Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-12-29
FRENCH LORRAINE
HUGE CEMETERY
Crude Wooden Crosses Mark
Colonies of Dead Under
Fresh Sod
KAISER SEES ACTION
Three Germans to One French
man Buried in Battlefields
of de Nancy
KAISER SEES ACTION

Pont- t-a-Mousson. France, Dec. Is
Correspondence OF The Associated
Press Lorraine is the great
est cemetery in the world. Colonies
of dead, marked by lines of crude
wooden crosses, lie everywhere under
newly formed sod at the edges of
woods and thickets and in ravines--
Germans and French. The shifting of
battle scenes may be traced by fol-
lowing them. They are thickest there
whore was fought the great battle for
Nancy that began with the retreat
of the French from Morhange and
reached its climax during the battle
of the Marne. The number has been
continually swelled since in the four
teen months struggle in the Woevre
and Vosges
Saline Genevieve, Essey, the Am
ances, the Heights of Cuittes, Velaine,
| Gerbevillers of the Grand Courone de
| Nancy, Etain, the Eparges, the Bois
Brule, the Bois Apremont, the Bois
Saint Mansuy, and the Bois lie Pretre
| In the WoeVre are so many ceme-
teries, nearly all of them with crosses
! bearing names already illustrious.
Lionel RieuX, the poet, lies at Essey;
Paul Vial, who received u bullet in
Among the French buried at Gerbe-
viller is Jean Martin, one of the most
promising pupils of the French Art
School at Rome; he fell with the
heroic handful of chasseurs that held
the Mortagne there against 10000
Iiermans during the eleven hours.
| MARCEL Droust is among those who
lie at the summit of the SamogneuX
/ Hill.
ThiCkcSt at Gap
The dead lie thickest perhaps at
tho Loisy Gap. After the Germans
I had captured Nomeny and Pont-a-
Mousson. they sent a regiment TO
force this passage between two
heights, held by a single company of
French infantry. That gap became
the tomb OF the entire regiment. The
| cemetery of st. Genevieve is not so
dense, but far more extended than
that of the Loisy Gap. The Germans,
pany of infantry at Loisy to try to
a flank movement around the heights
of Sainte Genevieve. obtained a sue
cess before the heights of Cuittes,
/ where French crosses predominate.
1t was then, thinking he saw the route
opening up for his troops, the En-
peror of Germany issued his famous
order of the day: Tomorrow in
Nancy" Sainte Genevieve was still
between His Majesty's troops and the
Lorraine capital; it is to-day the
cemetery of most of them. The
French, too, fell in such numbers
there as to disquiet the officers, who
called the attention of Commandant
Al to the losses.
mo matter" replied the COM
mandant, 1--WE won't give an inch"
1t required an order from the gen.
eral to induce him to take up a
stronger position little in the rear.
Kaiser Saw Battle
During the attacks upon the
plateau of Amance, captured on the
seventh and retaken by General Du-
bail on the eighth, Emperor William
is said to have observed the action
from the edge of the Moral Woods,
behind which were concealed the TO-
900 horsemen of the Prussian Guard
his escort into Nancy. Velaine fell
and Uhlane and Bavarian infantry
surged into the passage between the
two heights of Amance. IF we can
hold out the day it will be a miracle" "
said the French general in command.
The three-inchers increased their fire
to the maximum speed just then and
moved those Uhlans and Bavarians
down before they could debouch from
the deflle; they lie there to-day in
serried ranks over which q weedy sod
has formed. The 10000 cavalry OF
/ the guard galloped off toward Metz,
and a parliamentarian with a white
flag asked In the name of His Ma
jesty" for an armistice of "a hours
to bury the dead.
"In "a hours" replied the French
general, when the Emperor shall
have given sepulchre to his thousands
of dead we shall be ready for him
again"
Three TO One
An estimated proportion of three
Irsa 80 nh htNr ioI i'm
the battlefields of the Grand Cour-
onne de Nancy, extending in a semi
circle from Gerbevillers to Pont-a-
Mousson on the east bank of the
Moselle, naturally takes no account
of the thousands of BavarianS dead
removed at night by rail toward Metz
after the battle of Sainte GenevieVe,
which decided the issue of the
struggle for Nancy; nor does 1t COM
prise the heavy death roll of the
French in annexed Lorraine, just
over the frontier, in the disaster OF
Morhange.
The evidence of those who have
visited all the battlefields of Lorraine
and those who helped pick up the
dead after the battle of Nancy tends
| to the belief that taking the French
dead in German Lorraine and the
German dead carried from the field OF
battle, there is no exaggeration in
the estimate of three Germans to one
| F'renchman as the proportion of those
killed in the operations in the attack
and defense of Nancy.
Pious hands arc caring for these
cemeteries, even so close to the battle
front that the German heavy artillery
often rakes up the sod and sends the
crosses flying in splinters. Flowers
are planted on all the French graves
and the tri-color floats over many of
them. The graves of the Germans
are sacredly protected but not deco
rated.
PREPARING FOR NEW COUNCIL
| Invitations were sent out to-day by
| City Clerk Charles a. Miller to the
members and members elect of City
| Council apprisng them of the annual