The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1914-10-01
B| B | / BOY HERO [ !.
He Held His Ground Near Mons
With Four Bullets in Him.
Artillery Officers Story Of His Expe
riences in the Desperate Fight
y inc to the North of
Amiens.
BY ROBERT ELsToN.

2 ~
BY ROBERT ELsToN.
Staff Correspondent of the Interna.
tionaI News Service.
Folkstone. England. This old coast
town is witnessing sights these days
that it never saw before. Daily
streams of wounded British soldiers
and penniless Belgian refugees pass
through here on their way to the hos
pitfalls and the charitable institutions
Of London. A.
A bugler boy of sixteen, whose name
is not given, stands out as hero even
among the many brave men who are
down for the moment. He is now at
the Royal Military hospital, Woolwich.
and doomed large in the fighting
around Mons and Cambria.
The boy has lost an arm and his
head and legs are swathed in band
ages. A soldier who went through the
terrible fighting with him said:
"He is a little hero and deserves a
dozen medals. He held his ground
with four bullets in him before he
stopped sounding his bugle. But,
wounded, bleeding as he was, he stuck
to his bugle till he was carried uncon-
scious from the field. He held it tri-
umphantly in his hand as he was lifted
into the ambulance"
A non-commissioned officer of the
Royal Field artillery, in hospital at
Salisbury, gives vivid description OF
his experiences at the front after
passing north Of Amiens. He was suf'
fering from shrapnel wound in hts
thigh, but was full of spirit and anx"
ious to be at the front again. Lsescrib
ing the desperate fighting he says:
+ marching at the rate Of from TWEEN
ty to thirty miles a day.. we got the
news that we were within q few hours
march Of the enemy. We were all as
keen as razors to get chance at the
Germans. 49,
"Gallopers informed US that the en-
envy was advancing. Our infantry was
the first to be engaged with large
body of uhlans. Our men soon got
to work witRthe bayonet and the rifle,
and the uhlans, after hot ten min
utes' fight, made of. X
This was followed by aHdreadful
fusillade of shrapnel and Maxims. To
this we promptly replied, andadid good
execution among the large masses Of
infantry advancing about mile away.
AS soon as my battery got fair
chance, we worked the guns for all we
were worth, altering the fuses and
the ranges of our guns as the Ger
mans approached nearer.
"Shells fell fast around us. Men
were falling in all directions. Three
of my gun detachment fell with shrap-
mel bullets, but we kept the guns go
ing, the officers giving hand. At
last we retired to get more favorable
position
"Our drivers failed to bring back
all the gun teams and numbers of the
animals had been terribly mutilated.
Those we're limbered up, the rest be-
ing for time protected by the in
fantry. ~
1.-THE Gordons and Middlesex fought
like lions They were in the shelter
trenches on our left At one time the
latter regiment were almost over
whelmed.
There was terrible slaughter on
both sides. The dead and dying lay
in long burrows on the turf. We
should surely have lost our guns if the
infantry had not persevered with the
rifle, picking off the cavalry like ripe
cherries at 500 yards range Their
shooting was magnificent"
Deeds Of hefoism were bright spots
in this desperate encounter. One off,
Ger stood over, the body of a private
who had previously saved his life, with,
bullets hurting around him, until he
had spent his last revolver shot, when
he fell to rise no more. The next mo-
ment he was avenged by giant of
the Gordon Highlanders, who plunged
his bayonet through the Prussian who
had killed the officer.
"The gallantry of the South Lanca-
shire regiment was above all praise"
went on the wounded man. "The man
ner in which they charged the serried
ranks of the German infantry again
and again was worthy of the highest
traditions of the regiment. Though
the uhlans got round them from be-
hind, they never f1inched. A party of
fusileers in a close encounter account.
ed of 20 uhlans, Themselves losing
only one man."