SGT. RAWHIDE

The history behind the novel

What will I discover?

Four documented threads the novel stands on, each tied to its source. No plot, no spoilers: the record only. The novel is Perry’s telling of it.

• A thread of the record

  A thread of the record: A regiment under French command

  Open this threadClose this thread

  What the record says

  French weapons, French helmets, a French division.

  The 371st arrived in France in April 1918 and was attached to the French 157th Infantry Division, the "Red Hand" division, under General Mariano Goybet. It fought under French command, using French weapons, helmets, and equipment, while the American Expeditionary Force declined to brigade Black regiments with white American units.

  Source: Emmett J. Scott, Scott's Official History of the American Negro in the World War (1919), ch. XVI, p. 232 (opens in a new tab, leaves the Sergeant Rawhide site)

• A thread of the record

  A thread of the record: Hill 188, and the figure 1,065

  Open this threadClose this thread

  What the record says

  In Scott’s own word: losses.

  In the Champagne offensive of September 28 to October 6, 1918, the 371st captured Côte 188 (Hill 188), Bussy Ferme, Ardeuil, Montfauxelles, and Trières Ferme near Monthois. Emmett J. Scott’s 1919 official history records that the regiment’s losses, mostly sustained in the first three days, totaled 1,065 out of 2,384 actually engaged. Scott does not divide this figure into killed, wounded, missing, or captured, and neither does this site.

  Source: Emmett J. Scott, Scott's Official History of the American Negro in the World War (1919), ch. XVI, p. 232 (opens in a new tab, leaves the Sergeant Rawhide site)

• A thread of the record

  A thread of the record: A wound, a survival, and a hundred-year wait

  Open this threadClose this thread

  What the record says

  He survived. The medal came in 2018.

  Sgt. Loyd was wounded in action on September 29, 1918, during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. He survived his wound and the war, returned to Sumter County as a sharecropper, married Rebecca Howard, and raised a family. His chain of command recommended him for the Wound Chevron; he never received it in his lifetime. On October 13, 2018, he was posthumously presented the Purple Heart at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.

  Source: U.S. Army (army.mil), "100 Years Later, WWI Soldier Awarded Purple Heart," article 212701 (opens in a new tab, leaves the Sergeant Rawhide site)

• A thread of the record

  A thread of the record: A grandson recovers the story

  Open this threadClose this thread

  What the record says

  His namesake accepted the medal on the family’s behalf.

  The case for the Purple Heart took decades to establish, in part because his service records were destroyed in the 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. Two federal applications were denied before Sen. Tim Scott’s office intervened and the claim was approved. His grandson and namesake, Perry W. James IV, accepted the medal on the family’s behalf.

  Source: Live 5 News (2022), "Honor Overdue: The 100-Year Journey to Sgt. Loyd's Purple Heart" (opens in a new tab, leaves the Sergeant Rawhide site)

Read an excerpt