Our Second Battalion
by George W Cooper (9780217525824)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. ALONG THE MARNE. dreams of our loved ones at home and what was just ahead of us were made a thing of the past when, at 4:15 A. M., July 4th, "Call to Arms" was sounded throughout the hamlet. In an instant, everyone was up, for all knew what that meant. Shoes and leggins were hurriedly put on and packs made up and rolled. Runners were immediately despatched to the other two Companies (P and G) of our battalion and we collected1 all our baggage and hoisted it down to the ground. It was 5:30 before the other two companies came along and then, while it was still dark, we started our march up to the Line. What a wonderful feeling it was the first time in and what a contrast to the feeling when going in subsequently. Every man was jubilant, as was evidenced by the fact that for the first few kilometres most of the men were singing. Those of us who were not singing were joking and laughing, never fearing what was before us?knowing only that we were going into battle with a light heart but with one that was full of courage and determination. After we had marched about three kilometres, orders were given for absolute silence and this added more to the solemnity of ourmarch. From that time on, silence reigned over the entire line of marching troops. A little after seven o'clock we reached our position,?what was called the Charly-Nogent Line of Resistance. The Battalion P. C. (Post of Command) was established in a little bunch of woods on the top of a hill, at the bottom of which ran the Marne River. The town of Charly was on the northern bank and the town of Nogent on the southern bank of the River. The whole regiment was stretched out along the Marne, "Our Second Battalion" being a little west of the Town of Nogent and directly across from Charly. This was about eight...

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