The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1915-07-24

/ ing general, ROBUST and active. The
! staff was very close up to the front,
and from the balcony of the school
house the general viewed the lines
and gave orders. Many parts of the
lines were now nonresident, having
been reduced to series of shell-pits
by the German artillery.
! Making my way to the advanced
lines, | found a brigadier-general and
got leave to accompany an attempted
advance. 1t was the first regiment of
/. the famous Caucasian corps just ar
/. rived after an all night march, and go
/ ing up to the attack A battalion
commander stood just below the hut,
putting his men in position. He was
a quiet little man, already elderly and
with an old voice, that sounded Wig
orously, however, across the slope.
The men made their way by CON-
/ panies up the different clefts in the
hollow and soon lined the ridge be-
.yond. The commander moved about
among them at an easy walk, direct
ing some, hurrying on others.
The men went forward on their
knees, separating off into what the
! Russians call a Chain" where any
one with initiative, by finding cover a
little further forward, gives a lead
to all the rest The officers walked
upright throughout. When the crest
was lined, the commander went for
ward in different directions.
| On his return he gave a few orders
to his officers; one of them was a
little excited, and called out Il have
an instinct that it will go right; God
grant that it is a true one" and turn
ing to his men he shouted God is
with u.s." Except for this, nothing
broke the atmosphere of the evening
/ stiffness.
+, We'll, children" said the command
er, What shall say to you? With
God! Forward"
| One company went off to the wood
on the right, and after a few minutes
another with the commander and my
self moved forward over the bare hill.
leaving two others to follow in re-
serve. The men advanced in little
groups, creeping in line with each
other; the officers walked about free
ly, often in advance of the men, or en-.
couraging any that showed too mucn
caution. The commander and
/ branched off into the edge of the
wood he turned and smiled to me as
| the shrapnel tore away some of the
! bOughs. At the bottom the machine
guns were hurried up, and we ascend
ed the further slope.
We were now on a bare height
/ which was like tongue projecting
! forward, and a hot musketry fire was
! opened on us. A man near me called
csyassawsat he was 'woua-,ed and rolled
himself down to the hollow where a
! bearer set about bandaging him; a
shell burst beyond us and another
called out. One could see what hap
pened to the men nearest to one.
The commander continued to stroll
about among the men, in the same
way as he would have done out of
action; several of the men begged him
| to lie down. We went round the
| height and he brought his men every
where to the edge of it and told them
to entrench themselves, which they
! set about doing at once. We could
see where the bullets came from, on
the low ground in front. To our left
was ridge with trees, along which
we could see men on horseback COM
ing from the direction of the enemy.
To our right, beyond the wood, was q
high ridge covered with men, who ap-
peared to be advancing upon us but
did not open fire.
d COiuluu vi Dlu6 liz
was seen coming up close on our
front. In what seemed a minute, two
of our machine guns had been moved
to this side. Round some brush wood
thirty yards away came the first rush
of the columns one caught sight of a
line of pale faces. Our commander
tshouted orders; young officer
'clenched his fist; our gunners ground
out a shower of bullets, and the Aus
trian column disappeared into the
wooded valley.
Later in the day, after | had gone
back to headquarters, | learned that
the little commander had been brought
back into town wounded in the head
in the last Austrian attack.
In the evening I retreated with the
divisional staff several miles to new
quarters. All along the road the gen.
er- topped any struggling soldiers
and ask,t closely what had happened
to their re. nents. This was all ex-
tremely vel, done; he was really Sc