The Morgan County press. (Wartburg, Tenn.) 1916-1926, 1918-11-01

T0reu- worst. " t8t.
The troops in the Argonne forest be-
longed to the Sixteenth corps, the Thir-
ty-third and Thirty-fourth divisions.
Neither,th crown prince nor Won Mud
ra had eveSsHbeen seen In the trenches.
One of the members on the crown
princes staff was the old field mar
shall, Count Won Haeseler. former COM
mander of the Sixteenth corps. who'
before the war. was considered hu-
man fiend. These three called Clover
Leaf by the soldiers, were far more de-
spised by most of the men than were
the French cannon, which sought our
miserable lives.
The Hohenzollern heir did not find
life hard at his headquarters several
kilometers behind the battle front. IL
was easy for him to make himsei1
! popular with his order to go ahead at
the cost of thousands of lives. He was
very well liked among the high ofiicerss
with whom he sat behind stove al
though the progress was not iast
enough for them.
He honored Won Mudra with the or
der "Pour la Merite," but of the SOL
diers he never had a thought.
They had not seen bed for months.
They were never given chance TO re-
move their clothing.
They received only shells and steel
and were almost eaten up by vermln.
They were covered with lice. Inere
was scarcely enough water for drink
ing purposes, to say nothing OF water
for washing their clothes.
Our hair and boards were long ana
when we were given some hours Oh
rest the lice would not let us sleep.
While we were in the trenches the Dui-
lets did not do much damage but daily
men were killed by indirect fire. The
thousands which whizzed through the
air every minute few over our heads.
They struck trees or branches ana
glanced off, striking the men IN the
trenches. Failing to pierce their op-
iect directly they tore terrible gaping
wounds as they entered the mems
bodies sideways. Whenever we heard
charges concerning dum-dum bullets,
we thought of these cross-shots, al
though we never doubted the existence
of the dum-dums.
Whether or not dum-dum bullets
were made in the munitions factories
cannot say. suspect they were. How
ever, I did see many dum-dum bullets
made by the soldiers themselves. The
points were filed off from German mus
ket shells so that the nickel covering
was perforated barring the lead filling.
The bullet fiattened when it struck
its object If, for instance, 1t entered
mans arm, the explosive charge In It
would so shatter the arm as to blow IL
| entirely off and leave 1t hanging by the
skin.
German soldiers were frequently
seen supplying themselves with dunn
dun bullets in the trenches, preparing
to inflict terrible wounds.
On January S, 1915, the Germans at
tackled on their entire front OF the Ar
gonne forest sector and several hun
dred prisoners were taken. The hand
to-hand fight continued until six o'clock
in the evening.
A fellow pioneer and myself found
ourselves in a bit Of trench held by
eight Frenchmen. It was impossible to
retire so we accepted the unequal fight.
Fortunately we were well supplied
with hand grenades.
We cut the fuses short so that they
would explode as quickly as possible.
hn soldiers.
Before the men could get out OF the
way of the first, the second one fol-
lowed, which exploded in their midst.
We took advantage Of the confusion
thus created to hurl five more. Our
enemies were now reduced to four men.
We opened fire with our muskets, clos
ing in on the four. Their bullets
whizzed around our heads. One man
was shot In the mouth. That left three.
They turned and tried to flee.
In such moments as these one is In q
great rage and forgets danger entirely.
We were very close to our enemies
now, right on their heels when the last
man stumbled and fell.
l sprang on top Of him. He defend
ed himself with his fists. My comrade
went after the other two. Bleeding at
the mouth, this man fought on. After !
/ had knocked several of his teeth out /
he raised his hands and surrendered. |
1 released him from my grip and
looked him over carefully. He was
about thirty-five years old. He showed
me his wedding ring and talked to me.
knew what he wanted, he wanted his
life.
He gave me his canteen that might
drink some wine and wept. Perhaps
he thought of his wife and children. 1
pressed his hand and he showed me