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Title: The Black Watch
A Record in Action

Author: Scout Joe Cassells

Release Date: July 28, 2010 [EBook #33278]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE BLACK WATCH

[Illustration: SCOUT JOE CASSELLS OF THE BLACK WATCH]

THE BLACK WATCH

A RECORD IN ACTION

BY SCOUT JOE CASSELLS

_One of the few survivors of that
"contemptible little army"_

_Frontispiece_

GARDEN CITY NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1918

_Copyright, 1918, by_
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY

_All rights reserved, including that of
translation into foreign languages,
including the Scandinavian_

FOREWORD

From Mons to the Marne lies the bloodiest trail of sacrifice in history.
In all the records of war, there stands forth no more magnificent and no
more melancholy achievement than that of the British regular army, which
bled its heroic way in ever-diminishing numbers from the challenge to the
check of the initial German sweep upon Paris. It could not hope for
decisive victory; it could only clog the wheels of the Juggernaut with
lives and lives and lives, sold bravely and dearly. Before a countless
superiority of numbers and an incalculable advantage in enemy
preparedness, it could only stand, and fall--and stand again, and
fall--until the end; when the cause of the Allies was saved for the hour,
and of French's hundred thousand there remained barely a little leaven of
trained men for the British forces then assembling to learn the trade of
warfare.

The ablest pens writing of the Great War have paid tribute to this
splendid deed which changed the course of its beginning. French's retreat
from Mons has been a topic to inspire the highest eloquence of the
patriotic historian and the most profound admiration of the militarist.
Everything, from the point of the on