wires, and giving further instructions as
to the disposition of the troops.

"As we moved forward we began to meet the flood from the battle field,
first the lightly wounded, and then Austrian prisoners helping our
heavily wounded, who were in carts.

"Before we were halfway to the positions a cavalry general splashed
with mud met the commander and informed him that six guns were already
in our hands. The next report from the field telephone increased the
number to ten guns, with 2,000 prisoners, including some Germans.

"At quite an early hour the entire country was alive, and every
department of the army beginning to move forward. All the roads were
choked with ammunition parks, batteries, and transports following up
our advancing troops; while the stream of returning caissons, the
wounded, and the prisoners equaled in volume the tide of the advancing
columns.

"The commander took up his position on a ridge which but a few hours
before had been our advanced line. Thence the country could be
observed for miles. Each road was black with moving troops, pushing
forward on the heels of the enemy, whose field gun shells were
bursting on the ridges just beyond.

"Here I met the commander of the division and his staff. Plans were
immediately made for following up our success. Evidently the size of
our group was discernible from some distant enemy observation point,
for within five minutes came the howl of an approaching projectile and
a 6-inch shell burst with a terrific crash in a neighboring field. Its
arrival, which was followed at regular intervals by others ranging
from 4-inch upward, was apparently unnoticed by the general, whose
interest was entirely occupied with pressing his advantage.

"So swift was our advance that nearly half an hour elapsed before the
newly strung field wires were working properly.

"The fire had become so persistent that our group scattered and
hundreds of prisoners, whose black mass could be seen by the enemy,
were removed beyond the possibility of observation. Then the corps
commander, stretched on straw on the crest of the ridge, with his maps
spread out, dictated directions to the operator of the field telephone
who crouched beside him.

"Before and beneath us lay the abandoned line of Austrian trenches,
separated from ours by a small stream, where since daylight the heroic
engineers were laboring under heavy shell fire to construct a bridge
to enable our cavalry and guns to pass i