sion of the city. A steady down-pour of rain served to reduce the number of spectators, but the men who had been to Cuba were given a fitting welcome. The city was gayly bedecked with flags. Company A, of Akron, Company G, of Wadsworth, and the Eighth Regiment Band were the first arrivals, coming early in the afternoon. The first special train from the west brought 300 blue-clad members of Companies B, Bucyrus, M, Mansfield, and H, Shreve. A second train, coming from the east, brought 350 men of Companies E, East Liverpool, F, L and I, of Canton, and Company K, of Alliance. A hospital was established in the Jones residence, North Market Street, and was in charge of the Women's Relief Corps. The Regiment's first dress parade in Wooster took place at the fair grounds on November 11th. The 1200 men, with officers on horseback, marching through the streets, made an imposing military spectacle. Memorial services for the dead of the command were held on the public square on November 16th. The final muster out, which occurred in the presence of thousands of people, occurred on Monday, November 21st. Thus more than two hundred men of Wayne County ended a period of seven months of service given to their country. Months filled with hardships and varied experiences, in which the goal they set out forthe battlefield-was missed by a day; but during which they were constantly battling against their invisible enemy-disease-which required stouter hearts than to face the missles of death, human foes would have aimed at them. A score gave up their lives, victims of fever contracted in a poisonous climate, and the more deadly because of the unfit and scanty food they received; many others never fully recovered from the sufferings of the half-starved days of their army life, so that they have been permanently handicapped in attaining the goals they set in life, which held forth such bright prospects for each one of them. But they did not die nor suffer in vain. the nation was awakened and spurred to merciless criticism. In 1917 and 1918 fifteen hundred, (Draft Records show over 2,000), men into army training camps, and, except for a scourge of influenza, the death rate was reduced to a minimum never reached in the armies of any nation. The military machinery of action by the sharp prod of Wayne County sent nearly The remarkable record for the health in cantonments in this country and U. S. army camps abroad during the World War, can be directly attributed to the lesson-costly though it was-which was taught and learned in 1898. PART TWO CHAPTER I THE WORLD WAR The World War, the greatest military struggle of all history, began with the declaration of war by Austria upon Serbia, July 28, 1914, and ended fifty-one months later when Prussian militarists, their armies, crushed and broken, signed the "unconditional surrender" armistice which brought about a cessation of hostilities on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. In the four years and three months of the gigantic struggle, European soil was bathed in the blood of more than six million soldiers, who were slain, and some twenty-five millions of others who were wounded. The signing of the armistice brought an end to wholesale destruction, and witnessed the final triumph of Democracy; the victory of right over wrong, of light over darkness, of civilization over "kultur". The nightmare was broken. Austrian arrogance, reaching the point of intolerance, of impossibleness, had embittered the spirit of the Serbians. Austrian greed was seeking an excuse to crush Serbia, and gain some much desired territory held by the little Balkan state, and which Austrian intrigue had failed to gain after the Balkan wars. The excuse needed by Austria came on June 28th, 1914, when Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was assassinated in the city of Serajevo, a Serbian community in Austria. Backed by Germany, whose army and navy was ready, in case France and Russia would go to the aid of Serbia, Austria sent a most unreasonable ultimatum to Serbia on July 23rd, and, upon Serbia's refusal to accept the humiliating demands, declared war five days later. Austria, later events indicated, had not expected any more than the picnic of administering a severe beating to her little neighbor, while Germany's military chiefs, on the other hand, in possession of all the facts gleaned through a remarkably complete spy system, whose tentacles extended to the very heart of every European government, expected both France and Russia to plunge into the conflict, and for this very reason urged Austria to take the steps which would bring war. Germany's war machine, forty years in the building, was ready to strike the blow that the kaiser planned should give him world dominion. German spies were not sure whether or not England would stand with France and Russia, but the German war plan provided for a quick crushing of France, a campaign that would result in the capture of Paris in a month, after which there would be time to deal with England, if the Island kingdom decided to fight. Germany figured that England's "contemptible army" would not really count, and that no fighting force could be transported to European soil until months after France should be forced to surrender. The German military plan provided that Austria could stave off Russia until the victory in the west had been won. Russia mobilized her army, and Germany declared war upon Russia August 1st, and at the same time struck at France through Luxemburg and Belgium. Germany's declaration of war upon France was made on August 3rd, after France had refused to agree to German occupation of Verdun as the price of neutrality. Great Britain declared war upon Germany August 4th. The desperate resistance of the Belgian army at Liege and at Namur, the two fortress towns on the Moselle river, was the first surprise received by the German military chiefs. For a week, until the heavy siege guns could be brought up, the sturdy Belgians held fast, and the German flood, intended to sweep rapidly into Flanders, was held