The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1919-03-26
From the Heart of
The Rhine Country.

saw how its defences were built. |
am sure a few men at the time it
was built could defend themselves
against much larger froce, but
now one of our G. /. Cans (high
explosive shells) would be sufiici-
ent to demOlish the castle and all
its defences. In climbing to the
top of the castle l assembled sever
al flights of steps, having to use
great care and precaution at times
as the steps were so badly decayed.
You climb one flight then make a
detour then another fight another
detour and continue to do this till
finally you come to an open court
which was the defensive position
for its defenders in the tower,
suppose this was the last stand the
defenders had to take as farther
below and all around the castle
were defensive positions. On ar
irving at the top of the tower we
lolled down and found that on one
side of the tower it was between
$50 and 200 feet to the earth, and
in the center of the tower there
was a hole down to the earth, |
suppose the defenders on top used
this to get supplies from the bot
tom. At the top of every fight
of steps, where we made the de-
tour, there were port holes with
the flare extending inward, the part
exposed from outside was much
smaller and the defender could fire
from these holes without exposing
himself. The walls of this tower
were about 2-1-2 foot thick. The
people make no effort to preserve
these ruins and unless there are
something done there will be no
remains left in a hundred years
from now. This castle I am des-
cribing dates back to about the
year Ten !Hundredi Napoleon Is
said to have stayed in this castle
while ais victorious armies were
over running Germany, and till
this date the Germans have a hat
red toward the French.
France was so badly demolished
that | never found anything whole.
There were very few men left IN
France and it was a common thing
to see an old woman and child
working in the field. The people
in France, as well as in Germany,
work cows. A Frenchman never
arms but hauls it in a wheel Dor
row, while a Dutchman has Il small
wagon that he pulls around and
can haul a big load on it as ii is
very strongly built. IT is rather
!, sad to see the great number OF
French towns and cities that are
completely wrecked. You see
, them in various stages of ruins.
Some are so completely destroyed
that you can hardly find trace
J left. | remember when we went
, through the village of Avacourt
} we could see what appeared to be
, piles of stone and crushed rock ex-
| tending over wide area one or
, two ruins of building was more
distinguishable than the remainder,
! we asked a party of Pioneers that
; were working there if this was once
| town and were told that it was
, once the village of Avacourt, proba-
| bly, il will never be rebuild as 1t
would be just as easy to rebuild it
, ct some other place. We saw other
J end If you passed through them at
; night it seemed more like ceme-
[ terry. At every place whore there
/ was a wall left standing a Dough
Boy had it occupied as shelter
from the weather and shells.
/ passed through the Argonne For
| est which were mentioned in the
papers so often, here was fought
one of the hardest battles of the
war and it certainly showed It.,
) you could hardly see any thing
that showed there had once been a
} great growth of fine timber. Great
7 trees were cut and torn into kind
, lina iwood. The Argoyne-Meuse
, fight was named from this forest
| end the Mouse river. This was the
, engagement that | was in and was
: one of the fronts that crushed the
> German liners, and ended the
r struggle. The French civilians
} had long ago vacated this territory
: which am speaking of and we
| went some thirty miles and about
: 2S days without seeing a civilian.
The first place we found civilians
I was at Mouzay on the Mouse river,
I we had driven the Germamns back
, to this place which was or had been