The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1919-02-25
COT THROUGH To
WHITTLESEY, But
He WAS SCARED
De!ehanty Sent to Support Fa-
nous Lost Battalion.
IS GIVEN PERI. Gus i5IsSII3.I.'' iI:.IIssSS..I.'
Former New York Architect Taxes "
Yanxs. Leads Wsy in oa7k Aiens
Railway Track aad osta'a ia-
formatifn of Great Importance To
Americans. Which Later Get V!i''--
t!esey Out of His Dsash 9avjne.

tIesey Out Of His Oeaea 9aVine
How Capt. Bradley DeIchan!y Sf ne
Three Hundred and Eighth "s&;'.'
through TO Whttiesay" wien that An"
famous battalion commander was GU
of in the Argonne forest is s'"f!
that ranks with the heroic defense o'
Whittlesey itself.
Like Whittlesey. Delehanty is "a,
city man. a New Yorker. He IS q
dapper little architect. But he comes
Of fighting Blood. He is a son of the
late Capt. Daniel Delehanty of fhe
navy. who hoped down from the
bridge of his gunboat off Matanzas.
Cuba. in 1898. and himself pointed the
gun that sent the last Spanish nag
toppiing OFF the battlements of the
old forts there He is q nephew or
Supreme Court Justice Francis B. Del
ehanty of New York.
Before the war he had studied IN
Paris, SO when he arrived in France
his knowledge Of the language sacn
landed him on the regimental staff as
Intelligence officer.
But during that fierce month or
fighting Up through the guf-blasfed
Arconne. as Delehanty says. revert
Ing to the navy. 'it was case OF
all hands and the cook" and so it
was that on the night Of this pir-
ticular exploit he was in command OF
a company of the Three Hundred and
Eighth infantry Of the Seventy-sevenfh
division, the draft division of New
York city.
De,ehanty Ordered Up.
whittIesey, in command Of his iln-
mortal battalion, was leading the ad-
vance. With his grim. jaw set and
his shoulders hunched he was form
ing the tough spearhead Of the Amer
ican advance to the west Of the
Meuse. He had got orders to go ahead
and he had done 1t. He had done. it
better than anyone thought he could
and he had been surrounded. A
dozen Intellectual attempts had been
made to pierce the screen of German
machine guns and trench mortars that
had filtered In behind him. When
night fell the colonel Of the Three
Hundred and Eighth sent for Dele
hanty.
aGo up to the support" he said.
take command of K company and
get into touch with Whittlesey.
We're getting nothing but pigeon
message from him now"
.sIt's tough country, that Argonne," !"
Delehanty told the story later. cts
hard country to get through in the
daytime. It's worse at night. And
when got up to K company, ma
chine gun bullets were flying like
locusts. and whizz-bangs out of those
trench mortars were Topping over
every 80 seconds and blowing boys
to snithereens when they hit. |
sent out half dozen runners. But
none of them ever came back.
Z Finally I sent out two whole patrols
with orders to reach Whittlesey by
different routes. Then I reported to
the colonel. Anything else meant
moving the whole company. and l
had to ask him about that.
'Then every half hour or so he'd
call on the telephone and ask me If
I'd heard from these patrols. Finally.
about midnight, he couldn't stand 1t
any longer.
DeIehanty Got There.
/! Delehanty,' he said. you've got a
hundred and seventy-seven men there
with you. You take them all. You
60 up through the woods until you
connect with Whittlesey and you keep
at it until you do get him. if you
only have seven men left when you
get there"
And Delehanty got there-not
with seven, but with the whole hum
dred and seventy-seyen. But he frank
II admits he was scared.
"Well," he said, turning with a grin