Sergeant Perry “Rawhide” Loyd, 371st Infantry Regiment
One Black soldier from Sumter County, South Carolina. A regiment that fought under French command. A grandson who recovered the story. Every date and name here is tied to a cited source.
Archival photograph of soldiers aboard a troop ship, uncaptioned.
1918
Sgt. Perry Loyd of Claremont, Sumter County, South Carolina, served with the 371st Infantry Regiment: Black draftees, mostly South Carolinians, who reached France in April 1918 and fought under French command.
September 29, 1918
Wounded in action on September 29, 1918, in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Recommended for the Wound Chevron, the decoration that preceded the Purple Heart, he never received it in his lifetime.
He came home to Sumter County, farmed as a sharecropper, married Rebecca Howard, and raised a family. He died in 1946 and is buried at High Hills AME Church Cemetery in Dalzell, South Carolina.
2018
His service records had burned in the 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center. Two federal applications were denied. On October 13, 2018, at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, his grandson and namesake accepted the Purple Heart on the family’s behalf.
1918 to 2018
From a wound in France to a medal in South Carolina. This site tells the story of that century, from the record, one chapter at a time.
Open one. Each answer comes with its source.
The answer
Yes.
Sgt. Perry Loyd was wounded on September 29, 1918, and survived. He went home to Sumter County, South Carolina, farmed as a sharecropper, raised a family, and died in 1946.
The answer
The French Army.
French rifles. French helmets. French command. The regiment was attached to the French 157th "Red Hand" Division under General Mariano Goybet, and fought there while the American Expeditionary Force declined to brigade Black regiments with white American units.
The answer
100 years.
Sgt. Loyd was wounded in 1918 and recommended for the Wound Chevron, which he never received. His family was presented his Purple Heart at Fort Jackson on October 13, 2018, after his records burned in a 1973 fire and two federal applications were denied.
“The regiment was the apex of the attacking salient in this great battle.”
2,384
soldiers of the 371st actually engaged, September 28 to October 6, 1918
Source: Emmett J. Scott's official history, 1919
1,065
losses recorded by Emmett J. Scott, one figure he never broke down by kind
Source: Emmett J. Scott's official history, 1919
73years
from Cpl. Freddie Stowers' death on Hill 188 to his Medal of Honor
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents, George H. W. Bush, 1991
100years
from Sgt. Perry Loyd's wound in France to his Purple Heart
Source: U.S. Army (army.mil) and Military.com
One soldier, wounded in 1918, and the hundred years his family waited for the Purple Heart.
A regiment of Black South Carolinians under French command, and the corporal whose Medal of Honor came 73 years after his death.
A dated timeline of the regiment with every source listed, the photographs, and a short quiz on the same facts.
A grandson recovered his grandfather’s story and accepted the medal on the family’s behalf.
Archival portraits, the memorials, and living history. Perry W. James IV brings this story to audiences in person, presenting in replica World War I uniform alongside the Ebony Doughboys.
Ebony Doughboys members at an award ceremony, believed to be the occasion of the Congressional Veterans Braintrust Award pictured elsewhere in this gallery.
A short quiz
Eight questions about a regiment whose story is still mostly untold. Every answer comes with a reveal, a plain explanation, and its source, and three of them correct errors that circulate online.
SGT. RAWHIDE
by Perry W. James IV
A designed title plate, not the printed book cover.
SGT. RAWHIDE is published and on sale now, bringing the story of Sergeant Rawhide, the 371st Infantry Regiment, and the soldiers who served alongside Sergeant Perry Loyd to readers.
Begin the story: chapter 1 of 5
Begin with the man himself: wounded in France in 1918, and home again.