Part 14 (2/2)
They were the first brigade to be reviewed after it had been in action, and they held to their flawless formation, chins up and chests out, in spite of clogging mud that was almost too much for the mules.
The review ended in compliments all around. Secretary Baker's enthusiasm was conveyed even to the lesser officers. General Pers.h.i.+ng said: ”These men have been there and know what it is. You can tell that by the way they throw out their chests as they swing by.”
America at last had her veterans. They were to dignify the coming gift of them to heroic size.
CHAPTER XIX
A FAMOUS GESTURE
When America had put the power of all her eloquence into the growing demand among the Allies for a unified command, and when, as a result of this pressure, General Foch, chief of staff of the French Army and hero of the battle of the Marne, had been made generalissimo, General Pers.h.i.+ng put into words in what the French called a ”superb gesture” the final sacrifice his country was prepared to make.
The first of the great German drives of 1918 had halted, but the battle was nowhere near its end. General Foch was sparing every possible energy on the battle-front and heaping up every atom of force for his reserve.
And on the morning of March 28 General Pers.h.i.+ng went to headquarters and offered the American Army in full to General Foch, to put where he pleased, without any regard whatever for America's earlier wish to fight with her army intact.
It was the final sacrifice to the idealistic point of view. It had indisputably the heroic quality. And as such it was rewarded in the countries of the Allies with appreciation beyond measure.
”I have come,” said General Pers.h.i.+ng to General Foch that morning, ”to say to you that the American people would hold it a great honor for our troops if they were engaged in the present battle. I ask it of you in my name and in that of the American people.
”There is at this moment no other question than that of fighting.
Infantry, artillery, aviation--all that we have are yours, to dispose of them as you will. Others are coming, which are as numerous as will be necessary. I have come to say to you that the American people would be proud to be engaged in the greatest battle in history.”
This offer was placed immediately by General Foch before the French war-council at the front, a council including Premier Clemenceau, Commander-in-Chief Petain, and Louis Loucheur, Minister of Munitions, and was immediately accepted. American Army orders went forth in French from that day. And on those orders the army was presently scattered through the vast reserve army, from Flanders with the British to Verdun with the Italians and the French. They were not to go into actual battle, except near their own sectors, till the third monster drive, in July, for General Foch makes a religion of the reserve army and Fabian tactics. But they spread through the battle-line from Switzerland to the sea, as General Pers.h.i.+ng had suggested, and ”all we have” was at work.
Paris acclaimed the move royally. _La Liberte_ wrote: ”General Pers.h.i.+ng yesterday took, in the name of his country, action which was grand in its simplicity and of moving beauty. In a few words, without adornment, but in which vibrated an accent of chivalrous pa.s.sion, General Pers.h.i.+ng made to France the offer of an entire people. 'Take all,' he said; 'all is yours.' The honor Pers.h.i.+ng claims is shared by us, and it is with the sentiment of real pride that our soldiers will greet into their ranks those of the New World who come to them as brothers.”
Secretary Baker, from American General Headquarters, gave out a statement. ”I am delighted at General Pers.h.i.+ng's prompt and effective action,” he said, ”in placing all the American troops and facilities at the disposal of the Allies in the present situation.
”It will be met with hearty approval in the United States, where the people desire their expeditionary force to be of the utmost service in the common cause. I have visited all the American troops in France, some of them recently, and had an opportunity to observe the enthusiasm with which officers and men received the announcement that they would be used in the present conflict. One regiment to which the announcement was made spontaneously broke into cheers.”
The British Government issued an official statement on the night of April 1: ”As a result of communications which have pa.s.sed between the Prime Minister and President Wilson; of deliberations between Secretary Baker, who visited London a few days ago, and the Prime Minister, Mr.
Balfour, and Lord Derby, and consultations in France in which General Pers.h.i.+ng and General Bliss partic.i.p.ated, important decisions have been come to by which large forces of trained men in the American Army can be brought to the a.s.sistance of the Allies in the present struggle.
”The government of our great Western ally is not only sending large numbers of American battalions to Europe during the coming critical months, but has agreed to such of its regiments as cannot be used in divisions of their own being brigaded with French and British units so long as the necessity lasts.
”By this means troops which are not sufficiently trained to fight as divisions and army corps will form part of seasoned divisions, until such time as they have completed their training and General Pers.h.i.+ng wishes to withdraw them in order to build up the American Army.
”Throughout these discussions President Wilson has shown the greatest anxiety to do everything possible to a.s.sist the Allies, and has left nothing undone which could contribute thereto.
”This decision, however of vital importance it will be to the maintenance of the Allied strength in the next few months, will in no way diminish the need for those further measures for raising fresh troops at home to which reference has already been made.
”It is announced at once, because the Prime Minister feels that the singleness of purpose with which the United States have made this immediate and, indeed, indispensable contribution toward the triumph of the Allied cause should be clearly recognized by the British people.”
Lord Reading, the British Amba.s.sador at Was.h.i.+ngton, conveyed to President Wilson a message of thanks from the British Government, for ”the instant and comprehensive measures” which the President took in response to the request that American troops be used to reinforce the Allied armies in France. The Emba.s.sy then gave out a statement that ”the knowledge that, owing to the President's prompt co-operation, the Allies will receive the strong reinforcement necessary during the next few months is most welcome to the British Government and people.”
The London papers reflected this sentiment in even stronger terms. Said the _Westminster Gazette_: ”It seals the unity of the Allied forces in France, and so far from weakening the determination to provide all possible reinforcements from this country, it will, we are confident, give it fresh energy. All the big loans America has made to Great Britain and France, her heavy contributions of food, her princely gifts through the Red Cross, and the high, stimulating utterances of President Wilson, have done much to strengthen the Allied morale and lend material a.s.sistance to the war against autocracy, but none of these counts so heavily with the ma.s.ses, because there are few families here or in France who have not a personal and intimate interest in the soldiers battling on the plains of Picardy.”
The _Evening Star_ wrote: ”In a true spirit of soldierly comrades.h.i.+p they will march to the sound of guns, and will merge their national pride in a common stock of courage for the common good. It is a chivalrous decision, and President Wilson, Mr. Baker, and General Bliss have done a very great thing in a very great way. The British and French people are moved by this splendid proof of America's fellows.h.i.+p in the fight for world freedom.”
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