Henry Alvin Cameron - Military Service

Military Service

In April 1917, with a terrible war going on in Europe, the United States decided to enter this conflict against the Germans. Cameron, at the age of 45, took a leave of absence from teaching at Pearl in June 1917 to participate in the war effort. On October 15, 1917, he was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, a facility established especially for training black officers in World War I.

On June 10, 1918, he sailed for France and was assigned to Company M, 365th Infantry Regiment, 92nd Division – one of three black infantry divisions in combat during the war. For some unknown reason, the U.S. Army reversed Cameron's first and middle names and he was listed in his service records as Alvin H. Cameron instead of Henry A. Cameron. As an officer, he was a fastidious and capable leader who always cared about the safety and well-being of the men under his command. They succeeded in winning many battles against a fierce and determined German army in the face of insurmountable odds which unfortunately included overt discrimination received from his own U.S. Army superiors.

On October 30, 1918, during the Battle of the Argonne Forest in France - one of the bloodiest battles of the war - Cameron was killed in action while on a scout patrol with his unit. He was the first of only three black men appointed officers in World War I from Tennessee and the first black officer to die from Tennessee. Cameron's body was not brought back to Nashville. His remains are still located in France at the St. Mihiel American Cemetery in Thiaucourt, France.