* * * * *
Interesting, too, is a letter written on Sept. 5 by Ernest II., Duke
of Saxe-Altenburg, who, besides being a Lieutenant of the Prussian
Guard and Chief of the Eighth Infantry Regiment of Thuringia,
is Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (since 1908), of Juliers, Cleves and
Berg, Engern, and Westphalia; Landgrave in Thuringia, Margrave of
Misnia, Count of Henneberg, Marche, Ravensberg, and Seigneur of
Ravenstein and Tonna. In 1898 the Duke married Princess Adelaide
of Schaumburg-Lippe, thus uniting two great German houses. His own
house was started in 1655 by Ernst, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen. His
letter follows:
We have lived through a great deal and done a great deal, marching,
marching, continually, without rest or respite. On Aug. 10 we
reached Willdorf, near Jülich, by train, and from the 12th of August
we marched without a single day of rest except Aug. 16, which we
spent in a Belgian village near Liége, until to-day, when we reached
----. These have been army marches such as history has never known.
The weather was fine, except that a broiling heat blazed down upon
us. The regiment can point back to several days' marches of fifty
kilometers ----. Everywhere our arrival created great amazement, in
Louvain as well as in Brussels, into which the entire ---- marched
at one time. At first we were taken for Englishmen in almost every
village, and we still are, because the inhabitants cannot realize
that we have arrived so early. The Belgians, moreover, in the last
few days almost invariably set fire to their own villages.
On Aug. 24 we first entered battle; I led a combined brigade
consisting of ----. The regiment fought splendidly, and in spite of
the gigantic strain put upon it, it is still in the best of spirits
and full of the joy of battle. On that day I was for a long time in
the sharpest rifle and artillery fire. Since that time there have
been almost daily skirmishes and continual long marches; the enemy
stalks ahead of us in seven-league boots.
On Aug. 26 we put behind us a march of exactly twenty-three hours,
from 6:30 o'clock in the morning until 5:30 the next morning. With
all that, I was supposed to lead my regiment across a bridge to take
a position guarding a new bridge in course of construction; but the
bridge, as we discovered in the nick of time, was mined; twenty
minutes later it flew into the air.
After resting for three hours in a field of stubble, and after we
had all eaten in common with the men in a field kitchen--as we
usually do--we continued marching till dark.
The spirit among our men is excellent. To-night I am to have a real
bed--the fourth, I believe, since the war began. To-day I undressed
for the first time in eight days.
* * * * *
The battle of Lyck, the victory of which has heretofore been
attributed solely to Field Marshal von Hindenburg, would appear to
have been won by his subordinate, Gen. Curt E. von Morgen, according
to the following letter, written by Gen. von Morgen to his friend
Dr. Eschenburg, Mayor of Lübeck, the city where, in peace times,
Gen. von Morgen was stationed as commander of the Eighty-first
Infantry Brigade. Gen. von Morgen is 56 years old. He has been
in the army since 1878, when he was appointed Lieutenant in the
Sixty-third Infantry Brigade. He served in the German campaign in
the Kamerun in 1894 and suppressed the rebellion there in 1896 and
1897. In the latter year he served also in the Thessaly campaign,
attached to the headquarters of Edhem Pasha, and in 1898 he
accompanied the German Emperor on the latter's journey to Palestine.
The General wrote:
SUWALKI, Sept. 13.
Yesterday, after a short fight, I captured Suwalki, and I am now
seated in the Government Palace. This morning I marched into the
city with my division, and was greeted at the city limits by a
priest and the Mayor, who offered me bread and salt. (The Russian
officials had fled.) It was a glorious moment for me. I have
appointed a General Staff officer as Governor of the Government of
Suwalki.
To-morrow we continue to march against the enemy. The army of
Rennenkampf is completely destroyed. Thirty thousand men captured.
Rennenkampf and the Commander in Chief, Nicholas Nicholaiewitch,
fled from Insterburg in civilian garb.
The plan of the Russians was to get us into a pot, but it was
frustrated. The Twelfth Russian Army Corps, which was advancing
from the south to flank our army, was beaten by me on Sept. 7, at
Bialla, and on Sept. 9 at Lyck and was forced back over the border.
You know that I always yearned for martial achievements. I had never
expected them to be as great and glorious as these, however. I owe
them in the first place to the vigorous offensive and bravery of my
troops. I was probably foolhardy on Sept. 9, when I attacked a force
thrice my superior in numbers, and in a fortified position; but even
if I had been beaten I should have carried out the task assigned to
me, for this Russian corps could no longer take part in the decisive
battle. And so, in the evening, I sent in my last battalion and
attacked by storm the village of Bobern, lying on the left wing.
This, my last effort, must so have impressed the Russians that they
began the retirement that very night. On the morning of the 10th of
September the last trenches were taken.
My opponents were picked troops of the Russian Army--Finnish
sharpshooters.
Health conditions with me are tolerable.
(In a later note, Gen. von Morgen added that Gen. von Hindenburg,
his Commander in Chief, sent word that he would never forget the
valorous deeds that had made possible these victories, and that even
before the battle of Lyck the Iron Cross of the Second Class had
been accorded to Gen. von Morgen. When he entered Lyck, Gen. von
Morgen said, the inhabitants kissed his hands.)
* * * * *
A letter containing a personal touch was sent from the front in the
early part of the war by Rudolf Herzog, one of Germany's greatest
living poets and novelists. The letter, as originally published,
was in rhymed verse. The poet, who visited this country about a year
ago and was fêted by Germans in all the chief cities he visited, is
the author of numerous novels and romances, dating from 1893 to the
present. Herzog lives in a fine old castle overlooking the Rhine,
mentioned in his letter, which is as follows:
It had been a wild week. The storm-wind swept with its broom of
rain. It lashed us and splashed us, thrashed noses and ears,
whistled through our clothing, penetrated the pores of our skin.
And in the deluge--sights that made us shudder--gaunt skeleton
churches, cracked walls, smoking ruins piled hillock high; cities
and villages--judged, annihilated.
Of twenty bridges, there remained but beams rolled up by the
waters--and yawning gaps.
Not a thought remained for the distant homeland and dear ones far
away; the only thought, by day and by night: On to the enemy, come
what may! No mind intent on any other goal. No time to lose! No time
to lose! Haste! Haste!
And forward and backward and criss-cross through the gray Ardennes
the Chief Lieutenant and I, racing day after day.
Captain of the Guard! You? From the Staff Headquarters?
He shouts my name as he approaches:
"Congratulations! Congratulations!"
And he waves a paper above a hundred heads.
"Telegram from home! Make way, there, you rascals! At the home of
our poet--I've just learned it--a little war girl has arrived!"
I hold the paper in my outstretched hand. Has the sun broken
suddenly into the enemy's land? Light and life on all the ruins? * * *
Springtime scatters the shuddering Autumn dreariness.