The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1919-01-11

v -
ment was in the. nose ora salient anl
there was little it could do in the way
Of retaliation against the cross fire
from the IT'S and 210s which daily
and nightly claimed a considerable
toll Of dead and wounded, It WAS
plain the position was untenable. That
meant an offensive, for to the Amer
ican army retirement. except of the
most temporary .charcter, was an in
Thought Of maneuver.
In front Of the stretch Of woods
held by the -seyenty-ninth Division
1there, rose q formidable height which
on some. maps was. designated as Hill
a78s and. on others as the Borne du
Cornouiller and by the doughboys
themselves, with a whimsical dislike.
..'cornwillie Hill In the conyolu-
tons Il eornwlllie Hills bald head
there lay concealed, a formidable ar
ray of machine. gun nests, and com
1nanding its naked ascents was some
of the deadliest artillery the Germans
possessed. The German high COM
naand realized fully the Importance of
this key position. and the units that
! held it. We're Prussian Guards.
/ The Three Hundred and Sixteenth
was-and is-a National Army regi-
ment. composed of drafted men en-
l.tirely Its men come mainly from the
farm and mine lands Of Pennsylvania,
although later eontingents brought
groups from such widely separated
points as Iowa and Connecticut A
typical American regiment-which
means that it joked very little, sang
not atall and took the business of
Spartan spirit. This, of course, is not
a conventional picture, but the ma
jority of men who have been through
the Argonne fight will bear the writ
er out in the assertion that "blithe-
ness was not characteristic Of the
Yank once he got into the front lines.
Wherein the average soldier and
officer differed from jor Manning.
who was never more cheerful, with a
buoyant, exalted kind of cheerfulness.
than on the morning the Three Hun
dred and Sixteenth learned it was to
so over the top once more. The pros
pect of action was wine to him. On
the St Mihiel front he had remarked
to an outpost lieutenant that he en-
wed him nothing more than the per-
sonal opportunity to make things un-
pleasant for the boche And now the
opportunity was to be his in full
measure.
The battle of Cornwillie Hill began
on the morning Of November with
an offensive reconnaissance patrol ua-
der the leadership Of young second
lieutenant named Gabriel. It was
mighty offensive to the Germans, for
they centered everything they had or
the strip Of territory. the patrol had to
cross before it reached the outskirts
Of the main position; but in spite Of
heavy losses young Gabriel led his
men forward five successive times
and as q result OF a few hours work
brought in a half dozen machine g;;-::--
with their crews and valuable infor-
nation OF what lay ahead.
"A connected story, of the struggle
that followed will have; to be gather
ed sometime from Official records, but
in .tf ea course Of the next three days
the entire regiment was thrown into
as. desperate a local fight as perhaps
marked the entire ,Argonne campaign
and which was. crowned with mag
nifcent.~ results. It was at. first
thought, two companies with a sutf1-
cient display OF energy would be
enough, to. persuade, the Germans to
retire but in the course of the first
few hours these two companies were
virtually wiped out, with all their Of
fceTy reported as. casualties. including
theis battalion leader, Maj. Henry o.
Parkin, OF pittsburgh.
THE Third Battalion with. what
suhits Remained 81 other companies
was ordered forward late on the morn
fag Of the 4th at, q moment whom all
the guns In the German lines were
thundering thei heaviest, Pictures
oueness was a. characteristic notice.
ably absent in the Eastern front
fighting. but here was a touch OF
mpre colorful days in the advance Of
I the Third Battalion through. the nuc-
Iderous barrage, for at It's head strode
the tall, lean eguss OF. Major. Man
ming, With q flowing black cape oyer
his shoulders flying IN the wind that
emerged from the woods behind, a
heavy cane in one hand and an Amer
lean AS in the other.
There may be, question of the
military wisdom Of advancing against
machine gun fire and snipers' rests
of which Cornwillie Hill was full
in so conspicuous a costume as an
old fashioned army cape. But there
fcanss be. no question Of the inspiration
sight like that is to your hero loving
soldier in the stress Of battle, and the
Third Battalion went forward through
artillery fire and into a hail Of bull
lets. from a ride alive with machine
guns until its leader fell, shot through
the head with his pistol extended be-
fore him toward the goal.
And the regiment, with almost all
| Of its officers gone, companies and