Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1914-07-16
CAUGHT 3OO|N WAR
NOWSEEKS'PENS|ON
Aged Michigan Janitor Wants
Reward From Fatherland
for His Services.
ALREADY HAS THE IRON CROSS
With Three Others he Performed Oar
Ing Feat In Conflict With French.

Ing Feat In Conflict With French.
A little old man sweeps out the Of
fees of the Ann Arbor Press building
each day-a little old man with stoop
on his shoulders and callouses on his
work-hardened hands. His name Ia
William Reetz, and he has lived past
mans allotted time, for he is 70.
He is quiet, unassuming little old
man, this William Reetz, and he isn't
given much to talking Of himself or
telling of the days when he was
young man and soldier of Prussia
That's the reason, probably that in all
the thirty-four years he has lived In
Ann Arbor probably not half dozen
people knew that he is the owner OF
two medals for honor for services in
the wars of the Fatherland agains'
Austria in 1866, not yet, that he was
recommended for the Iron Cross fol
bravery in the Franco-Prussian War
five years later.
1t was rare deed of bravery that
brought the recommendation for the
Iron Cross, and the story was told one
day recently by the old man when
he consulted an American as to how
to go about trying to get a pension in
his old age. 1t is a mean trick OF
fate that leaves him now, an old
man, with three coveted medals OF
honor and no means of support ex,
cept what he earns from day to day,
He left Fatherland in the early
eighties to please his women folks"
who believed America to be the haven
of comfort and refuge, the haven
where no man need be poor. Therein
lies the difficulty in calling attention
Reetz, it seems, had been wounded in
the right leg at Koniggratz, July 6,
1866, when Prussia was pitted against
Austria-the battle which historians
refer to as the Waterloo of Austria
One of his medals was won in that
battle After that Reetz-he was
young then and there was no stoop to
his shoulders-was sent home to re.
cover and he met and fell in love
with the little faxen-haired maiden
who afterwards became his wife. But,
before the honeymoon was over, Reetz
again heard the call of his country to
battle the Franco-Prussian War.
Reetz was in the Second Army Corps
and he fought at Saarbruck. Two
days later the army had crossed the
frontier and were on hostile soil,
Reetz's corps was in the battle OF
Worth, which followed close upon the
heels of the invasion.
After a battle Reetz and two com.
panions searched the field for a com.
rade Their company had gone on and
into camp two miles down country
road. At last they found him, NOR.
tally wounded. They had no hope that
they could save his life, but they de-
termined to get him into camp. Down
the country road they went under q
broiling August sun. They came to q
small wood, through which a brook
trickled, and there they rested just
within the shade and eased the
wounds of their comrade in the fresh
water.
But scarcely had they dressed the
wounds when they heard the tramp
|
were more than 800 men in line
Frenchmen, and there were four Prus
sians-and one of them dying-in the
wood. The dying man begged the three
to leave him to escape from the
French if they could.
Reetz though of the, flaXen-haired
bride back home, and he shut his teeth
hard together. There was but one
thing that soldier in the Prussiar
Army could not do, and that was to
leave a dying comrade to the enemy
There was a possibility-just one ir
1O,O00-but they took it and made
good.
Halt" shouted one of the three, as
he emerged at the edge of the woods
Halt and surrender arms! You are
our prisoners-and 600 Prussians are
in these woods"
The French hesitated. They lost.
Three hundred French soldier,
stacked their arms, under orders, a
the side of the road, and three Prus
sian soldiers marched 300 before then
to a safe distance beyond the stacked
guns and halted them while two wen
back for the wounded comrade.
Then the march started. Two milei
away, down the hot, dusty road, lay
the Prussian army in camp, and II
was to the Captain of their division
that the four-one of whom was dy
ing-delivered their 800 prisoners Of
war.
That is how Reetz came to be REQ
commended for the Iron Cross.
When the war was over Reetz wen
home to his bride. But already rumori
of other Prussian wars were begin
ming to be heard, and the little brid,
began to plead to get away from 1t all
She had friends, dear friends who hat
gone to the United States, where ther,
were not always wars-and that's why
Reetz came to Ann Arbor in the S0'i
and became a citizen of the State
That's why, also though he has woI
the honors of war he gets no pension
to-day when, in his old age, he needs i