nd for fear of discovery.
It was not due to any lack of ability or strategy on his part that this
well planned attack failed of accomplishment. On his body we found a
dramatic message, written on the second day of the battle after the
assault on the guns had failed. He was with the rear forces at that time
and dispatched or had intended to dispatch the following to the command
in charge of the forward forces:

"We are in the two lowest villages--one steamer coming up
river--perhaps reinforcements. Attack more vigorously--Melochofski and
Murafski are killed. If you do not attack, I cannot hold on and
retreat is impossible. (Signed) FOUKES."

Out of our force of about six hundred Scots and Americans we had about a
hundred casualties, the Scots suffering worse than we. Our casualties
were mostly sustained in the blockhouses, from the shelling. It was here
that we lost Corporal Sabada and Sergeant Marriott, both of whom were
fine soldiers and their loss was very keenly felt. Sabada's dying words
were instructions to his squad to hold their position in the rear of
their blockhouse which had been destroyed.

It was reported that Trotsky, the idol of the Red crowd, was present at
the battle of Toulgas, but if he was there, he had little influence in
checking the riotous retreat of his followers when they thought
themselves flanked from the woods. They fled in wild disorder from the
upper village of Toulgas and for days thereafter in villages far to our
rear, various members of this force straggled in, half crazed by
starvation and exposure and more than willing to abandon the Soviet
cause. For weeks the enemy left the Americans severely alone. Toulgas
was held.

But it was decided to burn Upper Toulgas, which was a constant menace to
our security, as we had no men to occupy it with sufficient numbers to
make a defense and the small outposts there were tempting morsels for
the enemy to devour. Many were reluctant to stay there, and it was
nervous work on the black nights when the wind, dismal and weird, moaned
through the encompassing forest, every shadow a crouching Bolshevik.
Often the order came through to the main village to "stand to," because
some fidgety sentinel in Upper Toulgas had seen battalions, conjured by
the black night. So it was determined to burn the upper village and a
guard was thrown around it, for we feared word would be passed and the
Bolos would try to prevent us from accomplishing our purpos