occupied by the Germans.

Around that district they held half a dozen sectors at different times with only one week of rest until September 26th.
Artillery duels were constant.

It is related that near the Butte de Mesnil the regiment lost a man an hour and an officer a day from the shell fire of the Boche.

So accurate were the gunners handling the German 77s that frequently a solitary soldier who exposed himself would actually be "sniped" off by a cannoneer.
In the September fighting the 369th saw the toughest period of its entire service.