Due to a labor shortage for moving the cotton crop, arrival of draftees was delayed until October, and the regiment did not complete organization until 20 November 1917.

Emmet J. Scott's Official History of the American Negro in the World War provides a summary of when the men were fighting with gallantry on the Western Front in the Champagne region of France for victory:[3] "The 371st remained in line for over three months, holding first the Avocourt and later the Verrières subsectors (northwest of Verdun).

It took Côte 188 (Hill 188), Bussy Ferme, Ardeuil, Montfauxelles, and Trieres Ferme near Monthois, and captured a number of prisoners, 47 machine guns, 8 trench engines (possibly minenwerfers), 3 field pieces (77 mm guns), a munition depot, a number of railroad cars, and enormous quantities of lumber, hay, and other supplies.

Realizing their great responsibilities, the wounded officers continued to lead their men until they dropped from exhaustion and lack of blood.

The men were devoted to their, leaders and as a result stood up against—a most grueling fire, bringing the regiment its well deserved fame.

[3] The regiment returned to the US in February 1919 on the transport USS Leviathan, demobilizing at the end of the month at Camp Jackson, SC.

234 "In transmitting to you with legitimate pride the thanks and congratulations of the General Garnier-Duplessis, allow me, my dear friends of all ranks, Americans and French, to thank you from the bottom of my heart as a chief and a soldier for the expression of gratitude for the glory which you have lent our good 157th Division.

"During these nine days of hard fighting you have progressed nine kilometers through powerful organized defenses, taken nearly 600 prisoners, 15 guns of different calibres, 20 minenwerfers, and nearly 150 machine guns, secured an enormous amount of engineering material, an important supply of artillery ammunition, brought down by your fire three enemy aeroplanes.

Signed General Goybet A monument to the unit, near where Stowers earned the Medal of Honor, was erected in the Meuse-Argonne region, north of Sechault.

However, the division experienced mixed results before mid-February, gaining a bridgehead over the Cinquale Canal but losing ground east of the river.

Its commander, Major General Edward Almond, repeatedly expressed the (then widely held) opinion that blacks made poor soldiers and reorganized the division with most of its infantry replaced by other units.