The 15th N.Y. Infantry, a volunteer National Guard unit of African American soldiers, arrived here on Oct. 10, 1917, to train at Camp Wadsworth. Race riots that summer in East St. Louis and Houston raised fears among Spartanburg's whites about potential racial violence if Northern black soldiers trained here. Although the 15th N.Y. was ordered not to respond to insults or physical abuse by local whites, tensions rose over the next two weeks. Fearing that minor incidents would soon escalate, the War Dept. ordered the unit back to N.Y. on Oct. 24 and then on to France. As the 369th U.S. Infantry, it joined the 4th French Army, and its band won acclaim across France for its concerts. It became the first American unit in combat and was soon nicknamed the Harlem Hell Fighters. It served at the front for 191 days, longer than any other American unit in World War I.