In December of 1917, the men of the 15th Infantry, New York Nat'l Guard, arrived in France and were redesignated as the 369th US Infantry Reg. They were put to work only as stevedores.The law at the time said that white and black troops could not serve together, so the soldiers chose to serve with the French Fourth Army, thus becoming the 1st regiment in US history to serve with a foreign army. Germans called them 'Hellfighters,' US news called them 'Harlem Hellfighters' or 'Men of Bronze.' They thought of themselves as the 'Black Rattlers.