Fourragère of the 5th and 6th Marine Regiments

General Graves B. Erskine Commanded a Platoon of
the 6th Marines in World War I

By JOEL D. THACKER, Historian of the U. S. Marine Corps

The French government awarded decorations for especially meritorious conduct in action during World War I to 156 American units varying in size from a section to a brigade. These decorations were the fourragère and the Croix de Guerre with various combinations of palms, gilt, [and] silver and bronze stars. The various classes of the Croix de Guerre were as follows:

Bronze palm: for citation in orders of the army

Gold (or gilt) star: for citation in orders of the corps

Silver star: for citation in orders of the division

Bronze star: for citation in orders of the brigade, regiment, or equivalent unit

The fifth citation in orders of the [French] army calls for the award of a silver palm, which replaces the four bronze palms.  Just as individuals are decorated for services rendered, so are the colors of an organization decorated to commemorate the deeds of the unit as a whole. The American unit to which such an award has been made is authorized by our government to place on its flag a streamer—one streamer for each award—and on each streamer, in the colors of the decoration, are embroidered the name or names commemorating the battle for which the unit was cited. The unit twice decorated with a Croix de Guerre with palm is entitled to a braided and knotted cord, called a fourragère, in the green and red colors of the Croix de Guerre. The fourragère becomes a part of the uniform of the unit so cited and all members of the organization are authorized to wear the decoration on the left shoulder of the uniform as long as they remain members of the organization. Individuals attached to the organization on at least two occasions in which it was cited in orders of the [French] army, are entitled to wear the fourragère at all times, regardless of whether or not they are serving with the unit so decorated.

A person entitled to wear the fourragère as an individual decoration is authorized to wear on the knot thereof, above the metal point, the device of the division to which he was attached when he received his last citation, with the Marine Corps emblem below same, both in bronze metal and in miniature. Although the single cord or plain cotton is the regulation issue, officers generally wear the silk cord with the double loop.

According to Larousse’s Grand Dictionary of the XIX Century, the fourragère was originated by the Duke of Alva, a Spanish general. After a unit of his Flemish troops had made a rather hasty withdrawal from the battlefield, the duke ordered “that any further misconduct, on the part of these troops, should be punished by hanging, without regard for rank or grade.” The Flemish warriors, determined to reestablish themselves in the good graces of their commander, wore—as a reminder of their disgrace—coiled around one shoulder, a rope in the shape of a hangman’s noose, at the end of which dangled a long spike. In their next battle, the Flemish fought so gallantly and well that the noose and spike became a mark of distinction and honor.

The French fourragère is a decoration instituted by Napoleon I for units [that] had distinguished themselves in battle. It was revived during World War I and was awarded by the French Ministry of War to organizations [that] were cited more than once in the French Orders of the Army. The three classes of the fourragère are as follows:

First: Legion d’Honneur (scarlet)

Second: Médaille Militaire (yellow and red)

Third: Croix de Guerre (with palm, green and red)

In 1918, Marines of the 5th and 6th Regiments by their heroic deeds of valor inscribed the names of momentous and brilliant battles on the pages of Marine Corps history as well as on their own regimental flags. They have the signal honor of being the only two regiments in the AEF to receive three citations—two in the orders of the army and one in the orders of the corps—the fourragère and Croix de Guerre with two palms and one gilt star. [Update:  Members of the 6th Machine Gun Battalion (Marine) that fought alongside the two regiments was also honored.]

In the photo at the top, General Erskine wears the fourragère with the cords hanging over the sleeve, a mark of being in the military unit when the award was made. Soldiers and Marines who are later assigned to the unit do not wear the outside cords. Graves B. Erskine, then platoon leader in the 6th Marine Regiment, was authorized to wear the fourragère as an individual decoration.

It has been said that the warrior’s fame sometimes is based on luck and the chance of war as much as on valor and skill. Although the 5th and 6th Regiments had the good fortune to come upon the Western Front at critical times and in critical places they had the esprit de corps, the stamina and the ability to make the most of these opportunities.

Following initial combat experiences in the Toulon sector, a stricken region along the heights of the Meuse on the edge of the old Verdun battlefield, the 5th and 6th, together with other units of the Marine 4th Brigade, 2d Division, were reassembling in Normandy preparatory to entering the line northwest of Paris. Meantime, the enemy had broken through the Allied lines west of Rheims, making a deep salient [that] pointed like a menacing spearhead towards Paris. The exhausted French Army was overwhelmed and retired, fighting desperately, toward the Marne and the vital region of Paris.

