Page:The history and achievements of the Fort Sheridan officers' training camps.djvu/402

 400 THE FORT SHERIDAN ASSOCIATION

downward toward Sergy. They crunch under foot. They lie in heaps and mounds next to tiny Httle scoops in the ground w^here some American boys stooped close to get shelter from the deadly rain of steel and lead that swept into their faces. They line the rims of queer inverted cone-shaped holes in the ground that one know^s from the churned-up soil, w^here shells from the German batteries landed.

Splinters of those same shells clanked with metallic sound w^ith the empty cartridge shells. American "tin hats" are strewn around. Some are seared and torn, some are punctured in such fashion that one knows that if worn the head it covered must have been torn.

Further on down, thrice as much litter tells where the German line finally wavered and broke and swept back on Sergy. The gray-green overcoats, tunics, gas masks and even small tent flaps proclaim eloquently how hot must have been the fighting there and how^ hurriedly the Boche slipped down the hill in front of the Americans.

Here and there is an American uniform, not many, but they show how the two lines must have met and struggled back and forth.

Just back of this someone has mercifully ploughed under what must have been the greatest ruin and litter of all.

One comes almost to the village and looks back over the greening ground; silhouetted on the horizon a new^ forest has grown up. It is a forest of American graves and American crosses where the seeds of death sow^n in that inferno have blossomed their crop.

Close to the winding country road is one group just a little more pre- tentious than the rest.

One cross stands a little more proudly erect in its vigil over the sleeping legions. It broods over tw^o smaller ones inclosed in a rudely constructed little fence. One goes closer. The largest cross bears on its sweeping arm, written in black pencil, the inscription "Lieutenant Lee N. Wall, St. Louis, Missouri" [18th Co. 2nd Fort Sheridan R. O. T. C.]. And below, half-obliterated by the rain and weather are written the lines, "He met his God like a soldier." And below boldly, so that all may read: "Killed in action, July 31st, 1918." Atop the cross, tacked on, is the gold bar that the lieutenant once bore so gallantly on his shoulder.

The two graves on either side show he died beside two of his own dough- boys — an officer fighting side by side with his men.

One hesitates to push back a fast-coloring and slowly yellowing slip of cardboard that is tacked square on the grass where Lieutenant Wall lies; but one edge shows the face of a smilingly happy baby and the ink on the back of the photograph carried some inscription of love and cheer.

There is a memory in every inch of Sergy.

There will be memories ever proud in the hearts of mothers, sisters, fathers, brothers and friends of those who lie buried there.

There must be a reverent memory in the hearts of all Americans w^ho may come later to know what Sergy meant.

��A CITATION

For extraordinary heroism in action northeast of Chateau Thierry, France, 28th July, 1918, 1st Lieutenant Bernard Van't Hof, M. Co., 168th Infantry 1 4th Company, Fort Sheridan R. O. T. C. ], was awarded the Dis- tinguished Service Cross, September 2, 1918, with the following citation: "He directed his platoon so skillfully in the attack near Sergy, and conducted him-

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