Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-11-07

dne french troops, III 100 small NUM-
Der to cope with the enemy, quit the
town.
The captive balloon was seen again
to rise in the distance and O on after
the German heavy artillery began to
play on the dilapidated antique castle
on the hill. During 36 hours they
showered great projectiles on that
spot, literally pulverizing what re-
manned of the walls, occasionally d.
verting a shell to the town, after
which they crossed the Moselle on an
%improvised bridge and rushed up to
the assault of the supposed fortress,
which they found as quiet as the
grave. NO French soldiers had ever
occupied it, and what the Germans
took for guns from their captive bal
loon were simply cleverly disposed
tree trunks, and the fire which re-
piled occasionally to their guns to
complete the illusion came from be-
hind the hill.
The story of the occupation of this
town is quite the same as has been
so often told of other towns; hostag-
es, proclamations and, acquisitions,
but it did not last long. The morning
of the 9th the impressive music of
the French 3-inch guns vas heard in
the town; at the same time a French
aeroplane was seen to dart through
the sky in the direction Of the captive
balloon, which fastened to descend.
These we're the preliminaries of the
battle of D%ieulouard, to which no dis
patches have referred by name, but
which was one of the bloodiest in the
action of General Castelnau's army
defending Nancy.
A continual procession Of improvis-
ed ambulances passed through the
town toward the bridge that night,
and other wagons with a more grew
some mission turned to the railroad
station, where inhabitants, retired to
their houses by order, saw loaded in
to all kinds of flat cars, horse cars,
ca tie cars the bodies of those that
lell that day at D%ieulouard. They
were piled as high as they could be
packed and in the early morning
these wheeled charnel houses were
hauled across the frontier toward
Metz. n " .
AS for the eth Eavarian infantry,
not one of this regiment was ever
seen again in the streets of Pont-a-
'Mousson, and three days later the
other troops of occupation left the
town.
September 23rd the Germans made
their last attempt to recapture Pont-
a-Mousson, ending in a charge on the
Hill of Saint Genevieve. The French
position at the summit had been bonn
barded during the morning, and by 8
o'clock the fire Of the French seemed
to have been definitely silenced. The
order for the assault was given n
to the music of the fife and drum,
the Bavarians started up the slope,
meeting no resistance unit lthey ar
rived within a hundred yards of the
first line OF trenches. Almost to a
man the first line went down under
the first volley that received them
there. Others rushing on to take
their places fell over their comrades.
The ranks came OF as if those in the
rear had seen nothing of this slaugh-
ter and the machine guns and rifles
swept them down. In some places it
was impossible to close the ranks be-
cause the piles of bodies separated
them, and finally these heaps Of dead
and dying became the rampant be-
hind which some of the assailants
sheltered themselves to protect the,
retreat Of those that were left. The
Saint Genevieye Hill was strewn with
bodies and the soil saturated with the
blood of the Bavarians. and all ef-
forts to reach Nancy from that point
were definitely abandoned.
The total losses of that bloody en-
gagement are not known, because no
one on this side of the frontier can
tell how many Bavarians went to the
assault, but j. is certain that few got
back to their camp at Pagny, and Of
the three Bavarian regiments that 'oc.
cupied Pont-a-Mousson it is probable
that not 100 Of them returned to Ger
man soil. <