Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1916-03-29
Ooer Fifty Thousand Men
Diedm -Four Days Retreat
During Terrible Snow Storm


Ter, formerly of the Fifth United
States cavalry, who was one CT the
few Americans in the Serbian retreat,
declares that during the journey to
Podgorftza in Montenegro in a four
days snow storm more than fifty
thousand men died.
They died so fast" he said, that
they fell every few yards all along the
road. The wagons and carts Wen
right over their bodies. Nobody
thought of trying to turn out of the
way, but there were so many they
could not but drive over them The
roads were full of mudhoIes At one
place l saw no less than seventeen
horses dying in one immense puddle,
unable to pull themselves out
4 saw hundreds and thousands Of
ragged men, with their feet swollen too
much to wear shoes or to walk on
them, crawling along for miles on their
hands and knees through tbeb finding
snow, finally stopping and dying soon
afterwards. They never made any APP
peals for help 1t wouldn't have been
ATTY use Besides, they were too far
gone to know what they were about
that is, they were dying Their last
effort to keep going was merely a me-
chanical operation. Of course, the
great mortality all along our route
was due to the barren nature of the
country we were traversing, with no
shelter for but comparatively few Of
us. There were even no forests where
we might have felled trees and built
temporary quarters. Our fires for the
most part were small, with barely
enough wood to heat water"
Halter who was on a visit to uBda-
pest when the war began, enlisted in
the Austrian army and was serving as
bugler when, six months later, ne
vas taken prisoner by the Serbs and
then finally marched with $4,000 other
Austrian soldiers across the noun
tains into Albania and there turned
loose on the shores of the Adriatic to
fight for life against cholera, fever
and starvation"
1--WE were supposed to have started
on that retreat" said Halter with
a Serb army of over two hundred
thousand men and about seventy-tive
thousand Austrian prisoners. Not
many more than a hundred and fifty
thousand Austrian prisoners. Not
many more than hundred and fifty
thousand Of the whole lot got over the
mountains. 1t was not because the
Austrians or the Bulgarians pursued
US, however with much activity. We
died merely because of disease, hun
ger and exhaustion.
The worst part Of the journey be-
gan on the Albanian frontier. The AL
banians have in times past been badly
treated by the Serbs, and they took
this chance to square old scores. They
saot, killed, robbed and murdered us
at every step of the way. For in
stance, at Linn some Serb officers and
company of stragglers ond horse
back were met in the middle of the
road by a few peasants and ordered to
give up their horses and their money.
1t was plain highway robbery, and
they refused. The peasants ran away
ard within a couple of minutes more
than thousand shots were fired out
of the bushy hillside, killing most of
the Serbs.
he food problem was terrific, even
in Albania. A half pound of bread was
sold at ten dinars, about two dollars
As l had a little money at Sturza /
bought five pounds of Okla beans. Had
not been able to get these beans, I
would today be dead man. l had
Just said to myself: I can't go any
further, when l persuaded a peasant
woman to sell me the beans l ate
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