ps Wit

rack. The 109th Infantry was sent away to the west to flank the town from that direct

t the Germans out of their strongholds, led to a decision to avoid such destructive methods wh

r-say-die" spirit that refused to know defeat. There was something unconquerable

ut to the north. The usual groups of Huns were still in hiding in cellars and dugout

of attack and counter-attack was carried out before our men established themselves in sufficient force to hold the place. Repeatedly the Germans strove to obtain a footho

k to the west of Sergy, and crossed the river again. Officers, feeling almost at the end of their physical re

ary to supply them regularly in the circumstances. When opportunity offered, they got a substantial meal, but these were few and far between. There were innumera

ades of men, commissioned and enlisted, neither willing to give up in the face of the other's dogged pertinacity, spurred each o

rd to ascertain the situation of the enemy, only to have them come back with wo

lved. A wood north of Sergy was selected as an abiding place for the night and, watching for a chance when Bo

se to an enemy ammunition dump, which the retiring Huns had not had time to destroy. Naturally, the Germa

o seek other shelter, so all they could do was to contrive such protection as was possible and hug the ground, expecting each succeedin

dment always is, the men of the 109th fairly gasped with relief when each screeching shell ended with a

d. Strange as it may seem, the Boche

at he was to relinquish command of the regiment to become adjutant to the commandant of a port of

A few days later, Colonel Coulter was wounded in the foot, and Colonel Samuel V. Ham, a regular army officer, became commander. As an evidence of the vicissit

time since their first "bath of steel," south of the Marne. Both nights they were supposed to be resting they were shelled and bombed from the air continuously, a

ts of the men than anything else that could have happened to them. Anyway, when the two-day period was ended and the regiment again set off for the nor

f the 107th Regiment, came into the zone of operations, and soon its big guns began

t, although most of it was of a kind they could look back on later with a

e were many times worse for the big guns. The 108th, for instanc

he river. When night fell, it was learned that the half that had crossed lower down had the field kitchen and no rations and

d been settled down for the night by ten o'clock and, as all was quiet, the officers went to the village. There they found an innkeeper bemoaning the fact that, j

ed worry no further about losing his food, and promptly took their places about the table. The first spoonfuls of soup just were being lifted when an orderly entered, bearing orders for th

a battery under heavy shellfire, a detachment of the train had to cross a small stream on a little, flat bridge, without guard rails. A swing horse of one of the

ten out would have been suicidal. So the main body passed on and the caisson crew and drivers, twelve men in all, were

and the horses were compelled to wear gas masks, as the Hun tossed over a gas shell every once in a while for variety-he was "mixing th

up from their work, nor hesitated a minute. Just before dawn they got the horse free and started back for their

n maintaining lines of communication. Repeatedly, men of the battalion, commanded by Major Fred G. Miller, of Pittsburgh, exposed themselves daringly in a welte

ork was to do all over again. With cool disregard of danger, the signalmen went about their tasks, inc

men carried their work forward. There was little of the picturesque about it, but nothing in the service was more es