he Quai de la Poterne and the Promenade de la Levee,
the invader had left his characteristic mark. Shop after shop had been
looted of its contents and the fronts of the pretty sidewalk cafes along
this business thoroughfare had been reduced to shells of their former
selves.

Not a single living being was in sight as we marched in. Some of the old
townsfolk and some young children had remained but they were still under
cover. Among these French people who had lived for seven weeks through
the hell of battle that had raged about the town, was Madame de Prey,
who was eighty-seven years old. To her, home meant more than life. She
had spent the time in her cellar, caring for German wounded.

The town had been systematically pillaged. The German soldiers had
looted from the shops much material which they had made up into packages
to be mailed back to home folks in the Fatherland. The church, strangely
enough, was picked out as a depository for their larcenies. Nothing from
the robes of the priests down to the copper faucet of a water pipe had
escaped their greed.

The advancing Americans did not linger in the town--save for small
squads of engineers that busied themselves with the removal of the
street obstructions and the supply organisations that perfected
communication for the advancing lines. These Americans were Yankees
all--they comprised the 26th U. S. Division, representing the National
Guard of New England.

Our lines kept pushing to the north. The Germans continued their
withdrawal and the Allied necessity was to keep contact with them. This,
the Yankee Division succeeded in doing. The first obstacle encountered
to the north of Chateau-Thierry was the stand that the Germans made at
the town of Epieds.

On July 23rd, our infantry had proceeded up a ravine that paralleled the
road into Epieds. German machine guns placed on the hills about the
village, swept them with a terrible fire. Our men succeeded in reaching
the village, but the Germans responded with such a terrific downpour of
shell that our weakened ranks were forced to withdraw and the Germans
re-entered the town.

On the following day we renewed the attack with the advantage of
positions which we had won during the night in the Bois de Trugny and
the Bois de Chatelet. We advanced from three sides and forced the
Germans to evacuate. Trugny, the small village on the edge of the woods,
was the scene of more bloody fighting which resulted in our favour.