Sgt. Perry "Rawhide" Loyd, 371st Infantry Regiment
Remember the 371st
Wounded in 1918. Purple Heart presented in 2018.
- He survived
- Sgt. Loyd survived his wound and the war. He returned to Sumter County as a sharecropper, married Rebecca Howard, and raised a family of 15 children, 10 of whom lived to adulthood. He died on December 31, 1946, at 51, and is buried at High Hills AME Church Cemetery in Dalzell, South Carolina.Source: Live 5 News (2022), "Honor Overdue: The 100-Year Journey to Sgt. Loyd's Purple Heart"
- Under French command
- The regiment arrived in France in April 1918 and was attached to the French 157th Infantry Division, the "Red Hand" division, under General Mariano Goybet. The 93rd Division (Provisional) that the regiment had been assigned to was never fully organized: its headquarters was demobilized in May 1918, and its regiments were loaned to the French, who needed infantry, while the American Expeditionary Force declined to brigade Black regiments with white American units. The 371st fought under French command, using French weapons, helmets, and equipment. It never fought as part of the 93rd Division.Source: Emmett J. Scott, Scott's Official History of the American Negro in the World War (1919), ch. XVI, p. 232
Every date, number and name on this card is tied to a cited source. How we tell this story
The full story, with every source: www.sgtrawhide.com/sergeant-rawhide
A project of Perry W. James IV, separate from the 371st Monument Association.