Spencer Moore, 92nd Buffalo Soldier Division, Letters to Mom and Dad, 1944–1945
Spencer Moore of Magnolia, New Jersey, served in the segregated 92nd Buffalo Soldier Division, training at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, and then serving in Italy. Moore’s wartime letters to his parents reveal his anxieties about the war against “Jerry” (German soldiers), the election and subsequent death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and conditions for black soldiers. They also include a description of the hardscrabble existence of many Italians. As he traversed the landscape, he wrote his impressions to his parents. Moore wished his parents could see the beauty of the sun reflected on the snow-capped Italian mountains. At the beginning of November, Moore wrote to his parents about the mild temperature in his new Italian surroundings. He thought the weather was colder at home than in the northern provinces of Italy. By the middle of November, he had changed his tune. “The weather here is very cold and damp,” he wrote. “At present we can’t see very far because of the fog and drizzling rain. You have to keep alert for Jerry in this kind of weather.” He asked for mittens—leather on the outside, wool on the inside. Moore recalled what he saw and felt as the men pushed northward into the heavily fortified German-occupied territory. Moore left the army at the end of the war but went on to serve twenty years in the New Jersey National Guard, integrating his unit and advocating for equal rights all along the way.
[Just before Moore shipped out to Italy in 1944, his wife Susie told him she was pregnant with their first child. Moore was anxious to get all the news from home.]
Dear Mom and Pop:
I haven’t received any mail from you all in quite some time. How is everyone? Have you heard from Sue lately? I haven’t heard from her for about three weeks now and my morale is slowly decreasing. What is the latest news at home? I haven’t much to say because everything I know I am not allowed to write. Write soon. Love, Spencer
November 20th, 1944.
Dear Mom and Pop:
The Jerry artillery and firing keeps you very jumpy and you are not so at ease of mind. Five officers (Colored) have been killed in action so far. Two were my classmates at OCS. Has the 92nd published any casualty lists in the colored papers? We are all getting a raw deal. We have been on the line 82 days and we don’t know when we are going to get relieved. We thought the election would change it but it hasn’t. The men are lousy, sick, frostbitten, shell-shocked and scared. It’s good Jerry doesn’t know the condition of some of us or we would be in a lot hotter water. I wish some of the colored papers could get a hold of this and ask the War Department when we were going to get relieved. It looks as if they want to annihilate the all colored 92nd. The all means all colored on the line and a few on the staffs. I don’t know what the papers are saying but it’s really tough. A couple of the colored officers have been or are up for courts-martial because they refuse to lead troops into death traps. I just wish some of us here could get back and tell what we know. I guess they are all afraid if some of us get turned loose there will be too many “mulattos” in the world. I am really disgusted with the whole setup. It looks as if they don’t even expect to give us a break. We can look right out of the hole and see Jerry parading around on the skyline and it takes half of the day to get artillery on it, because we have to conserve ammunition and yet Jerry shells hell out of us. It’s no joke to see men you have known, lived with, eaten with, and slept with blown up or shot down before your eyes. The majority of the men are too tired to fight. Well, Mom, I’ve blown off enough steam for now. The NAACP should know this situation. Jerry is beginning to shell again so I’ll sign off for now.
Your loving son, Spencer
[In December, when Moore was hospitalized with a gunshot wound and frostbite, he wrote, “the mud and water really hampers the progress of the war.” By the spring, Moore was able to appreciate the landscape again. “The flowers are beginning to bloom and if it weren’t for the war this would be a beautiful country.” At one point, he was watching the unfolding of the season from a “dug-out way up in the mountains.” He observed: “You can look out from the dug-outs and see for miles around.” He noted the twinkle of lights from the houses in the “quaint little villages.”
Moore moved around so much that the mail was sometimes slow getting to him. For the twenty-eight days he was hospitalized, he received his mail a little more regularly.]
Dear Mom and Pop:
I am now in the hospital. Don’t get excited I was wounded slightly in the heel and I am doing fine. Now don’t you all get excited because you know if it was serious I would tell you. I have been awarded the Purple Heart. It is really a beautiful medal. I am going to send it home as soon as I can. I can walk fairly well but not very fast. My heel is quite sore but I am getting very good treatment.
June 1945.
Dear Mom and Pop:
Glad to know Europe is OK. Don’t have to go to the Pacific. I can hardly remember what it’s like in the States. You would be surprised at what a numb feeling I have. I guess it will take a couple of months to really realize that I am home. Well it won’t be as long as it has been before all of us are back home. That will be “Victory at Home” day for all of us. You know I have 98 points and am on the waiting list to come home.
Love, Spencer
Source: Spencer Moore, personal correspondence to Dr. and Mrs. Roscoe L. Moore of Magnolia, NJ, October 1944–June 1945, courtesy of Spencer Moore.
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