The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-07-04
The American Ambulance Corps at
Paris.

Paris.
One of the most important sorties i
which the American Ambulance Corp
of Paris took part, was Champigny
That was the occasion when Ducrot wa
surely going to push through the Ger
man lines. In his proclamation he hat
announced that he would re enter Pari
victorious or dead. Of course he diC
not keep his promise. We were all t.
rendezvous at the Champs de Mars tina
morning at four o'clock. About thre,
of the same morning Mont Valeriel
opened fire, and then Issy, then Vanves
then Mont Rouge, and SO the flash ant
roar of cannon went round the Who'll.
citv. That was our reveille It wa,
cold, very cold, that morning, and We
waited at the rendezvous a long time il
company with the French, italian
Swiss and other ambulance corps. The
great doctor Ricord was there, end some
of us heard then for the first time that
he is an American from Baltimore.
Chanu, Nelaton and several other ia.
nous surgeons were also there, shiver.
ing with us as we waited and waited fo1
the push through the lines, which never
came Well, when at last the fight did
occur, it made plenty of work for our
wagons. For the next two days they
were constantly going to and fro be-
tween the field and our hospital. Every
where we went along the lines now we
were recognized and made way for.
One night as one of our wagons was
trying to cross the field it was halted
with the question, "What ambulance
is that?"
'FIs it necessary to ask?" shouted a
French soldier out of the darkness. cit
is the Americans, of course they are
everywhere.
At this sortie there rode with us a
little French able, whom some of the
boys had picked up weeks before roam
ing about the outposts among the
trenches. He had won their hearts by
his utter contempt of fire as he prayed
with and confessed everybody he could
lay hands on. At the sortie of Chatil-
Ion he had discovered one of our corps
bringing Into the wagons at the risk of
his life huge pumpkin. The able in
agined that Americans must set great
value upon pumpkins if they were will
ing to secure them at such hazard, and
he described the whole incident in the
L'Univers, the ultra Catholic paper of
Paris. In the course of few days the
ambulance Americaine received two or
three polite notes from religious French
maiden ladies, saying that they had
few pumpkins which were at the service
of the gentlemen of the corps. We re-
ceived the pumpkins, and skirmished
for the ingredients of pumpkin-pie,
WI oh tho M of,o1, IF n11r hOcnifo1 hoH
for us. This was an unknown use for
pumpkins in France, and those pies
cost about their weight in silver. Sugar
we had, it was the eggs that cost.
Horsemeat and pumpkin pie There
was a wild extravaganza in that dinner,
but it was patriotic, at least the dessert
was.
We nearly froze to death at Bourget,
but 1 have not time to tell you of it. I
must pass on to the last sortie-toward
Montretout and Malmaison. That was
a dark, foggy, leaden morning, with a
rain. We passed through the
whole French army on our way outline,
National Guards, Mobiles, artillery, cav
airy: we passed through them all, every
where meeting with grateful reception.
they cheered us and our wag-
ons now increased to eight and our
immense coffee-pot. This last was an
institution: it consisted of three great
boilers mounted on wheels. Before the
meat gave ont we used to sometimes put
soup in our coffee-pot and take it to the
field. Coffee by some means we still
had. Even on the desolate morning
am now telling you of many poor foot
soldier who had been up the almost i'm
passible roads all night had been cheer
ed by a sly tin-cupful of the precious
liquid as we trudged on toward the field
Well, we were finally ordered to halt at
the little village of Rueil, within
stones throw of the church where Jose
phine and Hortense lie buried. I climb
ed hill on the left, and saw the French
pushing toward Buzenval. They could
see nothing before them but line of fire
not prusion above the low wall in
front of the thick mass of woods.
[ could see these Frenchmen
dropping down by hundreds, they went
steadily on and on. Some of them were
National Guards who lad never before
been under fire. It Ss8S here that young
Henri Regnault fell, with many other
Parisians known in literature and art.
After a while the Germans began she'll
ing the hill on which was, and scam
pered down to the open square where
the wagons were. It was not long, how
ever, till another German battery got to
throwing shells into this square, each
bringing them nearer and
nearer to us. Suddenly a shell struck
the corner house in front of us. The
door opened in very deliberate way,
and out came man in a blouse, smok-
ing pipe, and followed by a woman
with baby in her arms. He leisurely
locked the door behind him, and put
the key into his pocket. Then he star
ted slowly across the square, with his
wife and baby still behind him. AS he
passed us exclaimed, ''For Heavens
sake, what are you doing here with that
baby? Don't you see they are shelling
all around us?
eyes, I see, / see; one struck our
house just now. I've got another one
up here, and we're going to move to it. "
Aud without taking his hands out of
his pocket or his pipe out of his mouth,
be strolled on across the open square,
followed by his wife, who seemed only
absorbed in hushing the baby as it
waited in fright at the sound of the
bursting shells.
The French line was thrown back,
and we filed our wagons with wounded
and started for the city, the shells still
falling unpleasnatly thick and near.
One of them struck right under our
and exploding, sent it a hun
lred directions. The horses which
lrew it did not happen to be hit, but
hey took fright and dashed off, wreck
ng was what was left of the coffee-pot
wagon. We got back to town as fast as
We knew how that day. We tried to go
put again at night, but could make no
Roadway against the crowd of wagons,
artillery, and the retreating army on
5he roads. It was an utterly demoral-
zed mob. We barely escaped massacre
by regiment of Bellville National
Guards, who were mad, raving mad,
accusing everybody of incapacity and
reason. The next day we went out
With burying- party, and found mem
Oers of this same National Guard thick |
y strewn among the vines of Buzenval
md Montretout, and we buried them.
IN their new knapsacks we found crested |
lote-paper and many such things,
showing their own rank and want of |
military experience at the same time. |
y r IL II