The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-05-13

died IN between the fldgeS on one
side, and the Gironde River on the other,
she never dreamed that she would be one
of the largest ports in France.
War plays strange tricks with maps and
nations; and the American engineers look.
ing for place to establish port of entry
found Bassens still dreaming, Almost
over night Bassens was changed-presto,
and here were miles upon miles of docks
with their galvanized iron warehouses, and
thousands of colored stevedores, recruited
and drafted from the levees and the plan
tations of the South, were in possession of
the town.
There was tremendous flow of all kinds
Of materials for the American Army pass
ing through Bassens. Far into the night
the negroes could be heard singing as they
unloaded the supplies for the fighting units
at the front For the most part these
stevedores were like children and discipline
was hard to maintain. The only real sol
ders were the non-commissioned officers
WHO had been transferred to the stevedore
companies from the colored regiments of
the regular army.
In a camp of over 5000 such units, chat
ing more or less under military discipline,
the usual fights and squabbles Incidental to
camp life were common. But nothing Sc
rious had ever happened and the officers
were proud of that June Is, 1918, how
ever the Commanding Officer of the camp
reported that two days before one of his
men, Private Hand, had been found dead
on by-path that led from the ridge into
camp Hand had been killed during the
night. Frenchman who was going to
work in his vineyard stumbled over the
Lody next morning.
1t is almost inconceivablc that any officer
would not realize the Importance of quick
ly notifying the proper authorities as soon
such crime had been discovered; but
here was where the inconceivable happened,
for it was two days before l, the Provost
Marshal, told of the crime, and then
when l asked where was the body, this man
naively replied:
"Did you want to see the body? l sure
am sorry, but we buried it yesterday We
didn't think you would care to see it."
Then l blew up for fair. (Nee again
did that officer neglect to at once report
even the most trivial happenings of his
camp. In his anxiety to make good he re-
ported one of his men deserter when
upon investigation we found that the poor
devil had lived off the dock and never came
% the surface.)
We had most difficult case on hand !;
1 murder two days old, and the body of the
victim buried. The only saving grace about
the whole proposition was that military reg
ulations required that an autopsy must be
performed all persons found murdered
and the 'Medico' had done thorough job.
Hand had been shot twice in the back and
the top of his head had been crushed in
with some blunt instrument. The "Medico"
proudly handed US the two bullets he had
taken from the body and called our atten-
ton to the fact that the gun used was ev-
identity of French make. The two bull
lets, with Hands uniform, made up our to-
tai assets in the way Of clues.
With these few shreds of evidence in our
possession we hurried to the scene of the
crime, hoping against hope that we might
find lead to work on.
Alas for our hopes! the path, for quite
a distance each side of the spot where the
body had been found, looked as if it had
been well prepared for spring planting.
Hobnailed boots tramping over one spot
cut up the earth Not only had the
path itself been we'll dug up, but it was
evident that most minute search had been
made of each spear of grass. The hedges
lining the path were broken down in sew
eral places and even the vineyards ada
cent to the spot looked as if a cyclone had
struck them. Judging from the appearance
of the ground every one of the 5000 steve
L,l ..-:,: trL H., LII