Duty, Honor, Privilege: New York’s Silk Stock-ing Regiment and the Breaking of the Hindenburg Line, by Stephen L. Harris

Washington: Potomac Books, 2006. Pp. xviii, 374. Illus., maps, notes, biblio., index. $9.95 . ISBN:1-57488-740-89.

Duty, Honor, Privilege, originally published in 2001, is the story of the 107^th Infantry (the 7^th New York) during World War I. After providing a good deal of detail on the origins and unique character of the 107^th (notably that it was probably the “richest” regiment in the U.S.), the work carries it through activation and reorganization for war in 1917, training (in South Carolina, where the “Silk Stocking” doughboys ran interference for the “Harlem Hellfighters” of the 15^th N.Y.), and then across the Atlantic to France.

In France, the 107^th, part of New York’s 27^th Division, served with the British Army, during which it broke the Hindenburg Line at one of its toughest points, suffering the highest one day loss of any American regiment in the war. Battle pieces are very well done, and punctuated by many personal accounts. The book also provides interesting, and not necessarily flattering looks at some senior personnel, including the generally well-regarded Australian John Monash, who comes in for some severe criticism.A good addition to the literature of the A.E.F.

Buy it at Amazon.com