Catoctin clarion., 1918-11-28


til dark l watched the cavalry, some
1000, come up and take positions.
"At 3 80 the next morning Sitz woke
me up and said we were to attack. The
regiment was soon under way, and we
picked our way under cover of gas
infested valley to a town, where we
got our final instructions, and left our
packs. wished Sumner good luck, and
we parted.
"We formed up in sunken road on
two sides of a valley that was perpen-
dicular to the enemy's front; Hughes
right, Holcomb left, Sibley support. We
now began to get a few wounded; one
man, with ashen face, came charging
to the rear with shell shock. He shook
all over, foamed at the mouth, could
not speak. I put him under tent, and
he acted as if he had fit.
"I heard Lieutenant OvertOn call to
one of his friends to send q certain
pin to his mother If he should get hit,
"At $50 we jumped off with q line
of tanks in the lead. For two kilos
the four lines of marines were as
straight as die. aud their advance
over the Qpon plain in the bright sun
light was picture shall never for
get. The fire got hotter and hotter,
men fell, bullets sung, shells whizzed-
banged, and the dust of battle got
thick. Overton was hit by II big piece
of shell and fell. Afterward l heard
he was hit in the heart, so his death
was without pain. He was buried
that night and the pin found,
"a man near me was cut In two.
Others when hit would stand, 1t seemed,
an hour, then fall In heap. | yelled
to Wilmer that each gun in the bar
rage worked from right to left, then
a rabbit ran nhend, and | watched him,
wondering If he would get hit. Good
rnbbit--it took my mind off the car
mage. Looked for Hughes way over
to the right; told Wilmer that l had
a hundred dollars, and be sure to get
1t, You think Of all kinds Of things.
"About GO Germans Jumped up out
of Il trench and tried to surrender, but
back, they ran, and our left company
after them, That made gap that had
to be filled, so Sibley advanced one of
his to do the job: then II shell lit In
Il machine gun crew of ours and clean
ed it out completely.
Lost II Out Of 20 officers.
"At 10 30 we dug in; the attack
Just died out. found hole or old
trench, and when | was fiat on my
back got some protection. HOl-
comb was next me; Wilmer some way
off. We then tried to get reports. Two
companies we never could get In
touch with. Lloyd came in and re-
ported he was holding some trenches
near q mill with six men. Gates,
with his trousers blown off, said he
had 16 men Of various companies;
another officer on the right reported
he had and could see some 40 men,
all told. That, with. the headquarters,
was all we could find out about the
battalion of nearly 500. or the ~
company officers who went In. three
came ont, and one, Gates, was slightly
wounded.
"From then on to about 8 p. m. life
was chance, and mighty uncomfort-
able. 1t was hot as furnace, no wa
ter, ana they had our range to IT,
Three men lying in a shallow trench
near me were blown to bits.
We had machine gun officer with
US and at six runner came up and
reported that Sumner was killed. He
commanded the machine gun company
with us. He was hit early In the
fight by bullet, hear. I can get no
details. At the start he remarked:
This looks easy-they do not seem
to have much art Hughes head
quarters were all shot up. Turner lost
leg.
"Well, we just lay there all through
the hot afternoon, 1t was great-a
shell would lund near by and you
would bounce in your hole.
"As twilight came we sent our wa
ter parties for the relief of the
wounded. Then we wondered If we
would get relieved. At nine o'clock
we got message cOngratulatlng us,
and saving the Algerians would take
over at midnight. We ihen began to
collect our wounded. Some had been
evacuated during the day, hut at that
we soon had about 20 on the field near
us. A man who had been blinded
wanted me to hold his hand. Another,
wounded in the back, wanted his head
pattcd. and so it went; one man got
,lp on his hands and knees. | asked
him what he wanted. He said: Look
at the fun MOON then fell dead.
had him buried and all the rest !
could find. All the time bullets sung
and we prayed that sheling would
not start while we had our wounded on
top.
Alqerans Badly "Shot Up"
"Thp Alccrinn& came up at midnight
and we pushed out, They went over at
daybreak and got all shot up. We made
the relief under German flares and the
light from burning town.
mrhat night the Germans Shellcd us
and got three killed and II wounded.
We moved IL bit further back to the
crossroads, and after burying a
few Germans, some of whom showed
signs of having been wounded before,
we settled down for Il short stay.
at looked like rain, and so Wilmer
and I went to all old dressing station