The Last Shot
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.”