Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-08-03
10th GIVING A
GOOD ACCOUNT OF
ITSELF AT FRONT
Every Effort Being Made to
Rush Through Battles
Casualty Lists

Washington, Aug. 3.-war De-
partment officials yesterday discred-
tied as a German lie to bolster home
morale" the statement contained in
an official Berlin dispatch that the
First and Second battalions of the
10th Infantry Regiment of the
| Pennsylvania National Guard Divi-
sion virtually had been annihilated
in the recent fighting.
The German dispatch quoted a
prisoner of the First Battalion, which
is part of what formerly was the
Tenth Pennsylvania Regiment, as
battalion and all except fifty of the
Second Battalion had been put out of
action.
The casualty reports from General
Pershing have been slow, but Sec
retary of War Baker made public
yesterday message from the Amer
lean commander explaining the
causes of this delay.
But If anything like the losses
claimed by the Germans had taken
place in the Pennsylvania outfit we
would have heard about It," said a
high officer in the War Department
Old Tenth Still on the Job
The dispatch of Raymond Carroll,
correspondent with the American
expeditionary forces, printed yester-
day, was cited as proof of the fact
that, far from being wiped out, the
old Tenth Regiment still was very
much in the fighting as late as Tues
day and was, in fact, wiping out the
Germans.
Mr.. CarrolPs dispatch cited Major
Joseph H. Thompson, of Beaver
Falls, who Is in command of the
poff Of 4 l.
ment, and Major Thomas Anderson,
of Latrobe, who leads the Third Bat
talon in that organization.
The 10th is composed of the old
Tenth and part of the Third Penn
sylvania regiments.
Discussion of the Berlin statement
drew from army officers of the reg
ular establishment unstinted praise
of the Pennsylvanians. They dwelt
on the fact the Twenty-eighth Divt-
sion was sent overseas a compare
lively short time ago and was sent
into the hardest kind of fighting aft
er a minimum of training in France.
This record has not been approached,
they said, by any other National
Guard division and scarcely by any
unit of the regular army. The man
ner in which the men have acquitted
themselves has demonstrated that
General Pershing made no mistake
in his decision.
Secretary Baker has been especial
ly anxious to obtain a full report of
casualties as soon as practicable, and
he made the following statement yes
terday, to show the difficulty in OBJ
tanning such lists promptly under
present conditions:
II have received a cable message
from General Pershing with regard
to reports of casualties. He points out
that our troops ar estill widely sepa-
rated, serving in many places and
that our wounded are taken to
French and British hospitals as well
as our own, causing great difficulty
and complication in obtaining accu-
rate information.
I'm addition to this, the troops are
separated from their records while in
the area of conflict and must depend
upon inadequate and temporary 'tele-
graph lines, which are subject to fire.
quent interruption and must, for the
most part, be devoted entirely to the
urgent business of the battle itself.
General Pershing assures me that
he. is making every effort to collect
casualty lists, have them confirmed
and verified, and that they will be
transmitted promptly"