James W. Alston letter to H. H. Brimley

Image: Excerpt of a letter from First Lieutenant James W. Alston to H. H. Brimley on November 1, 1918 about being only Black officer in a hotel in France.

From the collection of the State Archives of North Carolina.

James William Alston was a First Lieutenant in the 372nd Infantry, an all-Black regiment, during World War I.
Alston was born in Wake County, NC on January 16, 1876. In 1907, he started working as a janitor and messenger for the State Museum, later the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. During the war, Alston wrote several letters to H. H. Brimley, who was White. Brimley was a curator and the first director of the State Museum.
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Below is a transcript of First Lieutenant James W. Alston's letter to H. H. Brimley.

Transcript:

Nov. 1st 1918

My Dear Mr. Brimley:

You will probably think that I am a long time getting back to the front, but the [[object Object]] here is the boss and won't let me go, but promised this morning that I could go in about ten days. My wound is all healed and with the exception of a very little stiffness I am as good as ever. There is so much talk of peace I want to get back and have another try at Fritz before the finish. I think I have pretty well

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evened the score with him but I want to give him some more for good measure. Fritz can fight like the very devil when he is under cover and has the most men, but can't stand the Yankee steel and these Yankees, white and black sure love to use their bayonet whenever they can get near enough to him. I am in the southern part of France in the town of Vichy and quartered in one -------

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of the best hotels in the town. There are about one hundred officers at the hotel and I the only colored one so you know I am lonesome. I was as hungry as a dog the first night that I was here but walking in the dinning room seeing about one hundred white officer and no colored officers I lost my appetite - but it came back by morning and has stayed with since. I am treated fine by all the officers but most of them say I am

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a damn fool for wanting to get back to the front. I met Mr Thos. F Ryan's son he is a Sgt. in the Medical Corps he is sure one fine man, and is crazy to go to the front but the Col. won't let him. I wish you would send me Mr Garland Jones, and Bob's address so if any time I am near their outfit I can look them up. I see lots of people from the state but none from Raleigh

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but prehaps [[object Object]] I will have luck enough to see some one before I come [[object Object]] back to the good old U.S.A. There is no news except Fritz is catching the very devil. My best regards to Mrs Brimley, Mr & Mrs Adickes [[object Object]] and all friends

Yours very respectfully

James W Alston

372 R. I. U. S. S.P. 179 France

Source: Digital Public Library Of America - African American Soldiers
-End Of Transcript-

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NOTE: Below is information about the life of First Lieutenant James W. Alston.

James William Alston
18 Jan. 1876-14 Dec. 1940

Written by Matthew M. Peek, State Archives of North Carolina, 2015

James William Alston served in the U.S. Army during both the Spanish-American War and World War I. He was one of the first officers to be trained at the newly created African American officer's training school created at Fort Dodge, Iowa in the spring of 1917 and served as a First Lieutenant in the Army's 372nd Infantry, an all-Black regiment, during World War I.

James William Alston was born in Wake County, North Carolina, on January 16, 1876. He attended common school for two years, followed by two years in a normal school. Alston would attend the historically-black school St. Augustine’s School in Raleigh, North Carolina, but he did not graduate from that institution.

When the Spanish-American War broke out, Alston enlisted in the U.S. Army. Alston served with the 48th Volunteer Infantry, U.S. Army, from October 1898 to June 1901.
Around 1907, Alston went to work for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture as a janitor and messenger. The Department of Agriculture housed in the early 1900s the State Museum (present-day North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences), to which Alston was assigned, working for $480 a year.
When Alston was posted to Europe in World War I, he would exchange letters with Herbert Brimley, then director of the State Museum.

James Alston re-enlisted in the U.S. Army on June 15, 1917, after the United States entered World War I. Now forty years old, Alston was sent to the first all-African American officers’ training school at Fort Dodge, near Des Moines, Iowa.

On October 15, 1917, Alston was commissioned as a First Lieutenant in the 372nd Infantry, 93rd Division, U.S. Army. Alston served overseas from March 30, 1918, through January 19, 1919. Upon arriving in France, Alston was sent to one of the British Army’s training schools—the Fourth Army Infantry School—where he attended a five-week officer’s training course.

He would serve under French command in the Meuse-Argonne sector, and later the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, in France. In an October 6, 1918, letter, Alston mentions that he was lying in a hospital bed either in France or Belgium, with “a machine gun bullet through my right shoulder.” Evidently, Alston was also severely wounded on October 24, 1918. He returned to the United States in January 1919, and was discharged in February 1919 without any disability being listed.

Alston returned home to his wife and their daughter, and began work as a messenger and clerk in the Revenue Building for the North Carolina Department of Buildings and Grounds.

James W. Alston died on December 14, 1940, in Wake County, North Carolina, and was buried in the Raleigh National Cemetery (United States National Cemetery located in the eastern part of Raleigh, North Carolina).