Part 17 (2/2)

On the evening of the 27th of November, 1914, while this retirement was being carried out, the commanding general sent the following orders to Colonel Batsicht, ”If possible, hold your ground for twenty-four hours.

If necessary, sacrifice your regiment to save the Serbian army.”

Colonel Batsicht sent back word to the commanding general, ”I have your orders and they will be carried out.” Then he set about preparing to defend the heights which his regiment was holding.

At seven o'clock the next morning, sixteen battalions of Austrian infantry, ten batteries, and four squadrons of cavalry attacked the position. At the firing of the first gun, Colonel Batsicht looked at his watch and exclaimed, ”The twenty-four hours for which we must hold our ground have now begun!”

The Austrians were ten against one and the battle was a furious one.

Three times the Austrians were driven back; but from their great numbers and from reinforcements coming up, they soon reformed and renewed the attack and were finally successful in pus.h.i.+ng back the Serbian right wing for a short distance. But Colonel Batsicht quickly rallied his forces, and they stood their ground. Then the left wing wavered and the colonel hurried to the left end of his line to reorganize it and encourage the men. He was wounded himself, but this did not stop him and his presence was enough to make his soldiers invincible. So all through the day, Colonel Batsicht directed and encouraged, and at evening the Thirteenth Regiment of Infantry of the Serbian army still held the line although most of their number had been killed and their colonel twice wounded.

The Austrians were much disturbed by the heroic resistance of the small body of Serbian soldiers and determined in the early morning of the next day to finish the matter quickly. At dawn they attacked and the Serbians gave way, first on one wing and then on the other, and at last in the center. The reserve was thrown in but could not prevent the Austrians from slowly advancing. It was six o'clock and the Serbians had held the line for twenty-three hours. The few officers that were uninjured urged Colonel Batsicht to order a retreat.

”It is no use to struggle longer,” replied the colonel. ”Order the men to retire.”

”Come with us,” said the officers.

”No,” replied the colonel, ”I cannot. I promised to hold this ground for twenty-four hours, and I must remain for one hour longer.”

”But we cannot go without you,” cried the officers.

”Obey my orders! Return to your troops and retire with them!” said the colonel sternly.

Military discipline permitted the officers to do nothing but obey.

The colonel was left with his orderly upon the top of the hill up which the Austrians were advancing. The orderly continued firing until the first platoon of the enemy were upon them, when he fell, and the colonel was left standing alone.

”Where is the Thirteenth Regiment?” asked the Austrian officer.

”I am the Thirteenth Regiment,” replied the colonel with a smile.

”Then surrender,” cried the officer.

”You insult me by asking me, a colonel in the Serbian army, to surrender,” replied the colonel as he raised his revolver. But the Austrians were watching sharply and fired first, and the brave colonel fell mortally wounded.

He was carried back of the Austrian lines in an ambulance. When the Austrian general was told the story, he hurried to the hospital and found Colonel Batsicht still alive.

The Austrian told him that it was sad indeed to see such a brave man dying and that he was sorry the colonel had not surrendered.

”I am not sorry, General,” replied the colonel.

A few hours later he died, and was buried with military honors.

The Serbian soldiers and the Serbian people will never forget him. He has now become one of their national heroes. Their imaginative and poetical natures see him now as one greater than a mere man, as a sort of superman with the attributes of a G.o.d. So they sing in the valley of the Vardar and in the meadows and mountains of Montenegro and Albania the sad but spirited song of which the words in English are:--

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