Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1917-01-18

Ice LIat AlnerlCd Has uol hculu ihu.i
about, despite the countless pictures
of the great war this country has been
given, were brought to New York re-
Gently by Andrew kolpacnnlkoif,
nephew of John Burgess Camac Of
Philadelphia, former attache OF the
Russian embassy at Washington, and
now head of Il "flying column of the
Red Cross, in which he holds the rank
and privileges of Il colonel.
No other front than the russian has
these flying columns" Their work
| lies at the very forefront of battle,
and the men attached to them go into
! the first line trenches on the heels of
! the advance guards. In leaving the
trenches there remains behind them
OILY the screen of cavalry that covers
the retirement. They are under fire as
long as fire continues, and into their
hands first of all come the wounded
that are later carried by the ambul-
ance corps to the hospitals in the rear.
Uniformed Like Troops.
Uniformed like the troops they sue
cor, the "f1yers" may only be told
from them by the fact that they do
not bear arms and that they wear
the insignia of the Red CrOSS-the
men in the form of brassards on their
left arms, the officers in the form of
shoulder strap devices. SO constant
are the hazards to which they are eX-
posed that flyers are mentioned re-
peatedly in general orders, and many
of them have been decorated by i'm
perial decree. Colonel KOlpachnikOff
Is one of these, the Cross of the Or
der of st. George being his, the dis
tinctiOn the most coveted of the Rus
sian rewards for valor.
Colonel Kolpachnkof belongs to n
distinguished family of PenZa, one of
the rich provinces in the southeast of
the empire. His mother, a godchild
of Gar Alexander II, was descended
from Nathalia NariSchkine, mother of
Peter the Great and was a grand niece
of General Clepzof, one of the con-
querers of the Caucasus, who died at
thirty-two, Il full general. The young
mans paternal grandfather was
q general officer, who died in the Frech
victory of Boroding in 1912.
Notwithstanding this military ances-
try, Colonel Kolpachnikoff elected di-
plomacy as his profession. His fa
ther's sister married John Burgess
Camac years ago and made her home
In Paris. Her nephew spent most of
his boyhood with her and in 1912
was allowed, by imperial decree, to
add Camac to his patrOnymic, so that
he is really Andrew Kolpachnikoff-
Camac.
While he still lived in Paris he took
course in the Sorbonne, then re-
turned to Russia to take his doctors
degree in international law. Then he
was sent to Washington in a position
that corresponds with third secretary
of embassy in the American diplomatic
service. Ending IS months in that ca
pacity at the close of 1913, the young
man returned to PetrOgrad to join the
foreign office.
Joins "Flying Column"
He was there when war was de-
clared in 1914. As diplomat he was
exempt from military service. hut like
thousands of others of young Russians
similarly situated he did not rest un-
til he had found place with the Red
Cross, where he could work in spite
Of his lack of training. He chose a
"fying column" rather than the more
routine service of the organization be-
hind the lines and the hospitals.
Attached to the Twenty-first col
umn, equipped by Countess Tolstor of
Moscow and popularity known by her
name, Kolpachnikoff was under fire in
seven battles within the first two
months in the field. These actions
were about Warsaw and LODI and
since the Twenty-frst was assigned to
the First Siberian corps, nicknamed
the Siberian Ironsides, it was at the
very brunt of the German attack.
One of the things Colonel KolpHch-
nikOff recalls is that the Germans
used gas shells in these engagements
for the first time. 1t was not until
some months later that they we're
tried on the western front and th1re-
by came into notoriety. Even more
wildly does he recall the crisis when
eight divisions of the Prussian Guards
and the Bavarians We're hurled
against Pleshkoff's Siberians, only to
be beaten back from the gates of War
saw. 1t Is said the Siberians counted
but 1000 still in their ranks out of
10000 when this tremendous feat had
been accomplished.
The end of these first two months
found Kolpachnikoff second in COM
mand of the Twenty-first. Within an
other two months, when his chief had
been wounded a second time and com.
PEELED to retire, Kolpachnikoff took
over the command with the rank of
colonel. He still holds to his place,
and his present visit to the United
States is being made under two
months leave.
Praised by Commander.
When he sailed for New York, he
was accompanied by Alexandra Yer
blunsky, great oil operator of the
Baku and Ural districts, who found in
Red Cross work the part in the war
he could not take in the army. In his
party was also DR.. Thomas M. Cas-
sday of New York, young surgeon
who has been finding in Russia