And so on until, drawn from temporary reserve at Verdun, the 26th was
ordered into the Argonne battle. The _Globe_ chronicler continues:
“On October 15 the 104th was fighting in conjunction with the French
and a squadron of fifteen French tanks. What the fighting was like may
be judged from the fact that only one of those fifteen tanks came back.
“On the 16th other units went in, and by October 18 command passed
to General Edwards. The new position in line was on the east side of
the Meuse River, facing generally east. Ahead lay the scrubby woods
of Haumont, Chenes, Ormont, Belleau, and the skirt of the Bois de
Wavrille, and of Samogneux, the latter to the extreme left, nearer to
Verdun.
“The attack on these positions began on the 23d and continued until the
27th. The woods, so far as trees went, consisted of a few dead, blasted
stumps, standing out like skeletons, in the midst of thick, deadly
underbrush. The whole ground had been fought over recently. Bodies
of dead French and Germans lay there. And in one place was a valley
full of skeletons of the Crown Prince’s men who had made the desperate
attack on the forts of Verdun.
“These woods were taken and lost again, taken and lost, taken and
lost. Four times did the 101st battle through Belleau, only to be
blasted back by artillery. The enemy had sworn to stick it out, for an
attack here threatened the lines of communication. And stick they did.
“Of those last days a volume might well be written: of the desperate
charges, the hell of shell-fire, the deluges of gas, the hum of
millions of machine-gun death-messengers—death-messengers that brought
their messages home. And through it all, partly over ground they had
won before, they plunged in the dull desperation of despair. In the
previous days they had been robbed of the officers they knew and loved.
Edwards had been relieved October 25. Others had preceded him, and
others followed—Cole, Logan, Hume.
“Desperately these boys fought and paid the price. On the 9th the line
was drawn back a little, the accompanying units couldn’t keep pace. And
still the battle raged—a bloody, maddening, disheartening battle—raged
despite reports that an armistice had been agreed upon. Even at ten in
the morning of November 11, one hour before the fighting was to stop,
the 26th was ordered forward again ‘to straighten out the line.’ In
that hour hundreds were lost.
“The Yankee division fought up to the last shot. That shot fired, the
division remained a wreck. Gen. Frank E. Bamford, the new commander,
reported that the division was in no condition to go to the Rhine. That
day, the 11th, 1,200 replacements were received, and more were on their
way. When the last hour’s fight began one regiment, normally 3,000
strong, had only 240 rifles.”