help carry on their government. Self government
they cherished. When the Red Guards had been in power at Archangel they
had of course extended their sway partially to this far-off area. But
the people had only submitted for the time. Some of their able men had
had to accept tenure of authority under the nominal overlordship of the
Red commissars. And when the Reds fled at the approach of the Allies,
the people of Pinega had punished a few of the cruel Bolshevik rulers
that they caught but had not made any great effort to change all the
officers of civil government even though they had been Red officials for
a time. In fact it was a somewhat confused color scheme of Red and White
civil government that the Americans found in the Pinega Valley. The
writer commanded this area in the winter and speaks from actual
experience in dealing with this Pinega local government, half Red as it
was. The Americans were well received and took up garrison duty in the
fall, raising a force of three hundred volunteers chiefly from the
valley above Pinega, whose people were in fear of a return of the Reds
and begged for a military column up the valley to deliver it from the
Red agitators and recover their flour that had been stolen.

November 15th Captain Conway, acting under British G. H. Q., Archangel,
acceded to these requests and sent Lieut. Higgins with thirty-five
Americans and two hundred and ten Russian volunteers to clear the valley
and occupy Karpogora.

For ten days the force advanced without opposition. At Marynagora an
enemy patrol was encountered and the next day the Yanks drove back an
enemy combat patrol. Daily combat patrol action did not interfere with
their advance and on Thanksgiving Day the "G" Company boys after a
little engagement went into Karpogora. They were one hundred and twenty
versts from Pinega, which was two hundred and seven versts from
Archangel, a mere matter of being two hundred miles from Archangel in
the heart of a country which was politically about fifty-fifty between
Red and White. But the Reds did not intend to have the Americans up
there. On December 4th they came on in a much superior force and
attacked. The Americans lost two killed and four wounded out of their
little thirty-five Americans and several White Guards, and on order from
Captain Conway, who hurried up the river to take charge, the flying
column relinquished its hold on Karpogora and retired down the valley
followed by the Reds. A fo