The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1918-10-13
HOMER|C FIGHTS BY
WH|TTLESEyS MEN
Moftc, Crowd That Left New York
Proved Real Heroes in
Battle.
STUCK FIRMLY To THEIR Iff~1
Gave the Laugh to the Bachc$, Who
Had Them Up Tree fer -Four
Gruelling Days.
sTuCk FIRMLY TO THEIR ros1
ny DAMON RINNON.

At the American Argonne Front
Oct. f2.--Out of the fog OF fighting
that hangs over the forest Of Argonno
came limring today Nhittlesey'S bat
tered battalion which made the epic
defense in the dark glades beyond
They are men of New Yark's own
Seventy seventh division, most OF them
from the big town itself.
A little over year ago the writer
reported the parade Of these same
men when they marched in struggling
columns down Fifth avenue between
walls of cheering persons. Nearly all
of them wore vintage straw hats tnat
day Some Of Them ~era In erumpAed
.Saaifs Reach suita. Ssfae Of them
we've IN oxersfis. having coIle 1i4reSs
from Their jobs 10 appear IN the HfsI
parade OF drafted men or Manhattan
Island. Some were late OF the Hud-
son busters. Some of them once
trained with the Goppers. some Of
them were from ornate. houses in f'"FS
and Madison avenues or the upper
reaches of the seventies and eigh-
lies.
More were from the lower east
side. Broad ANA Harlem. Broadway
and the Bronx shufflad down the ave
nue. in that strange procession ihat
day while the bands ba~led over
There"
Later, the writer saw them tumble
Oft the trains at Yaphank, carrying
Scared suiteases and big bundles; saw
them form into irregular lines and
march to their new barracks.
Many OF them had been celebrating
their departure for camp the night
before, and looked it. Hester street
quarreled with Greenwich village~-not
the Greenwich village of long haired
ht,t hn diar I'll
region around the docks
Friendly Fight
A couple OF fist fights occurred at
the landing place between querulous
parties from the vicinity of Erie Ia
sin, Brooklyn. Nervous young officers
fresh from Plattsburg tiuttered about
trying to get sernbiauce Of order.
Their commands brought small, alert
replies from the new recruits.
Three were Cinnamon from Mott
street. Also there were Japs and
Italians, all jabbering in their own
language at once. Hopeless enough
military material they seemed then.
But some of the same faces l saW- at
Yaphank that day were under biscuit
shaped steel helmets In the muddy
columns that tramped out of the Ar
gonne forest today
The big towns polyglot population
fights of the war.
For four days and four nights the
one-time counter jumpers. brokers'
clerks. gangsters. news boys. truck
drivers. collegians, peddlers and what
not held the positions which they had
been ordered to take and hold, while
several times their number of Ger
mans were husily engaged shoveling
q variety of hell upon them.
y ~ -. g.
the whole advance, Totally cut off
from their main command. without
food and with very little water, the
boys from the big town hung on
They fought under a man who only
q short time ago was a New York
lawyer. Charles Whittlesy is tall,
lean thanked fellow around forty years
old He has funny little smile.
Has Funny Little Smile.
He smiled this funny little smile
when one of his men who had been
taken prisoner was sent back to him
by the Germans with a neatly type
written note requesting his surrender.
II would make this story more dra-
matte that Whittlesy sent back some
stirring phrase answer TO the Ger
mans. But as matter of fact, he
merely. smiled his funny little smile
after reading the note and tucked the
paper away In his pocket.
The Germans got their ZEAL reply
the next time A. boche poked his head
up. 1t was in the form of bullet
They are telling In SOME quarters
that whittlesy's reply to the demand
tor his surrender was go to hell"
whitley says he did not say It.