ture of many prisoners. Forced back by our steady advance the
enemy is retiring, and is destroying large quantities of material as he
goes. The number of prisoners counted has risen to 13,300. Our line now
includes Herbeville, Thillet, Hattonville, St. Benoit, Xammes, Jaulny,
Thiaucourt and Vieville."

The salient was wiped out, and the St. Mihiel front reduced from forty
to twenty miles. Secretary Newton D. Baker, accompanied by Generals
Pershing and Petain, visited St. Mihiel a few hours after its capture.
They walked through the streets of the city, and heard many stories of
the long German occupation.

As the attack proceeded it became more and more evident that the German
defense had lost heart. Thousands of them surrendered, declaring they
did not care to fight any more. It was also noted that a surprisingly
large number of officers were among those captured. The only serious
resistance was to the attack south of Fresnes, which was obviously for
the purpose of protecting the German retreat.

The first American regiment stationed in the St. Mihiel sector was the
370th Infantry, formerly the Eighth Illinois, a Negro regiment officered
entirely by soldiers of that race. This regiment was one of the three
that occupied a sector at Verdun when a penetration there by the Germans
would have been disastrous to the Allied cause.

The St. Mihiel salient had no great military value to the Germans, and
was probably held by them from a sentimental motive. It represented the
desperate efforts made by the Crown Prince in his early drive against
Verdun. Its destruction, however, was of great importance to the French.
It was not only a removal of a menace to the French citizens of Verdun,
but it released the French armies at that point for active offensive
operation. It also liberated the railway line from Verdun to Nancy,
which was of the utmost value to General Pershing and the French armies
to his left. It also later developed that the French command regarded
the reduction of the St. Mihiel salient as the corner stone of a great
encircling movement aimed at the German fortress of Metz. The moral
effect of its reduction was also notable as it was one more sign of the
weakening of the Germans.

[Illustration: Map: Verdun in the Northwest corner, St. Mihiel in
Southwest, Metz in the Northeast]
HOW THE ST. MIHIEL SALIENT LOOKED SHORTLY AFTER THE ASSAULT BEGAN
The map indicates the beginning of the great American drive, a