Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1918-08-02

| the deadly steel from the wound an In.
slant and horrible death resulted.
Oftentimes this horrible weapon be-
came embedded in the breast of vic
| tim so firmly that the attacker, who
had to have back his sidearm again
would be obliged to place his foot upon
the breast of his victim and use all his
force to recover the murderous instru%
ment.
The dead and wounded In horrible
condition lay all around us. The means.
Of the wounded men would have soft
ened a stone but not the heart Of
Prussian soldier.
Not all the soldiers approved this
senseless. wanton murder. Some of
those officers who had ordered US to
kill the French were themselves killed
by mistake In the darkness of the night
by their own men. Such mistakes are
still being repeated almost daily and
could cite many names and places to
bear out this testimony.
On this particular night a captain
and first lieutenant met their fate. A
second-year infantryman stabbed the
captain In the abdomen and the first
lieutenant received stab In the back.
Both died In a few minutes. Neither
of their slayers felt any remorse and
none of US felt inclined to reproach
them. We all knew that two murder
ers had received their Just deserts
Another instance requires me to run
somewhat ahead Of the sequence of
events. AS / talked to eomrade Of
my company the next day 1 asked him
for a pocketknife and in reaching into
his pocket he pulled out three car
tridges. was surprised that he should
carry cartridges in his trousers pocket
and asked him If he had no room In
his belt.
81 have" he said, "but these three
have a special mission. There are
names of the intended victims on these
bullets"
Some time later after we had be-
come good friends I asked him again
about the three cartridges. He had
only one left. I thought about 1t a
great deal and in my mind went over
the noncommissioned officers, who, be-
fore war was declared had treated US
like animals and whom we had hated
as only human fends can be hated.
Two of these had found their grave in
France.
The murder of Frenchmen who had
surrendered continued as long as an
enemy was alive. Then we received
orders to determine II the enemies
lying on the ground were all dead and
unable to fight. If anyone was found
Stimulating death it was ordered that
he be killed. But the soldiers had lost
some Of the fever which had seized
them during the battle and refused to
obey this order. How they felt about
it was illustrated by the remark Of
member of my company:
1--WE had better look once more and
see If the two officers are really dead
and If not they ought to be killed with
out mercy for command is COM
mand."
We now advanced quickly but our
part in the battle was over as the en-
tire French line had retired to make
a fresh stand, two kilometers west Of |
Sommepy. The city was mostly in
flames The enemy artillery lombard
ed the town without intermission and
shells burst all around.
Several hundred prisoners were cor
rallied in the market place. Several
French shells struck the prisoners but
they were obliged to remain where
they were. An officer Of my company,
Lieut.. A. R. Neesen, remarked that no
harm was done as the prisoners knew
at least how their own ammunition
tasted.