lly
desperate straits. The enemy fought hard but to no purpose.

One entire regiment with its commander and his staff was captured. With
both flanks exposed, it had suddenly been confronted by Americans on
four sides. The surrender was so complete that the German commander
requested that his roll should be called in order to ascertain the
extent of his losses. When this was done, every one was accounted for
except one officer and one private.

As his command was so embarrassingly complete, the German commander
asked permission to march it off in whatever direction desired by his
captors. The request was granted, and there followed the somewhat
amusing spectacle of an entire German regiment, without arms, marching
off the battlefield under their own officers. The captured regiment was
escorted to the rear by mounted American guards, who smilingly and
leisurely rode their horses cowboy fashion as they herded their captives
back to the pens.

Tons upon tons of ammunition fell into our hands in the woods. At one
place twenty-two railroad cars loaded with large calibre ammunition had
to be abandoned when an American shell had torn up the track to the
north of them. But if the Germans had been unable to take with them
their equipment, they had succeeded in driving ahead of them on the
retreat almost all of the French male civilians between sixteen and
forty-five years that had been used as German slaves for more than four
years.

The Americans were welcomed as deliverers by those French civilians that
remained in the town. They were found to be almost entirely ignorant of
the most commonly known historical events of the war. Secretary of War
Baker and Generals Pershing and Petain visited the town of St. Mihiel a
few hours after it was captured. They were honoured with a spontaneous
demonstration by the girls and aged women, who crowded about them to
express thanks and pay homage for deliverance.

One of our bands began to play the "Marseillaise" and the old French
civilians who, under German domination, had not heard the national
anthem for four long years, broke down and wept. The mayor of the town
told how the Germans had robbed it of millions of francs. First they had
demanded and received one million five hundred thousand francs and later
they collected five hundred thousand more in three instalments. In
addition to these robberies, they had taken by "requisition" all the
furniture and mattresses and civilian comfor