Not only was each of these regiments cited as a unit for the Croix de Guerre, but 365 individual soldiers received the coveted decoration.

A large number of Distinguished Service Crosses were also distributed to the 93rd division by General Pershing.
The verdict pronounced by critical French commanders may be considered as an unquestionable confirmation that the Negro troops were under all conditions brave fighters.

This fact and the improved status of the Negro as a result of it was pointed to by the New York Tribune, in a leading editorial in its issue of February 14, 1919.

It said: "The bas-relief of the Shaw Memorial became a living thing as the dusky heroes of the 15th cheered the Liberty statue and happily swarmed down the gangplank.

Appropriately the arrival was on the birthday of the "revered Lincoln," and never was the young and martyred idealist of Massachusetts filled with greater pride than swelled in Colonel Hayward as he talked of his men the best regiment, he said, with pardonable emphasis, 'of all engaged in the great war.' "These were men of the Champagne and the Argonne whose step was always forward; who held a trench ninety days without relief, with every night a raid night; who won 171 medals for conspicuous bravery; who saw the war expire under their pressure in a discouraged German cannonade.