back. German numbers and superior artillery finally turned the tide, and Belgium was overrun, Brussels, the capital, being occupied on August 20th. The invasion of Belgium was directly in violation of one of the most sacred treaties ever made in Europe, and the terrible atrocities perpetrated upon the civilian population of Belgium during the four years of occupation will always be one of the blackest pages in the world's history. Having conquered the Belgian army, a small part of which succeeded in retreating to the seacoast where it joined the line held by British and French forces, the kaiser's great military machine swept on into Flanders. It carried everything before it. The advance was five to fifteen miles each day. General Von Kluck's army, the German right wing, swept down upon Paris from the north. In the south the French lines held at Verdun, and still farther to the south the French troops advanced slightly upon German soil. It was only in the north where Germany had violated the Belgian agreement, that the flood-gates were opened. The German machine, acting upon plans devised by Germany's military chieftians, plunged forward to the Marne, striking the quick, terrific blows that were home-made German "kultur" supreme. The first surprises at Liege and Namur, however, were not the only miscalculations the Germans had made. A study of the more than four years of blood shed shows that on numerous occasions, real victory seemed almost within the grasp of the Hohenzollerns. The great war may be said to have passed through fifteen critical military phases. This estimate includes only those campaigns which had an important, if not vital, influence on the progress of the struggle. Many other bitterly fought battles or campaigns seemed to bear directly on the war's outcome, but their influence now appears to have been of lesser moment. The so-called battle of the Aisne is omitted by this reckoning, as are also the battle of Tannenberg and Brusiloff's great campaign in Galicia. Non-European phases, such as Grand Duke Nicholas' conquest of Armenia and Allenby's conquest of Syria also are left out of consideration. The fifteen decisive military developments are: 1-The battle of the Marne. 7-The battle of the Somme. 9-Roumania's campaign. 10 The Ypres campaign of 1917. 12-Hindenburg's drives of 1918. 13-Foch's victory at Ourcq and the subsequent campaigns on the western front. 14—Franchet d'Esperey's victory over the Bulgarians. 15—Italy's triumph over Austria-Hungary. The battle of the Marne made it certain that Germany could win no speedy victory over the world. The plan, by which the high command had hoped to put France immediately out of the struggle, was well concieved, though utterly immoral. It involved the violation of Belgian neutrality. By advancing through Belgium the Germans expected to take France quite unprepared. It was not believed that the Belgian army could put up more than a nominal resistance. With a firm pivot at Metz it was hoped that the sweep of the German masses would pocket the entire French military establishment. One serious miscalculation was the underestimation of the strength and spirit of the Belgian army. At Liege and at Namur the Belgian resistance delayed the Germans, and gave the French time to collect something resembling a competent army. The French fortress at Verdun also failed to capitulate, while the magnificent French resistance at Nancy prevented the German armies that had the shortest distance to cover from ever getting well under way. Kluck, however, at the outer end of the swinging spoke, did his work well and fairly rapidly till he reached the Ourcq, when Manoury's hastily collected army threatened to turn his exposed right flank. Kluck had to delay his advance and spread out his forces to combat Manoury's maneuver, which gave Foch, commanding the French center, his opportunity to break through at La Fere Champenoise and win the epochal battle of the Marne. After the Marne defeat the Germans proceeded to capture Antwerp and snatch at victory by an advance along the coast and the capture of the channel ports. This was frustrated by the little Belgian army at the Yser. Alone and undaunted King Albert's forces held back the Germans. The invaders did not pass the Yser; they never passed the Yser. The battle of the Yser was perhaps the most heroic fight of any of the allied nations, but in importance it will be reckoned as secondary to the Marne battle. When the Germans retreating from the Marne reached the Aisne they dug themselves in and extended their right flank to meet the left flank of the army that was held up at the Yser. This line of battle, with only minor variations, lasted till the Hindenburg retreat of 1917. When Russia entered the war she aimed her heaviest blows against the Germans in East Prussia. After several victories the Russians were overwhelmingly defeated by Hindenburg at the battle of Tannenberg. This ended Russia's only serious attempt to carry the war into Germany. Simultaneously with the attack in East Prussia the Russians under Russky and Brusiloff advanced into Galicia. They successively captured Lemburg and Przemysl and drove to the Carpathian barrier. Grand Duke Nicholas, commander in chief of the Russian army, taking personal command of the forces in Austria, forced his way to the crest of the Carpathians and looked down on the fertile plains of Hungary. The conquest of Hungary and the elimination of the dual empire from the war seemed more than possible. At this juncture a powerful Austro-German army, commanded by Field Marshal Mackensen, suddenly attacked the Russians at the river Dunajec. With artillery massed in immense strength Mackensen smashed the Russian flank and began a turning movement which threatened the destruction of the entire Russian army. The subsequent retreat of Grand Duke Nicholas was one of the most brilliant examples of generalship offered by the war. The battle of the Dunajec definitely ended the menace of conquest of either Germany or Austria by the Russians. The Russian retreat which |