ond the call of duty he went to his death while
striving to save the fortune of the day that was going against his
doughty old leader Donoghue. He did not know that the Liverpool Company
had left a hole in the line by finding a trail to the rear after their
second gallant but fruitless assault, and he went forward of his own
initiative, with a Russian Lewis gun squad to find position where he
could plant one of his machine guns to help the S. B. A. L. platoons and
Liverpools whom old Donoghue was coming up to lead in another charge on
the Bolo position.

Lt. Ballard ran into the exposed hole in the line and pushed forward to
a place where his whole squad was ambushed and the Russian Lewis gunner
was the only one to get out. He returned with his gun and dropped among
the Americanski machine gunners, telling of the death of Ballard and the
Russian soldiers at the point of the Bolshevik bayonets. Lt. Commons of
"K" Company declares that Ballard met his death at that place by getting
into the hole in the line which he supposed was held by English and
Russians and by being caught in a cross fire of Bolo Colt machine guns.
Whichever way it was, his body was never seen nor recovered. Hope that
he might have been taken as a wounded prisoner by the Reds still lived
in the hearts of his comrades. And all officers and men of the American
forces who came into Detroit the following July vainly wished to believe
with the girl who piteously scanned every group that landed, that
Ballard might yet be heard from as a prisoner in Russia. No doubt he was
killed.

The battle continued. Finally the withdrawal of the Couriers du Bois and
the coming through of the Avda Battalion of the Reds, together with Red
reinforcements from Kodlozerskaya-Pustin, reduced Donoghue's force to a
stern defensive and he retreated at five o'clock in good order to the
old lines on the river.

The half-burned and scarred buildings of Kodish mournfully reminded the
soldier of the losses that had decimated the ranks of the forces that
fought and refought over the village. Into their old strongholds they
retired, keeping a sharp lookout for the expected retaliation of the
Reds. It came two days later. And it nearly accounted for the entire
force, although that was not so remarkable, Lt. Commons, the Major's
adjutant, says, because so many even of the shorter engagements on this
and other fronts had been equally narrow squeaks for the Americans and
their Allies.