History of the Yankee Division

division that carried out the most brilliant attacks in the face of all obstacles, and whose sheer, indomitable spirit caused these heroes to go on, superior to exhaustion and disease. Time and again the Twenty-sixth achieved what the veteran French believed to be impossibilities, and as a result the Yankee Division came to be known as " Shock Troops." The first full division to be organized and transported to France, and the first to occupy a sector as a full division, the Twenty-sixth had nearly ten months of continuous service, and took part in the bloodiest battles of the war. Chemin des Dames, the Toul sector, Chateau-Thierry, Seicheprey, Belleau Wood, the St. Mihiel salient, Argonne Forest and many others testify to the high emprise and daredevil courage of the fighting New Englanders. Carrying out their operations with skill, endurance, bulldog tenacity and cold nerve that has never been surpassed, the division was time and again selected to hold the hardest positions, and as a result thousands of the men were cited for bravery or won the Croix de Guerre. The Twenty-sixth Division led all other National Guard divisions in the number of decorations received, and stood fourth in the list of American divisions in the matter of citations. The colors of the 104th Infantry, formerly the 2d, 6th and 8th Massachusetts, were decorated with the Croix de Guerre, and for a long time this was the only regiment in the United States Army to be so ...