A New York museum is digitizing the post-World War I personnel records of thousands of soldiers in a storied all-black regiment lauded by the French for its wartime exploits but essentially shunned by the U.S. military.
About a quarter of the approximately 10,000 personnel cards of the Harlem Hellfighters have been scanned and downloaded to databases posted on the New York Heritage and the New York State Military Museum websites. The regiment's formal name was New York National Guard's 369th Infantry Regiment.
Museum officials say the cards are from 1921 to 1949 and include names, ages, addresses, birthplaces, enlistment dates and occupations.
The Harlem Hellfighters was one of the few black units to see combat in Europe, where its soldiers earned some of France's highest military honors.
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