s dearly, as was evidenced by the
enemy dead strewn about in the snow near them. The remains of these
heroic men were later recovered and removed to Shenkursk, where they
were buried almost under the shadows of the cathedral located there.

During this period the thermometer was daily descending lower and lower;
snow was falling continually and the days were so short and dark that
one could hardly distinguish day from night. These long nights of bitter
cold, with death stalking at our sides, was a terrible strain upon the
troops. Sentries standing watch in the lonely snow and cold were
constantly having feet, hands, and other parts of their anatomy frozen.
Their nerves were on edge and they were constantly firing upon white
objects that could be seen now and then prowling around in the snow.
These objects as we later found were enemy troops clad in white clothing
which made it almost impossible to detect them.

About this time an epidemic of "flu" broke out in some of the villages.
In view of the Russian custom of keeping the doors and windows of their
houses practically sealed during the winter and with their utter
disregard for the most simple sanitary precautions, small wonder it was
that in a short time the epidemic was raging in practically every
village within our lines. The American Red Cross and medical officers of
the expedition at once set to work to combat the epidemic as far as the
means at their disposal would permit. The Russian peasant, of course, in
true fatalist fashion calmly accepted this situation as an inevitable
act of Providence, which made the task of the Red Cross workers and
others more difficult. The workers, however, devoted themselves to their
errand of mercy night and day and gradually the epidemic was checked.
This voluntary act of mercy and kindness had a great effect upon the
peasantry of the region and doubtless gave them a better and more kindly
opinion of the strangers in their midst than all the efforts of our
artillery and machine guns ever could have done. And when in the winter
horses and sleighs meant life or death to the doughboys, the peasants
were true to their American soldier friends.

After the fatal ambush of Lieutenant Cuff's patrol at Ust Padenga, "C"
Company, was relieved about the first of December by Company "A." During
the remainder of the month there was more or less activity on both sides
of the line. About the fifth or sixth of the month, the enemy brought up
se