The 2d Division was hurried toward this new point of danger, and by 1 June the forest-green columns of the Marine battalions were marching through the wheat fields of the Marne toward the advancing Germans. From 6 to 25 June, the fighting was of the most desperate character. In a series of bitter battles, the Marines forced the enemy back through the Bois de Belleau, that bloody tangle of brush and rocks made horrible by the reek of dead bodies, the unceasing crash of shells, and the whine and snap of machine-gun bullets. Despite heavy losses and almost complete physical exhaustion, the Marines in a final brilliant dash on 25 June killed or captured the last German in Belleau Wood. In recognition of the “brilliant courage, the vigor, spirit and tenacity” of the Marines of the 4th Brigade who “overcame all hardships and losses and captured the village of Bouresches and Belleau Wood” in June 1918, the French renamed the wood the “Bois de la Brigade de Marine” and the 5th and 6th [Regiments] were cited in French Army Order No. 10.805 “D” and awarded the Croix de Guerre with palm.

The Fourragère as Worn by a Marine Who Joined
His Unit After the First World War

On 16–17 July, the Marines moved swiftly northward into the area of General Mangin’s Tenth French Army, which had been designated by Marshal Foche to deliver a counterstroke against the enemy in the Marne salient, where the enemy’s last great offensive had been brought to a halt on 15 July. By forced marches through the mud and rain, the Marine columns threaded their way toward the jump-off line. The congested mass of artillery, tanks, trucks, and infantry in the ink-black forest frequently caused interminable delays with the result that the troops were forced to double-time the last mile. The Marine battalions came up on the run as the attack started, going from column into attack formation without a halt. With the American 1st and the French 1st Moroccan Divisions, the 2d Division formed the spearhead of the assault that burst from the Villers-Cotterêts Forest upon the enemy southwest of Soissons at dawn the morning of 18 July. Tired, hungry and thirsty, without adequate weapons, [and] armed only with rifle and bayonet, these crack troops smashed through the enemy’s positions in one of the most dashing victories of the war, capturing hundreds of guns and thousands of prisoners. For their “remarkable ardor and tenacity” in rolling back the enemy, the 5th and 6th [Regiments] received their second honor when cited in French Army Corps Order No. 10.886 “D” and awarded the gilt star.

Withdrawn from Soissons [and] much depleted by casualties, the Marines rested through August in the Marbache sector near Nancy. In September, they were a part of the American First Army under the personal command of General John J.  Pershing, which, on 12 and 13 September [and] pinched off the Saint-Mihiel salient, thereby releasing the inhabitants of many villages from enemy domination and establishing the Allied lines in a position to threaten Metz.

During the latter part of September, the Marines moved to the Champagne region, where General Gouraud’s French Fourth Army was making laborious progress against German strongholds [that] had stood invincible since 1914. At dawn on 3 October, the Marines and other units of the American 2d Division swept forward toward the Massif du Blanc Mont, the long ridge [that] dominated the valley of the Arnes and the entire country east of Rheims. Despite determined resistance and desperate counterattacks on both flanks as well as on the front, the 2d Division captured the strongly held wooded hill of Blanc Mont and the heights near Saint-Étienne, breaking the enemy hold on the martyred city of Rheims and freeing the western approaches to the Argonne region. For their “glorious part” in the operations in the Champagne [sector] in October 1918, the two Marine regiments were awarded their third honor—a citation in French Army Order No. 14.712 “D” and the second palm.

The Marines had only a few days of rest before they were ordered to the Argonne to participate in the final phase of the great Meuse-Argonne battle.

Attacking on 1 November, they battered down the strong Kriemhilde Stellung (position) and drove the enemy beyond the Meuse River. During the night of 10–11 November, 2d Division Engineers threw a pontoon bridge across the Meuse and the Marines fought their way across the river—the dramatic last fight of World War I.

The Marines of [today] who are privileged to wear the fourragère have excellent reason to be proud of their service with these two famous regiments.

(Note:  The Article discusses only the Marine units awarded the Fourragère in the First World War.  Several U.S. Army units also received the honor, as well as a larger number during the Second World War.)